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After getting everyone who fondly remembered Space: 1999 to shell out handsomely for a dozen two-DVD sets containing three episodes per disc, A&E Home Video did something sure to endear themselves to consumers everywhere: they put out the entire set as one all-inclusive box set with a bonus disc that offered possibly the best extras of the entire collection.

Bastards. (more…)

So here we are, at the end of the Space: 1999 odyssey. Diving right into the first disc, The Lambda Factor - by Doctor Who’s former script editor Terrance Dicks - is a bit of an oddball psi-powers story, and possibly its most interesting element is in pushing Tony Verdeschi to the forefront of the action.

The Seance Sceptre chases this down with another psi-powers story, though it at least has the good graces to kick things off with the weirdest and yet grooviest teaser of the entire series (it’s a montage under a long electric sitar solo). You might notice a very young Carolyn Seymour (recognizable from many a later Star Trek and Babylon 5 guest appearance) among the guest stars. (more…)

The second half of Space: 1999’s second year kicks off with Seed Of Destruction, an episode which truly shocked me. I’ve harped quite a bit on how many Space: 1999 plots seem to have been recycled later as Star Trek: Voyager episodes, but Seeds was recycled by Star Trek: The Next Generation. Koenig is snared in an alien trap, an almost-exact duplicate of him is created and sent back to Moonbase Alpha, and the doppelganger issues bizarre instructions to an increasingly suspicious crew while the real Koenig tries to figure out a way out of his predicament. Sound familiar? Think of Allegiance, an episode from Next Generation’s third season, where virtually the same thing happens with Picard. (Only we’re not treated to the sight of Martin Landau leading his castmates in a round of drinking songs - darn!) (more…)

Space: 1999’s second season continues in this set with The Rules Of Luton - no, not that Luton! Essentially the Space: 1999 version of the Classic Trek episode Arena, only with a trio of healthy-looking trees directing the combatants, Luton pits Koenig and Maya against three aliens (one of whom would go on to be one of the original regular cast members of Blake’s 7) in a contest of cunning and endurance. It’s a bit silly, but basically, if you’ve seen Arena, you know how this one turns out. (more…)

Wow! Look at all that color! There are times when you’d almost think that Space: 1999 was shot in black & white, judging by the first season. But one of the issues addressed during planning for the second season by new producer Fred Freiberger (of third season of Star Trek fame) was the “drab factor.” Realistic though it may have been, some of the first season episodes were lifeless both visually and emotionally, and The Metamorph certainly makes up for lost time on the visual end of things. In terms of scripting…well, it’s more of the same. I like Space: 1999, but I’ll readily admit that it doesn’t have the thought, coherence or verve that I wish it had on the pages of the script. (more…)

I almost can’t believe I’m saying this about a Space: 1999 episode - and I’ll admit, I’ve been giving this show quite a bit of grief in my reivews - but The Troubled Spirit has one of the most interesting opening teasers I’ve seen from any show in a long time, playing out over a lengthy electric sitar jam with absolutely no dialogue. As trippy as it might sound from my description, it’s actually quite effective. The rest of the episode doesn’t quite live up to its promising intro, fading into the background among the rest of season one’s mind-possession plotlines. (more…)

This third set opens on an incredibly dull note with Collision Course, a story which attempts to be a deep examination of faith vs. logic (but isn’t). It doesn’t help that it boasts some of Martin Landau’s hammiest acting in the entire series, but also has the intriguing concept of a situation where the crew of Moonbase Alpha may need to deliberately reproduce the kind of massive nuclear blast that sent the moon plunging into deep space to begin with. Things pick up immensely with Death’s Other Dominion, starring an impossibly young (but still, as always, thunderously-voiced) Brian Blessed as the somewhat shady de-facto leader of a doomed society. (more…)

There are times when I ask myself just what I could have been thinking when I embarked on a Space: 1999 episode guide. My hazy memories of the show were far fonder before I invested in multiple DVD box sets and got reacquainted with the series. But it is an important and, in hindsight, useful part of SFTV history. I’ll explain more in a bit. First let’s talk about the episodes included in this 2-disc set.

When you’ve got a DVD set that opens up with an episode featuring Peter Cushing with a long grey wig (did he borrow it from his good friend Christopher Lee?), you’re either watching Space: 1999 again, or you smoked something before watching one of the Hammer Frankenstein movies. (more…)

Ahhh, Space: 1999. I have to give the show a little bit of credit for being the first serious attempt to follow in the footsteps of Star Trek with a military-style SF series, but at the same time, the parallels are uncanny - and in some cases in unfortunate. Both series’ lead actors are capable of both sublime subtlety as well as hamming it up in the first degree. Both series featured groundbreaking set and costume designs for their respective eras. And both shows limped into their final seasons under the auspices of Fred Freiberger, who promptly treated each show to a lobotomy. It’s really kind of eerie if you think about it. (more…)