Space 1999 Catacombs: Spazio: 1999

ITALY

The first series was financed in part by RAI (Italian State Television), and was originally to have two Italian supporting stars (the pilot and Main Mission operative who later became Alan and Sandra respectively). At the time, RAI had 2 channels, at the time known as Rete 1 and Rete 2.

In addition to the series being shown on television, three episodes were edited together into a compilation and shown in cinemas from 14 January 1975: according to Keith Wilson, "the streets of Rome were empty because everyone was going to the cinema." The compilation used music from Ennio Morricone in place of Barry Gray's theme and some incidental music. The Morricone theme is available on the CD Time Of Adventure by Ennio Morricone (BMG 1997) 4321315512. (now out of print). The series on television had all the original music intact, with the exception of the Year 2 end titles, which were replaced by song S.O.S. Spazio 1999, performed by the Italian group Oliver Onions.

Italian titles and credits

Year One

The Year One episodes were shown on the second RAI channel, Rete 2, in 3 blocks: the first 6 episodes from Saturday 31st January 1976 at 10pm, the second block of six from Thursday 1st July at 8:45pm, then the remaining 12 from Sunday 24th October to January 9th 1977 at about 6pm. At the time (and until 1977), RAI broadcast in black and white. The first 10 episodes were repeated, in colour, from 29 July 1978. The first series was later repeated in 1981. This probably excluded The Last Sunset, the Italian print of which was lost until 2006. A clip of the sunset from that episode was used to replace the "This Episode" caption in the last 12 episode titles. The 16mm film with magnetic soundtrack was discovered in the SAFA-Palatino archives, but it is not known if they edited the titles or how the only known copy ended up in their collection.

Year Two

In 1979 Year 2 was broadcast on RAI channel 1 from April, each episode in two parts. The daily slot at 7:20pm (Monday to Saturday) was a prime slot before the main RAI news at 8pm. The first episode, The Metamorph, was scheduled for Friday 6 April 1979, but was rescheduled for the following day (possibly because of a previous over-running programme). This would have meant knocking all the episodes back one day, with the last episode shown split on Saturday and Monday. On 7th April an unexpected journalists' strike meant the 8pm news was cancelled, so the second part of the episode followed immediately after. Episodes from Monday 9 April were thus as scheduled, with 3 episodes per week. For some reason The Bringers Of Wonder was not included in the first run of season two and was aired only some time later.

Translation

In the Italian version Dr. Russell is HELEN not Helena. This is probably due to the fact that HELENA sounds exactly like the Italian name ELENA. The people who supervised the Italian version probably thought this was too Italian for an American character(!) In year two Tony's last name is pronounced VERDESKI which is the correct Italian pronunciation for VERDESCHI.

The Eagle was called "Aquila" (Italian for eagle); the moonbuggy was a "lunarmobile" (also the name of the Moon mobiles in UFO).

Jimmy

In October 2002, the satellite channel Canal Jimmy aired the series, using Carlton's 1996 telecine visuals matched to the Italian audio. There were short sequences in 6 episodes, mostly from Year 2, which had no Italian soundtrack, so they were shown with original English audio and Italian subtitles. As the 16mm Italian print of The Last Sunset was missing, it was shown with English soundtrack and Italian subtitles. From 2003, Pulp began to release the series on DVD, and used a home recording, which was poor quality and missed the initial few minutes. After the release, the original 16mm version of the episode was discovered, but the DVD publishers were unable to agree the rights until NBC's digital channel Steel began to show the series from 13 January 2009; The Last Sunset with the original Italian audio matched to the BBC HD restoration from 2004. It was shown on 5 February 2009 at 1:35am, repeated at 3:05pm.

RAIPlay

On 30 October 2022, the series was available for streaming on RaiPlay, RAI's streaming platform (free with registration). All the episodes are in HD (using the 2004/2010 HD restorations) with English and restored Italian soundtracks, including The Last Sunset.

Conventions

The Italian fan club Moonbase '99 has organised a number of conventions in Italy.

Merchandising:

Panini stickers and albums (both years 1976 and 1979)
16 books by AMZ (illustrated adaptations, 1975-1978, 1979)
School diary by AMZ (1977, reprinted 1978)
Colour comic book (reprinting German Zack comics, 1979)
Harbert repackaged two Azrak Hamway toys in 1979: the Eagle (as "Aquila"), and the friction Moon Car (as "Lunarmobile").
S.O.S. Spazio 1999 45 rpm single (1979)
In 1999, Fanucci republished stories from the AMZ books in two paperbacks.
DVD box sets (2003+)
Italian comic Topolino had a 4-page article in number 1123, dated 5 June 1977, p38-41. Topolino is the Italian name of Mickey Mouse; the digest-sized Italian comic began in 1932 and had been weekly since 1960.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica sold DVDs of the first series in 2007
- La Repubblica's Friday supplement magazine Il Venerdi dated 7 December 2007 had an article on the series, "Spazio 1999, con il Venerdi si torna sulla Luna" tied to the DVDs (p72-73)
Italian magazine Series number 30 dated May 2008 had an article in their "Vintage" section, p54-56 "Non voglio mica la luna" (I don't want to go to the Moon)
Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta dello Sport sold DVDs of the series in 2016.

There was also a poster for the 1975 Spazio 1999 movie.

Web sites (in Italian):

Moonbase '99 - The Official Web Page of the Shadows on the Moon Fanzine -Italian Gerry Anderson fan club by Marco Ciroi (1999 section by Giuliano Frattini)
Marco Vittorini's Space 1999 Home Page - Marco Vittorini's site.

