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Fireball XL5

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Fireball XL5
Fireball XL5 Titles
Created byGerry and Sylvia Anderson
StarringPaul Maxwell
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes39 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time25 min.
Original release
NetworkITV
ReleaseOctober 28, 1962 –
October 27, 1963

Fireball XL5 is a science fiction-themed children's television show produced in Slough, Berkshire, UK in 1962 by the husband and wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson through their company APF in association with ATV for ITC Entertainment.

The show featured the Andersons' Supermarionation marionettes, a form of puppetry first introduced in Four Feather Falls (1960), and used again in their subsequent shows such as Supercar (1961-1962), Stingray (1964-1965), Thunderbirds (1965-1966), Captain Scarlet (1967-1968), Joe 90 (1968-1969) and finally The Secret Service (1969). Special effects in Fireball XL5 were by Derek Meddings, with music by Barry Gray.

Thirty-nine black and white half-hour episodes were made on 35mm film: all future Anderson series would be produced in colour.

A very similar program often confused with Fireball XL5 is Space Patrol (known as Planet Patrol in the US) due to a number of similarities and settings.

The complete series is available on DVD in the UK, Australia and the US.

Setting

Set between the years 2062/2063, the series features the missions of spaceship Fireball XL5, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. Also aboard as part of the crew are the glamorous Doctor Venus, middle-aged navigator and engineer Professor Matthew Matic, and Zodiac's co-pilot Robert the Robot, notable for being transparent. Robert was also unique as the only character in an Anderson series that was actually voiced by Gerry Anderson himself, albeit with the aid of an artificial larynx.

Fireball XL5 is based at Space City, located on an unnamed island in the South Pacific, headquarters of the World Space Patrol headed by Commander Zero. Zero is assisted by Lieutenant Ninety. For some unspecified reason the 25 storey T-shaped control tower at Space City rotates; in one episode the alien creature Zoonie the Lazoon inadvertently makes it rotate fast enough for those inside to suffer from vertigo. Control is on floor 20. For some reason, there seems to be no night shift and the place is empty at night. The patrol rocket Fireball XL5 takes off utilising a mile-long launch rail which culminates in a 40 degree incline, or sky ramp, which Anderson claims was inspired by an old Soviet design, a concept also used in the film When Worlds Collide. When off duty Zodiac lives in an apartment at the top of the Control Tower. Venus has a small beach house near Space City at Atello Beach while Matt prefers to stay in his cabin aboard XL5. Commander Zero smoked and Lieutenant Ninety became an astronaut in the episode "Flight into Danger". Lieutenant Ninety smoked cigars when made a Space General.

There is a fleet of at least 30 'Fireball XL' ships (an XL30 is referred to in The Firefighters episode), of which XL5 is the most famous . The ship itself is made up of two detachable sections. The winged nose cone, known as Fireball Junior contains the cockpit and separates from the main body to land on other worlds. The rest of the ship contains the navigation bay, laboratory, a huge lounge, workshops, crews quarters etc along with the fuel and main nutomic rocket motors for interstellar travel. It would generally keep station in orbit after arriving at an alien planet. When Fireball XL5 returns to Space City it lands horizontally and without separating.

Fireball XL5 patrols Sector 25 of interstellar space (nb. There only appears to be three sectors marked on the space chart seen in the Space City Control Room) on missions of 3 months duration but is also on call when at base. Semi regulars in the series were the villainous Space Spies Boris and Griselda, with their antiquated space ship S.S.Thor (S.S. stands for Space Spies by the way) and the evil green alien Subterrains of Planet 46. Patrolling interstellar space is a dangerous business and not all of the Fireball fleet were as proficient at it as XL5. XL1 Alpha (not to be confused with XL1), XL2, XL7, XL18 and XL24 were all destroyed in the series. XL9 and XL27 were badly damaged in action. XL18 and XL24 were destroyed within sight of the Earth in Invasion Earth. Some of the other XL rocket ships have only one pilot chair in the control cabin and most appear to have only two man crews (as per XL2 and XL7).

Inasmuch as the series used many classic early 20th-century science fiction themes reminiscent of the space opera of E. E. "Doc" Smith and the like, and since it was a children's show, it was not intended to be realistic. Thus Fireball XL5 managed to travel handily around the galaxy to other solar systems without actually going faster than light (until the episode Faster than Light); indeed, few of the limitations of rocketry were observed. While some fans speculated that Fireball XL5 must travel through hyperspace (i.e. folded space-time), the series only informed us that the ship's rocket motors were powered by a Nutomic reactor, and that XL5 could safely travel at speeds of up to Space Velocity 7 enabling her to reach the most outlying planets of charted space (many light years from our own Solar System) within a few months. Furthermore the crew never wore space suits; instead they took "oxygen pills" to survive in the vacuum of space, where they manoeuvred in zero gravity with the aid of thruster packs or jet mobiles. They could stop in space by either turning off their rocket or a quick burst of reverse thrust. Also they used neutroni radio communication which is virtually instantaneous within charted space.

Fireball XL5 was noteworthy as the only Anderson series run on a U.S. network. NBC (the National Broadcasting Company) ran the series in its Saturday morning children's block from 1963 through September, 1965.

Theme song and merchandising

Fireball XL5 had both an opening and a closing theme song - the latter of which, Fireball written by Barry Gray and sung by Don Spencer, would become a minor hit in Britain. Barry Gray would have a long relationship with the Andersons' productions, writing the themes for such series as Thunderbirds and Space:1999. Don Spencer would become Australia's premier children's entertainer, and founder of the Australian Children's Music Foundation.

