SPACE 1999 - Individual Card from the series of 64 cards produced in 1978 by Monty Gum, in the Netherlands.
These
are the cards with the PLAIN BACKS (see photographs).
Space:
1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two
seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening
episode, set in the year 1999, nuclear waste stored on the Moon's far
side explodes, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it, as well
as the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, hurtling uncontrollably
into space. The series was the last production by the partnership of
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and was the most expensive series produced
for British television up to that time. The first season was
co-produced by the British television ITC and the Italian television
RAI, while the second season was produced solely by ITC.
Storyline:
Two series (or
seasons) of the programme were produced, each comprising twenty-four
episodes. Production of the first series was from November 1973 to
February 1975; production of the second series was from January 1976
to December 1976.
The premise of Space: 1999
centres on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, a
scientific research centre on the Moon. Humanity had been storing its
nuclear waste in vast disposal sites on the far side of the Moon, but
when an unknown form of electromagnetic radiation is detected, the
accumulated waste reaches critical mass and causes a massive
thermonuclear explosion on 13 September 1999. The force of the blast
propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of
Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the
311 personnel stationed on Alpha. The runaway Moon, in effect,
becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel,
searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's solar
system, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later
through a couple of "space warps" which push it even
further out into the universe. During their interstellar journey, the
Alphans encounter an array of alien civilizations, dystopian
societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity.
Several episodes of the first series hinted that the Moon's journey
was influenced (and perhaps initiated) by a "mysterious unknown
force", which was guiding the Alphans toward an ultimate
destiny. The second series used more simplified "action-oriented"
plots.
The first series of Space: 1999 used a
"teaser" introduction, sometimes called a "hook"
or "cold open". This was followed by a title sequence that
managed to convey prestige for its two main stars, Landau and Bain
(both separately billed as 'starring'), and to give the audience some
thirty-plus fast cut shots of the forthcoming episode. The second
series eliminated this montage. The programme would then offer four
ten-to-twelve minute long acts (allowing for commercial breaks in
America) and finished with a short (and, in the second series, often
light-hearted) "epilogue" scene. In 2004, the American
science fiction screenwriter Ronald D. Moore stated the style of the
first season's opening credits of Space: 1999 inspired the opening
credit sequence for his acclaimed remake of Battlestar Galactica.
Cast:
The headline stars of
Space: 1999 were American actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, who
were married at the time and had previously appeared together in
Mission: Impossible. In an effort to appeal to the American
television market and sell the series to one of the major U.S.
networks,[3] Landau and Bain were cast at the insistence of Lew Grade
against the objections of Sylvia Anderson, who wanted British actors.
Also appearing as regular cast members were the Canadian-based
British actor Barry Morse (as Professor Victor Bergman in the first
season) and Hungarian-born, US-raised Catherine Schell (as the alien
Maya in the second season). Before moving into the role of Maya
during the second series, Catherine Schell had guest-starred as a
different character in the Year One episode "Guardian of Piri".
The programme also brought Australian actor Nick Tate to public
attention. Roy Dotrice appeared in the first episode as Commissioner
Simmonds, and at the end of the episode it appeared that he would be
a regular character; however by the second (transmitted) episode the
character vanished, reappearing partway through the first season in
the episode "Earthbound", his only other appearance on the
show (in which the character is permanently written out).
Over
the course of its two series, the programme featured guest
appearances by many notable actors including Christopher Lee,
Margaret Leighton, Roy Dotrice, Joan Collins, Jeremy Kemp, Peter
Cushing, Judy Geeson, Julian Glover, Ian McShane, Leo McKern, Billie
Whitelaw, Richard Johnson, Patrick Troughton, Peter Bowles, Sarah
Douglas, David Prowse, Isla Blair, Stuart Damon and Brian Blessed.
(Blair, Damon and Blessed each appeared in two different episodes
portraying two different characters.) The English actor Nicholas
Young (who portrayed John in the original version of The Tomorrow
People) appeared in an episode of Year Two, "The Bringers of
Wonder". Several guest stars went on to appear in the Star Wars
films, including Dave Prowse, Peter Cushing, Julian Glover,
Christopher Lee, Brian Blessed, Michael Culver, Michael Sheard,
Richard LeParmentier, Shane Rimmer, Angus MacInnes, and Jack
McKenzie.
Production: Conception and development:
Space: 1999 was the last in a long line of
science-fiction series that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson produced as a
working partnership, beginning with Supercar in the early 1960s and
including the famed marionette fantasy programmes Fireball XL5,
Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 and
The Secret Service, as well as the live-action sci-fi drama UFO.
Space: 1999 owes much of the visual design to pre-production work for
the never-made second series of UFO, which would have been set
primarily on the Moon and featured a more extensive Moonbase.
Space: 1999 drew a great deal of visual inspiration
(and technical expertise) from the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A
Space Odyssey. The programme's special effects director Brian Johnson
had previously worked on both Thunderbirds (as Brian Johncock) and
2001.
In 1972, Sir Lew Grade, head of ITC
Entertainment, proposed financing a second series of the Century 21
production UFO to show-runners Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Grade had
one stipulation: the new series would be set primarily on the Moon
within the environs of an expanded SHADO Moonbase; the ratings
indicated the Moon-centric episodes had proved more popular with the
viewers. The Andersons and their team would quickly revamp the
production, flashing ahead nearly twenty years for UFO: 1999 with
Commander Ed Straker and the forces of SHADO fighting their alien
foes from a large new Moonbase facility.
However,
toward the end of its run, UFO experienced a drop in ratings in both
America and the UK; nervous ITC executives in both countries began to
question the financial viability of the new series, and support for
the project collapsed. In the meantime, Production Designer Keith
Wilson and the art department had made considerable progress in
envisioning the look and design of the new series. Their work was
then shelved for the foreseeable future.
Anderson
would not let the project die; he approached Grade's number two in
New York, Abe Mandell, with the proposal for taking the research and
development done for UFO: 1999 and creating a new science fiction
series. Mandell was amenable, but stated he did not want a series set
featuring people "having tea in the Midlands" and forbade
any Earth-bound settings. Anderson responded that in the series
opener, he would "blow up the Earth". Mandell countered
that this concept might be off-putting to viewers, to which Anderson
replied he would "blow up the Moon".
