"Attack of the Alligators!" is an episode of '' Thunderbirds'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and

Sylvia Anderson Sylvia Beatrice Anderson (; 25 March 1927 – 15 March 2016) was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. In a ...

and filmed by their production company

AP Films AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s until the early 1970s. The company became internationally known for its imaginative children's action-adventure marionette tel ...

(APF) for

ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme Compan ...

. Written by

Alan Pattillo Alan Huchison Pattillo (17 July 1929 – 16 January 2020) was a British writer and director who worked on ''Supercar'', '' Fireball XL5'', ''Stingray'', and '' Thunderbirds'' television series. He won an Emmy in 1979 alongside Bill Blunden for ...

and directed by David Lane, it was first broadcast on 10 March 1966 on

ATV Midlands Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and ...

as the 23rd episode of Series One. It is the 24th episode in the official running order. Set in the 2060s, the series follows the exploits of International Rescue, an organisation that uses technologically advanced rescue vehicles to save human life. The main characters are ex-astronaut

Jeff Tracy Jeff Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation television show '' Thunderbirds'' and the subsequent films '' Thunderbirds Are GO'' and '' Thunderbird 6''. The voice for the character in these shows was sup ...

, founder of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the organisation's main vehicles: the ''Thunderbird'' machines. The plot of "Attack of the Alligators!" sees a group of

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

s grow to enormous size after their swamp is contaminated by a new food additive. When the reptiles lay siege to a house, International Rescue is called in to save the trapped occupants. Combining science-fiction and

haunted house A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the prope ...

themes, with a plot deliberately written to be "nightmarish", "Attack of the Alligators!" was filmed at APF Studios in Slough in late 1965. It was the first APF production to use live animals, the re-sized alligators being played by juvenile crocodiles. Filming of the episode was controversial as the crew resorted to using electric shocks to coax movement out of the animals. Concern for the crocodiles' welfare prompted an investigation by the

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest a ...

(RSPCA), which ultimately took no action against APF. "Attack of the Alligators!" remains a favourite with ''Thunderbirds'' fans and commentators and is generally regarded as one of the series' best episodes. Along with "

The Cham-Cham "The Cham-Cham" is the 25th episode of '' Thunderbirds'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF). The penultimate episode of ''Thunderbirds'' Seri ...

", the next episode to enter production, it went over-budget, causing the final instalment of ''Thunderbirds'' Series One (" Security Hazard") to be re-written as a

clip show A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicte ...

to lower costs. In 1976, "Attack of the Alligators!" inspired an episode of '' The New Avengers'' titled "Gnaws", written by ex-''Thunderbirds'' writer

Dennis Spooner Dennis Spooner (1 December 1932 – 20 September 1986) was an English television writer and script editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting profess ...

Plot

A businessman, Blackmer, visits the reclusive Dr Orchard, a scientist who lives in a dilapidated house on the Ambro River. From the local plant ''Sidonicus americanus'', Orchard has developed a food additive called "theramine" that increases the size of animals. Enlargement of animal stock presents a simple solution to world

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...

as well as other economic advantages. Blackmer's boatman, Culp, has been eavesdropping on the meeting. When a storm forces Blackmer to stay at the house overnight, Culp decides to steal the theramine and sell it to the highest bidder. Waiting until the house's other occupants are asleep, he breaks into Orchard's laboratory and pours some theramine into a vial. The rest of the supply is accidentally knocked into a sink and drains into the Ambro River. When Blackmer and Culp leave the next morning, their boat is attacked by an

, now enormous due to the theramine contamination. Orchard's assistant, Hector McGill, manages to rescue Blackmer but Culp is nowhere to be found. The house is quickly surrounded by three giant alligators that repeatedly hurl themselves at the building with Orchard, Blackmer, McGill and the housekeeper, Mrs Files, trapped inside. At Mrs Files' suggestion, McGill transmits a distress call to International Rescue. This is picked up by John Tracy (voiced by

Ray Barrett Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in ''The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...

) on the ''

Thunderbird 5 The Thunderbird machines are a series of vehicles imagined for the mid-1960s film and television '' Thunderbirds'' series developed by Gerry Anderson. The released work began with the Supermarionation television series '' Thunderbirds'' and w ...

'' space station and relayed to

Tracy Island Tracy Island is the secret headquarters of the International Rescue organisation in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series '' Thunderbirds'' and its adaptations. In the original series, the heavily-camouflaged island is located in t ...

, where

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

(voiced by

Peter Dyneley Peter Dyneley (13 April 1921 – 19 August 1977) was a British actor. Although he appeared in many smaller roles in both film and television, he is best remembered for supplying the voice of Jeff Tracy for the 1960s " Supermarionation" TV serie ...

) immediately dispatches his other four sons to the danger zone in '' Thunderbirds 1'' and '' 2''. Arriving in ''Thunderbird 1'' and transferring to a hover-jet, Scott (voiced by Shane Rimmer) fires the hover-jet's missile gun to disperse the alligators and accesses the house via the laboratory window. The room eventually caves in, forcing Scott and the others to retreat to the lounge. There, they are confronted by Culp, who holds them at gunpoint.

