"Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion" (1966) TV series

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Creator:

Rolf Honold

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

17 September 1966 (West Germany)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Some things from tomorrow may sound like a fairy tale. This is a fairy tale from the day after tomorrow ...

Cast

Dietmar Schönherr	...	Cliff Allister McLane (7 episodes, 1966)
Eva Pflug	...	Tamara Jagellovsk (7 episodes, 1966)
Wolfgang Völz	...	Mario de Monti (7 episodes, 1966)
Claus Holm	...	Hasso Sigbjörnsen (7 episodes, 1966)
Friedrich G. Beckhaus	...	Atan Shubashi (7 episodes, 1966)
Ursula Lillig	...	Helga Legrelle (7 episodes, 1966)
Benno Sterzenbach	...	Gen. Wamsler (7 episodes, 1966)
Claus Biederstaedt	...	Introduction (7 episodes, 1966)
Friedrich Joloff	...	Col. Villa (6 episodes, 1966)
Franz Schafheitlin	...	Sir Arthur (5 episodes, 1966)
Hans Cossy	...	Marshal Kublai-Krim (5 episodes, 1966)
Thomas Reiner	...	Adjutant Michael Spring-Brauner (5 episodes, 1966)
Charlotte Kerr	...	Gen. Lydia van Dyke (4 episodes, 1966)
Reinhard Glemnitz	...	Voice of von Wennerstein / ... (4 episodes, 1966)
Norbert Gastell	...	Hydra-Offizier / ... (3 episodes, 1966)
Alfons Höckmann	...	Rott (3 episodes, 1966)

Also Known As:

"Raumpatrouille - Die Abenteuer des schnellen Raumkreuzers Orion" (West Germany) (rerun title)
"Raumpatrouille" (West Germany) (short title)
"Raumschiff Orion" (West Germany) (informal title)
"Space Patrol" (International: English title)

Runtime:

Germany:60 min (7 episodes)

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Filmstudios, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Bavaria Atelier

Trivia:

There is a rumor that the spaceship Orions lift off sequence was filmed in color and then processed to black and white (the rest of the show was done completely in black and white). The intention was to have already an insert shot for a second season that would have been produced for color-television. Colour-television was launched in Germany on 25 August 1967 during the 25th "Funkausstellung" in Berlin but to the regret of the "Raumpatrouille"-fans a second season never got off the ground.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: You can see two crewmembers in the fifth episode "Kampf um die Sonne" (Translation: "Fight for the Sun"). You can see them in the scene when the "Lanzet"-shuttle of the "Chroma"-people crashes. They were not fast enough to duck behind the shuttle. Actually both should only destroy the shuttle with a pair of wires.

Quotes:

Female ordinance: [slightly out of breath] Commander, you should immediately make contact with Headquarters of the Terrestrial Space Reconnaissance Group. Hurry... It is urgent Mayor...
Cliff Allister McLane: [smiling] My agency has a very limited vocabulary: hurry , classified, urgent.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Pastewka: Die Strategie der Schnecke (#2.2)" (2006)

the first and the best

"Raumpatrouille" was the very first sci-fi series I had the pleasure to watch. My elder brother and me sat in the living room, watching Dietmar Schönherr, Eva Pflug and all the other noble astronauts battling the "Frogs" or renegade robots on a b/w screen.

I was 9 years old, and the whole thing struck me completely. Oh, how i envied a classmate of my brother, who owned Peter Thomas's movie theme on a 12", starting with that unique metallic countdown. For a year I was painting spaceships and foreign planets. Not that i wanted to become an astronaut, but a normal family life with a normal wife, normal kids and a normal job on a normal spacestation would do just fine.

Now that most of us have taken the red pill, passing the outer rims of the known universe in cryosleep, side by side with sigourney, to the proverbial hell and back, the poetry and twinkling of the first days are almost gone.

I got me the series on video, but i can't back get that incredibly "involved" feeling. It was part of the times, i guess. This kind of future really belongs to the past. Yet, none of it's successors made me feel like "orion" again. No, wait: the first "Star Wars" episode (or Episode Four, holy crap...) had a comparable impact back in 1977.