The
Andersons reworked UFO: 1999 into a new premise: Commander Steven
Maddox controlled the forces of WANDER, Earth's premier defence
organisation, from Moon City, a twenty-mile wide installation on the
Moon. Maddox would view all aspects of Earth defence from Central
Control, a facility at the hub of the base and accessible only by
Moon Hopper craft, which would require the correct pass-code to
traverse Control's defensive laser barrier. The Commander would also
have access to a personal computer called "Com-Com"
(Commander's Computer), which would act as a personal advisor, having
been programmed with the Commander's personality and moral sense.
In the half-hour opening episode "Zero-G"
penned by the Andersons, Earth's deep space probes have discovered an
advanced extraterrestrial civilisation. Maddox is kidnapped for an
interview with the aliens. Angered by humanity's innate hostility and
WANDER's defensive posture, they travel to Earth with the intent of
isolating mankind within the boundary of Earth's atmosphere. Having
judged Maddox a noble example of mankind, they return him unharmed.
They then use a beam to reduce the Moon's gravitational influence to
zero, sending it careening out of orbit into deep space.
The
project continued forward. Group Three Productions (a partnership of
the Andersons and production executive Reg Hill) would produce the
series; ITC Entertainment and RAI Italian TV Broadcasting would
provide the funding. Grade, aiming for a US network sale, insisted
the series have American leads and employ American writers and
directors. George Bellak, a well-known American television writer,
was brought on staff. As stated by series writers Christopher Penfold
and Johnny Byrne, it was Bellak who created and polished the series'
defining concepts. Bellak wrote a ninety-minute opening episode
titled "The Void Ahead", which was a close forerunner of
"Breakaway". Bellak also set up a writers' guide defining
the three leads, the facilities of the Moonbase and potential
storylines.
At this point, the staff seemed to make
creative changes that brought the series closer in concept and
appearance to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even the title Space: 1999
evoked comparison with Kubrick's film. (Before, the title of the new
series had greatly varied: Space Journey: 1999, Journey In Space,
Menace In Space and Space Invaders — the invaders of the last title
being the Earthmen trapped on the runaway Moon.)
For
the lead characters of John Koenig and Helena Russell, Gerry Anderson
approached the husband-and-wife acting team of Martin Landau and
Barbara Bain. Landau and Bain were high-profile stars in America
after three years on the popular CBS espionage series Mission:
Impossible. Producer Sylvia Anderson let it be known that she would
have preferred British lead actors; since Grade insisted on
Americans, she would have chosen Robert Culp (star of the 1960s
espionage series I Spy) and Katharine Ross (co-star of 1960s
blockbuster movies The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid). Lee H. Katzin, a highly respected American television director
with a speciality for pilot episodes, was selected to helm the
opening segment and brought into the fold as a primary director for
the remainder of the series.
Special effects,
design and music:
The show's vehicles, including
the Eagle space shuttle and the Moon Buggy, were represented with a
mixture of full-sized props, photographic blow-ups, and detailed
scale models. Dozens of models for the various alien spaceships and
the Mark IX Hawk from the "War Games" episode were built by
model maker Martin Bower, often at several different sizes to account
for the intended use.
Rather than relying on the
expensive and time consuming blue screen process, as for Star Trek,
Johnson's team often employed a technique that went back to the
earliest days of visual effects: spacecraft and planets would be
filmed against black backgrounds, with the camera being rewound for
each successive element. As long as the various elements did not
overlap, this produced convincing results. In technical terms, the
advantage was that all of the elements were recorded on the original
negative, as opposed to blue screen, which would have involved
several generations of duplication. Another plus was that the
camera's exposed negative contained completed effects—once this
film was lab processed—thereby avoiding the costly, in time and
money, blue screen "optical" technique. The disadvantage
was that the number of possible angles was more limited; for
instance, a spaceship could be seen approaching a planet from the
side, but could not move in front of it without the elements
overlapping.
Special effects director Brian Johnson
and most of his team went on to work on Ridley Scott's Alien,
followed by The Empire Strikes Back.
Space: 1999
used Pinewood Studios sound-stages L and M. Each studio measures 90'
x 105' (27 m x 32 m), with a floor-to-grid measurement of 30 feet (9
m). For the first series, Stage L housed the "standing sets";
such as Main Mission, the Eagle interior, the travel tube, and a
small section of corridor. Due to the limited studio space, other
sets depicting Alpha interiors, such as Medical Centre, were
assembled as needed. Stage M was the "swing stage" – used
for planet exteriors, spaceship interiors, and whatever else was
needed for a given episode.
The unisex "Moon
City" uniforms for the first series were created by renowned
Austrian fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, a personal friend of series
star Barbara Bain. Other costumes were designed by Production
Designer Keith Wilson, who was also responsible for set design.
Wilson's innovative Moonbase set construction, using 4-by-8-foot (120
by 240 cm) plastic foam-board panels, linked together Lego-like into
whatever room configuration was required, made for a uniform and
realistic appearance for the Alpha interiors (not to mention being
relatively cheap and quickly assembled). A muted colour palette and
the integration of recognisable equipment and accessories added to
the verisimilitude.
For the second series, the
Moonbase uniforms were updated and coloured decorative stitching and
turtleneck collars were added, as were various badges and patches.
Red, navy, or dark-green jackets also appeared, originally on just
the senior staff, then on many of the male extras. The female
characters tended to wear skirts and knee high boots throughout the
second series, rather than the flared trousers used in Year One. The
costumes for Year Two were designed by Emma Porteous, who later
designed the wardrobes for several James Bond films.
The
Moonbase interiors were also upgraded for the second year, with the
existing stock of wall panels, doors, computer panels, etc. (along
with some bits from other Anderson productions) being assembled for
the first time—on Stage L--into a standing complex of
interconnected sets (the first series' sets had been assembled as
needed and the size of the Main Mission/Command Office complex was
prohibitive for the construction of a lasting series of rooms.)
