Space 1999 reboot

[Drone]

Admittedly the sources of information I've tapped to find out what the reality of this coming to fruition are limited, but I don't see it having been contained in a thread here either, over the last month anyway. So what substantive news can you folks offer about such a project and its relative closeness to being realized?

 

[Relayer1]

It's gone very quiet, I think it's died.

Very probably for the best...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

As has probably the UFO movie that I believe Joshua Jackson was involved in developing.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

As has probably the UFO movie that I believe Joshua Jackson was involved in developing.

Damn. Well, there goes that Neal McDonough breakout role, I guess.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

The last update on space2099theseries.com was in May 2014.

 

[shapeshifter]

It's gone very quiet, I think it's died.

Very probably for the best...

Likely, no logical explanation for the Moon breaking orbit then traveling light speed into other star systems / why they keep encountering life in open interstellar space, could be realized.

I was forgiving of those flaws during the first incarnation because
it was fun regardless and I was a scifi fan but it wouldn't wash with me, today.

 

[Marc]

It's gone very quiet, I think it's died.

Very probably for the best...

Likely, no logical explanation for the Moon breaking orbit then traveling light speed into other star systems / why they keep encountering life in open interstellar space, could be realized.

I was forgiving of those flaws during the first incarnation because
it was fun regardless and I was a scifi fan but it wouldn't wash with me, today.

An idea suggested in here during the previos thread was the testing of an FTL/wormhole drive taking ing place on the moon.

There's a mulfucntion and the moon winds of light years away from Earth.

Because of radiation they can't get into shut the equipment down and after a period the drive triggers again and then wind up ina new location.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The last update on space2099theseries.com was in May 2014.

It's probably sitting in the box with the announced remakes of Buck Rogers, Blake's 7, and Barbarella.

 

[Christopher]

Likely, no logical explanation for the Moon breaking orbit then traveling light speed into other star systems / why they keep encountering life in open interstellar space, could be realized.

I was forgiving of those flaws during the first incarnation because
it was fun regardless and I was a scifi fan but it wouldn't wash with me, today.

In the original, there wasn't really supposed to be a logical explanation. The recurring theme of the first season was that space was a mysterious, surreal realm where human assumptions and rules broke down and anything was possible. It was sort of akin to Lem's Solaris in its philosophy that the universe was fundamentally unknowable, that any human attempt to impose logic on it was merely a reflection of our own preconceptions and limits. There was also an element of Homer's Odyssey in it, sort of a mythic quest narrative. If you approach it more as a surrealist fantasy or space-age myth than an SF show, it works better, at least in season 1. Season 2 abandoned all the more philosophical stuff to make it more American-friendly, so it became a lot more shallow and dumb.

And I'm not sure modern audiences really require plausible science in their SF. Just look at Doctor Who or The Flash. Their science is complete gibberish. The Moon being blown on an interstellar journey by a nuclear explosion is surely more plausible than the Moon being an alien egg that hatches into a vast space creature that immediately lays an identical egg moments after its birth.

 

[publiusr]

In the original, there wasn't really supposed to be a logical explanation. The recurring theme of the first season was that space was a mysterious, surreal realm where human assumptions and rules broke down and anything was possible..

Shades of Chronicles of Riddick--Conan in space.

You don't see that space mead/ Out of the Silent Planet take on space any more, except for repeats of cartoons where space is considered wacky.

I also liked Dorr's short story "Dark Side of the Moon." for that kind of feel.

The only explanation I could possible give is that there was no Dark Energy in the universe of Space: 1999 until the blast we saw in Breakaway took place as some sort of anomaly came through--somehow coupling with primitive gravity intensifiers to explain how folks don't bounce inside Moonbase Alpha. (the opposite explains why the Eagle can behave as an SSTO I suppose)

If you think about it, Dark Energy requires us to believe the whole universe is behaving like the Moon in Breakaway.

Limitless energy seems available--but only at small scales with zero point. Godzilla has a better chance at tying the shoelaces of a gnat than we do at having a ZED PM.

Anti-gravity is fine too--but at large scales/speeds:
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=9758

Here, all you have to do is get in front of some massive hypervelocity space body and you accelerate all by yourself--no engine. Very little stress.

So the blast we see in breakaway wasn't powerful enough to shove the moon--it would have destroyed it--and really the blast was only about the power of a good asteroid strike.

Rather, one could say the explosion opened up a rip/anomaly that allowed the Moon to not only break away, but speed up..and partially pass into some other space-time where you see all this wildness of yore.

That's as good as I can do in terms of hand-waving.

 

[shapeshifter]

It's gone very quiet, I think it's died.

Very probably for the best...

Likely, no logical explanation for the Moon breaking orbit then traveling light speed into other star systems / why they keep encountering life in open interstellar space, could be realized.

I was forgiving of those flaws during the first incarnation because
it was fun regardless and I was a scifi fan but it wouldn't wash with me, today.

An idea suggested in here during the previos thread was the testing of an FTL/wormhole drive taking ing place on the moon.

There's a mulfucntion and the moon winds of light years away from Earth.

Because of radiation they can't get into shut the equipment down and after a period the drive triggers again and then wind up ina new location.

Not terrible ideas, actually.

Perhaps budgetary issues arose with execution... the 'best way to do it' was cost prohibitive so it got shelved. ?

