Fireball XL5: The Vault

30 - Colourisation/Drama At Space City

A Special Edition DVD set of the series was released by Network Distributing on 20th June 2009. This new set included two new documentaries A Wonderland Of Stardust and Drawn In SUPERMARIONATION (which looked into the comic strip adventures of the series), as well as the Zoom Ice Lolly ads, still galleries, PDF Material, and Bill Melvin's Supercar Home Movie, which showed exclusive footage of the making of Supercar. A commemorative booklet from TV Historian Andrew Pixley was included inside. The DVD cover perfectly matched the 1963 Annual for the series, a nice little nod to hardcore fans of the series. The DVD, like the annual, gives the impression of Fireball leaping out to the reader/viewer.

As the video describes, Legend Films completed a colourisation of the popular episode The Day In The Life Of A Space General. The company were asked to complete this for ITV studios and Network for the Fireball XL5 DVD re-release. The episode was scanned in HD, colourised, and released on an exclusive Blu Ray on 26th October 2009. This was the second Blu Ray release of any Gerry Anderson related series. The Blu Ray contained an extended version of A Wonderland Of Stardust and also contained a HD episode of Four Feather Falls - Gunfight On Main Street. The brilliant results of the colourisation were screened in London and impressed even Anderson himself. Indeed, the results are breathtaking by today's standards, considering the fact that no colour footage exists to extract the data from the chroma dots to see what the colours are, as in the case of recolourising black and white episodes that were meant to be in colour, the colourisation is extremely impressive. Obviously, colour photos and other reference material were used to find out what the colours were. And what an episode they chose! The artists had to colourise the massive destruction of Space City and Fireball XL5 in Ninety's dream!

Also in 2009, Silva Screen records released their Stand By For Action - the music of Barry Gray album, which complied more tracks from the series Gray composed for Anderson. From Fireball XL5, the series' titles, and the themes for This Is The Twist, Formula Five, and I wish I Was A Spaceman (single version) were released. The TV21 Themes record was also rereleased for Fanderson members in 2010, which contained the theme song Fireball XL5. A new book was released by Robin Day from Space City Sales titled Out Of Time and was charged £6.75 for the paperback novel for 184 pages, with a cover by Pauline Day. On Tuesday 11th January 2011, Royal Mail stamps of the SUPERMARIONATION shows were produced to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the puppet franchise. The same year, Dominic Halpin produced his remix for Fireball. In 2012, Fanderson released a new soundtrack to the series which featured all the music from the previous album as well as new scores from The Granatoid Tanks, The Day In The Life Of A Space General, and Space City Special. The Cass Canarby Five set from 2013, released by Silva Screen records and limited to only 1,500 units contained the same Formula Five and This Is The Twist music. The DVD set from 2009 was rereleased on 11th March 2013, which contained the newly colourised episode, and the extended A Wonderland Of Stardust documentary.

DRAMA AT SPACE CITY;

Written by Anthony Marriott

Directed by Alan Pattillo

Original UK Airdate: 7th April 1963 (ATV London and Ulster)

Additional Voice Cast:

Uncle Hans John Bluthal Space Control Paul Maxwell

As reads his diary, flashback footage of The Doomed Planet and The Triads is shown, implying that those two episodes take place before this one. From the diary Steve reads, we might assume that the two previous stories was set in around July (either 2062 or 2063). This were to help extend the length of the shorter running time of the episode. Flashback episodes would be used again and again throughout Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, (UFO if you count Mindbender), Terrahawks, and Lavender Castle. The New Captain Scarlet episode Enigma also recalled flashbacks to previous episodes. When Zero and Eleanor read in bed, Zero's Stargazing magazine has a picture of Supercar on the cover. This episode is fully entertaining from start to finish. Steve and Venus are away on another well-deserved vacation to a beautiful villa where they go ice-skating together (the set of the ice-skating would later be reused for Stingray's A Christmas To Remember). Trouble then begins at Space City. Zonnie and Jonathan then take off in Fireball XL5 and it's up to Zero and Ninety to save them! Many more high-stakes are present throughout this story, just in time before Steve and Venus return together. Once again, Drama At Space City is one of my favourite episodes of the series.