Space: 2099 A Remastering Of Space:1999

[Professor Zoom]

If they do anything, why not change the baseball question to be historically accurate. It's almost there anyhow: Who won the world series in 2004? (not 1998) Answer: The Boston Red Sox over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Easy fix.

I've been waiting to get these on DVD for a while now. I may just have to pick up the originals before they change them.

I don't think anyone is really going to be changing them anytime soon. The website isn't an official project...It's an editor doing it in his spare time, hoping someone will give him money. And probably that someone would have to be those that actually own the rights to the show.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Yeah, if you read his website, it says he's had no response to his approaches to ITV. Which doesn't surprise me really...

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Interesting stuff...

 

[WillsBabe]

They best not mess with Alan Carter.

 

[Shawnster]

It looked pretty interesting. I can tell a lot of work went into it. But the changes in dialogue-particularly the date stuff-sort of takes away the charm.

At first I thought this would be about a reimagining/remake of the show. That would probably be better.

I think a reimagining/remake would be best. Many of us probably have a good idea for one, too. The idea I keep toying with was a Space 2199 concept. One of the things that bites Space 1999 was that we reached 1999 pretty shortly after the show was made. Granted we're still 90 years away from 2099 I still think that'd be too soon for a manned Moonbase (and artifical gravity, etc...)

Are there authorized to this by the series owners? Also, couldn't they re-master those god awefull 70's haircuts? LOL LOL

I would definetly watch this when ( and if ) done, I watched the show when i was kid even had a big Eagle toy ship etc..

I had that too! The huge Mattel one! Was as popular with me as my SW Falcon!

Me too! I had one and a half of them. At first I only had the middle section (what was that, the Service Module?) mom found at a garage sale. Then a few years later we found a whole Eagle (missing doors, etc...) at another garage sale.

I hate this kind of revisionism. Space: 1999 is a visual masterpiece, it doesn't need dicking around with to make it more "contemporary". The original effects were state of the art, and still work today. There's nothing wrong with the pacing either, and the scripts (first season anyway) are generally excellent. His "chronological" episode order is complete bollocks too.

When you're a huge fan of something special, you don't need to piss on it to make it "better"... Leave it alone!

Special effects look great. I don't need the "previously"s or the dates changed or the wormhole.

Really? Oh come on!!! I guess there is room for everyone. There are many fans of the original Lost in Space, too. ::shrugs::

I loved Space 1999 as a child. Tried to watch it whenever I could. As an adult, however, I was quite dismayed when I went and rewatched some of the episodes. It suffers TERRIBLY in the scientific accuracy and general plot areas. I mean they even have an episode where they are standing on the moon with the helmets OPEN!

For such a serious show I personally need a lot more grounding in actual science and plausibility. I need to have an explaination as to how the moon can be traveling at FTL speeds. Someone stated this in the Fan Fiction forum and I agree: "Limited budget is no excuse for poor writing." For me quality writing is compelling stories AND technical accuracy.

However, I'm happy with the original FX. It is what it is - a show made in the 70s on a limited budget. I'm with you folks that don't feel the FX need updating.

I did like replacing the typerwiter with a computer console. I mean, when is the last time anyone actually SAW a typewriter? And, while I did say I was happy with the original FX, these do look nice. Enhancing the background images, computer graphics are nice, subtle touches I do appreciate.

If they do anything, why not change the baseball question to be historically accurate. It's almost there anyhow: Who won the world series in 2004? (not 1998) Answer: The Boston Red Sox over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Easy fix.

I've been waiting to get these on DVD for a while now. I may just have to pick up the originals before they change them.

I thought the same thing at first but then realized it wouldn't make sense. Koneig is basically asking "who won LAST YEAR'S World Series" and the response is "that's easy, I don't have to look that up..."

On the other hand, you have to be a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR baseball fan to know off the top of your head who won the world series 95 years ago.

