- "Tin-Tin... your daughter..."
— Jeff Tracy appears to have forgotten a close friend.
For a contemporary (or at least in the 1990s) audience, Thunderbirds underwent a repackage, redub, and rebroadcast as part of FOX Kids Saturday morning line-up. Along with being the first episode of the original series, "Trapped in the Sky" was naturally the first to undergo this treatment.
The story was essentially boiled down to a 19 minute condensed version of the original (20 including credits), with very little changes made to both plot and dialogue. The episode first (and last) aired on July 2nd 1994 at 9:30am.
Two versions of Trapped in the Sky exist: The full-length 'home video' edition, plus a shorter cut featuring several scenes trimmed down for broadcast.
Transcript[]
- Main article: Trapped in the Sky (FOX Kids Series)/Transcript
Trivia[]
- The new dub for this episode in particular, featuring four voice actors, was a straight-up recording with very little post-production editing. In many scenes, the saliva rolling off the actors' tongues, and quick breaths taken between changing voices, are frighteningly audible.
- With this limitation of the four voice actors, many characters sound virtually identical, or generally flat. Kyrano in particular has no distinct accent to speak of.
- The name of the airline company has changed to "ITC Airways", a homage to the company owning Thunderbirds at the time.
- Keeping with FOX's broadcast mandates at the time, Captain Hanson's "But that's suicide!" line was changed to "But that's dangerous!".
- In an ironic twist of fate, the 'new' version of Trapped in the Sky first aired on Saturday the 2nd of July 1994 at 9:30am. This was the exact same date of the infamous USAir Flight 1016 crash in North Carolina, which claimed 37 of the 57 lives on board.
Goofs[]
- Before boarding the Fireflash, Tin-Tin is referred to as "Ms. Tina Kyrano". The home video version corrects this error.
- Harris is treated as two separate characters. As a result, he is performed by two different voice actors in both of his appearances.
- As Meddings is slowly lowered under the Fireflash, a soft "Ow" from another member of the voice cast can be heard in the background.
- As Lady Penelope and Parker chase The Hood, all scenes featuring her cigarette are heavily edited to have the offending item removed. This resulted for the most part in a number of extreme close-ups of her face. For the establishing shot however, an attempt was made to digitally paint it out. This editing is incredibly poor, as the black spot is out of sync to the footage, and led to Lady Penelope losing her entire hand and wrist.
- When the episode concludes back on Tracy Island, a masculine hiss can be heard right before Jeff declared proudly that "Thunderbirds Are Go!". The home video edition rectifies this error, with the missing dialogue being simply "Boys...".
Polygram Video USA[]
Trapped in the Sky was the first video in the series of four, released on August 9th 1994.
