Catacombs Reference Library
Epi-Log

Epi-log was an American magazine containing episode guides for various science fiction and adventure series. The covers were colour, but the interior pages were black and white on poor quality paper. Each was around 100 pages. The first issue was in June 1990; the last, 44, was in February 1995. Most reviews were written by William Anchors, with some by Gloria Anchors, who covered Space 1999 in issue 11, October 1991, pages 54-65. The Anchors ran a mail-order science fiction shop called Star Tech. The magazine never specified the where the air-dates/ episode order were for (presumably the local station for the Anchors in Dunlap, Tennessee, USA - Breakaway starts on 9 September 1975; The Metamorph on 18 September 1976).

review by Gloria T. Anchors

Premise: The moon is hurled out of Earth's orbit when nuclear waste explodes. As the planetoid travels through the galaxy, the crew of Moonbase Alpha encounter a vast array of aliens.

Editor' s comments: As a fan of all of Gerry Anderson's shows I hate to admit I don't care for Space: 1999 and consider it to be his worst series. The show was (and still is) immensely popular in the U.S. (much less so in the U.K.), but I have never been able to figure out why. The series had the luck of being released about the same time Star Trek had become a hit in syndication, resulting in many comparisons, but no doubt adding many viewers who had become fascinated with TV science fiction. Despite its popularity, I have always considered the show to be absurd, being based on the concept of the Moon being blown of orbit (a scientific impossibility), then having the Alphans encounter a new planet they try to colonize almost every week (even at the speed of light this would have taken years), and seemingly forever killing off personnel and blowing up Eagles with no obvious problems of replacement. It's all too much for me. But the worst aspect of 1999 is that it is so depressing: week after week a new alien tries to destroy Alpha and/or its inhabitants, or they find a new planet to colonize, Only to have something terrible go wrong, usually with plenty of deaths involved. Does anything good ever happen to these people? Obviously not, because if they met friendly aliens or found a suitable planet to colonize it would have meant the end of the series - just one more flaw in a poor concept for a TV show. Ultimately it had to mean the end for 1999, as no audience could withstand the weekly disappointments this show offered.

[At the end of season one. major changes were made to uniforms, sets, and personnel. Main Mission became the Command Center. Professor Bergman disappeared, as did David Kano, the computer man. Paul Morrow was replaced as second in command by Tony Verdeschi. Sandra became San [sic] and Captain Carter became Mr. Carter [sic]. Catherine Shell, who had appeared as the servant of the Guardian of Piri, was brought back as the alien metamorph, Maya, and her presence. along with that of Tony, introduced more romance and humor to the series.]

The episode guide itself is poorly written, with a few inaccuracies (Dorzak is written by Pip and Jane Baker).