Vibrant colour was much more evident in this series' Moonbase sets.
Gadgets and equipment with a futuristic appearance typical of
contemporary science fiction were also more evident. For example,
Helena no longer used a stethoscope, but a little beeping,
all-purpose medical scanner similar to Dr McCoy's whistling medical
"tricorder" on Star Trek.
The opening
credits for the first series featured a dramatic fanfare composed by
long-time Anderson associate Barry Gray, whose scores for the series
were his final compositions for an Anderson production. Gray scored
five episodes — "Breakaway", "Matter of Life and
Death", "Black Sun", "Another Time, Another
Place", and "The Full Circle" — Vic Elms provided a
completely electronic score for "Ring Around the Moon", and
Big Jim Sullivan performed a one-off sitar composition for "The
Troubled Spirit". Library music, classical compositions, and
score excerpts from earlier Anderson productions augmented the five
Gray scores and gave the impression of an expansive musical
repertoire.
The second series was scored by jazz
musician and composer Derek Wadsworth; American producer Fred
Freiberger wanted a more "driving, searing" score for his
new action-adventure format. Aside from the new theme music, which
was more synthesised than the theme for Year One, Wadsworth also
composed original music for the episodes "The Metamorph",
"The Exiles", "One Moment of Humanity", "The
Taybor", and "Space Warp". Much of this music was
reused in other episodes.
Other Anderson shows
influenced the Space: 1999 spacecraft and elements. The cockpit of
the Eagle has a slight resemblance to the cockpit of an earlier
Anderson Supermarionation series, Fireball XL5. Thruster and engine
sounds were similar to those previously used in Fireball XL5,
Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet. Lighting effects for Moonbase
Alpha were comparable to those from UFO, as well as the concept of
the elevating spacecraft launch pad.
After almost
30 years, the original Moonbase Alpha model reappeared in the public
eye online when a site gained exclusive access to photomap the model
and solicit its sale.
Series One:
As
the November 1973 start date approached, George Bellak fell out with
Gerry Anderson over creative issues and left the production. Story
consultant Christopher Penfold acted as head writer, bringing in
American writer Edward di Lorenzo and Irish poet Johnny Byrne as
script editors. Penfold reworked Bellak's opening episode into a
one-hour draft first re-titled "Turning Point", then
finalised as "Breakaway".
One week before
live action filming commenced, Visual Effects Supervisor Brian
Johnson and his team began work on the visual effects sequences for
the first episode at Bray Studios near Maidenhead, Berkshire on 5
November 1973. For the first six weeks, no usable footage resulted
until the team discovered a dragging brake had affected film speed.
Studio rehearsals commenced at Elstree Studios near Borehamwood,
Hertfordshire on 12 November 1973. During filming of the first
episode, it became apparent that the troubled Elstree was under the
threat of imminent closure. One weekend, the company secretly
relocated sets, props, costumes, etc., to the nearby Pinewood Studios
at Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, resulting in a union blacklisting of
the production.
Scheduled for ten days' filming,
"Breakaway" overran an additional fifteen days. Lee Katzin
was a perfectionist and demanded take after take of scenes; even
coverage of reaction shots of the background extras required running
a whole scene from beginning to end. His two-hour director's cut was
assembled and sent to ITC New York for a viewing. Abe Mandell was
horrified by the finished product. Anderson re-wrote several key
scenes and, after three days of re-shoots, re-edited the pilot into a
one-hour episode that appeased the fears of ITC. Katzin was not asked
back to the programme after the filming of his second episode "Black
Sun", which also ran over schedule.
Scheduled
for a twelve-month shoot, the twenty-four episodes took fifteen
months to complete, with the production experiencing as many hazards
as their fictional creations. Britain's mandatory three-day work week
and the unplugging of the National Grid during the coal shortages of
the early 1970s did not delay filming (as Pinewood had its own
generators), but it affected film processing (the lab was an off-site
contractor).
Group Three's commitment to its
financial partner, Italian broadcasting company RAI, to include
Italian actors in the cast also had to be addressed. Originally, two
supporting roles were intended for Italian actors; with the casting
of Nick Tate and Zienia Merton in those roles, a solution had to be
worked out. Four of the later episodes produced ("The Troubled
Spirit", "Space Brain", "Dragon's Domain"
and "The Testament of Arkadia") featured Italian guest
artists.
The necessity to telex story outlines and
scripts to New York for approval caused further production delays.
The incessant re-writing this brought about eventually caused
Christopher Penfold to resign during the shooting of "Space
Brain", after completing his writing commitment with the script
"Dragon's Domain". In a later interview, Johnny Byrne
stated that "one episode they (New York) would ask us to speed
things up, forcing us to cut out character development; then the next
episode, they asked for more character moments, which would slow down
the action; then they would complain there weren't enough pretty
girls in another." Years later, Byrne and Penfold would agree
that the process they worked under made "good scripts less than
they had been" and forced them to waste time re-writing "bad
scripts to make them acceptable". Byrne remained until the end
of production; his last task writing filler scenes for the
desperately short "The Last Enemy" and a re-shoot for the
troublesome "Space Brain". The scenes re-mounted for "The
Last Enemy" concluded principal photography on 28 February 1975.
Countries where the show was popular include
France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, Ethiopia, South Africa, Turkey,
Iran, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Peru, Japan,
Malaysia, Canada, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and
Taiwan. One of the first previews of the series was in Australia on
the Seven Network in July 1975, but the station later split the first
series into two seasons. The second season was shown in 1979.
Reception:
Response to the series
varied; some critics praised it as a classic, citing the production
values and multi-layered storytelling ("Space: 1999 is like Star
Trek shot full of methedrine. It is the most flashy, gorgeous sci-fi
trip ever to appear on TV..." and "Space: 1999 is a
visually stunning, space-age morality play..."); others panned
it for poor plotting and wooden acting, especially on the part of
Barbara Bain ("the plots and characterisation on Space: 1999
have been primitive..." and "A disappointing collage of
wooden characters, boring dialogue and incomprehensible plots...").
