[October 18, 1966] Moral Dilemmas and Earth in Peril: Space Patrol Orion Episode 2: "Planet Off Course"


by Cora Buhlert

Critical Voices

Last month, I wrote about the premiere of Raumpatrouille: Die Phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion (Space Patrol: The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion), West Germany's very first science fiction TV show. Since then, two more episodes have aired. But before we get to that, let's take a look at some reactions to the show, courtesy of both TV critics and viewers.

So far, science fiction had had no presence on West German TV, so professional TV critics were mostly baffled, to put it politely. The Berlin tabloid B.Z. called Orion "pseudoscientific nonsense" set in a "brainless utopia". The magazine Kirche und Fernsehen (Church and Television) lamented that the dialogues were too complicated for the viewers to understand, at least viewers not used to science fiction and gadget speak.

Hörzu October 1966
The latest issue of the Tv listings magazine Hörzu

Letters to the TV listings mag Hörzu show a range of audience reactions. Rolf Sch. from Bad Homburg declares that Orion is more suspenseful than Alfred Hitchcock and The Fugitive. Sebastian T. from Hamburg called Orion a milestone in the history of West German television and notes that Germany has not produced anything comparable since Fritz Lang's Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon) in 1929.

Horst B. from Hamburg and O.R. from Constance both lament that a TV show set in the year 3000 still focusses on war and military themes, since they hope that humanity would have overcome its destructive impulses by then. Gerhard B. from Heilbronn correctly points out that according to current demographic trends, it's extremely unlikely to have an all-white spaceship crew in the year 3000 AD. Peter H.R. from Ottenbronn complains about scientific issues and notes that faster-than-light travel is not possible and that the Orion crew is unaffected by zero gravity.

Letters to Hörzu
Hörzu readers comment on the first episode of Space Patrol Orion

Dieter L. from Neuhede believes that science fiction is only suitable for children and Heiner S. from Bielefeld calls the series a waste of money. For Jupp W. from Degerloh his dislike for Space Patrol Orion at least has a silver lining, namely lots of time to read. We here at the Journey certainly have some recommendations for him, though I suspect he would not like them.

A Thriller in Space

Episode 2 "Planet Außer Kurs" (Planet Off Course) opens with my favourite supporting character from episode 1, General Lydia Van Dyke (Charlotte Kerr) in deep trouble. Her spaceship, the Hydra, is battered by a magnetic storm and has just made an alarming discovery. A planet that has been thrown out of its orbit and is now headed straight for Earth. The footage of the fiery rogue planet, supposedly a ball coated with fire gel and set alight, is certainly impressive. Unfortunately, the script proves Hörzu reader Peter H.R. from Ottenbronn right and insists on calling the rogue planet a "supernova".

Space Patrol Orion rogue planet
The rogue planet on the Hydra's viewscreen

The Hydra crew intercepts a transmission in an unknown code. Turns out that the Frogs, those dastardly aliens from episode 1, are back and busily hurtling random planets at Earth. In the first episode, "Frogs" was a merely nickname that Hasso Sigbjörnson and Atan Shubashi gave the aliens, but by episode 2 the moniker seems to have been universally adopted. General Van Dyke manages to send a warning to Earth, before contact breaks off.

Lydia Van Dyke
General Lydia Van Dyke (Charlotte Kerr) aboard the Hydra

While his former superior is fighting for her life aboard the Hydra, Commander Cliff Alister McLane (Dietmar Schönherr) of the Orion 7 is relaxing in the Starlight Casino and showing off his chest hair, when he is summoned to a meeting with the Supreme Space Authority.

Shirtless Commander McLane (Dietmar Schönherr) is summoned to a meeting with the Supreme Space Authority
Space Patrol Orion kids
These two little moppets in their miniature spacesuits only make a brief cameo appearance in this episode, but they're certainly cute.

Military Men and Moral Dilemmas

The various high-ranking military officials we met in episode 1 are arguing what to do about the rogue planet headed for Earth. For there are not nearly enough spaceships available to evacuate the population and besides, an evacuation would cause panic. Not that it matters much, because the civilian government, represented here by an official named von Wennerstein (Emil Stöhr), has no intention to evacuate Earth, even though the government itself is relocating to Mars.

Space Patrol Orion Generals
The Supreme Space Authority holds a tense meeting.

