Space 1999
Barbara Bain and her husband Martin Landau star in this series chronicling the voyage of a space station freed from Earth's gravity by an accidental nuclear explosion. Someone wrote that they must have really needed the money to pay for their mortgage/ kid's college fees, but it really wasn't that bad.
The premise is particularly bad: The Moon explodes and is sent hurtling away from Earth where it manages to encounter another planet every week. Just how fast is it travelling? That must have been some explosion, I think!
It's another Gerry Anderson production which we don't have a forum for yet (hint, hint).
Anderson already had had success with Stingray, FireBall XL5, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, but by 1970, Anderson was bored with getting puppet hands to pick up small phones and overdubbing voices to match. He made the move to live action debuting with 'UFO' and following with 'The Protectors'.
Sir Lew Grade, president of Associated Television , handed Gerry Anderson seven million dollars and the chance to create a brand new television series. Anderson could have the money and a chance to produce again as long as the series was set somewhere other than Earth. Grade’s instincts told him that it was time for a heavy duty science fiction show and so Moonbase Alpha was born.
The Moonbase sets, uniforms and the Eagle spacecraft were originally designed to have been a new Moonbase for a further series of 'UFO', but that show was cancelled.
The backstory for 'Space 1999' revolves around man’s colonization of the moon. Alpha was a pseudo-military complex with a commander, and officers of various ranks, but it’s main purpose was to act as a floating lab for doctors and scientists exploring the universe, but it lacked adventure. So Anderson decided to maroon his space travelers permanently. His first idea was of blowing up the Earth, but he felt that American audiences would be too squeamish over such an idea. He settled for blowing up a chunk of the moon.
The first season of Space 1999 was pretty dull and sterile looking. The plots were too complicated and the dialogue was serious. The second series was much more colourful, full of action and Victor Bergman, the scientific genius played by Barry Morse was gone. In his place was a brash young security chief Tony Verdeschi played by Tony Anholt. The opening episode of the 2nd season also introduced us to the character that would take over the series, Maya The Metamorph played by Catherine Shell. Maya was an alien capable of taking on the form of any other living creature.
The Eagle spacecraft were probably the best part of the show IMHO.
But in which other SciFi show did you get purple hairstyles and spacesuits with flared trousers!
Barbara Bain and her husband Martin Landau star in this series chronicling the voyage of a space station freed from Earth's gravity by an accidental nuclear explosion. Someone wrote that they must have really needed the money to pay for their mortgage/ kid's college fees, but it really wasn't that bad.
The premise is particularly bad: The Moon explodes and is sent hurtling away from Earth where it manages to encounter another planet every week. Just how fast is it travelling? That must have been some explosion, I think!
It's another Gerry Anderson production which we don't have a forum for yet (hint, hint).
Anderson already had had success with Stingray, FireBall XL5, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, but by 1970, Anderson was bored with getting puppet hands to pick up small phones and overdubbing voices to match. He made the move to live action debuting with 'UFO' and following with 'The Protectors'.
Sir Lew Grade, president of Associated Television , handed Gerry Anderson seven million dollars and the chance to create a brand new television series. Anderson could have the money and a chance to produce again as long as the series was set somewhere other than Earth. Grade’s instincts told him that it was time for a heavy duty science fiction show and so Moonbase Alpha was born.
The Moonbase sets, uniforms and the Eagle spacecraft were originally designed to have been a new Moonbase for a further series of 'UFO', but that show was cancelled.
The backstory for 'Space 1999' revolves around man’s colonization of the moon. Alpha was a pseudo-military complex with a commander, and officers of various ranks, but it’s main purpose was to act as a floating lab for doctors and scientists exploring the universe, but it lacked adventure. So Anderson decided to maroon his space travelers permanently. His first idea was of blowing up the Earth, but he felt that American audiences would be too squeamish over such an idea. He settled for blowing up a chunk of the moon.
The first season of Space 1999 was pretty dull and sterile looking. The plots were too complicated and the dialogue was serious. The second series was much more colourful, full of action and Victor Bergman, the scientific genius played by Barry Morse was gone. In his place was a brash young security chief Tony Verdeschi played by Tony Anholt. The opening episode of the 2nd season also introduced us to the character that would take over the series, Maya The Metamorph played by Catherine Shell. Maya was an alien capable of taking on the form of any other living creature.
The Eagle spacecraft were probably the best part of the show IMHO.
But in which other SciFi show did you get purple hairstyles and spacesuits with flared trousers!
