Space: 1999 Catacombs: Starburst

The UK science fiction film magazine Starburst launched in December 1977, just before the UK release of Star Wars. Starburst featured a mix of news and articles about current and classic science fiction film and TV, similar to Starlog (which had begun appearing in the UK), with a greater emphasis on reviews and opinion pieces.

Editor Dez Skinn had been editor of the UK edition of Mad magazine and House of Hammer. After the success of Starburst, Skinn became editorial director of Marvel UK, and from Starburst issue 4, Marvel took over publication. In 1985 it was bought by another publisher, Visual Imagination, led by Stephen Payne, a former fanzine publisher. Visual Imagination would spin off a TV focussed magazine called TV Zone in 1989, and other magazines. Visual Imagination collapsed in 2008, but Starburst was resurrected in 2012 with a new publisher.

Starburst rarely covered Space 1999, with only a handful of interviews, until DVD releases prompted some retrospectives. It didn't cover much Gerry Anderson at all. It held a convention in 1980 which featured Barry Morse, Brian Johnson and Martin Bower. Phil Rae displayed his models, including the Swift.

Starburst 7 (March 1979) had a couple of reader letters about Space: 1999: "I thought the acting UFO and Space 1999 was wooden and unconvincing. And Space was guilty of some terrible scientific clangers, as well as some pretty awful scripts." (the episode he refers to as an "insult to the readers intelligence ... my definition of trashy television" is War Games). There is also a photo of an Eagle, Gerry Anderson and Starburst editor Dez Skinn at the British Fantasy Film Convention (from October 1978, covered in Starburst 6). The "Things to Come" section included Destination Moonbase Alpha, with the Chantrell poster, sadly in black and white.

Starburst 8 (April 1979) had a Space: 1999 cover and a Gerry Anderson interview

Starburst 9 (May 1979) had a Brian Johnson interview. Johnson was also interviewed (about Star Wars) in Starburst 26 (1980).

Starburst 13 (September 1979) featured a nice interview with Keith Wilson: The Art of Space: 1999

Starburst 16 had several articles on TV, including UFO. An article "Science Fiction on Television" by Tise Vahimagi mentioned Space: 1999 in passing. "More exciting [than UFO], initially, was the later Space: 1999 series, despite its silly premise: the personnel of a scientific base situated on the moon become helpless castaways when the moon is blasted out of its orbit into the vastness of space. The show's special effects - particularly interior explosions - were of a high standard, elevating scripts and enlivening formula plots."

Starburst 23 (1980) had an article by Matt Irvine on model building which included 3 photos from the Space City exhibition.

Over the next 35 years, Starburst only mentioned Space: 1999 for the odd VHS or DVD release. This is Starburst 275 (July 2001) reviewing the Carlton DVD releases.