Terrahawks (1983–1986) User Reviews

"Flaming Thunderbolts!"

[bannonanthony · 18 March 2003]

This was the first Gerry Anderson programme I ever saw when I was a kid, and I still love it. Okay, so it CAN be cheesy at times, especially with Zelda and her family always doing the 'evil laugh' thing and the joke about Lt. Hiro's accent (Exactry!), but I still like it as it has a great sense of humour and adventure about it.

I was glad when the series was released on DVD because that means I could now see the entire series! The extras on the DVDs are great as well, particularly the original shooting scripts which are contained. TERRAHAWKS also has some unintentional laughs in the guise of the preposterous sounding writer's pseudonyms used by Tony Barwick to disguise the fact that he wrote 98% of the episodes (examples include T.I. Gerstein, Koo Garstein, Leo Pardstein and P.U. Mastein, geddit?).

The Terrahawks are a colourful team themselves, although team leader Dr. Ninestein is a real jerk most of the time, particularly towards Sgt. Major Zero, leader of the Terrahawk robots the Zeroids. But Zero more often than not gets his own back on Ninestein. The Zeroids are a rather enjoyable set of characters too. Each one has his own personality: there's the aforementioned Zero, who is a real soldier type, Five-Five, who always talks in rhyme, the French-accented Dix-Huit (or Dicks-Hu-It, as Zero pronounces it) and the camp Space Sergeant 101). Villainess Zelda and her family are rather two-dimensional but at times, they display interesting personalities.

One element of the show which could be overdone is the amount of time Terrahawk pilot/pop star Kate Kestrel spends singing, but the songs are generally good. The storylines are pretty good too. One of the best is when some kind of mind control force is loose in the Terrahawk base, causing the team to face their worst fears.

I give TERRAHAWKS a thumbs-up. It may probably never be considered a classic, but it is certainly enjoyable!

Terrahawks. THE greatest Gerry Anderson puppetry programme ever conceived, created and commisioned!

[brdlybaum · 10/10 · 29 May 2004]

Terrahawks is EASILY THE MOST BRILLIANT of ANY of Gerry Anderson's puppetry programmes/series. I have not seen it since the early eighties and it is the ONLY one I wish they would repeat. Why has it, like so many other programmes and films from various people, been forgotten about? There is nothing bad that I can think about the programme. If you like science-fiction then you will love Terrahawks! it is THE most sci-fi of the lot, is FULL of humour and constantly takes the mickey out of itself.

Oh what a fantastic, classic struggle of good against bad. Thankfully good ALWAYS won by the end of each episode/story line.

Some people have written that it is childish and is now dated; how wrong can they be?! It worked on an adult level as well and it is only dated because nobody learns the lessons and values it teaches anymore due to an ever deteriorating society. As a child I would much rather watch a programme that teaches that if you do something wrong you will get punished for it and that if you do something right you will get rewarded. In the programme, as in life, you don't get anywhere if you are bad whereas the good side were always pleased that they had yet again thwarted Zelda's plans and saved the earth from yet another horrible invasion attempt. That was the basic message. If you do good you will like the feeling it gives you and therefore want more of those wonderful feelings. If you do bad the complete opposite happens. To learn morals such as these as a child is great and doesn't happen anymore.

So if you can, beg, borrow, buy or steal (no don't steal. It's wrong to steal) one or more of the programmes. Get every one ever made and sit and enjoy a science-fiction programme that has, in my eyes, EASILY stood the test of time and is as good today as it was back in the eighties! How do I know it has easily stood the test of time if I haven't seen it for twenty years? Well if other series are being shown again now and this, as I stated at the start of this review, is EASILY THE MOST BRILLIANT of ANY of Gerry Anderson's puppetry programmes/series, will also have stood the test of time and therefore be as good now as it was back in the eighties!

