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Moon struck
Catacombs Reference Library
Coventry Evening Telegraph (20 August 1975); "Tele Talk" by John Palmer p18
Space, that frontier which has been the inspiration for so many television series, will be breached again next month in a new series from ATV.
Moon Base Alpha is the setting for Space 1999, which follows the bizarre adventures of the crew on the base after the moon is ripped out of orbit by violent explosions
The series has been filmed at Pinewood Studios and the king and queen of television science fiction, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, were in charge of the production
So the live actors are sure in be faced with some spectacular hazards, dreamed up by the special effects wizards who were responsible for Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds and UFO
Already. they have proved that their models are so convincing that they should have no difficulty in suspending our disbelief.
Naturally. ATV. produced the series in association with RAI (Italian State Television), are hoping that these one-hour thrillers (which will be networked nationwide), will be one of the big successes of the autumn programme schedule.
And a lot of thought has gone into helping the audience to identify with the characters on the moon base.
Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, the husband-and-wife team who last starred together in Mission Impossible, play the base commander. John Koenig. and the chief medical officer, Helena Russell.
Also among the crew Barry Morse as the elderly Professor Bergman, who is something of father figure to the rest
The audience can some kind of extra rapport with these characters because of the period of the series.
The crew of 1999 would all have been youngsters today and their work would have been a direct result of the current space exploration. So the series will always have one foot on the ground, so to speak, by being related to the present day.
Blast-off for the programmes in this area will be September 4 - and it promises to be an explosive start.
The crew find themselves stranded on a shattered fragment of the moon, zooming into deepest space after the satellite is accidentally blown up.
"They are on a rogue planet wandering at random through space" said Gerry Anderson while he was working on the series at Pinewood.
"But, with the gravitational pull from other planets and stars, there's always the possibility of finding a new home. This is the theme that runs through the series - the search for a new home away from the artificial environment of the moon."
With an idea like this, of course, the series is open-ended and, although initially 24 episodes have been shot, if Koenig and Russell become as well known as Spock and Kirk, we could be in for another long run of adventures.
"The possibilities for stories are as unlimited as space itself." said Gerry.
But, for the moment, it's all systems go for the first programme, entitled "Breakaway", And among the guest stars you'll be seeing in the following weeks are Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Roy Dotrice, Joan Collins, Judy Geeson and Catherine Schell.
Mind you - some of them may be a bit difficult to recognise under some Space-age costumes.
Coventry Evening Telegraph 19 November 1975 p17
Richard Johnson, who has been a Hollywood film star, a target for the gossip columnists during his brief marriage to Kim Novak and a fine Shakespearean actor. adds another string to his bow on Thursday next week when he appears in "Space 1999 (ATV).
In this episode, "Matter of Life and Death." Johnson has what might be described as the strangest role of his career.
He plays a man who returns from the dead to warn his widow and some friends against their plans for colonisation. Then he dies again. Then he appears again and then he goes again.
Now you see him. now you don't. "Space 1999" may have its addicts but this sounds more like a trick by Tommy Cooper.