The conventional wisdom on this mid-70s sci fi offering from the prolific imagination of Gerry Anderson (THUNDERBIRDS, UFO) is, in a word...wrong. "Cerebral sci fi that 'jumped the shark' in season 2, rendering itself mindless and action-oriented". Well, no. Not precisely, no. Yes, season 2 did go after a larger audience and lower common denominator. But the truth of 1999 is completely opposite conventional wisdom. The only time they ever brushed greatness was in the maligned season 2...as children's sci fi. As adult sci fi, both seasons were failures, but the visuals, acting, and simplistic ideas of season 2 are ideal for a child in the 5-10 range, ready to take her or his (or ers) first steps into the mind-blowing universe of science fiction. To modern eyes, season 1 can't be called anything but plodding. It feels like it belongs in a museum, even though it was made almost a decade after the still-gripping STAR TREK. Is it cerebral? No. Being cerebral requires more than the appearance of cerebrality, dear Brits. There has to be genuine intellect at work. There are a handful of semi-gems. Real-life spouses of thirty-six years, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain star as leaders of Moonbase Alpha. In a nuclear waste accident, the moon is sent spinning off into space, where adventures await. The look of the show is pretty wonderful. The horseshoe-style lasers are absolutely classic. The eagles, their spaceships, are brilliant. Somehow both smooth and clunky, and boyohboy did the creators have a blast wrecking these things regularly. I don't know whether anyone's ever tabulated how many they lost, but it HAD to be more than they had in stock at the beginning. You could occasionally see the wires, but it's all so charmingly rendered that you buy into the reality fully. I had a toy eagle as a child, almost three feet long. The cockpit and engine sections disengaged to form a scout ship, something that never happened on the show. It would stand tall on a list of the five most brilliant toys of my youth. And don't let the strings fool you...time and again, you will be struck by how well-budgeted this show was. Rounding out the leads was Barry Morse as Professor Bergman, a gentle, thoughtful presence. The second season brought a great overhaul in the cast, music, and look. It's brighter and brisker, sexier and more playful, which feels great for about one episode. But the music is a travesty...the season 1 theme is a towering tribute to classic symphonic sci fi synth/guitar music that could ONLY have come out of the 70s, but the new theme song rolls off some cheesy assembly line. Sadly, the gentle wisdom of Barry Morse is also gone. The show falls prey to the insidious force of "youngicutifying" (a fate which also befell UFO), with dewy replacement characters Maya and Tony. For the first chunk of the season, it feels awful. But then, there comes a moment when you (and they?) finally stop taking the show seriously, and that moment is epiphanous. The possibility that this shift wasn't intentional is unsettling (the season 2 producer was Fred Freiberger, who also oversaw the much-derided last season of STAR TREK)...but through luck or a well-laid plan, it all slides into perfect children's sci fi, which can also make an adult in the right frame of mind chortle in delight. There are surprisingly few moments of regressive sexism or other such which a parent will have to pause and clarify for an eager child.
Review of Space: 1999
