Terror in New York City

"Terror in New York City" is the 13th episode of the first series of "Thunderbirds", a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company AP Films (APF). Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott and David Lane, it was first broadcast on ATV Midlands on 21 October 1965.
Set in the 2060s, the series follows the exploits of International Rescue, an organisation that uses technologically-advanced rescue vehicles to save human life. The main characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, founder of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the organisation's main vehicles: the "Thunderbird" machines.
In "Terror in New York City", "Thunderbird 2" is crippled by a United States Navy missile attack while returning from a rescue mission. When the Empire State Building collapses during a failed re-location, trapping a news reporter and his cameraman in an underground river, International Rescue must find alternative means of transporting "Thunderbird 4" to New York City to save the men.
Plot.
After extinguishing an oil well fire in the desert, Scott (voiced by Shane Rimmer) and Virgil Tracy (voiced by David Holliday) prepare to return to base. As Virgil departs in "Thunderbird 2", Scott discovers a TV news crew, comprising reporter Ned Cook and his cameraman Joe, filming "Thunderbird 1" and orders them to desist. Refusing to do so in the belief that he has the makings of an award-winning scoop, Ned drives away with Joe, forcing Scott to chase them and use an electromagnetic pulse to erase the footage.
During its flight home, "Thunderbird 2" is mistaken for a hostile aircraft by the USS "Sentinel", the United States Navy's new high-speed strike vessel, and targeted with surface-to-air missiles. Although Jeff (voiced by Peter Dyneley) immediately contacts Washington, D.C. to call off the attack, "Thunderbird 2" is left badly damaged and Virgil is barely able to pilot the craft back to Tracy Island. "Thunderbird 2" is grounded for several weeks while extensive repairs are made. Meanwhile, Virgil recovers from his ordeal.
Some time later, the Tracy family are watching a live TV broadcast of an operation to re-locate the Empire State Building to make way for the re-development of Midtown Manhattan. Disaster strikes when a land subsidence causes the skyscraper to break free of its scaffold. Ned and Joe, who are covering the event, fall into a crevice shortly before the Empire State Building collapses above them. Successfully making radio contact with their studio, Ned reports that they are trapped in a cavern that is filling with water. On Tracy Island, Brains (voiced by David Graham) theorises that the subsidence was caused by a subterranean river running underneath Manhattan, and that the cavern is open to the river.
Though aware that Ned and Joe will drown unless Gordon (voiced by David Graham) rescues them in "Thunderbird 4", the Tracys realise that without "Thunderbird 2" to airlift it to New York the submarine cannot reach the danger zone in time. However, Virgil suggests that "Thunderbird 4" could instead be transported by sea on board the "Sentinel". Jeff dispatches Gordon to rendezvous with the Navy for the 24-hour journey to New York. Meanwhile, Scott flies out to the disaster zone in "Thunderbird 1" to help the local authorities monitor Ned and Joe. A small bore hole is drilled into the rapidly-flooding cavern to supply the men with emergency underwater breathing equipment.
The "Sentinel" arrives in New York. By this time, the cavern is completely flooded and Ned and Joe have been forced to put on their equipment, which gives them enough air for no more than two hours. Launching "Thunderbird 4", Gordon locates the entrance to the subterranean river and proceeds towards Ned and Joe's position. At ground level, Scott learns that the subsidence has expanded and is now threatening to bring down the Fulmer Finance Building. Knowing that Ned and Joe will not survive the impact of a second skyscraper collapse, Scott urges them to swim along the river to meet "Thunderbird 4". Despite their air supply being virtually exhausted, the men are rescued and removed from the area just as the Fulmer Finance Building collapses, triggering an underwater shockwave.
Some time later, a wheelchair-bound Ned introduces his regular TV show in front of a live studio audience by publicly thanking International Rescue for saving his life, unaware that most of the organisation are sitting in the back row.
Production.
Inspiration for the plot of "Terror in New York City" was provided by Gerry Anderson, who had read a newspaper article concerning the physical relocation of a Japanese department store as part of a highway redevelopment scheme: "Because of its huge value as a going concern, it was not demolished but jacked up and moved inch by inch to a new site."
The episode's working title was "Terror of New York". Alan Fennell's original script was submitted before Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer at ITC, ordered that the length of all "Thunderbirds" episodes be doubled from 25 to 50 minutes. This increase necessitated the scripting of "filler" scenes – in the case of "Terror of New York", the oil well fire and reporter Ned Cook's unsuccessful attempt to film "Thunderbird 1". In a 1992 interview, actor Matt Zimmerman, who voiced Cook, described the character as having a "really thick accent – it was great fun to do."
