Not everybody in the world of Thunderbirds shares International Rescue’s altruistic intentions and actions. From far-reaching foreign powers to petty, opportunistic criminals, International Rescue more often than not finds themselves up against all manners of ruthless scoundrels. In this week’s Thunderbirds Thursday, we’re counting down our personal pick of the top 10 dastardly villains!
10. General X
Surely Thunderbirds‘ most elusive villain still warrants a position on this list. In his one and only appearance in Martian Invasion, General X is never seen, only heard, but is clearly shown to be just about the only character in Thunderbirds who even the menacing Hood is fearful of. In Martian Invasion, the Hood stages an elaborate disaster scenario on a movie set for International Rescue to come and resolve and films the outfit’s efforts for the benefit of General X. Whatever forces that General X exude over the Hood shouldn’t be underestimated. The Hood may return again and again in his efforts to absorb International Rescue’s secrets for himself, but General X remains locked away in the shadows…
9. Culp
Dogsbody Culp winds up paying the ultimate price for trying to leave his employers, Dr. Orchard and Hector McGill, in the vicious clutches of rampaging alligators that have grown in size, thanks to Culp’s own carelessness. In one of Thunderbirds‘ most violent adventures, Attack of the Alligators, Culp tries to steal a formula developed by Orchard and McGill that can increase the size of animals who consume it. Doing so would elevate world food supply problems, but it would also make Culp an impossibly rich and powerful man. The ensuing rampaging alligators, who’ve consumed this formula and grown to colossal size, initially attack the lonely house where the scientists work, but eventually turn their attentions on Culp, whose greed is punished by the alligators in the most gruesome manner possible.
8. Olsen
Just about every musician/band from Jimi Hendrix to Black Sabbath and Queen had to tolerate toxic managers who perhaps didn’t entirely have their best interests at heart. Cass Carnaby Five manager Olsen takes this notorious stereotype of untrustworthy music managers to spy-fi extremes in The Cham-Cham by using the group as a musical front for military espionage. Olsen’s insistence on the Cass Carnaby Five performing their hit record ‘Dangerous Game’ in different arrangements is in fact a cover for transmitting sabotage codes to allow foreign powers to attack RTL2 military air transporters. For an episode straight out of the 1960s spy-fi playbook, Olsen is a villain quite appropriately cast in the James Bond mould of enemies, at once seductive and charming yet devious and volatile all at once. His eventual discovery of Lady Penelope and Tin-Tin’s undercover efforts to break his operation results in him attempting to finish them off, only to be thwarted by group frontman Cass Carnaby himself.
7. The Imposters
Stealing military secrets is one thing, but to do so pretending to be International Rescue and thus conveniently shuffling off responsibility for the crime’s eventual discovery and framing the real I.R. as enemies makes these imposters particularly villainous. As an episode, The Imposters exposes how vulnerable International Rescue can be when enemies are willing to resort to such lengths to commit their crimes. By framing International Rescue for the break-in, right down to staging a false rescue scenario, public trust is broken and official military forces try to hunt the outfit down. It’s only thanks to the assistance of Jeremiah Tuttle and his exploding beans that the imposters are exposed for who they really are.
6. Dr. Godber
He may be performed with a deliciously camp persona from the multitalented Ray Barrett, but Dr. Godber is one of Thunderbirds‘ most morally reprehensible villains on this list. In The Perils of Penelope, Dr. Godber captures Professor Borender to learn the secrets of Sun Probe’s ground-breaking fuel, derived from sea water. With such secrets in his grasp, Godber could shift the balance of global powers for his own gain. However, the professor’s life hangs in the balance when he refuses to part with his secrets. As if to enhance his villainy, Godber is surrounded by morally ambiguous accomplices who don’t appear as willing to commit to his world-dominating antics. Investigating the initial disappearance of the professor, Lady Penelope nearly succumbs to a violent end at Godber’s hands via an unstoppable mono-train, but International Rescue leaps into action just in time.
5. Benton Aircraft Espionage
Another of the more elusive villains on this list nonetheless manages to command the highest body count of any Thunderbirds episode. The Benton Aircraft Espionage gang is responsible for the destruction of Fireflash 3, killing all 600 of its passengers and crew. Covering their tracks well, International Rescue is eventually brought in to fly the latest Fireflash in an attempt to unravel the mystery of these atomic airliners being targeted. In the end, it’s Gordon who succeeds in exposing the organisation just before they can destroy the latest Fireflash. Little becomes known of the motives or operational capabilities of the gang during the events of Operation Crash-Dive, but not all of Thunderbirds‘ villains have to be seen to be effective.
4. Warren Grafton
The only villain on our list to be operating under the sneering veneer of supposedly legitimate business interests, Warren Grafton has little care for anyone’s safety and wellbeing. In Brink of Disaster, the head of the Pacific-Atlantic Monorail company is the moral opposite to Jeff Tracy; his total apathy towards his passengers comes to a head when the mono-train he’s taking Jeff, Brains, and Tin-Tin on for a guided ride suffers a near-catastrophic disaster. Remarkably, despite his death-defying experiences, Grafton learns no lessons, but thankfully, the swift hand of justice delivers his ultimate fate and prizes open his underhand business practices.
3. Gomez and Gillespie
These two opportunistic thieves are driven purely by monetary greed and resort to deadly tactics to get what they want from Alan Tracy. During the events of Move – And You’re Dead, Alan takes part in the Parola Sands Race, aided by his fantastically engineered race car. Seeing the car as their only means of winning the race, fellow competitors Gomez and Gillespie trap Alan and Grandma Tracy atop the suspension bridge over the San Miguel river, forcing them to remain still in the baking Spanish sun by fixing a motion-triggered bomb to the belly of the bridge. International Rescue must pull off one of their most intricate rescue operations to save them, but it falls to Scott to deliver merciless justice against the crooks.
2. The Zombites
This military-enhanced faction twists ancient and seemingly abandoned Egyptian landscapes on its head. Armed with deadly supersonic fighter jets and operating out of a converted pyramid, the Zombites have total command of the relentless scorching desert that surrounds their chosen home. An inhospitable environment becomes even more dangerous in the ruthless hands of the Zombites. Precisely who or what the Zombites actually are isn’t made explicitly clear, their background and purpose are left mostly unspoken. Yet in the Cold War-tinged future-world of Thunderbirds, power struggles between hostile international forces evidently aren’t confined to the Iron Curtain.
1. The Hood
The world’s master criminal has the most sustained presence of any Thunderbirds villain, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that he should take the number 1 spot. His motivations may not always be consistent; sometimes, he plots to steal the secrets of the Thunderbird machines, other times, he sets out to just destroy them. But it’s always done with the deadliest of intentions. Innocent individuals are often caught in the Hood’s web of destruction through his many plots to lure International Rescue to their doom. The Hood is utterly remorseless, as evidenced by his psychic manipulation of his half brother Kyrano and his sadistic treatment of Brains in Desperate Intruder.
Operating mostly as a lone wolf, the Hood possesses incredible mental prowess and technological capabilities, topped off by his surreal abilities of hypnosis. This strange, terrifying power places him above all other Thunderbirds villains, making the Hood the absolute best of the worst when it comes to the dangerous rogues gallery of enemy powers seen throughout Thunderbirds.
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