Having said that, it's been purpose-built for a new generation, not those raised on the show.
"I felt there was very good reason to find a way for kids to see this. Most of them will never see the original Thunderbirds," says Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop supremo Sir Richard Taylor.
"In shows today, all the heroes have to get their five minutes in the sun, their moment of superstardom, with the Traceys, these boys selflessly do extraordinary acts of heroism for people they don't know for no more reward than self-pride. I think that's important."
Still, Taylor is aware there will be many who couldn't care less about sending a message. You mess with childhood memories at your peril. Taylor has gone to great lengths to call it an adaptation rather than a remake.
If there is an upside to the dozen years of negotiations it's taken Pukeko to get Thunderbirds Are Go to the small screen, it's that it's given the makers time to ponder what they can and can't fiddle with.
Take the boys' (and they really are boys this time) sashes. In the original they were little more than vaguely militaristic ornamentation; now they're jauntily angled utility belts.
Then there are the Tracey portraits hanging in Thunderbird Control. Yes, their eyes still light up to signal an incoming call, but they now beam out holograms.
The soundtrack also has a different feel. It couldn't be helped given dear old Barry died back in 1984, but if you hear a nagging familiarity in the new soundtrack it may be because composer Ben Foster has also worked on Doctor Who.
But of course the biggest change was the call to abandon the Supermarionated puppets. Taylor would have loved to have kept the strings uncut, but felt the stilted movements would put off new viewers.
All the same, if you squint just right you'll notice the CGI isn't perfect and the characters retain a touch of wobble.
You might not care anyway, the star turn here is delivered by the Pukeko crew who assembled the various, miniature landscapes, seascapes and buildings that backgrounds the action.
Every shrub, window and cliff-face has been assembled in their Miramar warehouse complex; huge spaces now crammed with Lady Penelope's mansion, the Hood's lair, Tracey Island (complete with tiny beach huts) and the beautifully detailed Thunderbird launching bays - they'd make a mint if they converted it into a theme park.
Taylor is also at pains to stress they haven't played fast and loose with to the show's original canon. They even have their own Thunderbirdologist, David Tremont (credited as "Special Adviser to International Rescue"). The Australian model maker's office might feature his greatest treasures, the wooden Thunderbird models made for him by his father, but it's his 1000-page, six-volume set of unpublished Thunderbird lore that has come into its own.
If anything, this attention to detail has opened up new areas for play, so you can be sure each episode will contain the odd Easter egg or two. Without breaking it down frame by frame, the first episode contains nods to Stingray, Space: 1999 and New Zealand (all of it) while a later episode, Designated Driver, written by comedian David Baddiel, will feature a cameo by the original Lady Penelope herself, Sylvia Anderson, as the rebooted version's Great-Aunt Sylvia.
Otherwise, everything's still unflappably FAB, the brothers refer to each other by ship number, Parker's still got one foot in the criminal underworld and poor old John (sorry, Thunderbird 5) remains marooned in orbit.
When: Sunday, April 12
Where: TV2, 7pm
What: Recalling International Rescue
- TimeOut
