For anyone who loved Space:1999 the Eagle Transporter was just about the coolest spaceship to appear on a science fiction TV show. This website has some very good Eagle wallpapers and other art for 1999 fans. Enjoy.
Remember the Centuri Eagle model rocket?
I liked that it was a very workmanlike spacecraft, with visible skeleton and exposed workings. It looked like a vehicle NASA might really build.
I believe I had a Eagle plastic model kit. Putting it together was more fun than watching the show.
(Not a fan of the show, but a fan of Spider Robinson’s review of it in Galaxy.)
I built one of those. I still have one in a box that I stumble across every so often.
I’ve got the series on DVD.
I liked that too.
Coming strictly from a techie standpoint, once I got over the “non-catastrophic” event of the moon leaving earth’s orbit…
I really, really, liked when they zapped someone, they really got cooked. No Star Trek bullshit about a clean evaporation, those “lasers” or whatever, actually did some semi-realistic damage.
And, yeah, the Eagles really looked like something you’d have in an airless environment.
But, then, I also wondered, in the 70s, what it would be like in 1999. Kinda turned out to be, “meh.”
Enjoyed it, in any case.
I had the toy version of the Eagle. As I recall, the front compartment and back thrusters could be taken off the main vehicle and joined together to make a really fast little ship. And the main compartment had a door that opened on the side.
Man, that was a cool toy.
And more comfortable shoes too.
As someone who watched every episode of the series when they originally aired, always hoping it would get better, can I ask: What is the continuing appeal of that show among some fans? I can’t think of one redeeming feature. The acting was catatonic (especially Barbara Bain), the photography was dreary, the hair and makeup were kitschy.
I always thought the guns were kind of cool.
I’ve got a metal toy Eagle somewhere in a box - but the little plastic drums of nuclear waste are long gone, I fear.
I had the hots for Maya, for some reason.
The ships had a detachable command module. The modules were mostly interchangeable, and usually were connected to a cargo carrier frame work. The cargo module frame work could hold a cargo module, which also was the personnel transport. What was the super bad design was that everything was carried in these stackable pods. The pods were always tossing about the cabin. Nobody anchored them or installed permanent lockers for the supplies. The model work on the second year was better than the first.
Watch the show and see that the monitors on Alpha have painted output. They also have a name plate of the person that is being monitored.
It brings back the 70’s really well.
Flare pants and polyester, with sheik hair styles on the men and women. and they have an attitude that doesn’t live in the present. The men have a lot of beards, and mustaches, and the women hang all over them. Unmarried people do cohabitate too. The women and men have this leisurely life that you don’t see in modern Scifi or the world. Even during an emergency they are calmer than most people on a good day today.
Chic?
The Eagles really did look like realistic not-so-distant-future spacecraft. The military versions (Hawks?) that appeared in one episode were even cooler. I had plastic models of both. Moonbase Alpha looked a heckuva lot like Clavius Base from 2001, though - wasn’t there a copyright lawsuit somewhere along the line?
Maya was a cool character. I remember when her boyfriend Tony had made some moonshine and assured her it was perfectly safe. She took a sip, transformed into Mr. Hyde and said something like, “You’re right, Tony, it’s quite tasty.”
Wow. People other than me liked Space 1999? Cool.
Walloon, it had Martin Landau! I’d watch him read the telephone book (wait, that was a different thread). And Maya–how cool is it to be able to turn into pretty much anything? And of course, it was very beige and polyester.
OK, I gotta ask…what is the red sleeved guy doing to Martin Landau’s ass?
The white and beige thing seems to be a staple of live action Gerry Anderson futuristic shows. Here is the opening for another of his creations that predated Space:1999 by a few years. UFO. The fishnet uniforms are an interesting idea.
If you are lucky enough to get HD programming, you can see UFO and Thuderbirds (another Gerry Anderson original) on the FamilyHD channel.