Gordon Tracy

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Gordon Tracy
Thunderbirds character
Gordon Tracy.jpg
The original puppet character
First appearance"Trapped in the Sky"
(30 September 1965)
Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Designed byMary Turner (sculptor) [1]
Portrayed byBen Torgersen (2004 film)
Voiced by David Graham (original series)
David Menkin (remake series)
In-universe information
Occupation
Family
Home Tracy Island
NationalityAmerican

Gordon Tracy is a fictional character in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's 1960s Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds and its adaptations. [2] He is the pilot of International Rescue's Thunderbird 4 submersible.

Contents

Original series depiction

Born on 14 February 2004 or 2043, Gordon revels in all aquatic sports, from skin diving to water skiing. Named after astronaut Gordon Cooper, he is a highly trained aquanaut, with stints in the Submarine Service and the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP –the organisation featured in Stingray) under his belt. During his time with the WASP, Gordon commanded a deep-sea bathyscaphe and spent a year beneath the ocean investigating marine farming methods. An expert oceanographer, he is also the designer of a unique underwater breathing apparatus, which he has modified and improved for International Rescue. [3]

Shortly before International Rescue began operating, Gordon was involved in a hydrofoil speedboat crash when his vessel capsized at 400 knots (740 km/h; 460 mph). The craft was destroyed and Gordon spent four months in hospital. Now, as pilot of Thunderbird 4, he commands the world's most advanced and versatile one-man submarine. Good-natured and high-spirited, he possesses a strength and tenacity that make him a respected leader and commander. He is also one of the world's fastest freestyle swimmers and is a past Olympic champion at the butterfly stroke. [4]

Gordon is also co-pilot of Thunderbird 2 , and as such often accompanies his brother Virgil on either ground-based or seagoing rescue missions.

Of all the family, Gordon is the funny one, which gives him a tendency to get into trouble with his father Jeff over his flippant sense of humour. For example, in "Day of Disaster", when an unknown party ingests Grandma's edible transmitter, Gordon proves his innocence by saying that he would know if he had swallowed a transmitter, to Jeff's annoyance. Gordon's favourite pastimes are playing chess (often with Scott or Brains), going fishing and playing the guitar.

2004 film

Ben Torgersen plays Gordon in the 2004 live-action film. As the film focuses on Alan Tracy, not much is known about this version of Gordon. According to Alex Pang's Thunderbirds: X-Ray Cross Sections, he is 18 years old and a recent graduate from Wharton Academy, the school that Alan attends at the start of the film. He is noted to still be training on the Thunderbirds craft, with a year remaining until he is permitted to fly solo. [5]

Remake series

David Menkin plays Gordon in the remake series Thunderbirds Are Go . [6] As well as piloting Thunderbird 4, he also pilots various devices flown around by Thunderbird 2, such as the new Elevator Cars in the episode "Fireflash". He is again the funny one in the Tracy family, and is also described as having a loud voice, dwarfed only by his clothing tastes. His International Rescue outfit has a scuba-diving mouthpiece attached to his sash.

Carolyn Percy of the Wales Arts Review comments that whereas the 1960s character was one of the least developed Tracy brothers, this version of Gordon is characterised as a "light-hearted joker". [7]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grandma Tracy</span> Fictional character

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References

  1. ↑ La Rivière, Stephen (2014) [2009]. Filmed in Supermarionation (2nd ed.). London, UK: Network Distributing. p. 172. ISBN   978-0-992-9766-0-6.
  2. ↑ Mansour, David (June 2011). From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century - David Mansour - Google Books. Andrews McMeel. ISBN   9780740793073 . Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Thunderbirds Legends: The Tracy Sons & The Disaster. 21 March 2020 – via YouTube.
  4. ↑ Thunderbird 4: Century 21 Tech Talk. 20 April 2019 – via YouTube.
  5. ↑ Pang, Alex (2004). Thunderbirds: The Movie: X-Ray Cross-Sections. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN   0-19-911249-5. OCLC   56436621.
  6. ↑ Eames, Tom (15 January 2015). "Thunderbirds: Not so FAB? Twitter Reactions". Digital Spy .
  7. ↑ Percy, Carolyn (13 October 2017). "Thunderbirds Are Go: A Fan's Comparison". Wales Arts Review . Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2020.

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