In addition to the hit theme song, the series spawned a number of other successful licensed merchandising spinoffs including toys, model kits including a plastic kit of Fireball XL5 itself, puppets, ray guns, comic strips and annuals. In Britain a 2 page b/w Fireball XL5 comic strip appeared in the weekly TV Comic between 1962-1964 before moving to the newly launched weekly TV Century 21 comic in January 1965 for another 5 years. The strips that appeared between 1965-1968 were in colour only reverting to b/w in 1969. Four hard cover Annual books were published in Britain by Collins between 1963-1966 featuring colour/b&w comic strip and text stories, while in the United States Gold Key Comics printed a single issue full colour comic book in 1963 and Little Golden Books published a hard cover colour illustrated story book in 1964 (which was later released as 'Fireball XL5 - A Big Television Book' in Britain). During the mid 1960's there were also three soft cover colouring/puzzle books published in Britain and one soft cover colouring/story book published in the United States.

Cast of characters

  • Colonel Steve Zodiac, pilot and commanding officer of Fireball XL5 (voiced by Paul Maxwell). According to the comic strip story 'Steve Zodiac - Test Pilot' (that appeared in the 1965 British 'Fireball XL5' Annual) he previously commanded the Mars Military Cruiser Z4. Captain Zodiac, then an Astronaut of six years experience, was chosen to take XL5 on its first test flight in 2060 along with Professor Matic, Doctor Venus and Chief Test Pilot Colonel Grange. On their way back to Space City Grange suffered a nervous breakdown at the controls and Zodiac was forced to knock him out and take over before the ship burnt up in Earth's atmosphere. He was consequently promoted to the rank of Colonel and given command of Fireball XL5. Zodiac was awarded Astronaut of the Year in the episode "Space City Special"
  • Doctor Venus, Doctor of Space Medicine, of French origin. Personally chosen to be part of his crew by Steve Zodiac and with 5 years of service on the XL5 according to the episode "The Last of the Zanadus" set around 2062 (voiced by Sylvia Anderson). NB. This contradicts the 'Steve Zodiac - Test Pilot' story which states Steve Zodiac was given command of XL5 in 2060.
  • Professor Matthew Matic, ship's designer, engineer, navigator and scientist of XL5 (voiced by David Graham)
  • Robert the Robot, co-pilot of XL5, invented by Professor Matic and Earth's most advanced mechanical man (voiced by Gerry Anderson)
  • Zoonie the Lazoon, lazy semi-telepathic pet of Dr. Venus from planet Colevio (voiced by David Graham)
  • Commander Wilbur Zero, Operational Commander of the World Space Patrol (since 2060 according to 'Steve Zodiac - Test Pilot') and Space City's Chief Controller (voiced by John Bluthal). In the episode "Space City Special" we learn that Zero reports to General Rossiter who is the Head of the World Space Patrol based in Washington.
  • Lieutenant Ninety, Assistant Space City Controller (voiced by David Graham)
  • Jonathan Zero, Commander Zero's young son (voiced by Sylvia Anderson). According to the Little Golden Book 'Fireball XL5' story book published in the USA in 1964 young Jonathan was lucky enough to be a passenger aboard Fireball XL5's maiden voyage which included an unscheduled stop at the planet Geminy.
  • Jock Campbell, Space City's Chief Engineer (voiced by John Bluthal)

Episode list

1 Planet 46
2 The Doomed Planet
3 Space Immigrants
4 Plant Man From Space
5 Spy in Space
6 The Sun Temple
7 XL5 to H2O
8 Space Pirates
9 Flying Zodiac
10 Space Pen
11 Space Monster
12 The Last of the Zanadus
13 Planet of Platonia
14 The Triads
15 Wings of Danger
16 Convict in Space
17 Space Vacation
18 Flight to Danger
19 Prisoner on The Lost Planet
20 The Forbidden Planet
21 Robert to the Rescue
22 Dangerous Cargo
23 Mystery Of The TA2
24 Drama At Space City
25 1875
26 The Granatoid Tanks
27 The Robot Freighter Mystery
28 Whistle for Danger
29 Trial by Robot
30 A Day in the Life of a Space General
31 Invasion Earth
32 Faster Than Light
33 The Day the Earth Froze
34 The Fire Fighters
35 Space City Special
36 Ghosts Of Space
37 Hypnotic Sphere
38 Sabotage
39 Space Magnet

In other media

  • Some scenes from Fireball XL5 are shown in the Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do, watched by Lenny and James on the TVs in Guy's father's appliance store.
  • There is a homage to Fireball XL5 in an episode of Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, entitled "Mercury Falling", which features a spaceship of similar design launching via a rail.
  • British Heavy Metal musician Steve Zodiac borrows the name of the Fireball XL5's space hero.
  • A Fireball XL5 series featured in the TV21 comic, with some sophisticated story lines addressing space politics and time travel.
  • The closing theme song Fireball was used in the opening scenes of the episode "Spider" from the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon
  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray steal a rocket named Pancake XL4. Each ship of the series is traditionally named after the manner of her predecessor's destruction. The Mushroom Cloud XL2 and the Shrapnel XL3 are named as other examples of the Fireball XL5's antecedents. In addition, a Lazoon (called "Lazunes" in another portion of the comic) is bitten to death by other Lazoons due it chanting "Welcome ho-ome" with a lisp. It is believed the dead Lazoon is Zoonie.

Translations

  • Template:Fr icon : Fusée XL5
  • Template:Es : El Capitán Marte y su XL5. In the version shown in Latin-American countries, Colonel Zodiac is rechristened Capitán Marte ("Captain Mars").
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