History Series / Raumpatrouille

** Because journalist Robert Vogel kept talking about ''Raumpatrouille'' while covering the production of ''Stargate'', a spaceship in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' was named ''Orion'' after the one in the old German series.

** Because journalist Robert Vogel kept talking about ''Raumpatrouille'' while covering the production of ''Stargate'', a spaceship in ''Series/StarshipAtlantis'' was named ''Orion'' after the one in the old German series.

* ShoutOut: The name of the newscaster in the movie, Helma Krap, is one to Helmut Krapp, one of the authors of the series, who died in the year the film was produced.

* MultiEthnicName: Helga Legrelle (Scandinavian and French), Henryk Villa (Polish and Spanish[[note]] His first name was never used in the series; a much later book about the franchise gives the Italian-Spanish combination Francesco Torano Villa.[[/note]]), and Pieter Paul Ibsen (Dutch and Norwegian).

* MultiEthnicName: Helga Legrelle (Scandinavian and French) and Henryk Villa (Polish and Spanish[[note]] His first name was never used in the series; a much later book about the franchise gives the Italian-Spanish combination Francesco Torano Villa.[[/note]]).

* DeskJockey: Quite a number of recurring characters fall into this category, for instance every officer above the rank of colonel (with the shining exception of General van Dyke), Wamsler's adjutant Spring-Brauner, Colonel Villa's nameless assistant, and the ground crew overseeing the launches from Base 104.

In 2003 an anthology movie, ''Raumpatrouille Orion -- Rücksturz ins Kino'', was released. It consist mostly of material from episodes 1, 2, and 7, linked by "newscasts" by actress and journalist Elke Heidenreich as anchorwoman Helma Krap.

!!Contains examples of:

One of three series internationally known as ''SpacePatrol'' was the 1966 [[GermanMedia German TV show]] '''''Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion''''' (Space Patrol - The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion), which was produced in collaboration with French TV, where it was entitled ''Comando spatial''. It's 7 one-hour episodes (no commercials) long, impossible to find outside of its mother country and later spawned a big heap of paperback and pulp novels. It, like [[Franchise/StarTrek a certain concurrent American TV series]] was about a bunch of people that actually ''patrolled'' space. For conoisseurs of science-fiction and the related tropes, ''Raumpatouille'' is of interest because in some respects it enables one to test the popular hypothesis of how "cutting-edge" ''Franchise/StarTrek'' really was at the time. Most notably in the field of gender roles, ''Raumpatrouille'' showed that more substantial female roles than BridgeBunnies actually were possible on TV in 1966.

The series was very successful in Germany and also exported to a number of other continental European countries. [[ExecutiveMeddling Still the executives of German (public) television decided against producing a second season]], word has it because they thought the series was too "militaristic", which in postwar Germany was something quite serious.

* SelfDeprecation: The appearance of science-fiction writer Pieter Paul Ibsen in episode 6 provides an occasion for the crew to mock the genre. Also, is it a coincidence that there are only three characters with German names in the series, and two of them are [[ObstructiveBureaucrat obstructive bureaucrats]] (Spring-Brauner and [[TheVonTropeFamily State Secretary von Wennerstein]]), and the other is a [[TheMole bad guy]] (Kranz)?

* NoNameGiven: A number of recurring supporting characters are never named, most noticeably Villa's aide and the members of the crew of General van Dyke's ship, the ''Hydra''.

* SelfDeprecation: The appearance of science-fiction writer Pieter Paul Ibsen in episode 6 provides an occasion for the crew to mock the genre. Also, is it a coincidence that there are only three characters with German names in the series, and two of them are [[ObstructiveBureaucrat obstructive bureaucrats]] (Spring-Brauner and [[TheVonTropeFamily State Secretary von Wennerstein]], and the other is a bad guy?

** In the film version (where they condensed 7x60 mins into a 90 min film) ''Frog'' is stated to be an [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] for "Fremde Raumschiffe ohne galaktische Seriennummer", i.e. "foreign spaceships without (a) galactic serial numer" (no, seriosly). But neither television series nor the novels had used that explanation.

* SelfDeprecation: The appearance of science-fiction writer Pieter Paul Ibsen in episode 6 provides an occasion for the crew to mock the genre. Also, is it a coincidence that there are only two characters with German names in the series, and one of them is an ObstructiveBureaucrat and the other is a bad guy?

