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Brian Johnson announces updated SPACE:1999 series.

DrCorby said:
Ah! The "Ultima Thule" episode. I especially remember the folks aging to bloody skeletons in the Eagle. But I'd forgotten that Brian Blessed was in the episode.
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I recently rewatched the pilot episode and, God, If they ever had a scientific consultant in this series, he must have ran away screaming. "Dark Side of the moon"? Really?
 
Gary Mitchell said:
So the writers were listening to a little too much Pink Floyd. :shrug:
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Probably. :nyah:
According to Wikipedia, "Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were surprised and disappointed that the public (and critics) never granted them the suspension of disbelief given to other science-fiction programmes.".
The problem is that Space: 1999 depicted itself as "serious sci-fi" and not as a kids' show or even "science fantasy" à la Star Wars. So all scientific inconsistencies are less forgivable...
 
Skipper said:
The problem is that Space: 1999 depicted itself as "serious sci-fi" and not as a kids' show or even "science fantasy" à la Star Wars. So all scientific inconsistencies are less forgivable...
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I can't agree. The first season was heavy on surrealism and mysticism, and on the theme of human science's inability to comprehend the mysteries of the universe. It was quite clear that it wasn't trying to portray science in a realistic way.

There has never been any correlation between how serious a genre show is and how plausible its science is. Usually even the serious ones are basically space fantasy -- that's far more the norm than the exception where TV and movies are concerned. Heck, Moore's Galactica was every bit as much a work of magic-realist space opera as Space: 1999 season 1, if not even more so, complete with a literal God and angels and prophets and destiny. And they don't get much seriouser than that one.
 
The Lensman said:
Well said, and one of the things that I don't think I (or much of anyone really) caught on or latched onto, were the occasional hints that a larger power(s) was behind it all. I noticed that element more watching the show a few years back and it helps to understand a lot of the implausibility in certain elements of the show, specifically it's premise. I know that "Black Sun" comments on this, and "Testament Of Arkadia" hints that the Alphans were supposed to be there and it's why the moon was blown out of orbit. To bring Arkadia back to life.

One of the things I LOVED about Space:1999 was the utter mysteriousness of it's universe. In Trek we know Fed Space, Klingon Space, Romulan Space, know the Dominion is this side of the galaxy, the Borg on that side, etc, etc. It all feels too mapped out. In Space:1999 you just have no clue as to where they are, what's around them, etc. And the combination of beautiful spacescapes and eerie music, especially in Season 1 made space seem vast and unknowable. I also loved how, in Season 1, you'd have episodes like "Force Of Life" where some strange life form takes over a guy, we get some horror story, then it just goes on it's way at the end. Just one big spooky mystery.

As for the moon being blown out of orbit, yeah, it was pretty way out back then and I was only seven years old at the time. But I loved it anyway. I loved that the crew could not control the moon and just had to go along with it. "Space Brain" is one of my favorite episodes because of that. I love how they describe the moon as basically a bullet going through this vast entity who's well being was needed by who knows how many worlds.

I loved the near future tech, but often times they were ham strung by it. I always wondered why there were no Hawks on Alpha with the Eagles. The Hawks were fighter craft, so there was either space combat going on, or the potential for it existed to justify the building of Hawks....so it always seemed strange to not have some on the moon. Aside from the moon always being lit in deep space, the other thing that stands out for me is how the moon might as well be asteroid sized considering how nothing ever happens that far away from Moonbase Alpha. In the war of the sexes episode, it never occurs to the aliens to just build their base a thousand miles away from Alpha. Or how whenever a meteor is heading towards the moon, it has to be threatening to Alpha. I know, tv reasons, but still.

Anyway, I hope they do this and can find a way to retain that cool, spooky and mysterious feel of Season 1.
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That greater forces at play was what I loved about the first season of the show. They were in an inexplicable universe to what they knew as ordinary Earth folks but hints were given that they were at the start of much bigger things as a species. The spaceship graveyard was one of my favorite inexplicable aliens with a creature right out of Lovecraft. What was it, why was it there, who cares? The visceral fight against the thing was all about surviving in an environment that was indifferent to human existence at best and lethal at worst yet their human survival depended on embracing their humanity and their community on Alpha.

I also liked Keonig's development in the first season. He is a bureaucrat at the start and is no fit at all as a deep space mission commander. Learning to become a capable deep space commander for the Alphans was pretty well done and Landau did a decent job at portraying a guy who was basically a new gas station manager at the start who had to be a space ship commander by the end keeping his peole alive in an environment that was generally unwholesome for human life.

Space wasn't woo-ahh cool like Trek, it could be, but it could turn into something very bad in an instant.

I liked the fan made Final Message from Moonbase Alpha made some years ago. It had a nice first season feel to it with its ending.
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OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!..........:drool:
 
Unless this reboot has what I'd already mentioned I'd like to see (a space station/L-5 habitat that is sent on this voyage rather than an entire planet), count me as not interested. I hope that it fails, even with the cool resisign of the ships.
 
If it's a continuation of the show then why? Most of the actors who were in it have died or are too old to be interested I'm sure! If it's a reboot then it's going to be bad just like that Galactica thing was and how DSC is right now!
JB
 
johnnybear said:
If it's a continuation of the show then why? Most of the actors who were in it have died or are too old to be interested I'm sure! If it's a reboot then it's going to be bad just like that Galactica thing was and how DSC is right now!
JB
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If it is a reboot television series with a new cast playing the original characters , then I hope it will be like the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies or the Netflix Lost In Space reboot.
 
Christopher said:
I don't see how it could be anything else, given that 1999 was quite a while ago and the Moon is still up there.
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Yes, I know the title/setting year will be changed, as was the year of the Jupiter 2 launch in Lost In Space Netflix. My question is will they reboot it from the "breakaway" of the Moon or will it be a continuation of the original Space:1999 as the "next generation" of Alphans are still on the Moon Alpha Base forty something years later.
 
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