Post by punctuator on Jan 5, 2007 22:39:41 GMT -5
Loved it when I was ten, and I still love it now. (And this, I know, could get me laughed clean off of this board.)
Produced in England from 1974-1976 (two seasons); approximately 48 episodes (back when TV people worked for a living ); international cast headed up by Americans Martin Landau (another guy with amazingly blue eyes) and Barbara Bain. Huge budget for the time: each episode cost close to a million dollars to produce. Occasionally laughable but lovingly detailed model SFX by the guys who went on to do "Alien" and "Star Wars." Shot on 35mm film, except for the "moonwalk" sequences, which were shot on 70mm stock(!). Great orchestral and electronic soundtrack by Barry Gray and Derek Wadsworth, too. Available on DVD; recently Season One was beautifully remastered for the Region 2 market.
Plot was basically this: the countries of Earth have been using the Moon as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. The 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha keep an eye on the dumps, perform research, and prepare deep-range space missions-- y'know, the usual. New base commander John Koenig shows up just in time for a mystery: several of the astronauts slated for a flight to a newly discovered planet have come down with radiation sickness. But from what...? (Those of y'all who said "Howzabout from all that nuclear waste?": DON'T BE SMART-ALECKS. Thank you.) Anyway: there's an explosion-- a way-big-whoa-we-blew-our-budget-THIS-week explosion-- and, long story short (too late!), the Moon is knocked out of Earth's orbit and sent rocketing out into outer space (and wasn't that a foul string of prepositions!), where Commander Koenig and the other inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha have to contend with black holes, alternate realities, aliens, really out-there Seventies acid-trip philosophical questions, and basic survival. Y'know: the usual.
The best thing about "Space: 1999" is its skin-of-their-teeth quality. There's no Universal Translator, like in "Star Trek"; there's no master database explaining every alien species in the galaxy. There's a real sense that the Alphans have to make do: they cope, they adapt, they use their wits-- or they die. In that respect, Landau makes a perfect leader as Koenig, all intense focus and commitment.
Not without flaws-- the hair and costumes are obviously products of the Seventies, the computer spits out printouts, and, yeah, you CAN see strings in some of the effects shots-- but a big, bold effort. I still get chills when the opening music cues up!
Produced in England from 1974-1976 (two seasons); approximately 48 episodes (back when TV people worked for a living ); international cast headed up by Americans Martin Landau (another guy with amazingly blue eyes) and Barbara Bain. Huge budget for the time: each episode cost close to a million dollars to produce. Occasionally laughable but lovingly detailed model SFX by the guys who went on to do "Alien" and "Star Wars." Shot on 35mm film, except for the "moonwalk" sequences, which were shot on 70mm stock(!). Great orchestral and electronic soundtrack by Barry Gray and Derek Wadsworth, too. Available on DVD; recently Season One was beautifully remastered for the Region 2 market.
Plot was basically this: the countries of Earth have been using the Moon as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. The 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha keep an eye on the dumps, perform research, and prepare deep-range space missions-- y'know, the usual. New base commander John Koenig shows up just in time for a mystery: several of the astronauts slated for a flight to a newly discovered planet have come down with radiation sickness. But from what...? (Those of y'all who said "Howzabout from all that nuclear waste?": DON'T BE SMART-ALECKS. Thank you.) Anyway: there's an explosion-- a way-big-whoa-we-blew-our-budget-THIS-week explosion-- and, long story short (too late!), the Moon is knocked out of Earth's orbit and sent rocketing out into outer space (and wasn't that a foul string of prepositions!), where Commander Koenig and the other inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha have to contend with black holes, alternate realities, aliens, really out-there Seventies acid-trip philosophical questions, and basic survival. Y'know: the usual.
The best thing about "Space: 1999" is its skin-of-their-teeth quality. There's no Universal Translator, like in "Star Trek"; there's no master database explaining every alien species in the galaxy. There's a real sense that the Alphans have to make do: they cope, they adapt, they use their wits-- or they die. In that respect, Landau makes a perfect leader as Koenig, all intense focus and commitment.
Not without flaws-- the hair and costumes are obviously products of the Seventies, the computer spits out printouts, and, yeah, you CAN see strings in some of the effects shots-- but a big, bold effort. I still get chills when the opening music cues up!