Space: 1999 FAQ
Space: 1999 FAQ| Series | Premise | Cast | Visuals | Critics and Fans | Merchandise | Movies, New Series, DVD |
| photographic guide | ||||||
| The series |
It was created and produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who were well known for their popular puppet science fiction series in the 1960s such as Thunderbirds and Stingray. Read about Gerry Anderson productions There were 2 series, each of 24 one hour episodes. The two series, referred to as Year One and Year Two, were radically different. A new producer, Fred Freiberger, took over for Year Two and introduced a new leading character, new sets, costumes, music and more fantasy based stories. Read the behind the scenes story in the Production Guide In the 1980s, ITC produced four movies, each compiled from two episodes. The first two movies were made in London on film with minimal cuts and some additional scenes; the second two were made in the US on videotape with ruthless cutting. Read a comprehensive guide to the movies |
| The premise | There are 300 men and women on a base on the Moon, Moonbase Alpha. In 1999, stored nuclear waste on the Moon explodes, sending the Moon out of orbit. On a random course through deep space, the Moon and the crew of Alpha encounter aliens and strange worlds. In Year Two, Maya, an alien who can transform into other animals, joins them. Read guides to the series |
| The cast |  Martin Landau, from Mission: Impossible, played Commander John Koenig.His wife, Barbara Bain, played Dr Helena Russell. In Year One, Barry Morse, from the Fugitive, played scientist Professor Bergman. In Year Two, Catherine Schell, from Return Of The Pink Panther, played alien Maya. Chief among the supporting cast were Nick Tate as pilot Alan Carter and, in Year Two only, Tony Anholt as second in command Tony Verdeschi. Guest cast included Christopher Lee, Margaret Leighton, Roy Dotrice, Peter Cushing, Joan Collins, Ian McShane, Brian Blessed, Judy Geeson, Leo McKern, Jeremy Kemp, Lisa Harrow, Peter Bowles, Patrick Troughton, Freddie Jones and Billie Whitelaw. |
| Visuals |
Read special effects crew credits The production design, by Emmy award winning Keith Wilson, was also admired. Read Keith Wilson profile |
| Critics and Fans | Critics were scathing about the scripts and acting. Isaac Asimov also strongly criticised the science.
Read a detailed analysis of the science The show has a devoted fan following, although there is a significant split between those who prefer Year One and those who like Year Two. Read about fan clubs |
| Merchandise |  Vintage merchandise is very popular, and new items are still being produced, including Eagle models, books and DVDs.
Read the merchandise guide including full listings, illustrations and currently available lists. |
| New Movies, New Series, DVD | Polygram still own the movie rights to Space: 1999 (although the series is now owned by ITV plc). They developed Gerry Anderson's previous series, Thunderbirds, as a movie and in 1998 had preliminary discussions with Nick Tate and Brian Johnson about a Space: 1999 movie. The Thunderbirds movie was a flop and a film project of Space 1999 seems very unlikely at this stage. Since 2001, the entire series has become available on DVD in many countries, including the UK, USA, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Australia. In 2005 the UK company Network released a remastered version of Year 1. This is generally far superior to the previous versions. So far, this version is not available elsewhere. Year 2 episodes were remastered in the same manner begining in September 2007. Although the new version has been created, the DVD release of Year 2 has not been scheduled so far. At the same time as the new DVD masters were made, new HD versions of the episodes were made. There are two versions: one is 4:3 (original picture ratio), the other is 16:9 (widescreen, with top and bottom of the picture cropped). These were shown on the UK channel ITV HD during trial transmissions in 2006. As yet, there has been no HD Blu-ray release scheduled. DVD comparison. A new short film "Message From Moonbase Alpha" was shown on September 13th 1999. This described events 20 years after the original series. It is available on the French and US DVD sets. Writer Johnny Byrne was keen to pursue a new series of Space: 1999, perhaps using this film to promote the concept. |
Contents copyright Martin Willey
Space: 1999 was a television science fiction series originally aired in 1975-1978. 
The special effects were universally acclaimed and served as a benchmark for Star Wars (Brian Johnson, special effects director, went on to work on Alien and The Empire Strikes Back, earning Oscars for both). The Moonbase spaceship, called the Eagle, is one of the classics of science fiction design.