Space 1999 reboot

[Christopher]

I always thought Anderson's live action shows were poorly written but looked great, as opposed to stuff like Blakes 7 which was written fantastically but looked like crap.

They did make an effort on the writing front, though. When I watched UFO not so long ago, I was expecting something silly and lowbrow. I was surprised at how dark and dramatic it was. There was the one where the main character had to make a choice in the Earth's defense that led to tragic consequences for him on a personal level. There was the one where they let an attempted murderer go free and strike again in order to preserve their secrecy. There was the one where the main sexy purple-wigged female character from the Moonbase, who'd basically just been eye candy up to that point, turned out to be in an interracial romance, which was a very daring story at the time.

I don't feel the show really worked all that well; the writing could've been better, and the characters could've been deeper. But it was definitely aiming for a much more adult demographic than Doctor Who was.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ @Relayer1 Yes! Now there's an intriguing 'what if?'!

 

[Galileo7]

I always thought Anderson's live action shows were poorly written but looked great, as opposed to stuff like Blakes 7 which was written fantastically but looked like crap.

They did make an effort on the writing front, though. When I watched UFO not so long ago, I was expecting something silly and lowbrow. I was surprised at how dark and dramatic it was. There was the one where the main character had to make a choice in the Earth's defense that led to tragic consequences for him on a personal level. There was the one where they let an attempted murderer go free and strike again in order to preserve their secrecy. There was the one where the main sexy purple-wigged female character from the Moonbase, who'd basically just been eye candy up to that point, turned out to be in an interracial romance, which was a very daring story at the time.

I don't feel the show really worked all that well; the writing could've been better, and the characters could've been deeper. But it was definitely aiming for a much more adult demographic than Doctor Who was.

Gerry Anderson's UFO was definitely aiming to an adult demographic, albeit I enjoyed watching it as a very young boy when it was first aired in the U.S. in the '70s.

 

[publiusr]

I seem to remember that program--I think there was an episode where a man with a machine gun was surrounded by several projections of his enemy. He just turned in a circle and shot them all.

First time I ever felt sorry for a villain.

I even miss NBC's Project UFO due to the great models of the ships

The art of Martin Bower and Brian Johnson really made Space 1999

 

[theenglish]

I would love to see a remake of this series. I agree though that one of the mysteries would have to be why they are traveling through space. I could see some kind of wormhole drive idea where the moon drops into normal space inside a planetary system and then the drive restarts after a specific time. I could also see something akin to sliders where, rather than traveling through space, the moon shifts dimensions where other dimensions may even have different laws of physics and the earth like worlds are all vastly different from one another.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I could see some kind of wormhole drive idea where the moon drops into normal space inside a planetary system and then the drive restarts after a specific time. I could also see something akin to sliders where, rather than traveling through space, the moon shifts dimensions where other dimensions may even have different laws of physics and the earth like worlds are all vastly different from one another.

I really can't see either of those at all. I think Christopher nailed it upthread with this.

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.

And these.

The point was the mystery, not the answers.

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.

 

[arch101]

Space 1999 is ripe reboot material. It could be done SO MUCH BETTER today. And I think most writers would recognize that formatting the show in the style of the first season is the way to go. The science could be handled much better and taking things like "the great unknown force" into account right from the start would be pretty cool. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if Maya finds her way in there too. In fact, several alien characters could join the Alphans during their journey.
I like the above ideas about some kind of malfunctioning wormhole drive that makes planet-hopping slightly more plausible.
The more I think about this, the more surprised I am that someone isn't working on this.

 

[Richard Baker]

Space 1999 is ripe reboot material. It could be done SO MUCH BETTER today. And I think most writers would recognize that formatting the show in the style of the first season is the way to go. The science could be handled much better and taking things like "the great unknown force" into account right from the start would be pretty cool. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if Maya finds her way in there too. In fact, several alien characters could join the Alphans during their journey.
I like the above ideas about some kind of malfunctioning wormhole drive that makes planet-hopping slightly more plausible.
The more I think about this, the more surprised I am that someone isn't working on this.

There was a reboot attempt- "Space 2199" IIRC. There were some glimpses of the updated Eagle and some mysterious/dark publicity images, then the project went into limbo.
It would be nice to see a modern version of this show, but like a bunch of other reboots I think it would not be done too well. NuBSG had incredible SFX (even with the jiggle-cam) but it was so intentionally different from TOS that I never could get into it that much. 'Space 1999' (and it's predecessor 'UFO')had a charm and style about it that reflected the time the show was produced.

 

[DEWLine]

The "jiggle-cam" was part of the artistry with the VFX on Moore and Eick's BSG, making the space visuals look a lot more like "found footage". Worked very well for me.

 

[Christopher]

The "jiggle-cam" was part of the artistry with the VFX on Moore and Eick's BSG, making the space visuals look a lot more like "found footage". Worked very well for me.

