Catacombs Reference LibraryUK Press
Life on the moon - TV style
Catacombs Reference Library
The Leicester Chronicle, 29 August 1975 p17
Caption: Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, leads in the new TV space series.
Caption: A strange discovery ... for Martin Landau as Commander John Koenig is Space 1999.
Would you fancy living on a chunk of broken-off moon? Television viewers will soon have the opportunity to watch a group of scientists coping with just that situation in a new science-fiction series to cap them all- ATV's Space 1999 which starts on Thursday, September 4, with the first of 24 adventure-packed episodes.
"We admit it's a product of the imagination of our writers," says a programme consultant, "but it still makes sense. It is logical to suppose that by the year 1999 a base will have been established on the moon. And the people manning it will have been born just about now so that their ways and customs won't be too far removed from our own."
Where the sci-fi bit creeps in is when a gigantic explosion rocks the moon causing a part of it-with the scientific base intact to break away and drift into the unknown. Gerry Anderson, with his wife, Sylvia, who presented the Thunderbird series, combined to produce this one. It is probably the last series they will plan together, as since the filming of Space 1999 their marriage has ended.
"We wanted to plan a series where anything could happen - and does", says Gerry Anderson. "Setting it in a established moon base didn't allow enough scope for imagination - that's why we "arranged" the explosion. Having got our characters and their moon-chunk into deep space, we could give full rein to creative thought."
Space 1999 will, however, have its homely touches. The little colony of scientists (cunningly programmed to have both men and women of marriageable age together) goes in for normal human relationships in spite of being suspended heaven-knows where. There's the birth of the first space-baby, for example, and plenty of drama between the characters.
Stars of the series are Martin Landau as the Commander, and his real-life wife, Barbara Bain, as Dr. Helena Russell. (They will be remembered for their parts in Mission: Impossible). Also in the series is veteran actor, Barry Morse (ex-Lieutenant Gerard, of The Fugitive) as Professor Bergman.
A science-fiction series has a great potential for using the gimmick. Professor Bergman
has been given a mechanical heart (and nasty ruthless types could meddle with this to upset his finely-tuned metabolism!).
All members of the moon base also have a magic key which can do the most remarkable things rather like Aladdin's lamp.
Space 1999 should essentially be regarded as a 'fun' series, but even so, the greatest care and authenticity have been used in its production.
"The possibilities are as limitless as space itself," says Gerry Anderson. "Aliens from other planets, a black sun which burns up everything within sight, and the removal of the meaning of time... all these have their place in a science-fiction series."
For excitement on the moon from September 4 on - Watch this Space! - V.M.