I first started watching Thunderbirds as a young teenager, when it appeared in the BBC2 early evening time slot that it shared with Star Trek, Buck Rogers and a host of other science fiction classics. I dimly recall being aware of the series before then, as part of British popular culture, and through a couple of old annuals picked up at jumble sales, but it wasn't until I saw the series that I understood how it had lasted down the years.

I watched it religiously, and caught the Sunday reruns too, enjoying the action and adventure. However, Thunderbirds left the screens, university, life and work intervened, and the series slipped into the realms of pleasant memory. Roll on a few years, and I discovered first the internet and then the concept of 'fan fiction'. For several years, I only wrote for one series (a little known children's science fiction called 'The Tomorrow People'), before branching out to add a second (the classic animated series 'Battle of the Planets'). It was a Battle of the Planets/Thunderbirds crossover story by Cathrl (also on this site) that reintroduced me to Thunderbirds.

I ordered the DVDs on a whim after reading Cath's story, and I was suddenly blown away by the series. The drama was intense and gripping, the voice acting superb and the characterization fantastic. The detail to attention paid to the marionettes, combined with the work of the voice artists allowed the characters to emote better than many 'flesh and blood' actors. And, presumably because of the format, the writers had got away with scripts that would be considered too scary and dramatic for any other children's series.

I was a late twenty-something, watching a forty-year-old puppet show, and I was finding some of the episodes too stressful to watch!

Despite that, I took a deep breath, hugged my security blanket and immersed myself in watching the series as a whole. And out of that concentrated watching period, a little niggle started in the back of my head. The Thunderbirds team was jumping up and down there, trying to get my attention as they told me about a new adventure. I eventually yielded, setting fingers to keyboard, and my first Thunderbirds fan fiction story 'Fire and Water' made it onto my computer in a solid eight days of writing.

Posting it (completely unaware of other Thunderbirds forums), I was delighted by the response to it, and I am honoured to be invited to archive it here. Many thanks to everyone, and I hope you enjoy my writing.