"Paul Starr - Space Agent!" 1960's Sci-fi pilot show rarity by Roberta Leigh. AI Enhanced.
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Created and written by Roberta Leigh following the success of Space Patrol, Paul Starr had a much bigger budget and was in full colour.
Topaz Video AI has done a great job on enhancing it, making it a lot sharper and clearer, so much so that you can see strings which are not visible in the original!
The pilot show is all that we have, as sadly the show did not get commissioned. Here Toonhound explains why: (www.toonhound.c...)
"With its roaring rockets, aquatic-looking aliens, whirring robots, interplanetry
action and explosions, all the ingredients for TV success were present and
correct. But alas, "Paul Starr" never received a series commission. You see,
there was a sizable supermarionated elephant lurking around the production,
in the form of Gerry Anderson and AP Films. Their team had already
conquered the TV schedules with Fireball XL5 and Stingray, and those
Thunderbirds were blasting off for action at the same time as Roberta
Leigh's new pilot.
It's easy to speculate that, if those Anderson series weren't omni-present
"Paul Starr" would have been picked up, and soared. Oh, but then it
probably wouldn't have been made in the first place, because, there's no
escaping the fact that this was hugely derivative of those shows. There's
"Stingray" all over that underwater base, and "Thunderbirds" in the protracted
launch sequence. The robots have stolen Robert the Robot's electronic vocals
too, and we've got a slick singing star (Jerry Dane) crooning over the end
credits. Heck, there's even a rumbling bongo beat introducing the thing!"
I'd recognize that voice anywhere!
It's future Anderson alumni Ed Bishop (Captain Blue and Ed Striker, plus a role in the film "Doppelgänger")
Ed Bishop! I knew I recognized that voice from GERRY ANDERSON'S Captain Scarlet and UFO! I would have been a fan as a little kid. That said, the show falls short of Anderson's shows from Fireball XL5 and Stingray onward in all departments but particularly in the puppet heads, which are generally not attractive while all the main characters in Anderson's are really beautiful works of art. These main characters look more like the rather substandard background per-episode human characters in Anderson's shows until Thunderbirds. I would have totally been a fan as a kid, however. No doubt about that.
What an amazingly clear video, in the 60's our TV was never this good! You did a great job, thank you!!
Thanks for the kind comment Rick! I'm still working how to get the best out of Topaz Video AI, but it continues to impress.
@@IKP1000 I think you're doing great and we sure love the shows you're preserving and improving!
Paul Starr was made in colour!
What a pity that only one episode was made. That was quite enjoyable!
Yes, opinion is very divided on this one; many love it and even more hate it, it seems. I'm with you: it's quite a lot of fun!
Gerry Anderson had nothing to fear, but the Martians were charming. Ed Bishop before UFO!
The genesis of all the great puppet series. British TV was so creative in the 1960's.
I am surprised Ed Bishop is credited last on the voice cast, especially as he voiced the lead character
I picked up the voice right away. He is in the credits.
That is a little gem (and I don’t mean lettuce 🤣) this must have influenced Gerry Anderson with Stingray and Thunderbirds. Considering it was made only two years after Space Patrol (which I love) is an incredible achievement. The puppets seem to be a blend of marionettes and the Terrahawks type of rubber faced puppetry and this was light years (in puppet terms) before Terrahawks. The quality too, looked HD on my 58” tv. Very enjoyable indeed so kudos to you for posting this little beauty👍🏻❤️🌟
Thanks for the comment Ed. I wondered if it would still look good on a big screen, so I'm happy to hear that it does!
@@IKP1000 trust me, it looks pin sharp and magnificent in 4K 👍🏻
This could have rivaled the Anderson stuff if it was given a series. It's funny how Dalek like those robots are. The puppet facial movements are fantastic
Yes, the production values are far superior to the earlier Roberta Leigh material. They clearly had a decent budget for once! Shame it didn't come to anything. As I understand it, this episode was never shown on TV at all.
@@IKP1000 This was never shown on TV? What a shame! This was/is great! Thanks for posting.
@IKP1000
I'd never heard of this before your video showed up in my feed today and this really was my era for watching all the puppet shows I could on television.
By the way, I kept thinking of Tony Blackburn every time I saw Paul Star!
Now you say it, I see it!
Now this is a show that deserved the green light
this is awesome; very Thunderbirds like
Lots of traces of Space Patrol in instruments and sounds, Dalec like robots. I had to go full screen to see hints of strings. You can tell they had a larger budget to work with. I agree with Sheila, great.
Thanks David. Yes, they certainly were happy to "borrow" from other shows with this one! I'm very impressed with the sets; there's some very fine detail here, and it's quite a visual feast.
Wow Stingray and Daleks before Stingray and Daleks
Congratulations Lain!!! Excellent work, excellent videos!!! Masterpieces of our childhood. Space Patrol, Paul Starr, Flash Gordon, etc. etc.👍👍👍👍👍
Many thanks! I'm so glad you are enjoying these.
The background music played during the launch sequence is very reminiscent of "Stingray".
Yes indeed! They "borrowed" quite a lot of ideas and themes from other shows it seems.
Oooh wait till you hear the end theme :P
Cool episode and looks great with the restoration too, thanks!
My favorite show when I was about 5 years old was SuperCar, a Jerry Andersen production I believe. The only other person who knew it was my big brother, and that’s probably because I watched it.