These moral dilemmas are familiar from works like J.T. McIntosh's 1954 novel One in Three Hundred or the 1951 movie When Worlds Collide, but there are real world parallels as well. Space fleet commander-in-chief Sir Arthur's comment that "Politicians will always find something to govern, even if everything is already gone" brings to mind that – should there ever be a nuclear war – governments will hide out in their bunkers to rule over a nuclear wasteland, while the population burns. The flat-out refusal to evacuate Earth in the face of overwhelming peril is also reminiscent of the final months of World War II, when the Nazi government forbade the evacuation of civilians from regions like East Prussia and Silesia, which were about to be overrun by the Red Army, because they wanted to keep the roads clear for military operations.

As for how the Frogs managed to establish a base and throw a planet out of orbit under the very noses of the space fleet, Colonel Villa of the Galactic Security Service (Friedrich Joloff) points out that a committee of scientists and military officers was formed to analyse the alien threat, but was way too smug and convinced of human superiority to achieve any results. I can't help to wonder whether Villa's remark isn't a barb aimed at John W. Campbell of Analog and his insistence on human superiority at all times. Especially since episode 3 shows that the writers are familiar with Astounding/Analog.

The civilian government is portrayed as cowardly and inefficient in this episode. However, when Sir Arthur (Franz Scharfheitlin) wonders whether it's time for a military coup, Colonel Villa promptly informs him that this is not only treason, but also not the solution to their problem. Even though the focus of Space Patrol Orion is on the military, the show is nonetheless committed to democracy.

More Moral Dilemmas… in Space

The assembled generals finally decide that the best course of action is to locate the Frog base and destroy it. Two hundred ships are dispatched, including the Orion 7.

The Orion crew detects the Frogs' signal, but can't triangulate the location of their base without another signal. This is supplied by General Van Dyke aboard the stricken Hydra, once the Orion manages to hail them.

This leads to another of the moral dilemmas so beloved by philosophy undergraduate classes, for McLane wants to rescue General Van Dyke and the Hydra crew before destroying the Frog base. General Van Dyke, however, orders McLane to destroy the base, because the fate of Earth outweighs that of the five people aboard the Hydra. The interactions between McLane and Lydia Van Dyke (with whom he is on a first name basis) suggest that their relationship more than just professional.

Space Patrol Orion General Lydia van Dyke
General Lydia Van Dyke orders McLane to save the Earth rather than her.

Because McLane will never listen to just one woman, Tamara Jagellovsk also orders him to forget about the Hydra and destroy the base. In order to emphasise her words, she even pulls a gun on McLane. McLane isn't really the type to be intimidated either by guns or by Tamara, but he eventually relents. The fate of Earth really does outweigh that of five people, even if McLane is close to one of them.

This tense moment not only gives Dietmar Schönherr and Eva Pflug the chance to show off their acting skills, but it also demonstrates that McLane's emotions are both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. Because McLane cares about people and will not casually abandon them. During the meeting with the generals, McLane is the only one who actually seems to care about the fate of the Hydra.

Space Patrol Orion General Lydia Van Dyke
General Lydia Van Dyke has put on a spacesuit in order to survive aboard the damaged Hydra.

Try, Fail and Try Again

The Orion fires at the Frog base and manages to destroy it in another impressive special effect. However, it is to no avail, because the rogue planet is still headed for Earth. So the Orion crew decide to destroy the rogue planet with antimatter bombs, a risky manoeuvre which might get them all killed.

After some calculations made on a futuristic Etch A Sketch type writing tablet, the crew get to work. However, the engineering and weapons consoles explode, wounding chief engineer Hasso Sigbjörnson (Claus Holm) and weapons officer Mario de Monti (Wolfgang Völz). As a result, Mario releases the bombs too late and the explosions fail to destroy the rogue planet.

Etch a Sketch
In the future, Etch-a-Sketch tablets are not just toys, but will be used like notepads today.

There's only one course of action left. Crash the Orion into the rogue planet. So the Orion crew pile into the two Lancet shuttles and watch as their ship explodes in a fiery inferno along with the rogue planet. The Lancets are too small and underpowered to reach the nearest starbase, so they try to make it to the damaged Hydra.

Space Patrol Orion episode 2
Atan Shubashi (F.G. Beckhaus), Mario de Monti (Wolfgang Völz) and Helga Legrelle (Ursula Lillig) aboard Lancet 2
Space Patrol Prion episode 2
Hasso takes a spacewalk.

