Original Style of The Series
Although compared (and often confused) with the Gerry Anderson productions (due to the similar use of voice-synchronised marionettes), Space Patrol stands out on its own. This is mainly due to the boldness of a few creative choices. The only music involved is extremely avant-garde, being made by Roberta Leigh herself using electronic equipment she bought from a local store after asking an assistant for anything that made interesting noises. In fact it was F.C. Judd who was responsible for creating all the electronic music for the series; he was an early British electronic experimenter, amateur radio expert, circuit designer, author and contributor to many wireless and electronics magazines from the 1950s to the 1990s.
In addition, the marionettes used for Space Patrol were more realistic-looking and less cartoon-like than those being used on Fireball XL5; in terms of relative realism, the puppets of Space Patrol fall between that of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Another notable feature is that the music used in the opening sequence may be the first TV theme to be realised entirely through electronic means. That distinction has commonly been ascribed to the BBC's Doctor Who but the first episode of Space Patrol premiered on ABC in the Midlands on 7 April 1963, preceding Doctor Who by more than seven months (that series debuted on 23 November 1963).
Final credits always showed panoramic views over a gigantic city of the future, and never featured any music; only the throb of some industrial machinery, sounding like a gigantic pump or a steam engine, beat in rhythm. The male characters from the planet Venus (Slim for example) presented obvious androgyne features (in contrast to the rustic, virile Martians). Thus the style of the entire series created an extremely eerie atmosphere, that remains rarely matched even by the best adult science-fiction on screen.
Read more about this topic: Space Patrol (1962 TV series)
Famous quotes containing the words original, style and/or series:
“Wit is often concise and sparkling, compressed into an original pun or metaphor. Brevity is said to be its soul. Humor can be more leisurely, diffused through a whole story or picture which undertakes to show some of the comic aspects of life. What it devalues may be human nature in general, by showing that certain faults or weaknesses are universal. As such it is kinder and more philosophic than wit which focuses on a certain individual, class, or social group.”
—Thomas Munro (1897–1974)
“It is not in our drawing-rooms that we should look to judge of the intrinsic worth of any style of dress. The street-car is a truer crucible of its inherent value.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)
“History is nothing but a procession of false Absolutes, a series of temples raised to pretexts, a degradation of the mind before the Improbable.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)