Babylon
5 creator J. Michael Straczynski’s favourite TV show as a child
Anybody who was a child in the
1960s is likely to remember at least some of Gerry Anderson’s
‘Supermarionation’ science-fiction series, which included Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain
Scarlet and the Mysterons. In the same genre, but far less well known was Space Patrol. It was created and produced
by British author and television producer Rita Lewin under the pseudonym
Roberta Leigh, with cinematographer Arthur Provis.
Provis was Anderson’s
former business partner (the ‘P’ in their company AP Films Ltd.), and he and Anderson had previously collaborated with Leigh to make The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy. However, he felt that
Anderson was taking too many risks with the business, so he eventually decided to leave. Anderson kept the name AP Films for the company until 1965, when he renamed it to Century 21 Productions Ltd.
Space Patrol is credited to National
Interest Picture Productions and Wonderama Productions Ltd, and was produced in
1962. As seems to have been a common practice at the time, 39 b/w episodes of
25 minutes each were produced in three blocks of 13.
In common with the Anderson
productions, Space Patrol relied upon
voice-synchronised puppets, although these were more realistic-looking than
those used by the former in any series prior to Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. In contrast to the Barry Gray
scores and incidental music associated with the Anderson productions, Space Patrol featured electronic music
composed by Fred Judd, a pioneer in the field.
Space
Patrol is set in the year 2100. The eponymous Space Patrol’s
operating authority is the United Galactic Organisation, which despite the name
encompasses only Earth, Mars and Venus (the series was prone to use the term
‘galaxy’ to describe planetary systems, a mistake which was repeated in the
slightly later TV classic Lost in Space).
Space Patrol is headquartered in a futuristic city, identified in the pilot as
New York, but never so referenced again. The introduction states that “Men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work
there as guardians of peace.” A rhythmical clanking sound pervades the city
at all times. Transport within the city is provided by single-person pods that
move through a transparent travel-tube.
The series focusses on the
adventures of Galasphere 347 and its crew, comprising goatee-bearded Captain
Larry Dart, Venusian navigator Slim and Martian engineer Husky. The elfin Slim
was the Mr Spock of the series; the burly Slav-accented Husky devotes a fair
bit of time to thinking about his next meal. The trio will not hesitate to put
themselves in harm’s way if the circumstances demand it, which they often do. In
overall charge of operations is Colonel Raeburn, assisted by his super-efficient
Venusian secretary Marla. Raeburn regularly threatens Dart with court-martial,
but his bark is rather worse than his bite. Never hiding his anxiety when Dart
and co are in peril, he frequently rewards them with extra leave when they
return from a dangerous assignment.
The team regularly need to call
on the services of eccentric Irish genius Professor Haggerty, his daughter
Cassiopeia, and Gabblerdictum the Martian parrot. The appearance of this trio
was generally preceded by an establishing stock shot of the then-new Empress
State Building in West London. Recurring adversaries in the series include the
plant-like Duos of Uranus and Tyro, ruler of Neptune. Anybody much younger than
forty will be shocked by the pronunciation of Uranus.
The series was not entirely free
of the sexism characteristic of that era, but the blonde and highly intelligent
Marla would often remind Raeburn that “There are no dumb blondes on Venus.” It
should be noted that Roberta Leigh was the first woman producer in Britain to
set up her own film company.
Galaspheres have superseded
rockets as the space vehicle of choice, but unlike Fireball XL5 they remain largely confined to the Solar System, with
realistic travel times to the planets. Pluto is six months away, Jupiter twenty
days. A galasphere consists of a ring-shaped crew section connected to a
central stem by three spokes. They have three modes of propulsion: a primary
drive for take-off and landing, an orbital drive for low-speed planetary operations,
and meson power for interplanetary travel. Gamma rays and ‘yobba’ rays also need
to be activated before a galasphere can take off.
Meson power can sustain speeds
of up to 800,000 miles per hour (1.3 million km per hour), and in an emergency
can be boosted to up to one million miles per hour (1.6 million km per hour) for
short periods. However, boosting the meson power is risky. It is not clear why
galaspheres cannot simply continue to accelerate once they reach a certain
speed (presumably the writers were unfamiliar with Newton’s laws of motion). When
in flight, galaspheres are surrounded by a rotating spherical field and emit a
distinctive warbling sound. Galaspheres can hover above the surface of a
planet, or even travel underwater. They are armed with a laser gun, but this
has to be operated by setting it up in the airlock and opening the outer vacuum
door before it can be fired. The term ‘galasphere’ (galaxy sphere) was possibly
inspired by ‘bathysphere’ (deep sphere). If so, given that the spacecraft were
not spherical, ‘bathyscaphe’ (deep ship) might have been a better choice, to
give ‘galascaphe’ (galaxy ship).
During interplanetary travel,
the crew go into a freezer for a pre-set period of time and a robot takes over.
In the event of an emergency, the timer can be overridden from Earth by a
faster-than-light ‘zirgon’ ray. Regardless of where a galasphere is at any time,
instantaneous communications between it and Earth are apparently possible. A
recurring problem for the Space Patrol is that galaspheres require a metal
called plutonite for their construction. Plutonite is only found on Pluto, and
stocks are all but exhausted. Fortunately, a supply is later discovered on an
asteroid.
Hover bikes are used for surface
travel similar to the type that were ubiquitous in the Anderson shows. The crew
carry gamma ray guns but typically use ‘plastifoam’ guns to render an opponent
immobile without harming them.
Although the number ‘347’ suggests
that the Space Patrol operates large numbers of galaspheres, it only has
landing facilities for one at a time: a pad atop a tall, broad-waisted building,
which for some reason swivels through 180 degrees and extends upwards before a
galasphere lands. The pad remains in the rotated and extended
position until the galasphere takes off again, at which point it promptly
returns to its original position.
Despite a very low budget, Space Patrol proved to be very popular. It
was broadcast regionally in the UK on the ITV network, first appearing on
Sunday, 7 April 1963 on ABC Television in the Midlands and North regions. In
the London area, it was shown on weekdays by Associated-Rediffusion. ABC did
not broadcast the final episodes until summer 1968.
Space
Patrol was sold overseas and broadcast in the United States, Canada
and Australia. It was retitled Planet
Patrol in the United States to distinguish it from an earlier US series,
which had also been titled Space Patrol.
J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the 1990s science-fiction series Babylon 5 described Space Patrol as his favourite TV show as a child.
Unlike the Anderson shows, Space Patrol was never repeated in the
UK, and it was considered lost until 1997, when Leigh discovered that she had a
complete set of 16 mm prints in her lock-up garage. The series was subsequently
released in VHS and later DVD formats.
Roberta Leigh continued to work until a year before her death in December 2014, a few days short of her 88th birthday. Arthur Provis made commercials until his retirement. He died in May this year, aged 91.
