The early Anderson shows up to and including UFO stand up to close inspection pretty well - with the help of a bit of imagination and reasoning. A lot of thought went into producing these shows - and, well, it shows.
So let's take a look at some of the anomolies and 'un-scientific' things in Fireball XL5 and see if we can explain them.
How did they develop the technology so much in so short a time? This could have been mainly due to contact with other civilisations. Many of the civilisations encountered would be likely be more advanced than Earth's. Not only that but the pooling of ideas and resources could have provided a terrific leap forward in technology for many worlds. Advances in technology are built on the back of existing invention. With a bigger pool of things to work on and the ability to mix technologies of different races the sky would not be a limit.
Free Float is the answer to this one.
It is established in the XL5 series that Fireball and other space craft have the ability to go into 'Free Float'. This allows the craft to remain stationary whether it's in space or only yards above the ground. In short, it is an anti-gravity field. See the topic 'Free Float'.
Thruster packs must incorporate Free Float technology. Whilst the packs do require the use of jets to keep them aloft, the Free Float technology reduces the mass of pack and wearer to a minimum, simulating a near weightless condition. In one episode, someone's thruster pack fails and he falls a from a considerable height. He is saved by a safety net. At first that seemed implausible, but with the anti-grav nature of thruster pack technology, it seems much more believeable. The force of the fall was reduced enabling the person to survive the impact - he was still knocked unconcious. The jets had failed - but I presume the anti grav was unaffected.
Perhaps the most interesting/irritating? things about thruster packs is that the wearer appears to have to move his legs in a rapid swimming motion. This may have been just a silly none scientific notion on the part of the puppeteers or producer.
But, if you think about it - it does make a lot of sense. Keep in mind we are talking of technology way in advance of our own.
Here's my theory. The thruster packs give complete hands free operation - vital in outer space work. You don't see Steve use any controls when he uses a thruster pack. He uses his legs to guide himself and control speed. How? The packs must contain a gizmo that picks up the electrical impulses from his spine. So, he moves a leg, the thruster pack reacts in an appropriate way for the movement. Currently there are scientists working on implants that intercept the electrical signals from our brains to our limbs. It's not so far fetched. By the time of XL5 we can assume that implants are no longer necessary. Very sensitive equipment in the thruster pack can pick up the signals without need of surgery.
So, the result is the ability to 'swim' in space. Instead of difficult to control buttons and levers, wearers of thruster packs simply use instinctive leg movements.
Just as with real swimming, the more expert user makes less effort to move than those less capable. Hence Matt seems to thrash about more than Steve and Venus.
Not only does this method of control give hands free operation, it also promotes excercise to stimulate the circulation and also the leg muscles - essential in a weightless condition.
These appear to operate on hover-craft like principles - but are obviously far quieter and far more maneuverable. No hovercraft could travel as high as a jetmobile - they rely on creating a cushion of air beneath them and thus hug the surface.
Jetmobiles probably incorporate Free Float technology. The weight of vehicle and rider is reduced to allow the air jets to propel it easily and quietly. It makes moving a jetmobile about like moving a toy balloon. As with thruster packs, jetmobiles cannot stay aloft without their vertical jets.
Jetmobiles were apparantly used in the show to avoid the problem of trying to make the puppets walk realistically. However, jetmobiles are one of those rareities in t.v. science fiction - personal ground transport.
Oxygen pills are likely to have been developed by an advanced alien civilisation - their power is almost magical by our standards..
At first sight very impressive. So, if you have the technology, flaunt it. Why not rotate your prestigious buildings just because you can? In the series Earth is the major political power after all. The H.Q. of the prestigious World Space Patrol is perhaps one of the most important buildings on Earth.
Gravity control has obviously been established and seems to be in use on all space craft and space stations. Rotating the building is probably easy. Why do it? Art!
Why do Americans build terrifically high tower blocks when they have all that space? The architects think these things up and sometimes people live with (or in) the idea. Once the technology is there, it gets used.
But how can people work with the sun coming and going all the time as the building rotates? Ok, yes they have blinds... : )
Many times though, we see people in the control tower looking out of a window and being able to observe outside events - like ships landing without having to wait for the windows to become aligned with what they are looking at.
The answer to this apparant anomoly is gravity control.
It is a scientific fact that gravity can bend light. The light, and hence the view ot each window, is refracted by a gravity field. It's the same technology used to stop spaceship crews floating around in their craft. The ability to rotate a building without making the occupants dizzy goes hand in hand with the ability to bend light. Once you have gravity control you can do all sorts of clever stuff. In a way then, the rotating Space City control tower is symbolic of Earth's power and technological prowess.
