Fireball XL5 Ep 11: Space MonsterRating out of 10: 7.0
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803302/?ref_=ttep_ep117 may be a rather generous score for an episode that utterly fails at its eponymous feature, but there were some redeeming features here too that meant I mostly enjoyed watching.
We'll start with the big obvious negative though - the space monster itself. It's basically a badly made dinosaur. Compared to the usual standard of supermarionation, it looks and feels strangely crude and carnival-like, with one half expecting the head to come off and reveal a real villain inside. The main problem is the eyes - bulging, static, and looking very still and painted. Adding more life to the puppet's face would have worked wonders for the episode. As it is, an episode fairly good on plot and character interaction feels very very strange. Despite the characterisation all being reasonably good (there are a couple of grating comments from the XL2 crew about Venus' looks which aren't picked up on, but generally the characters all interact very well), it feels like they're acting out a strange pantomime in fear of a carnival dragon.
So, given that, what's there to like about an episode called "Space Monster" that fails to deliver on a good monster? A fair amount, as it happens. The adventure plot is straightforward without relying on hackneyed villain tropes, and the behaviour of the monster and the characters all checks out fairly well. The XL2 crew appear as fairly fleshed out characters, and there are some nice glimpses into how various characters do and don't work together - an illuminating discussion between Matthew and Commander Zero that harks back to their shared histories, and the relations and planning between Steve, Ken, and Venus (I'd have liked more on the slightly fractious Ken-Venus relationship), all make this a pretty good character episode by XL5 standards. Best of all, the plot resolution is a) based on elements established earlier in the episode rather than being a deus ex machina and b) doesn't have Steve doing something obviously stupid that works solely due to Power of Dumb Heroism. I may just be satisfied at seeing Steve finally get his leg put in a cast for his continual idiocy, but nonetheless that part of the episode definitely wins points.
So despite a poor Space Monster itself, and a couple of grating points, the plot lacks too many excessive holes, the characterisation hangs together well, and as such this scrapes a 7.0 from me as a decent example of an XL5 episode.
