Breakaway Day Greetings.

 Another year has gone by, and once again it's September 13th.  It's been 21 years since September 13, 1999.

I was recently watching bits and pieces of 2001: A Space Odyssey.   Once again the thought came to mind that if someone had done a TV series spinoff of 2001 it would have looked a lot like the first season of Space:  1999.  The visual influence of the former on the latter is pretty obvious.  I'm guessing some of the plots would have easily been transferable between the two.  

And for those who didn't know September 13th is Barbara Bain's birthday.  She turns 89 today.  I wonder if this was coincidence, or if the choice of a date for Breakaway was because she co-starred in the series.

Breakaway, 20th Anniversary.

Wow, September 13, 1999 is 20 years ago.   Space: 1999 debuted 44 years ago.  Time sure has gone by.  As always at this time of year we wish you an unhappy Breakaway Day. 

Despite this being an old fandom with virtually no chance of a revival someone thinks it's still worth putting out product.  Shout! Factory has released the complete series on DVD and Blu-Ray this year for the North American market.  I would imagine this is probably the last commercial release we'll see for the series, as I doubt there are too many under 40 members of the fandom.  This being the 20th anniversary I really should give the whole series a view again. 

Unhappy Breakaway Day 2018.

Once again September 13th has come.  This is the 19th anniversary of the Moon being blown out of Earth orbit in at least one universe.  It's hard to imagine that it will be 20 years since 1999 next year.  I'm thinking that I'll sit down one of these days and binge watch the whole of the first season.

Breakaway Day Greetings!

Yep,  another September 13th has rolled around, and as tradition here we acknowledge that today is Breakaway Day.  The big news in the Space: 1999 fandom this year was of course the death of Martin Landau on July 15th.  Hopefully the rest of the cast is around for many years to come.

Of course it's not just the cast that is ageing.  The fandom itself is ageing.  Most people who are fans were fans when the series first aired in the '70s.  Even younger fans, who caught on to the show via reruns in the '80s and '90s aren't that young either.  I'm sure the occasional newcomer picks up on the series, but it doesn't have the same kind of footprint as other older fandoms, and a new TV series or movie is increasingly unlikely.  So, barring some surprise, the fandom is slowly going to decline as the years go on.

Goodbye, Commander.

Veteran actor Martin Landau has died at 89.  If things had worked out a bit differently Landau might be known as a cartoonist instead of an actor.  He was still a teen when the New York Daily News hired him as a cartoonist, but five years later he decided to quit to pursue acting.  A student of Lee Strasberg, Landau's big break came when Alfred Hitchcock saw him in a play, and cast him as the villainous Leonard in North by Northwest, leading to a nearly 60 year career.

My first real exposure to Landau was as Commander John Koenig in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999, where he starred opposite his then wife Barbara Bain.  In memoriam here's the Space: 1999 episode "The Black Sun," one of Landau's favourites.

Breakaway+17+40.

Once more it's September 13th, and as is tradition here on the blog we commemorate Breakaway Day.  On this day in 1999 the Moon was blown out of Earth orbit by a massive explosion of nuclear waste on the far side.  By an unknown process this led to the Moon being flung across the Universe, taking with it the crew of Moonbase Alpha.

The title to this post is a callback to last year's Breakaway Day post.  This year is the 40th anniversary of the second and final season of Space: 1999.  CBC in Canada aired the first episode of year 2, "The Metamorph," on Saturday, September 18, 1976.  I remember CBC advertising the upcoming season with a clip from "The Metamorph" some time before that date, although I can't remember how far beforehand it was. 

The second season did well enough that further episodes were considered, but ultimately series producers ITC/ATV decided that the lack of a major US network order didn't make future episodes viable. 

Breakaway+16+40.

Another year has gone by, and once more it's Breakaway Day.  On this day 16 years ago a massive explosion of Nuclear Disposal Area 2, on the Moon's far side, sent the Moon out of Earth's orbit, flinging it into deep space.  For the survivors on Moonbase Alpha it was the beginning of a journey across the Universe.

In our world this year also marks the fortieth anniversary of Space: 1999 hitting TV screens in the UK and elsewhere.  For those of us who saw the show when it was new it's weird to think we first saw it that long ago.  At the time it was the only new science fiction TV series set in space, its contemporaries such as The Six Million Dollar Man and The Invisible Man being set primarily or entirely on Earth. 

Space: 1999 was created in an era when the possibilities for manned space exploration seemed huge.  Men had landed on the Moon, Skylab was active, and plans were in the works for the joint Soviet-American Apollo-Soyuz mission.  So it's no surprise that the series envisioned manned spaceflights to the outer Solar System in the mid '80s and '90s, and a manned base on the Moon.  Years later Gerry Anderson would admit he was overly optimistic in setting the show in 1999, but everyone else was thinking the same kind of things as well.  Of course we would have a base on the Moon soon.  Unfortunately for everyone space travel in the real world proved a lot more complicated than it did on TV.

