Planet Patrol

Well it would have been, except it seems he prospered and Roberta Leigh did not [nothing against Gerry by the way]. Thats not the exact truth but pretty close. Although done on a very low budget the models were not as detailed as Gerrys, the "puppets" however [well they were better than puppets] were very well detailed for their time and all had their own personalities. It would have been interesting if someone had thrown enough money at Roberta Leighs company, things might have been very different. It might have been nice as a kid, to watch two people with a similar idea, going about things in their own way.

Although for children the content is quite watchable by any age. This series sticks in my mind as one of the best thought out scifi TV programs of the sixties. OK so we know Mars and Venus have no life as such but don't let this spoil your enjoyment. Exceptional animation at times and dialogue thats usually non PC. This is a true treasure that shows what can be done on a budget.

I think Gerry Anderson used some ideas for what followed. Fireball XL5 although had a bigger budget didn't come anywhere near Space Patrols story lines.

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"Space Patrol" (a.k.a. "Planet Patrol" for U.S. release) was a children's cartoon show with puppet marionettes. The concept was an interplanetary organization of men and women from Earth, Mars and Venus, patrolling the Solar System to maintain the peace in the year 2100.

What distinguished this series from others of its ilk was the thought that went into it. The characters had real personalities. The futuristic Headquarters City was well done despite the cheap budget, with individual personal vehicles traveling thru transparent tubes to be automatically guided to their final destination. The spaceship wasn't the usual rocket ship, but something innovative: a "Galasphere" that looked vaguely like a kid's gyroscope toy, that made weird humming sounds as it sailed thru space. (Those humming sounds became the theme song for the TV series.)

The plots and sets were surprisingly dark for a children's show, in the style of "Outer Limits." One plot concerned aliens from Neptune (I think) conspiring to take over the minds of Earthlings and eventually "conquer the Earth leaders". Another dealt with a plot to subvert Earth's currency by counterfeiting huge quantities of Earth money. Even the backdrops were dark--the sky over the Headquarters City was usually dark, dreary overcast rather than bright and sunny.

Could have been a great show with a bigger budget.

Space Patrol is not something I would spend much time on these days, but it has the distinction of being the earliest TV programme I remember from the early 60s. For years I racked my brains trying to remember what it was called. Some elements were quite futuristic. One thing I recalled was the Galasphere - in space there is no reason apart from the aesthetic why a spaceship should have the more traditional rocket shape. Travel on earth is by a vehicle inside a tube, now recognisable as a hyperloop.

The most memorable aliens are the effeminate but ruthless Neptunians with their imperious demands for slaves. If Space Patrol is ever on TV again the Neptune related episodes would probably need to be accompanied by trigger warnings to avoid upsetting easily offended snowflakes. That's even supposing outright cancellation can be avoided.

I never even heard of Space Patrol until a couple weeks ago when we went out for a movie and one of my friends gave me a disc of episodes, saying I had to watch it. It was definitely a lot of fun! It was not a very good show and definitely looks and feels very old, I'm not sure how much people would have enjoyed it back in the fifties or sixties when it was first on television but it's very campy with bad production values and hammy acting, and you definitely don't want to miss the puppetry, but the show is still a lot of fun. I know it's mostly laugh at it not with it kind of fun but still worth checking out if you can track it down.