UK Mall 1 - Space Patrol - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1-4 [1963]

'The Swamps Of Jupiter' introduces, though expands little on, the main characters in a tale of illegal animal hunting. Scientific ideas mix with fantastic extrapolations to give a interesting view of the future, and the puppet 'fist-fight' must be a brief but effective first!

'The Wandering Asteroid' sees Roberta Leigh pre-empting films like 'Deep Impact' and 'Armageddon' by some 25 years with the crew of Galasphere 347 given the mission of destroying an asteroid on a collision course with Mars. In respects like this, the series was ahead of its time...

'The Dark Planet' is Uranus, inhabited by giant intelligent plants, and Galasphere 347 lands there to learn why a previous mission disappeared. Not a great story but the scenes on Uranus are suitably atmospheric and Husky and Slim's flight from the pursuing plants is something not to be missed...

'The Slaves Of Neptune' sees how far the series develops in just a handful of episodes with a packed and gripping story when colony ships bound for Pluto vanish. Investigating, Galasphere 347 also disappears from Earth tracking after sighting one of the missing ships...

'Space Patrol' has a tendency to be a little uneven when compared to slicker productions like 'Fireball XL5' but it has a tendency to grow on you. Darker and more mysterious than the action packed Gerry Anderson series, it will probably have a slower impact but it is one which stays with you for much longer.

It's a long time ago but I can still vividly remember being mesmerised by the weird, unearthly opening tune (eat you heart out Ron Grainger!). Then there was the opening shot of a boiling, blazing sun (complete with solar flares), quickly giving way to the whirling, mysterious Galasphere wending its way through the Solar system.

Though the show relied on relatively few sets, the ones they used were superb - especially for the time. The signature shot of the view downwards as a Galasphere takes off from United Galactic Organisation HQ, was still fresh in my mind when watching the videos nearly three decades later.

Roberta Leigh, who created, wrote and directed the show, was keen to be as scientifically accurate as possible. To that end she consulted with Colin Ronan, who was then Vice President of the British Astronomical Society. This made the shows seem wonderfully authoritative to me at the time. I was For example, rather than just taking off and arriving "moments" later, the space travellers went into suspended animation to make their journeys. As a dedicated reader of "Look and Learn", I was well impressed with this accuracy. Of course, they didn't get everything right, as episode titles such as "The Swamps of Jupiter" suggest. In fact most planets were rather Earth-like but, I think we can put this down to dramatic reasons, rather than laziness.

"Space Patrol" was populated by a rich cast of "real" (for a puppet show) characters. The main "star" was Captain Larry Dart, normally accompanied by his trusty sidekicks the Martian Rusty (probably the first person ever to have a gelled-up, spiky haircut), and the Venusian Slim. Perhaps my favourite character was the Martian parrot Gabbladictum who was taught to speak English by Professor Haggerty, who was a bit of a stereotype (begoraah!).

So how well has the series stood up after nearly 30 years? The answer is very well indeed. This is probably down to the strength of its stores. Despite being a 27 year old kid's puppet show (and in black and white), "Space Patrol" is still hugely entertaining viewing.

So, "Engage Yobba Rays!" and buy the videos.