Catacombs International Guide
France

FRANCE

At the start of 1975, French television was reorganised. The first French channel was renamed TF1. The second channel (in 1975 renamed Antenne 2) had started colour transmissions in 1967, but the more popular TF1 didn't start colour until the end of 1975.

Guy Lux had devised many French variety shows including Intervilles, the format which British television copied as It's a Knockout. In 1975 his big hit was a Saturday afternoon magazine. Samedi est à vous (Saturday is yours) ran from 2pm to 6pm, presented by Bernard Golay. Viewers would vote by telephone for which show in different categories (police, western, cartoons, adventure). The winning show would be screened. The shows included both older and new series, particularly from America or Britain. Shows like The Wild Wild West became hugely popular, regularly winning the vote every week.

TF1 bought 13 episodes of Space: 1999, titled "Cosmos 1999". The French Canadian dubbed episodes were used. Samedi est à vous had a "fantastic" category, which had recently shown The Invaders, and in December 1975 they listed "Cosmos 1999" against an older ITC series, "The Prisoner", and the short-lived American series "The Immortal". "Cosmos 1999" became a hit. By April 1976, they had exhausted the 13 episodes and ran "The Invisible Man". An additional episode appeared in June 1976.

In October 1976, Guy Lux departed TF1 and Samedi est à vous ended. TF1 introduced another Saturday magazine format, with the somewhat desperate title Restez donc avec nous le samedi ("Stay with us on Saturday"). The show mixed games, cartoons and series retained from its predecessor, including "Columbo" and "Cosmos 1999". TF1 bought another 9 episodes, shown from the end of 1976 into 1977.

One episode was not shown: Missing Link, as the nightmare scenes were judged too frightening. The second series was not shown.

French titles (as featured on 2002 TF1 DVD). Every episode had the same titles; the "This Episode" sequence was replaced by a generic set of action scenes (mostly Breakaway and Black Sun) with no captions.

In the summer of 1980, TF1's Temps X science fiction programme was a year old. The show, presented by brothers Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, was a magazine talking about science and science fiction, and introduced episodes of several older science fiction shows, some unknown to French audiences, including Star Trek. In 1980 they began a repeat run of Cosmos 1999, showing ten first series episodes including the first French screening of Missing Link.

A second repeat run followed on the channel Antenne 2.

In August 1987 the private station La Cinq began to show the episodes every weekday, then showing Year Two for the first time in France, on Saturdays. In 1989 it again showed the episodes one every day at 11.35 am.

On September 13, 1999, the channel Série Club had a special La Nuit Special Cosmos 1999 (Space: 1999 Night) including a documentary on the series with a Martin Landau interview

Merchandising was minimal.

• the Airfix Eagle and Hawk
• French press coverage
• In the 1990s video tapes of all first series episodes were released.
• Pierre Fageolle wrote a superb guide book.
• In 2002, TF1 released all 48 episodes and Message From Moonbase Alpha on a DVD set

The fan club Cosmos 1999 published four quarterly newsletters between 1990 and 1999, and ran four conventions. In 2000 it was renamed Destination Alpha; it closed in 2002.

See the Canadian guide for dubbing cast and translation notes.

