Title : Planet Patrol -26- Volcanos Of Venus Duration : 24:18 Posted : 19 Apr 2016 - 04:05
Planet Patrol -26- Volcanos Of Venus
The series features the vocal talents of Dick Vosburgh, Ronnie Stevens, Libby Morris, Murray Kash and Ysanne Churchman, and comprises 39 half-hour episodes. This series is also known by its US title Planet Patrol to avoid confusion with the 1950s American live-action series of the same name. The marionettes used in the series incorporated some elements of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation technique - specifically their mouths would move in synch with dialogue. The series follows the actions of an interplanetary police force in the year 2100, and focuses on the crew of Galasphere 347 (sometimes referred to as Galasphere 024) under the command of the heroic (and, unusually for this type of series, bearded) Captain Larry Dart. The crew includes the elfin Slim from Venus, and the sausage-mad Russian-accented Husky from Mars. Providing technical support on Earth is Irish genius Professor Heggarty. Hegarty's talkative pet Martian Parrot (a Gabblerdictum Bird) sometimes accompanies the crew on missions. Keeping them all on a tight rein are Colonel Raeburn and his super-efficient Venusian secretary, Marla. The series was sold overseas and broadcast in the USA, Canada and Australia, and in spite of the very low budget—which meant that sometimes the shadow of a puppet could be seen behind a "TV Screen" before the communication device was supposedly turned on—the show rated strongly with young audiences in many regions (including New York City)[1] and garnered a huge following, with Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski stating that it was his favourite TV show as a child. 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, the theme 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. F.C. Judd 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).[citation needed] 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.
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