History Series / StarFleet

* BigThinShortTrio: Shiro, Hercules and Lee

%%* BugWar: The Termoids

* ButtMonkey: P.P.A., at least to Hercules, who makes him his verbal punching bag. Sometimes justifed.

%%* CoolStarship: The X-Bomber

%%* DyingAsYourself: Captain Carter after being shot by Shiro.
%%* TheEmpire: The Imperial Alliance
* EyepatchOfPower: Makara and Orion's symbiotes.
%%* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Captain Carter]]

* MagicalGirl: [[spoiler: Lamia essentially becomes one after completing her transformation into F-01, complete with tiara, wand and frilly dress.]]

* PeopleInRubberSuits: The giant robots and the BigBad.

%%* SpaceSailing: The Skull

* Irony: Throughout the series, Makara and Caliban dismiss Orion as a weakling and a coward... [[spoiler:And yet Orion spends his final moments making a suicide run on Bomber X and dying a warrior's death, while Makara and Caliban panic and run like cowards before meeting their end when Dai X storms their flagship.]]

Not hugely successful in its native Japan, the show was very popular in the UK. The combination of being superficially similar to the much loved ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'', and the fact that the show didn't shy away from many tropes that were mostly unknown in kids programming in Britain at the time made it a GatewaySeries for British kids of a certain age. It even inspired the album ''Music/StarFleetProject'', where Music/BrianMay and Music/VanHalen performed together.

* AnyoneCanDie: Very unusual in kids shows shown in the UK at the time, probably not so much of a big deal in its native Japan.

* MightyRoar: ''Star Fleet'' version of Dai-X will often emit an eerie, machine-like roar during battle. It seems fitting though, what with some of the Imperial Alliance members referring to it as "monster machine".

* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: Makara makes it abundantly clear that it's THEIR time measurements she's counting.
** Yet the deadline for the aliens to capture F-01 is the turn of the millennium by Earth's calendar.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Orion, who spent much of the series as the most cowardly and reluctant of the villains, shows considerable bravery and determination in his suicide mission. His demise was certainly a lot more dignified than the panicky deaths of Makara and Caliban (And he almost managed to bring down the X Bomber, to boot.) It's hard not to feel sorry for him.]]

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: ''X-Bomber's'' opening and ending themes, originally performed by Japanese hard rock group ''Bow Wow,'' were replaced in most other countries. Among the most notable examples are:

** The French dub (''Bomber X'') had a theme composed and sung by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban of ''Creator/SabanEntertainment'' fame.
** The Italian dub (which retained the title ''X-Bomber'') had a theme composed by Fratelli Balestra, and performed by the ''Balestra Brothers'' under the pseudonym ''The Condors.''

* Bowdlerise: The English version of episode 8, ''An Attack Beyond Tears,'' cuts some rather graphic scenes of the alien Mon-Mons being shot or blown up on screen.

* CombiningMecha: Dai-X. It is composed of three fighters: Braincom, Mainbody and Legtrax. No points for guessing which part of Dai-X each of those forms.
** Somewhat strangely it's mainly used to fight enemy fighter ships and tanks by smacking them out of the air or stepping on them, instead of fighting enemy giant mecha. The only time Dai-X fights a comparably giant enemy is Caliban's Death Ball near the end.

* ForeignReScore: In addition to the AlternativeForeignThemeSong as mentioned above, the English dub was given a completely new music score.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a flashback from Episode 5 showing Shiro at the academy being unable to hit the target. Carter, reprimanding Shiro's poor marksmanship, tells him to shoot him in the heart of his bulletproof jacket. Shiro is reluctant, but is roused to by Carter calling him a coward unworthy of being in the academy. Shiro shoots Carter, who comes up to him and congratulates him on proving he can aim and shoot at the same time. [[spoiler: This sequence foreshadows Episode 12, when Shiro is forced by Carter to kill him after being freed from Alliance control. As Shiro holds the dying Carter, he repeats what he said to Shiro at the academy; "Shiro, Good Shooting".]]

** Episode 9, ''Target: The Captain'' - Commander Makara faces trial and execution for her past failures, and persuades the Imperial Master to review some of her past battles in detail.
** Episode 13, ''Battle to the Death: X-Bomber vs. the Imperial Alliance'' - Shiro, Hercules and Lee reflect on their ongoing war with the Imperial Alliance, and the events leading up to [[spoiler:the death of Captain Carter]].
** Episode 18, ''Commander Makara's Promotion'' - Following [[spoiler:the capture and imprisonment of Lamia]], the X-Bomber crew reflect on their situation, while Makara and Orion celebrate their victory. [[NoExportForYou This episode was never officially released outside of Japan]].

** The English theme (''Star Fleet'') was composed by Paul Bliss, and later served as the inspiration for Brian May's ''Music/StarFleetProject''.

* ExpositoryThemeTune: The end credits, composed by Paul Bliss, sung by Andy Brown, and later covered by Music/BrianMay.

%%* ISurrenderSuckers

%%* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}

%%* MysteriousProtector: Halley
%%* MysteriousWaif: Lamia

%%* OrphansPlotTrinket: Shiro

* RecapEpisode: There were 3 recap episodes - in a series that spanned only 25 episodes! It became so repetitive the English dubbers decided to get rid of the third one all together.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas Oh, and this has nothing to do with]] [[Franchise/StarTrek The Federation Starfleet]] or the [[WesternAnimation/{{TUGS}} Star Fleet]] (Though it ''does'' feature John Baddeley and Sean Barrett, two of the actors from that series).

* ExpositoryThemeTune: The end credits, although not composed by Brian May as is usually thought, he did do a CoverVersion of it though.

''Star Fleet'' is an early '80s Japanese SciFi show with character and mecha designs from Creator/GoNagai. Known in Japan as ''X-Bomber'', the show is notable for using miniatures and marionettes rather than cel animation, giving it a very unique look. Also distributed in France and Spain under the title ''Bomber X''.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: X-Bomber is lost in deep space toward the middle of the series, but are roughly able to make it home from deep uncharted space in a rough one month.
** They get around at [[FasterThanLightTravel Hyper Speed]] most of the time anyway. During the return to Earth they're even specifically using a dangerous ''double'' Hyper Speed to make up for the head start the Imperial Master has on them.
* ShoutOut: ''Music/StarFleetProject'' by Music/BrianMay and Music/VanHalen is a homage to this series.
** The show is referred to as being a filmed in "Supermariorama", a clear shout-out to Gerry Anderson's "{{UsefulNotes/Supermarionation}}" series.

* BugWar: The Termoids

* CoolStarship: The X-Bomber

* DyingAsYourself: Captain Carter after being shot by Shiro.
* TheEmpire: The Imperial Alliance

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Captain Carter]]

* ISurrenderSuckers

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}

* MysteriousProtector: Halley
* MysteriousWaif: Lamia

* OrphansPlotTrinket: Shiro

* SpaceIsAnOcean
* SpaceSailing: The Skull

* WaveMotionGun: X-Impulse