Nr	Date	Italian Title	Translation	Original Title	Prod.Nr
1	31 January 1976 10:00pm	Separazione	Separation	Breakaway	1
2	7 February 1976 10:00pm	Destinazione obbligata: Terra	Obligatory Destination: Earth	Earthbound	5
3	14 February 1976 10:00pm	Sole nero	Black Sun	Black Sun	3
4	21 February 1976 10:00pm	Questione di vita o di morte	Matter Of Life Or Death	Matter Of Life Or Death	2
5	28 February 1976 10:00pm	Fiocco azzuro su Alpha	Blue Band On Alpha	Alpha Child	10
6	7 March 1976 10:00pm	Un altro tempo, un altro luogo	Another Time, Another Place	Another Time, Another Place	6
7	1 July 1976 8:45pm	Forza vitale	Life Force	Force Of Life	9
8	8 July 1976 8:45pm	Il ritorno del Voyager	The Return Of Voyager	Voyager's Return	12
9	15 July 1976 8:45pm	Il Pianeta Incantato	The Enchanted Planet	Guardian Of Piri	8
10	22 July 1976 8:45pm	Gli occhi di Tritone	The Eyes Of Triton	Ring Around The Moon	4
11	29 July 1976 8:45pm	Gli amanti dello spazio	The Space Lovers	Missing Link	7
12	5 August 1976 8:45pm	L'ultimo tramonto	The Last Sunset	The Last Sunset	11
13	24 October 1976 6:00pm	Fantasma su Alpha	Ghost On Alpha	The Troubled Spirit	19
14	31 October 1976 6:00pm	Mondo proibito	Forbidden World	War Games	17
15	7 November 1976 6:00pm	Il Pianeta di Ghiaccio	The Planet Of Ice	Death's Other Dominion	14
16	14 November 1976 6:00pm	Rotta di collisione	Collision Course	Collision Course	16
17	21 November 1976 6:00pm	Nemici invisibili	Invisible Enemies	The Last Enemy	17
18	28 November 1976 6:00pm	Fine dell'immortalita	End Of Immortality	End Of Eternity	18
19	5 December 1976 6:00pm	Circolo chiuso	The Closed Circle	The Full Circle	15
20	12 December 1976 6:00pm	Il dominio del drago	The Domain Of The Dragon	Dragon's Domain	23
21	19 December 1976 6:00pm	La missione dei Dariani	The Mission Of The Darians	Mission Of The Darians	22
22	26 December 1976 6:00pm	Il cervello spaziale	The Space Brain	Space Brain	20
23	2 January 1977 6:00pm	La macchina infernale	The Infernal Machine	The Infernal Machine	21
24	9 January 1977 6:00pm	Il testamento degli Arkadi	The Testament Of The Arkadians	Testament Of Arkadia	24
Year 2
2.1	7 April 1979 7:20pm 7 April 1979 8:00pm	Psycon		The Metamorph	25
2.2	9 April 1979 7:20pm 10 April 1979 7:20pm	Golos		The Exiles	26
2.3	11 April 1979 7:20pm 12 April 1979 7:20pm	Il ritorno	The Return	Journey To Where	29
2.4	13 April 1979 7:20pm 14 April 1979 7:20pm	Vega		One Moment Of Humanity	27
2.5	16 April 1979 7:20pm 17 April 1979 7:20pm	La Milgonite	The Milgonite	All That Glisters	28
2.6	18 April 1979 7:20pm 19 April 1979 7:20pm	Archanon		The Mark Of Archanon	32
2.7	20 April 1979 7:20pm 21 April 1979 7:20pm	Taybor		The Taybor	30
2.8	23 April 1979 7:20pm 24 April 1979 7:20pm	Luton		The Rules Of Luton	31
2.9	25 April 1979 7:20pm 26 April 1979 7:20pm	Il robot	The Robot	Brian The Brain	33
2.10	27 April 1979 7:20pm 28 April 1979 7:20pm	Magus		New Adam, New Eve	34
2.11	30 April 1979 7:20pm 31 April 1979 7:20pm	Kalthon		Seed Of Destruction	37
2.12	2 May 1979 7:20pm 3 May 1979 7:20pm	Le crisalidi	The Chrysalids	The A B Chrysalis	35
2.13	4 May 1979 7:20pm 5 May 1979 7:20pm	Il Tiranium	The Tiranium	Catacombs Of The Moon	36
2.14	7 May 1979 7:20pm 8 May 1979 7:20pm	I naufraghi	The Shipwrecked People	Space Warp	40
2.15	9 May 1979 7:20pm 10 May 1979 7:20pm	Vindrus		A Matter Of Balance	39
2.16	11 May 1979 7:20pm 12 May 1979 7:20pm	La Nuvola	The Cloud	The Beta Cloud	38
2.17	14 May 1979 7:20pm 15 May 1979 7:20pm	Onde Lambda	Lambda Waves	The Lambda Factor	43
2.18	16 May 1979 7:20pm 17 May 1979 7:20pm	Tora		Seance Spectre	44
2.19	18 May 1979 7:20pm 19 May 1979 7:20pm	Dorzak		Dorzak	45
2.20	21 May 1979 7:20pm 22 May 1979 7:20pm	Il Pianeta del Diavolo	The Planet Of The Devil	Devil's Planet	46
2.21	23 May 1979 7:20pm 24 May 1979 7:20pm	Il Lampo che Uccide	The Lightning Bolt That Kills	The Immunity Syndrome	47
2.22	25 May 1979 7:20pm 26 May 1979 7:20pm	I Dorconiani		The Dorcons	48
2.23		Attenti ai terrestri	Beware the Earth People (terrestrials)!	The Bringers Of Wonder	41

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