Space Patrol (1962 TV series)

Premise

In the year 2100, the indigenous and autonomous civilisations on Earth, Mars and Venus have banded together to form the United Galactic Organization (UGO). Space Patrol is the UGO's military wing, and the series follows the actions of this interplanetary force, focusing on the missions of a tiny unit led by the heroic, bearded Captain Larry Dart (voiced by Dick Vosburgh). The humanoids on his crew are two males: the elfin Slim from Venus, and the stocky, ravenously sausage-mad Husky from Mars (both voiced by Ronnie Stevens). Dart and his crew regularly use one of two interplanetary space vehicles, the Galasphere 347 and the Galasphere 024.

Providing technical support from Earth is an Irish professor, Aloysius O'Brien O'Rourke Haggarty (voiced by Stevens) – to his constant dismay, called "Pop" by his daughter Cassiopeia (voiced by Libby Morris). Haggarty's garrulous pet "gabblerdictum" (a parrot-like Martian creature, also voiced by Morris) accompanies the crew on rare occasions. Keeping them all on a tight rein are Colonel Raeburn (voiced by Murray Kash) and his super-efficient female Venusian secretary, Marla (voiced by Morris), both also based on Earth.

Male Venusians (such as Slim) have androgynous features, in contrast with the more rustic and virile male Martians. Although the series reflects gender roles characteristic of the culture and era that produced it, the blonde and brainy Marla often points out that "There are no dumb blondes on Venus." Indeed, the series was created and written by Roberta Leigh, the first woman producer in Britain to have her own film company.

Setting

The characters consistently and erroneously refer to the Solar System as a "galaxy" (except in the episode "The Talking Bell", when "Solar System" is used). Other star systems are referred to as "other galaxies". The planets of the Solar System are under the administration of Galactic Control.

The Galasphere is constructed of plutonite (a material mined from Pluto) and can travel underwater. It runs on "meson power" and has a top speed of about 800000 mph. Meson power is dangerous to use in an atmosphere. In "The Talking Bell", the crew initiate "Boost Speed", which is dangerous but allows them to travel at almost 1000000 mph for a sustained period. The Galasphere's engine also employs gamma rays and "yobba rays". The ship is equipped with a force field that protects it from enemy missiles or even mind control. Because of technological limitations, travel to other Solar System planets takes weeks or months. Therefore, the characters transfer control of the Galasphere to a robot and are placed in suspended animation for each journey. A faster-than-light zirgon ray can be fired from Earth to revive them early if needed.

In "The Rings of Saturn" and some other episodes, the crew ride the Galasphere 024 rather than the Galasphere 347. References to Galasphere 024 are, for the most part, continuity errors introduced by the repeated re-use of stock footage from the first episode, "The Swamps of Jupiter". Although referred to as "024" during takeoff, the Galasphere's designation often reverts to "347" later in the same episode.

Life support in hazardous atmospheres is provided by "mo-lungs" ("mobile lungs"): sealed, cylindrical, transparent helmets. However, characters are also shown on Pluto and other bodies without spacesuits or thermal gear. They ride on "Hover Jets" or, more rarely, an "Ion Gun", which resembles a giant sparkler. To communicate with aliens, they use dial-selector translators (for example, to address aliens from Pluto, they dial P). The translators do not pick up new languages instantly. Instead, they have to be programmed on Earth before they can be used, a lengthy process requiring recordings of alien languages.

Episodes

Production

Space Patrol was filmed in converted church buildings in Stoke Newington and Harlesden, London. Arthur Provis, Gerry Anderson's former business partner, was responsible for the cinematography. The production was completed in two blocks consisting of 26 and 13 episodes, which together make up a single series. The final 13 episodes employ refurbished puppets and sets, and are copyrighted "1962 Wonderama Productions" in the closing credits (the first 26 episodes display no copyright information).

