Any Space:1999 year one fans?

Just thought I'd throw this out here.

 

I am. I definitely prefer the generally more serious tone of the first season.

 

The 1st Season had it's faults - not least the very iffy science and a lack of humour - but it was still miles better than Season 2 which was irredeemably awful.

 

The episode with the acid beast that spits out bones scared me witless when I was 5!

Nightmares/sweats the lot. I looked it up a couple of years ago and I was amazed it scared me so much. Never seen the episode on TV since the night it first aired in the UK.

Currently running Season 2 here in the UK and its really awful. Just seems to be Tony and the Mya(?) every episode with awful creature costumes.

 

Dragon's Domain, one of the better episodes for sure. But even here, you have to wonder how the Moon came across the ships' graveyard despite being out of Earth orbit and having gone through a black hole. Credulity is stretched to breaking point.

 

By sheer coincidence I just started watching this series again (via Netflix) after not seeing it for nearly 30 years. I loved watching 1999 as a kid when it was new.

Received Disc 1 of the first season and........was rather unimpressed. I watched all the episodes since I love science fiction, but have to agree that a good portion of the science in those episodes seems to be really "cobbled together" and while I don't expect perfection in that regard (my imagination can fill in the gaps so to speak), it can still detract from the suspension-of-disbelief thing for this fan.

And a trivial complaint : uniforms with swishing bell bottoms? Talk about dating your story! But I did like the personal communicators that used real CRTs - they looked very convincing as examples of future technology. And I still think the Eagle spacecraft look cool!

Same here, and always think of that episode when 1999 is discussed.

BTW: a few months ago I found and bought a very scratched up & dirty *audio* version of Space:1999 on vinyl. I haven't listened to it yet partly because it's in such bad shape I don't want to be disappointed if it skips all over the place (it only cost me 50 cents though) but mostly I'm lazy & simply haven't gotten around to cleaning it.

 

Yes I enjoy many eps of S1.

To be sure there are problems, especially when seen today. Besides drastic unevenness, there's the science one often has to take with so much salt and toss aside, the acting from a member or two whom seem to be hypnotized, a sloshing around of tacky 70s style and a 70s TV budget that doesn't support the ambitions.

It does have its qualities. At its best, there is a certain existential, almost cerebral bent to some of the concepts which one seldom if ever finds elsewhere. There can be a palpable atmosphere, this vast, lonely sense and the drifting levened only by one's also-troubled fellows. The underscore, while heavily recycled, was largely excellent. The sometimes tacky, sometimes rather effective spare, bold styling is a curious blend of Star Trek and '60s space with the '70s styles that culminated in 1977 in diverse forms from Star Wars to Space Mountain. Can make for a unique experience.

Two favs of mine are early on, Black Sun and Another Time, Another Place. Those really seemed to realize the core concept behind everything. Having mention of Santa Maria was neat to me, not being all that far from where I live.

S2 was a disaster, owing to "improvments" demanded by networks or whomever, and Fred Freiberger as show runner. He fried it all right.

"It would strain credulity at that!"

 

I was a bit annoyed that the Andersons canned the (proposed) second season of UFO to make this show, and yet I do have a soft spot for it.

Even at the time (as an 11 year old) I was aware of how iffy the science was on the show. The whole premise just seemed like a way to have a Star Trek "new alien race every week" type show without all that tedious mucking about with a starship. In other words, a show set only a few years into the future that could still have the cast reaching a new solar system every episode (as ridiculous as that is when your "vehicle" is a runaway Moon).

Martin Landau, Barry Morse and Nick Tate were awesome, and Barbara Bain was worth having too. I agree with apileocole about the existential quality of some of the storylines which definitely added a certain something. The "twentieth century humans far from home with no hope of return" angle of the concept was a winner - a pity the creators couldn't think of a more plausible way to set it up.

As for the production values/special effects/visuals: pretty darned awesome for the time, but as with UFO there is always the feeling that it looks like an episode of Thunderbirds, or Captain Scarlet, except with real people and marginally less wooden acting. IIRC, Space 1999 had a huge budget for the era (around half a million per episode, not sure if that was pounds or dollars, but it was still big money for those days) but even so it seemed to bite off a bit more than it could chew visually.

