Of all the questions surrounding Thunderbirds, and there are many, few have so vexed society as the mystery of why none of Geoff Tracy’s children look like him or indeed each other. For those concerned by the problem, and frankly who isn’t, worry no more. StavMinister Axel has the answer you seek.
They were all part of a bizarre genetic experiment to create a new race of strange sexless pseudo-humans. None of the Tracy brothers was actually born; they were all grown together in spawning vats.
Tracy began developing this scheme after being castrated in a nasty accident while playing chess. He rapidly became bitter over the loss of his ability to procreate, and soon descended into madness and obsession. Before long, he developed a plan: he had no need of sexual reproduction, he would grow himself some new sons, sons with no reproductive capacity so that they could never know the pain of having lost it.
Recruiting the assistance of well-intentioned but naïve engineer Brains, he set to work, and rapidly encountered remarkable success, growing five strapping young ‘men’ to his new, improved design. The face of each one he based on how he imagined a different one of his favourite literary gigolos may have appeared, a humorous play on their sexless nature.
His new creations were perfect in every way: fine healthy young men but for their complete lack of genitals. Where other men’s schlongs would have hung proudly, instead they possessed naught but a small hole through which they could pass urine.
But all was not well. Having accomplished his dream, Geoff’s obsession began to subside and he began to regain some semblance of clarity. He soon realised that his freakish creations could never fully integrate into society; their complete lack of any kind of libido would clearly mark them out as different, and soon his experiments would be discovered. Fearing a backlash from those who might not approve of such experiments, he bought a remote island and moved there along with his spawn and a few faithful retainers.
There he and his ‘sons’ lived, but as time went by, Geoff began to miss the society he had abandoned. He commissioned Brains to design him a space station from which he could monitor communications on Earth. Once this station was complete, he began to observe once more the ebb and flow of humanity. But the more he watched, the more tragedy and disaster he saw.
At the same time, Geoff’s sons were growing increasingly restless. Aware that they would never have any genetic legacy, they wondered how they could ever contribute to humanity, especially when isolated from it on Tracy Island. But as they assisted their ‘father’ in his observation of humanity, such a new purpose soon presented itself: International Rescue. With the technology Brains provided and their careful monitoring of communications across Earth, they could easily seek out accidents and fix them around the world!