As with everything else fandoms for television have changed a lot in that forty years.  It's funny to think of how fandom then was pretty much entirely based around printed material, including whatever licensed material was released in connection with a series, articles in commercial publications and newspapers, and fan publications exchanged between local fans or sent by mail.   By modern standards the amount available was generally quite limited, and it often took weeks or even months for news to reach fans.  Things like fan art and fanfiction existed, but distribution was limited to the small publishing runs of whatever fan publication it was submitted to. 

I watched "Breakaway" tonight on a Sony Walkman.  No, the tiny screen isn't an optimal way to watch a TV episode, but it seemed appropriate to watch it on something that would have seemed amazingly high tech and exciting to the 8 year old version of me who watched the series in 1975 and 1976, a gizmo that could have been lifted right from the set of the show itself.  (Well, perhaps if it was beige plastic, not the lovely wine colour mine is.)  Even being able to watch an episode whenever you want would have seemed exciting in an era before people owned VCRs to record things, and before commercially released TV episodes existed.  That's of course one of the greatest changes from the mid '70s, the instant access to programs and information we have.  And of course it's something that isn't reflected at all in the series. But hey, most other science fiction of the '70s didn't get it right either.

I Got It In.

As I mentioned in  my previous post I planned to watch "The Dorcons" for Breakaway Day.  And I did in the last hour of September 13th.  So I watched both the first and last episodes of Space: 1999 on September 13th.

Watching "The Dorcons" the thought came to mind that they're a bit like Stargate: SG1's Goa'uld.  Incredibly dangerous if you face them at a distance, but not so dangerous close in because of their arrogance.  After all the Dorcon ship apparently has no way of tracking down intruders other than having security goons look for them on foot, which implies it's been a long time since anyone has dared to stand up to them.  Especially when you consider that the ship is carrying the equivalent of an emperor.  And Malik, the out and out villain of the episode, almost succeeds because Counselor Varda isn't willing to deal with him as harshly as she should. 

The obvious question is whether the Dorcons would have returned if a Year 3 of the series had been filmed.  After all Maya describes them as the most powerful civilisation in the galaxy.  Apparently there was consideration during the later stages of filming Year 2 that a Maya spinoff series might be developed, and that possibly she wouldn't be seen in Year 3, so perhaps the Dorcons might have shown up in that spinoff.  (The fact the proposed spinoff, and for that matter Year 3 itself, was only supposed to be 13 episodes might have made it a hard sell in the North American market, which expected 24 episodes a season for a drama in those days.)

The episode really doesn't work as a closure to the series.  When filming ended in December of '76 Gerry Anderson and ITC still thought there was a chance of new episodes.  Besides, TV shows weren't as likely to have definite endings in those days as they have in recent years. 

Breakaway Day +15.

The years go by, don't they?  Today is the 15th anniversary of the Moon leaving orbit in certain universes.  When I first saw Space: 1999 September 13th, 1999 was 25 years away. I was 8 years old, and now I'm...somewhat older than that.

Since it's Breakaway Day I watched "Breakaway" this morning.  I intend to watch "The Dorcons" tonight as a "first and last" thing.  Someday I should really watch a bunch of episodes in a row.  For those of you who don't have access to the series on DVD or some other format here's "Breakaway" from YouTube.

Did You Do This?

I'd love to know who did this version of the Space: 1999 year one theme.  The guy who posted it would like to know too.  It's a good one.

13, 14, 13.

Another year has gone by, and it's time to once again commemorate an important anniversary on this blog.  Once again it's Breakaway Day, this year being the 14th anniversary of the Moon being blown out of orbit.  Kind of neat that September 13th in 2013 falls on a Friday the Thirteenth.  As for September 13th, 1999 it was a Monday. Talk about a bad start to the work week, especially if you were working in emergency services or the international space program.

Goodbye Gerry.

Veteran British TV creator/producer Gerry Anderson died today at age 83.   He first came to notice as the mind behind such puppet/marionette series, most with science fiction themes as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet before moving to live action with the 1968 movie Doppleganger, known in North America as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.  Anderson's most successful live action production would turn out to be 1975's Space: 1999, starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.  Although he had been working on a number of projects in recent years it was announced in June of this year he was suffering from Alzheimers.

In memoriam here's "Breakaway," the opening episode of Space: 1999

The Thirteenth of Thirteen.

Time keeps marching on.  It's the thirteenth anniversary of September 13, 1999.  What was the future is increasingly the past.  In any case, Unhappy Breakaway Day.

Addenda:  I just checked, and I missed noting Breakaway Day last year.  How embarrassing.

Walking On The Moonbase.