Various puppets from the series were re-used in later Leigh productions including Wonderboy and Tiger and Send for Dithers. These colour films reveal that the Gabblerdictum bird was bright pink. Other than two end papers from the 1966 TV Comic Annual, no colour photographs from the series have survived. The TV Comic images indicate that the puppets were dressed in monochromatic uniforms, though most comic and book illustrations depict them as red and silver.

The series' only music is avant-garde, the theme music being devised by Leigh herself using electronic equipment that she bought locally after asking an assistant for anything that made interesting sounds. Fred Judd was responsible for creating all the electronic music for the series; he was an early electronic experimenter, amateur radio expert, circuit designer, and writer for many wireless and electronics magazines from the 1950s to the 1990s.

The closing credits, which present panoramic views over a megacity of the future, do not feature music. Instead, they are accompanied by a throb of industrial machinery (sounding like a giant pump or a steam engine). They list Colin Ronan as a "space consultant".

Broadcast

The various ITV franchises began airing the series on different dates. Episodes were not necessarily shown in a particular order. In some parts of the UK, the series was split into blocks of episodes that were transmitted weeks or months apart. ABC Weekend TV was the first to start broadcasting the series, from Sunday 7 April 1963. However, it took more than four years to air all 39 episodes.

In the London area, Space Patrol was shown on Thursdays at 5.25 pm by Associated-Rediffusion (A-R) beginning on 5 July 1963. A-R screened the first 26 episodes in random order, beginning with "The Wandering Asteroid". It then aired the final 13 episodes in the correct order, the last ten of them after shortening its name to "Rediffusion". It concluded the run on 11 June 1964, becoming the first ITV franchise to do so.

The series continued to be shown on parts of the ITV network until 1970. After this, it went unseen for more than 50 years, until nostalgia channel Talking Pictures TV began showing repeats in 2024.

International

The series was sold overseas and broadcast in the US, Canada and Australia. Despite its low budget, it rated strongly with young audiences in many regions (including New York City) and gained a large fan following. Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has said that it was his favourite TV show as a child.

In the US, the series was distributed by M & A Alexander Productions. It debuted on WPIX, a local New York station, on Sunday, 12 January 1964, at 5:30 pm. It was sponsored by Drake's Cakes. The show appeared in Los Angeles in September 1964 on KHJ-TV.

Space Patrol was also broadcast in Malta.

Home media

For many years it was believed that all but a few episodes had been destroyed, until a complete cache of 16 mm prints was discovered in the garage of Leigh's home. Despite their scratched and grainy condition, they were of sufficient historic interest to warrant a commercial release, initially on VHS, and later on DVD. Two episodes have survived from the original 35 mm prints and these were later made available on Blu-ray.

DVD

A "best of" DVD release appeared in 2001, comprising six episodes: "The Swamps of Jupiter", "The Wandering Asteroid", "The Robot Revolution", "The Rings of Saturn," "Husky Becomes Invisible" and "Mystery on the Moon", including transfers of the two 35 mm episodes and other special features.

The definitive DVD release, released in 2004, is a six-disc PAL Region 0 box set in containing all 39 episodes with a range of extras.

Episodes

Disc 1

• "The Swamps of Jupiter"
• "The Wandering Asteroid"
• "The Dark Planet"
• "The Slaves of Neptune"
• "The Shrinking Spaceman"
• "The Forgers"

Disc 2

• "The Robot Revolution"
• "The Rings of Saturn"
• "Husky becomes Invisible"
• "The Buried Spacecraft"
• "Mystery on the Moon"
• "The Glowing Eggs of Titan"
• "The Walking Lake of Jupiter"

Disc 3

• "Time Stands Still"
• "Message from a Star"
• "The Fires of Mercury"
• "The Invisible Invasion"
• "The New Planet"
• "The Human Fish"

Disc 4

• "The Planet of Light"
• "The Talking Bell"
• "The Miracle Tree of Saturn"
• "The Cloud of Death"
• "The Planet of Thought"
• "Explosion on the Sun"
• "Volcanoes of Venus"

