Catacombs Reference LibraryEducational Press
A Brand-New Kind of Science Fiction Show: Space: 1999
Catacombs Reference Library
"TV's Fabulous Faces" by Peggy Herz (Scholastic Books, US, 1977) p74-82
Publisher Scholastic sold books and magazines through school book clubs in the USA. Their children's magazine Dynamite had featured Space: 1999 in a 1976 cover issue. This book was also sold through book clubs in schools, covering 1977 TV shows including Laverne and Shirley, Welcome Back Kotter, Donny and Marie and The Bionic Woman. Writer Peggy Herz also wrote an earlier article probably for another Scholastic title.
Moonbase Alpha has been spinning around in outer space for more than a year now. Moonbase Alpha, as most sci-fi fans know, is the setting for Space: 1999, a weekly TV series that comes up with some really far-out adventures.
Barbara Bain and Martin Landau star in the series. They play Dr. Helena Russell and Commander John Koenig, the two most important people on Moonbase Alpha. The show also added a new character during its second season. She's a strange alien who can change herself into an animal, a bird, or 'any other creature! (Star Trek's Vulcan, Mr. Spock, has pointed ears, and alien powers can make his behaviour change, but Spock keeps his own shape - he can't change himself into a bird!) The new alien in Space: 1999 is played by Catherine Schell, who starred with Peter Sellers in the movie The Return of the Pink Panther.
Space: 1999 began with a series of man-made disasters. Moonbase Alpha had been set up on the surface of the moon. On it were over 300 men and women from many nations of the world. They had been sent there to do research. They hadn't planned on staying there forever. Their plans didn't work out, however.
Back on Earth, atomic power had become the major source of man's energy needs. And getting rid of the atomic waste had become a big problem. The Earthlings had to find something to do with it - so they decided to ship it into outer space and store it on the far side of the moon.
That's a fine idea if you yourself don't happen to be living on the moon. As more and more waste was put on the moon, dangerous reactions from it began. Finally, a series of explosions occurred that tore away portions of the moon. The moon, with Moon- base Alpha still on it, was blasted out of Earth's orbit. Now it is moving away from Earth and nothing can stop it!
"We never get back in touch with Earth as we know it," Martin Landau told me in an interview. "There we are, headed further out into space. We have no business being out there. We weren't pre- pared for such a journey. We hadn't planned on spending the rest of our lives together! We have a life-support system, but it doesn't allow for anything extra. We can just about keep ourselves alive!"
During its first season, Moonbase Alpha ran into all kinds of exciting adventures - from alien space beings to hostile environments. It got caught in blinding snowstorms and in interplanetary wars. It was attacked by unfamiliar illnesses and by strange-looking "people." Catherine Schell, as the new alien who was taken on board, is the daughter of a mad scientist. The scientist's planet had been destroyed. He hoped to rebuild it with the minds of the residents of Moonbase Alpha. He had his test tubes bubbling away and was all set. Luckily, he was stopped in time - and Space: 1999 is blasting off for a second season.
"Could any of this happen in real life?" I asked Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, who are husband and wife in their own "real" lives. Martin smiled. "It's possible that we might use the moon as a nuclear waste dump," he replied. "It's a logical place. A shuttle bus could run back and forth between the moon and the Earth. It's also possible that life exists in outer space in some shape or form."
Barbara Bain agreed with her husband. "It would be very conceited of us to think we humans are the only form of life," she added. "There are so many possibilities. Who's to say that there aren't other beings living in totally different environments?"
Space: 1999 has made a big splash around the world - the world we know, that is! "We are riding the crest of a huge wave of interest in science fiction," said one spokesman for the series. "And there is a worldwide appetite for TV shows that are different. That is why we spent more than seven million on new shows for the second season."
"Working on this series has been an incredible experience," Martin Landau told me. "Most science fiction deals with people running around in Buck Rogers suits looking silly," he said. "Our shows are more involved and more imaginative. They don't take place too many years into the future. We have today's viewpoints and emotions. Yet we come into contact with civilizations that are millions and millions of years ahead of us. And we find that some of them don't want us on their planets!
Loyal "Trekkies," who may have felt that Star Trek had a warmth and spark that was missing in Space: 1999, should like the show better this year; the Space: 1999 producers have tried to inject more "human-ness" into the series, and lessen the cold, purely scientific atmosphere of the earlier shows.
Space: 1999 is not on one of the major networks. But it is shown by more than 100 stations in the U.S. and in more than 100 countries around the world. Often it has more viewers than the network shows.
"The shows are produced in London," Martin said. "Nothing is spared in either time or money. England, he might have added, is where modern outer space science fiction really began - with H G Wells' terrifying story, The War of the Worlds.
The people on Moonbase Alpha have had some exciting and dangerous times. But for most of them whirling around in outer space hasn't been such a bad adventure after all!
Caption: Commander John Koenig (Martin Landau) is the leader of the Moonbase Alpha colony. It's not an easy job -the survival of 300 people depends on him!
Caption: Dr. Helena Russell (Barbara Bain) is Chief Medical Officer. She's in charge of all life support systems-everything that has to do with the general health and well-being of the colony's human and plant life.
Caption: A scouting party checks out the complicated security system that surrounds the colony. A ring of fences and photo-electric "fields" runs for twenty miles around the compound. This system keeps out intruders. Actually a shot of astronauts on the lunar surface from Ring Around The Moon. The description sounds like the laser barrier around the waste area in Breakaway, rather than the force fields seen in Black Sun and other episodes.
Caption: Catherine Schell plays Maya, the daughter of a mad scientist. She has made the moonbase her home. Maya can actually change herself into any creature she wants to be!
Caption:In this episode, the people of Moonbase Alpha had to somehow defend themselves from an attack by a huge spaceship of deadly aliens! Year 1 publicity SFX showing the Satazius and Eagle, not from an episode
Caption: Dr. Russell (Barbara Bain) and Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) are constantly facing dangers from the farthest limits of Outer Space.