Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion


Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion, also known as Raumpatrouille Orion, and Space Patrol Orion in English, is a West German science fiction television series. Its seven episodes were broadcast by ARD from 17 September 1966. It was the first German science fiction TV series. With audience ratings as high as 56%, it was a huge success and racked up numerous reruns. Over the years, the series acquired a distinct cult status in Germany.

Premise

In the series, nations no longer exist and Earth is united. Flying saucers, such as spaceship Orion, are flown by humans, whilst the aliens fly fighter jet-like aircraft. The titular ship, "Spaceship Orion", is portrayed as being a fast space cruiser, the newest starship in mankind's fleet and the fastest spacecraft ever created by humans.
The show tells the story of Commander Cliff Allister McLane, an Earth starship captain and his loyal crew. He is Orion commander in the developing war against an alien race called the Frogs. He is notoriously defiant towards his superiors.
The seven stories in the TV series are set in the years 3000 to 3003 during the period that the Orion and its crew are demoted to serve in the lowly space patrol sector and are monitored by an onboard security officer.
Throughout the series, reference is made to two galactic interplanetary wars. The first war took place 400-500 years before the series setting when people from the Neptune Colony joined the rebels against the earth government's terrestrial control.
The story posits that there are no nation states in the year 3000. In episode 5 - Battle for the Sun, the character Hasso comments that he has "as much chance to be the Emperor of China" when making a comparison on the planet Chroma.

Characters

  • Major Cliff Allister McLane is the commander of the Orion and a friend to most of its crew. He is a daredevil and hero who does not fight for money or glory, but for peace. He has been a member of Earth's space fleet for 15 years and was a soldier in at least one previous large-scale war. As a running gag, McLane often has to destroy the spaceship Orion to save Earth, afterwards being awarded command of a better vessel. In the TV series it was shown only with the destruction of the Orion VII, though in the novels it went as far as to the Orion X-C. Cliff Alistair McLane character is of American descent with a Scottish ancestry.
  • Lt. Mario de Monti is the computer specialist and gunner of the Orion and a good friend of Commander McLane. He is often shown drinking with his friends and he is a womanizer who likes to flirt with young, attractive women. The de Monti character is of Italian descent.
  • Lt. Atan Shubashi is the astrogator and star cartographer of the Orion. He is the owner of 264, one of the last 367 poodles that still exist on Earth. This character is of Japanese descent.
  • Lt. Hasso Sigbjörnson is the Orion's engineer. He likes to drink and is the only crew member who is married. He is an old friend of Commander McLane who usually helps him to explain to Ingrid why he can't retire after all. Both Hasso and Ingrid are of Scandinavian descent.
  • Lt. Helga Legrelle is the surveillance and communication officer of the Orion. Like the other members of the crew, she dislikes Tamara Jagellovsk and feels monitored by her. Like Jagellovsk, Legrelle has a secret crush on Commander McLane and reacts very jealously whenever she notices Jagellovsk paying too much attention to him. This character is of French descent.
  • Lt. Tamara Jagellovsk is a member of the GSD who has been given the task of keeping McLane under control. Tamara likes McLane, however, and is very amused by his sense of humour. The Crew at first strongly dislike her, but with time they develop a feeling of mutual respect. Tamara can issue "Alpha Orders" which are orders of highest priority that have to be obeyed by McLane at all cost. The character of the security officer is of Russian descent.
  • Frogs are a highly advanced and very intelligent, energy-like race of extraterrestrial conquerors who are attempting to destroy Earth's space fleet and eliminate mankind. They have extremely fast starships and powerful energy weapons. Some of their technological abilities are superior to Earth's, but oxygen is poisonous to them. In the novels, it is finally revealed what they called themselves: Uraceel / Turceed.
  • General Winston Woodrow Wamsler is McLane's commanding officer while McLane is demoted to 3 years of space patrol duty at the TRAV. The character's name infers an English or American background.
  • General Lydia van Dyke was Cliff's original commanding officer in the year 3000 when McLane was still at the "Schnelle Kampfverbände" and she expected him "not to go away sulking like a space cadet" when he was demoted, but to return to her fleet after his 3 years of patrol duty. She is also the commanding officer of the space ship Hydra. It is assumed that her character is of Dutch descent.
  • Oberst Hendryk Villa is the head of the GSD and thus the boss of Lt. Tamara Jagellovsk. This character is of German descent.
  • Lt. Michael Spring-Brauner is the aide-de-camp to Gen. Wamsler and has a strong dislike towards McLane and his crew. He is a stuck-up bureaucrat and tries to make McLane's life as miserable as he can. Another character of Germanic descent.
  • Space Marshal Kublai Krim is the commanding officer of the Earth Space Forces. The character name infers a Ukrainian-Mongolian background.
  • Sir Arthur is the head of the Earth Space Forces, the Supreme Space Authority, ORB. Sir Arthur's character is obviously of English descent.
  • von Wennerstein is a representative of the Earth government.
  • Clarence, Tim, and Francois, the far-space station MZ4 station crew. They are all found in a form of statis due to the attack by the alien frogs removing all the air from the far-space station.