 

I like the first season of "Space:1999" even though the science was often very wonky. It did need a serious injection of humor. I think it might have been better if Gerry and Sylvia Anderson had combined well known science fiction writers with TV writers much as they did on "Star Trek"--the results were often quite good.

The major issue with season two was Fred Frieberger--when I was reading scripts for Dino DeLaurentiis, I got a submission spec script I had to read from him and it suffered from all the cliches of the second season of "Space:1999" and those that Frieberber introduced in "Star Trek" during the third season. The only good thing I liked was when Frieberger introduced Maya--an interesting character for the series but as pointed out the writing was much weaker during the second season of the series and the change in the control center made the show look cheaper.

 

IIRC it was ITC and not the Andersons who cancelled UFO.

 

I remember when the show first came out there was loads of publicity about it. Double page spreads in the papers etc.

By the way if the show had a budget of £500000 per episode that would be the equivalent of just over £4 million today!

I remember having a bit of a crush (as 4/5 year olds do) on the asian lady with the short hair. Previously my affections had been just for Lynsey DePaul in her velvet jackets.

I was such a hound in those days.

 

I think they made the right decision.

I have watched a few episodes on Freeview recently and whilst the sets, the design, the cast are all there (I'd have ditched the purple wigs though) the scripts were just not going anywhere. Most of the episodes seem to revolve around folks looking anxiously at a radar scope waiting for something to happen as another UFO 'gets through the net'.

I think Space1999 was the chance to rev up the action angle a little. Revving up UFO would have been too jarring maybe.

 

Ah, that could be. I've read that initially UFO was doing quite well in the US, hence the plans for a second season (and there's about 24 episodes in the first season, unusual for a British show) but then the ratings started to drop for the last few episodes and somebody got cold feet.

The UFO episodes that were mainly set on the Moon supposedly rated higher in the US compared to the episodes mostly set on Earth, and so in the second season of UFO the action would have all been on the Moon, with an upgraded Moonbase (or maybe even multiple Moonbases) fighting against a much bigger alien assault. Presumably they were planning on having a bigger budget too.

The Andersons retained the "bigger Moonbase" idea for Space: 1999.

 

Yes, even in Australia the show came with plenty of publicity. The budget was hyped as the biggest ever for a television show. Of course, it's possible that the £500000 figure was just for the opening episode and the other episodes were a bit cheaper. To keep it in perspective, even Thunderbirds had a budget of around £40000 per episode, back when £40000 was a lot of money!

I always thought that some of the design of Space: 1999 was reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially the Moonbase and some of the spacecraft, and it turns out that this is no coincidence. Brian Johnson was the special effects director for Space: 1999 and also worked on the Moon sequences in 2001.

Incidentally, Brian Johnson had suggested to the Andersons that the Moon be knocked out of orbit by a giant asteriod, as he thought the nuclear waste dump idea was cheesy. Some of the debris from the collision would have struck Earth, causing further havoc.

He also worked on Season 2 of Space: 1999, but lamented the lack of money, although he has suggested that the area where the budget cutting struck hardest was the scripts. The space sequences in Season 2 are generally still fairly well done, but mostly because all the techniques had already been finessed in Season 1. The Eagle models were all suspended from fine titanium wires which also served to supply power to the models (in particular to switch on the freon jets used to simulated exhaust from the thrusters). Brian Johnson has mentioned that the wires were not visible on the PAL broadcasts, but can at times be seen on the original 35mm prints! I guess if this show ever makes it to high-def someone is going to have to decide whether to digitally remove the wires.

 

I remember reading an SFX article on Red Dwarf about wires. One thing that I thought was sneaky was that they often shot spaceship shots upside down. That meant they hung the wires underneath the ship models and then just flipped the shot.

The reasoning being that folks would be looking for the wires coming from the top of the model and not the bottom.

 

I thought year one was cool. I liked the sets. Year two was very campy, the only thing I liked about year two was the cool jackets that everone wore, with all those patches and colours.

