 Of his approach to directing the film, Lane explains, "Thunderbirds Are Go was done like an episode but on a bigger scale. Whereas we would think that it might be nice to do a particular shot on the series but couldn 't afford to, with Thunderbirds Are Go we just did it because we had the money." For the Swinging Star hall sequence, all the visual elements except Alan and Lady Penelope are displayed in black and white, with background characters appearing in the form of enlarged still photographs. On the surrealism of the Swinging Star scenes, aspects of which include pink space clouds made of dry ice and a giant guitar on which Cliff Richard and The Shadows perform part of "Shooting Star", Anderson explains that the production team "recreated a Busby Berkeley sequence", and that the appearance of puppet versions of real-life celebrities boosted the publicity value of the film.
