Please don't spend money on this.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Every Saturday morning I would tune in to see this show, it was my earliest favorite that I can remember. I think I was 5 or 6 years old. It was pretty well done for that time, although in B&W, it featured good characters, cool rockets and special effects, and best of all, it stirred the imagination. I always remember the jetmobiles, and for my birthday, I got an Fireball XL-5 playset, which costs my mother a whopping $5. It was the best. When I got a little older, I figured out that I could do something close with an 8mm camera, using GI Joes as my cast, and plastic models (blown up with fire crackers and set on fire, of course) for special effects. And then along came the "Thunderbirds"...

Early Gerry Anderson puppet series.Being a 1960s B&W space show gives it a first season Lost In Space-feel.I had a mixed reaction to the series, sometimes I would flick on a tape and enjoy it, some of the spaced out sets were cool, while other times I found it too unlike the more traditional Stingray/Thunderbirds material. The spacecraft the series is named after and the robot did nothing for me, but the series should be viewed as just simply a warm up for the much better Stingray series that followed.

My partner bought the entire series recently on DVD and I'm now being subjected to it. At least, the first few episodes deserve the word "subjected", because, after several episodes, I'm finding it to be annoyingly compulsive viewing.Sure, the effects are rubbish, the science is just plain silly (people can breath in space, for example, and have to "Swim" to get anywhere), the main HQ building rotates for no apparent purpose and the show is incredibly dated in terms of attitudes to the only female member of the crew and so on.Yet, despite these failings, it still manages to fascinate me. I never saw the show when it originally aired (I wasn't even born!), and my only knowledge of it came from a couple of TV Century 21 annuals I had in early life. I suspect that, had I been a kid when it was shown, I would have loved it. Even now, as an adult, it has things to offer, even if they are only seeing how ludicrous some of the puppets are and what new foolishness the crew can come up with.It's a little annoying to see the patronising attitude towards Venus who is relegated to housework (aboard the ship) and repeating the phrase "Steve, I'm scared" a lot.Still, for its day it was ground-breaking stuff and, although it may not stand up to modern values (both in production and sexism terms) it still is fun to watch.Ignore how cheap it all looks and just enjoy it.

From the very outset, I was hooked by this show as a child. In a lot of ways, it was very advanced with a WOMAN doctor...even though Venus spent most of her time making coffee, cleaning up, or needing to be rescued. Robert was the best robot around, and Professor Mattic was just eccentric enough to be interesting, too. Coulda lived without the Lazoon, though. This show even had a first rate music score, too. But, it was that ship that had me! It was unlike most of the cramped ships in sci fi at the time. This one had a lounge, sleeping quarters, too. Its nose cone was detachable, and could land on the planets they visited. Most of the plots were pretty simple, but some stood out. One episode had XL5 in an unexplored area of space. The ship had been hit by meteors, and was losing its oxygen. They knew they had just a short time left, and even as a child, I was fascinated with how they were facing death. Of course, they just HAPPENED to wander into a part of the universe with its own air pocket, but hey..!I used to think I was the only person who even cared about this show, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I found out there were a LOT of fans out there world wide!I loved this show when I was young. I got as many episodes as were available on VHS when I could, and now, I see the entire series is on DVD! It probably won't win too many new fans in this day and age, but if you loved this show as a child, its a little reminder of a more innocent time. Enjoy the ride!