Customer Reviews

Space 1999 - Set 2 [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Space:1999" has been often overlooked and ridiculed by the
sci-fi mainstream, who claims it is dull, boring, and the scientific
concepts silly or uninformed. Add to that the early '70s hairstyles
and costumes, and you have a show that has never achieved the status
or respect it deserves. The first season of "Space: 1999"
was like watching "2001" every week, with surreal and
metaphysical concepts, pacing, photography, and lighting.

The music
is minimalist and yet descriptive in ways other sci-fi scores
aren't.

The miniatures on "Space: 1999" are still
fantastic (the Eagle!), and the special effects were cutting edge for
the day (all this without flashy computer animated FX, the crutch
propping up so many new sci-fi shows today).

The series was
surprisingly forward-thinking on gender issues, as the female
characters (despite occassionally freezing, screaming and fainting so
Keoning can rush into action), are shown as intellegent scientists and
mission controllers (unlike a certain beloved classic series where
women were often relegated to delivering the Captain's coffee and
opening hailing frequencies).

John Muir, who has written several
books about sci-fi and horror series (including "Space:
1999"), likens the direction and visual design work to German
Expressionist film.

Whatever in the series is dated, or lacking
Captain Kirk-like action, is far outweighed by the intellegence of the
stories, the maturity of the acting, and the level of pure sci-fi the
Andersons produced in Year One of the show.

This set includes more
stunning episodes from Year One of the two season
series.

"Missing Link", "Guardian of Piri",
"Force of Life", "Alpha Child", "The Last
Sunset", and "Voyager's Return" are perfect examples of
the surreal style, original set design, expressionist lighting,
brilliant miniatures and special effects work, and the overall unique
achievement that was "Space: 1999".

Christopher Lee, who will appear in the forthingcoming "Star Wars" movie, has a long career in horror and science fiction movies, so what a treat it is to see the tall British actor in the episode called "Earthbound". He plays Zantor, soft-spoken leader of a peaceful band of long-haired travellers from a dead planet seeking a new home, like the Alphans themselves. Their wonderful blue genie bottle spaceship has been programmed to land on Earth's moon as a prelude to landing on Earth itself. Things get off to an uncomfortable start when the Alpha boarding party accidentally kills one of Zantor's crew in an attempt to bring her out of suspended animation. The episode is interesting in that it contrasts two computer-dependent civilizations: Zantor's, whose computers can interpret the essence of the human soul and the Alphan's, whose female-voiced computer takes forever to make simple decisions like who among the Alphans should board Zantor's ship for a trip back to Earth. Zantor's people are also eons ahead of the Alphans spiritually as they know the true meaning of forgiveness (Zantor even seems to show affection for Dr. Russell, who is actually responsible the death of the crew member). All of humanity's evils are represented by Commissioner Simmons, a ruthless politician bent on returning to Earth. He decides to take matters into his own hands by taking Alpha hostage, rather than waiting for the decision from Alpha's computer. This is a slow-paced episode which has a twist at the end.

'Ring around the Moon' is very poor... Story is muddled,thrown together,often makes no sense.Bad episode.Only saving grace is we see Carter/Koenig friendship develope which helps explain later episodes. 'Earthbound' is fantastic, a very good story,the music is totally revamped -otherwords GREAT!- Directors must have learned lessons from above episode. Characters are wonderful to watch.
'Another Time, Another Place', O.K. story, not bad, except alphans seem unnaturally hostile to Koenig/Carter. Music good.

I have watched all year 1 episodes. The series was wonderful
until the Maya character was added - then I quit.(too many cooks)
This was a very realistic break from other Sci-Fi shows. It focused more on reality: Capt.Kirk always met blue-green aliens, recited bad poetry, settled problems with phasers and was always 'scoring with women'.
Cmdr.Koenig didn't try to 'score friends', he dealt with malfunctions, personnel problems,logistics & planning ,trying to make sure things ran right on Moonbase Alpha.
This is a 'thinking mans' series...special effect junkies, go watch: Star Wars or something.

The entire series is very bad. Since I'm a SciFi junkie, its got to be pretty bad before I'd knock it. If people watch this and think it is good, then they'd watch anything.