The Merchandise Guide
Books
Compiled by Martin Willey

Hardcover books produced for the Christmas season in UK. Contents of first 4 were written by Angus P Allen, comprising text and comic strip stories, various puzzles & games (a board type game, spot the difference between photos, quizes), articles on space facts, biographies of cast, cartoons (& from 1976 on, photos with humorous speech bubbles added). Well illustrated with colour photos. The stories were routine space adventure, but exciting. The two-colour comic strips were drawn by John Burns in 1975 (he also drew for the Look-In comic), by Martin Asbury in 1976 (artist of the Garth strip and storyboard artist on the films Greystoke, Legend, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Alien 3) and by an unknown artist in 1977 and 1978 (these were crudely drawn). The articles were well researched and entertaining: the background articles on Moonbase life in the first annual were especially good.

All published in August of year.

US,UK Nov 1976

ISBN 0 345 25265-9-195 ; pp259 with 32 page b/w photo section

US $1.95, UK 85p (the US edition was widely distributed in the UK)

10.5 x 18 cm, cover design of spotlight, boom & camera; left is strip of publicity photos.

Behind the scenes conversations with Year 2 cast & crew, with chapters on direction, make up, design, scripts, music, casting, effects, dubbing & cutting, plus profiles of Anderson, Freiberger, cast. Three appendices: 'Metamorph' call sheet, shooting schedule, synopses of Year 1 episodes & 8 of Year 2 (book was finished in May 1976). Good behind-the-scenes information with some revealing quotes gathered by the journalist Tim Heald.

US 1977, $9.95

80 pages (single sided, including 5 fold out pages) in loose leaf red vinyl binder (25.5 x 29 x 4 cm). Cover embossed with Alpha insignia.

Compiled & written by David Hirsch, with blueprints by Geoffrey Mandel & David McConnell, & costume art by Anthony Fredrickson.

Blueprints of Alpha layout, Year 2 principle sets (varying accuracy), communications post, comlock, stun gun, laser cannon, uniform & spacesuits. Short profiles of main characters, timeline before & after Breakaway (inaccurate), synopses of all episodes. B/w photos.

It was intended to publish supplements, but the Notebook had poor sales. An entertaining good quality item sometimes let down by the (mostly minor) inaccuracies. One thing notably missing were Eagle blueprints, (Mandel had previously done a set for Starlog magazine, but they were not included)

Online:

Japan, 1981, 780 Yen

20.5 x 25.5 cm. pp122 (Japanese text)

48 colour pages, crammed with colour photos (superb in quality & selection), covering in sections the Moonbase, characters, Eagles, alien ships, aliens, & 2 "filmstories", telling Last Enemy & Metamorph in 78 photos each.

56 b/w pages, crammed with dark poor quality photos, give "storyguides" for every episode (about a page each), plus an "Encyclopedia", with blueprints of base, Eagle, & Main Mission & Command Centre (slightly redrawn from the Starlog and Technical Notebook prints), profiles of cast & crew, the series background, & selected merchandise.

Probably the best item of merchandise produced, with superb photo coverage of almost every aspect of the series.

UK, April 21st 1994. £9.99

ISBN 1 85283 393 9

96 pages, softcover.

Glossy guide to the two series, illustrated by many good, sometimes unusual photos in colour and black and white. Includes short and sketchy chapters on production details, characters and scenario, culled from publicity material and other sources (such as Heald's "Making Of Space 1999" book), plus an episode listing. The superficial text is a disappointment.

Online:

• A review

Italy, November 2000. L. 36000 €18.60

128 pages, hardcover.

Italian version of above book. The glossy pages have many more photos than the UK original. There is an additional "technical section" for each series, the four page Space 1999 section consisting of plans of the Moonbase and Eagle, and a colour cut-away of the Eagle, all by Roberto Baldassari. There is a new epilogue, about Message From Moonbase Alpha, with the complete script (in Italian).

