History Series / Raumpatrouille

* 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 (Flemish and Norwegian).

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Commander Cliff Allister [=McLane=]
** TheLancer: Mario de Monti, doubling as team clown
** TheHeart: Team dad Hasso Sigbjörnson
** TheQuietOne: Atan Shubashi
** TheChick: Helga Legrelle
** SixthRanger: Tamara Jagellovsk

One of three series internationally known as ''Space Patrol'' is 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 ''Commando spatial''. It consists of seven one-hour episodes (no commercials) and practically impossible to find outside of its mother country. Like [[Franchise/StarTrek a certain concurrent American TV series]], it was about a bunch of people that actually ''patrolled'' space. For connoisseurs 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.

''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 ''Film/{{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 ''Film/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 fast space-cruiser ''Orion'' and its close-knit crew originally belong to the the rapid space unit commanded by General Lydia van Dyke, but because of their continual habit of disobeying orders and regulations, they are transferred to the lowly space patrol that belongs to General Winston Woodrov Wamsler's reconnaissance command. To ensure that henceforth Major Cliff Allister [=McLane=] sticks to regulations, [[SixthRanger stern Lieutenant Tamara Jagellovsk]] of the Galactic Security Service is assigned to the ''Orion'' as a watchdog with the authority to give him orders if need be.

* 1. ''Angriff aus dem All'' (Attack from Space): A First Encounter of the deadly kind. Introducing the major recurrent threat of the series, the alien "Frogs".

* 7. ''Invasion'': A ManchurianAgent sabotages Earth's defenses and comes close to making the Frog invasion a success. But the ''Orion'' saves the Earth (again), and in the end it is transferred back to van Dyke's force, and Cliff and Tamara finally get to kiss.

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]]. The more popular theory is that it was because they thought the series was too "militaristic", which in postwar Germany was something quite serious, although some also say that the real reason was that series creator Rolf Honold had run out of good story ideas.

Rolf Honold, the original creator of the series, wrote thirteen short stories that appeared in the 1970s in the soft-core sex magazines ''Freitag'' and ''Praline''. There was often talk of a relaunch, but that never materialized as long as the actors were still alive. In 2003 an anthology movie, ''Raumpatrouille Orion -- Rücksturz ins Kino'', was released. It consists mostly of material from episodes 1, 2, and 7, linked by "newscasts" by actress and journalist Elke Heidenreich as anchorwoman Helma Krap.

* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Some of the science in the series is rather dodgy, for instance the titular off-course planet in episode 2 is also referred to as a supernova.

* BridgeBunnies: An early aversion. Due to the small size of the crew, individual members frequently have to pinch-hit in each other's jobs when part of the crew is on a surface or space mission. Helga Legrelle thus can be seen piloting one of the "Lancet" shuttlecrafts or installing machinery and weapons. Tamara Jagellovsk can hold her own in face-downs with [=McLane=], while Lydia van Dyke, who appears in four of seven episodes, is the only real frontline commander among the otherwise male generals.

* CatchPhrase: The command "Rücksturz zur Erde!" (return to base at once, literally: plunge back to Earth) became one. Also the metallic-voiced countdown that punctuated every ''Orion'' and Lancet launch sequence.

* CoolButInefficient: The launch sequence. The Orion took off from beneath the sea, rising through an artificially created maelstrom. The hand-held ray guns also look very cool and different (with the barrel projecting below the handle, not above it), but it is unclear how you are supposed to aim the darn things!

* CoolStarship: The ''Orion VII'' and ''Orion VIII'' obviously. The latter is described not only as the fastest ship in the fleet, but also the first one to be equipped with the Overkill projector. [[FridgeLogic Why such a ship would be assigned to the lowly Space Patrol where it would be used for satellite maintenance and such is anyone's guess.]]
** One theory is this: 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.
* CultureChopSuey: In ''Raumpatrouille'' Earth culture is generally futuristic Europeanized Western. However people eat with chopsticks. This may be a fortunate side-effect of the budget constraints: buying a few sets of chopsticks was obviously cheaper than to look for and buy cutlery that looked futuristic enough to come from the year 3000, and yet still would be completely unlike what European viewers in 1966 would have been accustomed to. It seems to have been a late change, as in episode 1, where Hasso and Atan come across two dead members of the space station MZ 4 still holding their chopsticks, one of them comments: "But you don't die that way, with a fork in your hand!"

* 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 chief of staff, and the ground crew overseeing the launches from Base 104.

* FirstNameBasis: The ''Orion'' crew is on this, except of course towards Lieutenant Jagellovsk. In an off-duty conversation in episode 4 van Dyke addresses [=McLane=] by his first name, but he calls her "general".

