2001 To Space 1999

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	The spaceship Discovery influenced model maker Martin Bower when he created the battleship that was used in Alpha Child and War Games. Note the round front section, long spine, central communications dish (in 2001 a laser reflector) and large rear engines. Brian Johnson reproduced the long pass-by shot in War Games, but the ship pass overhead. George Lucas, who saw Space 1999 and visited the SFX set, used the same view in the opening of Star Wars.
	Space 1999 featured a number of episodes with mystical leanings. Both Ring Around The Moon and Black Sun feature the characters in strange voids with vague lights; in the latter episode Koenig and Bergman age like Bowman at the end of 2001.
	Space 1999 even tried to portray early humans in The Full Circle, like the "Dawn Of Man" sequence in 2001. The end result was less successful, however.
	The influence of 2001 is very obvious in this pre-production art for Ring Around The Moon.
	In 2001, the AE35 unit appears to malfunction. The prop is a real aeroplane gyroscope (a Sperry G.M.compass MK4). 1999 used a similar gyroscope as a "flight recorder" in several episodes (it is possibly the same prop, bought through a film props company).

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Space: 1999 copyright ITV Studios Global Entertainment
2001 A Space Odyssey copyright MGM
Text copyright Martin Willey