 Alan Pattillo , a veteran scriptwriter and director for APF , was appointed the company 's first official script editor in late 1964 . This move was aimed to reduce the burden on Gerry Anderson who , while reserving his producer 's right to overall creative control , had grown weary of revising scripts himself . Direction of episodes was assigned in pairs : Pattillo and David Elliott alternated with the less experienced Desmond Saunders and newcomer David Lane for each month 's filming . Due to the difficulties of setting up takes , progress was slow : even on a productive day , it was rare for the crew to complete more than two minutes of puppet footage In a contemporary interview , Hill noted that Thunderbirds contained several times as many shots as a typical live @-@ action series . He explained that rapid editing was necessary on account of the characters ' lack of facial expression , which made it difficult to sustain the viewer 's interest for more than a few seconds per shot . 
 Alan Pattillo , a veteran scriptwriter and director for APF , was appointed the company <a href='null_genetive' title='1'><mark>'s</mark></a>first official script editor in late 1964 . This move was aimed to reduce the burden on Gerry Anderson <a href='null_relcl' title='2'><mark>who</mark></a>, while reserving his producer <a href='null_genetive' title='3'><mark>'s</mark></a>right to overall creative control , <a href='been_done' title='4'><mark>had</mark></a> grown weary of revising <a href='uninflect' title='5'><mark>scripts</mark></a> himself . Direction of episodes was assigned in pairs : Pattillo and David Elliott alternated with the less experienced Desmond Saunders and newcomer David Lane for each month <a href='null_genetive' title='6'><mark>'s</mark></a>filming . Due to the difficulties of setting up <a href='uninflect' title='7'><mark>takes</mark></a> , progress was slow : even on a productive day , it was rare for the crew to complete more than two minutes of puppet footage In a contemporary interview , Hill noted that Thunderbirds contained several times as many shots as a typical live @-@ action series . He explained that rapid editing was necessary on account of the characters <a href='null_genetive' title='8'><mark>'</mark></a>lack of facial expression , which made it difficult to sustain the viewer <a href='null_genetive' title='9'><mark>'s</mark></a>interest for more than a few seconds per shot . 
Alan Pattillo , a veteran scriptwriter and director for APF , was appointed the company  first official script editor in late 1964 . dis move was aimed to reduce da burden on Gerry Anderson , while reserving his producer  ryte to overall creative control , done grown weary of revising script himself . Direction of episodes was assigned in pairs : Pattillo and David Elliott alternated with the less experienced Desmond Saunders and newcomer David Lane for each month  filming . Due to the difficulties of settin up take , progress was slow : even on a productive day , it was rare for the crew to complete more than two minutes of puppet footage In a contemporary interview , Hill noted that Thunderbirds contained several times as many shots as a typical live @-@ action series . He explained dat rapid editing was necessary on account of tdacharacters  lack of facial expression , which made it difficult to sustain thdaiewer  interest for more than a few seconds per shot .