Fireball XL5 Episode 5 Review: Spy In Space

[Jubal]

Fireball XL5 Ep 5: Spy In Space

Rating out of 10: 3.0
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803304/?ref_=ttep_ep5

Spy in Space is a pretty horrendous episode; it should be watched either for completeness' sake, because it introduces a recurring villain, or just out of sheer horror, and that's about it.

The SS Thor crew are introduced in this episode, and are characterised far worse here than in any of their other appearances. The main plot hook of "spy organisation plans to steal Fireball and use it as their base" isn't too bad, but the plot is a mess even outside the character issues, with the Fireball crew basically able to win because of the utter bungling incompetence of the Space Spies. Having Boris as a bit of a bungling, weaker character in the Boris/Griselda pairing is fine; but the characterisation of the pair as a whole, and how it compares to the Fireball crew, is badly done.

Boris and Griselda clearly play heavily on Russia/spying type tropes, and are to some extent a reverse of the XL5 crew. They could have been quite interesting characters from that perspective, if it wasn't for the fact that their characters are basically wholly overriden by their being repurposed as basically a walking advert for misogyny. The gender roles of the pair are thrown into harsh contrast with those of Steve and Venus; their opposite-ness having already been set up by their Russian-style aesthetic, the space spies are shown as a warning of the dangers of subverting and inverting gender roles. Boris, the weak Russian man, is compared negatively to the "manly" Steve, and Griselda, the bitter, angry, overbearing woman, is the negative of the calm, caring Venus. I don't think one can really look past this feature of the characters, at least in this episode, and it's a really shoddy piece of writing as a result.

The episode's ending hammers the point home unpleasantly, with Steve basically voicing a warning to Venus, when she challenges him on the fact he made a dickish sexist comment about her, that if he apologises he could be opening the door to "a world full of Griseldas" - with the scene then cutting to Griselda going into a rage and shouting about how awful men are.

And honestly, after this episode, I felt like she might have a point.