Few things get me genuinely excited as a reviewer. I’m not talking about “one of my favorite movies is getting rereleased on Blu-ray” excited or “I would never be able to afford this awesome box set” excited. No, I’m talking about “kid on Christmas morning” excited.
“Fireball XL5” is one of several Gerry Anderson series that I have not seen before. I am a fan of his Supermarionation technique that was used in such series as “Thunderbirds” and “Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons” so when Shout Factory announced several programs would be released (or rereleased in new editions) on DVD I eagerly anticipated revisiting my childhood. Another reason I was exfcited was that I would finally get to see some of the series I never got to see before, and “Fireball XL5” is one such program.
Tasked with patrolling Sector 25, Fireball XL5 is the designation of the ship under the command of Steve Zodiac. Protecting Earth and exploring the furthest reaches of the galaxy the ship and crew encounter a wide variety of alien species and strange planets. Not only is there the ship’s commander the rugged Steve Zodiac, we have the ship’s Doctor of Space Medicine, Venus and Professor Matic, the science officer – you can tel him apart by his glasses. Then there is Robert (the robot) the co-pilot.
Set over a hundred years in the future, “Fireball XL5” is very much a product of its time. The woman on the crew is often serving coffee. That’s just one example of stereotypes that are perpetuated here. It isn’t necessarily offensive, but it definitely isn’t nearly as progressive as some others science fiction programs of the decade. Then again, this was meant for kids. Despite the fact Zodiac and Venus are dating. And yes, the science is questionable. People can survive in space without a space suit as long as they have taken their oxygen pills. Coordinates usually include numbers and a color. And dig that groovy end credits theme song.
For a kid’s show made in 1962/3 there is a lot of imagination, and I say that not because I am a fan of Gerry Anderson’s creations. Science fiction television at the time was rare – Lost In Space was still a few years away. The genre was both juvenile and usually considered disposable. While we can sort of laugh about the series now, you can tell there was some attempt to treat the genre and ats audience with a certain degree of seriousness.
Alright, so kids may not get into the black and white visuals and Supermarionation technique. The number of sets and effects used would have been so cost prohibitive to make filming the series impossible. As with virtually all science fiction programs there needs to be a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. What I like about Gerry Anderson’s productions is the representation of imagination on the screen. By finding a way to express the imagination in a practical manner the scripts were allowed to be pretty advanced for their time.
Having recently watched “Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons” I was sort of taken aback at the stiffness of the marionettes in “Fireball XL5” – while it isn’t the first series to be filmed with this method it is still a relatively early example of Supermarionation. It may not be a fully realized version of Gerry Anderson’s vision, this series is a far sight better than almost any other space-based science fiction series to date (of broadcast). We may scoff at the storytelling and science in the series today, but 50 years ago, this was some pretty cutting edge stuff, especially for a kid’s program.
Despite the sexism on display “Fireball XL5” is pretty forward thinking for a kids’ show. Sure it can be juvenile, and the Supermationation method of production may not be for everybody, but “Fireball XL5” is still quite fun to watch today. It is black and white which took my kids some getting used to, as well as the primitive practical special effects. Special features are quite decent for a show of this type. Audio commentary on two episodes by voice actor David Graham (Professor Matic) is present and I wish the mix was better. There is too much volume from the audio of the episode bleeding into the audio of the commentary. On the fifth disc there are two featurettes, the first of which looks at the comic strips that continued with the adventures of the Fireball XL5 crew long after the show stopped being televised with particular emphasis on one artist. It runs just over 15 minutes. Then there is part of an interview with the late Gerry Anderson that runs just over 10 minutes. Also on the first disc is a PDF of a promotional booklet for the series.
I was excited to receive “Fireball XL5” the Complete Series DVD and get to finally watch it. Some of the episodes are a bit dumb but there are many others that show great imagination. This series reminded me of what fun Saturday mornings used to be.