One of the most important aspects of any television production is a great theme tune, and the Anderson shows were blessed with some of the all-time greats! In anticipation of hearing many of them being performed live at the Stand by for Action! concert in Birmingham next April, we’re counting down our top ten favourite Anderson television show theme tunes! …
Undeterred by the fact that they live one hundred years apart, Dr. Beaker and Professor Matic have been getting their heads together. The results are, as you might expect, most satisfactory and real boss! Before you think we’ve gone completely tootie, may we suggest you join us and our friends at Network for a very special evening’s entertainment where you …
Natural phenomena do not think or feel or act with hostile intent, but that doesn’t make some of them any less deadly. “Matt! Venus! Back to Fireball Junior! Quickly!” Steve Zodiac’s words echoed urgently around the barren landscape. Mounting their jetmobiles and starting the small motors, the trio turned and made their way at full power towards the speck of …
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s much-loved Supermarionation series has been remastered in High Definition from original 35mm film elements for this special edition Blu-ray collection! The year is 2062, and World Space Patrol ship Fireball XL5 is assigned to Sector 25, where intrepid pilot Steve Zodiac, ably assisted by Doctor Venus and Professor Matthew Matic, faces such dangers as planetomic missiles, …
As discussed on this week’s edition of the Gerry Anderson Podcast, multiple techniques were used to show puppet scale guns firing in Supermarionation shows! Gunshots started off in Four Feather Falls mostly as paint on negative film – and later evolved into miniature charges and even lights on the end of guns by Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet!
Across thirty-nine episodes, the crew of Fireball XL5 faced a variety of dangerous adversaries as they patrolled Sector 25. In addition to the show’s regular pair of villains, the Subterrains of Planet 46 and Boris and Griselda Space Spy, there was also an assortment of guest villains who each only ever made one appearance in the series. Some were renegade …
From the control room of XL8, Steve Zodiac and the others watched speechlessly as the rock Colossus advanced slowly towards them. It must have been hundreds, maybe even a thousand feet in height. But what exactly was it? Perhaps a form of sentient rock? Steve thought it was possible. He knew there had been rumours of rock lifeforms on Mars, …
The mighty retro motors of XL5 roared into life, slowing the huge craft as it approached the bizarre cluster of asteroids ahead. Captain Steve Zodiac checked in with Professor Matic and requested an update. From the centre of his revolving desk in the observation bay, the Professor spun around and took a reading on the spacemascope. “There’s a faint trace …
The Anderson shows presented a number of idealised father figure characters for their viewers to look up to over the decades – so many in fact that almost all of his shows included some kind of patriarchal figure at the core of the story, whether the rest of that show’s cast of characters were a family or not. That wasn’t …
The shows of Gerry Anderson are known to have inspired all kinds of things in our real world culture, and Fireball XL5 is no exception. The Hotol project was a rocketry project that was very similar to one particular launch sequence – discussed in the FAB Facts section of this week’s edition of the Gerry Anderson Podcast!
jellyphone: This is great, but you know you can vote Barry Gray as well?...