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- Sound F/X - Original recreations of the sound effects using FFT transforms.
- Episode Audio - Listen to Space:1999 episodes! Download to your iPod!
- Eagle Decals - Hi resolution Testors decal sheets for your AMT/MPC/Airfix Eagle model.
- Images - Original artwork from years past.
- Sparkling Memories - An original Space:1999 story.
- My Stuff - My personal collection and some fond reminiscing about the Space:1999 series.
- www.joelowens.org - Back to the rest of my website.
Welcome to Moonbase Alpha...
...scientific research station and home to the Space Program's training facilities and - monitor station for the world's nuclear storage dump located on the moon's far side. This array of laboratories, hydroponics centers, and power facilities is home to 311 scientists and highly trained technical staff.
Intently the world is watching as a wandering planet, code named "Meta" is passing through the solar system. It grabs the fascination of the scientific community, and plans are made to send a probe there. It seems there is some type of radio signal being transmitted from Meta which appears to be a non-naturally occurring nature. Astronauts are being trained, the probe ship is being carefully prepared for the long journey.
Meanwhile, the world's biggest problem is lurking in the shadows: Nuclear Waste. After battling with communities for years as to where to put the sinister remains of generating nuclear power for the world, top advisors finally decided to send it to the moon where it would pose no environmental hazard to life, and where it could be carefully monitored by the scientists stationed on Alpha.
As the nuclear waste lies silent in its various tombs at Areas One and Two, cumulative reactions are slowly but surely taking place and increasing rapidly.
The only symtom to alarm anyone that there is something going awry is that astronauts and storage area personnel are beginning to get ill and die. The two primary astronauts for the Meta Probe mission are among the first to become ill. For PR reasons, the entire mystery is labeled a "virus infection" so as to not raise big alarms of impending failure with the public on Earth. Commander John Koenig is assigned to take the helm at Alpha to solve the mystery and get the Meta Probe launched on its way.
Shortly after Commander Koenig, the head of Medical Center Dr. Russell, and the leading research scientist Professor Bergman are putting all the clues together, Waste Disposal Area One blows itself up in a huge blast of sparks and lunar rocks. Professor Bergman sees it as the sure sign of what is to come - Area Two's explosive demise...
Commander Koenig replies, "
Even as efforts are under way to diffuse the danger by dispersing the fissile materials, soon the reaction there exponentially builds up until the point that it explodes in the largest detonation ever. The moon is propelled out of it's native Earth orbit, where the adventure and fight for survival begins for the Alphans.
This moon which is motoring its way through the deepest reaches of space will become home and the story basis for many events that follow. They will encounter alien life, strange worlds very different from their home, and even locate a few of their own brothers and sisters in places one would not suspect.
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Listen to episodes of Space:1999
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 Breakaway
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Matter of Life and Death
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Black Sun
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Ring Around the Moon
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Earthbound
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Another Time, Another Place
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Missing Link
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Guardian of Piri
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Force of Life
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Alpha Child
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The Last Sunset
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Voyager's Return
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Collision Course
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Death's Other Dominion
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The Full Circle
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End of Eternity
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War Games
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The Last Enemy
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The Troubled Spirit
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Space Brain
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The Infernal Machine
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Mission of the Darians
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Dragon's Domain
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Testament of Arkadia
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Here's a piece of soundtrack music you've never owned before from Collision Course:
 Exploring Arra's Ship
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The Opening Theme Shots:
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About the Series:
The First Year
Space:1999 was a wonderful, but short-lived science-fiction series produced in England during the middle 1970's.
It was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who had already brought several prior sci-fi offerings to table, most notably The Thunderbirds and U.F.O.. The first season of Space:1999 was the watermark of the series, giving a sense of majesty, adventure, and even effective displays of horror to the field of space. Lighting played a key factor in creating the atmosphere; not every set was lit to the max, often the level of seriousness was indicated by the amount of darkness in a particular room.
The music was symphonic as well as majestic, and provided an ambience unmatched in prior TV sci-fi (althought it was hot on the heels of the classically tracked 2001:A Space Odyssey). It was very original in its concept, also there were very few computer driven special effects; and Star Wars had not yet been seen by the public eye. It was a refreshing break from those countless re-runs of classic Star Trek. (As kids, many of us were still glued to the screen after school everyday - model Enterprise in hand waiting to see which episode would run today...)
