TV ClipsTop Ten TV
Compiled by Martin Willey
TV ClipsChannel 4 Saturday 13th October 2001, 2100-2240
This edition of a nostalgia series on prime time Saturday night ranked the top ten science fiction series. The top two were predictable, but there were some obscure entries and a strong bias to British series of the 1970s. Space 1999 was bottom of the ten. Recent American science fiction like X Files and Babylon 5 were notable for their absence, while there were brief clips from 1960s/70s series such as UFO and Battlestar Galactica.
The host was Tom Baker, best known as Dr Who; one reviewer stated he obviously hadn't taken his medication for a week. The jokey narration was by Nick Frost ("Bad moon rising for the gloominauts of Space 1999" was his summary of the show in the countdown). Various geeky media critics as well as series stars were interviewed. Fans of 1999 might have recognised re-sprayed Command Center desks in a brief clip from a horrendous 1977 British sitcom Come Back Mrs Noah and in Tomorrow People.
The top ten list:
Tom Baker:
We begin by hurtling through space on a moon separated from Earth by a nuclear explosion. I love a party with no atmosphere. Tonight we're going to party like it's... well, to start with, it is the last century.
Gerry Anderson, producer
I was a very heavy smoker. I used to smoke a hundred a day. When I wrote down 1999 I never dreamed I would be alive in 1999. And it seemed such a long way off.
Clip: Breakaway titles.
Kim Newman, science fiction writer
I think Gerry Anderson wanted to make a show that was bigger than Star Trek. To make the biggest, best science fiction show ever, I'm sure that's what he set out to do.
Catherine Schell, "Maya"
I did think that the difference between Star Trek and our programme was the look. I did find that Space had a fantastic look.
Nick Tate, ace Eagle pilot.
They said that it was the most expensive syndicated television show in the world. That's what they told us. And I think at the time it was.
Clip: Koenig opens Main Mission doors from Breakaway
Narrator
1999 was two years ago, but this is what it looked like in 1975, when a human colony on the moon was blown out of Earth's orbit by a nuclear explosion.
Clip: The explosions from Breakaway
Led by Commander John Koenig, Dr. Helena Russell and ace Eagle pilot Alan Carter ( clip: Alan gives thumbs up, from Another Time, Another Place) - hi- they were cast into outer space, meeting many new and hairy alien life forms in the search for a new home.
Clip: Maya lizard creature from Beta Cloud
Ben Moore, sci-fi fan/ comedian
It was just a great idea for adventures, because they could go anywhere in the galaxy, anything could happen to them, and they had some really cool ships.
Clip: Rescue Eagle lands by crashed Eagle, from Missing Link.
Clip: In Eagle cockpit, Koenig tells Alan, "Nice landing" from Guardian Of Piri.
Nick Tate
It was going to be our odyssey, what would happen to our people, these 300-odd people, left to the mercies and vagaries of where the moon went.
Clip: Koenig asks "Victor, what the hell hit us?" from Another Time, Another Place
Ben Moore
It was just a great idea for a science fiction show. What if the Moon, something you see every day or every night, just had gone. It didn't really matter to the people on Earth. But it mattered to the people that happened to be on the Moon.
Clip: Koenig walks to his desk, watched by Main Mission, Human Decision Required on Big Screen
Narrator
And they were concerned. Much of the show involved standing around in flared pyjamas looking puzzled, and occasionally arguing over spilt coffee.
Clip: Jane drops coffee and Kano calls her a clumsy fool, from Missing Link
Jayne Dearsley, SFX magazine
It would be nice to think, I guess, from a comfort point of view, that in the future if you were on the moon spinning through space and you got to battle all sorts of nasty things on the way, that you could just run around wearing your pyjamas, because you'd be comfortable.
Ben Moore
I think they were all holding their stomachs in. There's a good lot of corset work in there as well. But, hey, you're on the Moon, who cares what you're wearing.
Gary Gillatt, editor, Starburst magazine
Space 1999 was an adventure in the universe of beige. There's some beige people in a large beige room fighting beige things.
Narrator
But it wasn't always beige. Some of it was frankly bonkers.
Clip: Main Mission spins round Koenig; nightmare people attack Koenig from Missing Link
Clip: Koenig et al watch Zantor revive and stand, from Earthbound
And there was more excitement. Each week the crew confronted special guest aliens such as Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Joan Collins and, of course, Bernard Cribbens.
Clip: Maya/Captain Michael from Brian The Brain
But the first season was costing a space bomb and the ratings fizzled out.
Clip: Koenig saying "There's nothing we can do" from end of Earthbound.
Kim Newman
The problem with Space 1999 was that it didn't sort out what it wanted to be. I think it was pessimistic but I don't think particularly by choice.
Nick Tate
Was the first series too serious? Po faced, somebody said. I think maybe it was.
Clip: Simmonds looks out window, from start of Earthbound
Narrator
So after a first series involving many boring meetings about space and stuff, they decided to jazz it up a bit.
Clip: Girls walking down corridor, from Catacombs Of The Moon, declaring "I just love this heat wave. How can we ever go back to wearing regulation uniforms again?"
Narrator
With a few new faces.
Clip: Tony and Fraser in Command Center, from Beta Cloud
Narrator
Some crap monsters.
Clip: Creature throws security guards around, from Beta Cloud
Narrator
But the most important addition was Maya, the shape shifting alien lady.
Clip: Lion transforms into Maya, from Metamorph
Catherine Schell
I thought it was absolutely evident that the character was there to hike it up a little bit, to add a little zest, a little bit of something different.
Ben Moore
That brought the boys back into watching it, and saying, yes, they do have the coolest spaceships on the TV, but also they've got this babe.
Clip: Maya changes into Kreno animal, from Beta Cloud
Gerry Anderson
The show in my mind became much more of a cartoon than a serious live action show. And over the years I know there are followers of the first season, and followers of the second season. I'm a follower of the first season.
Clip: SFX shot of Moon leaving Earth, from Breakaway
Narrator
So, after an unsuccessful second series the show was asked, and our herores were left drifting in space forever.
Kim Newman
It's one of those shows where you never really worry that they didn't wind up the story. I don't really care if those Moonbase Alpha people got home or not.
Clip: Koenig screams in chair, from Missing Link