Fireball XL5 Episode 1 review: Planet 46

[Jubal]

Fireball XL5 Ep 1: Planet 46

Rating out of 10: 7.9
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803297/?ref_=ttep_ep1

Review (SPOILERS AHEAD):

Planet 46 is the first ever Fireball episode, and roughly sets the tone and plot tropes of the series. As such it's marked rather better than other similar episodes, on the grounds that it wasn't rehashing tropes if it was using them for the first time. The essential thread of threat to the earth -> defeated -> Fireball investigates -> some crew get captured/in trouble -> Steve saves everyone through sheer luck is laid down, and gets returned to a lot in subsequent episodes. Steve's impetuous (read: unforgivably stupid) behaviour on missions is also notable here and is what gets them into trouble to start with, as is the Venus getting captured trope which we will come back to again (and again, and again).

The Subterranes are reasonable villains; there are at least shown to be more than two of them, which is better than some later villain groups get, and whilst they are uncomplicated bad guys who lose simply through being too arrogant to realise that letting an enemy soldier wander around their base is a bad plan, they fit that role reasonably well. Having the rest of the crew tricked into danger by them forcing Steve to give false transmissions is a nice touch. The episode plays into some very 1960s tropes, not least the fear of nuclear war as represented by the "planetomic" warheads used by the Subterranes (who may thus, I suppose, with their mix of secrecy, nuclear threat, and loving in an inhospitable wilderness, have been analogous to the USSR in the minds of the original viewers).

All in all, a fairly good 7.9 rating from me for a very workable and watchable first episode of the series.