Having made many sci-fi TV series in "supermarionation" (with puppets) Gerry Anderson went on to make "Space 1999" with actors. Gerry and his then wife Sylvia had made "Thunderbirds"- a series that so enthralled children with its futuristic flying vehicles that, as a result, thousands of those kids ended up working in the aerospace industry. So, a decade later Space 1999 screamed onto our screens using the same special effects, but with some very accomplished actors (including Martin Landau and (then) real life wife Barbara Bain, famous at the time for "Mission Impossible" and Barry Morse as the relentless policemen in "The Fugitive".
When first screened, a bit disappointing. It doesn't have the pizzazz of Thunderbirds (a military band once played the Thunderbirds theme when a fighter jet was being rolled out from a hangar, and there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd!)...you had to be there to appreciate that!
Space 1999 had a lot of money spent on it's main set, Moon Base Alpha, but even at the time, it was a bit "flaky". For example, lots of random, pointlessly flashing lights, complex control panels with buttons marked "A", "B' or "C" etc, lots of wonky old black and white TV screens, meaningless oscilloscope displays (sine waves were used to denote almost anything)....and then there was the script....
We didn't really care about the script in Thunderbirds (we were just watching to see Tracey Island, the rescue vehicles, the sound of the hydraulic motors, the blast of turbo-jets etc.), but in Space 1999 with real actors, it was an issue.
Oh dear, they didn't use the budget to get some scientific advice. The script writers clearly hadn't any the slightest knowledge of basic science or engineering. So we have "nuclear magnetism" (!), no concept of distance, control panels bursting into flames and then working quite normally, the famous turbo-jet sound effects but in relation to rocket engines in space etc etc etc. We don't mind suspending disbelief, but the script was just too ignorant of the basics..
You might think that was a bit unfair, but in good sci-fi you surely need some basis for events otherwise you play it for laughs. Plenty of good films are like that, but Space 1999 didn't go for laughs. In fact, in went quite the other way, attempting profound feelings of people lost in space. So actors were asked to show emotional outbursts, often inappropriately. So a crew member might die, and the script will call for devastated colleagues, or quite equally it might be brushed aside without a tear. In fact you could get both reactions in the same scene! That does get laughs!
Ahhhh the aliens. 'BBC Doctor Who' quality of aliens for sure- that is people in rubber suits, or just a plain blanket of their head, lots of extra sensory perception, in fact just plain silly! The shape shifting character quite hilarious (unintentionally). The special effects don't cut the mustard today and they didn't when it first aired on TV. Aliens are mostly hostile, mostly humanoid, mostly have little logical motivation.
BUT...Space 1999 is time travel...back into the 1970's. Haircuts particularly. Moustaches and perms- you don't see that anymore! Fittings and furniture are very 70's, and there is much use of a font that was used in the day by primitive optical character recognition computer hardware - they would have thought very futuristic- but its museum stuff now. Video phones have miniature old monochrome TV's built-in to large hand held devices- not a bad guess at the future....
But, taken as a whole, Space 1999 is worth watching as a view on the 1970's, in terms of artefacts, fashion and attitudes; the wonky script and some elements of production- are just fun. It doesn't have a propaganda message hidden in each episode (maybe other than that nuclear waste is a bad thing!), it doesn't preach or attempt a profound message it just aims to entertain. By today's standards it is quite tame, but take as a whole, its still worth watching even if today we laugh when it was meant to scare, but then, that's the fun of it in today's world. Enjoy!
When first screened, a bit disappointing. It doesn't have the pizzazz of Thunderbirds (a military band once played the Thunderbirds theme when a fighter jet was being rolled out from a hangar, and there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd!)...you had to be there to appreciate that!
Space 1999 had a lot of money spent on it's main set, Moon Base Alpha, but even at the time, it was a bit "flaky". For example, lots of random, pointlessly flashing lights, complex control panels with buttons marked "A", "B' or "C" etc, lots of wonky old black and white TV screens, meaningless oscilloscope displays (sine waves were used to denote almost anything)....and then there was the script....
We didn't really care about the script in Thunderbirds (we were just watching to see Tracey Island, the rescue vehicles, the sound of the hydraulic motors, the blast of turbo-jets etc.), but in Space 1999 with real actors, it was an issue.
Oh dear, they didn't use the budget to get some scientific advice. The script writers clearly hadn't any the slightest knowledge of basic science or engineering. So we have "nuclear magnetism" (!), no concept of distance, control panels bursting into flames and then working quite normally, the famous turbo-jet sound effects but in relation to rocket engines in space etc etc etc. We don't mind suspending disbelief, but the script was just too ignorant of the basics..
You might think that was a bit unfair, but in good sci-fi you surely need some basis for events otherwise you play it for laughs. Plenty of good films are like that, but Space 1999 didn't go for laughs. In fact, in went quite the other way, attempting profound feelings of people lost in space. So actors were asked to show emotional outbursts, often inappropriately. So a crew member might die, and the script will call for devastated colleagues, or quite equally it might be brushed aside without a tear. In fact you could get both reactions in the same scene! That does get laughs!
Ahhhh the aliens. 'BBC Doctor Who' quality of aliens for sure- that is people in rubber suits, or just a plain blanket of their head, lots of extra sensory perception, in fact just plain silly! The shape shifting character quite hilarious (unintentionally). The special effects don't cut the mustard today and they didn't when it first aired on TV. Aliens are mostly hostile, mostly humanoid, mostly have little logical motivation.
BUT...Space 1999 is time travel...back into the 1970's. Haircuts particularly. Moustaches and perms- you don't see that anymore! Fittings and furniture are very 70's, and there is much use of a font that was used in the day by primitive optical character recognition computer hardware - they would have thought very futuristic- but its museum stuff now. Video phones have miniature old monochrome TV's built-in to large hand held devices- not a bad guess at the future....
But, taken as a whole, Space 1999 is worth watching as a view on the 1970's, in terms of artefacts, fashion and attitudes; the wonky script and some elements of production- are just fun. It doesn't have a propaganda message hidden in each episode (maybe other than that nuclear waste is a bad thing!), it doesn't preach or attempt a profound message it just aims to entertain. By today's standards it is quite tame, but take as a whole, its still worth watching even if today we laugh when it was meant to scare, but then, that's the fun of it in today's world. Enjoy!
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