This one reminds me a bit of it, but it’s different enough to bring something new into light. I love it. I always find myself studying how they made everything.
Glad to hear you like it Sheila! I think it's great fun too.
Thanks for this Ian. I don't remember ever seeing or hearing about Paul Starr. But this would have been the kind of program I would have watched.
The voices are hilarious!
This is great and stands on its own -- no need for comparisons to Gerry Anderson or Dr Who. Like the Star Wars vs Battlestar Galactica notion, it shouldn't be an either-or thing; both have their own individual merits.
This was released on a very hard to find BluRay by Network Video many many years ago. It and the existing episode of Twizzle were extras on the disk which had as its main feature two episodes of Space Patrol.
So THAT'S where Daleks came from!!!
Nice to see it in one piece and cleaned up. The rolling robots always make me snicker, obviously Dalek inspired with a claw arm and sucker arm. The sheer amount of pegboard backgrounds is distracting. The script is a bit juvenile in the interactions but still an entertaining watch.
Thanks for the comment Kate. Yes, definitely Dalek-inspired robots. I hadn't thought about that until it was pointed out..
End theme music is practically identical to Supercar ( as I remember) Great work again Iain 😊
Thanks David, I knew it reminded me of something!
@@IKP1000 Fab! Keeeeep posting
Omg. Why aren't there a million episodes??
"CGI" Is Amazing"", "Not A bit of"Plastic in sight"", "Sounds like the great "Ed Bishop", in charge, "Once Again", He always saves Mankind"""
This is amazing work, thanks so much. I can’t see Network putting out “proper HD” if this as it was left off the Space Patrol Blu-ray set. But this process really looks like viable alternative to original negative remastering. Have you seen the Space Precinct upgrade using this?
I'm sorry to say this programme is not up to Gerry Anderson standards, it looks like copied sounds and how to do scenery off Stingray & Thunderbirds plus a little engine noise off Space Patrol whilst landing on Mars !!
It's pretty close to Gerry Anderson standards. The puppets move fluidly, the strings are nearly invisible, and the sets have nice attention to detail. This was made by the same people who made Space Patrol, so of course they're going to reuse some elements from that show, but none of the aspects that this show seems to have "copied" are enough to damage its quality. It's still pretty well done. Besides, this was made before Thunderbirds. Not to mention, only the pilot was produced.
It such a shame that this wasn’t successful it would have been a very interesting TV show though I will say the robots do look a little bit like Daleks 😂
This was great 😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏Its a shame that this series was refused by the networks. I recognize the voices from Space Patrole 😄 Great restoring you did 👍👍 The special effects were great for 1964, loved the script and the song too 😉
Greatest show of all time.
This is great!
Thank you Sheila! Gosh you are quick: I only posted this a few minutes ago ;-). Glad you like it. I think it's super too. Not all of Roberta Leigh's efforts are, I think it's fair to say...
Pure luck. I can’t remember the rabbit hole that guided me there, but the timing was purely coincidental.
AWESOME !!!!
Thank you for that, it's much appreciated.
Amazing Iain, I’d never heard of this series, excellent job of tidying it up I have to say.
Ed Bishop nice
Thanks for uploading, Great quality
This is wonderful work. Thank you for sharing.
Ace…
Ersatz Supermarionation-sad to watch
It looks oh so familiar
Hi Steven, yes it seems they "borrowed" quite a lot from other series at the time. Opinion is divided about whether it's good or not, but I rather like it!
I have never seen this before
Although more advanced, I prefer the sounds in Space Patrol. I think the music was far too jazzy in this!
There's no such thing as "far too jazzy." The music is punchy and has some drive and good sense of danger.
@@imfsresidentotaku9699 I guess it's down to your own personal taste. I think the horrid music choice was a major reason for the shows failure. Moving on to the present day, there's a trend to apply Heavy rock music in the background of TV 18th century costume drama. I've also endured AC/DC polluting a recent WW2 Tobruk based series. For me that's a swift press of the change channel button to be rid of such rubbish. But I'm sure there's plenty of people that like it. Alfred Hitchcock could give these youngsters a few lessons in suspense and "sense of danger"
Sci-fi setting but their room doesn't have an automatic fire alarm
Lightning could have died already if Starr was later
interesting video
Do you have more of this when I heard the music it came back to me
Hi. Unfortunately, this is the only episode made!
@@IKP1000 wow what a loss it’s weird cause the music rings a bell in my childhood I remember the song there must have been more made or it could have been used in another show
Please can you check I also used the app to colorize supercar and fire bowl. XL5. I have it on my journal.
I hope you read my comments, on the fantastic job you
done on space patrol.
But where did this come from?
Never missed anything growing up back in the day.
Also none of the lads I knew growing up mentioned it.
Can’t find much info on it either.
Anyway, love your work.
lain how are you doing ?
The theme song sounds more like a Cuphead boss
They tried
so bad! Space patrol was far better.
The only thing this one has going for it compared to Space Patrol is that it was shot in colour and nice quality colour, too. If only Space Patrol had been shot like this.
Well, thanks for posting this... It was awful though - Tony Blackburn and Kato in space, and bare-faced Dalek plagiarism. Too much like they just threw a few groovy 'pop' trends in a hat and called it a show. Space Patrol has a lot more depth, and charm about it.
Your comment sounds too much like you decided that a show featuring "groovy 'pop' trends" and something that resembles something else is automatically "awful" and called it a day. Paul Starr has a lot more depth and charm than your reasoning.