Fireball XL5: The Vault

37 - Century 22/The Day In The Life Of A Space General

This section of the book analyses the stories Century 22 has released of Fireball XL5 stories. No major spoilers will be revealed of any of the works in this chapter. As of the 60th Anniversary of the series, Century 22 has published 6 Fireball XL5 related works (minus cameos) in story form, factual books, or SUPERMARIONATION crossovers. The first, The Deepest Reach Into The Unknown (2019), was decided on the sixteenth Century 22 story. Having felt that after 3 works of non-Gerry Anderson related stories, it was time to do another series based on his wonderful works. Fireball XL5 was chosen because the time felt right to do it, and that being one of my lesser favourite Anderson shows (even if I love the majority of his works including Fireball XL5) I felt that there was less chance for me to mess up doing a Fireball XL5. This was why I did a Thunderbirds so late because I postponed the series, feeling that I might not do it justice and that if I did do a Thunderbirds story, I would have a lot at stake to get right. By that point, I had already formed a strong Gerry Anderson following so when I came to Thunderbirds, followers were eagerly waiting for it.

As stated in the opening chapter, I decided to go in a more serious direction for my Fireball XL5 story. The story was set early in 2064, the silly humour was absent, a jab at the oxygen pills was made (which I removed feeling that it was not right to do), and introduced a dark horror element into the episode. Powerful wormholes had been opening inexplicably in space and had sucked various Fireball ships inside. The fate of the crew of each of those ships was inferred to have been grim indeed. Commander Zero joined the Fireball XL5 team on this occasion, and Zoonie at one stage was presumed dead by his team. Fortunately, all the XL5 crew escaped alive and the story ends with a serious speech given by Colonel Zodiac. In some ways, I do like the darker elements of the story but at the same time it was unlike anything seen in the show, so in other ways, I do regret being a little too dark in the story. The cover for that story was from the Region 1 DVD release.

By 2020, I had set upon the idea of doing crossovers with the SUPERMARIONATION series and began with a crossover of Doctor Who and Thunderbirds. Knowing at some point I'd do a full SUPERMARIONATION crossover with all 7 series, I aimed to establish a universe within the 7 shows. Various spin-off media such as the comics had helped to suggest this. In which case, a small cameo of Commander Zero and Lieutenant Ninety appeared in Doctor Who/Thunderbirds: Leader Of The IronSword, now set in 2068. They seemed the most suitable series to be included for a scene where an orb begins to approach the Earth's atmosphere. Space City tracked the orb from their monitors, making their small appearance justifiable. By the time I got to The Worlds Of SUPERMARIONATION: The Hatching Horror (2022), I had set up a universe within the SUPERMARIONATION series Stingray, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

In between this there was Bring The Magic Home: The Story Of ITC's Carlton Home Video Entertainment (2021). It was a book I decided to about the ITC shows released over Carlton's VHS/DVD branding because it was through their media was how I got into the ITC programming - and Fireball XL5 was among one of many Anderson shows to be included in this batch. Each Anderson show released by Carlton in the UK received its own chapter, unlike many other ITC series Carlton released. It was a straightforward chapter for Fireball XL5, and those facts from that publishing also appear in this Vault book too. 

For the crossover in 2022, it was time for the other series to be brought into the mix. The crossovers were set in 2069, several years after the original series where the World Space Patrol were still in commission. One interesting note from the SUPERMARIONATION series, now all being crossover is how can the WSP fly to the deepest reaches of the universe but never have set foot on Mars until the crew of the Zero X broke that record. A simple explanation was devised. The interests of the space organisations had wanted to venture out deeper into the universe and discover new worlds as opposed to sticking solely to the solar system.