#captain taylor

Scott: What do you think of our chances Captain?

Capt Taylor: 73?

Scott (muttering): oh ok 73

Scott: Which way??

***

Scott: I'll drive! ............ on second thought I don't know what any of this does.

***

Capt Taylor: So tell me again which one's Max?

Scott: You didn't read the list did you?

Capt Taylor: I'm not much of a reader.

I am notoriously Bad At Hearing Accents. Captain Taylor DEFINITELY has one, but I can't tell anything about it except it is a flavour of American(TM).

Can anyone please tell me where that accent 'comes' from, and if I am supposed to understand anything about his background/upbringing?

Shout-out to @bybats for this absolutely beautiful commission of Taylor! My girl looks so happy! 🥹🥹🥹

I think Taylor and Alex would get along what with them being lil chaos gremlins XD

Note: due to CITV changing the time of their reruns (hooray - not), the Re-Review series will be moving from 6:30pm to 6:45pm for uploads.

Wow... it’s difficult to find screenshots for this episode online, that’s for sure!

“You’re a hard man to find, Captain Taylor. I wish you’d find less dangerous ways to spend your retirement.”

“Just trying to keep busy now that I’m back on Earth. Taking it easy’s never been my style.”

“Then this may interest you. Can retirement wait a little bit longer, Captain?”

The answer is yes, of course it’s a yes! It makes complete sense since Lee used to help Jeff with IR.

“The Helios is a transport ship, designed to reach Mars, and send landing pods to the life support systems on the surface. Dozens of families are on board, and would be the first to actually live on the planet.”

“Unless you count all the aliens!”

“Ignore him.”

Let’s remember Alan did see alien life only two episodes ago... I get the feeling he’s been going on about it in those scenes we don’t see. A lot. I want to say that John is talking to EOS in this scene (where has she gone again, writers? I will eternally ask this question), because there is no other imaginary figure in the room.

Anyone else getting ‘The Martian’ (2015) vibes?

I really loved having this man back! It’s been a while since we last saw him and I was so pleased that they had him return. 1. because he is a great character, but 2. because he is one of the last surviving links to Jeff, and so you can be sure hints are going to drop when he’s around. It’s nice that Alan gets to spend more time with him in this ep as well, considering it’s Alan who always has the gap in memories on his father which his brother’s don’t.

This seems like the perfect way to fill that gap to me.

“Plus you were second person in history to ever set foot on Mars.”

“Just behind the great Jeff Tray himself, those were the days.”

Look at that - I told you, didn’t I tell you? - and it only took three and half minutes! And that’s only the first reference, there’s bound to be more.

“Like you boys say - Thunderbirds are off! Wait, that’s not it. Thunderbirds have left the building! Thunderbirds are...”

“Go?”

“That’s the one.”

Mars. There’s a Mars launch mission. Now, we’ve seen a story a little like this before in ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ (1966 film) with the crew of the Zero-X (who okay, made it to Mars), but with a few problems on the way. Similar story here. Sort of.

I love how Scott was relegated to the backseat for the launch as well!

“Captain, there’s even a handy chart that lists all our names and vehicles. Just in case”

“Thanks Brian.”

“It’s Brains.”

Yeah.. no “just in case” about it. Let’s pull up the chart.

“Are we there yet?”

Um, did anyone else kinda feel like Scott sounded a little like someone else in that moment? I’ll even give you a hint.

“You and Dad were the first team to ever land there.”

“Nearly didn’t. Dust storm almost made us call off the descent, but we took the risk and went anyway. Jeff said ‘humanity never got anywhere taking it easy’. I’ve always remembered that. Gordon here should take it to heart every time he pilots Thunderbird Three.”

“Um... I’m Alan, Sir.”

Let’s pull the chart back up... At least he got a name correct, if not the right brother.

“Will do, Virgil!”

“It’s Scott, Sir! Nevermind.”

I spoke too soon. My apologies everyone.

“Captain Taylor, do you read me?”

“FAD, uh B. Whatever that means.”

You were there with Jeff when he set IR up! We were relying on you to know Lee! Right, we’re all doomed to never know the full truth.

“She may still be trying to fix the engines.”

Yeah, she probably could have done with Lee there sooner.

“Why are you reconnecting the power feed coils? That could take the systems offline.”

“Exactly! The proton storm didn’t damage your systems, it put them on hold. We need to manually re-jump each connection to get things running again.”

Captain Taylor really is the expert in fixing things, isn’t he? Can he come and fix my WI-FI? Seriously, I still need to choose who I’m swapping to after all this is over.

“Remind me to thank Brains for this.”

“Ok. Hey, Scott, remember to thank Brains.”

“Very funny, Thunderbird Three.”

Look at Alan thinking on the spot and doing his little commentaries.

“Impressive Thunderbird Three. Remind me to thank you later.”

“Ok, Scott-”

“Later, Thunderbird Three.”

“We got a big rocky problem ahead.”

Yeah you do, Scott...

“We just lost the landing pods.”

“I can’t keep this up Captain.”

Breathe, everyone. They all survive.

“Glad to have you back Pod Explorer. Remind me to thank you sometime.”

“Ok, Alan?”

“Later, Scott.”

I’m liking these little thrown-in bits of humour.

“It’s never too late to start again.”

Very true Captain Taylor.

“The chances of the Helius landing without breaking apart are very slim.”

“But it’s the only option we have.”

And so that translates to Scott as ‘let’s get on board the floating ship of possible death, even though Alan’s idea might get me killed’. Yeah... I wouldn’t have done that personally but hey, there we go.

That landing still makes me nervous, don’t know about annyone else.

“Alan! You’re back!”

“Sorry, Scott, couldn’t let you have all the fun.”

Meaning ‘couldn’t let you get yourself killed on my watch’.

“Scott? Captain Taylor? Does anyone read me?”

“Loud and clear, Alan.”

“Captain! You’re alive! And you got my name right!”

And because I’ve only just realised I forgot all about keeping count, here is the updated rescue score.

Rescue count: 38

Are we nearing anyone’s bet for the whole series yet? I still need to work out a suitable prize for the person who guesses the closest...

This was a moment I loved to the death - the amount of times I must have watched just this scene alone when this episode first came out... I’ve lost count. 

“This is the same site your dad and I landed on all these years ago. Actually, Scott, if it’s all the same to you I think I’ll stay a while. It’s never too late to start again. I can’t think of a better place than Mars to spend my Golden Years.”

“Should we get back to you in a month?”

“Better make it two.”