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"30 Minutes After Noon" is the seventh episode of the 1960s Supermarionation television series ''Thunderbirds''. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott, it first aired in the United Kingdom on ATV Midlands on 11 November 1965. In a plot incorporating visual allusions to 1960s spy thriller films,〔 in particular the ''James Bond'' film franchise,〔 "30 Minutes After Noon" sees the Tracy family attempt to rescue a British secret agent embroiled in the latest scheme of the Erdman Gang, a powerful crime syndicate. Drawing inspiration from the 1965 spy thriller film ''The Ipcress File'', a recent release at the time of shooting, Elliott decided to bring Fennell's script to life with the use of "quirky visuals".〔 As such, Elliott and his camera operator, Alan Perry, experimented with original angles and techniques, electing to introduce one scene with a long tracking shot and filming the characters using a mixture of live-action close-up shots and forced perspective.〔〔 The music, on the other hand, is recycled from earlier ''Thunderbirds'' episodes.〔 Commentators such as media historian Nicholas J. Cull have praised Elliott and Perry's cinematographic innovations for imitating the visual style of older espionage films.〔 However, Stephen La Rivière, writer of ''Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future'', argues that the pastiche is not evident throughout: asserting that the switch in narrative focus from the Hudson Building fire to the infiltration of the Erdman Gang essentially divides the episode into loosely connected halves, La Rivière suggests that the visual style of the first owes more to conventional filming techniques.〔〔 "30 Minutes After Noon" was adapted for audio in the 1960s and serialised as a comic strip in the 1990s.〔 ==Plot== In Spoke City, Thomas Prescott accepts an apparently innocent hitch-hiker into his car. The stranger's true intentions are revealed when he attaches a metal bracelet to Prescott's wrist, warning him that it contains a powerful explosive charge that is due to detonate in 30 minutes; the key to unlock it will be found in his office at the Hudson Building. Speeding to his workplace with the police in pursuit, Prescott removes the bracelet and leaves it in a filing cabinet. The device explodes as he is returning to the ground floor in a lift: the top levels of the Hudson Building are incinerated, and Prescott is plunged to the bottom of the lift shaft, ten storeys underground. Although the fire is quickly brought under control, Prescott is completely cut off. News of the events in Spoke City soon arrives on Tracy Island. Jeff dispatches Scott in ''Thunderbird 1'', while Virgil and Alan take off in ''Thunderbird 2'' equipped with newly commissioned fire-fighting apparatus. Lowered into the shaft in a protective cage fitted with diacetylene sprinklers, Virgil and Alan clamp the stricken lift and return to ground level, whereupon Prescott is arrested. Police Commissioner Garfield notes that classified documentation regarding criminal organisations, including the Erdman Gang, has been destroyed in the fire. Prescott's claims about the hitch-hiker are validated when the charred remnants of the bracelet are discovered. An operation to expose the Erdman Gang leads to the recruitment of Southern, a British Secret Service agent, who is assigned to infiltrate the organisation and leak intelligence on its latest scheme. The gang leader contacts the undercover Southern and Erdman operatives Dempsey and Kenyon at Glen Carrick Castle in the Scottish Highlands, and briefs them on their mission. The trio are to drive to the Nuclear Plutonium Store, where isotopes for all Britain's power stations are housed, and plant explosives to detonate at 12:30 p.m.; this will cause a nuclear explosion of unprecedented scale and devastate half of England. To ensure compliance, the charges, which have already been armed, are contained in wrist bracelets identical to Prescott's and are to be unlocked on retrieval of the key at the Plutonium Store. On their arrival, Southern, Dempsey and Kenyon use a ray gun to neutralise the store's robot guards and bypass the security doors one after the other, ultimately arriving in the plutonium vault. Southern reveals his true identity and holds the others at gunpoint, commanding them to proceed to the Leader's proposed rendezvous point and capture him. The tables are turned, however, when a robot traps Southern in a crushing grip. Dempsey and Kenyon unlock the bracelets and make a getaway, jamming the security doors and leaving Southern to die in the nuclear explosion. Southern's emergency call is transferred from his superior, Sir William Frazer, to International Rescue. Landing outside the Plutonium Store in ''Thunderbirds 1'' and ''2'', Scott and Virgil use the Laser Cutter Vehicle to burn through the doors. Inside the vault, Virgil releases Southern from the robot. As the time nears 30 minutes past noon, Scott, in possession of the three bracelets, takes off in ''Thunderbird 1''; he jettisons them over the sea, where they explode harmlessly. On Jeff's orders, Lady Penelope and Parker intercept the Erdman Gang at their rendezvous and use FAB 1's cannon to shoot down the leader, Dempsey and Kenyon before they can escape in a helijet. Southern recovers from his ordeal at the Creighton-Ward Mansion. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「30 Minutes After Noon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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