Fireball XL5: The Vault

8 - Voice Cast/Space Immigrants

Before a single shot could be filmed, the voices of the characters had to be recorded so the dialogue could be synced to the puppets. Various actors who had worked/were born in Australia came over to work in the UK as this was a place that was promising for Canadian actors, seeing that such programs required to make it to sell to an American network, it was promising for them to come and work in the UK. The recording sessions took place at GHW Gate Recording Theatre near Borehamwood railway station - 16 miles from the AP Films Slough studios. For Fireball XL5, the actors usually recorded the dialogue for three episodes at a time.

Paul Maxwell;

David Graham; Born in the mid-1920s, he was originally cast for Martin Kine, Private Investigator in 1957 for Anderson, where Graham stated he "Wasn't too bad at accents" to Gerry. He would indeed return to the Andersons in Four Feather Falls, followed by Crossroads To Crime. He would work with Gerry Anderson further with Supercar playing the voices of Mitch, Dr. Beaker and Zarrin. Fireball XL5 saw Graham play Lieutenant Ninety, Zoony and Professor Matthew Matic. David Graham spoke his words in the style in a voice similar to the actor Walter Brennan. However, Stingray saw him play only the Doc and Oink, who only appear in a few episodes, as well as many other alien aquaphibians for the series, which is why he was required for the series as he had provided many alien voices for Fireball XL5. For Thunderbirds, he would play his most famous roles playing the voices of Gordon, Kyrano, Brains and Lady Penelope's chauffeur Parker, where he would play all of those characters for the two Thunderbirds feature films, before going on to play as guest roles in The Secret Service. He is a genius when it comes to voice acting; Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig, the Wise Old Elf in Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom and the Dalek voices of Doctor Who. He played the voices of the Daleks with Peter Hawkins for all the William Hartnell stories featuring Daleks and both 1960s Dalek feature films. On-screen, was seen in The Gunfighters (1966) as barman Charlie and fan-favourite City Of Death (1979) as Professor Kerensky. He can also be seen in The Saint, Supergirl and King David. For 2015, he would return to the reboot series of Thunderbirds as the voice of Parker once again in Thunderbirds Are Go!, and even lent his vocal talents to Nebula 75.

John Bluthall; The voice of Commander Zero, Jock, and various aliens arrived to the UK from Australia in 1959. A Polish-born Australian actor and comedian in 1929, his family moved from Poland to Australia to escape the threat of the Nazis. He studied drama at Melbourne University and then acted on radio and in variety theatre. He was noted for his six-decade career internationally in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He completed comedy work in the UK with Spike Milligan, and for his role as Manny Cohen in the television series Feel The Width and Never Mind The Quality, and for working with famous stars like Sidney James and Eric Sykes. In later years, he was known to television audiences as the bumbling Frank Pickle in The Vicar Of Dibley. At 85 he played Professor Marcuse in the Coen Brothers' film Hail, Caesar! (2016). Fireball XL5 was the only Anderson related series he worked with, and died in 2018.

Gerry & Sylvia Anderson; Sylvia Anderson once again lent her vocal talents to the series to voice all of the female characters in the series. Fireball XL5 was the only series Gerry Anderson voiced on. Anderson had visited Edinburgh University where experiments were being made into creating an artificial voice which could be understood (for people who had their larynx removed). The voice was created by Anderson mouthing words into a special soundproof box, with a special vibrator unit under his chin. The result was a modulated tone, which could be recognised as speech. All the experiments with the equipment were carried out by Anderson, so it seemed natural that he should provide Robert's voice for the series, as well as other robotic voices for the series. "It was very, very difficult, if not impossible, to produce the sort of robot voice which would have to be a monotone. So we found out that at Edinburgh University, they were creating the human voice artificially. They gave us a vibrator... that people who had their larynx removed through cancer would be able to put under their chin, and it made a constant buzz. [Makes buzzing noise.] And then, of course, that sound was transmitted to the air inside the mouth. And I was then able to modulate that by mouthing the words. So let's get this straight, fellas – it was not my voice. It was the sound of the vibrator which I modulated". Anderson also noted that due to the silent or aspirate nature of the letter "h", the larynx did not register its vocalisation; thus, Robert's customary cry of "On our way home!" was rendered as "ON-OUR-WAY-'OME!". 

Daniel O'Brien, author of SF: UK – How British Science Fiction Changed the World, describes Robert as a "very English homage" to the character Robby the Robot from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.

SPACE IMMIGRANTS;

Written by Anthony Marriott

Directed by Alan Pattillo

Original UK Airdate: 11th November 1962 (ATV London, Scottish, Westward and Channel)

Additional Voice Cast:

Minodor David Graham Minotran John Bluthal Ken Ross John Bluthal Jock Campbell John Bluthal

The Lillispaceans reveal New Earth is 632 light years from earth. We are presented to even more memorable villains in the form of Minodor and Minotran. Their voices are very high pitched and are an interesting alien design, despite being small creatures, they have large brains, and flappy feet they can float up with. The legs of the tied up Captain Ross were shot with live-action against the puppets. Although shots of hand movements were common among SUPERMARIONATION, scenes where live actors would be used against puppet settings, or puppets against live action settings, were rarer. This was an interesting experiment that had begun with Supercar's Calling Charlie Queen. It is also funny to see the aliens squirm loudly as Zoonie comes to say hello to them. The nervousness is hilariously demonstrated by the aliens flapping their feet and the voice actors using a hurried, nervous tone of voice.