Except why would a camera in outer space be handheld? Who's holding it? Logically it would be either from a camera on the exterior of a spacecraft or from some kind of drone camera. I suppose the operator inside the ship could be manually changing the camera angle, but that wouldn't really be "shaky" like a handheld camera. Granted, the shakycam did convey the impression of reality that we get from TV news footage, so it did the job it was meant to do, but that impression doesn't really hold up to analysis.

Also, people tend to forget that it was Firefly that used the "shakycam in space" technique before BSG did -- and also used total silence in its space shots, while BSG used distant, muffled sounds. One of the reasons I was never a big fan of BSG is that its creators liked taking credit for "innovations" that other people came up with before them, or at least didn't bother to correct people who misattributed the innovations to them.

 

[Terror Door]

In this case they borrowed from themselves, then. Firefly's and BSG's effects came from the same people at Zoic Studios.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There was a reboot attempt- "Space 2199" IIRC.

2099. Not to be confused with the other Space:2099, which would have been a re-editing of the original series to push it forward in time a hundred years.

There were some glimpses of the updated Eagle and some mysterious/dark publicity images, then the project went into limbo.

I think the other picture from the 'new' 2099 was the Meta Probe.

 

[Marc]

There was a reboot attempt- "Space 2199" IIRC.

2099. Not to be confused with the other Space:2099, which would have been a re-editing of the original series to push it forward in time a hundred years.

That was only a one re-edit I think - when they editted "The Bringers Of Wonder pts 1 &2" into "Destination Moonbase Alpha" and was used in the opening narration which gave the year as 2100 only to later contradict it by saying for those on Alpha it's well into the 21st Century.
(just checked the opening courtesy of youtube).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ No, there actually was an attempt to rework existing episodes from the entire original series - I don't know how far they got, but it would have involved some editing of scenes to trim dialogue (so as to remove references to the 20th century as being the show's present, and push everything forward a century) and perhaps some new effects as well. Linky

 

[Marc]

^ No, there actually was an attempt to rework existing episodes from the entire original series - I don't know how far they got, but it would have involved some editing of scenes to trim dialogue (so as to remove references to the 20th century as being the show's present, and push everything forward a century) and perhaps some new effects as well. Linky

Ah never heard of that attempt.

If they wanted to remove references to it taking place in 1999 I don't think there were that many of any after Breakway.

 

[Christopher]

If they wanted to remove references to it taking place in 1999 I don't think there were that many of any after Breakway.

No, there were various date references over the course of the series, though they weren't entirely consistent. "Earthbound" says 2074 is 75 years in the future, so it's 1999. "Voyager's Return" says that 1985 was 15 years in the past, so it's 2000. "Dragon's Domain" flashes back to events dated from 1996-97, which are explicitly 5 years in the past, so it's around 2002. And "Dragon's Domain," "Journey to Where," and "The Seance Spectre" all restate in dialogue that the Moon broke away in 1999.

http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/cguide/uc03.html

 

[diankra]

Unusually, the days since breakaway in Dragons Domain's narration also matches it to 2002.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

^ No, there actually was an attempt to rework existing episodes from the entire original series - I don't know how far they got, but it would have involved some editing of scenes to trim dialogue (so as to remove references to the 20th century as being the show's present, and push everything forward a century) and perhaps some new effects as well. Linky

For anyone who may be interested:

Here is a link to a 10 minute video presentation that was uploaded to Youtube more than 5.5 years ago about the "Space: 2099" (the enhanced episodes) project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPTZaSv9Bxk


Here are links to the webpages:

http://www.space2099.com/mainpage#!__mainpage

http://www.space2099.com/mainpage#!__moonbasealphalegacy


I have a memory of seeing the original Moonbase Alpha Travel Tube Pod physical model being replaced with a CGI version of it that had doors on it that matched the Travel Tube Pod set doors used on the original series, but it is not in the 10 minute video that I linked to above.


Navigator NCC-2120, USS Entente
/\

 

[Galileo7]

If they wanted to remove references to it taking place in 1999 I don't think there were that many of any after Breakway.

No, there were various date references over the course of the series, though they weren't entirely consistent. "Earthbound" says 2074 is 75 years in the future, so it's 1999. "Voyager's Return" says that 1985 was 15 years in the past, so it's 2000. "Dragon's Domain" flashes back to events dated from 1996-97, which are explicitly 5 years in the past, so it's around 2002. And "Dragon's Domain," "Journey to Where," and "The Seance Spectre" all restate in dialogue that the Moon broke away in 1999.

http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/cguide/uc03.html

Agree.

 

[Drone]

I don't how this relates to some of the other examples given above, but there was a 1979 cut and paste release called Alien Attack that cobbled together Breakaway, War Games, and Another Time, Another Place in their entirety, padded with some lame added footage of scenes allegedly of some nervous worked up dorks at the International Lunar Commission. In the narrative heard at the beginning, the year is stated to be 2100. I don't know where this was shown at the time, but it seems a bit iffy to me as a theatrical release.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ5OqDDh4rs