Fireball XL5 Episode 33 Review: The Day the Earth Froze

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Fireball XL5 Ep 33: The Day the Earth Froze

Rating out of 10: 6.5
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819053/?ref_=ttep_ep33

Review (SPOILERS AHEAD):
Overall this was an alright episode, fairly run of the mill but nothing glaringly terrible either (except the science, as usual).

There were good points to the episode; the story was a pretty solid adventure, with the crew going through the standard routine of having a problem, getting captured, escaping, defeating enemy plans, and then flying back to earth with just enough time for a joke at the Commander's expense at the end. The intro was particularly well set up, with the crashing XL27 coming in and giving both an early adrenaline boost and a nice sense of uncertainty to the adventure. The fact that earth was suffering from what was going on in space was nice, and for once the cutscenes to the Commander and Lieutenant Ninety both really added something to the story and were quite touching.

All that said, this episode could have been better. I know I shouldn't wince at Fireball's science, but I still do occasionally, and the interstellar heat deflection/cooling ray was one such moment. The main issue with the episode, however, was the perennial issue of villain motivation, and we were back to a complete cackling maniac type who was not only devoid of particularly interesting motives, but also completely incompetent, having multiple chances to kill off the XL5 crew and yet leaving it down to a slow-running pipe of boiling water running into a chamber only a metre or so taller than the average adult human. Sure, the team show good resourcefulness in getting out again, but the fact remains that these aliens are armed with a coma cannon and guns, and have no reason whatsoever to leave Fireball's crew alive let alone conscious and untied. It's not even obvious that they do it for amusement. They also dismantle the cannon without any obvious reason - sure you might hope not to need it once your base is hidden underground, but do you really need to dismantle your main anti-spaceship weapon just as you're getting to the point where your base most needs protecting?

All in all, this was one where Fireball's crew were mostly fortunate in their opponents, and that weakened the story somewhat. Nonetheless some reasonably solid watching.