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

, Alan and

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

(voiced by

David Holliday David Holliday (August 4, 1937March 26, 1999) was an American Broadway actor and television voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Virgil Tracy, pilot of '' Thunderbird 2'', in the first series (26 episodes) of '' Thunderbirds'' (1965&n ...

, Matt Zimmerman and David Graham) arrive in ''Thunderbird 2''. Alan and Gordon man tranquiliser guns and subdue two of the alligators. When the third returns to the house, Alan exits ''Thunderbird 2'' on another hover-jet to lure it away. He hits a tree and falls off the hover-jet, but is saved by Gordon, who tranquilises the alligator before it reaches Alan. Threatening to empty the entire theramine vial into the Ambro unless he is given safe passage upriver, Culp sets off in Blackmer's boat. At the same time, Gordon launches '' Thunderbird 4''. A fourth, much larger alligator appears and attacks the boat, killing Culp. Virgil disposes of the creature with a missile fired from ''Thunderbird 2''. Later, Gordon finds the theramine vial intact on the riverbed. After his sons return to Tracy Island, Jeff announces that theramine will be subject to international security restrictions. Tin-Tin (voiced by

Christine Finn Christine L. T. Finn (1929 – 5 December 2007) was an English actress, known primarily for her role in the 1950s TV serial ''Quatermass and the Pit'', and, after that, her voice work for the 1960s '' Thunderbirds'' television series. She also ...

) has been away on a shopping trip and has bought Alan a present for his birthday – a

pygmy In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...

alligator.

Production

The episode was partly inspired by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth'' and its theme of animal size change. Another influence was the 1927 film '' The Cat and the Canary'' and its 1939 re-make, both of which feature

premises and stalker characters. Writer

, who according to

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...

supervisor

Derek Meddings Derek Meddings (15 January 1931 – 10 September 1995) was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the " Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the ...

"had tried to come up with the most nightmarish rescue situation he could",Meddings 1993, p. 75. had wanted to direct the episode as well. Ultimately, however, it was directed by David Lane.La Rivière 2009, p. 127. The opening scene features an

insert shot Insert may refer to: * Insert (advertising) * Insert (composites) * Insert (effects processing) * Insert (filmmaking) * Insert key on a computer keyboard, used to switch between insert mode and overtype mode *Insert (molecular biology) *Insert (SQL ...

of a stormy sky that was later used to introduce the opening titles of ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...

''.Bentley 2005, p. 87. "Attack of the Alligators!" was filmed in October and November 1965. The production overran its month-long schedule, forcing the crew to work extra hours, and sometimes long into the night, to complete the filming. Special effects assistant Ian Wingrove remembered that the episode's complex technical aspects had the crew " orkingday and night ... through a weekend". According to Lane, at one stage the shoot ran for 48 hours straight, with two editors processing the footage in shifts. He added: "I think Derek eddingswent three days, non-stop, just shooting." The alligators in the episode were portrayed not by actual alligators, as Gerry Anderson had originally intended,Bentley 2005, p. 29. but by juvenile crocodiles. These were acquired from a private zoo in the north of England to double as the enlarged alligators on the episode's scale sets and water tanks.Bentley 2005, p. 30. The crocodiles that appear in the episode were long; a larger specimen, measuring , was not used as it was too aggressive to be taken out of its box. The crew kept the water tanks heated to a suitably warm temperature and used electric shocks to coax movement out of the crocodiles. The animals were unpredictable and difficult to control, either basking in the heat of the studio lights or disappearing into the tanks for hours at a time. To make them more visible to the cameras, the crew attached them to guiding rods and co-ordinated their movements. The use of live animals in both puppet and scale model shots required an unusually close collaboration between the puppet and effects crews. Effects director

Brian Johnson Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. He and the rest of the band were inducted into the Rock and Rol ...

and several other crew members boycotted the production on animal welfare grounds. Camera operator Alan Perry did not remember any of the crocodiles being mistreated; series supervising director Desmond Saunders, however, claimed that more than one specimen died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

after being left in an unheated tank overnight. Director David Elliott, though filming a different episode at the time, recalled that another dislocated one of its limbs after receiving an electric shock. Puppet operator

Christine Glanville Christine Glanville (born Nancy Christine Fletcher; 28 October 1924 – 1 March 1999) was an English puppeteer who spent much of her professional life contributing to television series produced by Gerry Anderson. Career Glanville became involv ...

admitted that the filming would not have been pleasant for the crocodiles as the tanks contained "all sorts of dirty paint water, oil and soapy water to make it look swampy." Saunders commented: "It was scandalous. It was one of the great episodes. Nevertheless there was a price to be paid for it." Animal cruelty concerns prompted an anonymous telephone call to the

RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest a ...

