Phoenix Five

Phoenix Five
Genre Science fiction
Created by John Warwick
Directed by David Cahill
Starring Mike Dorsey
Country of origin Australia
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 26
Production
Producer(s) Peter Summerton
John Walters
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network ABC
Original release 10 January – 3 July 1970

Phoenix Five is an Australian science fiction television series produced in 1969 by Artransa Park in association with the Australian Broadcasting Commission. It followed on from the six part serial "The Interpretaris" (1966) and seven part serial "Vega 4" but had 26 standalone episodes produced to make it viable as a syndicated series. Each of the series had different crews and casts but took place in the same future and used the same space organization and miniatures, much as Star Trek did in the '80s and '90s, thus making it the first TV sci-fi franchise.

The series followed the adventures of the crew of the galactic patrol ship Phoenix Five, "the most sophisticated craft in the Earth Space Control Fleet." This handpicked team: Captain Roke, a typical captain with a solution to every problem; Ensign Adam Hargraves, a young space cadet always ready to shoot first and skip the questions; compassionate Cadet Tina Kulbrick; and their computeroid Carl; roamed the planets protecting galactic citizens and warding off the repeated plots and attacks of the evil humanoid Zodian and a rebel scientist Platonus. Zodian originally appeared in Vega 4 and was in the first 13 eps of the series, then was replaced by Platonus for the latter half. This was due to a production break caused by the untimely death of Producer Peter Summerton. Summerton had produced the popular and very controversial drama series "You Can't See 'round Corners" for ATN 7 the previous year, and was replaced by John Walters.

Phoenix Five originally aired between 10 January and 3 July 1970. The series was screened on ATN Seven in New South Wales and by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the rest of Australia. It also was sold internationally and screened in the UK and other overseas markets in the 1970 & 80s. It was repeated on the ABC in 1975 with the advent of Colour TV and last screened on ATN 7 in the early 80's. All three series exist complete in The National Sound and Film Archive but there has been no commercial release of the series, though odd eps of Interpretaris & Vega 4 and a dozen or so off air recordings of Phoenix Five have circulated amongst TV collectors since the 90's and found their way to You Tube at various times.

The series has often been belittled as a "Star Trek with gumtrees" but the original Interpretaris was made before Star Trek screened in Australia and it resembles more the children's TV space adventure series of the 50's/60's like "Rocky Jones Space Ranger" and "Fireball XL5", which had been screened a number of times on Australian Television. It also has been criticized for its low budget, but being made on film & in colour would have made it more expensive than most Australian dramas of this period. Australia at this time did not have the numerous Movie & TV spfx technicians that worked on US & UK productions and FX supervisor Peter Hicks really had to start from scratch.


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