I was a teenager when this came on British tv,I was a huge fan of DR WHO,STAR TREK and UFO so I was excited when this started to be shown.
But I never warmed to it,the plots were poor and I never cared about any of the characters,but there were some good actors in it.
So can a fan sell the thing to me?
I was thirteen when it premiered. I wasn't into Star Trek (I was turned off to it when it was released into syndication three years earlier - I wasn't yet into serious sci-fi, but by this time I was ready. I had seen the first episode of UFO - it seemed interesting, but I had never seen Dr. Who).
Our local (Boston) ABC affiliate was promoting the hell out of Space:1999, so I immediately considered it a must-see, mainly due to the special effects they were teasing us with. That Boston station did us the favor of airing all 24 episodes in prime-time.
I wasn't disappointed. As the ending credits of "Breakaway" were being shown, I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen on TV with the exception of the World Television Premier of the first Planet of the Apes movie two years earlier. None of the subsequent episodes were as good as that first one, but it didn't matter. "Breakaway" made me an instant die-hard fan. The premier of the Morse-less season two was a real test of the show's endurance, but I was too much of a fan to give it up at that point.
thanks for the reply,I will one day watch the dvds but when I watched it when it was first on it seemed like some sort of hippy disaster film.
The critics were really cruel to it and it was dismissed as a failure in Britain at least.
From what I understand, the show was given terrible time-slots in Britain, and that British sci-fi fans were a little put off by the show's American favoritism.
Here in the states, the so-called critics invariably compared the show to Star Trek, which in their tunnel-vision eyes was the only way to do TV sci-fi.
I'm a fan, but the show certainly had its faults. Many of the episodes were good (mostly in season 1), but a handful of them were pretty bad (mostly in season 2), with most episodes fair to middling. This show, it is what it is. I doubt anything I can say will persuade you to change your opinion.
However, I think you hit on one of the main detractors of the show for people who are new to the show (even some old fans): the characters. Some of them aren't likeable. If you don't like the characters, it's hard to invest any emotion into the show because you won't care if any of them live or die. I suppose the best advice I can give yo sell the show is to watch a few more episodes and get to know the characters. You may find yourself a little more vested in their plight.
I never had a problem with the characters, other than toward the end of season one Anton Phillips was forced to fake an American accent, with an almost embarrassing result.
It was season two that the problems began. At my first watch of "The Metamorph" I was appalled that Barry Morse was no longer around. Ultimately, Tony didn't bother me except that they had him overshadow Alan Carter.
My fondest memory of the show is the Eagle-1 toy my brother and I had. Technically it was his, but I loved it so much he did some wheeling and dealing with a friend and got me my own.
I've re-visited the series recently, and found it to be a tad flat. There are glimpses of a good show and what might have been, but the whole affair comes off rather sterile.
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A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/
toward the end of season one Anton Phillips was forced to fake an American accent, with an almost embarrassing result.uhhhhhhhh...okay, what episode did THAT happen in?
The Testament of Arkadia, for one. Arguing with Paul over the power.
shareUhhh...is there some evidence that he was being "forced to fake an American accent"?
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
It's obvious when he says "It's on your conscience".
shareWhat? Uh-uh! No way!
Ya know when I read that you thought Testament of Arkadia was an example of this I immediately went through all the lines of his that I remembered...Arkadia being probably my most favorite episode. The ones I immediately remembered, where he was shouting was, "Morrow! What the hell are you doing?" "My patients will freeze to death!" and then I remembered the slightly more toned-down "...then it's on your conscience." said with acerbic venom.
...but, I respect the actor too much to go along with the idea that he attempted an American accent and failed so utterly completely so as to not sound even the slightest bit American. Even while allowing for you to have your own opinion. If there is any change at all, it would be his natural Jamaican accent coming out while playing at being 'angry'!
And, maybe that same island accent comes out in Clifton Jones sometimes...like when Kano is yelling at some red-sleeve girl in The Missing Link episode for dropping a whole tray of coffee.
But, no, unless someone somewhere said Anton Philipps was "forced" to try an American accent for the show, I gotta go with that there is not much to that speculation. Maybe his voice sounds different to you because he was playing it especially caustic in his rebuke of Paul's power-economy enforcement. ...but attempting an American accent? ...and under "force" to do it? Computer says 'no'!
Peace!
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
Definitely one of the better episodes.
It was how he pronounced "your" that made me thnk that. They used to receive avalanches of memos from ITCs New York office to tweak the show to try and appeal to American audiences, which was why they decided to hire an American to replace Sylvia for season two (with an inferior choice).
by ib011f9545i » Wed Feb 24 2016 12:35:47
IMDb member since April 2005
I was a teenager when this came on British tv,I was a huge fan of DR WHO,STAR TREK and UFO so I was excited when this started to be shown.
But I never warmed to it,the plots were poor and I never cared about any of the characters,but there were some good actors in it.
