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Space:1999 on Comet TV

I watched part of one last week, but it's on so late I ended up falling asleep before the end. It was the one with the alien who took over the first baby born on the base, and then once his people showed up he wanted to kill everyone there so they could take over their bodies.
 
I watched part of one last week, but it's on so late I ended up falling asleep before the end. It was the one with the alien who took over the first baby born on the base, and then once his people showed up he wanted to kill everyone there so they could take over their bodies.
"Alpha Child" episode
http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/epguide/t10ac.html
http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/epimghd/tiac0.html

Here is an extremely extensive site on SPACE:1999 :
http://catacombs.space1999.net/
 
I wish they'd re-release the season one Blu-Ray here. Image quality shots looked great, unfortunately I didn't have BR when they came out.
 
I wish they'd re-release the season one Blu-Ray here. Image quality shots looked great, unfortunately I didn't have BR when they came out.
I got it then and you are right about it looking great. I wonder if the Blu-Ray re-release will probably happen when season two gets released here two.
 
I got it then and you are right about it looking great. I wonder if the Blu-Ray re-release will probably happen when season two gets released here two.

I live in the States, and as far as I'm aware, there's no plans for season two. Haven't checked up on that in awhile, so that might've changed. I believe it got released in the UK though.
 
The only thing I like about this show now is the Eagles, and that's it; the plot's so implausible it isn't even
funny.

The best interpretation of this show's concept? This: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:G5qiZPMLtC4J:https://www.deviantart.com/abakon/art/Space-2099-01-Breakaway-313488543+Space:2099+on+deviantArt&nomo=1&hl=en-CA&ct=clnk
That it's scientifically implausible was true in the 70s but in my opinion the premise of the series is that the Universe is a mysterious place with things happening that are potentially beyond our knowledge to comprehend as limited physical beings. It has to be viewed on those terms to appreciate it - at least for the first season.
 
the plot's so implausible it isn't even funny.

See below.

That it's scientifically implausible was true in the 70s

Yep. As has been stated, they comment on something to this effect in at least one ep and in more than one ep, it's been hinted that there are greater powers beyond our understanding at work behind the whole thing, making it possible. Black Sun alludes to this. Testament of Arkadia suggests something similar as it was Alpha's destiny to bring life back to the planet. It's how the Moon could stop, then start moving again. There was something behind it. I feel like this was suggested in a couple of other episodes as well.

I don't recall much about this facet of the show as a kid because I was too busy gawking at the FX, but as an adult, I have noticed it and it helps me get over the wild concept. I guess some folks would have an easier time if said powers appeared in human form with a mariachi band and just spelled it all out in comical fashion, but I prefer the eerie, mysterious "there are strange things beyond human comprehension beyond the confines of the solar system" approach of season 1. Season 2 just ignored all that and tried to be Star Trek with the Moon.
 
See below.



Yep. As has been stated, they comment on something to this effect in at least one ep and in more than one ep, it's been hinted that there are greater powers beyond our understanding at work behind the whole thing, making it possible.

I'm sorry, but that's completely bogus as a reason, and smacks of the same deus et machina denounced on Star Trek (Berman/Braga era) and other sci-fi shows/movies/novels. As somebody else said here many years ago, this would have been better as something similar to James Blish's Cities in Flight trilogy.

Black Sun alludes to this. Testament of Arkadia suggests something similar as it was Alpha's destiny to bring life back to the planet. It's how the Moon could stop, then start moving again. There was something behind it. I feel like this was suggested in a couple of other episodes as well.

This could just as easily be done if Alpha were a space station or L5 habitat: there's no need to have it be the moon of a planet, as shown in the link I posted.

I don't recall much about this facet of the show as a kid because I was too busy gawking at the FX, but as an adult, I have noticed it and it helps me get over the wild concept. I guess some folks would have an easier time if said powers appeared in human form with a mariachi band and just spelled it all out in comical fashion, but I prefer the eerie, mysterious "there are strange things beyond human comprehension beyond the confines of the solar system" approach of season 1. Season 2 just ignored all that and tried to be Star Trek with the Moon.

