By Ashley R. Pollard

The United Kingdom has recently been blessed with yet another televised science fiction spectacular: Space Patrol, is a brand new puppet show produced by Roberta Leigh for the Associated British Corporation. (I'm informed that this new series will be renamed when it's shown on American TV to Planet Patrol.)

Set in the year 2100, the story chronicles the adventures of Captain Larry Dart and the crew of Galasphere 347. He is aided by Slim from Venus, and Husky from Mars. The former elfin like, the latter stocky with a love for sausages.

They work for the United Galactic Organization whose headquarters are set in New York.

There is also a large supporting cast including: Colonel Raeburn their boss, and Marla his blonde assistant from Venus, who gets this wonderful line of dialogue: "There are no dumb blondes on Venus." They're joined on occasion by Professor Aloysius O’Brien O’Rourke Haggerty, and his daughter Cassiopeia. Appearing with them is their pet Martian parrot called, Gabblerdictum.

Space Patrol's creator, Roberta Leigh (actually Rita Lewin née Shulman) is what I understand Americans call a bit of a mover and shaker.

Not only is she the first woman to own her own television production company — National Interest Pictures — but she's also an author with her novel In Name Only, published in 1950. In addition, she is also an accomplished abstract artist, and music composer.

I became aware of her first through the children's show Sara and Hoppity, about a dolls hospital, which was based on one of her novels. But, she's probably better known for her collaboration with AP Films who produced Torchy the Battery Boy, a charming and delightful children's show directed by Gerry Anderson.

While Hoppity and Torchy were both aimed at the younger audience, Patrol looks to be aimed at a slightly older age group. Driven by the current interest in all things to do with space, this show introduces science fiction to a receptive audience.

Or at least, so I surmise from the reaction of my friend's young son whom I babysit, who sat enraptured while watching the first episode, as he did watching the other popular SF marionette shows, Supercar and Fireball XL5. Like Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation series', Space Patrol puppets have mouth movements that are synchronized with the voice actors' words.

Also of note, is the use of electronic music for the opening and closing credits, composed by Roberta Leigh. She really is a polymath of some considerable talent. While this is not the first time electronic music has been used for a production, as that credit must go to my favourite SF film of all time, Forbidden Planet, it's still a first for television. One wonders if it will set a trend for British SF shows.

So far six episodes of Space Patrol have been transmitted:

The first, The Swamps of Jupiter, involves the crew being sent to investigate a scientific base they've lost contact with on Jupiter. OK, we shall have to overlook the small fact that Jupiter is a gas giant.

But what's interesting is that in many other respects the story sticks to what might be considered plausible science, in particular, transit time. The crew therefore travel in a freezer for their three-month journey from Earth to Jupiter. Compare this to how space travel and distances are dealt with in Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5. In Space Patrol ships take months to travel around the Solar system while Fireball XL5 travels to other stars in no time at all.

Anyway, Swamps has the crew stop Martian hunters who murdered all the scientists, and who are now hunting and killing sentient aliens for their fur. Boo hiss. But Captain Dart and Crewman Husky bring them to justice.

The second episode, The Wandering Asteroid, sees our intrepid heroes take on the mission to destroy a rogue asteroid that is heading towards the Martian capital of Wotan. Given the increased awareness in the threat that asteroids pose to life on Earth, this seems a most apt subject for a series about travel in space.

I'm sure this would make a good plot for a large budget Hollywood action film.

In episode three, The Dark Planet, we are introduced to Professor Haggerty and his daughter Cassiopeia. They're scientists researching plants from Uranus that appear to think. After twenty people sent to survey Uranus are lost, the crew of Galasphere 347 go to investigate. The plants turn out to be less than friendly, and I don't know why, but the story reminded me of the 1960 Roger Corman movie, Little Shop of Horrors, with talking plants killing people.

Episode four is called, The Slaves of Neptune, a title that elicits a da, da, dum for setting the tone of the story. Galasphere 347 is sent to investigate. They discover that a Neptunian overlord named Tyro is behind the mysterious disappearance of a colony spaceship. He's using his dastardly hypnotic power to enslave people.

The fifth episode is called, The Fires of Mercury. The story is driven by the freezing conditions threatening the colony on Pluto. Marla, the very smart blonde Venusian assistant to Colonel Raeburn, realizes that the disaster can be alleviated by transmitting energy from Mercury using Professor Haggerty's invention that converts heat into radio waves.

The last episode I've watched was The Shrinking Spaceman. The gallant crew of Galasphere 347 go off to repair a sonar beam transmitter in the asteroid belt and Husky the Martian shrinks after cutting himself on one of the rocks. Put into suspended animation and taken back to Earth, Professor Haggerty is in a race against time to save him.

In Space Patrol mankind has met aliens from stars, and law and order is being brought to the worlds. At the end of each episode we see a city of the future, clean and marvelous.  The age to come certainly looks promising, and with another twenty episodes to be aired, our immediate future also looks bright.