Space Patrol (1962 TV series)

For the 1950s television series, see Space Patrol (1950 TV series). For the German television series also known as Space Patrol, see Raumpatrouille.
Space Patrol
Also known as Planet Patrol (United States)
Genre Action
Adventure
Children's
Science fiction
Space Western
Created by Roberta Leigh
Written by Roberta Leigh
Directed by Frank Goulding
Voices of Dick Vosburgh
Libby Morris
Ysanne Churchman
Ronnie Stevens
Murray Kash
Composer(s) Roberta Leigh
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 3
No. of episodes 39
Production
Producer(s) Roberta Leigh
Arthur Provis
Editor(s) John Beaton
Roy Hyde
Len Walter
Cinematography Arthur Provis
Camera setup Single
Running time 24-26 minutes
Production company(s) National Interest Pictures
Wonderama Productions
Broadcast
Picture format Film 35mm 4:3 Black and white
Audio format Mono
Original run 7 April 1963 – 11 June 1964

Space Patrol is a science-fiction television series featuring marionettes that was produced in the United Kingdom in 1962 and broadcast beginning in 1963. It was written and produced by Roberta Leigh in association with the Associated British Corporation.

Summary

The series features the vocal talents of Dick Vosburgh, Ronnie Stevens, Libby Morris, Murray Kash and Ysanne Churchman, and comprises 39 half-hour episodes. This series is also known by its US title Planet Patrol to avoid confusion with the 1950s American live-action series of the same name. The marionettes used in the series incorporated some elements of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation technique - specifically their mouths would move in synch with dialogue.

In the year 2100, Earth, Mars and Venus have banded together to form the United Galactic Organization (UGO). Space Patrol is the UGO's military wing, and the series follows the actions of this interplanetary police force, focusing on the crew of Galasphere 347 (sometimes referred to as Galasphere 024) under the command of the heroic (and, unusually for this type of series, bearded) Captain Larry Dart. The crew includes the elfin Slim from Venus, and the sausage-mad Russian-accented Husky from Mars. These are from Venusian and Martian civilizations and not from Earth colonies there. Providing technical support on Earth is Irish genius Professor Aloysius O’Brien O’Rourke Haggarty.[1] Haggarty's talkative pet Martian Parrot (a Gabblerdictum Bird) rarely accompanies the crew on missions. It was brought back from Mars and taught to talk in "The Slaves of Neptune" episode. Keeping them all on a tight rein are Colonel Raeburn and his super-efficient Venusian secretary, Marla. The show was somewhat sexist in comments from its characters, reflecting the times when it was made.

The series was sold overseas and broadcast in the USA, Canada and Australia, and in spite of the very low budget—which meant that sometimes the shadow of a puppet could be seen behind a "TV Screen" before the communication device was supposedly turned on—the show rated strongly with young audiences in many regions (including New York City)[2] and garnered a huge following, with Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski stating that it was his favourite TV show as a child.

Background

Leigh had previously worked with Gerry Anderson on children's puppet series, and there are some obvious similarities between Space Patrol and Anderson's Fireball XL5, although Space Patrol was made on a lower budget. Arthur Provis, Anderson's former business partner in AP Films was responsible for the cinematography. For many years it was believed that all but a handful of episodes had been destroyed, until a complete cache of 16 mm prints was discovered in the loft at Roberta Leigh's home. Despite their scratched and grainy condition, they were of sufficient historic interest to warrant a DVD release. Selected episodes were issued on DVD in 2001, and the complete series was released in 2003 on Region 0 discs. Two episodes have survived from the original 35 mm prints and are available on Blu-ray Disc.[3]

Original style of the series

Although compared (and often confused) with the Gerry Anderson productions (due to the similar use of voice-synchronised marionettes), Space Patrol stands out on its own. This is mainly due to the boldness of a few creative choices. The only music involved is extremely avant-garde, the theme being made by Roberta Leigh herself using electronic equipment she bought from a local store after asking an assistant for anything that made interesting noises. F. C. Judd was responsible for creating all the electronic music for the series; he was an early British electronic experimenter, amateur radio expert, circuit designer, author and contributor to many wireless and electronics magazines from the 1950s to the 1990s. Everything had its peculiar noise with the exception of the Galasphere taking off in that rockets too made the same noise taking off, as did even a chemical rocket used in one episode.

