CriticismPress and Magazine Reviews
CriticismWhichever way you look at it, Space 1999 is an intensely variable series. Whereas the second season is an almost unmitigated farrago from start to finish, the initial run mixes triumphs and travesties in equal measure as the production team attempt to work out exactly what they're trying to do.
Unfortunately, they worked it out just in time for the American backers to put Star Trek escapee Fred Freiberger in charge. Still, if you're willing to sit through the bad weeks, the first batch offers eight or nine of the greatest pieces of TV science fiction ever put on film.
The superb effects are obvious, as is the starkly impressive design of Main Mission, but it's easy to overlook the arc-plot embracing the first season. It's understated and entirely dependent on seeing certain episodes in the correct order. Still, it does explain those otherwise irritating moments when fate intervenes to save the Alphans, leaving Koenig staring into space pondering on matters in "heaven and Earth undreamt by man's philosophy". The underlying notion is that some Mysterious Unknown Force has engineered the Moon's departure from Earth orbit in order to return humanity to its original home, as is made most clear by the more metaphysical moments of The Black Sun [..]
Hence the initial Breakaway is an honest to God miracle, which doesn't have to obey the laws of physics, and the entire plot line reaches its conclusion as the Moon literally stops in space above the Garden Of Eden in testament Of Arkadia, a surreal triumph of direction from Prisoner producer David Tomblin.
Backing these up are more lyrical pieces of metaphysics such as Missing Link, where a comatose Koenig hovers between this world and the next, and Death's Other Dominion, a showcase for one of Brian Blessed's greatest performances, as he restrains his volume for an understated portrayal of King lear, complete with Fool. Finally there are straightforward dramas of simple power. There are few moments in science fiction as chillingly logically horrific as the conclusion of Earthbound [...] while Dragon's Domain, a blood curdling version of St. George and the Dragon showcases the season's only monster. Best of the lot is Troubled Spirit [...]. From an eerie opening pan through Alpha's corridors accompanied by sitar music to the inevitable ending, it never lets up for a moment.
Presiding over it all are the low key performances of the cast. Barbara Bain remains flat and wooden, but Martin Landau's Koenig is an effective portrayal of a man pressed down by an impossible command. Interesting enough, he comes across far better in the 90s, after the compelling dedication of Picard and Mulder, than he did back in the 70s, when Kirk's histrionic heroism was all viewers had as a benchmark.
Tune in, and don't let a single bad experience put you off. After a couple of weeks, you're sure to see something superb.
B+
Welcome to the year 1999, where moonbases, laser pistols and plenty of beige are just part of everyday life in this, Gerry Anderson's second stab at series SF. His show packs bold visuals, fabulous model work, an international star studded cast and has no clue how to use any of it effectively.
It's major flaw is that it's trying hard to bring 2001 to the small screen but in the process copies all the wrong bits. The characters aren't interesting enough, the scripts aren't particularly clever and sometimes - well, sometimes it just stops. Space 1999 is probably the most ponderous piece of television ever conceived. Plenty of impressive tracking shots, huge close ups and badly delivered moral agonising. A notable absence of exciting running bits, good performances or tight plotting.
The show is quite the most po-faced load of old nonsense that's ever masqueraded as intelligent science fiction, and it's [precisely because it doesn't realise this that it's rather charming.
The cast, including Martin Landau as the rugged but dull base Commander, are a pretty mediocre lot, but it's in Alpha's medical officer that we find the true star of the show- Barbara Bain as the frosty Dr Helena Russell. Nothing can fluster this woman. Nothing can elicit any reaction at all. Blow her into space, bring her husband back from the dead, toss her from side to side in soft focus and you won't find an eyelid batted or a hair out of place. Either Bain is a true acting genius or she's clinically dead. Either way she's unmissable.
As is the whole show. Don't watch Space 1999 if you want an action packed runaround, because it's the very antithesis of Star Trek and its ilk. Everything about this series is wrong (down to Christopher Lee's memorable guest spot in Earthbound) and that's why it comes so close to working. You may watch it in astonishment, but after half an hour you'll find it inexplicably hard to stop.