Isaac Asimov criticised the scientific accuracy of
the series by pointing out that any explosion capable of knocking the
Moon out of its orbit would actually blow it apart, and even if it
did leave orbit it would take thousands of years to reach the nearest
star. He did, however, praise the programme for the accuracy of the
representation of movement in the low gravity environment of the
Moon, and for its realistic production design (Asimov's responses
were based on the pilot episode only). Subsequent episodes (such as
"The Black Sun", third in production order, and "Another
Time, Another Place", sixth in production order) suggest the
Moon reaches the stars by passing through wormholes and hyperspatial
tunnels, a plot point made more overt in second-season episodes,
notably "The Taybor" and "Space Warp". This issue
is left somewhat enigmatic in the first season as episodes involving
other planets invariably begin with the Moon having already reached a
planet and in the first few episodes of this kind, such as "Matter
of Life and Death" and "Missing Link", the episodes
actually begin with the Alphans on their way back from a planet, an
initial Eagle flight having taken place before the episode even
begins.
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were surprised
and disappointed that the public (and critics) never granted them the
suspension of disbelief given to other science-fiction programmes.
The characters seem aware of the apparent implausibility of their
situation. In "Black Sun", Victor Bergman asserts the
chances of their surviving the explosion which knocked them from
orbit are "just about infinite." In "Matter of Life
and Death", Koenig remarks "many things have happened since
we broke away from our own solar system, unexplainable things."
How they survived and are able to travel the Universe seems to be a
central mystery to which the Alphans, and the audience, have no
concrete answers.
In speaking about the show in
2010, Bain reflected: "We had some very good science fiction
people as advisors who knew what they were talking about. For
instance, they knew that sound up there wouldn't travel, and it would
just be quiet up there. But then we wouldn't have a series, so we
couldn't do that. There were various considerations that had to be
made, but they were based on what is, or what was, known at the time.
For all I know now it's out of date. I don't really know."
She added that some of the technology on Space:
1999 has come to pass: "We made up a scanning device for Dr
Russell. Someone would simply be lying on the floor half dead, and I
would scan them with this funny little thing that was a prop. I could
read all his vital signs. They can pretty much do that with a medical
device nowadays. There were times that we were playing with props
that didn't read anything — I just had a bunch of dialogue to say
after. We had the Commlock. All of those things were on the verge of
happening anyway. Now we're way past it. When we made it, 1999 seemed
so far away."
Cancellation and revival
Following the completion of the first series, the
production team prepared for a second series to commence production
in the autumn of 1975. Gerry Anderson had staff writer Johnny Byrne
prepare a critical analysis of the first twenty-four episodes,
assessing their strengths and weaknesses in order to mount a new and
improved second year. Byrne then commenced writing scripts in an
improved first-series format: "The Biological Soul", "The
Face of Eden", and "Children of the Gods". He engaged
British writer Donald James to develop his first-series format story
"The Exiles".
The largest stumbling block
for the staff had been having all material vetted by ITC's New York
office. ITC's compromise was to hire a high-profile American staff
writer-producer. At this time, Sylvia Anderson left her role as
producer and as Gerry Anderson's wife when they formally separated
(and subsequently divorced). Fred Freiberger, whom Gerry Anderson had
considered for the writing position, was then brought on board to
help guide the series as a producer and acted as show-runner.
Freiberger had produced the third and final season of Star Trek in
1968–1969 and eight episodes of the first season of The Wild Wild
West (including one in which Martin Landau guest-starred) before
being dismissed. Immediately after Space: 1999 he would go on to
produce what would be the final season of The Six Million Dollar Man.
His writing credits included Slattery's People, The Iron Horse, All
in the Family, Petrocelli, and Starsky and Hutch. Though Anderson and
Grade were satisfied with this choice, Abe Mandell had concerns about
why he was unemployed and available at the time.
Then
ITC Entertainment President Sir Lew Grade abruptly cancelled the
series' production in late 1975, when ratings in the United States
had dropped during the later autumn months of the year. Grade had
already been disappointed by the lack of an American network
broadcast sale. Gerry Anderson and Fred Freiberger rallied and
pitched the idea of a new series with the addition of an alien
character to Moonbase Alpha, who would shake up the dynamic of
interaction on the Moonbase and regain viewer interest in the United
States. On the strength of Anderson and Freiberger's proposal of
adding an alien character from the planet Psychon named Maya, Mandell
approved a renewal of the series for a second year.
In
addition to the alien Maya character, to be played by Catherine
Schell, numerous other changes were made for what was branded Year
Two. The most visible change was the absence of Professor Bergman
(Barry Morse). Morse's departure was due to a salary dispute, but he
later claimed that he was glad to leave, and he had told Anderson: "I
would rather play with grown-ups for a while." With Morse gone,
the role of the boffin on Alpha was filled completely by Maya, whose
people's science was far in advance of mankind's. Also, her character
was conceived to be able to provide "outside observation of
human behaviour" as had been provided by the character of Mr.
Spock on Star Trek. Maya shared Spock's logical approach to
problem-solving and advanced intelligence, but differed in that she
was a charming, fully emotional person. Most importantly, however,
her Psychon abilities as a metamorph with the power of "molecular
transformation" allowed her to convert herself into any living
thing for an hour at a time, were designed to add a certain "wow"
factor to the newly revamped series. Maya had an impish sense of
humour. When love-interest Tony Verdeschi offered her some of his
home-brewed beer, Maya tried it, then turned herself into Mister
Hyde. Schell had previously guest-starred as the Servant of the
Guardian in the Year One episode "Guardian of Piri".
In
addition to the cosmetic changes, the characters were "warmed
up." Koenig and Russell went from a barely noticeable courtship
to a physically passionate, full-fledged romance, in which the
devotion ran so deep that they offered to die for each other ("Brian
the Brain"). In addition to Bergman, Year One supporting
characters Paul Morrow (Prentis Hancock), David Kano (Clifton Jones)
and Tanya Alexander (Suzanne Roquette) were also removed from the
cast (Paul and Tanya's disappearance is explained in the Powys Media
book The Forsaken by John Kenneth Muir). Dr Bob Mathias (Anton
Phillips) was present in the first two Year Two episodes, was
mentioned in the third episode, and then also disappeared without a
trace. His character was replaced by several recurring physicians.