 

That's funny, I love the jackets of Season Two, also! The jackets and Maya were the only good things about Season Two. The first season had a great theme song that was ditched. Also ditched were, Paul, Kano(sp?), Victor, who, in his own way, added some humor to Season One.

I loved this show at a 10 year old and 'Dragon's Domain' scared the crap out fo me. I still followed the show through Season Two still loving all of those SF shots of the Eagles and other spacecraft.

I didn't see an episode of the show for years, then, when they came out on DVD I thought I'd buy a few episodes that I liked. Well, I went out and eventually bought all of them - all with 'UFO. I put them on every now and then. There just plain fun for me.

 

I like the Sound FX section of this site:

http://www.joelowens.org/space1999/space1999.htm

 

Seems to me this show is ripe for a remake as a movie--hopefully a good one--maybe set it in 2099. Perhaps something along the lines that an experiment on the moon to create an artifical stable wormhole tears a hole in the fabric of space through which the moon is pulled. Maybe the wormhole IS stable but an echo effect creates similar tears in the fabric of space that open on a somewhat predictable time frame that the Moon is pulled through allowing them to encounter all of these English speaking aliens...(got to do something about that part...mmmm).

 

Wormhole? Mmm... How about the lunar staging of particle accelleration experiments?

Or a lab on the moon where they're still trying to make a CD appear to sound "louder" than ever. Causing a disturbance in physics, which one can't blame if it's scientifically sound or not...

Now it's been a bit since seeing the premier, but wasn't there something or other about a planet (seemingly inhabited, no less) fixin' to swing through our solar system? Maybe these aliens steer their planet and Earth will be White Vanned. But anyway, perhaps it could rock up, mooning Earth and causing old man moon to storm off in disgust.

Seriously though, that wandering planet idea has more recently (announced only a couple years after 1999) been proposed as possible and happening. Life on such an exoplanet is a whole 'nother matter of course. But the human mind can conceive what it doesn't yet know and it's cool to see speculation about the existence of something turn out to have been at all right.

 

Nah, in the series the Moon was blasted out of orbit by a massive nuclear explosion on the "Dark Side" of the Moon (as the titles stated at the time--one of the points the show was criticized for 1) There's no dark side there is a Far side --unless you're Pink Floyd-- Let's remember that the Far Side was also a popular U.S. comic and, perhaps, that's truly the reason that the Moon was blasted out of orbit--the bizarre cartoons being created by Gary Larson.

Besides, no one could make a CD THAT loud (then again...)

Any how, the first book and film to propose a wandering planet was "When Worlds Collide" published in the late 1930's and then made into a film by George Pal in the 50's.

Originally, "Space: 1999" was part (if I recall correctly) of a proposed second season where the aliens successfully blow our moon out of orbit. Don't remember the whys and wherefores but aliens are known to do very strange things including harvesting human organs.

 

That time Larson went too far.

Edwin Balmer & Philip G. Wylie.

Second season? You mean of UFO? Hadn't heard that bit. Interesting.

If only they knew the troubles we have with 'em.

Anyway. That particle accelerator plot could work. I claim copyright. Think about it. For one thing, it's based upon fharbot (pardon my Farscape) misconceptions of science, preying on mass insecurities elicited by a poorly understood but widely mentioned subject. Yet it provides a "safety" margin by staging the impossible scenario where some would rather it were tried, on the poor ol' moon. Why that's Hollywood scifi gold.

Most importantly, the incidental attachment of the term "acceleration" has two valuable benefits. It evokes action. Secondly, it can provide an even wackier plot to do with some lady scientist having her genes "accelerated" into a super-human super-"advanced" state, so as to explain an outlandishly but faddishly outfitted Barbie-like appearance for a sex appeal angle, while a veneer of implied intelligence tries to make it all appear smart and socially hip. It'll be a big bang in sales, the marketing possibilities are pre-sold and ripe. Sure fire property if there was one. Backers, PM.

 

I think to be honest we've had enough sci-fi shows that use the 'group of rag tags, thrown together by some bizarre event, a long way from home that have to fight for survival against the many varied types of alien life they encounter on their travels back to Earth'.

Please enough already. We now have yet another Stargate series in development using this tired old format.