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Not long arrived at Castel Crivens, the Fireball XL5 World Space Patrol Technical Operations Manual. You don't need to read my witterings on this one - if you're a Fireball fan the pictures will speak for themselves. Nice to see the TV Century 21 Astran 'jelly beans' included in the 'official' history of WSP continuity, as well as Fireball's prototype, C21, don't ya think? It also mentions planet Uraniture, where Steve Zodiac and his crew encountered some sinister snowmen in a classic TV21 tale. Available from The Official Gerry Anderson Store.
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7 comments:
No Fireball XL5 fans out there? Shocking!
Oh I did love this immensely (and the Superman book) but I'd commented quite a lot recently so didn't want to outstay my welcome :-) I was particularly intrigued by the biology of the Astrans. Most unusual. I'm a bit to young (honestly) to remember Fireball XL5 on TV, I suppose they only repeated colour Anderson programmes when I was growing up. I was amazed to find that the theme tune was sung by Don Spencer from Play School who I used to regularly watch going through the 'AAAAAAAAArched window' as he was Australian (and probably still is). I've just Googled him and he's 82 bless him. He is one of two presenters to work on both the Australian and UK version of Play School. Now I'm wondering who the other was. Surely not Floella?
Don Spencer's daughter married Russell Crowe, though I think they're divorced now. And there's little danger of outstaying your welcome by commenting, M, 'cos I don't get enough comments sometimes and could do with some more. I think the second Australian presenter of Play School in Oz and the UK was Diane Dorgan. The legendary Brian Cant was with the show for 21 years.
Hadn't heard of Dianne Dorgan but now I know in case that question ever comes up in a pub quiz. A few Anderson b&w episodes were colourized and issued on Blu-ray a couple of years ago. The clips I saw looked stunning but it was rather expensive to buy. There's a colour Fireball XL5 on YouTube but not sure if that's fan made. Do you think b&w episodes should be coloured or left as they are? They coloured some Hancock episodes last year and Doctor Who is always on YouTube in colour by fans. I think on the whole that although they are nice to see in colour, I prefer the way they were originally made.
I'd like to see Supercar and Fireball colourised, as that way they have a better chance of being repeated on mainstream TV and generating some new merchandise. I've got the colour XL5 episode on my DVD boxed set (I think) and it looks really good. If they were all in colour and I wanted to see them in black and white, I'd simply turn the colour down on my TV. That way, I could have the best of both worlds whenever the fancy took me.
Fireball XL5 was in my view was Andersons best show. The thing against it nowadays is it is in Black and White. Colour it and I doubt it would ever be off the TV screen. The stories were simple and entertaining and the puppetry looked like puppets not miniature human mannequins as the later Anderson shows became. Nice book by the way. Where did you score it from ?
I pre-ordered the book from The Official Gerry Anderson Store, which is run by Gerry's son, Jamie Anderson, LH. It was sent to me the minute it became available. The Talking Pictures channel is currently showing Stingray and was showing Fireball recently (might still be doing so), but Fireball would certainly be more of an attraction to a young audience if it was in colour.
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