Fireball XL5

Fireball XL5
Format	Supermarionation Science Fiction Adventure
Created by	Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Starring	Paul Maxwell
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	39 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	25 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	October 28, 1962 – October 27, 1963

Fireball XL5 was a science fiction-themed children's television show produced in Slough, Buckinghamshire, 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 show was a major success for the Andersons, being the first of their marionette shows to be sold to a US TV network (NBC), a rarity for British programmes at the time.

Setting

Set in the years 2062/63 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 were 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 (whose name was later to inspire the name of another Anderson character, Joe 90). For some unspecified reason the headquarters is based in a 25 story rotating T-shaped control tower; in one episode the alien creature Zoonie the Lazoon inadvertently makes it rotate fast enough for those inside to suffer from vertigo. The patrol rocket Fireball XL5 takes off from a mile-long launch rail which culminates 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. There is a fleet of at least 30 'XL' ships (an XL30 is referred to The Firefighters), of which XL5 is the most famous . The ship itself has two detachable sections. The winged nose section, known as Fireball Junior contained the cockpit and would separate from the main body to land on planets. The rest of the ship contained a laboratory, fuel, and even small rockets for interplanetary journeys, but generally would keep station in orbit. Fireball XL5 returned to Space City intact. Inasmuch as the series used many classic early 20th-century science fiction tropes 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 and 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), no such thing was ever mentioned on the series itself. Furthermore the crew never wore space suits –instead they took "oxygen pills" to survive in the vacuum of space, where they maneuvered in zero gravity with the aid of thruster packs or jet mobiles. 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 Anderson's 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 which made Fireball XL5, puppets,comic strips and books. 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 K17. Captain Zodiac, then an Astronaut of six years experience, took XL5 on its first test flight in 2060 along with Prof. Matic, Doctor Venus and Chief Test Pilot Colonel Grange. After a successful trial period Grange, who had issues with the new ship, was given a ground job and Zodiac was promoted to the rank of Colonel and given command of Fireball XL5.
• Doctor Venus, Doctor of Space Medicine,of French origin, 5 years of service on the XL5 crew (voiced by Sylvia Anderson)
• 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 (voiced by Gerry Anderson)
• Zoonie the Lazoon, lazy semi-telepathic pet of Dr. Venus from planet Colevio (voiced by David Graham)
• Commander Wilbur Zero, World Space Patrol Commander (since 2060 according to 'Steve Zodiac - Test Pilot') and Space City's Chief Controller (voiced by John Bluthal)
• 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)
• Eleanor Zero, Commander Zero's wife (voiced by Sylvia Anderson)

Episode list

Main article: List of Fireball XL5 episodes

In other media

• The theme song from Fireball XL5 was sung by Sean Pertwee in the 2000 London gangster film Love, Honour and Obey in a Karaoke scene.
• Outside of the various spin-off titles, Fireball XL5 gained some minor recognition when it appeared in Marvel Comics, as one of the TV shows Meggan used to watch prior to meeting Captain Britain.
• 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.
• Elements of Fireball XL5 are shown in an episode of Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, entitled "Mercury Falling".
• British Heavy Metal musician Steve Zodiac borrows the name of the Fireball XL5's space hero.
• A spin-off comic book series was planned by Gold Key Comics, Steve Zodiac and the Fireball XL5, but only one issue was published in the series before it was abandoned.
• 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

Translations

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

External links

• Fireball XL5 at the Internet Movie Database
• Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5 (fansite)
• Fireball XL5 (fansite)