Gerry Anderson’s first committed sci-fi TV series boasted a spaceship full of wonderful lines, shapes and invention. The separation of ‘Fireball Junior’ from the main craft was an elegant idea destined to be delightfully re-implemented for the Skydiver sub/air vessel in Anderson’s UFO TV series in 1969-70; but the luscious lines of XL5 are pure Dan Dare (and about as near as any of us will ever get to a recreation of that Brit comic classic, since Blightey didn’t have the money to do anything with Martin Bower’s superb models for the proposed TV show/film in the 1980s). Legendary visual effects wizard Derek Meddings, later to work on The Empire Strikes Back as well as most of the 007 outings of the 1970s, used some surprisingly ‘BBC’ techniques’ to generate the shape of the craft, which was drawn from household liquids bottles stuck together, painted and decorated with ‘nurnies’ (parts sequestered from model kits) and ‘dirtied down’ to give the impression of usage.

In terms of marketing, Gerry Anderson remains George Lucas’s direct predecessor, and this is a widely diffused design both in the toy and model marketplace and in the sphere of 3D hobbyists. Though XL5 is no longer available with a three-stage lolly, you can get it die-cast and as a hard-vinyl candy toy. There are some excellent CGI recreations/imagining of XL5 scenarios at this site, an unusual paper-model recreation here, and you can even fly Fireball XL5 in Microsoft Flight Simulator 98. What’s harder to find is a model-kit; Airfix produced an injection-moulded kit as a promotional item in 1964, obtainable only as a mail-away gift for a brand of ice-cream, and this model was later used as the basis for a now-discontinued resin and white-metal replica from Comet miniatures- who subsequently output a metal kit of the XL5 and a resin kit of the charming ‘Fireball Junior’ head-section. There’s advice at tvcentury21.com about how to use the same model-kits that Meddings did when dressing the original, to faithfully recreate your own XL5, along with a list of the key kits involved. CGI enthusiasts looking for a shortcut or unimpressed with open-source versions can buy a mesh of the ship at Turbosquid.

Gerry Anderson talks exclusively with us on the design on Fireball XL5:

“Having the head separate from the main body was a very simple decision to make; I always tried, with all my shows, to make them as believable as possible, and having seen the way that Fireball XL5 was launched…if one took one’s imagination now to a planet where they were going to land, how were they going to find a piece of flat ground where a rocket that weighs God-knows-what could land safely without sinking into the sand, or mud or whatever? So that was the key to having a ‘Fireball 2’ that could land and leave the mothership in orbit. It was all based on, common sense and the knowledge we had at the time.”

Gerry Anderson has more to say on XL5 in our exclusive interview

63: The Lewis & Clark – Event Horizon (1997) | RETURN TO INDEX

Whatever your opinion on Paul W. Anderson’s ‘ghost story in space’, it can’t be denied that there are some fantastic space vessels on display, courtesy of production designer Joseph Bennett (who we spoke to about it, see below). We’ll get onto the Event Horizon ship itself a little later, but the relative pygmy-vessel Lewis & Clark has some very nice lines of its own, and it’s just a shame that we never really get a great look at it in the movie itself. Vehicles like the Nostromo tug use jutting struts off-set for a casual air, but the Lewis & Clark is standing very much to attention, focused forward. Are these promontories weapons or sensors. For a ‘NASA’-style vehicle, it looks armed to the teeth! It’s still clearly unsuitable for heavy atmospheres, but (as Bennett explains) is capable of landing in light atmospheres. The venerable Richard Yuricich shot the miniatures for Mass Illusions at Pinewood, England .

Joseph Bennett, ‘Lewis & Clark’ designer

“We wanted to create two very different aesthetics [between the Lewis & Clark and the Event Horizon]. The Lewis And Clark was the type of NASA-aesthetic that you know…a working spacecraft that goes from place to place like an oil-rig helicopter. It’s got the classic space shuttle-based design, very workaday. That was enjoyable doing, because you had to make an environment that works for that. “We did have a scene which eventually got cut from the script due to money and time and the need to keep the movie to ninety minutes. It was a rescue sequence set on an oil-drilling asteroid. They had to go and rescue a guy that was trapped there. It was really nice, but in the end it was something like a twenty-minute sequence, and the need was felt to get into the meat of the film. “We had to do Event Horizon quite quickly. Paul Anderson is a brilliant director and we all just went for it, really. “

Full-length interview with Joseph Bennett coming soon!

Though I’ve not been able to find any model-kit presence for the Lewis & Clark, you can still board the ship itself in the Doom 3 mod, and gamer fans of the movie could do a lot worse than check out Dead Space. More CGI enthusiasts have concentrated on the Event Horizon itself than this smaller ship, possibly due to the difficulty in finding reference images or schematics. If you have a Lewis & Clark mesh, get in touch and I’ll include it here. In the meantime, there was a games miniature produced, which is listed here (direct photo of it here).

Info: Fictional Life | IMDB |

62: Space-junk trawler – UFO (UK TV, 1970)| RETURN TO INDEX

Should I apologise for including a spaceship here that may have slipped the minds even of UFO fans? No way. For anyone who loves the NASA aesthetic, this is a pin-up ship. There’s pretty much no hope of ever finding out who designed it, since it seems to have been cobbled together from spare parts in Derek Meddings’ workshop. The function of this ship, which has the pre-titles sequence of the episode Conflict to itself, is to locate and destroy old and unused space-debris that may interfere with Earth space missions. The sheer imbalance of the craft is delightful, with a solar panel array on one side and some kind of communications dish on the other. It looks like it was built in orbit from the smallest possible requisite number of parts, and it’s just as cool as hell.

No kits, no models. A shame, as it would be a good source for kit-bashing by itself!

Info: Fictional Life | IMDB |

61: Planet Express – Futurama (US TV, 1999-2003+) | RETURN TO INDEX

Though series creator Matt Groening consulted with esteemed futurist Syd Mead on the design of our hapless heroes’ spacecraft, it’s not one that the artist included when chatting with us about his spaceship designs for this article. Anyone who remembers the sheer quality of tin ‘space-age’ toys can’t fail to be beguiled by the gorgeous curves of this vehicle. Even the tonality of the greens is pure late-50s, early-60s. The Planet Express was just made for kids to ‘whoosh’ around the room! It’s been noted that, like a great many of Groening’s best-loved characters, the Express has a pronounced overbite, and this is just one of the little features that provides a sexy spin on a classic design motif in spaceships.

There’s a beautiful Skyhook models kit available of the ship, and Moore Collectibles also have a lovely replica to offer. In the hobbyist world there’s a nice Lego version, a purchasable CGI model, another in Max, and Mr. Ronsfield, a German CGI enthusiast, has also paid tribute to the craft.

Info: Fictional Life | IMDB |

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