Again, this would work better if it were about a space station fling through space because it had become a starship by accident (or that it was designed to be a space station/L5 habitat that could take off for the stars like the one mentioned in this Star Trek novel,
but an unknown force causes it to become a ship and take off for the stars unintendedly years ahead of schedule.)


space__2099_01_breakaway_by_wmwconnors-d56n5b3.jpg
 
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I'm sorry, but that's completely bogus as a reason,

"In my opinion".

Fixed that for you. ;)

As for the rest of your post, I'm okay with those ideas, but I'm not talking about a possible version of the show, I'm talking about the actual show that was made in the 70's. And when I watch the show that was made, there are hints about a greater power behind everything. I don't need it explained any more than I need the backstory of C'thulu and the other Elder Gods explained. They exist, they're mysterious and that's part of the appeal. Season 1 of Space:1999 is full of eerie mystery and sometimes horror, that's part of the appeal and one of the reasons it's more popular than the action packed Star Trek wannabe of Season 2.

I remember a good comment by Michael Moorcock where he decried the increased need for fictional worlds to be "realistic" as stifling pure unbridled imagination. And I agree. Mainly because my introduction to fantasy was the late 60's / early 70's New Wave of Fantasy and they didn't give a shit about trying to explain things. Like both Moorcock and Zelazny each wrote a story set on an Earth that didn't rotate. I don't recall them going into details about how that would work, how life could still exist on the surface or at all, etc, etc, etc. They had a setting they wanted to use, so they used it. The Zelazny story was the awesome "Jack Of Shadows", the Moorcock one was the less awesome "Shores Of Death".

They told good stories with good characters, and you were either along for the ride or you weren't. They weren't trying to be Tolkien and be obsessive about the niggling details of the world around the characters. Ditto for Space:1999. I enjoy the strange, mysterious and eerie ride and yeah, I like that they're on the Moon and can't control anything.

As for the other concepts you've posted, if I were working on a Space:1999 reboot, I'd go one of two ways. The first being pretty much what you've described. The book cover you posted is not new, and I'd seen it on DA years ago, and thought it was a novel way to handle it. Although Stargate:Universe pretty much beat them to the punch when it comes to being on a ship they can't control. I've been meaning to watch that show, because I avoided it when it came out, and then someone said it was basically like an updated Space:1999 and I became intrigued.

The second way, which would be more controversial to old school fans, would be to not have the Moon blown out of orbit, and tell stories set on a much larger Moon city and / or additional Moon bases. These stories would not have aliens, and would not focus exclusively on the command staff or a military-esque group of people. I'm frankly tired of the idea that sci-fi movies or t.v. shows need to have that in order to be viable. I'd love it if JMS did stories set on B5 without the command crew or big events. I'd rather have Astro City style tales on B5 or Moonbase Alpha (or Beta or Delta). I guess we'd call that "Lower Decks" style stories in Trek Speak.

But your mileage may vary. :bolian:
 
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See below.



Yep. As has been stated, they comment on something to this effect in at least one ep and in more than one ep, it's been hinted that there are greater powers beyond our understanding at work behind the whole thing, making it possible. Black Sun alludes to this. Testament of Arkadia suggests something similar as it was Alpha's destiny to bring life back to the planet. It's how the Moon could stop, then start moving again. There was something behind it. I feel like this was suggested in a couple of other episodes as well.

I don't recall much about this facet of the show as a kid because I was too busy gawking at the FX, but as an adult, I have noticed it and it helps me get over the wild concept. I guess some folks would have an easier time if said powers appeared in human form with a mariachi band and just spelled it all out in comical fashion, but I prefer the eerie, mysterious "there are strange things beyond human comprehension beyond the confines of the solar system" approach of season 1. Season 2 just ignored all that and tried to be Star Trek with the Moon.
That is why I enjoyed the mystery of season one, the mysterious unknown force...
http://catacombs.space1999.net/press/vxmuf.html
 
The one really ridiculous aspect that even as a kid (11) watching this first run in U.S. syndication - was the fact they were always hitting a new star system every week. Even if you tried to claim 'Eisenstein Relativity' to explain some of in, that means the Moon would have to be at near lightspeed (C) - and yes, while the Eagles would inherit the Moon's velocity when launching from it:

- They'd have to immediately slow down drastically to land on any planet.

- They'd have to accelerate back up to near lightspeed themselves to be able to land back ion the Moon.

