Orbiter X

Another BBC Sci Fi adventure dusted down and dragged screaming into the daylight. This one manages to combine Dan Dare, James Bond and a bit of cold war psyche.

It is the early 1960s and man (led by Britain, of course!) is heading for the stars. The Commonwealth Space Agency (or some such) based at Woomera in the Australian outback –staffed only by a handful of Brits (no need for any colonials here) - is building a space station “Orbiter X” 1,000 miles above the Earth. The component parts have been blasted into space and are awaiting assembly. The project is hijacked by the mysterious “Unity” organisation – which sounds strangely Marxist in its ideas - the leader of which speaks (when his accent doesn’t slip) with a menacing, pseudo-Germanic accent, as does his femme-fatale accomplice.

Our square-jawed, stiff upper lip British heroes go all out to defeat their evil plans, tracking the villains down to their inevitable underground headquarters, deep in the South American jungle. Gosh, it makes me proud to be British, what?

In fairness, I found the plot superior to say Journey Into Space, albeit that 50+ years on, it does sound charmingly old-fashioned. Originally broadcast as 13 episodes, somebody has at some stage compressed these down to four 90 minute files. My attempts to restore to their original length failed.