By John Kenneth Muir
Although 2000 is almost here, there will never be a more appropriate time to remember and celebrate the imaginative TV speculation of Space:1999. If fans can no longer look to the fictional events of the series as occuring in some near future, then perhaps it is time to modulate our thinking, re-invent our perceptions, and re-examine the series, One way of doing this is to embrace the proud of history of Space:1999's 25 year journey: to study its origins, time on the air, cancellation and the ensuing - and fascinating - quarter century of viewer devotion and debate.
Although it may be difficult for the younger sci-fi fans weaned on Babylon 5 (1993-1998), and SeaQuest DSV (1993-96) to recall, Space:1999 was the outer space series of choice for the genre fanatics in the mid-1970s. No bull. Anybody who lived through those days remembers this to be so. The series was a cause celebre. People loved it; people hated it, but everybody watched. In the age of disco, there was no Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), Deep Space Nine (1993-1998) or Voyager (1995-2001). Even the beloved original Star Trek (1966-1969) aired only in reruns on local stations. Except for Space:1999, science fiction on television in those days was limited to superhero programs such as The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-78), The Bionic Woman (1976-78), and ventures like Logan's Run (1977), and Planet of the Apes (1974).
Thus Space:1999 is important from an historical perspective because it filled a programming black hole in the 1970s. It was, simply, the only brand-new space adventure in the known universe. Significantly, Space:1999 also preceded Star Wars (1977) by two full years and pioneered the special effects breakthroughs popularized by that George Lucas production. Indeed, Space: 1999 was the acknowledged standard-bearer for the technicians who toiled on Star Wars with John Dykstra.(1) Standing as it does between the peaks of Star Trek and Star Wars, Space:1999 is often overlooked or dismissed by genre critics and enthusiasts, even though it is surely the spiritual bridge between two generations of important science fiction adventures. Space:1999 is actually the glue between Trek and Wars, the two most popular space adventures in American culture and history. The next time someone asks why bother with a retro space adventure one can remind the questioner that Space:1999 is: a.) historically important within the science fiction television genre and b.) the stepping stone between Star Trek and Star Wars, and ultimately Star Trek: The Next Generation.
There is another point of history worth observing. Space:1999 was nothing short of a critical and ratings bonanza when it first aired in the United States. Star Trek fans and writers may wish desperately to revise that truth, but they can't. The facts are on Space:1999's side. Again, let's look to our history. The year was 1975, and Space:1999 was sold in the United States to 156 local stations. This was a massive infiltration victory for a foreign-produced show, one unmatched in the annals of American syndicated television. Even recent home-grown fare such as Earth: Final Conflict or Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda are lucky to infiltrate eighty percent of the American market (as opposed to Space:1999's whopping 95+ percent). Space:1999 was undoubtedly attractive to local stations because Time, Newsweek and other major publications widely reported that the 1975-76 prime time network schedule was the worst in history. Rather than air certain network losers, network affiliates took a risk on Space:1999, often broadcasting it in prime-time. In the end, Space:1999 aired all over the United States and in 101 foreign countries. In America, impressed local affiliates even pre-empted Happy Days, The Six Million Dollar Man, Sanford and Son, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times and Rhoda to air it.
Rewardingly, Space:1999 immediately garnered "amazing ratings"(2) across the country, but especially in the critical urban markets such as Chicago (where it consistently garnered a 12 share), New York (9.5), Cleveland (9.4), Seattle, San Francisco and Portland. It is important to note that these numbers represent higher (much higher...) ratings than current hits such as Roswell, Angel, Charmed, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer ever managed to accrue. And importantly, Space:1999 wasn't even on a network such as the WB! It stood alone, without the advertising money or organizing principle of a network behind it. Still,, it was incredibly successful. In Washington D.C., for instance, Space:1999 was aired eight times in direct opposition to Star Trek reruns, a local talk show, and a brand new sitcom episode.
Outside of such history, another thing that makes Space:1999 valuable is that is certainly different from the norm. For instance, it is far more believably presented than many science fiction TV series. That's right -- I just wrote the unthinkable. I noted something which many know to be true but which is often contested. I'll repeat it. Space:1999 is perhaps the most believably presented space show in the history of the genre.
To wit, in the premiere episode of Space:1999 (entitled "Breakaway"), viewers are introduced to the sprawling lunar complex called Moonbase Alpha. Its Main Mission, Eagle spacecraft, subway-like travel tubes and spare living quarters are all depicted in utilitarian terms as believable pieces or near-future technology rather than extrapolations of a far-future epoch
I often state that Space:1999 uses good science as a starting point for its best speculative stories, while Star Trek: The Next Generation relies on techno-babble to resolve the majority of its tales. Which approach is preferable? Which is inherently more believable and dramatic? A story which is grounded in science and then ends in an unexplained mystery, or one that wraps everything up tidily, but with meaningless, pseudo-scientific answers that bear no importance or relevance to us as thinking, spiritual human beings? "Tertiary domains of subspace" and "dekyon fields" might get a writer out of a pinch, but they are also yawn inducing. By championing the cause of Space:1999 in 2000 and beyond, we announce to the powers that be that we desire the former: tales of mystery and awe set against the tapestry of science, technology and the stars.
