Thunderbirds (TV series)/Recap/S1/E03 The Perils of Penelope

Lady Penelope goes on a dangerous cross-Continental trip to discover what has happened to a brilliant scientist - only to discover that a megalomanical lunatic has kidnapped him in an attempt to discover his research. In order to persuade the scientist to comply the villain presents him with a Sadistic Choice - the formula, or Lady Penelope!


 * Always Save the Girl:
 * British Stuffiness: Lady Penelope and her equally upper-class friend's failure to panic when shut in a room flooded with Deadly Gas. While banging on the door he even comments "We're British, you know!"
 * Computer Equals Monitor: The villain claims to have disabled the railway power cutting system just by shooting the display. Possibly justifiable given these were 1960s-style computers where the display is built into the fascia.
 * Chained to a Railway: Of a sort.
 * Redemption Equals Death: Played straight for the villain's henchman.
 * Engineer Exploited For Evil: Professor Borinder, a shameless Einstein Expy.
 * Sadistic Choice: Hand over the formula or save the girl?
 * Shown Their Work: The rocket launch sequence at the beginning is more realistic and based in NASA procedure than most you'd see in today's fiction. They even foresaw a hold-down system, which SpaceX has only just invented now.