So, from a dramatic story telling standpoint the 2004 fix wouldn't fit. Just like someone above pointed out that the fix they DID make to the Yuri Gargarian question doesn't work dramatically. The original Yuri Gargarian question was a trick question and the edit totally eliminates the trick question aspect. That one is a bad edit.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

The effects don't need remastering...they were pretty damn good...it was the stories with the glacial pacing that were the problem and nothing can be done about that. Even my favorite from my youth
THE LAST SUNSET
didn't hold up when I saw it again recently.

 

[Marc]

If they do anything, why not change the baseball question to be historically accurate. It's almost there anyhow: Who won the world series in 2004? (not 1998) Answer: The Boston Red Sox over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Easy fix.

I've been waiting to get these on DVD for a while now. I may just have to pick up the originals before they change them.

because changing the questions to be historically accurate would require requie Martin Landau et al into a studio to record the new dialogue. The proposed changes would require aim tor require no new audio recordings.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

The thing for me is:
I love the show as it is. (First season, anyway) The effects don't need updating. The very stark, white-on-black look that Brian Johnson achieved is part of the show's look, sticking fancy nebula clouds and so forth in the background dilutes that look. The other criticisms I often hear (e.g. the "glacial" pacing) - those are the things I like about the show. If they cut it and chop it and change it, and make it something stylistically more "modern", then they're taking away the reason I love the show in the first place. I don't want Space to be a "contemporary" show.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

I loved Space 1999 as a child. Tried to watch it whenever I could. As an adult, however, I was quite dismayed when I went and rewatched some of the episodes.

See, I hear this a lot. Now, I appreciate that things we watched as kids don't necessarily come across the same when we're adults. Because we change and our likes and dislikes change, and that's the way life is. Myself, I watched Space: 1999 when I was a child. I had an Eagle toy. But in the subsequent years, I largely forgot about it.

20 years later, I saw it again, and it blew me away. Now I'm 40 years old, and I think Space: 1999 is the most extraordinary, spellbinding, and visually stunning tv series I've ever seen. So yes, my opinion has changed as an adult - back then, it was fun tv show, now it's an awe-inspiring work of art. It speaks to me on a intellectual and spiritual level like nothing else I have ever seen. It's not for everybody - but nothing is. For those who "get it", it's simply incomparable.

The guy doing this video project, like many he seems to be clinging to his childhood memories and somehow wanting to recreate the feelings he had then for the modern era. What he isn't doing is embracing the show as it is with his adult faculties. And I suggest he'd be better off letting go of it, and putting his undoubted talents to use working on some original projects. Making the show "contemporary", making it with the pace and look and feel of modern sci-fi shows, would take anyway everything that makes it what it is.

It suffers TERRIBLY in the scientific accuracy and general plot areas. I mean they even have an episode where they are standing on the moon with the helmets OPEN!

Hmm... I don't think I've seen that episode.... Which one was it?

For such a serious show I personally need a lot more grounding in actual science and plausibility. I need to have an explaination as to how the moon can be traveling at FTL speeds.

The scientific accuracy complaint means nothing to me. It's not a hard sci-fi show - it's a fantasy, an existential fable, a spiritual odyssey. Interestingly, it uses the trappings of "serious" science fiction as its framework, and I think this has alienated some people, who expect it to conform to the usual rules of that genre, and then get upset when it frequently confounds them. I don't know what you mean by "general plot areas", which is rather a vague term. What actual problems do you have?

Someone stated this in the Fan Fiction forum and I agree: "Limited budget is no excuse for poor writing." For me quality writing is compelling stories AND technical accuracy.

Since Space had an absolutely monumental budget for a tv show at the time, I'm not sure where you're coming from there. The compelling stories are all present and correct.

 

[Marc]

It suffers TERRIBLY in the scientific accuracy and general plot areas. I mean they even have an episode where they are standing on the moon with the helmets OPEN!

Hmm... I don't think I've seen that episode.... Which one was it?

Only once I can think of would be The Last Sunset where alien probes provide the moon with an atmosphere so that the Alphans won't be tempted to try and land on their planet.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

It suffers TERRIBLY in the scientific accuracy and general plot areas. I mean they even have an episode where they are standing on the moon with the helmets OPEN!

Hmm... I don't think I've seen that episode.... Which one was it?

