Vault of Death

Previous episode	Production order: #7	Next episode
Previous episode	Broadcast order: #13	Next episode

For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Parker's criminal past comes back to haunt him when Light-Fingered Fred escapes from prison.
Original UK broadcast date: December 23rd, 1965

Contents
1) Synopsis
2) Notes
3) Errors


Synopsis

Penelope and Parker are given a mission by Lord Silton: break into the Bank of England and open the vault. They successfully do this, with Parker being the one to get the vault open in just under two and a half hours. Silton and some other bankers congratulate them, with Silton saying this will convince the board of governors that they need a new vault. Sometime later, a new vault is installed, and the door to it is to be shut for two years. The bankers do a roll call and everyone is accounted for apart from someone called Lambert. Another banker claims to have seen him leave the vault earlier, so the vault door is closed. Silton, who has the only key to it, heads off to Penelope's for dinner.

But inside the vault is Lambert, who is still working away. The other bankers realize he really is still in there, and contact Silton. Meanwhile, Parker is reading his newspaper when he finds out something horrible: Light Fingered Fred, his old cell mate, has escaped from prison! Parker then overhears that there is an emergency at the bank, leading him to worry Fred is behind it all. Silton says he must get back to the bank immediately.

Parker drives the FAB-1 deliberately slowly, claiming that he doesn't know why it's going so slow. The bankers contact International Rescue, and John relays the details back to Tracy Island. Scott heads to London in Thunderbird 1, whilst Virgil and Alan head out in Thunderbird 2. They reach the bank and attempt to cut through the vault door, but they don't believe they have enough time -when the door was closed, all of the air started to be pumped out of the vault, and there is little left now.

Parker pretends to get lost driving to London, so Penelope has a private word with him. He explains that he is worried this bank emergency is Light Fingered Fred's work, as he once told him that he intended to rob the Bank of England once he was out of prison. As he didn't want to ruin a former colleague's ambition, Penelope decides she'll have to drive them to the bank, which leads to some less than perfect cornering from her. Scott contacts the island and says they haven't go enough time to cut through the door. Grandma Tracy suggests they try the old underground subway tunnels instead.

Virgil and Alan use hover bikes to get through the tunnels, and arrive at the place they need to be. They drill through part of a wall and attach explosives to it, just as Penelope's group arrive at the bank. Silton is asked for the key, the one he's previously said he always keeps with him, but he realizes he's forgotten it -it's still as Penelope's! Parker asks for one of Penelope's hair clips instead. Virgil and Alan destroy a wall, and Lambert is saved -and very confused, as he had tried to contact International Rescue just seconds ago.

Parker then manages to open the new vault's door via Penelope's hairpin. With Lambert out of danger, everyone returns home. Penelope says she doesn't understand why it took Parker so long to open the old vault, when he got the new one open is mere seconds. Parker says that first time round, they had an audience, and believes a rule you can't break is to never disappoint your public. Meanwhile, Fred destroys another wall in the vault, but then sees that the vault door is already open, and another wall inside it has been destroyed. He thinks it's a joke this place is called burglar-proof -they'd do better to use his kid's piggy bank!

Notes

-It doesn't seem to be known which scenes were added to extend this episode's length. It almost feels like the scenes involving International Rescue were added on, as Parker manages to open the vault by himself anyway.

-When Penelope looks through the keyhole near the start of the episode, an actual human face is briefly seen for the first and only time in the series.

-The heliport is partially made from the Marineville control tower, which was seen in Stingray.

Errors

-During this shot, the guy on the left gets through two different voice actors for his dialogue. At first he's voiced by Shane Rimmer, but a few seconds later he's voiced by David Graham.
-Thunderbird 2 is seen selecting pod 5, but thanks to the use of of some stock footage, it then appears to have changed to pod 3.
-When Fred is looking around the vault at the very end, you can see that Scott has left his equipment there during this shot of the vault door.