Fireball XL5

Fireball XL5 was a British television series for children, produced in 1962 by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson through their company APF. The series was created in collaboration with ATV for ITC Entertainment.

The series used Anderson's Supermarionation puppets, a special kind of puppets who were used for the first time in Four Feather Falls (1960), and later in Supercar (1961-1962), Stingray (1964-1965), Thunderbirds (1965-1966), Captain Scarlet (1967-1968), and Joe 90 (1968-1969). The special effects in Fireball XL5 were done by Derek Meddings. The music was composed by Barry Gray.

The series consisted of 39 black and white episodes of about 30 minutes. It was Anderson's last series in black and white. Starting from Stingray he began series in color.The series was a great success, and was Anderson's first series which was also sold to an American channel (NBC).

The series is often confused with Planet Patrol (aka Space Patrol) because of the equal-looking environments and themes.



Content
[hide] *Content and background 1  ==Content and background[ Edit] == The series is set in 2062/63, and rotated to the spaceship Fireball XL5, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. Other crew members are Docter Venus, the navigator and mechanic Professor Matthew Matic, and Zodiacs co-pilot Robert the Robot. Robert was unique because he was transparent, and because he was the only character in a Gerry Anderson series whose voice was voiced by Gerry Anderson himself.
 * 2 Intro song and merchandising
 * 3 characters and voice actors
 * 4 Episodes
 * 5 In other media
 * 6 Translations
 * 7 Reference
 * 8 external link

Fireball XL5 is based in Space City, located on an unnamed island in the Pacific Ocean. This city is the headquarters of the World Space Patrol, led by Commander Zero. Zero is assisted by Lieutenant Ninety (whose name later served as inspiration for the name of another Anderson character, Joe 90). The headquarters is located in a rotating control tower. Fireball XL5 is launched from this city if necessary via a launch rail.

The ship is divided into two sections. The winged nose section, also known as Fireball Junior contained the cockpit and could detach from the main body for landings on other planets. The rest of the ship contained a laboratory, and fuel and rockets for interplanetary travel. The crew never wore space suits, but names so-called "oxygen pills" (oxygen pills) in order to survive in vacuum spaces and places in zwaartekrachtloze could propel with rocket belts or hover-bikes. ==Intro song and merchandising[ Edit] == Fireball XL5 had both for the opening and closing a theme song. The latter, written by Barry Gray and sung by Don Spencer, became in England a small hit.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In addition brought the series a number of merchandising spin-offs including toys, building models and books. In England were four Fireball XL5 books printed. Gold Key Comics published In America a one-time Fireball XL5 comic book. ==Characters and voice actors<span class="mw-editsection" len="344" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Episodes<span class="mw-editsection" len="331" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==In other media<span class="mw-editsection" len="334" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] ==
 * Colonel Steve Zodiac: pilot and officer of Fireball XL5 (voiced by Paul Maxwell)
 * Docter Venus: doktor specialized in Space Medicine, should be 5 years aboard the XL5 (voiced by Sylvia Anderson)
 * Professor Matthew Matic: mechanic, navigator and scientist of XL5 (voiced by David Graham)
 * Robert the Robot: copiolot of XL5, invented by Professor Matic (voiced by Gerry Anderson)
 * Zoonie the Lazoon: lazy semi-telepathic pet of Dr. Venus. Comes from the planet Colevio (voiced by David Graham)
 * Commander Wilbur Zero: Commander of the World Space Patrol and Commander of Space City (voiced by John Bluthal)
 * Lieutenant Ninety: assistant of Commander Wilbur Zero. (voiced by David Graham)
 * Commander zero's young son Jonathan Zero:.
 * Jock Campbell: Space city's head mechanic
 * Eleanor Zero: Commander zero's wife
 * 1) Planet 46
 * 2) The Doomed Planet
 * 3) Space Immigrants
 * 4) Plant Man From Space "
 * 5) Spy In Space
 * 6) The Sun Temple
 * 7) XL5 To H2O
 * 8) Space Pirates
 * 9) Flying Zodiac
 * 10) Space Pen
 * 11) Space Monster
 * 12) The Last of The Zanadus
 * 13) Planet Of Platonia
 * 14) The Triads
 * 15) Wings of Danger
 * 16) Convict in Space
 * 17) Space Vacation
 * 18) Flight to Danger
 * 19) Prisoner on the Lost Planet
 * 20) The Forbidden Planet
 * 21) Robert to the Rescue
 * 22) Dangerous Cargo
 * 23) Mystery of the TA2
 * 24) Drama at Space City
 * 25) 1875
 * 26) The Granatoid Tanks
 * 27) The Robot Freighter Mystery
 * 28) Whistle for Danger
 * 29) Trial by Robot
 * 30) A Day in the Life of a Space General
 * 31) Invasion Earth
 * 32) Faster Than Light
 * 33) The Day The Earth Froze
 * 34) The Fire Fighters
 * 35) Space City Special
 * 36) Ghosts of Space
 * 37) Hypnotic Sphere
 * 38) Sabotage
 * 39) Space Magnet
 * The intro song from Fireball XL5 was sung by Sean Pertwee in the 2000 London gangster film Love, Honour and Obey in a Karaoke scene.
 * In addition to the many spin-off titles came also for Fireball XL5 in Marvel Comics as a TV series where Meggan always was looking at before they met Captain Britain .
 * Some scenes from Fireball XL5 were shown in the Tom Hanksmovie That Thing You Do, watched by Lenny and James on the television the shop of Guys father.
 * Elements of Fireball XL5 were shown in an episode of Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, entitled "Mercury Falling".
 * British Heavy Metal musician Steve Zodiac lent the name of the hero of Fireball XL5 '.
 * A spin-off comic book series was planned by Gold Key Comics,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" len="164" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]  but only one volume was published.