* {{Zeerust}}: ''Raumpatrouille'' was the first German science-fiction TV series, and at the time science-fiction in Germany was a niche genre to a much greater degree than it was in America, which meant that a common terminolgy for many futuristic concepts did not yet exist. Some of the neologisms created for the series therefore sound a bit odd for modern ears -- for instance the term ''Telenose'' ("telenosis") for the long-distance hypnosis used by the Frogs in episode 4 -- while others now appear unintentionally funny, especially the word ''Exoterristen'' for extraterrestrials.[[note]] Today one would use ''Extraterrestrier'' if you want to be fancy, but usually you would use the plain German ''Außerirdische'' (which was used as a synonym for ''Exoterristen'' in ''Raumpatrouille'').[[/note]]

** When the ''Orion'' saved earth and everybody on it by destroying the supernova (that worked more like an Asteroid in this series) the crew more than redeemed itself in the eyes of space command. However, space command also wanted to keep the danger earth had been in a secret, and since people do not know about the nova, the ''orion'' cannot be re-transferred to the rapid space unit. After that point in the series (in episode two, mind.) being assigned to space patrol was more of a pro-forma thing. plus, the ''Orion VIII'' was the fastest ship in the whole fleet, giving them an advanced prototype weapon does make some sense.

** The term Frog is actually an [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] for "Fremde Raumschiffe ohne galaktische Seriennummer", i.e. "foreign spaceships without (a) galactic serial numer" (no, seriosly)
*** Though actually they only added this for the film version (where they condensed 7x60 mins into a 90 min film). In the original it's just "Frogs", without a deeper meaning.

* SpaceNavy: Largely averted. Although the ''Orion'' is described as a "fast space cruiser", the officers have non-naval ranks (major, colonel, general, marshal) and the crew to a large extent behave like stereotypical air force combat pilots. They return to Base 104 at the end of every episode, go to the Starlight Casino and drink heavily. Also the spaceships generally have names from astronomy, the military being named after mythologically constellations (Orion, Hydra, Perseus) and the GSD cruiser Tau after a Greek letter used to designate a star within a constellation. Unlike those of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the ''Raumpatrouille'' ships are not named after famous naval ships and admirals of the past (Enterprise, Essex, Farragut). (The space forces contains units called ''Raumflotten'' (space fleets), but during World War 2 the ''Luftwaffe'' was subdivided into ''Luftflotten'' (air fleets)).

* WaveMotionGun: The aptly named Overkill (sic) projector, first tested and used in combat in episode 4.

* FakeNationality: Pretty much every character was played by German and Austrian actors, although a few scenes were shot twice, with French actors playing a few minor parts for the French version. French ''Orion'' crew member Lieutenant Legrelle, however, was played by German actress Ursula Lillig in both versions.

-->Opening narration

---> ''What still sounds like a fairy tale today could be reality tomorrow. Here's a fairy tale from beyond tomorrow: There are no more nation-states, there is just humanity and her colonies in space. Distant planets are being settled, the sea bottom has been won for habitation. With as yet unimaginable velocities spaceships speed through our galactic system. One of these spaceships is the Orion, a tiny part of a gigantic defence system that protects Earth from threats from outer space. Let us accompany the Orion and her crew on their patrol duties on the edge of infinity!''
--->-- ('''Raumpatrouille''', opening narration)

* SpaceNavy: Averted. The officers have non-naval ranks (major, colonel, general, marshal) and the ''Orion'' crew to a large extent behave like stereotypical air force combat pilots and return to Base 104 at the end of every episode. Also the spaceships generally have names from astronomy, the military being named after mythologically constellations (Orion, Hydra, Perseus) and the GSD cruiser Tau after a Greek letter used to designate a star within a constellation. Unlike those of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the ''Raumpatrouille'' ships are not named after famous naval ships and admirals of the past (Enterprise, Essex, Farragut).

* SpaceNavy: Partly averted. The officers have non-naval ranks (major, colonel, general, marshal) and the ''Orion'' crew to a large extent behave like stereotypical air force combat pilots and return to Base 104 at the end of every episode. Also the spaceships generally have names from astronomy, the military being named after mythologically constellations (Orion, Hydra, Perseus) and the GSD cruiser Tau after a Greek letter used to designate a star within a constellation. Unlike those of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the ''Raumpatrouille'' ships are not named after famous naval ships and admirals of the past (Enterprise, Essex, Farragut).

