Tonight's Space Patrol is watchable here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1UDaPtA9tU

I've seen the entire Space Patrol series and it is a blast. I've also seen all of Fireball XL5. In fun, Space Patrol would have been the lead up to Fireball. Both had producers who had worked with each other in the past. Space Patrol had the lesser budget.

Sooo... where to start on Space Patrol? Can we land on Jupiter? Well we sent a probe into Jupiter and it was crushed before it got into the upper atmosphere so.. no. But the best way to look at Space Patrol is to realize that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski said that it was his favourite TV show as a child. When you watch this show you can see similarities. Naturally the humans are Earthers, the Narns are Martians, and Minbari are Venusians. The races after that get a bit more where they don't have as easy parallels with the exception of Vorlons are definitely Deltans, a planet around Alpha Centari.

Rather than think of each planet being the literal Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc with a habital solid planet to land on teaming with it's own life; think of each world as a star system. Besides, often in Space Patrol they refer to the solar system as a "galaxy". :/ And even in the beginning of this episode, they say:

"This is earth the year 2100 new york is the headquarters of space patrol and men from Earth, Mars, and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men whose courage made the universe safe for us all."

The Universe? That is a big place. But I will say this, during this course of this story space exploration is remapped. Maybe these are the forefathers who made traveling to the rest of the universe possible? Captain Dart and his crew experience a career where they put themselves in a deep freeze for months to arrive at planets. The way I see it, Earth probably sent out hundreds of Galaspheres (the space ships in the show resembling a spinning top) all patrolling the solar system one after the other, all able to be woke up if needed and if they were in the area. Very elaborate but functional. By the end of the series they have light speed travel and that puts an end to many men and women making a living sleeping most of the time. But it was a sweet deal while it lasted.

One thing I want to do is figure out how many years pass during this show. Takes six months to reach Neptune, and six months to get back? Well that is one year the life of Captain Dart and crew are displaced from the life they once knew. Should be fun. So at the beginning of the show they say the year is 2100 and New York. Now let's say that the environment is the same then as it is now. There is no appearance of snow, so it is not the winter time, so let's set the calendar to sometime in March to start out with.

And there are other ongoing puns in this show. So let's check them out.

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About this episode:

Poor Captain Dart just gets back to Earth and he is sent immediately back out. But Captain Dart is a good sport about it. But life wears on him eventually in the series. Husky and Slim are already complaining.

03:30 - I find it funny that the other Galaspheres had a malfunctioning Orbital Drive but still manages to land on Earth? Wouldn't just need a Orbital drive to land?

03:50 The Venusian secretary Marla says something new each episode. Or at least says some quip or line about Venusians. This one she says - "A Venusian has the facility never to forget."

Raeburn - Goodbye and good luck. (See you in 49 days.) I mean can you imagine that? Raeburn just assigns these people who just got back from a long patrol and says "Go forth..." and then doesn't see them again for nearly two months? And wait till they have trips to Neptune and Pluto!!

BTW, in real life the Juno Probe was reported to be the fastest manmade object to date of estimated top speed of about 165,000 mph (265,000 km/h), being launched from Earth on August 2011 and arriving at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. So a little under five years.

Granted the Gallisphere made a straight shot while Juno sling shot around the sun to gain speed, so other probes in the past have managed some better times.

Pioneer 10 - 640 Days in 1973.

Pioneer 11 - 606 Days.

Voyager 1 - 546 days in 1979.

Voyager 2 - 688 days.

Galileo - 2,242 days in 1995. Took a more indirect path to not just flyby but orbit the Jovian moon system!

Juno - 1,795 days in 2016. Hey we're improving!

Oh and an estimated Europa mission will be launched in 2022, reaching Jupiter in 2030. Must require more special deceleration to actually slow down enough to land on a moon. But then... Cassini and the Hygens Titan lander... oh well nevermind. >End tangent. <

06:17-

"Gamma Rays on, Yobba rays on..."

06:51 - Meson power.

07:26

The Martian Husky always also has a comment as they leave Earth. Captain Dart asks Husky about the view of Earth which Husky says "Partly hidden by clouds but there is a good view of Australia." Captain Dart asks this of Husky after watching a monitor of view as they launch.

08:15 Zergon way. A way

08:44 Slim has to explain the freezer to Husky? They must really be a new crew.

Takes 24 days 12 hours to reach Jupiter.

09:00 Sonar Beam? In space? LOL!

10:40

11:00 - After all these times of approaching Jupiter and they haven't figured out deceleration to not nearly crash into Jupiter? Newbs!!

It is established that Captain Dart is a Space Patrolman. Actual combat is handled by the Galactic Forces.

Husky establishes that Martians are a warrior race. (Much like Narns!)

12:30

Husky - "What is Jupiter like?"

Captain Dart - "Like the Florida Everglades with Newfoundland fog."

13:00 It takes Gamma rays to see Jupiter enough to get a view that you would see from Earth?

13:30 Ahhh.. the rocky surface of Jupiter under all those perky clouds.

15:00 The Jovians looked and sounded cute. What is interesting is they are blimp like almost like other depictions of cloud dwellers for a gaseous world. But then they are depicting Jupiter as a solid surface sooo... I da know?

17:00 The air and water on Jupiter is poisonous. Good to know.

17:30 Compass is going mad because someone is using a vibra-gun?

18:00 Bang! Wow actual violence for a children's show.

20:00 Again, the Jovian (I believe this is Joe the Jovian) has a really cute voice. I love how the translator has a dial for Jupiter. And it is kinda bulky too What if you didn't need translating? You would have this encumberance on your chest.

21:30 Scientists eh? And the Lumays are the only life on Jupiter? What about the Jovians? Later you hear of snakes.

22:30 Awesome fist fight scene.

23:00 Plastifoam? Future handcuffs.

23:45 Joe wishes Captain Dart would stay there and make home with him? Ok, Joe has a sweet voice and that is cute, but if I didn't know better I would say we had a really early homosexual hint there. But hey, it is 2100!

2400 you get the mechanical heartbeat of New York. The amazing thing about this show from 1962 was it being the first to have an all electronic music score (as simple as it was).

And that is the first episode. Next Episode "The Wandering Asteroid".

CALENDAR: We started on let's say March 10th, 2100. 24 days 12 hours to get to Jupiter and the same amount of time back (maybe not in as big a hurry, but we'll just keep it consistent), probably half a day on Earth and on Jupiter, a total of 50 days pass in this episode.

Final Date April 29, 2100.