* GoodGuyBar: The Starlight Casino, where fleet and GSD personell of all ranks congregate to chat, flirt, talk shop and [[FutureMusic dance in some very odd "futuristic" dances]]. The ''Orion'' crew can usually be found here off-duty and has a fleet-wide reputation for its alcohol intake. The Starlight has a glass roof through which you can see the tropical fish in the sea above.

* GreatOffscreenWar: There are several references to the two Galactic or Interplanetary Wars in the series, which were waged between Earth and some rebel colonies. The pulp novelizations eventually related some of the pre-''Raumpatrouille'' adventures of the older members of the crew, revealing e. g. that [=McLane=] served under General van Dyke's father in the Second Galactic War.

* MotherNatureFatherScience: All scientists are male, even the Chromans in episode 5 who come from a matriarchal society. In one subversion, in episode 4, when it becomes necessary to repair a particularly advanced type of robot, Tamara Jagellovsk is the only one who has taken the necessary course and can do it.

* NonIndicativeName: There's nothing froglike whatsoever about the "Frogs". The closest connection might be the apparent sound of their footsteps, which is reminiscent of dripping water, but they resemble EnergyBeings with a suspiciously human outline far more than they do anything even remotely amphibian.
** In the anthology movie ''Frogs'' is stated to be an [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] for "Feindliche Raumschiffverbände ohne galaktische Seriennummer", i.e. "hostile spaceship units without a galactic serial number" (no, [[BlatantLies seriously]]). But neither television series nor the novels had used that explanation.

* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: The military spaceships are mostly named after constellations that take their names from Greek mythology (''Orion'', ''Hydra'', ''Pegasus''). In Episode 3 one of the 'Lancet' shuttlecrafts is left behind to project a "Laurin", an energy imitation of a full-sized spaceship, to disguise the fact that the ''Orion'' has left its station. Laurin was a dwarf from medieval legends who could turn himself invisible.

* {{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 commonly accepted vocabulary for many futuristic concepts did not yet exist and the makers of the series had to invent their own terminology. Some of the neologisms created for the series therefore sound a bit odd for modern ears -- e. g. 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]]

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: Some of the science in the series is rather dodgy, for instance the titular off-course planet in episode 2 is also referred to as a supernova.

One of three series internationally known as ''Space Patrol'' is 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 ''Commando spatial''. It consists of seven one-hour episodes (no commercials) and practically impossible to find outside of its mother country. Like [[Franchise/StarTrek a certain concurrent American TV series]], it was about a bunch of people that actually ''patrolled'' space. For connoisseurs 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.

''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 ''Film/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.

* NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: Astronomer Dr. Schiller (presumably after [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Friedrich Schiller]]) in episodes 2 and 5 and science-fiction author [[Creator/PeterPaulRubens Pieter Paul]] [[Creator/HenrikIbsen Ibsen]] in episode 6. Also very probably General [[UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill Winston]] [[UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson Woodrov]] Wamsler. [=McLane=]'s old pale Commodore Ruyther (episode 3) and admiral Leandra de Ruyter (pulp novels) are most likely both named after Dutch admiral [[UsefulNotes/AngloDutchWars Michiel de Ruyter]].

* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: The military spaceships are mostly named after constellations that are named for mythological figures (Orion, Hydra, Pegasus). In Episode 3 one of the 'Lancet' shuttlecrafts is left behind to project a "Laurin", an energy imitation of a full-sized spaceship, to disguise the fact that the ''Orion'' has left its station. Laurin was a dwarf from medieval legends who could turn himself invisible.

* 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).[[note]] The space forces contain units called ''Raumflotten'' (space fleets), but during World War 2 the ''Luftwaffe'' was subdivided into ''Luftflotten'' (air fleets).[[/note]]

One of three series internationally known as ''Space Patrol'' is 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 ''Commando spatial''. It consists of seven one-hour episodes (no commercials) and practically impossible to find outside of its mother country. 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.

* ThePoliticalOfficer: Lieutenant Tamara Jagellovsk starts out as a non-political equivalent, but like her spiritual ancestress {{Ninotchka}} mellows soon enough.

** In the anthology movie ''Frogs'' is stated to be an [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] for "Fremde Raumschiffe ohne galaktische Seriennummer", i.e. "alien (or strange) spaceships without a galactic serial number" (no, [[BlatantLies seriously]]). But neither television series nor the novels had used that explanation.

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 ''Commando spatial''. It consists of seven one-hour episodes (no commercials) and practically impossible to find outside of its mother country. 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.

-->--Opening narration