FIREBALL XL5 - Supermarionation part 2

4/10/2018

Fireball XL5 and its members of the World Space Patrol were launched on its mission to save the galaxy on Saturday morning, October 28, 1962 on NBC. It ran until September 1963. It was the only Gerry Anderson series that ran on a US network. It was also the second puppet series that was filmed in Supermarionation.

Fireball XL5

Fireball

The Crew
Fireball XL5s brave team of stringed puppets were Colonel Steve Zodiac, Doctor Venus (voiced by Sylvia Anderson), Professor Matthew Matic and the transparent robot co-pilot named Robert (voiced by Gerry Anderson with the aid of an artificial larynx). And let’s not forget about Zoonie, Venus' pet, a Lazoon who liked mimicking things. In space, the crew maneuvered with thruster packs and never wore spacesuits outside of the ship. They instead took oxygen pills (talk about ways to cut the budget).

The Ship
There was no mistaking the old Soviet design of the long cylindrical spaceship, along with the launch concept, which was used in the 1951 film When Worlds Collide. The XL5 was comprised of a winged nose cone, the Fireball Junior, which contained the cockpit and separated from the main body to land on other worlds.

The Future
Filmed totally in black and white, Fireball XL5 established a style, which Gerry Anderson refined and improved in each series. The next step was to move into a wider market, and also doing it in color.