First time Gerry Anderson without strings

[dajvdb · 10/10 · 13 June 2008]

Actually this is on of the series including the Thunderbirds i enjoyed as a little kid. It is a military group led by Dr. Ninestein. Dr. Ninestein is a clone and when he gets killed he can restart himself into a new body that looks the same. They fight against the alien Zelda and her two kids Youngstar and Sister. She sends a lot of her monsters to Ninestein to kill it! She has cubes with her that are very strong and they fight also with her. They are the same as Zeroids. The Zeroids are balls with numbers and have no feelings as Ninestein always tell them. Therahawks has some black humor and is also nice for adults. Also the irritated Ninestein is a good thing to see! I enjoyed it a lot and it uses a lot of your fantasy!

Love it

[scottandy-78752 · 10/10 · 7 February 2023]

Great series. I love all Gerry Anderson stuff.such a shame he was such a horrible person to Sylvia Anderson.obviously she was a massive part of all stuff he did but was treated terribly. I have a theory like ninestein always did.my theory is that tiger ninestein was obviously based on Anderson himself.an absolute horrible puppet 😂.definitely the most arrogant ever created as a puppet and the way he spoke to zero was probably based on the way he spoke to he's poor wife.who without a doubt voiced the best character by miles in any series.the wonderful lady Penelope who along with Parker made watching thunderbirds for me the absolute best .it wouldn't have been the same without that character I don't think.even the new series that's out now with the modern Penelope has made that one also 👍👍👍

Sub-par Anderson series

[iotravel · 4/10 · 15 August 2022]

Let's be honest: Terrahawks is a bit naff, especially when compared to Gerry Anderson's earlier work. The 20-minute running time excludes any kind of character or plot development. The series was clearly made on a very low budget but that shouldn't necessarily mean god-awful scripts and wooden acting which plague Terrahawks, which is at times painful to watch. Good for nostalgia value only.

Stay on this channel! This is an Emergency!

[Sic Coyote · 20 April 2001]

I've just purchased a copy of 'Terrahawks' from my local blockbuster as they are getting rid of all their old tapes (b@st@rds) and it's the first time I've seen this in years. It's GREAT! Although this seems to be the forgotten Gerry Anderson series I think it's one of the best, the bad guys really are quite scary lookin. The ships are great! Those ball things rolling about the place if dead cool! It's all very sci-fi! If you liked the Thunderbirds and you get a chance to see this, DO SO because you won't regret it, I just wish I had more tapes!

The Best Gerry Anderson

[ravenblack · 5 October 2003]

Contrary to other user reviews, I find Terrahawks far more enjoyable than Thunderbirds and Stingray, and a little more enjoyable than Captain Scarlett. The plots of Thunderbirds always seemed very one-dimensional, with the good-guys consistently getting on with each other and being good. Terrahawks has a little more depth to the characters, and some splendidly horrible running jokes (Tiger's consistent failure to beat the high-score on his game, the horrific mocking of Hiro's 'accent' ("Exactry!"), and the rivalry between the football Sgt. Zero and the speciesist Tiger).

The plots also get a bit darker, later in the series, which adds further depth, and brings it closer to the more compelling style of Captain Scarlett, without giving up the humour.

For Americans, trained by Hollywood to always expect a fluffy happy original-Star-Trek ending, I recommend Thunderbirds. For anyone who'd prefer a bit more of a Blake's 7 or Babylon 5 puppet show, I recommend Terrahawks.

The lost Gerry Anderon Masterpiece Series

[zombihamster · 19 August 2001]

I can't belive that all of Gerry Adersons other series (like Stingray, Thunderbirds, Capt Scarlet, Joe 90 and Space 1999) get repeated every couple of years but Terrahawks has been left unshown since the early 80's. I luckily managed to track down a copy of series 5 though a Blackstar Video hunt and belive it was well worth the wait. What sets Terrahawks apart from the other Anderson shows is that it does'nt take itself too seriously which can be seen in such plot lines as the evil Zelda challenging Kate Kestral to the Intersteller Song Contest! For me the best thing about the series is the army of robotic sphere's known as the Zeroids under the command of Sargent Majoir Zero who I can only describe as Obidia Hakeswell from ITV's Sharpe turned into a goodie and a small robot football type thing! Also the inventiveness of having secret launch exits for ships by creating stately homes that open up and turbines to enable Hawkwing to fly up though a whilepool is more than the equal of anything on Tracy Island. Zelda dispite being an old hag of an android is a truly briliant Villan! "We're ready Earth scum!!!"