Okay, so the actual programme rarely plumbed the depths of lesser science fiction shows, but Gerry Anderson's second live action space series deserves its place here for the sheer dumbness of the central concept: Earth's moon is blown out of orbit and travels through space carrying the occupants of the Alpha Moonbase with it. Trouble is, the moon would have to be travelling at near light speed to cover the distances shown in the show - it's beyond Earth's solar system by the end of the first episode- so how come it seems to slow down whenever they encounter a new planet, enabling the crew enough time to nip off in their Eagles (definitely a contender for top SF ship of all time) and investigate.
Beware, however, of Space 1999 fans who claim there is an arc plot to explain this anomaly concerning a Mysterious Unknown Force (MUF) guiding the Moon back to a planet whereby humanity evolved. It doesn't. Well, not that convincingly anyway.
And two places on, after Dune characters and Star Trek Voyager technobabble, comes the second entry, at 25 for Fred Freiberger (p82)
25. Fred Freiberger
The producer who allegedly "killed" Star Trek and Space: 1999. He worked on the final series of both. Apologists may argue that the shows were on the way out anyway, but Freiberger certainly didn't provide any reasons to keep them going. His first Trek episode was the miserable "Spock's Brain", certainly the original series' low point. Freiberger then turned Space: 1999 into Lost In Space On The Moon, camping it up with dodgy monsters, gimmicky aliens (the shape changing Maya) and comic strip stories. Legend has it that the episode "The Rules Of Luton" which was written by Freiberger under a pseudonym, got its name after the producer saw a British road sign on his way to work, and thought the town sounded exotically alien. Says it all really.
Top was Bonnie Langford, in case you were wondering!
Bogged down by his flapping flares, Martin Landau was two decades away from churning out an Oscar-winning movie performance when he led the cast of Space: 1999 on their voyages through a hostile universe. Heralded by a theme tune that sounded like a sustained attack on an already malfunctioning Bontempi, this classic Gerry Anderson (he of Thunderbirds fame) sci-fi series charted the progress of a team of moonbase scientists set adrift in space by a blast that dispatched their chunk of moon rock to the far reaches of the Galaxy.
In their search for a planet to call home, the scientists were pitched against a motley bunch of malevolent aliens, none more fearsome than the often appallingly poor plotlines, penned by writers who seemed to genuinely believe shaving foam could destroy a space base and that Luton was an exotic name for a distant planet.
The references are to Space Brain and Rules Of Luton. Both episodes have well regarded aspects, as well as the more obvious flaws which are derided by non-fans and regarded uncomfortably by fans.
Nevertheless, the show persevered for 48 episodes between 1975 and 1977 and enjoyed global success in countries as diverse as Italy and Nigeria - where it cleared the streets every Saturday afternoon. Cult status - largely fuelled by the popularity of the show's Eagle spacecrafts - has resulted in recent repeats on UK terrestrial telly, and ensured the legend lives on in numerous Web sites.
The "Eagle spacecrafts" [sic] are perhaps the most popular symbol of the show, but while there are a large contingent of modellers (both CGI and traditional), fans tend to be attracted to the stories and characters.
Uniquely for a television show, Space 1999 always managed to be less than the sum of its title sequences. They were, without exception, pulse-troublingly fab... And each week we would dupe ourseleves that yes, this time it would be the funky, sexy experience it promised to be and not the tedious old tommyrot it always was.
It's ironic. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's mid 70s stab at mid Atlantic science fiction always carried the rep of a prosaic Star Trek knock-off, but in many ways it foreshadowed Star Trek The Motion Picture, flaws and all. Both share a similar drab aesthetic... Both value huge, portentious concepts over humanity and emotion, as if unscrambling the secret of the universe is inherently more interesting than two people falling in love.
Twelve of the forty-eight episodes of Space: 1999 (1974-1976) have been released on DVD. The show is about the moon being blasted from its orbit and roaming the universe like a giant spaceship. In command is the sure-handed John Koenig played with uncharacteristic but welcome reserve by Martin Landau. The series was the work of Gerry Anderson, whose marionette shows such as Supercar and Thunderbirds remain fan favorites. Anderson's team were masters of special effects model-work and those skills make for breathtaking visuals. Unfortunately, the science is often insane (overlooking the bizarre premise itself, you can pour coffee in a spaceship?), and the stories range from intriguing to dumb. Except for some shocking gashes in the opening moments of the first episode, and occasional marks here and there, the episodes look fresh and colorful.
