Fireball XL5

Loved this show as a kid. It definitely shaped my interest in Sci Fi. Also, the theme songs still strike a chord with me, no matter how dated they are! They are simply great in their tone and straight-forward sincerity.

Also, as a Star Trek fan, I can not help but wonder if Roddenberry had not been influenced by the XL5 design. After all, the saucer section of the original Enterprise was detachable, just as XL5's nose, even though they never showed it in the original series. Mention was made of it once, when Kirk told Scotty to 'Break out of there with the main section, if you have to', or something along those lines, when the machine Val was pulling the Enterprise down from orbit.

XL5 FOREVER!

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.

It has been so long I hardly remember the show, but I do remember the begging and pleading I did to get my parents to let me watch the show. It was, at the time, my favorite television show. It was my introduction to science fiction. It is genre that I almost always prefer. I just saw a show recently, and it is still great fun. It is particularly interesting to compare this to the latter shows of the Andersons like Stingray, Thunderbirds, Capt. Scarlet, UFO, Space:1999, and journey to the farside of the sun. They always are fun to watch. I grew up being a fan of their work without always knowing it was the same producers.

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.