Not the American radio programme, but the British TV puppet series of the 1960's. Space Patrol was created by Roberta Leigh and Arthur Provis, who were former colleagues of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.

39 episodes were filmed, and the first was transmitted in 1963 on UK commercial TV. The last repeat was broadcast by HTV in 1970. The series even had a season in the USA, where it was called 'Planet Patrol', to differentiate it from the local space opera.

The adventures of Captain Larry Dart, Slim and Husky in Galasphere 347 were filmed in black & white on a very tight budget, but compare very favourably with the contemporary Anderson 'Supermarionation' productions.

HTV (a U.K. TV company) had every episode on video tape, until the early 1990's - then they were all wiped. For years there was no trace of the original film prints, although private collectors had a few clips (have a look at the 'Pictures' link above - there's a shot taken from a TV screen of one of these old clips).

Then all the original 16mm films were found in Roberta Leigh's garage, where they had been stored years before.

A Region-2 6 DVD set with all the episodes and some extra material was released in September '03. This is no longer in production, but sets are still available if you shop around. Try entering 'space patrol -power -rangers dvd' in GoogleUK (this avoids references to Power Rangers).

I suppose physics will have to wait a bit longer before the Zirgon Ray (to wake the crew from the freezer), Yobba Rays and Meson Power are finally discovered...

As for me: "I'm hungry, Captain, and I'm going to open a Martian Sausage Factory!"

Here are Husky, Gabbler, Slim and Larry Dart aboard Galasphere 347

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