A lot of what we see in the Fireball XL5 series would be the result of technology developed for space travel being used elsewhere - 'spin-offs'. There's more to come from manned space exploration than non-stick frying pans and pens that can write upside down..
People tend to think there is no 'weight' in space, that's not strictly true. Weight is a product of gravity and mass. Without the gravity, the mass of an object is still there. Objects retain the same mass, wherever they are. Mass means inertia - which means the more massive something is, the more energy it requires to start it moving - and also stop it moving. The free float technology reduces mass and makes moving things easy. Free float technology could actually be vital to space travel - see the Faster than Light topic below.
Radio waves don't travel very fast - by astronomical standards. They only move at the speed of light. So, as Fireball and the other XL spacecraft are many light years away when on patrol, they need something faster than conventional radio to keep in touch. Neutroni radio is mentioned many times, though it is never discussed in detail. We do know that it transmits voice messages over many light years instantaneously. No problem with that really - Star Trek has 'sub space radio', Star Wars has, er, I've no idea what they have - but it's equally good at sending messages quickly. By calling the radio 'Neutroni' the Anderson's neatly solved their communications problems. It is not ordinary radio. Quite simply it is a better than average radio transmission gizmo.
Well... yes, ok, the more mundane scientist says it isn't possible and never will be. Phooey! Bear in mind that the 'experts' used to say that if you went faster than about fifteen miles per hour the change in air pressure would kill you... Until something has been invented it's almost always impossible. The current century's science tends to become the next century's half-baked theory. Science doesn't tend to provide answers - just theories. At any given point in time, Man/Woman tends to assume that science is at it's peak - but it's really just plodding up the never ending slope. There's always something new to discover - if we keep looking.
In the XL5 series there are obviously ways of moving a ship faster than light. We see Fireball XL5 break the 'light barrier' in the episode 'Faster Than Light.'
I imagine they broke the 'light barrier' via free float technology.
The main reason Einstein's equations suggest that travelling faster than light
is impossible is tied up with mass. The faster an object moves, the more
massive it becomes - not 'bigger', imagine 'heavier'. At normal everday speeds
this is totally negligible. As an object approaches the speed of light though,
it's mass gets greater and greater. In Einstein's theory, the mass of an
object accelerated to the speed of light would be infinite - imagine VERY
heavy. Way before that happened though the object would have required more and
more energy to keep it accelerating - impossible amounts of energy. Inertia
would hold it back more and more as the mass increased.
But - imagine you have control over an objects mass. As the object speeds up,
you reduce it's mass, the mass never becomes infinite - you break the light
barrier. Relatively simple when you have the technology.
It's likely then, that all of the other gizmos that use free float technology
are a direct result of the initial need for mass control in order to travel to
the stars.
If that's the case it might explain why UFOs appear to defy gravity - if they
are indeed interstellar craft, then they must have some form of mass/gravity
control.
Most of the time though Fireball does not exceed - or even come near the speed of light. Now since light takes years to get from one star to another, how does XL5 travel these distances in days or weeks - and yet not travel as fast?
The answer is probably 'folded space'. It's straightforward logic. The distances are traversed in a shorter time by travelling at a slower speed - therefore, the distances must become shorter. Anyone who's used Microsoft's Autoroute will be familiar with the concept of distances changing if you change the speed at which you travel... :-)
Seriously though, current science does allow for 'folded space' within our universe. Imagine a few stars on a flat paper star map. You can measure the distances with a ruler. If you fold a crease into the map, you can shorten that distance. Now imagine that effect on real space. Since the method of travel is not discussed in the series, we can't really say whether XL5 'folds' space or travels through natural folds in space-time. Natural folds could be regarded as the 'trade winds' and ocean currents that dictated the positions of trade routes in the days of sail.
We can imagine that people just got too reliant on pocket calculators, lap top computers and all the other gadgetry that substitutes silicon for brain power. Perhaps too many people lost their lives when, say, Viewports 2025 decided to cause an error in module Atomic Reactor... You may have noticed that the average piece of computer software is getting more and more unreliable, more prone to crash. Tough if it were flying a plane or a spaceship when that happened...
Not only that, but what of self worth and self reliance? Mankind may one day decide that it is using technology as a crutch and it is stunting our abilities. By the time of Fireball XL5 there is a return to self reliance. Matt is an expert with number crunching and does not need to use computers for routine navigational problems - that's why he got the job. Computers are used for really mind bendingly difficult or time consuming tasks - but they are not used simply because they are there. In one episode, all of Fireball's electronic equipment has to be shut down - but Steve and Matt can still fly the ship - thanks to the human skills of pilot and navigator. I guess it makes mankind that bit more worthwhile not having to rely on machines for everything they do.