	Date	French Title	Translation	Original Title	Notes
1.	13 Dec 1975	A la dérive	Adrift	Breakaway
2.	23 Dec 1975	Le grand cercle	The Big Circle	The Full Circle
3.	27 Dec 1975	Le testament de l'Arcadie	The Testament Of The Arcadia	The Testament Of Arkadia
4.	3 Jan 1976	La mission des Dariens	The Mission Of The Darians	Mission Of The Darians
5.	10 Jan 1976	Ruses de guerre	War Stratagems	War Games
6.	15 Jan 1976	Le retour du Voyageur	The return of Voyager	Voyager's Return
7.	17 Jan 1976	Au bout de l'éternité	At The End Of Eternity	End Of Eternity
8.	31 Jan 1976	Collision inévitable	Unavoidable Collision	Collision Course
9.	14 Feb 1976	L'enfant d'Alpha	The Child Of Alpha	Alpha Child
10.	26 Feb 1976	Le gardien du Piri	The Guardian Of The Piri	Guardian Of Piri
11.	28 Feb 1976	Puissance de la vie	Force Of Life	Force Of Life
12.	3 April 1976	Direction: Terre	Direction: Earth	Earthbound
13.	10 Apr 1976	L'anneau de la Lune	The Ring Of The Moon	Ring Around The Moon
14.	19 June 1976	Un autre royaume de la mort	Another realm of death	Death's Other Dominion
15.	20 Dec 1976	Autre temps, autre lieu	Another Time, Another Place	Another Time, Another Place
16.	8 Jan 1977	Question de vie ou de mort	Matter Of Life Or Death	Matter Of Life And Death
17.	22 Jan 1977	Cerveau spatial	Space Brain	Space Brain
18.	29 Jan 1977	En désarroi	In Disarray	The Troubled Spirit
19.	5 Feb 1977	Le soleil noir	The Black Sun	Black Sun
20.	12 Feb 1977	La machine infernale		The Infernal Machine
21.	19 Feb 1977	Le dernier crépuscule	The Last Twilight	The Last Sunset
22.	5 March 1977	Le dernier adversaire	The Last Enemy	The Last Enemy
23.	12 March 1977	Le domaine du dragon	The Dragon's Domain	Dragon's Domain
24.	23 Aug 1980	Le maillon	The Link	Missing Link	First broadcast for this episode during 1980 repeats
25.	28 September 1987	En route vers l'infini	Journeying To Infinity	Journey To Where	First broadcast for Year 2 on La 5, 1987
26.	30 September 1987	La planète Archanon	The Planet Of Archanon	The Mark Of Archanon
27.	7 Oct 1987	Dorzak		Dorzak
28.	10 Oct 1987	Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un moment	Human, just for a moment	One Moment Of Humanity
29.	24 Oct 1987	Taybor le commerçant	Taybor The Trader	The Taybor
30.	14 Nov 1987	Les catacombes de la Lune	The Catacombs Of The Moon	Catacombs Of The Moon
31.	21 Nov 1987	Le nuage qui tue	The Cloud Which Kills	The Beta Cloud
32.	5 Dec 1987	Le syndrome de l'immunité	The syndrome of immunity	The Immunity Syndrome
33.	Dec 1987	Un message d'espoir 1ère partie	A Message Of Hope Part 1	The Bringers Of Wonder part 1
34.	Dec 1987	Un message d'espoir 2ème partie	A Message Of Hope Part 2	The Bringers Of Wonder pt 2
35.	2 Jan 1988	Les chrysalides AB	The Chrysalis AB	The AB Chrysalis
36.	9 Jan 1988	Déformation spatiale	Space Warp	Space Warp
37.	16 Jan 1988	Une question d'équilibre	A Matter Of Balance	A Matter Of Balance
38.	23 Jan 1988	L'élément lambda	The Lambda Element	The Lambda Factor
39.	30 Jan 1988	Le spectre	The Spectre	The Seance Spectre
40.	6 Feb 1988	La planète du Diable	The Devil's planet	Devil's Planet
41.	13 Feb 1988	Les Dorcons	The Dorcons	The Dorcons
42.	2 Aug 1989	Tout ce qui luit	All That Glisters	All That Glisters
43.	3 Aug 1989	La métamorphose	The Metamorphosis	The Metamorph	First broadcast on La 5 during 1989 repeats
44.	6 Aug 1989	Les Exilés	The Exiles	The Exiles
45.	18 Aug 1989	Une autre Terre	Another Earth	New Adam, New Eve
46.	19 Aug 1989	Le secret de la caverne	The Secret Of The Cavern	Seed Of Destruction
47.	3 Oct 1989	Les directives de Luton	The Rules Of Luton	The Rules Of Luton
48.	31 Oct 1989	Le cerveau ordinateur	The Computer Brain	Brian The Brain

Download Calendar