COSMOS 1999, L'EPOPEE DE LA BLANCHEUR by Pierre Fageolle (DLM Editions)

France, first edition June 1993 (1500 copies, 72 pages), second edition September 1996 (1500 copies, 125 pages). 70FF

ISBN 2-87795-087-5

Card cover, 11.5cm x 21cm.

In the series Le Guide Du Telefan, a series of pocket guides to cult television series written by fans but published professionally. In French with black and white photo illustrations. The colour cover shows Koenig and Helena cowering in front of the computer. The subtitle means "The Epic Of Whiteness", a reference to the symbolism of the series.

A useful, fairly comprehensive and mostly accurate guide to the series with articles on symbolism, profiles of cast and crew, episode guide with notes, clubs and merchandise.

Hardback: US October 1997 $36.50 ISBN 0-7864-0165-6

Paperback: US February 2005 $24.95 ISBN 0-7864-2276-9

232 pages

Subtitled: "An Episode Guide and Complete History Of The Mid 1970s Science Fiction Television Series". Originally issued as a hardback with plain library binding and a print run of 1000, it was reissued in 2005 as a paperback edition with a photographic cover (an astronomy photo of the real moon, not a series photo).

History, episode guide including critical commentary, interview with Catherine Schell, summary of criticism (focusing on Asimov's criticisms and the Star Trek feud), fans and collectibles, short bibliography, index.

As the wordy subtitle suggests, Muir adopts an academic approach based around an episode guide and placing the series in the context of other science fiction television. It is sparsely illustrated with black and white photos (only five from the series, with more of cast members in other films) and with two pieces of line art from John Semprit. Muir has few background stories (Fageolle's Guide Du Telefan is a superior reference work in this respect). As a result, while the book is very accurate as far as on-screen information goes, it is guilty of some (minor) false assumptions and technical inaccuracies. While it makes reference to visual style and story continuity, these aspects are not greatly explored. Instead the approach is thematic, focused on plots, characterisation and ideas. It is more lightweight than the symbolism and philosophy in Fageolle's book, but nevertheless the episode analysis is well thought out and expressed, neither hagiography or damning, with a strong preference for the serious eerie mysteries of Year One. The focus on drawing similarities with other television science fiction, especially Star Trek, is a rewarding angle. The hypothesis is that, just as Space: 1999 was influenced by the original Star Trek, it provided themes and ideas used in the 1980s series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Thorough and impressive.

US 1977, 59c

32 pages & softcard cover, 18 x 26 cm. The cover shows the Metamorph Eagle, and Koenig, Helena, and Alan peering over a rock. Two (year 2) stories by Mary A Mintzer ("The Return Of the Metamorph", "Queen Brain"), colour illustrations by Frank Bolle. Very crude & juvenile.

Online:

US 1976

96 pages. Introduction & 5 text stories with comic type illustrations. Stories are:

"Live Warhead", "Space Traitor", "Planet Of The Ants", "Space Emperor" & "Doom Dust". Art and stories very much in the vein of the Charlton b/w comics, drawn by Gray Morrow.

Paperback cover shows colour art of Moonbase with a foreground astronaut (in white spacesuit) pointing to it. Rear cover shows Eagle blasting through space.

US 1999; 25 copies ($30 each)

104 pages black and white with colour covers; spiral bound.
A thorough survey of the Space: 1999 toys and books produced, almost all illustrated with black and white photos, short description and manufacturer. Includes a price guide and some prototype toys from dealer catalogues. The front cover is based on the original packaging design for Azrak-Hamway's range of Space: 1999 toys.

Trafford Publishing, Canada 2001-2002 (US$29.95)

416 pp, cover by Catherine Bujold

Extensive reviews of all 48 episodes and Message From Moonbase Alpha; detailed cast lists for every episode; year 1 filming schedule; commentary from Landau, Bain, Morse, Schell, Merton, Tate, Hancock, Phillips, Byrne, Penfold, Freiberger, Wilson.

The Future Is Fantastic is based on commentary by the actors and production crew, as well as Wood's own discussion. Useful as a reference, invaluable as commentary.

Withdrawn from publication in Feb 2002, apparently due to copyright problems.