Alan Carter (Nick Tate) was to have been written out of the series,
but he had become so popular with fans that he remained. Sandra Benes
(Zienia Merton) remained with the series in an on-again off-again
association, but the character only appeared in a fraction of the
episodes, albeit more prominently in some than in many of those of
the first series.
Security Chief Tony Verdeschi
also joined as a new character, played by Tony Anholt. Verdeschi, who
assumed the base's second-in-command role, neither appeared, nor was
ever mentioned, in Year One. However, Moonbase Alpha personnel
treated Verdeschi as if he had been in their midst since "Breakaway".
His character was designed to serve primarily as a secondary male
action hero, and became a romantic interest for Maya.
No
on-screen explanations were offered for the cast changes. One scene
in "The Metamorph" mentioning Bergman's death was scripted
and filmed, but cut from the final edit. The Moonbase Alpha Technical
Manual produced by Starlog magazine picks up this explanation,
stating Bergman died due to a faulty spacesuit per the scripted
scene. Likewise, it was mentioned in this publication that Morrow and
Kano had died in an Eagle crash between seasons, and explained that
Dr Mathias, supposedly Alpha's psychiatrist (although he seems to be
more Russell's assistant) was on sabbatical doing research. Fred
Freiberger felt that these characters were one-dimensional and had no
fan support; he told Nick Tate that the audience would not remember
them and that, as far as he was concerned, they were just "somewhere
else" on Alpha, lost in the crowd of three hundred other people.
Freiberger failed to appreciate the value of the supporting
characters to the show and its fans.
Other changes
included the main titles and theme music. Year One's opening montage
of events from "Breakaway" and the episode about to unfold
was dropped in favour of a special-effects sequence depicting the
Moon being blown out of orbit into space. With Morse gone, Schell was
featured in his place as a regular alongside Landau and Bain, and all
three were depicted in action-oriented images as opposed to the
mannequin-like stances Landau and Bain had assumed in the Year One
main titles. New series composer Derek Wadsworth's new theme dropped
Barry Gray's alternation between stately, orchestral passages and
funky rhythmic ones in favour of a more consistently contemporary
piece.
Rudi Gernreich's minimalist costume was
considerably modified from the original unisex design to include an
optional skirt and leather boots for women and much more detail work
on the tunic portion, including turtleneck collars, coloured
stitching, patches and photo ID badges. In addition, colourful
jackets (generally red, blue or green) became part of most
characters' ensembles. The expansive Main Mission set, with its
balcony and windows revealing the lunar surface, was replaced by a
more compact Command Centre, supposedly deep underground (again, this
change was explained in the Year Two Writers' Bible and Technical
Manual as necessary for security, but never explained onscreen).
Medical Centre, Generator Section, Life Support and the Alphans'
living quarters became smaller, while the interior of the Eagle
command module was updated with additional buttons, flashing lights
and television monitors, while the Eagle also lost a section of
corridor (the galley/storage area) between the passenger module and
the cockpit. (This was to accommodate its placement on Pinewood
Soundstage "L", with the other standing Alpha sets; the
Eagle was permanently affixed to the boarding tube/travel tube set
and jammed between the travel-tube reception area and the Medical
Centre.)
The sombre mood created in Year One by the
effective use of light and shadow in the filming of Moonbase Alpha
interiors was abandoned in favour of a generally brighter
cinematography, and even the lettering used in signage and
costuming—most noticeable on spacesuits and Eagle Transporter
doors—changed to a simpler, less futuristic style.
Production
Designer Keith Wilson stated in an interview in Destination: Moonbase
Alpha that he was always being ordered by Producer Fred Freiberger to
make sets smaller, taking away the expansive (and expensive) look of
the first series' interiors. Freiberger was very budget-conscious
and, despite press releases to the contrary, the production team was
working with less money this series. If there had been a budget
increase, the 'stagflation' economy of the seventies would have
cancelled it out. When interviewed, many of the actors state they
were asked to accept less money, including Landau and Bain (who were
the only ones with enough clout to be able to refuse).
Freiberger
emphasised action-adventure in Year Two stories to the exclusion of
metaphysical themes explored in Year One. Of Year One, he commented,
"They were doing the show as an English show, where there was no
story, with the people standing around and talking. In the first show
I did, I stressed action as well as character development, along with
strong story content, to prove that 1999 could stand up to the
American concept of what an action-adventure show should be."
Since Year One was quite serious in tone, one of Freiberger's ways to
accomplish this objective was to inject humour into Year Two stories
whenever possible, but much of it seemed to the more vocal fans to be
forced, especially at the conclusion of an episode, where the Alphans
were seen as jovial and light-hearted despite whatever violent or
tragic events might have previously befallen them. Freiberger had
appropriated this approach from Star Trek; the endings of many of
that show's episodes featured an upbeat discussion among the cast of
the lessons learned during the episode and closing on a joke; this
approach was copied for Space: 1999 with Koenig, Verdeschi, Russell,
Carter and Maya enjoying a laugh in the Command Centre. Given
Landau's intensity and the brooding nature of the Koenig character,
the approach did not fit the series.
Members of the
Space: 1999 cast were disenchanted with the scripts. Martin Landau:
"They changed it because a bunch of American minds got into the
act and they decided to do many things they felt were commercial.
Fred Freiberger helped in some respects, but, overall, I don't think
he helped the show, I think he brought a much more ordinary, mundane
approach to the series." One particular episode ('All That
Glisters', which dealt with the threat of an intelligent rock) was of
such allegedly deficient quality that it sparked a confrontation
between Freiberger and the cast. Landau disliked the story so
strongly that he wrote the following notes on his copy of the script:
"All the credibility we're building up is totally forsaken in
this script."; "...Story is told poorly."; and "The
character of Koenig takes a terrible beating in this script — We're
all schmucks." Anholt revealed that, "the more the cast
complained about a script's flaws, the more intractable and
unyielding Freiberger became." Dissatisfaction on Landau's part
about scripts was not new to Year Two, though. Sylvia Anderson
remembers that he often voiced criticisms of scripts during
production of the first series.
