Space: 1999

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Space: 1999
Title card from Space: 1999's first season
Genre	Science fiction Adventure
Creator(s)	Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson
Starring	Martin Landau Barbara Bain Nick Tate Zienia Merton Sarah Bullen Catherine Schell Anton Phillips Barry Morse Quentin Pierre Prentis Hancock Clifton Jones Tony Anholt Andy Dempsey Tony Allyn
Opening theme	Barry Gray, Derek Wadsworth
Ending theme	Barry Gray, Derek Wadsworth (Reprise)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	48 (List of episodes)
Production
Camera setup	35 mm
Running time	52 minutes
Broadcast
Picture format	1.33:1
Audio format	mono
Original run	September 4, 1975 – May 7, 1978
Links
IMDb profile

Space: 1999 (ITC Entertainment, 1975-77) is a British science-fiction television show about the journey of the occupants of a Moon base after the Moon is knocked out of orbit by a nuclear explosion. The series was the last produced by the partnership of Sylvia and Gerry Anderson, famous for the TV series Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, and UFO. The Andersons' marriage foundered during production of Space: 1999, and the end of production of the first series marked an end to their working association.

Contents 1 Series overview 1.1 Special effects, set design, costumes and music 1.2 Casting and guest appearances 1.3 Original broadcast 2 Basic premise 3 Regular cast and characters 4 Episodes 5 Other media 6 Series flaws and criticisms 6.1 Scientific inaccuracy 6.2 Rise and fall of Year 2 7 The Abortive Year Three 8 Trivia 9 Bibliography 10 External links 11 References 12 Footnotes

[edit] Series overview

Space: 1999 was the first attempt since the demise of Star Trek in 1969 at producing a large-scale weekly science fiction series, and the show drew a great deal of visual inspiration (and technical expertise) from the Stanley Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. The show's special effects director Brian Johnson had in fact previously worked on both Thunderbirds (as Brian Johncock) and 2001.

It was the last in a long line of successful science-fiction series that the Andersons produced as a working partnership, beginning with Supercar in the early Sixties and including the famed marionette fantasy series Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and Joe 90, as well as the gritty live-action alien-invasion drama UFO. Space: 1999 owes much of the visual design to pre-production work for a never-made second series of UFO which would have featured a more extensive Moonbase. It has since become a cult classic, and is available on DVD.

[edit] Special effects, set design, costumes and music

The special effects in the show were highly regarded. The show featured many well designed and intricate scale models including the Eagle and the Moon Buggy, a lunar shuttle. Dozens of models for the various alien spaceships, along with the Mark IX Hawk from the "War Games" episode, were built by model maker Martin Bower, who would later also work on Alien, the 1980 production of Flash Gordon, and Outland. Special effects director Brian Johnson and most of his team went on to work on Ridley Scott's Alien, followed by Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Costumes for the first season were designed by Rudi Gernreich. The opening credits for the first season featured a dramatic fanfare composed by Barry Gray; it was Gray's final composition for Anderson. The second season was scored by composer Derek Wadsworth.

Unlike the dark, light-fixture-challenged sets often used in more modern science fiction, Space 1999's Moonbase Alpha set design was typically bright, white, acrylic and quite unique among the sci-fi genre. Signage in a space-age font, rarely seen today, was used throughout the sets to create the impression of a computerized environment.

[edit] Casting and guest appearances

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 huge US television market, perhaps to sell the series to one of the major American networks [1], Landau and Bain were cast at the insistence of Lew Grade against the strong objections of Sylvia Anderson. Also appearing as regular cast members were Barry Morse (as Professor Victor Bergman in the first season) and Catherine Schell (as the alien Maya in the second season). The programme also brought Australian actor Nick Tate to public attention. Over the course of its two series the programme featured guest appearances by many notables including Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Ian McShane, Gareth Hunt, and Brian Blessed.

[edit] Original broadcast

The series premiered in 1975, although the first episode had actually been filmed in 1973. Live action was filmed at Pinewood Studios and special effects at Bray Studios. There were two seasons of 24 episodes each made by Gerry Anderson for ITC Entertainment. The first season was co-produced by the Italian state broadcaster, RAI. In Britain the series was originally seen on ITV stations but never simulcast nationally.

