The Future Was Fantastic The Future Was Fantastic
Fan and film maker Jeff Smart announced his plan to make a documentary focusing on the original props and locations from Gerry Anderson's productions in 1998, and filming continued through to 2004. It was then lost for a decade. Rediscovered in 2014, some DVD copies were sold on the internet auction site ebay in July 2014. An updated 2-DVD collectors edition was sold on ebat in May 2017.
The documentary is 1 hour 52 minutes long, and is narrated by Ed Bishop, who appeared in many of the shows. It extensively covers the original filming locations, and interviews many people involved with the show, including Bob Bell, Ken Turner, Brian Johnson, Mike Trim and others. It follows the history of several vehicles, including the Doppelganger/UFO cars and jeeps.
Not all the things that were filmed made it into the final film- shots of Phil Rae's original miniatures (including the 44 inch Eagles) appear only as stills briefly in the opening sequence. Also missing was footage of the original puppets, live action costumes and the Space Precinct props. These all appeared on the 2017 "collectors edition" extras disc.
Space: 1999 is covered at the end of the "live action series" section (1 minute), and has a one section devoted entirely to it, "A day at Bray" (11 minutes).
The "live action series" section ends with a 1 minute sequence of photos which includes present day shots of the L and M stages at Pinewood (at 33 minutes). The following section, "A day at Bray" (between 34 mins and 45 mins) is a sequence devoted to Space: 1999, showing Brian Johnson touring the original SFX studio location and showing the original scripts and storyboards.
Space 1999 copyright ITV Studios Global Entertainment
Page copyright Martin Willey