Although many critics have been quick to claim that Space:1999 is scientifically preposterous, its commendable attention to details such as gravity, radiation levels, pressure suits and fuel consumption put truth to that lie in a most empirical way. All that stuff is right there on screen, in the episodes, if only critics would re-evaluate them. Frankly, Space:1999 is a very technical and very believable story of modern man in space, with all of his technological limitations along as baggage. In any number of Space:1999 episodes, attentive viewers will notice paper print-outs, colored computer disks (much like the ones we use on our PCs), small TV security monitors and other examples of believable, contemporary technology. Space:1999 is thus realistic, with one foot in the present and one in the future. Space:1999 even has its Alphan personnel read books (in "Force of Life" for example), rather than showing us such entertainment on holodecks. The result is that the characters are recognizable as human beings, not superheroes.
At the end of "Breakaway," Space:1999's first episode, the moon is rocked by a series of nuclear explosions and blown out of Earth's orbit. For many sci-fi buffs, it is this very exciting notion of the moon traveling through the void of space that renders Space:1999 unbelievable. Even though Isaac Asimov acknowledged this in his review of the series for The New York Times, he also noted that the science behind the ejection of the moon was adequate ("the scientific principle was correctly, if exaggeratedly used")(4). Still, he remarked that it would take 800 years for the moon to reach another solar system! Thankfully, the writers of the series did take into account this rather large hurdle of believability by permitting the runaway moon to encounter interstellar gateways (much like the wormhole featured on Deep Space Nine) in the episode "Black Sun," as well as a location-altering space phenomenon in Another Time and Place," and space warps in "The Metamorph" and "Space Warp."
Also, many Space:1999 adventures occurred in the "barren" span between solar systems and worlds wherein the Alphans had to confront visiting alien beings and their own feelings of isolation and loneliness ("Dragon's Domain," "The Troubled Spirit," "Force of Life.") And even better for purposes of dramatic realism, the savvy Space:1999 writers (in Year 2) began to offer log entries from Alpha's medical officer which revealed that the series was occurring across six years, not twenty-four weeks. This time-keeping device made at least some of the planet-hopping a little more palatable since the Alphans, by their reckoning, were not literally encountering a new world each and every week of their lives. Thus dramatic necessity and scientific accuracy combined to forge a believable television tapestry.
The next time someone states in your presence that Space:1999 is at all preposterous, one might remind them that all outer space series are preposterous to some degree. (The original) Battlestar Galactica posited an intergalactic migration without benefit of faster-than-light engines. Doctor Who rigorously forbade meddling in time, expect when that time happened to be post 20th century (i.e. our future, but someone else's past), and Star Trek offered the ridiculous notion that a quadrant-spanning, outer space United Nations could remain interconnected without a time-lag in communications. Oh, and that people of alien cultures could mate with humans to create offspring like Deanna Troi and Mr. Spock. The bottom line is that to enjoy these programs, we all choose which absurdities to accept. I suppose that I would rather suspend disbelief to enjoy the dangerous world of Space:1999 than sit back and complain that a traveling moon is absurd.
Space:1999 boasts another significant strength that is just as true in 2000 as it was in 1999, 1989, or 1986. Specifically, the content of Space:1999 is staggeringly good. Stated simply, the series is rich thematically. "Force of Life" by Johnny Byrne preserves the mystery of outer space by dramatizing an enigmatic entity's arrival on Moonbase Alpha and its manipulation of Alphan resources. The alien's motives are unfathomable, but there is also the hint of an analogy to nature: the alien is preparing to change, to transform into something greater. "Creative evolution," the process was called, and it made attentive viewers realize that the arena of space is frightening only because man does not yet understand it. If the Alphans could understand this entity and the mechanisms of the cosmos as we understand the life-cycle of the butterfly, perhaps they wouldn't be afraid of it. In other words, there is no evil in "Force of Life," only two wholly incompatible life-forms at odds with each other, attempting to survive.
"End of Eternity," also by Johnny Byrne, is nothing less than a Milton-esque horror show focusing on a Lucifer-like immortal cast-out from his homeworld. The villain, Balor, is a sadist intent on torturing the Alphans to relieve his boredom. The story is one part precursor to Terminator and Alien (how do you kill the unkillable?), one part Paradise Lost (with Balor dramatized as a smiling devil attempting to reign in Hell, having been cast-out from the Heaven of Progron), and one part old-fashioned cowboy showdown (with Balor and Koenig standing toe-to-toe like Old West gunslingers across the vast Main Mission control room). Ultimately, no matter how you choose to read it, the episode is riveting.
Continue to page 2.
Order it from Powys Media, and while you're there, pick up a copy of John's novel, the second in the series, The Forsaken.
More Space:1999
The Mutant Pulpit
Interview with Martin Landau
Interview with Brian Johnson
Heroes At Large: A Space:1999 Essay
The Destinies Interview with Muir on Space:1999 - The Forsaken