I've Got a medical emergency here John....."

[sunshineboyuk]

If those words have brought you excitedly to this thread about Space 1999 - then you're very sad. Nah just kidding , I just wondered if life on the moon was too cold for our sci fi heads out here on the boards or if any of you actually warmed to the cold and remote Alphans?
I ask because I loved the first series and am trying to find it on DVD for less than twelve thousand pounds. The first series was wonderfully dark and odyssey like - almost Arthur C Clarke with chips and tomatato sauce.......
I loved Barbara Bain's rather cold performance as Helena Russel and Barry Morse as the earnest and intelligent Victor Russell who always ended the show by telling Koenig ( played by Martin Landau , normally superb but here he gives John Koenig a slightly demented quality , not the ideal leader for a group of humans trapped on a spinning moon ) that they couldn't settle here for whatever reason and the Alphans moved on into the blackness of space....
Nick Tate was fabulous as Action hero Nick Carter - wonderful !
Ok it was quite depressing but i really do think that the first season of Space was a treat . I worked with the guy who played Paul Morrow once , can't remember his name - and we took a train to Nottingham together and I asked him about space. He was happy to chat about it infact I think he was quite flattered that someone of my young young ( ish ) age remembered and loved the show.
I remember epsiodes about Monsters sucking people into a black void - very scary at the time - a stone age regression - my fave Barbara Bain in a skin , brilliant - and I remember the amazing title sequence now nicked by Battlestar Galactica ( WELL DONE GUYS ) and used to great effect in their wonderful new version of the very awful 70's series.
Perhaps Space could be revamped.../ Highly doubtful but possible....... Also there was a stunning hour about copies of the Alphans wasn't there , they all met each other - Goddam I want to see it all again , I must go to HMV and remortgage my house for the dvd set.....

Let's deal with season 2 . It was revamped after disappointing ratings in the States. Then it was cancelled. That's all I have to say on season 2.


If anyone else has memories of the cold cold Alphan's please post..... and remember peeps - If we dump our nuclear waste on the moon ( are you listening Mr Bush ? Oh no of course not you can't read can you !) then Space 1999 will probabaly become a reality !

Medical Emergency anyone ?

[sunshineboyuk]

Just remebered his name - It was Prentis or Curtis - something like that, nice guy !

[Toby]

Prentis Hancock.

[Yellow Rose Of Texas]

I much preferred the first season to the second. The latter was quite comic booky and revolved far too much around slush romances and people in bad monster suits.

The first season had an air of bold, earnest adventure about it. Despite some pretty shoddy special effects the set and costumes succeeded in being very atmospheric. The cool performances given by Barbara Bain and John Landau, and the porfessorial enthusiasm of Barry Morse, created a vision of a future populated by grown-ups - not big kids. The show wanted to deal with big issues such as God and humanity. I think the understated writing allowed it to do this very well, although some episodes ('Black Sun' springs to mind) were just plain trippy.

As to getting hold of a box set, I got mine from ebay.co.uk for about £50 including P&P. I refused to pay as much for season 2...

[Toby]

The first season was 2001: A Space Odyssey for TV.

The second season was a live action "Look-In" comic strip.

[SnarkyOracle!]

I liked the solemn first season very much, while season 2's attempt to turn into a more commercial space-action saga collapsed under it's own formulaic shlock almost immediately.

Ugh.

On Amazon I've only seen individual episodes or "volumes" which do add up to something absurdly expensive... Perhaps this will change soon.

[Pamela Barnes]

I loved it, I liked the soap opera feel Maybe that was the 2nd season, I liked whats her name who could change into odd looking creatures.

[Toby]

I loved it, I liked the soap opera feel Maybe that was the 2nd season, I liked whats her name who could change into odd looking creatures.

Maya, played by Catherine Schell.

Easily the best thing about the otherwise rather poor second season, but I think my favourite character would probably be Professor Victor Bergman, played by Barry Morse.

[Seaviewer]

I remember watching it about a zillion years ago. I think the first season has a somewhat grittier, more realistic feel to it. The second season was more monster of the week. I read that Maya was originally to be played by Teresa Graves of Laugh-In and Get Christie Love! I wonder what she would have made of it.

[James from London]

Just remebered his name - It was Prentis or Curtis - something like that, nice guy !

I met Prentis Hancock too, years ago. He was a nice guy. I also liked the Chinese girl - I think her name was Sandra - played by Zenia Merton, and of course there was Tony Anholt from THE PROTECTORS as well. I seem to remember Anouska Hempel also turning up as one of the crew - she's so rich now - in the second season, when all the female crew were suddenly dressed in skirts that had a sexy slit up the side. I also loved the theme music, but I can't remember for the life of me how it went. Wasn't the first series on on Sunday afternoons and the second on Saturday evenings? I remember howling like a dog one Saturday because I wanted to watch it, but my brother insisted we watch the other side. Ah, the agonies of youth.

[MsTexas73]

James, go to www.soundamerica.com ...they have both themes to Space 1999 in there (under Television S top of page)

I like both themes...very different...

the first was more funky space hippie...If I'm not mistaken, didn't they flash pics of the crew during the credits?

I can't remember the graphics and visuals for the second theme, but I remember the theme itself...very spacelike.


I remember Maya very well...her eyebrows looked funny.

