Fireball Xl5 - the Complete Series [DVD] [1962]

 

 

Create your own review

I picked up a cheap video of XL5 some weeks ago in a charity shop and it brought the memories flooding back so I just had to buy this DVD. This series is in my opinion the best thing Gerry Anderson did (hmm murmers of disapproval at the back there!). It is just so awesome. The fact that it is in black and white does not detract from the quality of adventure, excitement and fun at all. Something I always found a little lacking in Stingray and T-Birds.
As a child it captured my imagination and I can't wait to watch it with my toddler...I remember building my own XL5's out of lego ... and it certainly fired my desire for reading sci fi novels in later years.
The spaceship was and still is the coolest ever to appear on TV (as mentioned in the synopsis for the release), and seeing the shot of it's tail fin under dark and stormy looking skies at the beginning of each episode is awesome. The way it took off running down the launch track was great although I always wondered what happened to the little truck that flew off the end of the track once the spaceship had taken off!!!
Steve Zodiac the hero space pilot is so cool and Venus...what a babe! Robert as well has a certain robotic flair with his monotone robotic voice "On our way ooommmmeeee!".
A truly essential purchase and a long overdue release on DVD. Now what about Supercar????

It is 2062, and the World Space Patrol, located at Space City, watches the skies with the aid of its fleet of interplanetary XL rocket-ships. The hero of the half hour, Colonel Steve Zodiac, is the pilot of Fireball XL5 that protects Sector 25 beyond the Solar System from alien invasion. With Steve Zodiac in command, his crew consisted of Venus, a doctor of space medicine, Professor Matic, the science officer, Venus's pet Zoonie the Lazoon, and Robbie the Robot, the rocket's mechanical co-pilot. I was 6 when Fireball XL5 aired and ever since I've been a SciFi and realSci fan, going on from XL5 to the likes Dr Who, Lost in space, the moon landings and a PhD in astrophysics. However despite the oddities of the witty 60's script, the spaceship Fireball XL5, and its accessories like the hover scooters, are a fantastic iconic design (particularly in the colour stills). The storylines are quite strong for a kids series, and the aliens are quite convincing - although we seem to see many of them again quite soon as the fish people in Stingray. In many ways Fireball XL5 has a younger feel to it than later Anderson projects, so I expect boys nearer 5 to 7 would appreciate it most (or those now around 50 who first saw it at this age).

My son at 6 really took to the two XL5 videos I had, and like me he really really loved the Steve Zodiac song sung by Don Spencer at the end of each of episode, and we often used to have sing-alongs with it in the car. Although it was nice and thoroughly `modern' to let Venus (voiced by Sylvia Anderson) leave the nappies and washing behind and come along as part of the crew, it's not long before the good Dr of Space medicine is making the coffee or tripping over and screaming for male assistance. Typical Dr Venus quote `Oh I am a Tootie' - which I presume must be some sort of 2060's space bimbo. So Venus provides the backup for the two bachelor men, like doing the ironing, cooking, cleaning up after them, while also juggling a highly successful career. Typical Professor Matic quote 'Now now, Venus, none of your feminine intuition. Let's stick to the facts' - I expect they had to cut what happened next.

My only gripe is that a optional colourised version of the series hasn't been made available as the XL5 spacecraft would look great in colour (we have the very successfully colourised 'Bewitched' B&W seasons 1&2). My son (now 10) hasn't taken to the whole XL5 series though as he now can't tolerate the black and white TV - however he absolutely loves the B&W AP Films co-production `Torchy the battery boy' from 1958 so perhaps he is actually both too young and too old at 9 for this level of SciFi sophistication. What do I care, I bought the series for my 50th birthday - and he's happy with Joe90, Terrahawks and the new Captain Scarlet in full `HudsonColour'. And even now "I wish I was a spaceman, the fastest guy alive. We'd Fly around the universe in Fireball XL5. Way out in space together, conquerors of the sky, My heart would be a fireball, a fireball, and you would be my Venus of the skies."

I was 8yrs old when Fireball XL5 was on TV. As we only had BBC, probably saw it at a wealthy friends house. But the memory has been revitalised, and this DVD set has given hours of pleasure to a syndicate of three doctors.
It's astonishing to see what could be achieved with, presumably, almost no finance. The time spent on the sets, not to mention the seriousness of the fireworks. Perhaps one feels the modelling is so close to what we might have had ourselves, as children, that you feel more personally involved with it, than current films that are so 'realistic'.
It also shows that a fertile imagination for the story is so much more important than the actual quality of what we expect to see nowadays.
As with Stingray and Thunderbirds, the humour is very much present, and beautifully observed. It has an amazing number of technological ideas that we all thought were developed by other sci-fi programs - teleportation, time travel, booster rockets at launch, and Fireball Junior landing just like the Apollo moon shots, it's all there.
Some of the screenplay is 'interesting', I just have to say 'I feel rather Tooty' for others to know what I am referring to.
Life was clearly simpler in 1962- Prof Mattic 'I think we're going to have to blow this planet up' Steve Zodiac 'OK -I agree. Robert steer 687zeroBlack, launch missile' BANG.
Thankyou Gerry Anderson for giving so much pleasure.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 13 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete series of a great show
Despite being born long after they were originally broadcast, I grew up with Gerry Anderson's better known shows, such as "Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet", but this one was... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Ms. A. Crane

5.0 out of 5 stars classic
A must have for fans of the 60's puppet era I loved watching these as I don't remember the original series

Published 9 months ago by billyboy 1958

4.0 out of 5 stars fireball Xl5
Another classic early Gerry Anderson puppets , models, imagination. Took me back to when I was a kid, great fun all that early tv

Published 12 months ago by tony t

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I was a spaceman
Back in the 1960's, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson produced puppet shows for children's tv. After three shows, frustration at how hard it was to make a puppet walk convincingly gave... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Paul Tapner

4.0 out of 5 stars Fire Ball XL5 DVD set
Excellent image quality considering the age of the original.
The first disk in the set has a lot of trouble after it is loaded into the DVD player. Read more

Published on 13 Feb 2009 by Mitch

5.0 out of 5 stars Fireball XL5-The Complete Series
My son Matthew is autistic and loves Supermarionation programmes, he is delighted with this series although a little disappointed that it is in black and white! Read more

Published on 9 Feb 2009 by K. G. Parr

5.0 out of 5 stars childhood memories revisited.
this was the first gerry anderson series that i ever saw when i was a small boy, and it's just as a much a classic now as it was then. Read more

Published on 5 Aug 2006 by Mr. A. E. Ward Davies

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Star Wars but still damn good!
There is more to Sci-fi than just Star Wars and Star-Trek.

Fireball XL5 bridges the gap between british and American
Sci-fi. Read more

Published on 19 July 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars "On Our Waay Oooommmmeee"
Well what can one say? All the Fireball XL5 episodes on five DVDs in one box!

As with so many of their previous DVD releases, Carlton have done a superb job in remastering the... Read more

Published on 21 Nov 2003 by Mr. N. Morgan

4.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Period Piece / TV Classic !
This was the second true "Supermarionation" Anderson ITC / ATV TV series, and all the elements that Gerry Anderson used to create later glories first appear here. Read more

Published on 4 Nov 2003 by scouseboxster

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 13 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!