One wonders what the point of this might be ? It is a couple of episodes of SPACE 1999 stuck together with some specially filmed links and released in to cinemas . Or was it ? Looking at the release dates on this page it states that it made its video debut in 1980 in Britain and 1986 in America but doesn't give any information about the rest of the world if this compilation entitled ALIEN ATTACK was released straight to home video or if did get a cinema release ? That said it is a good introduction to the show but one wonders what the point of it might be if you watched this is a country that didn't syndicate the show ? Pointless doesn't begin to describe it
ALIEN ATTACK does show the strengths and weaknesses of season one of SPACE 1999 . For a television show the effects and production are genuinely cinematic and are obviously inspired by 2001 . The problem is that the structure is too obviously two episodic stories stuck together and the cutaway links on planet Earth don't do anything to remedy this and how could it ? The first half is the episode Breakaway from the show and involves Commander John Koenig whose new command of Moonbase Alpha coincides with a series of mysterious deaths and accidents on the base . The nuclear disposal dump on the Moon is leaking its cargo that eventually leads to a chain reaction and explosion that blows the Moon out of orbit and in to space which sets up the second half of the story if you're watching this film or another 47 episodes if you're watching the series
One interesting aspect is how prominent the supporting character Commissioner Simmonds is at the start of the episode . One wonders then why the episode chosen to continue the film couldn't have been the episode Earthbound where Simmonds holds Moonbase Alpha to ransom . Earthbound also has Christopher Lee as a guest star which would have made ALIEN ATTACK more marketable but there again you'd need a reason to call it ALIEN ATTACK so the pretentious and perplexing episode War Games is tacked on to Breakaway trying and totally failing to give the impression this is anyway a coherent narrative . War Games is certainly action packed but suffers from what occasionally happened during series one of the show and has a resolution that doesn't even begin to make sense
As it stands ALIEN ATTACK is a good enough introduction to SPACE 1999 but the reason for releasing it is very puzzling and I'm curious as to the story behind it is . There's also something bizarre about the linking section and that is that it's set in the year 2100 . This might make the scenario of having colonised the Moon more convincing within its own timeline but also means it's missing the point if ALIEN ATTACK is being used as an introduction to the show SPACE 1999 . In fact the whole thing seems pointless with hindsight
ALIEN ATTACK does show the strengths and weaknesses of season one of SPACE 1999 . For a television show the effects and production are genuinely cinematic and are obviously inspired by 2001 . The problem is that the structure is too obviously two episodic stories stuck together and the cutaway links on planet Earth don't do anything to remedy this and how could it ? The first half is the episode Breakaway from the show and involves Commander John Koenig whose new command of Moonbase Alpha coincides with a series of mysterious deaths and accidents on the base . The nuclear disposal dump on the Moon is leaking its cargo that eventually leads to a chain reaction and explosion that blows the Moon out of orbit and in to space which sets up the second half of the story if you're watching this film or another 47 episodes if you're watching the series
One interesting aspect is how prominent the supporting character Commissioner Simmonds is at the start of the episode . One wonders then why the episode chosen to continue the film couldn't have been the episode Earthbound where Simmonds holds Moonbase Alpha to ransom . Earthbound also has Christopher Lee as a guest star which would have made ALIEN ATTACK more marketable but there again you'd need a reason to call it ALIEN ATTACK so the pretentious and perplexing episode War Games is tacked on to Breakaway trying and totally failing to give the impression this is anyway a coherent narrative . War Games is certainly action packed but suffers from what occasionally happened during series one of the show and has a resolution that doesn't even begin to make sense
As it stands ALIEN ATTACK is a good enough introduction to SPACE 1999 but the reason for releasing it is very puzzling and I'm curious as to the story behind it is . There's also something bizarre about the linking section and that is that it's set in the year 2100 . This might make the scenario of having colonised the Moon more convincing within its own timeline but also means it's missing the point if ALIEN ATTACK is being used as an introduction to the show SPACE 1999 . In fact the whole thing seems pointless with hindsight