The Man from MI.5 (TV story)

The Man from MI.5
Main character(s):	Lady Penelope
Featuring:	Parker, Jeff, Scott, Virgil, Gordon, Bondson, Tin-Tin, Alan, John, Brains
Main enemy:	Carl
Main setting:	Monte Carlo and Tracy Island, January 1965
Key crew
Writer:	Alan Fennell
Director:	David Lane
Producer:	Gerry Anderson
Release details
Story number:	17
Premiere broadcast:	20 January 1966
Premiere network:	ITV
Format:	1x48 minute episode
Thunderbirds crossover stories
← Previous	The Vanishing Ray
Next →	Sands of Terror

The Man from MI.5 was the seventeenth episode of the first series of Thunderbirds.

It was of special note to the Doctor Who universe because of the licensed appearance by the Daleks in the form of a report from the Solturian News Agency, which made it the first ever televised crossover between Doctor Who and another franchise. Within the context of the ongoing storyline in TV Century 21, The Man From MI.5 was also significant for revealing that other security organisations in addition to the Universal Secret Service, such as the British Secret Service, were keeping updates of the Daleks' progression in space conquest in preparation for their impending invasion of Earth.

Synopsis

MI5 agent Jimmy Bondson asks for International Rescue's help to locate the stolen plans for a nuclear weapon which threatens the safety of the entire world. Lady Penelope assumes the identity of a leading fashion model investigating the crime to lure out the culprits but is kidnapped and restrained aboard a boat with a bomb set to detonate. Scott and Gordon have little time to find and rescue her, as well as to steal back the plans, before the boat explodes and the criminals escape.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Jeff Tracy - Peter Dyneley
• Scott Tracy - Shane Rimmer
• Lady Penelope - Sylvia Anderson
• Virgil Tracy - David Holliday
• Alan Tracy - Matt Zimmerman
• Brains - David Graham
• Parker - David Graham
• Tin-Tin Kyrano - Christine Finn
• Gordon Tracy - David Graham
• John Tracy - Ray Barrett
• Jimmy Bondson - Ray Barrett
• Tesland - David Graham
• Carl - David Graham
• Ritter - Ray Barrett
• The Third Man - Matt Zimmerman
• Tannoy - Christine Finn

Silent characters

• Captain Blacker
• Grandma Tracy
• Waiter
• Passenger 1
• Passenger 2
• Passenger 3
• Passenger 4

Crew

• Producer - Gerry Anderson
• Director - David Lane
• Associate producer - Reg Hill
• Director of photography - John Read
• Character visualisation - Sylvia Anderson
• Lighting cameraman - Julien Lugrin
• Special effects lighting cameraman - Michael Wilson
• Camera operators - Jimmy Elliott, Geoff Meldrum
• Art director - Bob Bell
• Supervising special effects director - Derek Meddings
• Puppetry supervision - Mary Turner
• Teleplay - Alan Fennell
• Script supervision - Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
• Music composer and director - Barry Gray
• Puppet operators - Judith Shutt, Ernest Shutt
• Sculptors - John Brown, John Blundall
• Wardrobe - Elizabeth Coleman
• Assistant art director - Grenville Nott
• Script editor - Alan Pattillo
• Supervising editor - Len Walter
• Editor - Harry MacDonald
• Supervising sound editor - John Peverill

Special effects 2nd unit

• Director - Brian Johncock
• Lighting cameraman - Harry Oakes
• Camera operator - Gary Coxall

• Sound editor - John Beaton
• Dialogue editor - Roy Lafbery
• Property master - Arthur Cripps
• Sound - Maurice Askew, John Taylor

References

• Alan jumping in the swimming pool upsets the sonic beam during Brains' experiment with his model submarine.
• Lady Penelope orders Bondson to meet her in a clearing three kilometres into the perimeter of the Forest of Digne at midnight.
• Captain Blacker collected plans for a nuclear device from a scientist living somewhere that Bondson cannot disclose for security reasons.
• According to Bondson, Carl shot Blacker five times with a Henrietta .45 Supermatic.
• It is International Rescue's policy not to involve themselves with politics or police work.
• Lady Penelope tells Carl he will have seven years of bad luck for shooting her mirror.
• Several copies of The Nutcracker are present on a shelf on Tracy Island.
• Jeff uses Contact Code 5 to discreetly contact Lady Penelope, and she explains the noises away as being rats.
• Tin-Tin and her father think Jeff might like a cup of coffee while waiting for news of Lady Penelope's rescue.
• Thunderbird 1 has sonar tracking capabilities.
• Gordon uses a drill and a paralyser to incapacitate Carl, Ritter, and the Third Man.
• Parker loses Lady Penelope's yacht FAB 2 while gambling at the casino.

Story notes

A newspaper dated 10-11 January 1965.

• In keeping with the setting of Thunderbirds being a matter of contention and contradiction, the newspaper in this episode dates its events to January 1965. Newspapers seen in other episodes of the programme date the activities of International Rescue to the 2000s and the 2060s, whereas a calendar in Give or Take a Million offers up the 2020s as another possibility. Additionally, Danger at Ocean Deep made reference in dialogue to an old bottle of wine with a 1998 vintage. The magazine TV Century 21, the main source of Doctor Who/Thunderbirds content, concurs with the 2060s date as each of its issues were set exactly one hundred years in the future from publication date. Action 21, a short-lived 1980s magazine consisting mainly of TV21 reprints, followed the same system which now meant its events were transposed to the 2080s. Finally, the Virgin New Adventures novel The Dying Days featured an appearance from a Lady Penelope living in the 1990s, "present day" at the time. It was not, however, a setting without narrative backing, with some theories dating the series to that decade based on the claim in Trapped in the Sky that Jeff Tracy, a man in his fifties, was one of the first to land on the Moon.
• The Golden Emperor of the Daleks is clearly visible in one of the shots of Carl rifling through Captain Blacker's papers on the Solturis invasion; as well as the first televised appearance of the image of a Dalek outside of Doctor Who, this technically constitutes the first televised appearance of the Dalek Emperor overall, predating its appearance in The Evil of the Daleks.
• The model submarine which Brains uses for his experiment also appeared as the Hood's 3E submarine in the Thunderbirds episode Desperate Intruder.
• The backdrop for the harbour scenes also appeared in the Thunderbirds episode The Duchess Assignment, the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode Model Spy, and the Joe 90 episode The Race.

Continuity

A picture of a Silver Dalek on one of Blacker's documents.

• Carl rifles through Captain Blacker's reports detailing the Dalek invasion of Solturis. (COMIC: The Penta Ray Factor) Blacker also has the front page article containing the testimony of Hans Werger about a fierce gun battle. (PROSE: Black Forest Siege!)
• Lady Penelope and Parker have had dealings with MI5 before. (COMIC: The Vanishing Ray)
• Lady Penelope's assurance to Parker that she had more boats in the aftermath of Seabird I's destruction is proven true with FAB 2. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman)

External links

• The Man From MI.5 at the International Rescue Database