I remember those uniforms. Didn't they have different color stripes down the sleeve. The skirts were cool..but why did they wear them? Wasn't it pretty cold on the moon?


Oh Great now I can't get the theme out of my head...and it's a combo of both...Oh BOY!

[Toby]

I remember those uniforms. Didn't they have different color stripes down the sleeve.

Yes. I think the different colours were meant to represent different sections of the Moonbase. Black for command, red for main mission, yellow for service section, rust/dark orange for technical, white for medical, purple for security.

The skirts were cool..but why did they wear them? Wasn't it pretty cold on the moon?

So the dads watching could see a bit of leg!

[MsTexas73]

Dayum ! I'm impressed!
You remember them colors down to a T.

I ordered season one...Too expensice to get the boxed set

[MsTexas73]

Ok, so far from S1, Black Sun is my favorite, with Another Time Another Place running second...I cracked up at John and Victor getting tanked in Black Sun...all that was missing was Helena in that scene....I wish they had given us the the view of the six passengers on the Eagle along with what was going on with Victor and John...I thought it was too cute Helena didn't wanna go on the survivor ship and leave John behind, and how he urges her to go because it meant a lot to him that she be safe...AWWW...see that's an example that they were not cool performers in S1...I think they actually hook up in S1 now that I've watched these first six episodes...I really do think they already had something going on here, but just played it low key, cuz Victor kinda hints at it....speaking of Victor,I think he's cool, I can't believe he wasn't in S2...the combo of John, Helena and Victor was good, then with Paul, Saundra, and Alan, they all played off of each other well...Loved Kano getting mad that John told him to disable Computer, LOL...the look on his face LOL.

[MsTexas73]

I loved Barbara Bain's rather cold performance as Helena Russel and Barry Morse as the earnest and intelligent Victor Russell who always ended the show by telling Koenig ( played by Martin Landau , normally superb but here he gives John Koenig a slightly demented quality , not the ideal leader for a group of humans trapped on a spinning moon ) that they couldn't settle here for whatever reason and the Alphans moved on into the blackness of space....

OK,

Again, I don't think Helena was entirely cold...At times she seemed a bit repressed but she clearly displays emotions at fitting moments...think back to Another Time Another Place, she felt so bad about her other self dying, she was near tears. And she definitely had a soft spot for the COmmander and Victor, especially the Commander...when Victor gets electrocuted in Black Sun, for example, and well just about every episode as far as the Commander is concerned, her eyes tell it all.

Victor BERGMAN was a very important character to the show, too bad they didn't keep him around for the second season...I like his friendship with the Commander and the Doc...His WORDS of WISDOM are very though provoking...LOL @ your comment about him always telling John that they can't settle wherever, even though sometimes It's Helena who says this..Amazing how John almost always listens to her.

I like that John was not the all knowing, all powerful Commander, makes him human...He was very smart though, critical thinking skills were there...loved how he would often bounce ideas off of Victor and Helena...he could be a bit demented at times but usually for good reasons...LOVED it when he'd nonchalantly hand a crew member their @$$ though, the look he gives them (with those magnificent blue eyes, gosh they were so blue) is CLASSIC...too bad Simmons didn't stay longer than two episodes...Loved the interaction between him and the Commander...clearly John didn't like that dude...Simmons was a total thorn in John's behind.

[sunshineboyuk]

Was Another Time the one where there were 2 sets of Alphans? I LOVED that one , it made me very upset as a kid I remember because they all died didn't they? Barbara Bain did a lot of wailing in that one if I remember rightly.....

Barry Morse was asked back but declined . They mentioned Victor died once in s2 , which was odd because I distinctly remember Victor getting sucked out of a window. Or was that wishful thinking? Jokes. I liked wise old Victor..... but i do remember him dying..... perhaps it was a book i read I had a few tv books when I was a kid , they did some very imaginitive ones for Space....

[MsTexas73]

Was Another Time the one where there were 2 sets of Alphans? I LOVED that one , it made me very upset as a kid I remember because they all died didn't they? Barbara Bain did a lot of wailing in that one if I remember rightly.....

..... perhaps it was a book i read I had a few tv books when I was a kid , they did some very imaginitive ones for Space....

I'd love to get my hands on those books.


Another Time Another Place was the episode where there were two sets of Alphans, but not everybody died, just the second John, Alan, and Hlena all died...but the real Helena did not wail...she was just teary eyed, and convinced John that they should go back to Alpha.

She did do a little wailing in Matter of Life and death though after she, John, Saundra, Alan, and Paul went to terra nova, and all hell broke loose,:...first Paul died, Saundra went blind, Alan gets blown up in the Eagle, then the moon blows up with the rest of the Alphans still on it, then a terrible storm comes, and sweeps Saundra away, then a rock slide comes, and John pushes Helena into a cove to protect her, but gets hit by faling rocks and dies in hers armsa, so she's alone and she starts crying, and her "dead" husband Lee who tried to tell her not to go there in the first place he shows up and gives her the pawer to turn back time to before all hell broke loose.

I think I recall a later S1 eppy where almost everyone "dies" I forget the name right now...and I can't remember the whole plot but I do recall a storyline like that one but it's later in season 1. I'll let ya know as I am waiting for my nextg two sets to come in.