In the US, efforts to sell the series to the major networks failed and as a result it was syndicated to local stations. In the months leading to the beginning of the fall (autumn) 1975 television season (in the US, September is traditionally the month in which new TV series begin), Landau and Bain participated in special preview screenings in select cities [2]. Landau is said to have personally contacted editors of 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 US stations which cleared Space: 1999 were independent (such as powerful Los Angeles station KHJ-TV, Chicago's WGN-TV and New York's WPIX-TV), a handful were affiliated with the major networks (such as San Francisco's KRON-TV, at the time a strong NBC affiliate) and sometimes pre-empted regular network programming to show episodes of the series; most US stations broadcast the episodes in the weekday evening hour just before prime time or on weekends.

The series was broadcast in 96 countries, mostly from 1975-79. It was shown in Italy as Spazio: 1999, France as Cosmos: 1999, Denmark as Månebase Alpha, Portugal (broadcast in 1976 and 1977, it gathered a vast audience) as Espaço: 1999, Brazil as Espaço: 1999, Germany as Mondbasis Alpha 1, Spain as Espacio: 1999, Sweden as Månbas Alpha 1999, Poland as Kosmos 1999, Finland as Avaruusasema Alfa and in Argentina, Chile and Colombia as Cosmos 1999. The series was also broadcast in 1976 in South Africa as Alpha 1999, dubbed into Afrikaans by Leephy Atlejees in Johannesburg.

Countries where the show was popular include South Africa, Turkey, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico, Singapore 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.

In the UK, the episodes of the show's second season were shown sporadically over a period of a couple of years, starting in 1976 while the last episodes still in production. In some regions the final first-run episodes appeared in 1978, more than a year after they were produced; in other regions of the UK, the second series was never shown. In many countries, including the US, UK and Germany, individual episodes were cut to reduce the running time.

The series is currently being broadcast on ITV4 and ITV HD in the U.K and on the Portuguese cable channel SIC Radical.

[edit] Basic premise

The underlying storyline of Space: 1999 centered on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha following a calamity on September 13, 1999 (hence the title). A huge nuclear waste dump on the far side of the Moon detonates in a massive thermonuclear explosion initiated by the build up of magnetic radiation which was released causing a nuclear chain reaction. The force of the explosion causes the Moon to be sent hurtling out of Earth's orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, stranding the 311 crewmembers, in effect becoming the "spaceship" on which our heroes travel, looking for a new home. During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter a vast array of alien civilizations, dystopian societies, and strange phenomena previously unseen by man.

An Eagle unloads nuclear waste into the Moon's dump.

An Eagle is struck by electrical arcs from the unstable nuclear waste.

The Moon's nuclear waste dump detonates.

The concept of traveling through space encountering aliens and strange worlds is similar to Star Trek and Lost In Space, although the crew were obviously more influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey (except in terms of scientific accuracy).

Taking another page from 2001's book, the series tended to explore mystical and metaphysical themes rather than scientific ones, although this tone was drastically changed during the second season in favour of more "action-oriented" plots.

[edit] Regular cast and characters

Image	Actor	Role	Section	Appearances
	Martin Landau	Commander John Koenig, leader of Moonbase Alpha	Commander	(48 episodes, 1975-1978)
	Barbara Bain	Doctor Helena Russell, head of Medical Section	Medical	(48 episodes, 1975-1978)
	Nick Tate	Alan Carter, third in command, chief pilot	Reconnaissance	(45 episodes, 1975-1978)
	Zienia Merton	Sandra Benes, data analyst	Service	(36 episodes, 1975-1977)
	Sarah Bullen	Kate, operative		(26 episodes, 1975-1977)
	Catherine Schell	Maya, science officer		(25 episodes, 1975-1978)
	Anton Phillips	Doctor Bob Mathias, Helena's deputy	Medical	(24 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Barry Morse	Professor Victor Bergman, third in command, science adviser	None	(24 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Quentin Pierre	Security Guard		(24 episodes, 1975-1978)
	Prentis Hancock	Paul Morrow, second in command, Main Mission controller and base executive officer	Main Mission	(23 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Clifton Jones	David Kano, third in command, computer operations officer	Technical	(23 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Tony Anholt	Tony Verdeschi, second in command, head of Security and Main Mission controller	Main Mission / Security	(23 episodes, 1976-1978)
	Andy Dempsey	Main Mission Operative		(23 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Tony Allyn	Security Guard		(23 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Suzanne Roquette	Tanya Alexander, base operations officer		(19 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Loftus Burton	Main Mission Operative		(18 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Michael Stevens	Main Mission Operative		(15 episodes, 1975-1976)
	John Hug	Bill Fraser, pilot	Main Mission	(9 episodes, 1976-1977)
	Yasuko Nagazumi	Yasko, operative		(8 episodes, 1976-1977)
	Jeffrey Kissoon	Doctor Ben Vincent, Helena's deputy	Medical	(7 episodes, 1976-1977)
	Raymond Harris	Main Mission Operative		(6 episodes, 1975-1976)
	Alibe Parsons	Alibe, operative		(3 episodes, 1977-1978)
	Sam Dastor	Doctor Ed Spencer, Helena's deputy	Medical	(3 episodes, 1977)

