Space 1999!!!

[Steve Roby]

I read somewhere once that they were supposed to be anti-static wigs, because otherwise women with their long hair would get more static electricity in their hair because women have long hair, while men have short hair, and I guess moonbases are extra staticky.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I read somewhere once that they were supposed to be anti-static wigs, because otherwise women with their long hair would get more static electricity in their hair because women have long hair

I suppose that was the (outdated) thinking at the time, yeah.

But surely it would be easier to just...get a haircut, if necessary?

I mean, a wig is still hair, isn't it? So wouldn't fake hair be just as susceptible to static electricity as the real deal?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I read somewhere once that they were supposed to be anti-static wigs, because otherwise women with their long hair would get more static electricity in their hair because women have long hair, while men have short hair, and I guess moonbases are extra staticky.

And those 'puters.

SID was unmanned, I believe. Maybe it was lethal in there.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Here's Gay (Gabrielle Drake) with minimal makeup, her real staticy hair, Moonbase miniskirt, and civilian top. I would have preferred this look on the show, but c'est la vie.

ETA: just realized this is what she wore at SHADO Control in "Close Up." Probably a shot someone took between takes.

 

[Steve Roby]

There's an old BBC video on YouTube (look for Ballard Crash 1971) in which Gabrielle Drake co-stars with JG Ballard in a short film that's a precursor to his novel Crash. No purple wigs anywhere.

 

[Marc]

I have read once they saved money on hairdressing by using the wigs. I guess they needed that to pay for the hairdos of the women at Control.

can't remember where the hell I read it but the explaination for the moonbase wigs was that Sylvia Anderson liked wigs.

Also read that Ed Bishop started to wear a wig on the show because the peroxide to bleach his hair started to cause problems.

 

[JD]

A few years back they did a reboot comic called Aftershock and Awe, which was a combination of an original story set on Earth after the Moon disappears, and an adaptation of the pilot. It's not on Comixology anymore and only available through 3rd parties on Amazon.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Wasn't the Earth supposed to have been pretty much destroyed after the Moon left orbit?

Something about the missing tidal forces cauasing severe natural disasters which wiped out almost all life on Earth.

(Kind of the opposite of the ending of The Fifth Element, when an EXTRA moon appears...and does absolutely no damage. )

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Wasn't the Earth supposed to have been pretty much destroyed after the Moon left orbit?

According to S2 "Journey to Where," the Earth and humanity survived the loss of the Moon, but it was 21st century pollution that destroyed nature. Humanity survived, in "metrocomplexes."

 

[DarrenTR1970]

According to S2 "Journey to Where," the Earth and humanity survived the loss of the Moon, but it was 21st century pollution that destroyed nature. Humanity survived, in "metrocomplexes."

I just watched the first season episode 'Another Time, Another Place', and the moon is hurtled through a space warp and arrives back at Earth sometime in future, where they discover that the Earth has been knocked off its axis by the moon's departure and pretty much all life has indeed been wiped out.

Professor Bergman speculates this a possible Earth in a possible future and may not be what really happened.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I just watched the first season episode 'Another Time, Another Place', and the moon is hurtled through a space warp and arrives back at Earth sometime in future, where they discover that the Earth has been knocked off its axis by the moon's departure and pretty much all life has indeed been wiped out.

Professor Bergman speculates this a possible Earth in a possible future and may not be what really happened.

Yeah, that's the Earth of an alternate history. From the transcript at The Catacombs [https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/tscript/z06atap.html]:

67.EXT. EARTH SKY (SFX)

Sun low in the sky over barren landscape.
VICTOR:
"This is the Earth, "
EXT. EARTH SURFACE

Trees.
VICTOR:
" but not the world we knew."
67.EXT. PLANET SURFACE (SFX)

Slow pan over trees and rocks.
VICTOR:
"It's an Earth where perhaps we never existed."

The valley.
VICTOR:
"Or perhaps we have yet to be born."
68.EXT. EARTH SURFACE

Pan down over wood to them outside settlement.
VICTOR:
"But apart from us it's empty now. A civilisation once flourished here. Another Atlantis, perhaps. There are relics of them everywhere."​

https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/epguide/t06atap.html

Great episode, for the show.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

There's an old BBC video on YouTube (look for Ballard Crash 1971) in which Gabrielle Drake co-stars with JG Ballard in a short film that's a precursor to his novel Crash. No purple wigs anywhere.