''Raumpatrouille'' was produced at the Bavaria film studios near Munich on a limited budget - for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' they spent about 75 percent of the total ''Raumpatrouille'' production costs just on the pilot episode. To save costs the series was shot in black and white. But although they had to economize it looked pretty good as the people in charge were very competent. Set designer Rolf Zehetbauer won an Oscar for ''{{Cabaret}}'', while special-effects man Theo Nischwitz had already worked on ''F.P. 1 antwortet nicht'' (1931) and ''Münchhausen'' (1942); the two would go on to collaborate on ''DasBoot''. Still, they had to use quite a few futuristic looking, but commercially available household implements etc. in building the ''Orion'' bridge; keep your eyes open for the famous handle of an electric flatiron.

The crew of the fast space-cruiser ''Orion'' consisted of

* Lieutenant Helga Legrelle (communications, observation, deflector shields). The youngest of the crew; not so secretly sweet on the dashing commander.

* BettyAndVeronica: Helga (brunette) is the Betty and Tamara (blonde) the Veronica; in the final episodes Cliff and Tamara become a couple.

* CoolButInefficient: The launch sequence. The Orion took off from beneath the sea, rising through an artificially created maelstrom.

* LadyLand: The pacifist matriarchal society of Chroma, headed by [[NoNameGiven SHE]] (German: SIE), perhaps the only woman able to resist Major [=McLane=]'s charm.

* MultinationalTeam: The crew consists of of an American commander of Scottish extraction, a Scandinavian, an Italian, a Japanese (?), and a Frenchwoman. They are joined by Russian security officer.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Big time. Not just among the crew, but the friendships of various of its members with those of the crews of other ships or space bases is often a plot point.

* SpaceClothes: Simply cut black uniforms for the spacefleet, grey for the GSD. Women usually wore knee-length skirts with long boots, but could put on trousers for missions.

* TheSpymaster: Colonel Villa, head of the Galactic Security Service. Often inscrutable, doubly so because he was cast against type with Friedrich Joloff, an actor best known for playing villains, especially cold-blooded killers. Cultured and a bit of a pacifist, he helps [=McLane=] to avert a war in episode 5.

* UnderwaterBase: Spaceship base 104, the headquarters of the military and the Galactic Security Service as well as the crew's private homes are all situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

One of three series internationally known as ''SpacePatrol'' was the 1966 [[GermanMedia German TV show]] '''''Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion''''' (Space Patrol - The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion), which was produced in collaboration with French TV, where it was entitled ''Comando spatial''. It's 7 one-hour episodes (no commercials) long, impossible to find outside of its mother country and later spawned a big heap of paperback and pulp novels. It, like [[StarTrek a certain concurrent American TV series]] was about a bunch of people that actually ''patrolled'' space. For conoisseurs of science-fiction and the related tropes, ''Raumpatouille'' is of interest because in some respects it enables one to test the popular hypothesis of how "cutting-edge" ''StarTrek'' really was at the time. Most notably in the field of gender roles, ''Raumpatrouille'' showed that more substantial female roles than BridgeBunnies actually were possible on TV in 1966.

''Raumpatrouille'' was produced at the Bavaria film studios near Munich on a limited budget - for ''StarTrek'' they spent about 75 percent of the total ''Raumpatrouille'' production costs just on the pilot episode. To save costs the series was shot in black and white. But although they had to economize it looked pretty good as the people in charge were very competent. Set designer Rolf Zehetbauer won an Oscar for ''{{Cabaret}}'', while special-effects man Theo Nischwitz had already worked on ''F.P. 1 antwortet nicht'' (1931) and ''Münchhausen'' (1942); the two would go on to collaborate on ''DasBoot''. Still, they had to use quite a few futuristic looking, but commercially available household implements etc. in building the ''Orion'' bridge; keep your eyes open for the famous handle of an electric flatiron.

* SpaceNavy: Partly averted. The officers have non-naval ranks (major, colonel, general, marshal) and the ''Orion'' crew to a large extent behave like stereotypical air force combat pilots and return to Base 104 at the end of every episode. Also the spaceships generally have names from astronomy, the military being named after mythologically constellations (Orion, Hydra, Perseus) and the GSD cruiser Tau after a Greek letter used to designate a star within a constellation. Unlike those of ''StarTrek'', the ''Raumpatrouille'' ships are not named after famous naval ships and admirals of the past (Enterprise, Essex, Farragut).