Fireball XL5 Episode 3 Review: Space Immigrants

[Jubal]

Fireball XL5 Ep 3: Space Immigrants

Rating out of 10: 6.0
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803300/?ref_=ttep_ep3

Review (SPOILERS AHEAD):
This wasn't one of my favourite episodes of Fireball. It introduced Jock, whose character traits solely consisted of being Scottish and comic-level sexist; this in itself was not a bad point per se, and at least is two whole character traits for a minor part. I felt that making Professor Matic also question Venus' suitability to lead the colonisation mission on grounds of her being female was somewhat less in character, given they often work closely together and indeed have to for the whole episode. Despite setting up the "Venus on a mission with two sexist old men" plot at the beginning, this is never quite resolved, though both men at least grudgingly end up admitting Venus' medical expertise. As such the episode doesn't quite follow through in terms of character dynamics.

Meanwhile, as is often the case with run of the mill Fireball episodes, the plot solution is a Deus Ex Machina; it turns out that the Lilispatians are extremely scared of La Zouns, and so Steve terrifies them simply by introducing Zounie to their bunker. Whilst I have no problem with the villainous aliens being tiny, the puppets weren't at all the best I've seen in Fireball and they never felt like particularly good villains. That said, at least they did get a large percentage of the way to completing their plan, which in some ways made it more frustrating that the plot ending was so contrived.

I still enjoyed watching this and am giving it a 6.0, but not one of Fireball's finest half-hours.