Similarities in the structure of the buildings and spacecraft bore a strong resemblence to things already drawn up or built by NASA. There were also strong similiarities between the moonbase of Space:1999 and that of 2001:A Space Odyssey. The interior of the moonbase had a clean plastic and strongly backlit look, combined with sleek futuristic furniture, with strong influence of the 60's and 70's "Space Age" look. It seemed very few sets were lit without diffusion panels or small localized lamps. The uniforms were clean and simple, with a single colored sleeve on the tunic to indicate the department the wearer belonged to. I believe it was this atmosphere that gave the series a large gravitational pull on its fans.
There were some shortcomings of Year One. While the technical aspects of Moonbase Alpha and the Eagle had their roots in the same research that was done when 2001:A Space Odyssey and NASA walked hand-in-hand to develop that movie, it was clear that the technical advisors had left the set once the props were built. There were things that didn't follow well with known science of the 1970's even, and looks even further off-course from today's technically minded society. Obviously there isn't going to be "heat, without atomic activity" and nuclear fusion rocket motors to drive an Eagle without raining Mega-REMs of atomic trash. Lasers don't stun people, but a surgical laser large enough to push around on a cart with a 220V 50A cord will likely burn someone or cause blindness. Things don't just explode for no reason. But, as they say, you have to keep in mind "It's entertainment" and by golly, that it is!
The Second Year
Sadly, the second season saw several of the cast's better loved main characters written completely out, and the addition of Fred Freiberger (of the original Star Trek series) to the production crew. Gerry Anderson took very seriously the complaints about the series, because he wanted to create a successful program. The first season very rarely had humourous moments, and there were places in certain scripts where the character's relationships were out of their normal context. It made it difficult to clearly identify the interpersonal relationships between the main characters swirling around the sappy conversation.
(You would think that normally, 311 - [e.g. a medium church congregation], people living in close quarters would soon develop small groups of close friends and relationships - yet there were some very inexplicable face-offs between characters which didn't blend well with episode continuity. We would guess that anyone working in Main Mission would be part of a core group of friends who worked as professionals together.)
The second season also attempted to add humor to the characters, but the script writing suffered on this level as well. Space-humor is difficult to write at best, and in this case the humor was often not funny, and even embarrassing to the point of making the characters look very shallow. Episode plots were paper thin in most cases, relegated to "That Bad Alien's After Us Again". Instead of original thought-provoking scripts, each became stereotypical of the others around it.
During this era of television, one is reminded of
M*A*S*H's Hawkeye Pierce, Charles Emerson Winchester, B.J. Honeycutt, the deep and yet humorous Father Mulcahey, the silly but big-hearted Max Klinger, Margaret Hoolihan. These were three dimensional characters we could all relate to. They acted silly but were serious when the occasion called for it. They had struggles and moral convictions. This was state-of-the-art acting. In Space:1999 we were looking for these similarities - these people we could connect with. Deep and meaningful characterizations were noticably absent from Year Two of Space:1999.One notable thing about Year Two was that there were some romantic relationships struggling to the surface, but these were being scripted during a time when the two lead characters were, in real life, divorcing. It was evident on the screen. But, to its credit, there were some friendships that were given some realization in Year Two. We were beginning to see some of the more "off-duty" qualities of these people.
The overall image of Space:1999, which started out under intense scientific scrutiny, was cheapened further during Year Two. Evidently the corporation and the show's critics thought similarly, and the series was cancelled at the end of the Year Two.
Personally, I tend to hold that the series ended wonderfully after the first season with the episode entitled "Testament of Arkadia" where Alphans locate the beginnings of human plantings. The second season has its loyal followers as well, but it was too big a leap away from the Space:1999 of Year One that I recognized and loved.
The Continuing Mission...
A large group of fans still gives this 2-year series a strong following, even 30 years after the show left the air. The series ran for a while on the Sci-Fi Channel, and gathered a few new fans who were too young to have seen the show in original broadcast. There are several superbly constructed web sites dedicated to this series. You may wish to check out the Space:1999 Net ,or follow the web ring on the controls below.
My vote for the two best Space:1999 websites are:
Conventions are held usually each year various places. I have never been priviledged to attend one, or to meet any of the cast and crew (it's a dream of mine...) They are usually too far away, or much too expensive a vacation.
I always loved this series. I was 12 or 13 when it premiered in the US. I can remember being completely awestruck by the opening sequence of each episode, the music and the fast flashing visuals with little scene-blips from "This Episode". That beginning Timpani drum roll to this day makes my hair stand on the back of my neck.