Fans of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's mid '70s sci fi TV series Space: 1999 have often wondered about the idea of a  remake.  Some dreaded the idea, some wanted it, and many just didn't think it was possible.  Now, 12 and a half years after the year 1999 itself has come and gone we've got word that someone is taking the plunge.  ITV America is teaming up with HD Films, who were behind the ABC revival of V, to produce Space: 2099.  We can now write off at least one possibility that I personally have always suspected was the most likely way we'd see a "revival;"  namely as a spoof of the original a la The Brady Bunch movies.  Producer Jace Hall says the series won't be a "dark and gritty" reboot, although such  a tone would in fact fit quite well with the first season of the original, which had its share of what I'd call gothic horror.(A good example would be the episode "The Troubled Spirit," where Alpha is menaced by a man's vengeful ghost before he dies.) 

This new version is of course a reimagining/reboot, as the date change from 1999 to 2099 should make obvious.  When discussing a new 1999 you always see fans who want a direct continuation of the original, which isn't a viable idea.  All that would do is utterly confuse viewers who have no contact with the original.  Will this 21st Century version work?  It's still early days on the project, and more than one series revival project has sputtered out or been unable to find a buyer.  The Andersons' own UFO was the subject of 2 remake attempts in 1996 and early 2000s that never went much further than some concept art.(A big screen movie version is currently in production, with a projected screen date of 2013.)  No doubt some will be skeptical given the failure of HD's V remake to thrive, but that series did air. 

HD Films has a webpage up for the series.  Obviously not much real detail is available yet, but they are interacting with the fandom.

Eleven.

It was eleven years ago today that the Moon started its uncontrolled journey across the Universe.  Well, a Universe, just not ours.  In other words, unhappy Breakaway Day!

What A Surprise.

Looking at the main page of the blog after making the last post I spotted a surprising ad in my Google Adsense banner. It was for a DVD of Destination Moonbase Alpha. This was a compilation film created out of the two part second season Space: 1999 episode "Bringers of Wonder." ATV/ITC apparently hoped to have this released theatrically, but there is no evidence this ever happened. It did appear on TV in various places over the years. Since it was made out of two parts of the same story it holds together much better than the other attempts at 1999 compilation movies, Alien Attack, Journey Through the Black Sun, and Cosmic Princess. Annoying the episodes used for these were pulled from syndication, so for many years no one was able to watch the original versions when the series aired on TV. The movies aired in Canada at least as late as August of 1999, when Space: The Imagination Station aired them. Apparently whoever was scheduling things at Space then was kind of clueless about the show, as they really should have aired in September of 1999 to coincide with Moon being blown out of orbit in the series on September 13, 1999. Not that Space seemed much interested in the series anyways, as they never aired it in its original form.

Seeing a DVD release for it advertised via Google isn't something I ever would have expected.

Big Jim On Alpha.

Yes, I'm a Space: 1999 fan. Why did you ask?

From YouTube here's the opening sequence from the first season episode "The Troubled Spirit." This music, parts of which is used elsewhere in the episode, is performed by well known British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, who appears as the musician playing the music on Moonbase Alpha. The instrument used is a Coral Electric Sitar, a guitar designed to have a sitar like sound. It was created by the Danelectro guitar company in the mid '60s with the help of New York sessioner Vinnie Bell to cash in on the Indian music fad launched by Beatles' recordings like "Norwegian Wood."

The episode is a good example of the often gothic and psychedelic feel of the first season of the series. Chaos is unleashed when an attempt to communicate with plants(plant intelligence being an idea popular when the episode was made, now long debunked) causes Alpha scientist Dan Mateo's vengeful spirit to haunt Alpha before Mateo's death.

Point Of Order.

Today a lot of attention is paid to between episode continuity of TV shows. Some shows are strongly continuity oriented, with the writers trying to create an ongoing story arc across many episodes. Even shows that aren't tend to pay attention to the issue. But that wasn't always the case. There was a time when it was considered better to avoid strong continuity so that a series could be aired in any order. The first season of Space: 1999 was a typical example, and what order you saw the episodes in depended on what station you were watching it on. Although many fans today feel production order is the best choice others have different ideas. Andrew Kearley has come up with his own viewing order, and his thinking behind this order makes for interesting reading. If you're familiar with the series give it a look, and see how it compares to your arrangement, assuming you have a prefered order.

Tenth.

Wow, hard to believe it's ten years already since the Moon was blown out of orbit. Well, it is if you live in a certain parallel universe. Once 1999 seemed so far away, and now it's ten years gone. Too bad we don't have the kind of space program portrayed in Space: 1999, minus the whole losing the Moon aspect.

Oddly enough September 13th also happens to be Barbara Bain's birthday. She turned 78 today. It would be interesting to know if Gerry Anderson chose the date for Breakaway before or after he hired her to play Helena Russell.

Nine Years On.

It's that time of year again. In certain universes it was nine years ago on this date that the Moon was blown out of Earth orbit by the detonation of a huge stockpile of nuclear waste as the result of an unforeseen interaction with the surrounding lunar rock. If you're visiting from one of them I hope you enjoyed any chances you've had to see the Moon in its proper place in the sky.