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Space: 1999 episodes

[edit] Other media

Main article: List of Space: 1999 books and other media

[edit] Series flaws and criticisms

[edit] Scientific inaccuracy

• Isaac Asimov pointed 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 hundreds of years to reach the nearest star. ^[1]
• Harlan Ellison pointed out that any explosion on the far side of the moon capable of knocking it out of its orbit would not send it hurtling off into space, but rather crashing down upon the earth.^{[citation needed]} (See Conservation of momentum.)

The moon would take many thousands of years to reach another star (or planet). The writers introduced various "space warps", including a "Black Sun", to abruptly shift the Moon to another area of space (often with other dramatic effects). The series occasionally introduced an omnipotent entity controlling the Moon's travel (presumably including the times when they enter planetary orbit and leave again).

Some series writers, including head writer Johnny Byrne, have stated that had the series been totally rooted in actual physics, the Moon would have never left orbit. Some suspension of disbelief -- and physics -- is required for Space: 1999 to work.

[edit] Rise and fall of Year 2

The second season was problematic at best. Following the departure of Sylvia Anderson after her separation and subsequent divorce from husband Gerry, Fred Freiberger was brought in to help guide the series as producer. Freiberger was infamous for producing the critically-derided third season of Star Trek, and later seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man. Freiberger also produced 8 episodes of The Wild Wild West (on one of which Martin Landau guest-starred) before being dismissed. (To be fair, other producers that season—Collier Young, John Mantley and Gene Coon—did not last long, either.)

With Freiberger's arrival, numerous changes were made for Year 2. The most visible change was the absence of Professor Bergman (Barry Morse). Morse's departure was due to a salary dispute, but he was glad to leave, and told Anderson: "I would rather play with grown-ups for a while." (Morse 2004, pp. 287-288) With Morse gone, this led to the addition of Catherine Schell as the resident alien Maya. Her character could provide "outside observation of human behavior" as provided by the character of Mr. Spock on Star Trek. Maya shared Spock's logical approach to problem-solving, but differed in that she was a fully emotional person. Most importantly, however, her abilities as a shapeshifter, which allowed her to molecularly transform into any creature for an hour at a time, were designed to add a certain "wow" factor to the newly-revamped series. (Ms. Schell had previously guest starred in the Year 1 episode "Guardian of Piri.")

In addition to Bergman, Year 1 secondary characters Paul Morrow (Prentis Hancock), David Kano (Clifton Jones) and Tanya Alexander (Suzanne Roquette) also disappeared from the cast. Dr. Mathias (Anton Phillips) made brief cameos in the first two Year 2 episodes, then also disappeared without a trace. His character was initially replaced by Dr. Ben Vincent (Jeffrey Kissoon) and Dr. Raul Nunez (Paul Newney) for one episode, but towards the end of the season, that role was filled by Dr. Ed Spencer (Sam Dastor). Like Dr. Mathias, Alan Carter (Nick Tate) was also 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 as well, but her name was shortened to "Sahn" and her character was downgraded to that of a glorified extra.

Along with Maya, Tony Anholt was added to the cast in Year 2 as Security Chief Tony Verdeschi, a character who neither appeared nor was ever mentioned in Year 1. His character was designed to serve primarily as a secondary male action hero, and to provide a romantic interest for Maya.

No on-screen explanations were offered for these 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 explains that Bergman died due to a faulty spacesuit, an explanation also mentioned in passing in the Year 2 novel Planets in Peril. Likewise, it was mentioned in the Year 2 Writers' Bible that Morrow and Kano had died in an Eagle crash between seasons, but this backstory was, again, never referred to onscreen. The Technical Manual also explains that Dr. Mathias, supposedly Alpha's psychiatrist (although he seems to be more Russell's assistant) transferred to another section of the base. Once again, this was never stated onscreen.

Other changes included the main titles and theme music. The montage of events from "Breakaway" and the episode about to unfold featured in Year 1 was dropped in favor 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 1 main titles. New series composer Derek Wadsworth's new theme dropped Barry Gray's alternation between stately, orchestral passages and funky rhythmic ones in favor of a more consistently contemporary piece.

