| "Pit of Peril" | |||
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| Thunderbirds episode | |||
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| Episodeno. | Series 1 Episode 2 | ||
| Directed by | Desmond Saunders | ||
| Written by | Alan Fennell | ||
| Cinematography by | Julien Lugrin | ||
| Editing by | Harry MacDonald | ||
| Production code | 2[1] | ||
| Original air date | 7 October 1965 (1965-10-07) | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of episodes | |||
"Pit of Peril" is the second episode ofThunderbirds, a BritishSupermarionation television series created byGerry andSylvia Anderson and filmed by their production companyAP Films (APF) forITC Entertainment. Written byAlan Fennell and directed byDesmond Saunders, it was first broadcast on 7 October 1965 onATV Midlands.
Set in the 2060s, the series follows the missions of International Rescue, a secret organisation that uses technologically advanced rescue vehicles to save human life. The main characters are ex-astronautJeff Tracy, founder of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the organisation's primary vehicles – theThunderbird machines. In "Pit of Peril", International Rescue rush to save the crew of the Sidewinder, an experimental armywalker that has fallen into an abandoned military waste dump.
Prior to the episode's first broadcast, the Sidewinder had already appeared inTV Century 21 as part of the comic's regularStingray strip.[2][3] "Pit of Peril" is praised for its music and model-work though its pacing received mixed reviews, with some reviwers comparing it as too similar to the previous episode, "Trapped in the Sky". In 1991, the episode was adapted into a two-part strip forFleetway Publications'Thunderbirds: The Comic.[4]
In the African jungle, theUnited States Army is testing a new all-terrainSidewinder, a giant four-leggedwalker developed for use inbrushfire wars. Disaster strikes when the ground gives way beneath the Sidewinder and it falls into a blazing pit, with its crew of three – Colonel Sweeney, Frank and Johnny – trapped inside, hundreds of feet below ground. Their air and other life support systems are failing and the outside temperature is rising rapidly.
Anair support unit, comprising a helicopter crew and the Sidewinder relief crew, evaluate the situation. The leader, General Peters, states that the Sidewinder weighs over 500 tons and the equipment needed to lift it would take weeks to arrive. Lieutenant Mead volunteers to be hoisted into the pit to assess the Sidewinder's condition but can only glimpse the vehicle before he is overwhelmed by the heat and forced to withdraw. A plan is devised to set the Sidewinder upright using the helicopter, so that the machine may be able to climb to the surface, and Sergeant Reynolds goes in to attach a line to one of the legs. He succeeds but also emerges from the pit badly burnt. Mead and Reynolds are airlifted to hospital in the relief crew's helijet. The Sidewinder proves too heavy for the helicopter and the line slips off during the rescue attempt.
Prompted by his aide, Ralph, Peters sends out an emergency call to International Rescue. The transmissions have already been picked up byJohn Tracy on theThunderbird 5 space station and relayed toTracy Island. After confirmation from John that the army needs their help,Jeff immediately dispatchesScott inThunderbird 1, followed byVirgil andBrains inThunderbird 2 carryingthe Mole and two Recovery Vehicles. Reaching the scene, the team survey the pit usingThunderbird 1's remote camera, which sights old army wreckage. They determine that the pit was once anopen-cast mine which had been used as a military equipment dump afterWorld War II; a crust of earth has formed over the top andspontaneous combustion has caused the wreckage in the pit to burn up. Brains deduces that they must remove the remainder of the crust before the Recovery Vehicles will be able to drag the Sidewinder up the side of the pit.
Wearing a protective suit, Virgil enters the pit to lay explosive charges around the perimeter. Scott uses the Mole to drill through the side of the crater to recover Virgil. Brains detonates the charges and the explosions successfully clear the crust over the pit. Virgil takes control of two Recovery Vehicles equipped with magnetic lines attached to winch cables. The electromagnets are fired at the Sidewinder and the recovery vehicles begin to haul it up the side of the pit. One of the electromagnets fails and becomes detached from the Sidewinder, so Virgil has to winch it in and fire again. This time, the magnet holds firm and on the second attempt, the Recovery Vehicles finally manage to pull the Sidewinder up to the surface.
Sweeney, Frank and Johnny are airlifted to hospital in a medical helicopter, and International Rescue depart. A grateful Peters, agreeing to Scott's guarantee of secrecy for the organisation, voices his wish that the Tracys were in his army.