Disc 5

• "The Unknown Asteroid"
• "The Evil Eye of Venus"
• "Secret Formula"
• "The Telepathic Robot"
• "Deadly Whirlwind"
• "The Jitter Waves"
• "Sands of Death"

Disc 6

• "The Hairy Men of Mars"
• "The Grass of Saturn"
• "Forcefield X"
• "The Water Bomb"
• "Destruction by Sound"
• "The Shrinking Gas of Jupiter"

Special features

• Sara and Hoppity episode
• Roberta Leigh interview
• National Interest Pictures brochure
• The Adventures of Twizzle episode
• Arthur Provis interview
• Dick Vosburgh Interview
• Mr Hero pilot
• J. Michael Straczynski interview
• Commercial break bumpers
• Paul Starr pilot
• Andy Partridge interview
• Send for Dithers episode (also in 3-disc set)
• Wonder Boy & Tiger episode (also in 3-disc set)
• The Solarnauts pilot

Blu-ray

In March 2018, Network Distributing announced that a region-free Blu-ray box set of the complete series, restored using the latest technology, would be released on 2 April of that year. There are no subtitles or special features.

Other media

A small number of Space Patrol episodes were made available in the Standard 8 and Super 8 home movie formats from Mountain Films in the 1960s and 1970s. Episodes known to have been released in this format are: "The Swamps of Jupiter", "The Miracle Tree of Saturn", "The Robot Revolution" and "Mystery on the Moon." The films were released in 400' sound editions, and packaging for all titles used the same artwork as the first release, "Mystery on the Moon." The title Space Patrol did not appear anywhere on the packaging. The films were all around 16 minutes long, with most of the material coming from the second act of the episodes. The complete series was released by Network on VHS following the recovery of the episodes in the late 1990s.

Comics

A number of comic strip adaptations of Space Patrol were produced:

• TV Comic: 52 double-page strips forming the centrespread of each issue, in issue no's 668 dated 3 October 1964 to 719 dated 25 September 1965. They were written by Roberta Leigh herself and illustrated by artist Bill Mevin, and in colour it was shown that Venusians had blue skin and Martians green.
• The Beezer: from issue 558 dated 24 September 1966 to issue 583 dated 18 March 1967, illustrated by artist Terry Patrick (i.e. 26 2-page colour episodes in total).
• Two Gold Token Super Mag comic books published in UK by Young World Productions Ltd. See issue 12 dated June 1964 and issue 24 dated December 1964. Young World Productions published two issues of Gold Token Super Mag every month featuring various licensed properties
• A World Distributors hardback story book with two text stories by Roberta Leigh featuring illustrations by R. W. Smethurst. Title: Space Patrol and the Secret Weapon, copyright 1965 by Wonderama Productions Ltd.

References

References

1. "Space Patrol: Publicity Photos".
2. Pixley, Andrew. (28 April 2004). "Scheduled for Success".
3. (1985). "Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946–1981, Part II: Live, Film, And Tape Series". The Scarecrow Press.
4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100523154735/http://homepages.tesco.net/~space.patrol/SpacePatrol/SlimH.htm Space Patrol: The Website: Slim's Encyclopedia: H]
5. (23 December 2014). "Roberta Leigh – obituary". The Telegraph.
6. (2016). "The Worlds of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson: The Story Behind International Rescue". Fonthill Media.
7. (1997). "Space Patrol: The Complete Series". TV Zone Yearbook.
8. Fulton, Roger. (2000). "Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction". [[Macmillan Publishers.
9. "What's on Talking Pictures TV?".
10. [http://www.allmovie.com/work/space-patrol-tv-series-307171 allmovie.com – ''Space Patrol'']
11. Broadcasting, 27 January 1964.
12. "Outstanding Films Scheduled by KHJ." Los Angeles Times, 13 September 1964
13. ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXSlmZt4qlM Paul Starr]'', URL accessed 13 July 2015
14. "Andy Partridge Interview Re. Space Patrol".
15. "Send For Dithers".
16. "Space Patrol: The Complete Series [BLU-RAY] [PRE-ORDER]".