They find the Hydra without power and not responding to hails, so Hasso takes a risky spacewalk and manually engages the Hydra's landing clamps. However, Hasso passes out before he can complete the manoeuvre, so McLane has to race through the airless and overheated ship without even a spacesuit, as Hasso is wearing the only one they have. Since McLane is the hero, he succeeds and also rescues the General Van Dyke and the Hydra crew, who had retreated to the ship's cryogenic chambers.

Space Patrol Orion Hasso and McLane
Hasso has passed out in spite of his spacesuit, so McLane has to finish the job – without a spacesuit.

Back on Earth, the assembled generals are overjoyed that the rogue planet has been destroyed, though they assume that the Orion crew perished in the process. The only ones who seem to be bothered by this are General Wamsler (Benno Sterzenbach), McLane's direct superior, and Colonel Villa. Meanwhile. characters like Sir Arthur and Marshal Kublai-Krim (Hans Cossy) bring to mind World War II generals who happily sacrificed thousands of lives for questionable victories.

The episode ends with McLane signing paperwork regarding the destruction of the Orion. We also learn that the ship's designation was Orion 7, because this was already the seventh Orion, suggesting that McLane has already trashed six previous ships.

I loved the premiere of Space Patrol Orion, but episode 2 managed to be even better, a taut thriller that alternates between the tense general staff scenes on Earth and the equally tense scenes aboard the Orion and Hydra. Besides, you have to admire the guts of a show, which almost destroys the Earth and blows up the titular ship in the second episode.

Five stars

Stay tuned for my review of episode 3 "Hüter des Gesetzes" (Guardians of the Law) coming tomorrow

Bremer Freimarkt 1960s
Spacy fun may also be found on the 931st Bremer Freimarkt, Bremen's traditional autumn fair
Bremer Freimarkt
The impressive Sputnik ride on the Bremer Freimarkt





6 thoughts on “[October 18, 1966] Moral Dilemmas and Earth in Peril: Space Patrol Orion Episode 2: "Planet Off Course"”

  1. I have to say the horrible science in the beginning almost put me off, but it turned out to be pretty good. The handling of the moral dilemmas was well done. The civilian government did come across as rather feckless, but it's not as though the military were much better.

    One thing that was strange was that the computer was just a plain egg this time, though it was back to being fancy again in the third episode. At least we didn't get those long shots of the iron this time.

    I'm not so sure about always ending on a joke. That business with signing all those papers like he'd wrecked his car was just silly. Especially since the reason for the destruction of the Orion had obviously been classified.

    1. Yes, you have to grit your teeth through the terrible science and just accept that "Supernova" means something different in the Orion universe than in ours.

      The joke endings are something Orion has borrowed from non-SF shows, which usually tend to end on a joke as well. I suspect studies have told them that audiences like this.

      That said, McLane's habits of wrecking spaceships (this was the seventh Orion he has wrecked) is something they should have mentioned in the first episode, since it provides context for why he was demoted in the first place – because he's a menace to the budget.

  2. Hmmm …. I have never heard of Raumpatrouille. Then very little continental European TV has ever made it to the States.
    Was the American Space Patrol from the 1950s ever shown on TV there? I have the impression that all those shows were Kinescoped , not sure any American Kinescoped TV , well some were shot directly on film in the 1950s , I Love Lucy?, make it to Europe? I am ignorant of such a history.
    I wonder if there was any 'legal' wangling over the name Space Patrol since that had run for 5 and half seasons on ABC in the USA?  Yeah I know Raumpatrouille does not sound at all like Space Patrol.

    1. O yeah what about the West German/French Flash Gordon with Steve Holland was that ever shown in West German? Was it even known that most of it was made there?

      1. The Steve Holland Flash Gordon may have been shown at some point, but I at any rate have never seen it. The Buster Crabbe serials of the 1930s were shown on German TV in the 1980s in a late night slot on the regional Third Programs (cause we only had three TV programs before 1985) that was reserved for science fiction and horror movies. I am still angry that the Third Programs stopped showing science fiction and horror films and now are basically rerun stations for homegrown productions.

    2. The Lucy Show was or shown (or will be shown) in German TV. I think I Love Lucy was broadcast as afternoon filler programming in the early days of private TV in Germany, though I may have it mixed up with The Lucy Show. I don't think Space Patrol ever had a German broadcast.

      In general, only a fraction of US TV shows are shown in West Germany and usually years after their US broadcast and often incomplete. We won't get to see Star Trek (and only about half of the episodes) until 1972.

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