Episode GuideSpace: 1999 50 Years Out of Orbit Documentary (2025)
Episode Guide
1h 15m (75m), released 1st September 2025
This documentary was first aired on the UK streaming service ITVX on 1st September 2025, and is the main extra on the Space: 1999 Breakaway 4K Collectors Edition Steelbook (2025). It was produced by Anderson Entertainment and "Take the Shot Films" and directed by Samuel Clemens. The same crew also released Thunderbirds FAB at 60 to ITVX on the same date, featuring most of the same interviewees. Clemens is the son of Avengers writer Brian Clemens, and has worked as an actor on director on Big Finish audio stories.
This is a "talking heads" documentary, with no narrator, featuring a mixture of archive interviews (usually seen on computer screens), cast interviews (some conducted at the London 2024 convention), and celebrity interviewees (some remotely). There are short clips, and some behind the scenes footage from the Warwick Student Television documentary.
It starts with a vintage interview with Gerry Anderson explaining the origin of the series (phoning Lew Grade during the negotiations with the Landaus). Otherwise there is very little explanation of the history of the show or the cast. It assumes a fairly good prior knowledge of the episodes. There is some discussion of the relative realism of the Eagles, special effects and design, mostly impressionistic apart from comments from Richard Taylor, a special effects professional.
Between sections of the film (for ad-breaks) there are some very poor CGI asteroids. The CGI space scenes in the end titles are good. The backdrops framing or behind the interviewees are good.
Archive interviews
