A&E releases the complete FIREBALL XL5 on DVD
© A&E Home Video

Mania Grade: B
Disc Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: Not Rated
Voices: Paul Maxwell, Sylvia Anderson, John Bluthal, David Graham, Gerry Anderson
Writers: Alan Fennell, Dennis Spooner, Gerry & Sylvia Anderson, Anthony Marriott
Directors: Alan Pattillo, David Elliott, John Kelly, Bill Harris, Desmond Saunders
Distributor: A&E Home Video
Original Years of Release: 1962 - 1963
Retail Price: $99.95
Extras: five-disc set; Dolby Digital stereo; commentary tracks; galleries; featurettes; bio

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FIREBALL XL5

When STAR TREK debuted in 1966, the science fiction environment it portrayed seemed like a quantum leap beyond any previous space opera series on television, comparable only to the feature film FORBIDDEN PLANET. But as can be seen in A&E's box set, this early Gerry Anderson series, rarely seen since its initial broadcast, bridges the gap between the TREK universe and primitive series like FLASH GORDON and CAPTAIN VIDEO. The fact that it's one of Anderson's "Supermarionation" series coming right after his first, SUPERCAR is beside the point.

The main structure of FIREBALL XL5 seems pretty old-fashioned. Square blonde hero Col. Steve Zodiac (voiced by Paul Maxwell) commands the title space cruiser, policing Sector 25 for the World Space Patrol slightly over 100 years in the future. His crew includes French hottie Venus (Sylvia Anderson), crusty old science officer/navigator Prof. Matt Matic (David Graham), and Matic's invention, their mechanical auto-pilot Robert the Robot. Over the course of 39 half-hour black & white episodes they hunted down space crooks and space spies, fought monsters, and encountered strange alien races, both friendly and hostile, in the usual manner. As with all Supermarionation shows, a good job is done in avoiding such puppet-challenging action as fistfights, while overcoming the hazards of plainly visible wires with good voice acting and expert special effects.

Among the creaky ideas featured in the show is the fact that only "oxygen pills" are required to protect people from the vacuum of space as long as they've had a pill, Zodiac and crew can swim around outside the XL5 and talk to each other without radios. Space travel takes place in jet fueled rocketships. Officers are armed with sparking "coma guns." Most aliens speak English, sometimes with "Oriental" accents. One especially obnoxious episode has Matic inventing a time machine, which sends the cast back to the Old West in alternate identities. Venus, though credited as a highly skilled "space doctor," still acts like a 19^th century female in many situations, making coffee and cooking for the men. In some episode's she's seen cleaning Zodiac's apartment while he relaxes, and when captured by villains, her first reaction is always, "Oh, if only Steve were here!"

Even in [IMG2R]slightly more sophisticated scenarios, the program stayed on a juvenile level. It's clear that Zodiac and Venus are spending the night together in some episodes, either at her posh beach house or in his apartment in the revolving Space City tower, but no romantic relationship is evident between the two. Steve Zodiac remains essentially sexless at all times, only excited by adventure and rocketry. Though Venus obviously has a crush on her commander, and rebuffs the attentions of other men, she often sighs and resigns herself to her role as one of the boys. The juvenile tone is reinforced throughout much of the series by the presence of Venus' alien pet lazoon, Zoonie a sort of combination ape, dog and mynah bird. Zoonie's antics resulted in many a crisis, and his presence is only tolerated because every so often he saves the day. Venus teaches him to speak a few phrases over the course of the series, and one of the most memorable things about the show is his whining, "welcome home!" Robert is sometimes caused to "blow his top" trying to process Zoonie's repetitions. At times, Jonathan Zero, young son of the brash Commander Zero (John Bluthal), gets in on the mischief, destroying expensive equipment, accidentally high jacking spaceships, and shooting bagpipes with rayguns.

