I have said it in the past, and no doubt I will say it in the future: the future looked better in the past.
Thunderbirds creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson looked forward from the 1960s and knew what was possible, and what would make the future a whole lot more fun.
The Andersons' future involved super cars, super rocket ships, super submarines and a whole raft of other technological breakthroughs in the area of super transportation.
All that and more is brought back to the flickering box tomorrow at 8.30pm on the Documentary Channel, in All About the Thunderbirds.
All About the Thunderbirds tells the story behind the story of Jeff Tracy and his five action-hero sons, the fabulously glamorous socialite Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, International Rescue's London intelligence agent, and Aloysius Parker, Lady Penelope's chauffeur with a criminal background.
The future the Andersons saw was something to look forward to, to savour and to celebrate, and with the help of the superb marionette puppetry, "Supermarionation", they brought it to life.
The couple set the scene for the future, they dared to dream, and they set a challenge to the scientific community to make those dreams a reality.
How did the scientific community respond to the challenge set in those heady days?They gave us the internet and Viagra, the only two scientific discoveries of note in the past 40 years.
Nice one, science.
One little fact allows some leeway for white-coated boffins in laboratories across the world there is still time to create a Thunderbird world.
While the specific time frame remains a contentious topic, Anderson's brief to the writers and designers was to set the series "one hundred years in the future", or 2065.
That leaves 55 years to develop, for starters, a hypersonic variable geometry rocket plane used for fast response, rescue zone reconnaissance, and as a mobile control base (Thunderbird 1), and a heavy supersonic VTOL (no idea) carrier lifting body aircraft used for the transport of major rescue equipment and vehicles (Thunderbird 2).
Thunderbirds fans will know early on that the programme makers know their stuff.
The show notes, for instance, that anyone with a toy Thunderbird 2 will have lost the little yellow utility submersible for underwater rescue - Thunderbird 4 - that sits inside.
I have, and I have absolutely no idea where it's gone.
Gerry Anderson gives us snippets of fun information, and the history of the 32 episodes of this remarkable show, as he leans on the front of a real-life FAB1, Lady Penelope's six-wheeled Rolls Royce.
And for one happy hour, Thunderbirds, again, are go.
FAB.
