Tracy Island

Tracy Island is the secret headquarters of the International Rescue organisation in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds and its adaptations. In the original series, the heavily camouflaged island is located in the South Pacific Ocean and is home to the Tracy family, scientists Brains and Tin-Tin, and housekeeper Kyrano. The name "Tracy Island" originates in Thunderbirds comic strips and other tie-ins; within the series, the characters simply refer to it as International Rescue's "base". The island has had several releases as a children's toy, most notably in the early 1990s, 2000 and 2015. The first two models were commercially very successful, causing retailers to run out of stock. It was the 1993 British Association of Toy Retailers' Toy of the Year.

Original series depiction Derek Meddings, special effects supervisor on the puppet series, described his excitement at designing Tracy Island as "one of those feelings you get when you're a kid, imagining that you're Robinson Crusoe living on a lovely island." The centrepiece of the island is the Tracy Villa, the home of the island's residents. Various features of the original series' villa – such as the outside staircase descending to water, the large windows, and the prominent stone chimney – indicate that its design was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house.

The crews of Thunderbirds 1 to 3 board their craft from the villa's lounge, where various launch chutes are concealed behind walls and under furniture. The lounge also serves as a rescue coordination and communications centre. One of the walls features photo portraits of each of the Tracy brothers in uniform. When any of the brothers makes a video call to base, the transmission is routed to his portrait, whose eyes electronically flash and beep to signal the incoming call. If the island has visitors from the outside world, a security protocol called "Operation Cover-Up" is initiated, whereby the wall portraits slide away to be replaced by photographs of the brothers in off-duty attire. Another wall houses a video call portrait for Lady Penelope, International Rescue's London field agent. Thunderbird 1 is launched from a hangar underneath the island's retractable swimming pool, at the foot of the villa. The entrance to the Thunderbird 2 hangar is concealed by a false rock-face and leads onto the island's runway. On exiting the hangar, the palm trees lining the runway swing outwards to accommodate the wingspan of Thunderbird 2. After taxiing along the runway, Thunderbird 2 takes off from a hydraulic launch platform. Thunderbird 3 is launched from underneath the Round House (the island's guest accommodation). Although the security of the island is stated to be assured by jamming equipment, in the Thunderbirds comic strips published in TV Century 21 it proves to be somewhat vulnerable due to the machinations of the Hood. Learning everything about the island by brainwashing the technically minded Brains and extracting all of his knowledge concerning the island, the Hood launches his strongest attack yet on International Rescue, destroying several Thunderbird craft and many of their hangars, with the exception of Thunderbirds 1 and 4. (The canonicity of the Thunderbirds comics adventures is open to interpretation.)

2004 design

For the 2004 live-action film, the main shooting location for the island exteriors was North Island in the Seychelles. Co-producer Mark Huffam described Tracy Island as "the most idyllic [...] imaginable, with crystal-clear waters, tropical jungle and mountainous peaks", adding that it was "fantastic" that North Island provided "all these essential elements". Various locations on Praslin, including Anse Lazio beach and Vallée de Mai nature preserve, were also used. The buildings on the re-imagined island were deliberately given a "retrofuturistic" appearance, described by production designer John Beard as "based in the '60s and '70s, which is similar to what we were doing for Brazil." Further inspiration was drawn from the work of Oscar Niemeyer and others. The interiors set at Pinewood Studios was built in what Beard described as a "kind of double-'S' shape". He added that "because we're not building the top, it means we can hang the building from the top ceiling in the studio, which we couldn't have done outside." In a publicity exercise, Ford Motor Company, which built the re-imagined FAB 1 for the 2004 film, commissioned a Thunderbirds-themed live event and interactive experience for the 2004 British International Motor Show. The 7,400-square-metre (80,000 sq ft) stand was designed as a replica of Tracy Island, complete with a beach, a lake, an aircraft hangar and an overhead model of Thunderbird 2. Titled "Thunderbirds Powered By Ford", it was one of the largest exhibits ever built by construction company Imagination and proved to be a success, attracting 250,000 to 300,000 visitors and winning a certificate of "High Commendation" at the 2004 Marketing Brand Design Awards.

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