Fireball XL5 Episode 25 Review: 1875

[Jubal]

Fireball XL5 Ep 25: 1875

Rating out of 10: 6.8
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0807583/?ref_=ttep_ep25

In which Fireball does Time Travel. Very odd Time Travel.

It's a pity Gerry Anderson never did a Steampunk/Western Supermarionation show in some ways, I think it's fairly clear he had at least a subliminal desire to do one (though I've also no doubt that if he had the portrayals of native Americans and Mexicans would have been cringeworthy as anything). Anyhow, what we got from it is 1875, taking the cast back to the eponymous year - firstly Robert, and later much of the main cast. Time travel in this universe appears to work with the space-time continuum bending to try and fit the new characters in, including significantly altering their memories (and somehow also their clothing) in order to do so. It also appears to require the person to be conscious to be transported easily for reasons that also remain unclear. The resulting plot is zany and fun, but how it works is played too loosely and affects everyone too variably for a core feature of the episode. There also seem to be modern-universe versions of the 1875-era characters, with it being pretty unclear how this is the case or whether these people are descendants/unrelated - it would be a nice twist, but given how confused the time travel is to start with it doesn't work so well.

The characterisation is of course quite messed up by the fact that for parts of the episode the characters are in their 1870s personas which are more or less different to their modern day ones (Steve still gets to be basically the same person, the others are completely changed). "Frenchy" and Gunslinger Zero are actually quite an interesting duo and it's sort of a pity they don't get more time on screen. Matthew and Ninety both have quite a well crafted episode as they scramble to fix the damage in the present, with the latter getting to explore the problems of having to obey orders to the letter and the former appreciating how dangerous his scientific pursuits can become. We get the usual "Zounie screws things up" trope played out too, which isn't too bad but is done too often for it to be enjoyable in the series as a whole.

It's not an inherently bad episode, and it's nice to have some time travel in the series, but it's sadly done in a rather slapdash/haphazard way with a plot that doesn't fit together all that well, and as such 1875 gets a slightly below average rating.