Catacombs Reference Library
Space 1999 - ATV PRESS RELEASE

SPACE 1999

MARTIN LANDAU and BARBARA BAIN, accompanied by BARRY MORSE, fly into a bizarre, excitement-filled and breathtakingly spectacular future when they star in the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series "SPACE 1999".

Filmed at Pinewood Studios, Bucks, the series consists in the first place of 24 one-hour episodes, produced in association with RAI (Italian State Television) , and ATV.

The programmes have all the fascination of fast-moving science- fiction on a scale never before attempted, stretching production ingenuity to new limits.

It also means that Martin Landau and Barbara Bain - husband and wife in private life - can again be seen together on television screens. "Space 1999" is their first co-starring series since their memorable teaming in 80 episodes of the internationally popular "Mission: Impossible".

Viewers will join them on Moon Base Alpha, a logical development to man having conquered and probed the secrets of the moon. Their team on Moon Base Alpha includes NICK TATE, PRENTIS HANCOCK, ANTON PHILLIPS, CLIFTON JONES, ZENIA MERTON, SUZANNE ROQUETTE, SARAH BULLEN and CHAI LEE.

What is the next step in lunar adventure? The belief that the moon may one day be used as a base for scientific investigation of deep space and, if necessary, also become the first outpost of earth's defence system, should threats come from planets outside our solar system, has inspired this new series.

Much can happen in a quarter of a century, but the end of the 19006 is not sufficiently distant to be remote from the lives of people today. "Space 1999" is therefore futuristic science fiction with its roots in the present day, the people in it not super-developed humans of some unknown future when the world will have changed beyond recognition, but identifiable men and women of our own generation, their looks and emotions changed very little from now. Viewers will therefore feel closely akin to the characters, most of whom have been born during or before the 1970s.

Stepping dramatically into the future, the stars find themselves on the moon when it is ripped apart by violent explosions caused by dumped nuclear waste from earth. The part of the moon which is still intact is pulled out of orbit moving inexorably away from earth into a terrifyingly unknown world - the world of deep space.

"When we began", admits the script consultant, Christopher Penfold, "we were in very much the same situation as the characters. We had the basic premise of a colony stranded on the runaway moon, without any means of controlling its movements. Obviously, there was a limit to the dramas that could take place on the moon itself and it was only as the writing of the series developed that ever-widening potentialities presented themselves.

Gerry Anderson's own description is that "the moon is a rogue planet wandering at random through space. But with the gravitational pull from other planets and stars, there is always the possibility of finding a new home, with gravity and a natural supply of oxygen, which could offer fresh life for the moon's inhabitants. This is a theme that runs through the series: the search for a new home away from the artificial environment of the moon.

"But as fresh ideas were tossed around, we realised more and more that there are mysteries in outer space which are beyond man's under- standing and that we could dramatise these. Time, as we know it, means nothing. Distance, as we know it, is incomprehensible. We assume that there is life on other planets, with civilisations and mental developments millions of years older than on earth. The possibilities are as limitless as space itself".

STORYLINES

"Space 1999" therefore swings right out of any conventional sci-fi dimensions, at the same time taking advantage of all the scientific facts that are known, such as the existence of a phenomenon known as a "Black Bun", a mass of gaseous substance developing into an impenetrable ball from a burned-out asteroid, with such tremendous gravitation that it pulls everything into it, even light. Anything near it simply disappears. It upsets all theories of existence, even time. This provides the background to one episode. Time ceases to have any meaning. The players find themselves in eternity, with the sudden conviction that the whole universe is a living thought.

In other episodes, they meet up with aliens from other planets who possess fantastic powers. In one story, the Moon Base personnel encounter aliens who have discovered the secret of de-composing atoms, reducing objects to their atomical elements which can be transported through space and then reassembled.

In another story, they encounter members of a dying planet who have been sent out in spaceships in search of a planet which might sustain its kind of life. One, planned to reach Earth, has a crew of six in a state of suspended animation for three-and-a-half centuries before it crash-lands on the moon.

