Life Signs

Life SignsSeason 3, Episode 6
Air date	May 5, 2018 (UK) June 7, 2018 (AUS)
Written by	Jonathan Callan
Directed by	Ben Milsom
Episode Guide
previous	Growing Pains
next	Rally Raid

"Life Signs" is the sixth episode of Thunderbirds Are Go! season 3. It was broadcast on the 5th of May, 2018, in the UK.

Plot

When Captain Lee Taylor and a scientist are pinned in a Martian cavern by a rockslide, Virgil and Alan fly to the Red Planet and assist with the aid of Thunderbird 3 and a specialised Dragonfly Pod. However, circumstances in the cave lead Virgil to purposely eject the air in his suit - leaving our heroes with a severely limited air supply inside a leaking cave...

Cast

Regular Cast

• Alan Tracy - Rasmus Hardiker
• Virgil Tracy - David Menkin
• John Tracy - Thomas Brodie Sangster

Guest Cast

• Captain Lee Taylor - Rich Hall
• Professor Karim - Nabil Elouahabi
• Dr. Travers - Alex Kelly

Quotes

Virgil: "That's it, Alan. Try to think outside the box."
Alan: "Not that I don't appreciate the help, but, based on the board, I'd say maybe you need to think inside the box."

Alan: "You know all about space flight for a sky pilot."
Virgil: "What can I say? All in Dad's drills must've paid off."

Alan: "Oh, Planet Mars definitely hates us."

Virgil: "Good news, we are officially the first three people to breathe Martian air without a space suit."
Alan: "Don't ever do that again, Virgil. But that is awesome, and freaky at the same time."

Alan: "Virgil, I know this is a serious situation and all, but I feel it's important to recognize that this moment my life is really, really cool!"

Captain Taylor: "Don't let it go to your head, Vinny."
Alan: "Vinny?"
Virgil: "I don't even bother correcting him anymore."

International Rescue Equipment Used

• Thunderbird 3
• MAX

Gallery

Title Card

"Your suit's got a tear..."

"The game isn't over yet."

"You just sacrificed your bishop."

"Let the Mars colony know we're on our way."

"Virgil, do you ever like, worry about what happened to Dad happening to you?"

"Not during missions, but when we're at home, yeah, I get scared."

"But that's the job, it's the life we chose."

"We'll find your man, Dr. Travers."

"Let's get out there."

"Dragonfly Pod is go."

"Planet Mars definitely hates us..."

"What are we gonna do?"

"There's always a way out, Alan."

"The least of the bad options, remember?"

Virgil seals the tunnel with nanoglue

"Good news, we are officially the first three people to breathe Martian air without a space suit."

"Just need to summon my ride..."

"Losing air fast..."

"This is just an engineering problem like any other."

"We just need to find that one last leak."

"I'm almost there..."

"I think the air's almost ran out..."

Trivia

• Virgil and Alan are seen playing chess at the start of the episode. This is a reference to the classic series as playing chess was quite a popular pastime for the Tracy brothers whenever they were off-duty.
• Quite unusually, Peter Dyneley's countdown isn't used just before Thunderbird 3 takes off, nor does Alan state his quote: "Thunderbird 3 Is Go!"
• Alan admits to Virgil that he's beginning to forget the small details of Jeff (which he says are the important things), in a similar fashion to how he doesn’t remember anything about their mother. Despite knowing his father better than his mother, this could possibly indicate that Jeff has been missing for many years.
• One of the things Virgil tells Alan about Jeff, is that he used to wear a pink-flamingo shirt (which Virgil mockingly, but jokingly, said was horrible) - a reference to Jeff’s famous shirt in the Thunderbirds 1965 episode Introducing Thunderbirds (based on the same-named audio adventure featuring the original voice-cast of the 1960s classic series).
• It is revealed that there is an extra compartment in the nosecone of TB3. It is presumably used to store the drill.
  • This also explains how Alan and Gordon got inside Thunderbird 5 in The Man From TB5.