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"Dust off your homemade Tracy Island playset - the Thunderbirds are set to go again in 2015. Gerry Anderson&amp;#039;s classic children&amp;#039;s series is to be revived and revamped &amp;quot;using a unique mix of CGI animation and live-action model sets&amp;quot; for 26 new half-hour episodes, to air on ITV and CITV in two years&amp;#039; time. News that an old favourite - particularly a kids&amp;#039; show we feel all warm and nostalgic about - is to be tampered and tinkered with always leads to a little trepidation, but having had a day to absorb it, the Week in Geek is going to consider whether a Thunderbirds revival should fill us with dread or with childish glee... &amp;gt; Week in Geek - Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest: JJ Abrams cult TV hits &amp;gt; Week in Geek - Joss Whedon&amp;#039;s S.H.I.E.L.D.: Our wishlist for the comic book drama  If I&amp;#039;m honest, my first thought upon hearing tell of this Thunderbirds revamp was of Gerry Anderson - the televisual genius who not only created the aforementioned show, but also such &amp;#039;Supermarionation&amp;#039; classics as Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and  Stingray  and live-action cult favourites UFO and Space: 1999. It&amp;#039;s unclear how much input Anderson might have had into this new Thunderbirds prior to his sad death in December - hopefully it&amp;#039;s the same show he&amp;#039;d been fervently working on for the past few years... But either way, a Thunderbirds series without Anderson at the helm just feels wrong - and while I&amp;#039;m aware that the show won&amp;#039;t actually premiere for another two years, to announce this revamp little more than a month after his death could be seen as a little tasteless.       And beyond the specifics of Anderson&amp;#039;s involvement, let&amp;#039;s not forget what happened the last time someone tried to revive his best-known show - Star Trek&amp;#039;s Jonathan Frakes might have proved his worth at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, but helming a 2004 film adaptation of Thunderbirds was a different matter entirely. A misfire on practically every level, the Thunderbirds movie shouldn&amp;#039;t be taken as an indication that this new revival is doomed to failure, but it should be considered a stark warning of how badly such a project *could* potentially go. But let&amp;#039;s look at the flip-side of the argument - perhaps, as Busted so implored in their tie-in hit &amp;#039;Thunderbirds Are Go&amp;#039;, we should &amp;quot;stop the hating&amp;quot;. Whatever our reservations, there&amp;#039;s no denying that the core concept of Thunderbirds remains fertile ground for a children&amp;#039;s adventure series. While there&amp;#039;s a natural instinct to flinch at the idea of those iconic puppets being replaced with soulless CGI creations, if ITV retains the elements that made the original show so successful - the high-tech gadgetry, the square-jawed heroes, Lady Penelope&amp;#039;s pink limo - and then uses the latest technical wizardry to jazz things up visually for the latest generation of demanding pre-teen viewers, then they could very easily have a hit on their hands. Thunderbirds has a built-in fanbase and any new series will have to appease the die-hards as well as appeal to new viewers - one of the biggest mistakes that the 2004 film made was to stray too far from the original concept of Anderson&amp;#039;s work. If you change Thunderbirds too much, then it&amp;#039;s simply not Thunderbirds anymore.      And since we&amp;#039;ve brought up that movie misfire again, it&amp;#039;s only fair to mention the closest equivalent to this new Thunderbirds series - the CGI revamp of Captain Scarlet that aired for 26 episodes in 2005. While most agree that Gerry Anderson&amp;#039;s New Captain Scarlet wasn&amp;#039;t a patch on the original, the show actually went down pretty well with young viewers and Anderson aficionados alike, all things considered. So perhaps there is hope for a Thunderbirds revival after all - just don&amp;#039;t try to fix what ain&amp;#039;t broke and tamper with a format that worked so well in the 1960s. It&amp;#039;s the least that Gerry deserves. Are you excited for a Thunderbirds revamp? Or do you think it will damage the legacy of the original? Share your thoughts below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/week-in-geek/news/a456440/thunderbirds-returns-fab-or-a-big-mistake/>