Re-Watching Space: 1999

[Mysterion]

I wonder how the show would have gone had they had a couple more seasons.

Good question. I think they'd have to come to at least some ort of partial resolution at some point before things got too repetitious. I've heard there are some novels that explore "Year Three". Will be looking into those once I finish watching the series.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The second season was generally abysmal even by comparison with the first season. IMO, only a better writing team in S2 could have generated sufficient interest in S3.

My Space: 1999 season reviews from 2012 (possible SPOILERs):

S1: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/space-1999-revival.161083/page-7#post-5832682
S2: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/space-1999-revival.161083/page-9#post-5912353

 

[Redfern]

Guardian of Piri
Another planet turns out to not be what it seemed to be...Catherine Schell...even though she's playing a robot, shows a lot of personality.

This was the very first episode I "partially" saw. No station in Birmingham, AL aired the series (when it was first distributed), but oddly enough, a CBS affiliate (WCTV) for south Georgia and north Florida did, airing it around 7 PM Saturday evenings. So, only when my father and I rode the six hours to visit my grandmother was the only remote chance I had to see it. While my father and his mom were talking in another room, I turned on the TV, coming into the middle of the story, seeing this truly bizarre landscape of "bubbles" and intertwined "cables". Nearly everyone spoke as though from a James Bond movie while a "bug-like" ship with NASA type detailing (an Eagle, obviously) simply hung in mid air as though stuck in amber.

I'm pretty sure I had already read about the series, something in a school publication titled "Bananas" that took the tabloid approach, asking which was better, Trek or 1999. So I wasn't totally clueless, but jumping into the middle of the episode without any real context left me scratching my head in utter bewilderment.

 

[Christopher]

Good question. I think they'd have to come to at least some ort of partial resolution at some point before things got too repetitious.

In '70s TV? Naah. Repetition was the norm back then -- the same formula repeating week after week for years on end, as long as the show continued to run. Resolution was rare; usually a show would just keep running until it was cancelled, and the last episode would be just one more routine episode like any other (episodes were rarely shown in production order anyway). Few shows got actual closure to their story arcs like The Fugitive did. Well, long-running sitcoms often had finales, but they were frequently little more than the cast sitting around reminiscing. (M*A*S*H's movie-length, end-of-the-war finale event was pretty much unprecedented.)

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

S1 felt more properly sci-fi, but things progressed sooooo slow each episode.

S2 picked up the pace a little, but most threats ended up being thwarted by Maya changing into something, so more 70-s like.

 

[Mysterion]

Force of Life
This was interesting for the way it was filmed if for no other reason. Very moody and dark. And good performance from Ian McShane - surprising the number of guest actors who are later big names wandering through this series. Appreciate the lack of technobabble - the alien is barely explained and remains somewhat a mystery. I'm sure TNG would have over-explained things to within an inch of their lives.

 

[Silvercrest]

Guardian of Piri
Well, not bad, but not really great either. Another planet turns out to not be what it seemed to be. Koenig is assumed to be delusional by everyone else. On the plus side: Catherine Schell. Very attractive young lady, and even though she's playing a robot, shows a lot of personality. I can see why they brought her back as a regular in season two, but too bad they had to put so much stuff on that face. Gotta wonder at the end when everyone scrambles back to the Eagles to escape Piri, how much of their stuff got left behind? Hopefully the Guardian didn't let them get a lot of unpacking done before he put them into a trance.

This wasn't the first episode I'd seen by any means; I'd seen a little of it (first-run?) in the '70s and various reruns in the '80s. But in 1993 I picked up a VHS of this episode from a pawnshop. So it was the first one I'd had a chance to study. In 2001 or so I saw that episode plus "Earthbound", "Voyager's Return", and "Matter of Life and Death" in a video store that was going out of business. Added the other three to the collection. Were those four released as some sort of set, or are they just what the store happened to have?

I never quite got why Koenig was the only one unaffected. Was there any sort of explanation in the episode?

 

[Mysterion]

I never quite got why Koenig was the only one unaffected. Was there any sort of explanation in the episode?

Now that you mention it, I don't recall them actually saying why Koenig wasn't affected by Piri like everyone else.

Thoughts on this anyone?

 

[Silvercrest]

I don't think this is much of a spoiler, but in Season Two's "The Bringers of Wonder"

Spoiler

Koenig is, again, singularly unaffected by a somewhat-similar effect — but this time there's a specific reason given.

Season Two doesn't normally stand out over Season One, but that is an exception.

 

[Redfern]

I don't think this is much of a spoiler, but in Season Two's "The Bringers of Wonder"

Spoiler

Koenig is, again, singularly unaffected by a somewhat-similar effect — but this time there's a specific reason given.

Season Two doesn't normally stand out over Season One, but that is an exception.

Funny, earlier I was going to say there was a "reason", but then I realized I was getting it confused with "Bringers of Wonder".

Dang it! Now, I'm compelled to pop in the DVD containing "...Piri" to see if there was a reason for Koenig's "immunity".

 

[Silvercrest]

Spoiler

Well, if you look at Koenig's attempt to snap Helena out of it during "Guardian of Piri", he doesn't say what he subjects her to — but I believe it resembles their treatment on Koenig in "The Bringers of Wonder."

I'm going by some pretty old memories of "TBOW", though, and could easily be mistaken.

This still doesn't explain Koenig here, though.

 

[JD]

Well, long-running sitcoms often had finales, but they were frequently little more than the cast sitting around reminiscing. (M*A*S*H's movie-length, end-of-the-war finale event was pretty much unprecedented.)

M*A*S*H* ran into the '80s, and by that point a lot of shows did seem to did seem to be doing those kind of big finales.

 

[Galileo7]

Now that you mention it, I don't recall them actually saying why Koenig wasn't affected by Piri like everyone else.

Thoughts on this anyone?

I think it was simply Koenig's mind was too strong to be controlled by Piri.

 

[cylkoth]

Now that you mention it, I don't recall them actually saying why Koenig wasn't affected by Piri like everyone else.

Thoughts on this anyone?

He had a cold...

 

[Christopher]

M*A*S*H* ran into the '80s, and by that point a lot of shows did seem to did seem to be doing those kind of big finales.

Hourlong dramas having 2-hour finale "movies," sure. But a half-hour sitcom getting a 2.5-hour movie? That's gotta be much more rare, if not unique.

 

[Push The Button]

Hourlong dramas having 2-hour finale "movies," sure. But a half-hour sitcom getting a 2.5-hour movie? That's gotta be much more rare, if not unique.

MASH was more of a drama than a sitcom by the end, as I recall.

 

[Noname Given]

MASH was more of a drama than a sitcom by the end, as I recall.

The TV series M*A*S*H was always a 'dramedy' from the day it first premiered.

 

[JD]

Hourlong dramas having 2-hour finale "movies," sure. But a half-hour sitcom getting a 2.5-hour movie? That's gotta be much more rare, if not unique.

Yeah, but I was just referring to it getting a real finale not necessarily the length. When I said big, I was just referring to it being a big deal.

 

[Mysterion]

The TV series M*A*S*H was always a 'dramedy' from the day it first premiered.

IMO, the movie was much better than the series ever was.
So....how about the medical staff of Moonbase Alpha, huh?

 

[Marc]

IMO, the movie was much better than the series ever was.
So....how about the medical staff of Moonbase Alpha, huh?

All two of them