NETWORK - Gerry Anderson's - Space 1999 Series One (Special Edition)

NETWORK - Gerry Anderson's - Space 1999 Series One (Special Edition)

Gerry Anderson's Space 1999 Series One

24 Episodes & Extra Special Features on this 7 DVD Disc Rip Format

Live Action (No Puppets) Sci-Fi Series

Starring: Martin Landau, Barbara Bain & Barry Morse


The programme was produced in two series, each comprising twenty-four episodes. The first series was produced from November 1973 to February 1975; the second series was produced from January 1976 to December 1976.

The premise of Space: 1999 centres on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, a scientific research centre on the Moon. Humanity had been storing its nuclear waste in vast disposal sites on the far side of the Moon, but when an unknown form of electromagnetic radiation is detected, the accumulated waste reaches critical mass and causes a massive thermonuclear explosion on 13 September 1999. The force of the blast propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the 311 personnel stationed on Alpha. The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's solar system, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilizations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity. Several episodes of the first series hinted that the Moon's journey was influenced (and perhaps initiated) by a "mysterious unknown force", which was guiding the Alphans toward an ultimate destiny. The second series used more simplified "action-oriented" plots.

The first series of Space: 1999 used a "teaser" introduction, sometimes called a "hook" or "cold open" (this approach was used in the Mission: Impossible TV series in which both lead stars had starred, and in many Lew Grade presentations trying to break into the American market). This was followed by a title sequence that managed to convey prestige for its two main stars, Landau and Bain (both separately billed as 'starring'), and to give the audience some thirty-plus fast cut shots of the forthcoming episode. The second series eliminated this montage. The programme would then offer four ten-to twelve-minute long acts (allowing for commercial breaks in America) and finished with a short (and, in the second series, often light-hearted) "epilogue" scene. In 2004, American science fiction screenwriter Ronald D. Moore stated the style of the first season's opening credits of Space: 1999 inspired the opening credit sequence for his acclaimed remake of Battlestar Galactica.