In addition, the marionettes used for Space Patrol were more realistic-looking and less cartoon-like than those being used on Fireball XL5; in terms of relative realism, the puppets of Space Patrol fall between that of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. There were two types of robots, and the ones with the thick upper bodies were mainly used.

Another notable feature is that the music used in the opening sequence may be the first TV theme to be realised entirely through electronic means. That distinction has commonly been ascribed to the BBC's Doctor Who but the first episode of Space Patrol premiered on ABC in the Midlands on 7 April 1963, preceding Doctor Who by more than seven months (that series debuted on 23 November 1963).

Final credits always showed panoramic views over a gigantic city of the future, and never featured any music; only the throb of some industrial machinery, sounding like a gigantic pump or a steam engine, beat in rhythm. The male characters from the planet Venus (Slim for example) presented obvious androgyne features (in contrast to the rustic, virile Martians). Thus the style of the entire series created an extremely eerie atmosphere, that remains rarely matched even by the best adult science-fiction on screen.

The science

Whereas Gerry Anderson had a rocket ship in Fireball XL5 that could travel light years to planets around other stars as though they were just a few million miles away, Space Patrol took a more realistic approach. Because of limited speed, trips to other planets in our solar system could take weeks or months and this was facilitated by the crew of the Galasphere going into a freezer chamber and being put in suspended animation for the trip. A robot would then take over (its movements were said to cost £2,000 a time rather than being just a puppet.) The zirgon ray (faster than light) could be used from Earth to wake them up in an emergency. The term "galaxy" was used inaccurately, but consistently, to refer to a solar system in the series, so "Galactic Control" only supervised the local planets and "other galaxies" referred to nearby star-systems.

On other planets, they would use dial-selector translators (dial P for Pluto) to talk to alien beings - at the time, even some serious scientists considered the possibility of life on Venus, Mars and maybe elsewhere. Life support in hazardous atmospheres was provided by a "Moolung" - a sealed cylindrical transparent helmet, and the crew would often ride around on "Hover Jets", or more rarely, an "Ion Gun" which looked like a giant sparkler firework. Neptune was said to have atomic heating but none of the planets were really cold, such as when Dart walked about on Pluto (in "The Buried Spaceship") without any extra protection in what would be temperatures of about -230 °C.

The Galasphere had a top speed of about 800,000 mph, using "meson power". In "The Talking Bell" episode, they use "Boost Speed", which is dangerous, but allows them to travel at almost one million miles per hour for a long period. Meson power is dangerous to use in atmosphere. The engine also used gamma rays and 'Yobba rays'. The Galasphere has a force field which would protect it from enemy missiles, and it also turned out to protect them from the mind control of the evil Neptunians who were thousands of years ahead of Earth people, with great mental powers, and who hated work.

The Galasphere was constructed of Plutonite from Pluto, and a number of times, like in "The Human Fish", it also travelled underwater. Pluto was the furthest they normally travelled but after an accident they went way beyond that to a self-heated new planet which was full of giants who treated the Galasphere as a toy. Another time, an alien from Alpha Centauri visited them and installed a device which allowed the Galasphere to travel faster than light (at which point it vanished). They had their adventure twenty five trillion miles away and then returned to Earth, and just made it, with Galasphere 347 collapsing under the strain of such travel, just as they left it. In "The Planet of Light", Dart and Slim were taken to a planet circling Sirius (8.7 light years away) in just a few hours. This fast journey was necessary as the "light beings" who took them would be poisoned by air, so the two had to rely on their own supplies.

In "The Rings of Saturn" and several other episodes, they were in Galasphere 024, which was later referred to as Galasphere 347, which is what comes from continually using file footage.

Episode listing

There are 39 episodes across three series.

Series One

Series One/A

Series Two

DVD release

The DVD claims to be the complete series, but only contains episodes from Series 1 and 1a.

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Special Features

Comic strip adaptations

A number of comic strip adaptations of Space Patrol were produced:

References

  1. ↑ Space Patrol: The Website: Slim's Encyclopedia: H
  2. ↑ allmovie.com - Space Patrol
  3. ↑ http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?cPath=86&products_id=1170[]

External links