Series Two:
With
the last-minute renewal from Grade, the production team hit the
ground running. Byrne's script "The Biological Soul",
involving the Alphans' encounter with the unstable Mentor of the
planet Psychon and his biological computer Psyche, which drew
sustenance from the mental energy of intelligent beings, was
re-written to include the new character Maya and the rest of the
format changes. Production began on 26 January 1976 and was scheduled
to last a mere ten months due to the already-late renewal order.
To fulfil the scheduling requirement, Freiberger
came up with the "double-up script" solution. During
"double-up" instalments, two first-unit production teams
would film two episodes simultaneously. Landau and some of the
supporting cast would be given expanded roles and would film an
episode on location or on sets constructed for that story in
Pinewood's Soundstage "M", while Bain and the remaining
supporting cast (also in expanded roles) would film their episode in
the standing Alpha sets on Soundstage "L". Landau and Bain
would then be given minor roles in the opposing episodes. This cost-
and time-saving measure was used to complete eight stories as four
pairs: "The Rules of Luton" and "The Mark of
Archanon"; "The AB Chrysalis" and "Catacombs of
the Moon"; "A Matter of Balance" and "Space
Warp"; "Devil's Planet" and "Dorzak". A
ninth episode, "The Beta Cloud", was intentionally scripted
with only one day's worth of work for Landau and Bain to allow their
planned holiday to the French Riviera not to delay the series'
production; the four supporting cast members (Schell, Anholt, Tate
and Merton) were the recipients of much greater than usual exposure.
Relations between new producer Freiberger and the
Year One veterans were strained. Landau complained about stories he
felt were light-weight or absurd when compared to the previous year's
efforts. He wrote on the cover of a script: "I'm not going out
on a limb for this show because I'm not in accord with what you're
(Freiberger) doing as a result ... etc. I don't think I even want to
do the promos — I don't want to push the show any more as I have in
the past. It's not my idea of what the show should be. It's
embarrassing to me if I am not the star of it and in the way I feel
it should be. This year should be more important to it, not less
important to it ... I might as well work less hard in all of them."
Johnny Byrne said that Freiberger was a good man and good producer,
but not good for Space: 1999. He had gotten them a second year after
the cancellation, but the changes he made did not benefit the
programme.
Principal photography came to an end on
23 December 1976 with "The Dorcons". An article regarding a
third series was printed in the trade papers: "Now entrenched in
its successful second season boom, ITC is looking forward to a third
season with more fantastic events and additions, although mum's the
word at the studio. They will only say that Maya and Miss Schell will
be kept in and that the budget may be raised again, but that's all
until final preparations and an official announcement are made."
Undeveloped Year Three:
The
producers and studio intended to continue the show with a third
season. This was to be shorter than the previous two, with 13
episodes, for budget reasons. Maya was considered to be a successful
character, and the producers began grooming her for a spinoff show
that would run concurrently with the third series of Space: 1999. Had
this project gone ahead, Maya would have been absent from Space:
1999. The "Maya" series was also intended to run for 13
episodes a year.
As filming on Year Two came to its
conclusion, it became apparent that there would be no third season,
and the series ended with the episode "The Dorcons".
UK:
The series premiered in September 1975, on the ITV
network but was not simulcast nationally (this remained the case
until a repeat airing on BBC2 in 1998). Most ITV regions (including
Yorkshire, Grampian, Ulster, Scottish, Border, ATV, and Tyne Tees)
premiered the series on Thursday, 4 September 1975 in a 7.00pm slot.
The London and Anglia regions screened the first episode two days
later on Saturday, 6 September at 5.50pm. The Granada region began
showing the series on Friday, 26 September 1975, initially at 7.35pm
before moving to 6.35pm a few weeks later. The HTV region did not
begin showing the series until October 1975, again in an early Friday
evening slot. However, within a few weeks, various stations had moved
the series elsewhere in their schedules.
The second
series premiered on London Weekend Television (LWT) in a
non-prime-time slot on Saturday 4 September 1976 at 11.30am, with ATV
following on just a few hours later at 5.40pm. Granada, Westward and
Ulster started to screen the series in early 1977, Grampian, and Tyne
Tees did not screen the series until later in the year. Scottish
started to screen the series on 9 April 1978 on Sunday afternoons.
HTV did not pick the series up until 1984 and then only showed
nineteen out of the twenty-four episodes from Year Two (the last
episodes were not screened in Wales until the series was repeated in
the 1990s). Southern Television was the other ITV region known not to
have broadcast series two. Even its successor broadcaster, Television
South, failed to screen any series two episodes when Space: 1999 was
reshown in various other ITV regions between 1982 and 1985.
USA:
In the United States, efforts to sell the series to
one of the three networks for the 1974–75 or 1975–76 television
seasons failed. The networks were uninterested in a project over
which they had no creative control, being presented with the
accomplished fact of twenty-four completed episodes. Abe Mandell of
ITC had secured a 'handshake' agreement with a network executive in
1974, but after the man's termination, all his projects were
abandoned. Undaunted, Mandell created what he called his own Space:
1999 Network and sold the completed program into first-run
syndication directly to local stations. Much of the publicity
mentioned the then-staggering three million pound budget: as a part
of the American promotion effort, a glossy magazine-sized brochure
was produced, touting Space: 1999 as the Six-and-a-Half Million
Dollar Series (an allusion to the then-popular American programme The
Six Million Dollar Man) featuring American stars, American writers
and American directors.
In the months leading to
the beginning of the fall (autumn) 1975 television season Landau and
Bain participated in special preview screenings in select cities.
Landau is said to have personally contacted editors of the widely
read and influential TV Guide magazine in some markets to secure
coverage of Space: 1999 in its pages upon learning of ITC's somewhat
poor promotional efforts.