This series had some neat and completely believable gadgetry. The commlock, used for communications and entry control. Each unit was coded by its owner to allow them entry into only the areas they were authorized. The little viewscreen on the top to allow visual communications was a neat idea, and we are starting to see a little of that technology today in video-conferences and video calls over the internet.
The idea of area-control security is something in use in many businesses today to allow employees only into areas where they are required to work. Although there wasn't too much "Hi-Tech", as this was supposed to take place in the very near future, there was apparently some good insight into what technology might look like in the year 1999. From the scripting, it was also fairly apparent that people didn't have a lot of idea where the computer was about to develop, and how they would function in the years shortly to come after the production of this series.
The Eagle spacecraft was an ingenious idea with some very neat utility ideas and steering controls straight off the Apollo command and lunar modules.
It had the look of a NASA produced spaceship and was the perfect mode of transportation for the series. I have to admit I never understood why the controls were in Greek (yes, they were "Greek to me", too).
So, What's Up With Space:1999 Today?
- You Can Still Watch the Series!
- 3 Complete Episodes - Newly remastered from recently unarchived materials,
featuring in-depth behind-the-scenes running audio commentary: - Testament of Arcadia - featuring commentary by series co-creator Sylvia Anderson
- Dragon's Domain - featuring commentary by episode writer Johnny Byrne & Year 1 Story Consultant Christopher Penfold
- Death's Other Dominion featuring commentary by series expert Scott Michael Bosco
- World Premiere of the fan-produced series ending "Message from Moonbase Alpha"
- Vintage Interview with Year 2 Set Designer Keith Wilson
- Alternate Sequences from Key Episodes
- Gallery of Original Series Memorabilia
- Gallery of Stills from Deleted and Alterrnnate Scenes
- Gallery of Behind-the-Scenes General Proodduction Stills
- Gallery of Behind-the-Scenes SFX Stills
Space:1999 Memorabilia and Collectibles
- Join the Main Mission Community Group
- Other Websites and Web Pages
- Also, feel free to email me! I have enjoyed several conversations over email with fans of the show from around the world.
Space:1999 is available on DVD (but VHS availability is fading fast). There is a MegaSet that contains both seasons and the Bonus DVD. You may also purchase these as 2-disc packs in plastic standard cases. The DVD Megaset which contains both seasons plus a Bonus disc is now available thru A&E Store as well (however, it is a little pricey compared to Best Buy). The original A&E Megaset packaging is no longer available, as it was nearly $200 for the set.
During a promotional offer by A&E (March 2003), they sent me this great T-Shirt for placing their link on this site. I love this shirt, even thought it's starting to get a little old now, it's one I'll treasure for a long time.
Bonus DVD with purchase of the full series set
This bonus disc contains the following special features:
The Space 1999 DVD Bonus Disc also includes:
Extensive Photo Galleries, Including:
I also noticed (Summer 2008) the "DVD Megaset" has been reduced in size and price - Located several at Best Buy, $70.44 USD at last check. This is an environmentally-friendly repackaging.
The original DVD 2-packs are still available at horendous prices (about $35 USD each).
There are tons of Space:1999 items over at Fabgear including die-cast Eagles and many other items.
May I also suggest you check with Ebay for other Space:1999 DVD's and merchandise as well. If you are looking for vintage, original issue Space:1999 items, this is the place for you.
This is a relatively new startup forum (Summer 2008). You can find them at space1999.aforumfree.com.
I am a member of this forum, but not very active.
No doubt if you have searched the Internet for Space:1999 forums, you have seen the Yahoo!Group "Online-Alpha".
This is the larger body of "fans", however my personal observation is Caveat Lector.
I can no longer in good conscience participate in nor endorse their forum.
There are many Space:1999 websites along a WebRing that you can visit.
Many of them are "hubbed" off of Space1999.net.
There is also Space1999.org which hosts some original art and stories by fans as well as other news and ongoing 'stuff'.
Occasionally there is a convention dedicated solely to Space:1999. They are few and far between, only on rare occasion does a star actually show up, usually they contact one or two by teleconference, but this seems to be a dying thing.
I have spotted a few Space:1999 items at various other conventions, but again those are getting fewer and farther between as well.
Navigating the WebRing
This Site has been a Proud Member of the Space:1999 Web Ring since March, 2000!
Thank you for visiting my page, and I hope you'll take a moment to write!
Today is
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The Space:1999 - Ring Around The Moon Webring.
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This Space:1999 site was last updated on
October 28, 2009.
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