Free Destination: Moonbase Alpha by Robert E. Wood

Barbara Bain, Martin Landau and others.’ [10]
    ‘The second episode in the series (“Matter of Life and Death”) gave several indications the series will offer that which science fiction fans have been clamoring for. Its story was an adult theme complete with moral; its production values stressed explosive special effects as well as impressionistic renderings; the direction by Charles Crichton was imaginative and the acting was unimpeachably above the average for television. It was material far better suited for the big screen than little.’ [11]
     
    ‘ Space: 1999 is a visually stunning, space-age morality play that chronicles the downfall of 20th Century technological man … That Space: 1999 is a brilliant piece of 20th Century technological art, filmmaking, is readily evident at a glance. What is perhaps less obvious is that the producers are using technology and art to talk about other issues.’ [12]
     
    ‘ Space: 1999 is important because it fills a need. It satisfies a genuine hunger in the TV audience: a national longing for a good new science fiction series. The networks, economically flat and creatively stale, seem locked into a mind-set incapable of imagining anything but new cops and sitcom spin-offs. Space: 1999 is a handsome rebuke to that kind of thinking.’ [13]
     
    Other commentators, by contrast, hated the show:
     
    ‘The plots and characterisation on Space: 1999 have been primitive. All the events that take place are science fiction clichés.’ [14]
     
    ‘This series wasn’t produced – it was committed, like a crime … The special effects are good, but the actors are awful, even Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. Miss Bain’s part is the zombiest, which is some distinction, as the cast is huge.’ [15]
     
    ‘ Space: 1999 is also guilty of giving its actors lines pedestrian enough to qualify as instant camp.’ [16]
     
    ‘A disappointing collage of wooden characters, boring dialogue and incomprehensible plots.’ [17]
     
    ‘The main characters were all as cold as a Pluto moonrise, and the plots didn’t make a lot of sense.’ [18]
     
    Some aspects of Space: 1999 , such as the subtle performances of many cast members, play better now than they did decades ago. Today, viewers have adjusted to a more understated style of acting thanks to shows like The X-Files . Back in the mid-1970s, people who were expecting Martin Landau to emote like William Shatner on Star Trek would have been disappointed.
    There are those who might infer that Space: 1999 is limited by the date in its title and is now little more than a relic of the past. However, George Orwell’s 1984 and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey are shining examples of science fiction with virtues that carry on untarnished by the passage of dates on a calendar. Space: 1999 presented stories of people like us, alone against the unknown and often in awe of the infinite complexities and mysteries of the universe. At times abstract, esoteric and metaphysical, Space: 1999 was anything but a standard by-the-books televised adventure series.
    In the words of Johnny Byrne, ‘ Space: 1999 was remarkable for many things, but one of the things that it was truly remarkable for … wasn’t so much that it was multicultural – there was no talk of white or black, or Jew, or straight or gay, or men or women. What united [the characters] was the thing that unites all of us. I think it’s summed up in “The Metamorph” with, ”We’re all aliens until we get to know each other.” It is that humanity. Sometimes humanity does not march to the same beat as political expedience … The only divisions the Alphans had were the coloured costume sleeves that showed the areas in which they worked. There never seemed to be a problem.’
    In the following pages, the episodes will be explored in depth. Complementing this author’s Reviews are the Commentary sections, featuring the words of the actors, writers, producers, and others who actually