Space Patrol is a 1963 British puppet series, in the vein of the Gerry Anderson shows of the time (but nowhere near as known, although it is confused with
Fireball XL5). It focuses on a 22nd-century police force, who are headquartered on a space station called Galasphere 347. Despite all claims to the contrary, it was the first show with an electronic theme (beating out the more famous tune of
Doctor Who by seven months). It ran for two seasons and a total of 39 episodes. It was re-titled
Planet Patrol in America, to avoid confusion with the American series
Space Patrol.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Space: In "The Fires of Mercury", Prof. Haggerty's simplified model of the solar system has a Pluto larger than Mercury.
- Body Snatcher: The Uranian Plant Aliens do this in "The Invisible Invasion" to try to take over the Earth.
- Everything in Space Is a Galaxy: Throughout the series, the terms "solar system" and "galaxy" are used interchangeably.
- Evil Uncle: Slim's uncle Gallia is the villain of an episode.
- Human Aliens: The Martians are this, save for their larger builds and eyes. The comic gives them green skin.
- Human Popsicle: The spaceships have "freezer cabinets" because, realistically, journeying around the Solar System takes weeks or months.
- Life Energy: The alien Mr. Bell transfers some of his life force to save Colonel Raeburn and nearly dies as a result but fortunately gets better.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Justified with Dart, Husky and Slim, since the entire Galasphere has no crew other than them. Less so with Prof. Haggerty, who appears to be the only scientist on Earth?
- Non-Indicative Name:
- The United Galactic Organization includes exactly three planets: Earth, Mars and Venus. They do gain a few new members throughout the series, but never get even close to the scope that their name suggests.
- The creatures which Slim discovers on Titan, which he names Hummingdogs. They look more like weird limbless penguins with dog ears.
- Nuke 'em: "I want forty space freighters loaded with atomic warheads and sent to Uranus."
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist:
- Prof. Haggerty is called to deal with anything remotely sciencey. From analyzing alien organisms and curing medical conditions to finding solutions for the asteroid problem or devising a way of transporting water from Venus to Mars; he's always the man for the job. He also invented a watch that makes time pass 60 times slower than normal, and a machine that translated bird language to English.
- Martian Prof. Zeffer is supposed to be an astronomer, but also invented a machine that makes stuff invisible and a teleporter.
- Retro Rocket: The series both averted this trope and played it straight, as the spaceship used (called the Galisphere or Galasphere) looks like the stereotypical space-station, with a central cylinder connected by cylindrical "spokes" to a toroidial ring.
- Sick Captive Scam: The heroes pull off this trick in "The Water Bomb".
- Starfish Aliens: Surprisingly, most of the aliens on the show are this.
- To start with, the Saturnians resemble bipedal dinosaur-like creatures with four arms, and long tails which they can rest on. They are also amphibious, and breathe Carbon-Dioxide instead of Oxygen.
- Uranus is populated by intelligent plant-life, which resemble man-sized Zucchini, and can possess people via Astral-Projection.
- The Alpha-Centaurans from "Message from a star", look like floating octopus-like creatures, with melon-like heads, a single orifice for a face, and webbed tentacles trailing behind them. They can also teleport across vast distance of space, instead of using spacecraft.
- The Betelgeusians from "The Talking Bell", are bell-shaped fungus creatures with no visible sensory organs, but do have a single retractable leg, and a single retractable tentacle atop their bodies, which they can heal people by infusing them with some of their life force.
- The Luminars who appear in "The Planet of Light" are from the planet Lumin, within the Sirius system. They look like floating pillars of light, who get their energy via photosynthesis, and are allergic to Oxygen. So, they use cylindrical shells to survive oxygen-based environments.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Martian sausages for Husky.
- True Companions: Dart, Husky and Slim aren't just crewmates, they're practically a family. Whenever one of them is in trouble, the others will not rest.
- Uranus Is Showing: In this Youtube spoof Captain Larry Dart vs. the nasties from Uranus!
- When Things Spin, Science Happens: The doughnut-shaped spacecraft are surrounded by spinning forcefields in flight. For a medium where you have to worry about things like strings getting caught, the makers sure did love this trope.