For the effects shots of the burning "Thunderbird 2" crash-landing on Tracy Island, the crew tried to prevent damage to the "Thunderbird 2" model by covering it with foil coated in rubber gel and igniting the foil rather than the model itself. Nevertheless, the model was seriously burnt. To allow filming to continue, effects assistants Mike Trim and Roger Dicken hurriedly repaired the model by applying green Plasticine to the damaged portions, in so doing greatly increasing the model's weight. Trim has since commented that this was unnecessary because on screen "there was so much smoke, you couldn't really have told whether the far side was completely missing, let alone burnt." Later, a new model was built.
Composer Barry Gray devised three incidental tracks for the episode: "World Exclusive Foiled!", "Moving the Empire State Building" and "The Rescue of Ned Cook". The music was recorded on 5 April 1965 in a four-hour studio session with an orchestra of 25 instrumentalists.
Broadcast and reception.
"Terror in New York City" had its first network broadcast on 22 November 1991 on BBC 2.
Critical response.
"Terror in New York City" was given a positive contemporary review by "Punch" critic Patrick Skene Catling, who praised the episode's visual spectacle and sound effects as well as the "magnificent absurdity" of the plot. He commented: "The suspense is nugatory, but the fun is immense". In 2015, Phelim O'Neill of "The Guardian" described the episode as "a perfect example of how overloaded with disasters ["Thunderbirds"] could be."
The episode was well received by series co-creator Sylvia Anderson, who summed it up as an "exciting drama with an ingenious plot and stunning visual effects". She believed that it exemplifies the best of Alan Fennell's writing and also praises the effects crew's "life-like" model work, recalling that the model of the Empire State Building was "perfect in every detail, a work of art".
"Terror in New York City" is considered the best episode of "Thunderbirds" by "TV Zone" magazine, which sums it up as a "dramatic, tense story". It praises the realism of the "tightly-plotted" script – from the decision to make the Empire State Building the focus of the disaster, to the method used to transport "Thunderbird 4" to New York ("no "deus ex machina" cop-out is employed here"). On the damage taken by "Thunderbird 2", it notes that the idea that IR's machines are not invincible arrives as "something of a revelation ... we realise that the Tracy boys can actually be hurt". Among its few criticisms of the episode are the appearance of the Empire State model (which it describes as "a little insubstantial") and the fact that only two people are endangered by the building's collapse (which it considers to be the "most implausible" aspect of the plot).
Tom Fox of "Starburst" magazine is less positive in his assessment, awarding the episode three stars out of five. Describing "Terror in New York City" as "the 'disaster movie' special that was bound to come along", he criticises the "silly" building collapse and a perceived lack of realism in the underwater puppet scenes; however, he expresses satisfaction with the crash-landing of "Thunderbird 2".
Magazine editor Alan Barnes draws parallels between "Terror in New York City" and the Wunder von Lengede ("Miracle of Lengede"): a West German mining disaster that was cited by Gerry Anderson as his inspiration for "Thunderbirds". He notes that while the real-life accident involved miners trapped in a flooded pit and their rescue delayed due to the time needed to transport a drill by rail, "Terror in New York City" concerns two men, trapped in a cavern, whose rescue depends on a submarine that cannot be airlifted to them. Barnes considers "Thunderbird 2"s crash-landing to be a highlight of the episode.
Marcus Hearn, author of "Thunderbirds: The Vault", considers the reference to "atomic" engines during the attempted re-location of the Empire State Building to be an example of "Thunderbirds" "pre-occupation with nuclear power", which he argues "betrays the era of its production." He regards the episode overall as a satire of American TV networks in its characterisation of Ned Cook. Hearn also argues that unlike other episodes whose scripts were re-written to satisfy the longer running time, "Terror in New York City" balances its "two major plot strands" effectively. He describes the final act as "quintessential "Thunderbirds", with one jeopardy piled on another, a last-minute rescue and the sentimental redemption of the wheelchair-bound Ned".
The destruction of the Empire State Building is considered by "TV Zone" to be "uncannily prescient" of the September 11 attacks. Stuart Galbraith IV of the review website DVD Talk offers a similar view, describing the similarities between fiction and real life as "eerie"; Fox, meanwhile, comments that the plot contains "some uncomfortable overtones" in the light of "modern events".
Adaptations.
The episode was later adapted into an audio play by Jim Watson, which was released as the Century 21 mini-album "Thunderbird 4" (code MA 113) in November 1966. In 1982, "Terror in New York City" was paired with the Series Two episode "Atlantic Inferno" (which was also written by Alan Fennell) to create the "Thunderbirds" feature-length compilation film "Countdown To Disaster". "Terror in New York City" was subsequently serialised by Fennell and Keith Page in issues nine to eleven of "Thunderbirds: The Comic", published in 1992; the comic strip was reprinted for the graphic album "Thunderbirds in Action" later that year.