    Fictional technology in Space Patrol

  • Astrodisc is a viewing screen that can produce holographic images of space. It has the same function as the bridge screen of the Enterprise in Star Trek. The astrodisc forms the centerpiece of the Orion's bridge.
  • Light-thrower batteries are the weapons most frequently used by Earth's space fleet and the ships of the Frogs. These weapons come in many different sizes, ranging from hand lasers to planet-destructing cannons. Orion was the first German production to feature the English word "laser".
  • Antimatter bombs are bombs containing antimatter and were used in the attempt to destroy the "Supernova" in the 2nd episode.
  • Overkill is a new weapon that was introduced in the 4th episode, and that was installed on the Orion as the first Earth space ship. It seems to be a disintegrator-style weapon that is able to cause enormous craters hundreds of kilometres wide and even obliterate whole planets.
  • ASG wrist-worn communication devices are part of the technology of Earth's space fleet.
  • Robots are helpers, guards and even housekeepers in the world of tomorrow. Their use is shown to be problematic, because they are depicted as suffering from frequent malfunctions, making them dangerous to human beings. They first appear in the series in episode 3 "Keepers of the Law" as saucer-shaped mining machines quasi-levitating on one bow-leg. They are constrained by Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, about which a lecture is given at the beginning of the episode. Later they appear as androids and floating battle robots. Some of the humanoid robots are very similar in design to the modern Vietnamese robot TOPIO.
  • Deep sea bases are giant cities located under water. They are modern, beautiful and have big windows to allow the people to see fish and other underwater life forms. The Orion usually starts and lands at Basis 104 which is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.
  • Faster-than-light engine is the main drive that allows the crew to traverse the universe at speeds faster than light. The Frogs use a similar but superior technology, with the result that their spacecraft can outpace the ships of the Space Patrol.
  • Magnet shield is a protective shield which is used by the Frogs. The Shield appears as a powerful energy bowl that encircles the starship.

    Special effects and set decoration

Many of the special effects seen in the black-and-white series, like the underwater casino and space port, were created by means of the Schüfftan process.
As the series' budget was comparatively low, the set designers resorted to using modified common everyday objects; for instance, electric irons, upside-down clock pendulums, washing-machine console parts, and designer pencil sharpeners were used as props control panels, sewing thread coils and banana plugs as futuristic machine parts, and plastic cups as ceiling lights. Many panels were produced by the then-newly invented thermoforming process. Designer furniture was also extensively used, notably Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's 258-type couch, Harry Bertoia's Diamond-type armchair, Yrjö Kukkapuro's Karuselli-type armchair,
Charles Eames's Aluminium group #EA105 chair, George Nelson's DAF Chair and Eero Saarinen's Tulpe table/chair combo. Joe Colombo's famous Smoke-type drinking glasses were used throughout the series.
Orion's cockpit was a 2.50m high, 10m wide interior set, built within a 28m exterior diameter sound stage. It stood on a 60 cm high metal tube construction to hide the 10,000m cable harness that connected its 3,200 flashing light bulbs to a 40 kg, electric motor-driven pinned-barrel mechanical sequencer.
The stage designer was Rolf Zehetbauer, who later won an Academy Award for his work on Cabaret.
"We had no money available and yet we were instructed to produce an elaborate science-fiction series. We were forced to improvise in all aspects. This ruled out completely manufacturing the spaceship's equipment from scratch. So we used existing things that we could adapt," is how Zehetbauer described the design work of the set.