Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Space: 1999

From the team that brought us UFO comes the science fiction classic Space: 1999, exploring the adventures of the crew of a moon base, stranded on site when the moon was blasted into deep space by an atomic explosion. This two year British import featured the real world husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, most familiar to American audiences as having been featured in the Mission: Impossible television series from 1966 t0 1969.

The title sequences from the first year of Space:1999 are cool. It always featured groovy noise and the best FX money could buy in 1975. Due to editing, each opening sequence was marginally different and unique. Not only did the sequence inform viewers how the moon was thrown out of Earth orbit but also included a mini-preview of the upcoming episode. Today the preview would be considered a 'spoiler' but back in 1975 it was a tease, a taste of awesomeness to come. The second season title sequence in my opinion is actually kind of inferior and the music far more jarring to the ear. Yes, I had the Space: 1999 toys.

Enjoy!

Space: 1999 - Breakaway. Originally aired on 17 November 1975.



12 comments:

  1. Aw, man, we had Space 1999 toys, too! Those old Eagle ships were awesome. :-) We used to watch Space 1999 every Saturday night -- it came on just before the Muppet Show.

    The best character on the show was Alan. Alan was the God of Pain And Possession. The show just wouldn't have worked without him!

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  2. I TOTALLY had the ship, and the bridge toy set, and some action figures....that ship was awesome with the detaching shuttle craft front part.....soooo cool. I remember the christmass I got it like it was yesterday!!!!

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  3. only four months to go until the tenth anniversary of the Moon being knocked out of orbit!

    I think that calls for a party.

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  4. You'd be right, Marionette, if we hadn't all died slow lingering deaths after the loss of the moon disrupted ecosystems all over the planet leading to global starvation and war. Actually, as I come to think of it, any of us who are still alive after all that do deserve a party! Yeah!

    Also, Martin Landau? Serious old school comics fan, cartoonist, and awesomely cool guy. See:

    http://www.povonline.com/iaq/IAQ04.htm

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  5. Oh how I hated that show. I always hoped against hope that the moon would smack into one of those damn planets and take care of all problems at once.

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  6. man, left a post earlier that totally got lost to the ether...

    didn't space 1999 run for three seasons and victor morse was replaced by catherine schell as the shapeshifter Maya who, lets face it, was seriously hot?

    Loved the Eagle space ships and those cool tubes that they used to get around...!

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  7. Thinking about it now, having a Fast Forward button might have made the show tolerable. You could skip over those interminable shuttle landings.

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  8. So, time for a remake-movie, right? Right.

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  9. Why not? Have it star Will Ferrell and be 'zany'.

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  10. I had all the toys and I luv the Funky 70's theme music. More than a finger full of funk went into it.

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  11. There's a fan-made "Space 1999" audiodrama being podcast based on the first season cast and tone.

    http://www.darkerprojects.com/space1999.php

    And, yes, the die-cast Dinky Eagles were the greatest thing that modern man has produced.

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