Happy New Year, Anderfans!

With so many classic works from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson beginning their broadcast runs during September, plenty of New Years throughout the 1960s and 1970s saw a fresh adventure from any number of the Andersons' worlds to enjoy. 

Now that 2026 is in full swing, let's countdown some of the best Gerry Anderson episodes to have debuted in each new year of their respective first broadcast!

8. Supercar - Rescue

First broadcast: 28th January, 1961

Supercar's debut episode may not be the most dramatically exciting or narratively complex episode of the Supermarionation era, but it's arguably the most important. The Supercar team leaps into action for its first mission of rescuing Jimmy and Bill Gibson and their pet chimpanzee, Mitch, when the US Navy are unable to locate the trio in fog-stricken waters. With a premise that, in retrospect, hugely anticipates the heart and soul of Thunderbirds, the Black Rock Laboratory team leap into dangerous action in the newly built and untested Supercar to save the day.

7. Captain Scarlet - Seek and Destroy

First broadcast: 5th January, 1968

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' first episode of 1968 sees the Mysterons make their latest personal strike against Spectrum following on from their failed attempts to kill Colonel White in White as Snow. Where that earlier episode prioritises internal strife between White and Scarlet, Seek and Destroy is far more focused on exploiting Spectrum's hardware. The darkly coloured prototype Angel Interceptor craft, destroyed and replicated by the Mysterons to carry out their threat of killing one of the Angels, make for eerie visual spectacles. The episode provokes some intriguing world-building as to how Spectrum's vehicles are produced and distributed, while the aerial dogfight between aircraft recalls the kinds of WWII air battles that served as a reminder of the real-world inspiration for so many of these classic sci-fi machines. 

6. Fireball XL5: Space Monster

First broadcast: 6th January, 1963

Fireball XL5's first episode of 1963 tests the limits of how convincing Supermarionation puppetry can be with its blend of human characters and monstrous creatures! The XL5 crew's attempts to discover the fate of the crashed Fireball XL2 on the planet Monotane are thrown into chaos when the titular creature reveals itself as the cause of all the problems. The marauding menace of the space monster, neatly delivered with subtle puppetry that conveys its weight and danger, makes a desperate situation for both XL5 and XL2 crews, their World Space Patrol technology outmatched by the ferocious monster. However, unexpected help from Zoony the Lazoon!

5. Joe 90: Double Agent

First broadcast: 5th January, 1969

Double Agent begins Joe 90's new year with the delightfully subversive premise of Joe accidentally acquiring the brain patterns of a double agent within WIN's operations. Joe's assignment is the safe transportation of WIN cypher codes, a task intended for WIN agent Harry Sloane, but Joe's traitorous actions while utilising Sloane's brain patterns winds up proving Sloane's own disloyalty to WIN. Joe 90's intelligent scripting enlivens the episode with a daring energy that keeps the audience guessing; it's not immediately clear that Joe is acting under the influence of his special glasses, and it's only during the episode's riotous shoot-out between WIN agents that Joe has any chance of recovering his senses.

4. Stingray: The Ghost of the Sea

First broadcast: 3rd January, 1965

A rare dive into Commander Sam Shore's backstory elicits one of Stingray's most emotionally taut episodes that begins its 1965 run. Commander Shore's nightmares of his pre-WASP actions in failing to stop an enemy submarine devastate a cobalt mining station find renewed meaning when the mystery alien craft renews its campaign of destruction. Shore's unresolved trauma clashes with Troy's heroism in saving the enemy pilot when they fall into mortal peril, showcasing Stingray's appealing character dynamisms and depiction of morality when patrolling the underwater worlds that lurk beneath the terraneans. 

3. UFO: Survival

First broadcast: 6th January, 1971

This darkly tragic adventure is appropriately encased within an oppressive lunar atmosphere, capturing the Moon as a barren wilderness that's hostile to human and alien alike. When a UFO attack on SHADO's Moonbase descends into chaos on all sides, Paul Foster and the alien pilot find themselves unexpectedly reliant on each other's cooperation if they're to survive the Moon's inhospitable landscape and find their way back to safety. In typical UFO fashion, the bonds of trust formed between human and alien aren't allowed to last permanently, with the episode concluding on a memorably downbeat ending.

2. Space: 1999: The Last Sunset

First broadcast: 1st January, 1976

Space: 1999's first episode of 1976, quite appropriately for the New Year, brings a tangible feeling of hope to the wayward lives of Moonbase Alpha, cast adrift across the fringes of deep space. The moon's unexpected acquisition of an Earth-like atmosphere suggests a new and safe lease of life for the Alphans, but instead all manners of environmental terrors descend on the Moon. With its surprisingly thrilling special effects eliciting an Earth-like environment and intimate relationship advancements of Alphans Sandra and Paul, The Last Sunset is an underrated gem of Year 1.

1. Thunderbirds - City of Fire

First broadcast: 6th January, 1966

After the one-two punch of International Rescue coming to the aid of some stricken super-mech in Trapped in the Sky and Pit of Peril, Thunderbirds' third episode (in production order, but first broadcast in early 1966) sees Scott and Virgil Tracy tackle their most gargantuan disaster yet. Stripped of the need to display the unsuitable attempts of a civilian rescue, thereby justifying I.R.'s involvement, City of Fire plays out its mesmerising scenes of metropolitan devastation with engrossing drama. A prolonged rescue operation with the increased jeopardy of the Tracy boys forced to use an experimental gas so that they may save the trapped Carter family beneath the blazing inferno of the Thompson Tower ensures that City of Fire blends human drama with spectacular pyrotechnics.