1999 @ 45

 

Part Two: ‘Brian Blessed’s Fizzy Drinks Machine’

By early 1976, reports were reaching the newspapers that a new series of Space:1999 was in the pipeline, or perhaps under the lunar surface, for change was, apparently, afoot. The first thing I knew of this second series was that Main Mission, the hub of activities on Moonbase Alpha, was being relocated underground. I’d found the expansive Main Mission set one of the visual attractions of series one, a far cry from the somewhat cramped conditions on board the starship Enterprise, and a world away from the cosy control rooms of UFO. It looked big, impressive, cinematic. But it was all going to change. The other major, and unwelcome change was the loss from the cast of Barry Morse, whose portrayal of Professor Bergman had wrung some genuine warmth and humanity from scripts where characterisation of any kind was always thin on the ground.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the series 2 announcement was that it happened at all – no former Gerry Anderson production had run to a bona fide second series: only Thunderbirds had endured beyond its original production run, spawning two feature films and a handful of extra episodes. Given what happened on Space:1999, it was perhaps just as well. Aside from the core characters, and the Eagle spaceships, series 2 was as unlike series one as series one had been to UFO (indeed, Space:1999 series one evolved out of a proposed second series of UFO).

When series 2 eventually rolled around, on Saturday 4 September 1976 (exactly a year to the day since its predecessor had gone to air), I was able to see the extent of the changes. Until this point, I’d had only a vague idea of the differences that were in store, but now it was all too apparent. No Bergman, no Kano, no Paul Morrow... a gloomy, clausatrophobic control room in place of the airy Main Mission... Eagles with bits stuck on the sides... pointless new coloured jackets... and did I mention the music? No, and with good reason. It was all different. And not in a good way.

For some people – especially the unimaginative execs in charge of ITC New York who apparently demanded most of these creative changes – different means better. Not in the case of Space:1999. For all its faults, series one had achieved a cool, futuristic aesthetic, clearly influenced by 2001, but managing to step clear of its shadow. The sometimes unorthodox scripts were more like ‘proper’ (ie literary) science fiction than anything Gerry Anderson had produced up to that point, and despite a tendency to dabble in the realm of psychedelic fantasy as opposed to actual science, had managed to keep on the right side of the line that divides quality sci-fi from trash, and there were some thoughtful moments of philosophy that almost came up to the level of Star Trek season one.

Even Star Trek had succumbed to the gravitational influence of populism, and its second and third seasons found room for some ill-judged attempts at either comedy or basic pulp science fiction, two elements which Space:1999 embraced far too thoroughly in its second series. It failed to impress even my 15-year-old self, with my diary entry for episode one referring to the Alphans blowing up ‘Brian Blessed’s fizzy drinks machine.’ Suddenly, a series that had been dark, ominous and chilly had become brash, colourful and cartoon-like. Never mind that a shape-shifting alien had joined the crew... and wasn’t that the bloke out of The Protectors playing... er... the bloke out of The Protectors in outer space? Most of the blame for this catalogue of crap can be laid squarely at the doorstep of Fred Freiberger, who had wrought the same populist makeover when he was brought in as producer on Star Trek’s third season. Freiberger, writing under a pseudonym (who wouldn’t) also managed to turn in the worst episode of this dire season in the form of The Rules of Luton. Yes, Luton, yes, the town in Bedfordshire, with the football team once beloved of Eric Morecambe. Apparently, Frieberger had seen the sign on the M1 and thought it sounded a bit like an alien world. Which it may well be, but I’d like to bet it doesn’t run to talking trees... 

'Sorry, wrong series...' some of the Space:1999 publications that appeared alongside series 2 had a distinctly series one flavour to the contents...

The second year’s Space:1999 annual had arrived somewhat sooner than its predecessor, and my diary records that I acquired a copy during a trip to Birmingham on Tuesday 17 August 1976. ‘Is good’, the diary reads (many of my diary entries appear to have been written by Manuel out of Fawlty Towers...) Despite its publication date, mere weeks ahead of series two, the second annual remained firmly in series one territory. It was also something of an improvement on the first, which showed signs of having been put together in a bit of a hurry, and the artwork was better (albeit not by much). Also arriving in booksellers at the same time (and bought on the same shopping trip) were some further novelisations, Alien Seed and Android Planet, two original novelisations based on the series one format. Within weeks, a completely new set of series 2 novelisations would begin to appear, with dire cover designs that completely ignored the series graphics in favour of a ‘generic 1970s paperback’ approach.

By mid autumn of 1976, Space:1999 had become, even in my barely-formed opinion, mostly worthless trash. ATV clearly thought so too: the new series was rolled out initally on Saturday teatimes where it failed to compete against Dr. Who (in my own TV universe, the obverse happened, and it was the clash of Space... and Who that finally brought an end to my six years as a loyal viewer of the good Doctor). Late in October, Space:1999 was kicked firmly into kids’ TV land, with a 4.50 slot on Thursday evenings, commencing with, surprise, surprise, The Rules of Luton. This meant that viewers in the midlands got two episodes of Space:1999 in the space of a week, where one was more than sufficient... ATV didn’t even bother to complete its first run, with a handful of episodes held over until late summer of 1977, where they went out at a slightly more grown-up hour.

Before that, we got what I took to be a sneak preview of a new Gerry Anderson series. Indeed, if memory serves, it had been flagged up thus in press mentions sometime earlier in the year. The series (so I believed), was apparently to be titled The Day After Tomorrow, and took its format more or less wholesale from Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space: two families on board a spaceship pass through a black hole, presumably en route to Space:1999-style escapades on the other side. What set this production apart from every other Anderson endeavour was the fact that it had been bought by the BBC. The full background to Into Infinity is well documented elsewhere, so I won’t dwell on it here, other than to say that, back in 1976, I took it to be first glimpse of a work in progress, and was fully expecting a series to appear further down the line. Whatever the circumstances of its production, or its production values – it looks like a 1999 knock-off thrown together during a lunch break on the former production – I refuse to believe that Gerry Anderson ever pointed a film camera at a subject, especially an outer space subject, without expecting to get a series out of it. For my money, Into Infinity was meant as a series pilot.

Even today, I find it hard to articulate my disappointment at Space:1999 series two. Not only was it a travesty as a piece of self-styled space opera, it brought an end to a near unbroken run of TV success for Gerry Anderson and his team, and instead of exiting on a high, they went out on a stinker. The 1999 crew dispersed at the end of production on series two, and when Gerry finally returned to television in the early 80s, it would be with the disappointing, lazily-conceived Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet mash-up, Terrahawks. Puppets were back, but instead of full-body marionettes they were, uh, ‘super macromation’… that’s Muppets to you, squire...

Perhaps a lesson had been learned: if you’re going to do risible adventures in outer space, do them with puppets – it’s cheaper.