While most of the U.S.
stations that aired Space: 1999 were independent (such as powerful
Chicago station WGN-TV, Louisville station WDRB-TV, Los Angeles
station KHJ-TV, and New York City's WPIX-TV), a handful were
affiliated with the major networks (such as Charlotte, North
Carolina's WSOC-TV, at the time a strong NBC affiliate, and Fresno's
KFSN-TV, at the time a CBS affiliate) and sometimes pre-empted
regular network programming to show episodes of the series. Most U.S.
stations broadcast episodes in the weekday evening hour just before
prime time or on weekends.
Canada:
In
Canada, CBC Television was the broadcaster of Space: 1999 from 1975
into the 1980s. The first season in 1975–76 was shown regionally on
some CBC owned-and-operated stations, the airtime varying. With the
start of the second season in September 1976, CBC Television upgraded
Space: 1999 to full-network status, airing it Saturdays on all CBC
owned-and-operated stations, with affiliated, privately owned
stations also offering the show on Saturdays. Most of the country saw
Space: 1999 at 5 p.m. on Saturdays, a notable exception being the
Atlantic Provinces in which it was broadcast at 6 or 6:30 p.m. (their
time) or - as was the case in the summers - sometime earlier in the
afternoon to accommodate live sports coverage, the airing of which
crossed into or totally over the usual Space: 1999 airtime. After the
1976–77 broadcast year (in which second-season episodes were run
and rerun), the show's ratings were sufficiently high for CBC
Television to give the first season a full-network airing - and with
further repeats - from 1977 to 1978. The French-language CBC
Television, Radio-Canada, showed Cosmos: 1999 several times (both
seasons) between 1975 and 1980, first on Mondays (1975–1976), then
on Saturdays (1976–1977), then on Mondays (1979), and finally on
Wednesdays (1979–1980).
The series fared
admirably on CBC Television in Canada, airing in English in a family
viewing period, late Saturday afternoons before hockey broadcasts,
with a mostly un-disrupted run and rerun of all 24 episodes from
September, 1976 through September, 1977. The French version was also
broadcast, in early evening on Saturdays. Ratings were sufficient for
a full additional year's transmission of Year One in the English CBC
Saturday programming slot in 1977 and 1978. Episodes of both Year One
and Year Two were repeated regionally in Canada in English and French
through the early-to-mid-1980s. YTV Canada broadcast both seasons
with reportedly good ratings from 1990 to 1992, in a late Saturday
afternoon airtime closely matching that of the CBC English network in
the 1970s.
The full-network English CBC airing
began with the series opener, "Breakaway", on 11 September
1976, then "The Metamorph", the Year Two opener, on 18
September. "The Exiles", "Journey to Where", "The
Taybor", and "New Adam, New Eve" followed respectively
in the subsequent weeks. Next were "The Mark of Archanon",
"Brian the Brain", "The Rules of Luton", "The
AB Chrysalis", "Catacombs of the Moon", and "Seed
of Destruction". "Seed of Destruction" aired on 27
November, and then with December there came a month of repeats. And
after a pre-emption for New Year's Day sports, new episodes resumed
airing on 8 January 1977 with "A Matter of Balance",
followed by "The Beta Cloud", "One Moment of
Humanity", "The Lambda Factor", "All That
Glisters", and "The Seance Spectre". The two-part
episode, "The Bringers of Wonder", was shown on 19 and 26
February. And then "Dorzak", "The Immunity Syndrome",
"Devil's Planet", and "The Dorcons" followed in
March. "Space Warp" would not be shown until 21 May, after
many weeks of repeats. By 10 September 1977, except for "The
Exiles", all of the second-season episodes had been repeated.
And thereafter, a 1977-1978 run of first-season episodes began with
"War Games" on 17 September.
Finland:
In Finland the first season was originally aired by
the commercial MTV (Mainostelevisio) channel in 1976, but it was
withdrawn after couple of episodes on demand of the national
programme board as the show was considered too brutal and horrifying.
The same thing happened when MTV tried to air the second season in
1978. The complete show wasn't seen in Finland until the 1990s when a
small local channel, TV-Tampere, aired it.
Elsewhere:
It was shown in Italy as Spazio 1999 , Argentina,
Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, francophone
Canada, and France as Cosmos: 1999, Denmark as Månebase Alpha,
Brazil and Portugal as Espaço: 1999, Germany as Mondbasis Alpha 1,
Sweden as Månbas Alpha, Poland as Kosmos 1999 (1977–1979), Finland
as Avaruusasema Alfa, Greece as Διάστημα 1999, Hungary as
Alfa Holdbázis, Spain, Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia as Espacio:
1999, Mexico as Odisea 1999, Turkey as Uzay 1999 and South Africa as
Alpha 1999 (1976, dubbed into Afrikaans). The series was also
broadcast in New Zealand and Australia.
Fan and
critic responses to the new series varied. Some missed the mystical
plotlines, feature-film ambiance and the "British-ness" of
the first series. Others said they enjoyed the new characters,
down-to-earth characterisations and action. Comparisons with Star
Trek were used by both camps to show how the series had been either
saved or destroyed by the format change. Reviewing the show as a
whole, science fiction historian John Clute described Space: 1999 as
"visually splendid" but criticised what he regarded as the
show's "mediocre acting" and "rotten scripts".
Message From Moonbase Alpha and planned revivals:
Filmed on 29 August 1999, Message From Moonbase
Alpha is a fan-produced mini-episode made with the co-operation and
involvement of Space: 1999 script editor Johnny Byrne, who penned the
script. Filmed inside a private house on a remarkable working replica
of a small section of the Main Mission set and utilising the original
prop of Koenig's Command Centre desk and Sandra Benes's original Year
Two Alpha uniform, the short film was first shown at the Space: 1999
Breakaway Convention in Los Angeles, California on 13 September
1999—the day the events in episode 1 of the series were supposed to
take place. With the permission of (then) copyright owners Carlton
Media International, the film included brief clips from seven
episodes to illustrate the deserted Moonbase Alpha and the Alphans'
exodus to planet Terra Alpha. Previously unused footage shot for the
Year Two title sequence and The Last Enemy was used to create a
sequence showing the Moon being affected by a gravitational
disturbance and thrown into an unknown solar system. Short excerpts
from 12 other episodes appeared in a montage as Sandra Benes recalls
her life on Alpha.
