Episodes you watch in terms not for sci-fi but for exploration of the human condition

[Christopher]

How fast was the moon travelling to meet a new civilisation every week yet slow enough for them to have time to fly back and forth to them?
Its the basic premise that concerns me. I suppose maybe they went through a black hole or something every week conveniently in their path. Still if you ignore the improbability of their travels through space the rest of it was fun.

The thing is, the first season of Space: 1999 wasn't supposed to make logical or scientific sense. It was surrealist/existentialist fantasy using space as a metaphor, an unknowable realm that challenged our beliefs and rendered our certainties meaningless. The fact that the events Moonbase Alpha experienced made a mockery of our understanding of the universe was intentional. You might as well nitpick the science of Gregor Samsa waking up as a cockroach. Being inexplicable was the point.

Although if you want to look at it more literally, the pilot episode did have brief dialogue implying that the unprecedentedly huge nuclear reaction/explosion at the dump site was generating some kind of magnetic/gravitational effect never seen before and never predicted by science. The suggestion was that it was producing a sort of antigravity field that severed the Moon's gravitational ties to Earth. One can presume that it also functioned as a kind of warp field.

By contrast, season 2 was just silly and nonsensical and conceptually random. But they did throw in a token reference or two to the Moon falling through random space warps from time to time.

 

[johnnybear]

Black Sun was the third episode produced and sent the moon to the other side of the universe where planets and stars were more densely packed together as scientists are now claiming is science fact and not fiction! Another time, another Place is an episode where the moon encounters an ion storm/space warp which also propels it into a new area of space! They always had a window of four to six days when passing a planet to decide whether to relocate there after a quick reconaissance of the place before the moon moves out of range! The only silly stuff came with the second series but even that had some good episodes!
JB

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

The problem with Space: 1999 was that it didn't have any basic veneer of Awesome which makes it easier to overlook implausibilities like that. Star Trek has a bunch of Awesome in it's lobby, so we're already won over by the time we start venturing into its back rooms.

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

The thing is, the first season of Space: 1999 wasn't supposed to make logical or scientific sense. It was surrealist/existentialist fantasy using space as a metaphor, an unknowable realm that challenged our beliefs and rendered our certainties meaningless. The fact that the events Moonbase Alpha experienced made a mockery of our understanding of the universe was intentional. You might as well nitpick the science of Gregor Samsa waking up as a cockroach. Being inexplicable was the point.

I find that argument meaningful only if they had let the audience know that, which they didn't. It's easy for a composer to say all those wrong notes were on purpose to cover up his lack of musicianship.

 

[Christopher]

I find that argument meaningful only if they had let the audience know that, which they didn't.

It was quite clear to me on my rewatch a few years ago. Heck, that was crystal clear in episode 3, "Black Sun," which went to a very surreal and mystical place in its climax, with Koenig and Bergstrom philosophizing about a cosmic intelligence guiding their path, the characters rapidly aging 2001-style and dying and meeting "the brain of the universe" in some heavenly realm, and the crew and Moonbase then being miraculously restored with no explanation. There were other episodes throughout the first season hinting that the Moon's journey was being guided by some unknown cosmic or divine force, a space odyssey at the mercy of fate and forces beyond human comprehension but operating toward some greater plan.

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

Ok then I need to rewatch. Sounds good the way you describe it.

 

[johnnybear]

The final episode of series one, Testament of Arkadia brings the moon to a dead planet where humanity may have began millions of years before. A force takes control of two members of the Alpha team and they blackmail the others into allowing them to stay on the planet and bring back life to it! After this we don't hear anything more about the cosmic entity guiding them! Unless a station plays the show in the complete wrong order as it usually did!
JB

 

[Gary7]

Having seen TOS episodes countless times, the only thing I can honestly say is which episodes I very rarely watch because I think they're utterly stupid. Like "And the Children Shall Lead." However, I have watched them once in a great while, mainly for the opportunity to see some character interaction that may be uncommon. Or, views of the ship interior in greater detail, like that modified rec room where the kids got their sundaes.

Having seen TOS episodes so many times, I never got the CGI remastered versions on media, so I haven't seen them all that much. What makes it obvious is when scenes that had been previously cut were included. It's such a cool experience, to have that momentary "feels like it's new" with something produced so long ago.

There are too many Star Trek episodes that address the "human condition" to pick out all of them. There may be some that stand out more than others. "Tuvix" on Voyager is one that immediately comes to mind. A lot of people love to bash Voyager, but I think that series had some of the best human condition episodes in the franchise. The EMH was essential to quite a number of them too. Robert Picardo was my favorite character from Voyager. The man is such a talented actor and he brought that character so intensely to life.

However, TOS... is just so classic. A lot of people brush it off for the dated sets and SFX. But I have to say, some really innovative and terrific story concepts were created in it, and wonderfully produced considering the limits of budget and time. Roddenberry & crew pulled off a pretty remarkable feat for the day. So it's easy for me to ignore stupid props that look like non-functional plastic toys (like Spock's strange calculator with no display), and just focus on the "meat" of what's going on. I also notice the character interactions more. When you're so familiar with an episode, it gives you the luxury of paying close attention to things outside the primary focus. You start to notice things you hadn't seen before. But also, your perspective of what takes place can change too.

We're so fortunate to have this franchise. It's so rich with great sci-fi stories. But I do hope at some point we get a Captain Pike branch for it.

 

[Christopher]

Having seen TOS episodes so many times, I never got the CGI remastered versions on media, so I haven't seen them all that much. What makes it obvious is when scenes that had been previously cut were included. It's such a cool experience, to have that momentary "feels like it's new" with something produced so long ago.

As far as I know, the Remastered edition has no non-FX scenes that aren't in the previous uncut home video editions. You might be thinking of scenes that were in the original 1960s broadcast airings but were then cut out in syndicated reruns to make room for more commercials. All those scenes were restored in every home video edition that I'm aware of. The only "deleted scenes" that have ever been restored on home video were the scenes cut from "The Cage" to make "The Menagerie," and the alternate pre-broadcast edit of "Where No Man Has Gone Before," which is available as a special feature on some DVD sets.