Somewhere, out there, there is a channel broadcasting
re-runs of Space:1999
The show was built on the premise that in 1999 an explosion of nuclear waste blew the Moon from Earth’s orbit, and the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha were stranded on the runaway sattelite as they try to survive their drifting through the galaxy.
Its not shown on the SciFi Channel (Though I’ve e-mailed them to change that!) nor on any other channel I get in the South Jersey area. Any other dopers in the USA get this show on re-runs? How 'bout you English dopers; get it on the BBC?
The second (rotten) season was repeated on BBC2 a couple of years ago, but I’m not aware of it turning up on UK television since. (People revelling in the luxury of digital channels may feel free to correct me on this…)
Still, they’re repeating Stingray and Captain Scarlet on BBC2 at the moment, so we may yet hope for a return of Space: 1999.
The whole of it was released on VHS video some years back, and I know the first (good) season is currently available on DVD.
There is a small but dedicated fan base for Space. I have a page or two about it on my site. I went to a Space convention last year, and had a blast. There are also a couple of Yahoo Groups for the show; one is called OnlineAlpha and the other is GaybaseAlpha (for gay fans, a strong contingent).
I watched Space: 1999 when it was new because I was young and didin’t know any better and was tired of Star Trek reruns. Even then, I thought the special effects was the best thing about it and the Eagle spacecraft looked plausible and like something NASA might design and that the premise was ludicrous. (Why wasn’t the Moon destroyed instead of blown out of orbit? How could it travel through the galaxy so quickly, visiting a new solar system every freaking week? What happened to the Earth?)
Today, I doubt that I’d watch it even if nothing else was on. I’d say it’s better than Battlestar Galactica and Lost in Space, but not as good as Star Trek Voyager (staying within the “wandering through space looking for a home” sub-genre).
I always loved the fact that the explosion was supposed to happen on the dark side of the moon, yet the moon flies away from the earth.
The show was much better after they were joined by Mia the shape-shifting babe. Any lame TV show can be helped by the addition of a shape-shifting babe.
I was going to start a space 1999 thread but someone beat me to it. For fans of the show the entire first season is on DVD from A&E I highly recommend it.
A bit of background. When Space: 1999 first came on the air in my area (Erie, PA)
it’s timeslot was Sunday nights 11:30 PM, I was 11 years old and it was a school night. Oh Pleeeze Mom can I stay up and watch it? Pleeeze. This pleading worked about 50% of the time and only if I took a nap first. I have fond memories of the series seen through the eyes of an 11 year old up way past his bed time on a school night.
After watching the entire series again 26 years later I have the following comments:
The good:
The Eagles. Great plausible spacecraft.
Alpha. Great standing sets they even have ceilings! and you really can believe they are on a moonbase.
Music. Haunting is the only way I can describe the way it makes me feel.
Tenor. This is a very mysterious series it’s almost gothic and you have a sense the people on Alpha are way out of their league dealing with matters beyond their experience.
The Bad:
Anti-science. Too many episodes could be considered supernatural in explanation if any explanation is given at all.
DR. Russell. She whines, faints, screams, pleads where is Ivonova or Kira when you need them.
Icerigger: Is the DVD version the same as the original British version? Because when the series was brought to America, each episode was shortened by a couple of minutes to make room for more commercials. Some fans have said they’ve seen the originals and that some intact episodes were much less confusing, because it was usually expository dialogue that was clipped and not the “fireworks”. (Space must have used more miniature explosives in two seasons than any TV series before or since! :D) For example, “Black Sun” is alleged to have a scene where Koenig (Martin Landau) and Bergman (Barry Morse) are contacted by an alien intelligence while transiting through the black hole, a scene that implies that something is looking out for their welfare. The dialogue was published years ago in Starlog magazine, but it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve read it.
Oh, and there’s no way an Eagle II could beat an X-wing, since an X-wing has deflectors, a droid to make repairs and is far more maneuverable.
Remember at the beginning of 2001:A space Odessy where
Dr Floyd is taking a shuttle, not the plane to the station, not the big ball lander to the moon, but the quasi-Eagle from moon base Clavius to where the monolith was buried?
THAT was a lot like an Eagle…and the movie came out almost 10 years earlier.
The reason for the similarities is that some of the lead designers worked in both 2001 and 1999. Their style of design comes all the way from the Thunderbirds:
I loved the show.
My favorite episode was called, “Dragon’s Domain” or something like that.
The moster would eat people, and then the digested persons remains would slide out the front onto the floor.The bones/flesh mix was always steaming, as if the digestive fluids were super caustic.
Creepy!
In case your interested the design for the Eagles was taken almost directly from Anderson’s previous series “UFO”. A much better series than Space: 1999 IMHO.
She was at the convention last year. What a lady! She had everyone at her beck and call during the con. I got to sit with her (and Zienia Merton, who played Sandra on the show) for a few minutes as the con was winding down, and she was such an elegant lady. I could have spent hours chatting with her. Sigh.
P.S. Duh. I had a HUGE crush on her when I was 15. And maybe a wee bit now still.
Wasn’t Space: 1999 explicitly a sequel to the series UFO? Even to the point of having one or two of the same characters? I never saw more than a few minutes of any episode of UFO so I have to ask.
While Space: 1999 was not perfect, it had one episode that I think stands beside the TOS episode “City On the Edge of Forever” among the best science fiction ever on television.
I forget the title, but the premise was that an alien spacecraft lands on the Moon on its way to Earth. They have a spare suspended-animation chamber, so they can take one of the Alphans with them.
Koenig tells the computer to choose the Alphan best suited to go, but Simmons, the ambassador from Earth who was stranded on Alpha when the Moon left orbit…
…well, I won’t spoil it. But the ending still gives me chills.