So, yeah, without some 'magic' outside force able to suspend/ignore the Universal laws of physics; the entire premise of the show was utterly ridiculous and implausible in ANY way whatsoever. I still enjoyed it for what it was though. ;)
 
The one really ridiculous aspect that even as a kid (11) watching this first run in U.S. syndication - was the fact they were always hitting a new star system every week. Even if you tried to claim 'Eisenstein Relativity' to explain some of in, that means the Moon would have to be at near light-speed (C) - and yes, while the Eagles would inherit the Moon's velocity when launching from it:

- They'd have to immediately slow down drastically to land on any planet.

- They'd have to accelerate back up to near light-speed themselves to be able to land back ion the Moon.

So, yeah, without some 'magic' outside force able to suspend/ignore the Universal laws of physics; the entire premise of the show was utterly ridiculous and implausible in ANY way whatsoever. I still enjoyed it for what it was though. ;)

That's why the concept is better (and if rebooted would be better) as a space station going through space, as I mentioned above.
 
Yeah, judging from the episodes I've seen, there really didn't seem to be a reason the show had to be set on the Moon, pretty much everything they did could have just as easily been done on a free floating space station.
" Season 1 of Space:1999 is full of eerie mystery and sometimes horror, that's part of the appeal and one of the reasons it's more popular than the action packed Star Trek wannabe of Season 2.
I noticed the kind of mysterious, eerie vibe in the episodes I've seen, I like that, it gives it a very unique feel.
 
That it's scientifically implausible was true in the 70s
Even in the 70s people pointed all the implausibilities of the show, like the Good Doctor.
Is `Space 1999' More Fi Than Sci?
A more serious error involves the methods by which the moon is blasted out of orbit. On the show, nuclear wastes apparently stored on the moon somehow heat up and explode. The reasons for this are not made luminously clear. (Although nuclear wastes can heat up and melt, they can't possibly be involved in a nuclear explosion.) Still, there is enough talk of magnetic field to give the explosion a certain surface plausibility. But having exploded, the show's nuclear waste canisters act as rockets, blowing off exhausts in one direction, and driving the moon in the other.

The problem here is that the mass of the moon is being underestimated. If all the nuclear waste the earth were to produce in the next 24 years were placed in one spot, and if it were all to explode (assuming it could explode) it would not budge the moon much or alter its orbit very noticeably -- let alone accelerate it to such a degree that the people of the lunar base would be pinned immovably to the ground. But that's an error out of dramatic necessity, too, and I'm willing to let it go.
There are a number of references, for instance, to the "dark side of the moon." The show opens with a caption reading "Dark Side of the Moon" and it is on the "dark side" that the nuclear wastes are stored and where they explode.

Yet there is no dark side of the moon. A dark side of any world is the side that faces permanently away from the sun. One side of the moon does indeed face permanently away from the earth, but not from the sun, and every part of the moon gets both day and night in two-week alternations. The side of the moon that is permanently turned away from the earth is the FAR SIDE, not the dark side.

Even if this misuse of a phrase makes no difference, why not be right just for the fun of it? But there is a difference. Why should a popular TV show mislead youngsters into thinking that half the moon is a land of perennial night --which it isn't?

Incidentally, of the big nuclear explosions took place on the far side of the moon, the rocket action would serve to drive the moon toward the earth, something the program doesn't mention.

I always had the impression that this series did not have real scientific advisors. Or that if they had been there, they had committed a collective suicide after reading the premise of the first episode ...
 
Even in the 70s people pointed all the implausibilities of the show, like the Good Doctor.
Is `Space 1999' More Fi Than Sci?
In the very earliest concept, when it was still the second season of UFO, the Breakaway happened because the UFO aliens were interfering with gravity (in order to sabotage Earth's first line of defence, the expanded Moonbase).


I always had the impression that this series did not have real scientific advisors. Or that if they had been there, they had committed a collective suicide after reading the premise of the first episode ...
The earliest version, when it was still season two of UFO had the Breakaway happen because the aliens were mucking around with gravity to disable Earth's first line of defence, Moonbase.
 
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The earliest version, when it was still season two of UFO had the Breakaway happen because the aliens were mucking around with gravity to disable Earth's first line of defence, Moonbase.
You know, I never understood why the UFOs had to pass by the moon to reach the earth. Space is big. Just approach our planet from the other side.
 
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