The seven-minute film features
Zienia Merton reprising her role as Sandra Benes delivering a final
message to Earth as the only crew member left on Moonbase Alpha while
a massive exodus to a habitable planet, Terra Alpha, takes place with
the rest of the crew. The evacuation was also necessitated by the
degradation and decay of Alpha's life support systems. This basically
gave the series the conclusion that it never had in its initial run.
Taking place twenty five years after the events of "Breakaway",
Commander Koenig and Maya are mentioned during Sandra's message. It
concludes with the termination of the message as Sandra closes down
Alpha's operational systems and transmits the message- which turns
out to be the mysterious signal received shortly before the events of
"Breakaway".
Modified versions of Message
From Moonbase Alpha are available on the Space: 1999 Bonus Disk in
the U.S. and Canada, and on a DVD bonus disc in France and in Italy.
The original version appears as a bonus feature on the Space:
1999/UFO - The Documentaries DVD produced by Fanderson. It's also
available on YouTube.
Around the same time 'Message
From Moonbase Alpha' was being filmed, Johnny Byrne and Christopher
Penfold attempted to revive the franchise as a movie series, similar
to the way Star Trek had been revived cinematically in the late
1970s. The first film would have picked up the story several years
after the series ended, and would have featured a heavily redesigned
Moonbase Alpha. Ultimately the project failed, and nothing came of
it.
In February 2012, ITV Studios America and
HDFILMS officially announced their intention to produce a reimagining
of Space: 1999, to be titled Space: 2099.
Home
video releases:
UK: The series was released on home
video in the 1990s, with each cassette (or "volume")
featuring two episodes. In 2001, it was released on DVD in the UK by
Carlton Media, both in single disc volumes (each volume contained
four episodes) and also as two complete season boxed sets (titled as
"Year One" and "Year Two") comprising six discs
each. Each DVD also contained various extra features, including a
variety of archive production material, memorabilia, and interviews
with the cast and crew from the time the series was being made.
In
2005, Network DVD re-issued Year One in the UK as a Special Edition
seven-disc box set. For this release, to coincide with the series'
30th Anniversary, each episode was digitally restored by creating new
35mm film elements (a new interpositive made from the original
negative which is then used to make further copies). High Definition
digital transfers were then made from the interpositives using a
state-of-the-art Philips Spirit DataCine. This vastly improved the
picture quality in comparison to the previous DVD releases, however
the restoration process has actually made some of the space scenes
(that involve special effects and model work) less realistic due to
increased brightness and contrast. This box set also included two
booklets and a new set of extra features that were not on the Carlton
DVD releases, including featurettes on "Concept & Creation"
and "Special Effects & Design" (edited from an earlier
"Fanderson" documentary made in 1996), textless and
alternative opening and closing title sequences, a two-part
Clapperboard special on Gerry Anderson from 1975, and also a brand
new 70-minute documentary entitled "These Episodes" in
which Anderson, Christopher Penfold, Johnny Byrne, Zienia Merton and
David Lane reflect on the making of key episodes from the first
series.
Network DVD released Year One on Blu-ray in
the UK on 1 November 2010, and simultaneously re-released their
Special Edition DVD box set of Year One with new cover artwork at the
same time. The Blu-ray set includes all of the extras on the 2005
Network DVD release as well as some of the extras that were on the
2001 Carlton DVD release (including a Lyons Maid ice-lolly
commercial, and an SFX segment from the British documentary series
Horizon). It also includes several new extras including a "Memories
of Space" featurette, a Sylvia Anderson interview (in which she
frankly discusses the series and her thoughts about Landau and Bain),
an expanded version of the "These Episodes" documentary
from the DVD set, several PDF files containing scripts and annuals,
an extensive set of photo galleries with hundreds of stills, and the
first episode of Year Two, "The Metamorph", in digitally
restored hi-definition.
Network DVD began a similar
restoration process for Year Two in 2007, however progress was slow
due to higher production costs in comparison to remastering Year One
(the audio for Year One was already digitised prior to Network's
restoration, but Year Two was not). In late 2014, Network finally
announced that Year Two would be released in 2015. As part of this
announcement, Network released a limited edition (of 1999 copies) of
a special preview disc of the two-part story "The Bringers of
Wonder" on 8 December 2014. This release also contains a
restored version of the feature length Destination: Moonbase Alpha
film. The remastered Year Two was eventually released on Blu-ray and
DVD in September 2015, to coincide with the series' 40th Anniversary.
Again containing a wealth of extra features, the sets include
galleries, vintage interviews, a blooper, behind the scenes footage,
original source audio recordings, scripts and annuals PDF files, a
stock footage archive, a textless opening title sequence, trailers
and promos, "music only" options for all episodes, a
stop-motion fan film from 1979, and a specially re-edited/rescored
version of the episode "Seed of Destruction" as if it were
made for Year One.
USA:
A&E
Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in
various incarnations. It was initially released in 8-volume sets
between 2001 and 2002. On 24 September 2002, a 16-disc "Mega
Set" box set featuring all 48 episodes of the series was
released. On 31 July 2007, A&E released Space: 1999 - Complete
Series, 30th Anniversary Edition. This is essentially the same as the
2002 "mega set" release (and does not use the 2005 hi-def
remasters), but does includes a special bonus disc full of extra
features. Year One was released on Blu-ray in the U.S. on 2 November
2010 by A&E Home Entertainment.
Other media:
The series has been translated into other media.
Originally, all the episodes had been adapted in novelisations,
except, for some reason, "Earthbound" (though this may be
because E.C. Tubb was working from a different script of "Breakaway"
in which Commissioner Simmons was killed when the Moon was torn out
of Earth orbit) and "The Taybor" (from Year Two). The
authors of these works wrote a number of original stories and have
since written new stories and novels which were published after 1999.
As well, the original authors participated in the revised versions of
their original novels.
At the time of the series'
original run, several comic book series were published and, in the
US, a series of audio adaptations were recorded on record albums with
the younger audience in mind. After 1999, many of these original
comic book stories were revised and reprinted along with new stories.
See the list above.