That was... not what I was expecting. At 5:52 I needed a cold shower. At 8:50 I was beyond that. And yet it was all subtle and poetic. It anthropomorphizes and sexualizes the car, and the girl (Gabrielle) doesn't really exist except as metaphor of the vehicle. I'll never go through a car wash again without thinking of this.

How on Earth did you come across it?

Reminds me of this...

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I note in the description he mentions Ballard. I've seen Cronenberg's "Crash" and danced many times in clubs to "Warm Leatherette" but I never knew about Ballard.

ETA: Now that think about it, I knew about his novel "Crash" as the inspiration for Cronenberg, but I never read it. And apparently, much of my sex life in 80s and early 90s was unknowingly based on an actress from UFO's moonbase. Hmmm... upthread I did describe her as looking like a stripper in a fetish club. Maybe it isn't so surprising.

 

[Steve Roby]

A few years back they did a reboot comic called Aftershock and Awe, which was a combination of an original story set on Earth after the Moon disappears, and an adaptation of the pilot. It's not on Comixology anymore and only available through 3rd parties on Amazon.

As I understand it, there were two paperback collections of Space: 1999 comic material, Aftershock and Awe and To All That Was, the latter taking old 1970s art but completely rewriting the stories.

That was... not what I was expecting. At 5:52 I needed a cold shower. At 8:50 I was beyond that. And yet it was all subtle and poetic.

How on Earth did you come across this?

Reminds me of this...

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Note in description he mentions Ballard.

I've been reading JG Ballard since the '80s. The recent Arrow blu ray special edition of David Cronenberg's adaptation of Crash has a slightly higher quality version of the BBC film as an extra. As for the video by The Normal, the song was specifically written as a reference to Ballard's novel Crash and the video is from the Cronenberg movie. John Foxx and a lot of other electronic musicians have also done Ballard-influenced music.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

As I understand it, there were two paperback collections of Space: 1999 comic material, Aftershock and Awe and To All That Was, the latter taking old 1970s art but completely rewriting the stories.



I've been reading JG Ballard since the '80s. The recent Arrow blu ray special edition of David Cronenberg's adaptation of Crash has a slightly higher quality version of the BBC film as an extra. As for the video by The Normal, the song was specifically written as a reference to Ballard's novel Crash and the video is from the Cronenberg movie. John Foxx and a lot of other electronic musicians have also done Ballard-influenced music.

Thanks, that reminded me of a lot from the past, and made me want to look at it again.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

The Official Gerry Anderson YouTube channel has a video up today announcing the complete U.F.O. comic strips volume one will be available for purchase at the end of November.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I'm thinking I should have titled this thread "The Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Thread." Anyway I'm glad it's becoming that.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Here's Gay (Gabrielle Drake) with minimal makeup, her real staticy hair, Moonbase miniskirt, and civilian top. I would have preferred this look on the show, but c'est la vie.

ETA: just realized this is what she wore at SHADO Control in "Close Up." Probably a shot someone took between takes.

No. I think it's actually a cropped screen grab. See the frames around 44:46 in this:

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[Mr. Adventure]

Holy cow, I found this amazing clip of Sylvia Anderson talking about the purple wigs. Note, it was apparently much more successful than her attempt to bleach a negro(!).

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[LaxScrutiny]

Holy cow, I found this amazing clip of Sylvia Anderson talking about the purple wigs. Note, it was apparently much more successful than her attempt to bleach a negro(!).

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I love it!! She had an opportunity to go to town and she went for it! You go girl!!

 

[Maurice]

According to the notes and continuity laid out in the website 'The Catacombs' from information from the scripts and episodes - Moonbase Alpha began construction/expansion in 1986, Moonbase (Beta?) was destroyed by the destruction of the Voyager 2 space probe on the launch pad in 1985 and there was a brief war in 1987 as well.

The Catacombs page in question refers to the script, but does not quote it.

The episode itself only says:

ALAN​

His Queller Drive killed Steve Abrams, remember?

PAUL​

That's one more to the score. But I'm thinking of fifteen years ago. The second ship on the programme, Voyager Two. The Queller Drive cut in too soon.

VICTOR​

Paul. Something went wrong.

PAUL​

Two hundred people were killed because something went wrong. A whole community wiped out! My father was one of them. I know something went wrong.​