Rudi Gernreich's minimalist costumes were considerably modified from their original unisex design to include an optional skirt for women and much more detail work on the tunic portion, including stripes, patches and photo ID badges. In addition, colorful jackets – generally red, blue or orange – became part of most characters' ensembles. The more expansive Main Mission set, with its balcony and glass windows revealing the lunar surface, was scrapped in favor of a more compact Command Center, supposedly deep underground. (Once again, this change was explained in the Year 2 Writers' Bible and Technical Notebook as necessary for security, but never shared with viewers). The Medical Center and Alphans' living quarters became noticeably smaller, while the interior of the Eagle Transporter was updated with additional buttons, flashing lights and viewscreens. The somber mood created in Year 1 by the effective use of light and shadow in the filming of Moonbase Alpha interiors was abandoned in favour of a flatter, 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.

Freiberger emphasized action-adventure in Year 2 stories to the exclusion of almost everything else, including the metaphysical themes explored in Year 1, which were jettisoned completely. Of Year 1, 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." (Starlog 40 1980, pp. 58-61) Since Year 1 was quite serious in tone, one of Frieberger's ways to accomplish this objective was to inject humor into all Year 2 stories whenever possible, but much of it came off as forced, especially at the conclusion of each episode, where the Alphans were seen as jovial and light-hearted despite whatever violent or tragic events may have previously befallen them.

The Space: 1999 cast as a whole became more and more disenchanted with the quality of the scripts. Martin Landau was especially unhappy with many of the episodes: "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." (Starlog 108 1986, pp. 44-47). Under the pseudonym of Charles Woodgrove, Fred Freiberger wrote three episodes, "The Rules of Luton", "The Beta Cloud" and "Space Warp," known pejoratively as the "Woodgrove Trilogy" for its overly simplistic approach to storytelling. For example, one particular episode ("All That Glisters", which dealt with the threat of an intelligent rock) was of such poor quality that it sparked a major confrontation between Freiberger and the cast. Landau disliked the story so strongly he reportedly nearly left the show, and 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 shmucks!" Even Anholt revealed that "the more the cast complained about a script's flaws, the more intractable and unyielding Freiberger became," an observation that many cast members on both Star Trek and The Wild Wild West shared.^{[citation needed]}

Some Year 2 episodes did not air in the UK until nearly two years after they were produced. Plans were nevertheless put in place for a third season, including a spin-off series featuring Maya^{[citation needed]}, but the drop in ratings and the resulting lack of syndication and commercial sponsor sales led to the series' cancellation. Landau later faulted ITC Entertainment president Lew Grade's foray into film production; the projected budget for the third season was, coincidentally, equivalent to the advertising budget for Raise the Titanic!, and it came down to one or the other (Starlog 108 1986, pp. 44-47).

[edit] The Abortive Year Three

While the third series of Space: 1999 never actually entered production, the producers and studio were initially quite interested in continuing the show. As year two continued it became more and more apparent that this was simply not going to happen, and eventually the series simply fizzled to a stop with the episode "The Dorcons". However, during the first half of the second series, a number of details about the shape of the third year began to emerge.

• The third year would have been far shorter than the previous two, with only 13 episodes. This was intended as a budgetary compromise between the quantity and quality of episodes, similar to the way the BBC currently works with shows like the current iteration of Doctor Who.
• Tony Anholt was extremely displeased with both his character and his working environment and made it very clear he would not be returning for a third year on the moonbase. Hence, his character would have been absent as well.
• Maya was considered to be the breakout character of the series, and very early on the producers began grooming her for her own spinoff show, which was at one point intended to run concurrently with series 3 of Space: 1999. Had this project gone ahead, Maya would have also been absent from Space: 1999. This "Maya" series was also intended to run for 13 episodes a year.
• Koenig, Russell, and Carter were the principal characters who would have been returning for the additional season. It seems likely some new characters would have been brought in to flesh out the cast, but no details on this, or who they might have been, have surfaced.

[edit] Trivia

• In his 1988 opinion in the case of Williams v. Boles, a case concerning allegations of police brutality, Judge Frank Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit alluded to the series' low reputation among the general public, writing "Many things — beating with a rubber truncheon, water torture, electric shock, incessant noise, reruns of Space: 1999 — may cause agony as they occur yet leave no enduring injury."

