Fireball XL5 Episode 10 Review: Space Pen

[Jubal]

Fireball XL5 Ep 10: Space Pen

Rating out of 10: 7.0
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819052/?ref_=tt_ep_nx

This was OK, just about makes the "average" score region of 7-8 but nothing to write home about. The basic plot idea is fairly good, a theft and a prison revolt, but there are a few holes that are big enough to be annoying, and the characterisation isn't always top notch.

The good side, as noted, is the outline of the plot. The criminals, whilst a bit over the top in style, are good fun and work pretty well as characters. Both their plan to rob Space City, and Steve's plan to reclaim the loot, are not bad at all, and the backdrop of the unruly "Space Pen" prison planet with General Shan struggling to restore order is actually a very nice setting idea. The General actually really saves the day rather than the Fireball crew, which is another nice addition that doesn't happen often enough.

The problems fall into two main categories. Firstly, the plot is executed somewhat inadequately. The fact that the Space City people just leave a couple of criminals, sitting in a spaceship which presumably isn't the one they were expecting, for a full night on a landing pad without noticing, is perhaps the biggest. More explanation on General Shan would also be nice - at least the idea of him being present is there beforehand, but he still ends up functioning a bit too like a Deus Ex Machina (a scene or so with him fighting his way through some other prison rebels would be a) badass and b) would have added tension and reduced the sudden-ness of his arrival). The second issue is characterisation. Steve is as usual doling out the casual sexism and meanwhile also being really quite incompetent (why on earth doesn't he have a ray-gun with him on the planet?). Boris and Griselda meanwhile are just fundamentally annoying characters, their plot element really didn't need to be done by them and having some separate character for the story would have probably made more sense. They worked a lot better here than in Spy In Space or Flying Zodiac, which is to say they weren't purely there to warn of the evils of feminism and they weren't just a dream, but that's not huge praise.

All in all, this was a functional episode, but it suffered from weak recurring protagonists and fraying plot holes.