TOTAL RECALL

Brian May loved Star Fleet. So did our Rich. Here’s why.

When I first saw Star Fleet in the ’80s, I was convinced it was a Gerry Anderson show. Admittedly, there were no strings attached (its cast was populated by rod puppets rather than marionettes), but to the untrained eye of this impressionable kid, it had the memorable spaceships, cool launch sequences and earwormy theme tune that had become hallmarks of the Supermarionation shows. Star Fleet was London Weekend Television’s English dub of Japanese series X-Bomber, an anime-influenced space opera created by top manga artist Go Nagai. Set in the year 3000 in the wake of the third space war, it began with an Imperial Alliance cruiser from the Thalian Zone (do you reckon maybe someone had been watching Star Wars?) attacking Earth. Who would come to save us now? How about the prototype X-Bomber, its crew of brave space pilots (Shiro Hagen, Barry Hercules and John Lee), and giant Transformer-like robot Dai-X?

I think I always knew Star Fleet wasn’t the height of sophistication. The dialogue was clunky, Dai-X was clearly a guy in a suit trampling over tiny models, hovering ’bot PPA (Perfectly Programmed Android) was a misnamed abomination, and it always bugged me that one episode featured rocks on the surface of Jupiter. But for a young Star Wars/Trek fan whose space fix was limited to taped-off-the-telly VHS and whatever BBC Two showed at 6pm on a Wednesday night, Star Fleet was essential. Beyond the cool spaceships, the visual style was refreshingly unconventional – particularly when it came to the Imperial Alliance’s insectoid forms and cyborg appendages. Hell, Shiro’s mentor, Captain Carter, got a bug stuck to his face as he was brainwashed to work for Commander Makara. The show’s 24 episodes carved out an actual arc plot, radically different to the “everything is back to normal” standalone stories of most kids’ TV shows of the time. And it was unafraid to end an episode on a downer – sometimes the baddies won; one of the principal characters even died! Yep, it was a hell of an eye-opener. Then there was that theme song... the fact that it was among the catchiest in an era where pretty much every show was backed by an iconic tune is probably enough to guarantee immortality by itself.

Rich has something to tell the people back at Earth Control.