Fireball XL5 Ep 34: The Fire FightersRating out of 10: 7.7
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819054/?ref_=ttep_ep34The Fire Fighters was quite a nice episode, very pyrotechnics and action heavy but there was nothing obviously wrong with it and it made for an enjoyable watch.
Unusually for Fireball there was no villain, and no planetary exploration; it's all about a direct threat to earth and how the crew deal with it. The plot is actually really quite minimal; they come up with a plan, they execute the plan with a couple of minor hitches (nearly deadly minor hitches, but even so), and ta-da, win. There are a few flaws - the ending "joke" isn't actually funny and is a bit sad if anything, and the whole thing operates too many cliches even for Fireball (the pleading with Steve not to do the obvious hero bit is a bit silly). Nonetheless, it's generally well executed, it's actually a vaguely interesting problem and solution, and the characterisation is fine if a bit bland. I think I tend to prefer Fireball when it's a bit more of an Odyssey in space, rather than a Thunderbirds-style threat-and-solution model, but this was well executed - the space station was nicely done and looked interesting, the fireballs vs Fireball thing was kind of a nice twist, and it provided good moment for Prof Matic getting his plans in order.
All in all I'll give this a 7.7 - it didn't have much to make it sparkle (and pyrotechnic-heavy episodes in black and white puppetry don't exactly scream visual spectacle), but it was a pretty workable script and plot and fitted in well to the series.