Another story finds the stars living simultaneously in their own time and in the future, with schizophrenia taking on a physical meaning as the moon and the people on it become duplicated. Another time, a member of Moon Base personnel is gripped by a strange and terrifying power from outer space which robs him of all heat. Everything he touches turns to ice and, in his desperate search for heat, he becomes a lethal weapon of destruction.

They reach other planets, with eerie results. They face disaster because of an unmanned spaceship, launched from earth fifteen years earlier, has developed a fault which has brought destruction to everything coming close to it, polluting space with results that have destroyed life on whole planets.

Space is full of unexpected objects. There is always the risk of collision with asteroids and other planets. Every day brings new and frightening danger.

And there is drama on the moon itself, between the people on it, with the birth of the first baby in space and the human relationships. These are real people, not puppets there simply to provide the elements for gripping science-fiction adventures. The relationships between the characters have an impelling appeal - relationships sharpened by the remarkable situation in which they find themselves, all communications with earth severed and never knowing from day to day what will happen to them.

Moonbase Alpha

Moon Base Alpha is no small complex. It is a colony of its own, consisting of some three hundred men and women who have been working on the scientific tasks.

This provides a deep well of characters who need be seen only in one episode. It is thus possible for famous guest-stars to appear, and among those to be seen, either from the base itself or on or from other planets, are RICHARD JOHNSON, CHRISTOPHER LEE, PETER CUSHING, MARGARET LEIGHTON, ROY DOTRICE, CYD HAYMAN, IAN McSHANE, CATHERINE SCHELL, MICHAEL CULVER, JEREMY KEMP, JOAN COLLINS, JOANNA DUNHAM, BRIAN BLESSED, ANTHONY VALENTINE, JUDY GEESON and PAUL JONES.

And there are beautiful girls by the score to fulfil the various tasks from nursing to control operators.

Approximately half of the moon remains after the vast explosion which has ripped away the dark half. The remaining part contains a vast, ultra-modern laboratory with living quarters. It is a pressurised existence. Personnel can leave the base only in space suits or in one of the spaceships known as Eagles, entered through travel tubes resembling ultra-modern Underground train compartments and completely sealed.

Oxygen is supplied to make normal living conditions possible in the base. From time to time, the characters are seen in their living quarters, in which, within limits, they can pursue their normal earth bound leisure interests. These represent a cross-section of the international personalities and reflect their personalities. They have a restaurant, gymnasium, artificial sun-ray solarium. As near as possible, there fore, their Moon Base life is as near as can be to normal. The adventures which befall them are not:

The principal setting is the Main Mission - a large, futuristic science laboratory dominated by a huge computer and scientific instruments of every kind, operators at work the whole time.

The Computer is one of the stars of the series, able to work out the most obtuse of mathematical problems, estimate distances and time, forewarn of obstacles, contact other planets, decree what actions can be taken and which should not be attempted, answer almost any question put to it.

And it speaks. Its voice belongs to one of the best-known Canadian actresses living in England. She wishes to remain anonymous:

"Because it would destroy the illusion. Anyway, I doubt if people would recognise my voice. It's completely changed by using echo chambers."' But she won't deny her identity if viewers can spot who she is.

From Central Control, probes are launched, contact is kept with everyone in the base. It is the heart-beat of Moon Base Alpha.

All sections have colour codes for identification purposes, and the personnel in the various sections are also identified by these colours. The only person with an exclusive colour to himself is the Commander of the base, John Koenig, played by Martin Landau, whose identification is black.

Main Mission is flame. The reconnaissance section is orange, the service section is yellow, the technical section is rust, the medical section is white and the security section is purple. For viewers of colour television sets, these distinctive colours will help considerably in recognising immediately which section is being seen.

Magic "Key"

All members of Moon Base Alpha carry what is known as a "commlock". It is a remarkable device, carrying a photograph of its possessor for identification, each programmed to answer when called. An array of press-buttons brings into play its many operations. It needs pressure on one button to open doors, another to contact the various departments, another to bring into play a two-way television system, the pictures seen on a miniature screen at one end of the commlock. It provides an immediate means of contacting other personnel, wherever they may be.

Thus, thanks to the commlock, doors open automatically when the right button is pressed.

Commander Koenig's commlock is also able to impart instructions from him to the computer, telling it to shut down if necessary. He is the only man able to make this order.