Good all-round entertainment

[lesmoyes · 9 April 2004]

I have read the other reviews for this series and was quite pleased to note that there were very few criticisms. I suspect that I may have been one of the few who was an adult when I saw these programmes yet still sat through every episode - and looked forward to each new one beforehand. The great thing for me about these 30-minute gems was the fact that the stories were not deep (it was for young kids after all) yet they still worked on both an adult's and a child's level thereby ensuring that dad could sit down and watch this with the kids and be entertained too. Surprisingly nobody seems to have picked up on the clever casting of Windsor Davies who effectively reprised his role as the Sergeant-Major from the BBC sitcom "It Ain't Half Hot Mum". I reckon that for good all-round entertainment this is one of the best things Gerry Anderson ever did.

Why is this not a cult?

[TheNorris · 14 January 2003]

I have recently bought all the re-released Terrahawks programmes on DVD and I think its great. I never really liked Thunderbirds as it seemed a bit bland, but this has a continuous theme going throughout the shows.

Just a quick thought, what is Gerry Andersons obsession with Mars, I mean first it was the Mysterons and now its Zelda and her rabble.

Strange.

Best Programme Ever!

[Rachel_63 · 30 November 2004]

This show is so under-rated, and I'm glad other people here know how to speak through their mouths, as they have praised it (they deserve a wonderful life, full of blessings). I'm not generally a Gerry Anderson fan (the only other show of the genre that I love is Starfleet, the Japanese puppet series from the same era as Terrahawks). Getting Terrahawks back in my life is one of the best things that has happened to me this century. I love the music, the zeroids, Yung-Star (I would marry him if I wasn't so reluctant to have the most ghastly mother-in-law possible!), and Mary. My favourite Kate Kestrel songs are Responsible, and Be My Star Tonight.

I ask you, what other programme has robots as adorable as the zeroids? Not Stink-ray or Chunderbirds, for sure. I'm definitely a hawk-brain, not a bird-brain!

The weakest of the Gerry Anderson Puppet Series!

[ShaneofPg · 26 July 2002]

I remember watching this as a kid and I never really took to it in the same way as Captain Scarlet & Thunderbirds or Stingray. It was nowhere near as good as these earlier Anderson shows nor will it ever have the same cult status that those shows have. Watch the earlier shows-they are much, much better than Terrahawks!

Not Gerry Anderson's Best Show But Still Enjoyable Enough

[Big Movie Fan · 3 May 2003]

Compared to classics such as Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet, Terrahawks paled in comparison. However, to be fair, let's judge it on it's own merits. Perhaps comparing an 80's puppet show to a 60's puppet show isn't ethical.

Terrahawks featured a military unit called Terrahawks (led by Dr. Tiger Ninestein) against an evil alien called Zelda (easily the ugliest character in any TV show) and her even uglier son Yung-Star. Zelda is one of these aliens who won't settle down and get a hobby, preferring to conquer the Earth instead (I wonder what these aliens do for fun after they've conquered a whole planet). Anyway, Ninestein and his Terrahawks Unit (which included characters such as ace pilot Hawkeye) battled the evil forces of Zelda each week. Joining the Terrahawks were two annoying but loveable robots Sgt. Major Zero and Space Sgt. 101 who were usually getting on Ninestein's nerves.

The show does seem rather dated now. A new process was used in the TV show-supermacromation where the puppets didn't have strings(unlike Supermarionation which used strings in the 60's shows and paradoxically, looked better). I don't know if I'd enjoy it if I watched it now. And whilst it was largely enjoyable, it was lacking that certain something that seperates a good TV show from a really great TV show.

But, all in all, kids will love it and it did have it's moments. Enjoy!