Games

With the sad news of Gerry Anderson's death in December, it was assumed that his plans for a new Thunderbirds TV series had also been abandoned. Happily, this is not the case. Today it was confirmed a new Thunderbirds TV series is entering production for airing in 2015. The new series will be a co-production between New Zealand's Pukeko Pictures and CITV in the UK, which will also broadcast the show (hopefully in a better timeslot than the new Captain Scarlet , which they pretty much killed through appallingly awful scheduling). Surprisingly, the show will not be all-CGI, instead using a mixture of models and sets along with CGI. The characters will be CG, as presumably will be the more action-oriented scenes. The CGI for the series will be provided by no less a source than Weta, who did the CGI for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies and King Kong , amongst many other films. A 26-episode season is now in pre-production for airing in 2015.

On Boxing Day it was announced that Gerry Anderson had passed away at the age of 83. Anderson was one of the most famous figures in UK TV in the 1960s and 1970s, working on a number of science fiction and fantasy shows. However, he will always be closely associated with a number of children's series featuring puppets operating highly-detailed vehicles: Supercar , Fireball XL5 , Stingray , Thunderbirds , Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons , Joe 90 and Terrahawks .   In addition to his puppet shows, Anderson created several live-action SF series: UFO , Space: 1999 and Space Precinct (as well as the non-SF The Protectors ). Despite his fame and his shows' place in popular culture, he was unable to find a format with longevity: aside from Terrahawks , none of his shows lasted more than two seasons. Thunderbirds returned with a live-action movie in 2004 which Anderson was not involved with, criticised heavily and was panned on release. Anderson did produce a two-season revival o...