, which sent an inspector to the studios. After a brief investigation, no action was taken against APF. This coincided with a decision to increase the voltage of the electric shocks to induce greater movement from the crocodiles.La Rivière 2009, p. 126. According to Gerry Anderson, when the inspector arrived, "Meddings explained that his team were laying the crocodiles down and they weren't doing anything. They were just lying there. The RSPCA man said, well, they would, because of the warmth of the lamps. So Derek said, 'We've been giving them a touch with an

electrode An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials d ...

just to make them move.' The guy asked what voltage they were using and Derek said it was about 20 volts, and the guy said, 'Oh, they've got terribly thick skins, you know. If you want them to move, you'll have to pump it up to 60.'" The inspector later joined the production to work alongside the crocodiles' handler. Filming with the crocodiles was often hazardous. During a promotional photography shoot featuring

Lady Penelope Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is a fictional character introduced in the British 1960s Supermarionation television series '' Thunderbirds'', which was produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. The character also appears in the film seque ...

(who does not appear in the episode), one of the animals attacked the puppet and destroyed one of its legs. During the filming of a particular scene, Meddings was pulling a crocodile towards him on a rope when the animal slid out of its harness. In his book ''21st Century Visions'', Meddings wrote of the incident: "My crew never saw me move as fast as I did to get out of the tank when I pulled the rope and realised the creature was free." Of the largest crocodile, which was kept at the back of the stage when not being used, Wingrove recalled: "You would forget that it was there, then one day someone shouted 'Look out!' and we turned round to see this big crocodile walking across the stage – which cleared of people very quickly!" Both this episode and "

", the next episode to enter production, exceeded their budgets. This led the writers to re-script the final episode of ''Thunderbirds'' Series One (" Security Hazard") as a

to reduce costs.Bentley 2005, p. 31.

Broadcast and reception

Originally transmitted on 10 March 1966, "Attack of the Alligators!" had its first UK-wide network broadcast on 20 March 1992 on BBC2. During that channel's 2000-2001 ''Thunderbirds'' re-run, the episode became the eleventh to be repeated when it replaced " Brink of Disaster", which along with "

The Perils of Penelope "The Perils of Penelope" is an episode of '' Thunderbirds'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF, later Century 21 Productions) for ITC Entertainm ...

" had been postponed until the end of the run due to similarities between the story and real-world events (both episodes feature dangerous situations involving trains and 2000 had seen several major railway accidents, most notably the

Hatfield rail crash The Hatfield rail crash was a railway accident on 17 October 2000, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. It was caused by a metal fatigue-induced derailment, killing four people and injuring more than 70. The accident exposed major stewardship shortco ...

Critical response

"Attack of the Alligators!" is a popular episode of ''Thunderbirds'' and is widely regarded as one of the series' best. It was well received by

, who described it as her favourite episode.

Lew Grade Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 ...

, head of distributor ITC, expressed great satisfaction with the filming during a visit to APF Studios in 1965. Stephen La Rivière considers the story one of the most unusual of the series,La Rivière 2009, p. 125. while Peter Webber of '' DVD Monthly'' magazine calls the episode "just insane". In 2004, "Attack of the Alligators!" was re-issued on DVD in North America as part of A&E Video's ''The Best of Thunderbirds: The Favorite Episodes''. Reviewing the release for the website DVD Verdict, David Gutierrez awarded "Attack of the Alligators!" a perfect score of 100, declaring it the best episode in the collection and praising its production values: "It's like a beautifully directed short film". He elaborated: "'Attack of the Alligators!' serves as a terrific example of how strong ''Thunderbirds'' can look. It's not ''

Howdy Doody ''Howdy Doody'' is an American Children's television series, children's television program (with circus and Western (genre), Western frontier themes) that was created and produced by Victor F Campbell

'' sporting a jetpack – it's an hour-long programme that feels like a motion picture." Susanna Lazarus of '' Radio Times'' suggests that the episode is memorable specifically for its crocodile footage. The techniques used to produce the footage have caused the episode to be described as "controversial" by some sources. Mark Pickavance of the website

Den of Geek ''Den of Geek'' is a US and UK-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture. The website also issues a bi-annual magazine. History ''Den of Geek'' was founded in 2007 by Simon Brew in London. In 2012, DoG Tech LLC licensed ...

criticises the footage from a visual standpoint, arguing that the use of scale sets with young crocodiles, "shot in super close-up to make them seem huge", does not produce a convincing illusion of giant alligators. Author Dave Thompson compares the giant reptiles to

Swamp Thing The Swamp Thing is a superhero in American comic books published by DC Comics. A humanoid/plant elemental creature, created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, the Swamp Thing has had several humanoid or monster incarnations in v ...

, a superorganism featured in the DC Comics Universe. In 1976, ''Thunderbirds'' writer

adapted the premise of "Attack of the Alligators!" while writing "Gnaws", an episode of '' The New Avengers'' featuring an enlarged rat.

References

Works cited

* * * *

External links

* {{Good article 1966 British television episodes Fiction about size change Fictional crocodilians Thunderbirds (TV series) episodes