Fireball XL-5

Fireball XL5 was a scifi-themed children's TV show following the missions of spaceship Fireball XL5, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. The show was created in 1962 by British husband and wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Using marionettes, miniatures, and special effects, the show was an early example of Supermarionation, ostensibly the technical process of having the puppets' mouths move along with the soundtrack, but which has come to refer to the Andersons' unique form of television entertainment.

Set between the years 2062 and 2063, the series features the missions of spaceship Fireball XL5, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. The crew includes the glamorous Doctor Venus, middle-aged navigator and engineer Professor Matthew Matic and co-pilot Robert the Robot, notable for being transparent.

Fireball XL5 is based at Space City, located on an unnamed island in the South Pacific, headquarters of the World Space Patrol headed by Commander Zero. Zero is assisted by Lieutenant Ninety. There is a fleet of at least 30 'Fireball XL' ships, of which XL5 is the most famous. The ship itself is made up of two detachable sections. The winged nose cone, known as Fireball Junior, contains the cockpit and separates from the main body to land on other worlds. The rest of the ship contains the navigation bay, laboratory, a huge lounge, workshops and separate crews quarters, along with the fuel and main nutomic rocket motors for interstellar travel. It would generally keep station in orbit after arriving at an alien planet. When Fireball XL5 returns to Space City the whole ship lands vertically (i.e., without separating).

Fireball XL5 patrols Sector 25 of charted interstellar space on missions of three months' duration, but is also on call when at base. Semi-regulars in the series were the villainous space spies Boris and Griselda, with their antiquated space ship S.S. Thor (S.S. stands for Space Spy) and the evil green alien Subterrains of Planet 46.

The series spawned a number of successful licensed merchandising spin-offs including toys, an MPC playset with rocket ship and figures, model kits including a plastic kit of Fireball XL5 itself, puppets, ray guns, comic strips and annuals. In Britain, a 2-page b/w Fireball XL5 comic strip appeared in the weekly TV Comic between 1962-1964 before moving to the newly launched weekly TV Century 21 comic in January 1965 for another 5 years. The strips that appeared between 1965-1968 were in colour only reverting to b/w in 1969. Four hard cover Annual books were published in Britain by Collins between 1963-1966 featuring color/b&w comic strip and text stories, while in the United States Gold Key Comics printed a single issue full colour comic book in 1963 and Little Golden Books published a hard cover colour illustrated story book in 1964. During the mid-1960's there were also three soft cover colouring/puzzle books published in Britain and one soft cover coloring/story book published in the United States.