Fusée XL5

I was very young when I saw this show, but I still remember the special effects, especially the opening sequence of the rocket speeding down that track and the changes in the engine sounds just before it took off from the track into the air. The marionettes, especially the robot and his electronic voice. And I remember being very moved by a story involving a mermaid. The ending was sad. I would love to get this series on video. is it available?

First of all, I didn't think that anyone else remembered this show. You guys are getting OLD. Don't believe I ever saw a rerun of the series, I watched em when they ran originally in '62. Yeah, I'm getting old, too. This was the first opportunity for Baby-Boomers to watch any real sci-fi on TV. At least where we lived, these were not shown in the afternoon, but rather on Saturday morning, early, about 7:30 or maybe 8:00, so you couldn't sleep in. I can still see my little brother and me lying on the living room floor in our pajamas, eating cereal as the Saturday morning wonderland unfolded. And didn't everybody who saw the show want a Robby the robot of their own? OK, so the name wasn't original, he was still the best robot ever. This show may seem hokey and stupid with primitive special effects to a Star Wars generation, but it was the only game in town for those of my age. The next opportunity to see a sci-fi series on TV was, I guess, Lost In Space, which DOES look hokey and stupid to me now. maybe you just can't lose the love you had for a program as a small child.

Whatever the reason, I'm delighted to hear that the series is available on DVD, I suspect I'll have to update my Xmas wish list to include it. What an opportunity, indulge my own nostalgia AND drive my family nuts simultaneously!

Update!: I did receive the DVD set with the complete series for Xmas, 2004, and it was all I remembered. Incidentally, It DID drive my family nuts as I spent about a week straight watching the whole series and singing the stupid theme song with the show.

This was the show that sparked my interest in Sci-Fi way back in 1962, being only five the opening shot of Steve and Venus flying past the fin of the huge spaceship Fireball XL5 filled me with wonder!

Although this was a series for it's time it was one of the first to depict a space fleet of patrol ships monitoring our quadrant of space, notably used in Star Trek a few years later. The characters from the very first episode were amazingly fleshed out by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, only to be further developed by the talents of the other scriptwriters resulting in a fine continuity right up the last episode, unheard of in those days. Stories involved time travel, space pirates and of course earth domination, which had the puppets smoking, shaving, being tied up and the odd reference to child psychology! -Very adult for a child's T.V. series.

My favourite episodes - A day in the life of a space general, Space Magnet & 1875 In all, superb sixties Sci Fi fun.

I have read the previous comments and am delighted at how intelligent, sexy and wise all we XL-5 fans grew up to become! I too suffered from years of dirty looks from Old Boomers whenever I mentioned this show. They swore it never existed, I boldly proclaimed it did, it did! I saw it as a six-year-old so of course it imprints upon Primal Joy circuits: The now-extinct Saturday Morning Cartoon block, when you watched anything animated. But only a handful of shows like XL-5 exhibited imagination, most were machine-made Hanna-Barbara slop like Huckleberry Hound and Top Cat. Yes, back in them days, we had to wait for our TV set to 'warm up'-- thanks to a little something we used to call 'vacuum tubes' (they looked a lot like Robert the Robot!) And TVs had a smell to them too (ozone and the paper bits (!!) inside heating up)-- and we liked it!!! Reviving this show is why God created the DVD and the Internet! My only complaint is the DVDs do not have enough extras on them; they could benefit from more comments. Like from Sylvia and Gerry Anderson maybe? Anyway, if you have never seen the show-- well, decide for yourself. Okay, they're 45 year old children shows, but hey-- it's PUPPETS!! Oops, I mean, it's SUPERMARIONETTES!! If you can't like that, your strings need readjusting, baby.

Fireball XL5 is one of my favourite Gerry Anderson shows.The theme tune is a great one as well.It took along time,but I managed to find a copy on ebay.They tend to be rather expensive as they are rare.I was very glad when we won it.It was well worth the wait.

In the library,the only copy they had had gone missing.I can`t remember when but I was dissapointed. It speaks the same for other little known Gerry Anderson shows.They had all gone missing in the library for years and there were not any copies anywhere.Thankfully,a lot of Gerry Anderson shows are now being released on DVD.That goes for Fireball XL5 to. It is being released on DVD the 20th October.

Yippee!