Catacombs Reference Library
Space 1999 - ATV PRESS RELEASE

This ATV press release was issued in November 1974. After the bizarre comment about blasting a space station into orbit, there is a baffling reference to the planet where you laugh instead of cry.

The Sky's The Limit... For Britain's £2 1/2 million Star Trek

They're doing weird and wonderful things at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire. Like blowing up a mock-up moon and blasting a space station into orbit. Making people age by 1,000 years before your very eyes. Creating a planet where when you're in pain you laugh instead of cry. Building a spaceship complete with computers and flashing controls. Spending a whopping £2,500,000 on the most expensive space science fiction series ever made for TV, in fact. It's called Space 1999 and will inevitably become known as Britain's Star Trek. Each of the 24, hour-long, episodes is costing £100,000. It's the sort of extravagance usually associated with Hollywood. But Associated TeleVision's Sir Lew Grade, the man financing the project with the Italian Television Service, reckons it'll be worth it to bring bizarre thrills to TV screens. Stars include husband-and-wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, from Mission Impossible, London born Barry Morse, the man who chased The Fugitive in the American TV series of the same name. Other stars who will make guest appearances include Brian Blessed, former star of Z Cars, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Richard Johnson, Roy Dotrice and Judy Geeson. Production is by another husband-and-wife team, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, creators of Thunderbirds, Stingray and UFO television series.