Episode no. Series 1
Episode 14 Written by Dennis Spooner Editing by Harry Ledger | Directed by David Lane Cinematography by Paddy Seale Production code 6 | |
"The Mighty Atom" is the 14th episode of the first series of Thunderbirds, a British 1960s Supermarionation television series co-created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Written by Dennis Spooner and directed by David Lane, it was first broadcast on ATV Midlands on 30 December 1965.
Contents
In this episode, the Hood attacks nuclear-powered irrigation plants in Australia and the Sahara Desert, threatening devastating atomic fallout on two continents.
Plot
While spying on a nuclear-powered irrigation plant in an Australian desert, the Hood (voiced by Ray Barrett) is discovered and challenged by a security guard. In the ensuing gunfight, one of the Hood's bullets ignites a gas cylinder, causing a fire that rapidly consumes the facility, explosions going off all the while. Controller Wade and his assistant, unable to shut down the atomic reactor, are airlifted to safety with other personnel before the plant is destroyed in a massive nuclear explosion. The resulting fallout initially seems poised to engulf Melbourne but is ultimately dispersed by winds.
One year later, the disguised Hood hypnotises delegates at a science conference and steals the "Mighty Atom" – an artificially-intelligent, roaming surveillance device that looks and moves like a mouse. Taking the miniature robot to the Sahara Desert, he photographs the interior of an automated second irrigation plant – manned only by Wade and a new assistant, Collins – which has recently started operations. Before leaving, he decides to use the Mighty Atom to steal the secrets of International Rescue (which has been formed in the past year) by having the Tracy family called to a danger zone – which he promptly creates by detonating explosives positioned around the new plant's reactor.
With the reactor temperature rising fast, Wade, knowing that the cloud that threatened Melbourne was eliminated purely by fate, realises that the consequences of another fallout will be devastating for the surrounding area. He radios IR and Jeff (Peter Dyneley) immediately dispatches Scott (Shane Rimmer) in Thunderbird 1. Lady Penelope (Sylvia Anderson), who is visiting Tracy Island with Parker (David Graham) and is keen to assist on a mission, asks to accompany Virgil (David Holliday) and Gordon (Graham) in Thunderbird 2, which takes off carrying Thunderbird 4. Off the North African coast, Gordon launches the submersible and makes his way to the plant's seawater inlet, built into the continental shelf. Meanwhile, Scott and Virgil, wearing protective suits, enter the reactor control room to push the nuclear rods into safe positions. With the reactor stabilised, Gordon destroys the inlet with a torpedo, cutting off the ocean intake at just the right moment and preventing a second nuclear explosion.
Inside the cockpit of Thunderbird 2, Penelope, who is afraid of mice, screams repeatedly when she is confronted by the Mighty Atom as it prepares to photograph the controls. Some time later, at his temple hideaway in the Malaysian jungle, the Hood connects the device to a computer to view the stored images – which, to his dismay, are all of Penelope's terrified face. Outraged, he smashes the Mighty Atom with his fist.
Production
One of 11 scripts to be filmed before the standard episode running time was doubled from 25 to 50 minutes, "The Mighty Atom" was originally set almost wholly in the Sahara Desert, with the events in Australia recalled briefly in flashback. To expand the plot, the scriptwriters effectively split the episode in two by prefacing the main action with two additional acts focused on the Australia disaster, the resulting nuclear fallout and the Hood's theft of the Mighty Atom. None of the regular puppet cast is seen for the first 18 minutes of the finished episode.
"The Mighty Atom" is the only episode of Thunderbirds that features all the main characters and Thunderbird machines. It also marks the first appearance of Thunderbird 4.
Broadcast
The two-part version that was broadcast in some UK regions separates the older footage from the newer material. Scenes that were altered to create this format include the Melbourne news conference (which was shortened) and the Tracy boys' practical joke on Lady Penelope (which was simply removed).
Reception
"The Mighty Atom" is named the worst episode of Thunderbirds by TV Zone magazine, which criticises the plot and characterisation. Commenting that "for the first half of the episode we're left wondering where International Rescue is", the review also notes the ineptitude of the Hood as well as "lazy scriptwriting" – pointing out that the villain's plans are thwarted by nothing more than Lady Penelope's fear of mice. Tom Fox of Starburst magazine is more positive, remarking that the episode contains "plenty of curious aspects" to temper the Hood's "outlandish" plans; he awards a rating of 3 out of 5.
Chris Bentley, writer of The Complete Book of Thunderbirds, describes the episode as "surprisingly effective" despite the absence of IR from much of the proceedings. He considers the scenes tracking the Australian radiation cloud to be among the "eeriest" of the series. Marcus Hearn, writer of Thunderbirds: The Vault, judges Barry Gray's "sinister" musical accompaniment to be the most effective element; by contrast, he deems the extended plot "cluttered" by the use of Penelope and Parker. He goes on to suggest that Penelope's phobia "diminishes" her character just as the Hood's ill-conceived scheme leads the audience to suspect that he "may not be quite the criminal mastermind his reputation suggests".
Sylvia Anderson suggests that the Mighty Atom itself strains credibility while comparing the "horrific" nuclear explosion in the episode's first act to the real-life Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Michael Park of the website WhatCulture agrees with this latter point, arguing that the episode essentially "predicted" Chernobyl: "... at the height of the Cold War, this episode will have given a lot of children (and adults) sleepless nights." Cultural historian Nicholas J. Cull notes that this episode, like "The Man From MI.5" and "Atlantic Inferno" (also written by Alan Fennell), plays on themes of "nuclear weapons and wider nuclear fears in general".
Fred McNamara of the website ScreenRelish considers a scene featuring Parker and Kyrano, who argue about which of them should have the honour of serving drinks to Penelope and the Tracy family, to be the fourth-best moment of the entire series: "... it's hard for any Thunderbirds fan not to smirk slightly when watching this, and knowing that both Kyrano and Parker had their voices provided by the same actor!"