Fireball XL5
From Conservapedia
Fireball XL5 is a British science-fiction television series created by Gerry Anderson. It is the second series to be filmed in Supermarionation (third if including Four Feather Falls).
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Premise
The series took place between the years 2062 AD and 2063 AD, following the adventures of the World Space Patrol, a fleet of spaceships stationed on Earth that were dispatched to keep the peace throughout the Universe.
The main focus of the series was the eponymous spacecraft Fireball XL5, manned by a crew of four:
- Colonel Steve Zodiac - A brave, American and the commander of the XL5
- Dr. Venus - The French doctor of space-medicines, and Steve's lover
- Prof. Matthew Matic - XL5's navigator and scientific advisor
- Robert the Robot - XL5's co-pilot (the only character Gerry Anderson ever voiced in his series)
Each episode focussed around the adventures of Fireball XL5 and her crew throughout the Universe, fighting various alien menaces and solving puzzling mysteries.
A comic-book series of Fireball XL5 continued the adventures after the end of the television series in 1963.[1]
Production
Fireball XL5 entered production shortly after the completion of Supercar, and was first released on October 28, 1962. The series would last for a total of 39 episodes (each being 25 minutes in length), and would be the last production by Gerry Anderson to be made in black and white.
The series is noteworthy for being the only series by Gerry Anderson to have run on a U.S. network as well as a British one, having aired on NBC between 1963 and 1965.
In other Gerry Anderson works
Like almost all Gerry Anderson works, Fireball XL5 was referenced in other Supermarionation series, and would sometimes cross over with these in later years.
Fireball XL5 was referenced frequently in the spin-off media for the 1967 series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, in which the World Space Patrol is seen to be co-operation with Spectrum (the organisation in Captain Scarlet), and in one story, even temporarily transferring Captain Scarlet to the command of fellow flagship Fireball XL19.[2] This same media also confirms that, prior to his joining Spectrum, antagonist Captain Black (under his true name of Conrad Turner) had once been the commander of Fireball XL3.
A similar reference appeared in the 2005 series, Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, which featured a spacecraft named the Mercury that bore a strong physical appearance to the Fireball XL- spacecraft used in Fireball XL5.