  This quotation has since made it into the U.S. Supreme Court reports, courtesy of Clarence Thomas's dissenting opinion in Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1 (1992)

• The Space: 1999 episode "The Immunity Syndrome" shares its title with a "classic" Star Trek episode.
• Footage of Moonbase Alpha was recycled for an episode of the American TV series Wonder Woman entitled "Time Bomb". In this episode, Alpha (and the moonscape) are intended to represent a nuclear war-ravaged Earth several centuries in the future.
• Effects shots from Space: 1999 (primarily shots of Eagles in flight and the Vactrain transport system) were also recycled as images of an alien civilization in the Larry Cohen sci/fi horror film God Told Me To.
• An Eagle Transporter appears in the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" as the ship that jettisons the last Star Trek videotapes onto a forbidden planet.
• In "Peter's Got Woods", a 2005 episode of Family Guy, Peter goes along with Brian's idea to rename his school after Martin Luther King Jr. because he thinks that that was "the guy from Space:1999" (not only a wordplay on Martin Landau's name, but the fact that "Koenig" of "König" is German for "king").
• The original design for the Millennium Falcon was rejected by George Lucas for bearing too great a resemblance to the Eagle Transporter. The model, which had already been built, was modified with a new 'hammerhead' nose to become the Rebel Blockade Runner. The original design is published in the book From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives. The story behind the changes in the design of the Falcon is presented on pp. 52-53 of Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays.
• At the beginning of each first-season episode, a series of quick flashes to exciting scenes later in the episode was shown, a technique the Andersons had earlier used in Thunderbirds (it had also been used in Landau's previous vehicle, Mission: Impossible). Ronald D. Moore has admitted that the similar practice used in the opening credits of Battlestar Galactica was inspired by Space: 1999.^[2]
• Although the character of Sandra Benes was downgraded in the second series, the novelisations of the second series written by Michael Butterworth had the character name of Sahn. This was often used to refer to Sandra Benes in the second series. However, in the books, Sahn was an Asian male character. Butterworth didn't realise Sandra and Sahn were the same character ^[3].
• The Barry Gray opening theme is used in the trailer for the comedy film Magicians.

[edit] Bibliography

• Morse, Barry, Wynn, Anthony (2007). Remember with Advantages: Chasing 'The Fugitive' and Other Stories from an Actor's Life. ISBN 0-7864-2771-X. 
• Anderson, Gerry, Bentley, Chris (2005). The Complete Gerry Anderson - The Authorised Episode Guide. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-97-8. 
• Muir, John Kenneth (2005). Exploring "Space 1999": An Episode Guide and Complete History of the Mid-1970s Science Fiction Television Series. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-2276-9. 
• Drake, Chris (1994). "UFO" and "Space 1999". Boxtree. ISBN 1-85283-393-9. 

[edit] External links

• Space: 1999 at the Internet Movie Database
• Space: 1999 at TV.com
• The Catacombs - A comprehensive guide to Space:1999
• Sorellarium: 13 - A reference guide to the furniture used in the series
• Main Mission 2000 report - A review of a recent Space: 1999 convention
• Space: 1999 catalogue entry in British Film Institute Screen Online
• Fanderson - The official appreciation society for the work of Space: 1999 creator Gerry Anderson
• Martin Bower's Model World - A guide to some of the model ships featured on Space: 1999
• Ring Around The Moon - Space:1999 Webring - A listing of Space: 1999 fan pages
• Space: 1999.Net - A Space: 1999 appreciation page
• Space: 1999.Org- A Space: 1999 appreciation page
• Space: 1999 at pHinnWeb - A Space: 1999 appreciation page
• The Space:1999 Population Countdown - An index of Space: 1999 character fatalities
• Space: 2001: Writer Johnny Byrne wants to Party like it's 1999... Again - Interview with Space: 1999 story editor Johnny Byrne
• Starship Modeler - Eagle Reference - Images of various incarnations of the Eagle Transporter
• A scientific examination of the breakaway

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

Gerry Anderson
Television
The Adventures of Twizzle | Torchy the Battery Boy | Four Feather Falls | Supercar | Fireball XL5 | Stingray | Thunderbirds | Captain Scarlet | Joe 90 | The Secret Service | UFO | The Protectors | Space: 1999 | Terrahawks | Dick Spanner, P.I. | Space Precinct | Lavender Castle | New Captain Scarlet
Feature Films
Crossroads to Crime | Thunderbirds Are GO | Thunderbird 6 | Doppelgänger
Companies/Techniques
AP Films | Century 21 Productions | Supermarionation
Notable Collaborators
Sylvia Anderson | David Lane | Barry Gray | Reg Hill | Derek Meddings | John Read | Shane Rimmer