They're constantly pushing the equipment beyond its design limits. They lost their support infrastructure when Breakaway happened. And the body count kept climbing over the years afterward. Sooner or later, they were going to need an escape hatch. Hence Operation Exodus. Before it's too late to carry it out due to lack of people and gear, please.
I've always liked the bassline too (a bit disco-y) and a quick google throws up a name which surprises me greatly, none other than John McCoy who most UK based rock fans of a certain age will remember as Ian Gillan's post Purple bass player (the big baldy bloke with the goatee and the shades!)
Wow, thank you. It's hard to read the credits on Prime and I don't think they even listed him, just the composer. I love a prominent bass in music, like Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, and some others. Queen has a few songs with a really great bass in front, like Invisible Man. I say this with no irony, but it's groovy! I can't believe I don't remember that from when it was on when I was watching it in the 70s.
Apologies for hijacking this thread with bass-related talk (I promise I'll stop here!) but Barney Miller which really did not make much of an impression here in the UK, has my favourite TV show bassline and was one ofthe first basslines I ever learned! Check it out on YouTube. Sorry....back to Space 1999!
I'm sorry you seem to be done with your re-watch. I just went through the entire series on Blu Ray when I got the SHOUT box set. The first year has aged a little better than the second. I remember toggling episodes from both years without really caring about the changes when I was younger. Now, though, going right from 24 episodes of season 1 into season 2...it's practically a different show. I still loved it, but, well, differently. I enjoy the actors, some of the stories and adored the Derek Wadsworth music. But really, who were these new people? I hope you pick this up again, I'd like to follow along...
Except in the episode where the moon was given an atmosphere, it turns out that Moon Base was designed with windows that slide open easily!!!
Was mentioned upthread that there was a cut scene of a sliding window being retrofitted to Main Mission (though maybe the poster was being tongue in cheek). Of course once the atmosphere disappeared that sliding wind would be an issue.
Nope, it’s true. There was a scene mentioning the installation of sliding windows being cut. Perhaps for time, perhaps just because it would be problematic later on.
Actually, I have to admit in the last few episodes, she's better. Not great, but not robotic anymore. Brian Blessed! Wow, and he turns into barbecue at the end. No kiddin. Did anyone think that whole episode was almost directly from Kubla Khan? They even had melons!
Yeah, there are a lot of ways you could go...alien artificial buried under the Moon that generates a wormhole like in The Ring of Charon. Or maybe have humans build a giant version of the LHC on the Moon...maybe a ring-particle accelerator that rings the Moon's equator, and they activate it and...*pop*. Though now that you mention it, I like the idea of it just being a mysterious force...aliens, multidimensional "higher" beings (things we can't understand)...maybe just some "force" that is never explain, like the one that destroyed the Moon in Neil Stephenson's Seveneves But it would be interesting to re-imagine the Moon circa...um...lest go with 2099 like they were going to in the planned reboot that never got made...when you have things like the US and China and even India competing to return to the Moon...and you have potential helium 3 mining, and space tourism. Now imagine the commander of Moonbase Alpha having to deal with a rival Chinese Moonbase and a bunch of stranded space tourists, and maybe a couple of crazy Jeff Bezos & Elon Musk types along for the ride...and maybe even a Lunar prospecting company and even a few small-time independent prospectors...all at odds with each other, and all needing each other to survive...you could do a lot with that!
My 2099 idea ... would be to first reboot U.F.O. SHADO was formed to combat an obvious alien threat and SHADO/the UN built a moonbase as part of this conflict or defense. After about 2 or 3 seasons or so spin off 2099. I'd have a city spring up around the moonbase like a city around a modern-day military base. Helena is the mayor of this city instead of a doctor assigned to Alpha. Another moon location would be a supermax style prison and a third location would be a lunar farside observatory. The moon traveling through space is the result of an FTL project malfunction. The city, prison, and observatory provide additional moon locations and story conflict. The city would help explain the self-sufficiency that Alpha would need. Supplemental foodstuffs can be acquired through trade or the exploration of newly discovered planets. The clearly defined enemy from U.F.O. could be the main protagonist and other aliens could be met on a weekly basis as the Alphans figure out why the FTL malfunction happened and they learn to control and eventually pilot the moon.
So going back to the original intention, basically. If it's a UFO sequel, maybe a better approach is that it's the result of an alien attack -- a Pearl Harbor-like assault that strips SHADO of one of its most important defense assets and leaves Earth vulnerable, while leaving the Moonbase personnel warping uncontrollably through space under the influence of a phenomenon they can't begin to understand.
So has the OP gotten to "Dragon's Domain" yet? That show traumatized the hell out of me when I was a kid. Gave me nightmares for weeks. And apparently I wasn't the only one, that episode is notorious for scaring little 8 year-old kids everywhere in the 1970's. I still don't honestly think that I could watch it now...
Man, that's one thing about the first year which was unique to the run: horror. Even when it wasn't outright scary, it was creepy at times. The opening of "Alpha Child" is chilling. Back in the 80's, my local station reran it at 2 am. Try watching "Force of Life" and "End of Eternity" in the dark silence of 2 am.
Sadly while the episode is still very good, the monster doesn't hold up to 21st century viewing but what's left after consuming it's victims is still quite disturbing. Which leads to a thought. What happened to the probe crew in Dragon's Domain and Brian Blessed's fate in Death's Other Domain must have pushed the censors a bit for 1970s tv (a time when all Quincy could show of an autopsy was a fully drapped body).
Possibly because "Quincy" was aired on network primetime and "1999" was syndicated, the rules governing each maybe were different.
The whole reason Roddenberry was happy about TNG being syndicated was because of the much looser rules, which allowed for amped up sex and the exploding Remmick in "Conspiracy." WPIX in New York ran Space:1999 with gore and scares intact. That stuff would not have gone over on the networks. Gerry Anderson didn't know how lucky he was the big 3 passed on his shows. Even UFO had some stark content the nets would have balked at.
If that was the one with the swirling light/space dragon, I gotta say as a 10 year old kid, I laughed my ass off as it because that thing looked ludicrously fake to me, even at that age. YMMV.