Space: 1999

[tous]

I have been watching reruns of this series for a while.

The premise is, there is a large base, much more than a habitat, on the Moon and they have been storing nuclear waste there.

In 1999 ( the series is from 1975  and it's British)  the nuclear waste suddenly kersplodes and pushes the Moon out of Earth's orbit.

The series, stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain after they left Mission: Impossible,  is the stories of what happens after as the Moon wanders in space.

 

Yes, it's really hokey, from the classic '70s designer uniforms to the control room filling with blinking lights and every alien they come in contact with speaks perfect English and somehow knows the name of the Moon's inhabitants, especially the senior staff.

 

That aside, consider the technology the writers anticipated and probably believed would be  genuine in 1999 -- 25 years later.

They had a base on the Moon with a population of thousands.

They had a computer that answered all of their questions, although it did so, even though they had monitors,  by printing the information on adding machine tape.

Oddly, the computer knew the location and name of planets and galaxies far from Earth's solar system.

They had neato space vehicles called Eagles with laser weapons.

They had big laser cannons and laser pistols with a switch between Stun and Kill.

In the pilot, it was heavily implied that there was a one-world government on Earth by then.

 

I suggest that those writers were not wildly imagining the future.

They likely thought that it would all become real in 25 years.

I was around then and the belief that humans would have bases on the Moon, we sent nuclear waste there,  neato spacecraft, laser pistols that could stun, computers that knew everything was not all all far=fetched or in the realm of fantasy.

It is too bad that anticipation and fascination with space and advancing science never happened. 

 

NB they had Africans, more than one and Orientals running around on the Moon base with the racist white supremacists -- which wasn't an issue anyone would notice or care about, not eve n Al Sharpton,  in 1976.

 

Even though it was Jimma Carter ruining the economy, I wish that we could regain the hope, anticipation of marvelous things to come  and optimism of that era.

Probably not.

[Batesmotel]

I loved that show as a kid. I was about 11 when it came out.  

[geeorge]

I never watched  enough of it to know the back story, and Martin always kinda creeped me out when I was kid

[gwalchmai]

Martin and Barbara were actually Romulan advisors in the first two Earth Proxy Wars. The blond chick from BSG wasn't really a blond. Or a chick. Or even a Cylon. And she drank the BudLight.

[Huaco Kid]

Never heard of it.

Did they kill all the younglings?

[Huaco Kid]

I lived in Britain. We had Thunderbirds and Space Patrol.

Being British TV, even those marionettes could get pretty graphic with the adult-content and blowing the other guy's arm off.

[Batesmotel]

2 hours ago, geeorge said:

I never watched  enough of it to know the back story, and Martin always kinda creeped me out when I was kid

He creeped me out as an adult. Great actor though. 

[tous]

An episode from last week showed the resident scientist, Victor Bergman (played by Barry Morse -- one wonders how that many American actors were cast in a British television series) sitting at a desk and using a slide rule. 

This, on a lunar base with a computer than knows everything and can calculate even more everything.

They also failed to invent automatic doors, common on Earth,  by 1999.

Everyone had to use their 'comlocks' to open the doors.

 

 

 

[gwalchmai]

7 hours ago, tous said:

An episode from last week showed the resident scientist, Victor Bergman (played by Barry Morse -- one wonders how that many American actors were cast in a British television series) sitting at a desk and using a slide rule. 

Morse was a Britisher, IIRC, and he well understood Ethan Edwards' idea of "a critter that'll just keep comin' on" until he catches the prey he seeks. The slide rule was an homage to TMWOA. 

[Rellik]

I'm a SHADO guy myself. And that was the last time purple hair and mini skirts were hot.

The director had a cool car, but I don't know what it was.

[janice6]

17 hours ago, tous said:

An episode from last week showed the resident scientist, Victor Bergman (played by Barry Morse -- one wonders how that many American actors were cast in a British television series) sitting at a desk and using a slide rule. 

This, on a lunar base with a computer than knows everything and can calculate even more everything.

They also failed to invent automatic doors, common on Earth,  by 1999.

Everyone had to use their 'comlocks' to open the doors.

 

 

 

for some reason, I could never "get with" that show?      

[tous]

13 hours ago, gwalchmai said:

Morse was a Britisher, IIRC, and he well understood Ethan Edwards' idea of "a critter that'll just keep comin' on" until he catches the prey he seeks. The slide rule was an homage to TMWOA. 

I did not know that.

Though I can remember him in a lot of television programs in the 1960s and 1970s, for me he will always be Lieutenant Gerard, the policeman chasing Richard Kimble in The Fugitive TV series.  The original one from the 1960s with David Janssen.

 

[tous]

15 hours ago, gwalchmai said:

... an homage to TMWOA

I have no idea what that means.

[gwalchmai]

7 hours ago, tous said:

I have no idea what that means.

The Man With One Arm.

[tous]

I remember the final fight on some tower in an amusement park.

The final episodes were a big deal, record viewers, in 1967.