Likely, no logical explanation for the Moon breaking orbit then traveling light speed into other star systems / why they keep encountering life in open interstellar space, could be realized.

I was forgiving of those flaws during the first incarnation because
it was fun regardless and I was a scifi fan but it wouldn't wash with me, today.

In the original, there wasn't really supposed to be a logical explanation. The recurring theme of the first season was that space was a mysterious, surreal realm where human assumptions and rules broke down and anything was possible.

It was sort of akin to Lem's Solaris in its philosophy that the universe was fundamentally unknowable, that any human attempt to impose logic on it was merely a reflection of our own preconceptions and limits. There was also an element of Homer's Odyssey in it, sort of a mythic quest narrative. If you approach it more as a surrealist fantasy or space-age myth than an SF show, it works better, at least in season 1. Season 2 abandoned all the more philosophical stuff to make it more American-friendly, so it became a lot more shallow and dumb.

I get all that. But I enjoyed it because it was a sci fi offering in a sea of crap. It was a welcome alternative to 'hee-haw' or whatever else I might have been forced to watch instead if I didn't have it as an option.

And I'm not sure modern audiences really require plausible science in their SF. Just look at Doctor Who or The Flash. Their science is complete gibberish. The Moon being blown on an interstellar journey by a nuclear explosion is surely more plausible than the Moon being an alien egg that hatches into a vast space creature that immediately lays an identical egg moments after its birth.

I thought I made it clear I was speaking for myself. IIRC I didn't love that episode of Dr. Who. But okay, upon reflection, I concede that maybe I could enjoy a remake with a crappy or even nonexistent reasoning for the journey as long as the journey held some good reason for me to go along.

 

[Christopher]

Shades of Chronicles of Riddick--Conan in space.

Man, I hated that movie. Pitch Black was a fairly grounded and plausible science fiction future, aside from a few details of orbital dynamics here and there, but then TCoR followed it up with this wild, vaguely defined mishmash of space-fantasy tropes. It was like following up a noir detective movie by revealing that the gritty PI is the heir to the elven throne and the target of evil sorcerors.

You don't see that space mead/ Out of the Silent Planet take on space any more, except for repeats of cartoons where space is considered wacky.

I dunno -- I still think the majority of space movies these days treat it as a fantasy land, even though we're seeing a trend of hard-SF space movies like Gravity, Europa Report, Interstellar, and The Martian. Like, what was that Wachowski film, Jupiter Ascending? I didn't see it, but the worldbuilding in the trailers seemed very fantasy-based and Chronicles of Riddick-esque.

The only explanation I could possible give is that there was no Dark Energy in the universe of Space: 1999 until the blast we saw in Breakaway took place as some sort of anomaly came through--somehow coupling with primitive gravity intensifiers to explain how folks don't bounce inside Moonbase Alpha. (the opposite explains why the Eagle can behave as an SSTO I suppose)

"Breakaway" did have dialogue suggesting that there was some mysterious magnetic effect associated with the nuclear dumps, something they'd never seen before because they'd never had so much nuclear material in one place before. I think the implication is that the magnetic anomaly had some sort of antigravity effect that let the Moon escape Earth orbit and maybe propelled it through space. But otherwise they never bothered to address it. The point was the mystery, not the answers.

 

[Galileo7]

I have been a Space:1999 fan since I was a young boy. I watched it during it's original airing 1975-1977. It would be awesome to see a reboot.
I see two options:
1)Set it in the future again, same story "Breakaway" Moon leaves Earth orbit.
2)Set it in the future again, but this time setting in our solar system with Alpha Base is now built on Mars. Mars Base Alpha. No "Breakaway", think DS9 with a wormhole opens in our solar system.

 

[Christopher]

I've long had a pet idea for rebooting the series, which would be to set it on a moderate-sized Main Belt asteroid wherein an ancient alien base has been discovered and occupied by humans. Eventually they accidentally activate a hyperspace jump drive built inside the asteroid.

But now that I've actually rewatched the series, I feel that my preferred hard-SF approach would be the wrong way to capture its spirit. Maybe the way to go is to make the surrealism and mystery even more overt -- to acknowledge up front that the Moon being propelled through interstellar space makes no sense, but is somehow happening anyway, and that everything we thought we knew about the universe must now be called into question. Maybe there could even be a Philip K. Dick-style ambiguity about whether the experience is real or some kind of shared hallucination or simulation.

After all, the Battlestar Galactica revival played up the mystical and spiritual aspects of that premise, telling a story that was overtly shaped by predestination and divine intervention. So there is precedent for magic-realist space opera on modern American television.

 

[DWF]

An underlying concept that was developed alittle bit during the first season was the idea of the "Mysterious Unknown Force" that was keeping them alive. The catacombs website has the original Starlog articles that talked about it. The second season of coruse went off in a different direction.

 

[Drone]

No one has mentioned it, but could an impediment to this development be a unexpected rights issue?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

More likely, it's just economics. If the new Star Wars films do well, sci-fi TV and movies might become more commercially viable.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^'If'?!

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Well we don't know what the bean counters' criteria for success are.

 

[drt]

Star Wars is its own thing now, the success of Force Awakens probably won't translate into increased interest in other sci-if properties.