Even without interfering kids and pets, some of the plots are downright ridiculous. Take for example "Wings of Danger," in which Zodiac's enemies send a missile to Earth containing a robot bird assassin. The robot nearly kills Steve with a poison dart, but he recovers and shoots it down with a rifle. Matic repairs the bird, and they take it to Planet 46 to use against the aliens who apparently don't think to shoot it down themselves. Only Barry Gray's menacing music, which builds suspense as the robot approaches, saves this harebrained story. And let's not get started on the painful one where Zero's lackey Lt. 90 dreams about being promoted to general, outranking his grumpy boss. His leadership causes Fireball to crash into Space City oy vey!

But the series also features several ideas that would be picked up by Gene Roddenberry. The chief engineer at Space City that keeps the XL5 in good condition is a fiery Scot named Jock. XL5 can land, but more often spends a mission orbiting a planet while the detachable nose cone "Fireball Junior" takes the crew to the surface. Though Robert is essentially still a "mechanical man," he has an impressively translucent design, a step beyond the familiar tin can robots. He's kept refreshingly devoid of the "personality" that too often infects robot characters, coming off more like the efficient Enterprise computer than Commander Data or the LOST IN SPACE robot. Communication between worlds is accomplished via "neutroni" transmission, much like TREK's subspace. A race of evil cybernetic beings resembles the Borg somewhat. Venus and Zodiac listen to music on "discs." Some episodes center around teleportation and faster-than-light travel. The episode "Invasion Earth" features alien spacecraft with a saucer-and-engine design surprisingly similar to the Enterprise.

All this [IMG3L]is not to say that FIREBALL XL5 is ahead of its time. About the most entertaining thing about the series is that it's so much of its time, that specific era in which space travel and technology was still excitingly unpredictable. Today, the exploration of outer space proceeds in more predictable fashion, bound by economic and technological factors. But in 1962, the next 100 years were bound only by imagination. This atmosphere is perfectly represented by the FIREBALL closing theme, a memorable rocking little ditty that expands romantically on the theme of flying off to the Moon or Jupiter. Like "Fly Me to the Moon" with a rock beat, this song is still a favorite of garage punk and surf bands. The show apparently built a cult audience with the surf and racing crowd, who immediately adopted the 21^st century slang term "boss" though not so popular was "tootie" (stupid).

Rather than go with the release pattern they've used for other Brit genre shows, A&E has released all of XL5 in a handsomely designed 5-volume box set. For a 40 year old show, the sound and images are amazingly clear, likely looking much better than their original broadcasts. One annoying factor: to play each show, you have to select it, then select 'play' from its chapter menu, and there's no 'play all' function. There's also an error on the package copy: the episode "Day the Earth Froze" (in which aliens use a device to block the Sun from Earth) is on Volume 5, not 4. It's easy to get the volumes mixed up, as each has the same purple front cover art.

Each volume contains a photo gallery section of stills from its set of episodes. "The Doomed Planet" on Volume 1 includes a commentrak by voice actor David Graham, who cheerily chats about his roles on XL5 and other Anderson shows, and their lasting cult following. Volume 2 features a text article bio of Anderson. On Volume 5, director Alan Pattillo, who directed about a third of the episodes, provides a scene-specific commentrak for "Space City Special." This second-to-last episode is a fine one, in which aliens brainwash a pilot due to fly a general on a visit to Space City. The pilot is ordered to crash the jet into the tower just as Zodiac is to receive the Astronaut of the Year Award on live television. It ends with Steve singing the FIREBALL theme on TV! Pattillo explains many of the Supermarionation techniques, shooting puppet shows as much as possible like any other film. He also notes how the attempt was made to imitate space opera comics in compositions and lighting, and in return, the show became a very popular comics feature in England. These comics are celebrated by a special 17-minute documentary featurette, centered on the terrific artist Mike Noble.

Although it's not particularly outstanding as science fiction, and it wouldn't be advisable to watch more than a few episodes in a sitting, FIREBALL XL5 is a series that generates affection the more you watch it. One wonders why, after the success of THUNDERBIRDS, the Andersons didn't return with an updated color version. Well, with a big budget live-action version of THUNDERBIRDS on the way, and a new CAPTAIN SCARLET series in the works, who knows?