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.