Only once I can think of would be The Last Sunset where alien probes provide the moon with an atmosphere so that the Alphans won't be tempted to try and land on their planet.

I wondered about that, but obviously it can't be that one...

 

[MANT!]

I ,for one, would love to see the fixes made..to get this show to appeal to a new audience..it also appears that he's planning to "fix" the pacing as well..


But I just don't see ITV buying off on it...

They are rather happy to sell DVDs..and BluRay copies can't be far off.with the remastering done on the Region 2 DVDs..

 

[ltcmmanderdata]

interesting. i always liked space:1999 as it had martin landau and barbara bain from mission:impossible. plus barry morse from the fugitive. martin landau almost played spock which is something else i like about space 1999.

 

[Shawnster]

It suffers TERRIBLY in the scientific accuracy and general plot areas. I mean they even have an episode where they are standing on the moon with the helmets OPEN!

Hmm... I don't think I've seen that episode.... Which one was it?

Only once I can think of would be The Last Sunset where alien probes provide the moon with an atmosphere so that the Alphans won't be tempted to try and land on their planet.

Breakaway

Nordstrom's spacesuit visor flaps open as he throws Steiner. Some publicity shots show Steiner's visor open as he is held up, but this does not appear in the episode.

In the later scene when Koenig, Bergman and Collins watch the astronauts, when one jumps in the buggy his entire helmet seems to almost fall off.

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/epguide/t01b.html

What I remember most was a publicity shot of the crew standing on the moon with visors up. Maybe it was the one referred to in the URL.

 

[Marc]

Hmm... I don't think I've seen that episode.... Which one was it?

Only once I can think of would be The Last Sunset where alien probes provide the moon with an atmosphere so that the Alphans won't be tempted to try and land on their planet.

Breakaway

Nordstrom's spacesuit visor flaps open as he throws Steiner. Some publicity shots show Steiner's visor open as he is held up, but this does not appear in the episode.

In the later scene when Koenig, Bergman and Collins watch the astronauts, when one jumps in the buggy his entire helmet seems to almost fall off.

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/epguide/t01b.html

What I remember most was a publicity shot of the crew standing on the moon with visors up. Maybe it was the one referred to in the URL.

In that case it sounds more like a production fubar rather that part of the storyline.

 

[The Lensman]

I say do it. I've already got season 1 on DVD, and wouldn't mind an alternate version.

20 years later, I saw it again, and it blew me away. Now I'm 40 years old, and I think Space: 1999 is the most extraordinary, spellbinding, and visually stunning tv series I've ever seen. So yes, my opinion has changed as an adult - back then, it was fun tv show, now it's an awe-inspiring work of art. It speaks to me on a intellectual and spiritual level like nothing else I have ever seen. It's not for everybody - but nothing is. For those who "get it", it's simply incomparable.

For me, I remember loving the show as a kid (and arguing with some fellow sci-fi fans that Trek was still the better show!) then it disappearing and largely forgetting about it. I was happy when Sci-Fi channel aired them back in the early days, but was shocked upon watching them......just not as good as I recalled.

Years later, the "Bringers of Wonder" came out on DVD.....those creatures were the scariest I had seen as a kid and those eps always scared the shit out of me. As an adult? Not so much....and Landau's over acting in season 2 was just....ugh. This pretty much turned me off to 1999 for a long while. Until one day, years later, I put the DVD in, and while the story didn't do much for me, the FX were awesome.

I was fascinated with and had forgotten, just how big Moonbase Alpha was. Tony and Maya were in a part of the base seperate from the main base, behind a crag. For some reason that interested me. It actually touched something I had forgotten about the show.

I picked up a DVD or two, then more until I had Season 1. And I friggin loved it! Does it have it's problems? Sure...so does the original Star Trek...and I still love it.

But there was a nostalgia and a growing remembrance of something I had long forgotten: how important this show was to me as a kid in the 70's. There was something about it, the music, the lighting, the desolation of the moon, the way the crew had zero control, the sense of lonely distance, space horror, the awesome FX and the space scapes that had something more than just stars. Beautiful space scapes that really fired the imagination of this seven year old....in some ways more than Trek.