So can a fan sell the thing to me?
The Moonbase was basically a research facility (on "The Troubled Spirit" Paul Morrow commented that "most of us here are scientists"), a spacecraft hub, and (until they broke away) the keepers of enormous nuclear waste graveyards.
The base houses vast technical, industrial, and engineering workshops.
They grow food in sizeable hydroponic areas, some of which is then frozen (mentioned on "Earthbound") and according to Alan Carter still have some hamburger left, although there's soy mixed in with it. Water is constantly recycled, as is the air (on "The Seance Spectre" Sanderson refers to it as "recycled survival gases").
Drugs are either synthesized or still have some in stock from Earth (the Moonbase was fairly self-sufficient to begin with).
The speed of the moon isn't particularly "incredible", as reachable planets are accessible for two to six days.
On "The Last Sunset" Koenig mentions they had twenty-seven functioning eagles on the base (and the one stranded out on the surface was officially numbered 28). Although there were less of them during season two, as their ID numbers didn't reach as high.
Some of the launch pads have their own eagle bays. There isn't just one.
Some things aren't spelled out, but implied.
"The Black Sun" propelled the moon into a different galaxy, meaning that the running order of the episodes is out of whack.
At the end of "Breakaway" they were heading for the planet Meta, but they plunged into a space warp before they reached it, which was how they left the solar system and why their course had become uncharted and unknown (at the beginning of "The Metamorph" Helena stated that they had just had their second experience with a space warp, implying that the first one had sent them out of Earth's solar system).
After season one the vital sections of the base had been moved underground, creating the Command Center as the center of operations.
And that's the thing, because you had to catch those snippets to kind of understand the show. But if you look at things like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, or Time Tunnel or Buck Rogers (70s version), as corny as some of those shows could be, you still had an understanding of how things worked.
The Seaview had the advantage that people kind of understood how submarines worked. But even the Seaview, like the U.S.S. Enterprise, or the Galactica, had sections of the vessel that provided things and grounded the show for the audience.
Space 1999, even though they touched on certain aspects here and there, really didn't explain itself very well.
And again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but that really was the shame of it. The cast, for the most part, were okay, and the production values (and this comes from a die hard Star Trek fan) were top notch. Better than Trek in fact, as were the SFX. The opening and closing credit SFX for Space 1999 were and are outstanding. Again, as a die hard Trekker I'm jealous ... I mean the Enterprise always looked fake in the opening sequence, even with the new CGI. Space 1999's credits really hold up.
To me Space 1999 is an okay show that I have to be in the right frame of mind to watch. I think it could have been a better show in terms of the writing.
*Edit; how many eagles are there? Where do they get spare parts? IF there's only 300 people, then how does the base keep functioning when they keep losing personnel to deaths? And so forth.
Except for "The Last Sunset" the number of eagles was never stated. But they must've been pretty crowded when they were all in space on "The Seance Spectre".
There were enough eagle crashes to salvage parts from, plus I'm sure they were able to manufacture some parts.
As for personnel, I imagine they had a cross-training program to familiarize the personnel with more than one function.
because you had to catch those snippets to kind of understand the show.Really? I mean how substantially does anyone "understand" the Star Trek transporter system before they "understand" Star Trek? I mean, one second they're up there. The next second they are down there. Wow! It's magic. Do you really need to understand that before you understand the rest of the show or do you just stop right there and go, "Nope, I can't understand the rest of the show because of that. I'm stopping right here!"
Well, you get a sense that things serve the characters, and you get a sense that they work a certain way. You don't know how a transporter works anymore than you know the chemical equations of how your digestive track breaks down that meal you just ate.
I mean for Babylon-5, a show I really didn't care for, do we know how Particle Projection Guns work? Not really (I do, but that's just who I am), but the audience gets a sense that this little weapon serves the characters.
The Bab-5 station is explained at the beginning of every show. We're given a dramatic overview that it's a hub of activity, so we know there're people of all kinds coming and going. We really don't get that with Space 1999.
Every time I see the credits for Space 1999 I really want more whole complete and fantastic stories with a little action. It has that kind of a vibe to it.
Speaking of space stations: Deep Space 9 didn't give you a big exposition at the start of every/any episode explaining why they are even in "deep space", that there is a only periodically visible wormhole nearby, that they used to orbit a planet that was newly liberated from hostile occupation, that now DS9 is "hub of activity" between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, that it is now a strategic outpost/waypoint for the Federation, etc. etc. etc.
....and yet they got along just fine and people understood each episode without necessarily understanding all that.
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
True, but the audience for that show already had an education for the show's background from the other neo-Trek shows.
share True, but you couldn't learn any of the details that I listed from watching other trek shows.
But the point is that you don't need to know many details to understand the plot or the understand show in general. A few question marks won't make you go running out in the street screaming, "I just don't get it! Arghhhh!"
peace!
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.