Fireball XL5: The Vault

3 - Super R + Joe 90/Planet Of Platonia

In spite of deciding to continue with a third series of Supercar, Grade felt that a new SUPERMARIONATION series would be easier to sell in the hopes that it could be even bigger than the last series. Supercar had performed well in syndication in the UK and US, but it was more likely for a new series to be picked up by a network than an older one. APF's immediate response to the success of Supercar was promoted as a proposition of an extension to the concept that would have had more space adventures. The first Supercar annual published in 1962 shared its cover with a number of pages inside of Super-R, a rocket developed by Professor Popkiss and Dr. Beaker out from the US government funding. The final page of the annual hints at further adventures of the Super-R, which indeed was in the minds of the team of APF Films in Slough. Anderson presented with a choice of formats. Century 21 was a colour sci-fi adventure series named after the United States Space Patrol ship with a detachable nose cone that could land on alien planets. Set in 2962, the series was hoped by Anderson to be shot in colour. Anderson proposed a forty page dossier about the series which was to be "A new and exciting children's series". The concept brochure for Century 21 described Colonel Zodiac and Dr Venus as the "Mr and Miss America" of 2962. The other format Anderson proposed was for a series to combine live-action with puppetry about the story of Little Joe, an American boy who dreamed of being "Joe 90", the pilot of Space Patrol Vehicle 1 Zero. Joe 90 on his crew in the SPV would be joined by his sister Debbie, brother-in-law Gary, niece Cindy-Lou, and navigator Matthew Matic.

The first episode of the Joe 90 series was to have seen the SPV 1 Zero landing on a planet of giants, with Joe's crew trapped in a spider's web, and Gary being rescued from the Goon and his two monkey servants. Various artwork showed Joe 90 and Professor Matic zooming around on jetmobiles, and Canadian husband and wife broadcasters Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly were suggested to play Little Joe's parents. The puppet's voices were planned to be Braden, Sylvia Anderson, David Graham, crazy humorist Spike Milligan (The Goon Show), and Kenneth Connor returning from Four Feather Falls.  Grade, however, played it safe and went for the first series, stipulating that it would have to be filmed in black and white. The year was moved to 2062 so that the events shown in the new series would be less "way-out" sci-fi and more realistic to the day after tomorrow concept. Here, we would start to see Anderson's predictions for a globalised future. The United States Patrol became The World Space Patrol. In February 1962, the new series was announced with a title of Nova X 100 before the series was settled on Fireball XL5. Anderson later claimed that he got the "XL" title from a can of Castrol XL which was a famous brand of engine oil, "...there was a motor oil being advertised at the time called Castrol XL. I thought it had a good ring to it, and I added the '5' to make it a little different." Fireball XL5 was planned for an episode run of 26, but extended to 39 so as to match Supercar's run. Future slang names would begin to be used in this next series, such as "Tootie", perhaps inspired from Arthur Provis' habit of describing people as "an old toot". The idea of a craft launching into space on a ramp as opposed to straight upwards, as Fireball XL5 launched upwards into space with, was proposed as a result of rumours from Russia during the space race. With the concept set in stone, pre-production imminently followed.

PLANET OF PLATONIA; 

Written by Alan Fennell

Directed by David Elliott

Original UK Airdate: 20th January 1963 (ATV London, Anglia and Ulster)

Additional Voice Cast:

Bizann John Bluthal Volvo David Graham

The space fighter footage was reused from the episode Planet 46, as was the entire sequence where Steve prepared to destroy it. A personal favourite of mine, we get to see the creative writing team of the series once again take another gear up to help develop their capabilities with this key episode. The blast off of Fireball is still treated as a major event in an episode with the impressive, looming images of the mighty spacecraft, with music once again superbly supplied by Barry Gray. This is also the episode where we see Steve Zodiac to be tougher than we think. After suspecting Volvo of treachery, he takes him aboard Fireball XL5 where Volvo is suspected of planting a bomb aboard the ship. And indeed he had, inside Robert the Robot. On a ship together with little time left to live, we see both Zodiac and Volvo sweat it out to see if Volvo will crack and tell where the hidden bomb is. Steve takes the bomb away safely before it detonates (spoilers! which is in the very nature of a book like this). In this complex episode, we also see a rather interesting political system described to a younger audience, demonstrating that the creative writing team not only could tell exciting stories to children, but also remain accessible to a wider range of audiences through intelligent writing.