And I had forgotten all that. I had forgotten just how much this show fired my imagination in those years between Trek and Wars. How my brother and I had that giant Eagle toy, Eagle model, stun gun toy, Koenig and Bergman figures, Moonbase Model. I really, really love this show....well season 1 anyway, not sure if I want to watch season 2 since it was so different from season 1, and not in a good way.

Love to see this project get off the ground....not to replace the original, for me it could never do that....but as a companion and alternate reality version of the original.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Breakaway

Nordstrom's spacesuit visor flaps open as he throws Steiner. Some publicity shots show Steiner's visor open as he is held up, but this does not appear in the episode.

In the later scene when Koenig, Bergman and Collins watch the astronauts, when one jumps in the buggy his entire helmet seems to almost fall off.

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/epguide/t01b.html

Oh dear. As Marc says, those are minor bloopers in the episode, split second moments that would barely register to the viewer, and have only been spotted by fans after years of continual viewing. Obviously not intended parts of the story, as you made it sound. While there may be the occasional scientific inaccuracy in the series, they never thought that you could breathe on the Moon.

What I remember most was a publicity shot of the crew standing on the moon with visors up. Maybe it was the one referred to in the URL.

Yes indeed. I've seen that shot. It's a publicity photo, the visors are up so you can see the actor's faces. It doesn't appear in an episode. You're clutching at straws in your efforts to condemn the show...

 

[WillsBabe]

Really?

Abso-frakking-lutely!

Oh come on!!! I guess there is room for everyone.

That's a relief.

There are many fans of the original Lost in Space, too. ::shrugs::

Yeah, I don't get the Lost in Space thing, either. Still, horses for courses.

I loved Space 1999 as a child. Tried to watch it whenever I could.

Me, too

It suffers TERRIBLY in the scientific accuracy and general plot areas.

I don't care. I didn't watch it for that as a kid and I don't watch it for that now as an adult.

I mean they even have an episode where they are standing on the moon with the helmets OPEN!

I saw that publicity still. Don't recall it happening in an episode, other than The Last Sunset - the ending of which, the loss they feel and the way that's depicted, is a standout moment for me that mitigates any scientific inaccuracy the rest of the episode may have had.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

More random thoughts. (I don't really want to get into an argument about the whys and wherefores of Space: 1999 itself, although it always seems to be inevitable whenever the show comes up on discussion boards. I just accept that some people like it, and some people don't, and that's just how life is. I'm not trying to proselytize for the show, yet I often seem to end up in the position of defending it. Ah well...)

If I'm honest, what's exercising me about this re-edit project is the perceived need to make the show "contemporary". I don't actually like most modern television, and I feel that altering the feel and look of Space to be just like everything else these days is such a strangely futile exercise: changing something that's unique and challenging into just another part of the same homogenous mass.

 

[Shawnster]

Breakaway

Nordstrom's spacesuit visor flaps open as he throws Steiner. Some publicity shots show Steiner's visor open as he is held up, but this does not appear in the episode.

In the later scene when Koenig, Bergman and Collins watch the astronauts, when one jumps in the buggy his entire helmet seems to almost fall off.

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/epguide/t01b.html

Oh dear. As Marc says, those are minor bloopers in the episode, split second moments that would barely register to the viewer, and have only been spotted by fans after years of continual viewing. Obviously not intended parts of the story, as you made it sound. While there may be the occasional scientific inaccuracy in the series, they never thought that you could breathe on the Moon.

What I remember most was a publicity shot of the crew standing on the moon with visors up. Maybe it was the one referred to in the URL.

Yes indeed. I've seen that shot. It's a publicity photo, the visors are up so you can see the actor's faces. It doesn't appear in an episode. You're clutching at straws in your efforts to condemn the show...

I wasn't condemning. I believe my statement was "I loved Space 1999 as a child." Sorry if I stepped on your toes by stating that, as an adult, I've found some flaws in the program. It is possible to point out errors and areas that need to be improved without being condemnatory.