Nice to track down the pilot episode of this series I first (and last) watched as a young teenager back in the 70's. I loved the then married couple Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the 60's in "Mission Impossible" and here they're teamed up again not unnaturally looking a little older, although neither they or the rest of their Moonbase Alpha crew look exactly young and with it in their beige uniforms and flared slacks.Produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, makers of previous "supermarionation" series such as "Stingray" and "Thunderbirds", this was their first live action show I believe. It's not altogether successful, however with a too obvious requirement of model work which doesn't seem too much improved from the puppet shows mentioned above. Maybe I'm being too harsh on the production values given the era in which it was made and no doubt budget constraints but you could argue it adds a little to its charm too.In their parts, Landau and Bain are a little static, in fact other than falling down a fair bit don't expect them to be Kirk-like action heroes. Both are however authoritative in their roles but I personally think younger, more animated leads would have enlivened matters somewhat, maybe if they'd been offered the parts ten years before...Of the rest of the cast, Barry Morse stands out as their sobering Bones-type senior officer and of course there are no aliens on the crew a-la Spock, well, it is only 1999 after all. With a flashy theme tune and using edited "In this episode" snippets at the start to encourage viewers to keep watching (borrowed from "Mission Impossible") it tries hard to be dynamic without really reaching the heights of, yes I'll say it one more time "Star Trek". But kudos to the Andersons for the attempt and with memories of the TV21 comic flooding my brain as I watch, I still get a kick out of it and will continue watching any other episodes I can find.

The conventional wisdom on this mid-70s sci fi offering from the prolific imagination of Gerry Anderson (THUNDERBIRDS, UFO) is, in a word...wrong. "Cerebral sci fi that 'jumped the shark' in season 2, rendering itself mindless and action-oriented". Well, no. Not precisely, no. Yes, season 2 did go after a larger audience and lower common denominator. But the truth of 1999 is completely opposite conventional wisdom. The only time they ever brushed greatness was in the maligned season 2...as children's sci fi. As adult sci fi, both seasons were failures, but the visuals, acting, and simplistic ideas of season 2 are ideal for a child in the 5-10 range, ready to take her or his (or ers) first steps into the mind-blowing universe of science fiction. To modern eyes, season 1 can't be called anything but plodding. It feels like it belongs in a museum, even though it was made almost a decade after the still-gripping STAR TREK. Is it cerebral? No. Being cerebral requires more than the appearance of cerebrality, dear Brits. There has to be genuine intellect at work. There are a handful of semi-gems. Real-life spouses of thirty-six years, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain star as leaders of Moonbase Alpha. In a nuclear waste accident, the moon is sent spinning off into space, where adventures await. The look of the show is pretty wonderful. The horseshoe-style lasers are absolutely classic. The eagles, their spaceships, are brilliant. Somehow both smooth and clunky, and boyohboy did the creators have a blast wrecking these things regularly. I don't know whether anyone's ever tabulated how many they lost, but it HAD to be more than they had in stock at the beginning. You could occasionally see the wires, but it's all so charmingly rendered that you buy into the reality fully. I had a toy eagle as a child, almost three feet long. The cockpit and engine sections disengaged to form a scout ship, something that never happened on the show. It would stand tall on a list of the five most brilliant toys of my youth. And don't let the strings fool you...time and again, you will be struck by how well-budgeted this show was. Rounding out the leads was Barry Morse as Professor Bergman, a gentle, thoughtful presence. The second season brought a great overhaul in the cast, music, and look. It's brighter and brisker, sexier and more playful, which feels great for about one episode. But the music is a travesty...the season 1 theme is a towering tribute to classic symphonic sci fi synth/guitar music that could ONLY have come out of the 70s, but the new theme song rolls off some cheesy assembly line. Sadly, the gentle wisdom of Barry Morse is also gone. The show falls prey to the insidious force of "youngicutifying" (a fate which also befell UFO), with dewy replacement characters Maya and Tony. For the first chunk of the season, it feels awful. But then, there comes a moment when you (and they?) finally stop taking the show seriously, and that moment is epiphanous. The possibility that this shift wasn't intentional is unsettling (the season 2 producer was Fred Freiberger, who also oversaw the much-derided last season of STAR TREK)...but through luck or a well-laid plan, it all slides into perfect children's sci fi, which can also make an adult in the right frame of mind chortle in delight. There are surprisingly few moments of regressive sexism or other such which a parent will have to pause and clarify for an eager child.

Though the show had it's problems it was basically ahead of it's time for the 1970s. There is a difference between the seriousness of the season one and that of the comic book feel of season two. But I feel that if there was a season 3 it would have found a great middle ground between the two feels. I guess from what I understand that show might have been cancelled due to the creator using the show's budget for another show, thus cancelling Space 1999. Though the title needed work as well as other aspects, it was a fantastic work of art for it's time. Even by today's standards it's got a great plot, script, characters, themes, premises, and elements of exciting writing. However some of the unappreciated slower parts only added to the shows depth. Most shows these days have action from beginning to end to capture our attention, however I feel this show had a great combination of lulling moments that crescendo to excitement. I so wish that a Space 2099 could be made, however I worry that it would fall victim to today's cliché' TV style. The opening title sequence and music were one of the best openings to a sci-fi show ever. The overall premise of Moonbase Alpha being under the mercy of it's uncontrolled flight path is fantastic. The characters/crew do their best to deal with lifes obsticles having no choice but to face them head on. I've found this to be very true in all our lives. We can still create our own lives, we can still have control over a lot of things while at the same time understanding that life moves us in a line from Birth to Death. It's up to us to face what's in between. This premise is not only touching but also very original. The premise gets a 5 star alone. I give a total of 10 stars for the entire package... despite my not liking season 2 as much as season one (however each season had it's fan base). I only wished that they had made more than two seasons. I have great childhood memories of watching this show. I grew up in a small town in Maine (USA) were most things were very country feeling. Though my state had a lot of 'transplants' from out of state such as my mother who was from Brooklyn NY. A mix of people gave our secluded community a rather perplexing feel. A lot of people running away from big city life only to find they needed to face their problems no matter were we go. Even though I was born in Maine I could totally relate to the fact that we don't always have control over avoiding life's collisions.

What stands in my mind is how, eight to ten minutes before the end of nearly every episode, the society on a new planet encountered by the Alphans ends up being destroyed, usually at the hand of Commander John Koenig, because what it seeks does not meet with the life Alphans are used to. This was a weakness to otherwise intriguing stories that were not going to be mistaken for Star Trek.Although I remember too many things that left me scratching my head, even from the superior first season - why did the command centre have exterior windows that could be opened when the Moon was given an atmosphere? With all of the Eagles that crashed or were otherwise disabled, how did they always seem to be able to get another one aloft, and how were they fast enough, given the scramble of Alan Carter to keep up with the Moon when it first left Earth's orbit, to reach the base again when outside the gravity of the orb.The local TV station aired the first season Fridays at 7 pm, the same time slot that it had used for Star Trek a decade earlier. The second season was picked up by the CBC, but they threw it away by airing it Saturday afternoons at 3 pm. In the late 80s, it ended up on the children's channel YTV at about the same time, grouped with Blake's 7 and Red Dwarf. The TV regulator felt Space 1999 and Blake's 7 were too violent for a children's channel, and Red Dwarf being possibly too racy for daytime airing on that channel.It had potential, but it just seemed to have the need to sell in many markets so that it could pay its bills, rather than just to tell great stories. If it had told great stories consistently, it would have sold solidly and been a franchise comparable to Star Trek.