"Pit of Peril" is one of several earlyThunderbirds episodes that were originally 25 minutes long but subsequently extended to 50 minutes afterLew Grade – APF's owner and financial backer, who had been highly impressed by the 25-minute pilot version of "Trapped in the Sky" – ordered that the running time be doubled so thatThunderbirds would fill an hour-long TV timeslot.[5] For "Pit of Peril", this involved adding new supporting elements in the form of the relief helijet and its crew (Lieutenant Mead, Sergeant Reynolds and Pilot Charlie) as well as a subplot in which the army personnel attempt to recover the Sidewinder using their own equipment before calling International Rescue.[5][6][7][8] Continuity errors in the design of the army helicopter cockpit set distinguish the episode's original footage from the new scenes filmed during the reshoot.[5]
"Pit of Peril" features only five of the regular puppet cast:Jeff,Scott,Virgil andJohn Tracy, andBrains. This is the lowest number of anyThunderbirds episode. The episode is also the only one of the series that does not have any female characters, though Sylvia Anderson and Christine Finn are credited on the end titles. The puppets that play Colonel Sweeney and Frank first appeared asFireflash's Captain Hanson and his unnamed co-pilot in "Trapped in the Sky".[4][9][10]
A scene set inside the pit uses camera movement and a carefully timed edit to give the impression that the Virgil puppet and scale model of theMole are in the same shot, even though they were filmed by different units: when the camerapans away from the effects unit's shot of the Mole, its view passes through thick smoke, hiding a cut separating this footage from the puppet unit's shot of Virgil.[5]
The episode was disliked by Gerry Anderson,[6] who found it one of the most challenging episodes to make. In his biography, he described it as "an absolute pig of a film. For three weeks I kept cutting and re-cutting because we couldn't get it right. One night I said to the editor, 'Let it go. Cut the negative and dub it – we can't do anything more with this.'" Several weeks later, he was surprised when Abe Mandell, head of ITC's New York office, telephoned him after seeing the finished episode and called it "wonderful".[11][12]
This episode marks the first use ofThunderbirds' regular ending theme music: a modified version of theinstrumental that accompanies the launch ofThunderbird 1 in "Trapped in the Sky".[13] Theincidental music for "Pit of Peril", composed byBarry Gray was recorded on 24 April 1965 in a four-hour studio session with a 22-piece orchestra.[14]
In 2025, an original version of the episode was discovered in which International Rescue only first learn of the disaster upon being contacted by General Peters.[15]
The Sidewinder's look was designed by directorDesmond Saunders.[16][17] The studio model used wood and card for the main body and chains of cake tins for the arms.[16][17] According to special effects directorDerek Meddings, the model was extremely difficult to film as it was hung on wires and an under-floor "scissor mechanism" was needed to move its legs.[16][17] In his book21st Century Visions, he commented that "fortunately the script required it to fall into a deep pit within minutes of appearing, so we didn't have to move it far."[17] The Sidewinder control room set incorporated a console normally seen aboardThunderbird 5.[10]
"Pit of Peril" marks the first appearance of theMole, which is also featured in the closing credits of this and all subsequent episodes.[4][10] Its drill bit was made of wood fitted with ascrew thread; the wood had to beturned manually as the effects team did not have alathe.[18] The simple interior set, which incorporated the Mobile Control console used by Scott, was embellished for future appearances.[10] The episode also introducesThunderbird 1's remote camera and the helijet, a type ofVTOL aircraft that appears frequently inThunderbirds and later Anderson series.[10] TheRecovery Vehicles, which do not appear in any other episodes,[10] were designed by effects assistantMike Trim in his first major design work for APF.[19][20][21]
In the series' alternative two-part format that was broadcast in some UK regions, part one of "Pit of Peril" ended withThunderbird 1 blasting off from Tracy Island while part two began with an abridged version of a scene in which the army personnel discuss the situation while standing at the edge of the pit. Several other scenes were also shortened.[5]
In her autobiography, Sylvia Anderson called the episode's theme of danger posed by hazardous waste "very much a contemporary problem".[22] Tom Fox ofStarburst magazine rates the episode three out of five, calling the Sidewinder a "great but hilariously awkward invention" and likening it to the giant mechanical spider in the filmWild Wild West (1999).[23]
Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn describe "Pit of Peril" as one of several earlyThunderbirds episodes that focus on "seemingly inescapable dangers on land, under the sea and in the air".[24] For Chris Bentley, it is one of a number that use "incredible technology in a developing world as a springboard to disaster".[20] Hearn praises the model-work, editing and music but calls the episode a "misfire", stating that Fennell's "relatively one-dimensional plot" was ill-suited to a longer, 50-minute running time.[25] He compares the plot to that of Series Two's "Path of Destruction" but regards that episode as superior in nearly all respects.[26] Bentley and Hearn also argue that the premise is similar to that of "Trapped in the Sky".[5][6] Bentley writes that "Pit of Peril" "somewhat slavishly follows the formula" of its precursor, comparing the plight of the experimental Sidewinder to the sabotage of the newFireflash airliner.[5] He considers the Mole to be "lifted directly" from theEdgar Rice Burroughs novelAt The Earth's Core (1914).[5]
TheStar Observer compares "Pit of Peril" favourably to the first episode but criticises its lack of female characters.[27] In an essay analysingThunderbirds along gender lines, Ian Haywood believes that the Sidewinder's fall into the pit reflects a broader conflict in the series between "masculine" science and "maternal" nature. According to Haywood, the army walker's undoing literally shows that "Mother Nature will not be walked over. Is this the transmogrified mother taking her revenge, or is she continuing her role as society's moral conscience?"[28]Nicholas J. Cull views the Sidewinder's defeat by a 20th-century military dump as symbolic of "the way in which the political residue of one war can dog a future generation." He also considers the reference tobrushfires "topical" for a TV episode made "in the opening years of theVietnam conflict".[29]
In a review of the series' soundtrack, Heather Phares ofAllMusic cites the incidental piece "The Fate of the Sidewinder" as an example of how Barry Gray's work onThunderbirds "[sent] up the spy and action/adventure conventions of the '60s very stylishly and subtly." She characterises the track as "only slightly more over the top than the scores for theJames Bond films or for TV series likeThe Prisoner".[30]
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