Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: Science fiction television series | ITV television programmes | British television programmes | Fictional ships
Fireball XL5
Fireball XL5 was a science fiction marionette TV show produced in Britain in 1962 by Gerry Anderson. Special effects were by Derek Meddings and music by Barry Gray. An APF production in association with ATV for ITC Entertainment. 39 black and white half-hour episodes were made on 35mm. The series featured Anderson's Supermarionation form of puppetry.
The series features the spaceship of the title, commanded by Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. Also aboard were the glamorous Doctor Venus, middle-aged scientist Professor Matthew Matic, and Zodiac's co-pilot Robert the Robot, notable for being transparent, and also for being the only character in a Gerry Anderson series that was actually voiced by Anderson himself, although his voice was distorted by a vocoder.
Fireball XL5 is based at Space City, located on an artificial island in the South Atlantic, headquarters of the World Space Patrol headed by Commander Zero. Zero's Communications Officer is 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 rotating tower. Fireball XL5 takes off along an inclined track or sky ramp - see link below - which Anderson claims was inspired by an old Soviet design, although it had also been used in the movie When Worlds Collide.
Barry Gray's closing theme song, "Fireball", with added lyrics about space travel and imagination, became a minor hit in Britain.
more details to follow
Cast of characters
- Colonel Steve Zodiac
- Doctor Venus
- Professor Mathew Mattic
- Robert the Robot
- Zoony the Lazoon
- Commander Zero
- Lieutenant Ninety
See also
External links
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