Destination Moonbase-Alpha (1978 TV Movie) User Reviews

At Least It's Coherent

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 28 June 2013]

During a conversation with my friend Ange she mentioned a classic episode of DOCTOR WHO that struck out in her mind

" I don't what one it as but it was about someone who was sick and he could see all these people but they were really horrible slimy monsters . You remember that one ? "

Never one to miss the opportunity of sarcasm I replied " Aye that was a unique episode . Not only was it an episode that didn't feature the Doctor and his companions but it's the only episode from the show not called Doctor Who and instead is called Space 1999 "

Sarcasm aside ( Sorry Ange ) it's an episode people can be forgiven for confusing the memory with that of DOCTOR WHO . Between season one and season two of SPACE 1999 a new producer was brought in and out went the pretentious 2001 inspiration and in came camp concepts similar to that seen in STAR TREK which from an entertainment point of view was

certainly more entertaining DESTINATION MOONBASE ALPHA is the follow up to the compilation theatrical release of ALIEN ATTACK and like the first release is two episodes from the show stuck together . At least someone somewhere had the common sense to stick a two part story together instead of two random episodes that composes ALIEN ATTACK . The Bringers Of Wonder to give it its episodic title is written by Terence Feely and directed by Tom Clegg DESTINATION has a coherence missing from ALIEN ATTACK and involves the crew of Moonbase Alpha being visited by an expedition from Earth which strangely is entirely populated by people that the Moonbase crew knew from Earth . Commander Koenig becomes suspicious then realises the expedition are a hideous alien race that are after the Moon's nuclear waste . The story builds up a sense of mystery and suspense but this is almost ruined by the voice over in the title sequence which gives away most of the plot twists . Thankfully the sequence doesn't show the aliens themselves which are amongst the most impressive ones seen in a SF show

Not The Easiest Movie To Follow. But, a Fair Watch!

[collectorofsorts · 5/10 · 7 August 2021]

I've never watched the Space: 1999 series that other reviewers are saying this movie was compiled from and I can only base my review on what I see in the movie (as they should have). But, it's a fair space movie that came out a year after Star Wars. Everyone was rushing to get out space movies and the quality was simply lacking. I can't go beyond 'fair' because the movie is all over the place and not the easiest to follow. I believe the higher ratings are simply reviewers love for the series that this was pieced together from and not the actual movie. Anyways, it's a decent movie for the 1970's. Give it a watch!

Incoherent mish-mash

[melnar1 · 1/10 · 9 January 2016]

Never having seen any of the original TV episodes of Destination Moonbase-Alpha, I found this mish-mash of a "movie", assembled from two of the TV episodes, difficult to follow as I seldom knew which characters were on the side of the goodies and which were the baddies, and in my opinion the whole thing was an incoherent mess and total nonsense.

I found the abrupt join between the two episodes extremely disconcerting; the one didn't seem to have anything to do with the other. I would have preferred to have watched the episodes separately, as they were of course originally intended to be watched.

I can suspend my disbelief enough to accept that a spaceship can travel very much faster than the speed of light – this is science fiction, after all – and the monsters didn't look too unconvincing, but I can't give it more than one star.

An excellent movie, made from 2 episodes of Space: 1999

[peter-faizey · 10/10 · 8 September 2005]

This was the first movie of a Gerry Anderson production, to be produced by editing together old episodes from certain series, in this case Space: 1999. Produced in 1978 by ITC London's offices, this movie combines the two parts of the Space: 1999 season 2 epic 'The Bringers of Wonder', which was edited to form a feature length film. The new opening titles and music by Mike Vikkers are very good, and they are incredibly faithful to the original material, edited only certain parts that needed to be removed to create that 'movie' feel. The only downsides to the movie is the general silliness in it, but this isn't the movie makers fault, Season 2 of Space: 1999 was incredibly zany, and not half as good as Season 1. The other annoyance is the end of the movie, when the end credits are scrolled over an awful tune sung by someone called Oliver Onions. Other than this the film is superb, and the episodes that it is edited from are undoubtedly some of the classics from Season 2. Martin Landau, Barbara Bain give excellent performances, as do Tony Anholt, Catherine Schell and Stuart Damon. The aliens look excellent, and the last few minutes are sensational. The film ends with a speech from Commander Koenig, speaking to the hostile aliens, "It is better to live as your own man, than a fool in someone else's dream". Because this film is so faithful to the original material, I would recommend it to Gerry Anderson purists. A throughly excellent movie!

The best sci-fi in the 70's

[blombergclas · 9/10 · 9 July 2017]

I was watching this series in 1979 I think and in that time this was by far the best you could get, Flash Gordon is nothing compere to this. I was 13 years old then and I remember that it could be a bit scary. I know I have seen it again for some years ago but I don't know where I found it and of course I didn't save it. I think it's pretty advanced for that time. I strongly recommend this if you can get it.

Great compilation film, but it left me "wanting more"

[elisereid-29666 · 9/10 · 14 August 2020]

Bad science does not always equal bad science fiction, and good science does not always equal good science fiction. Sometimes even mumbo-jumbo science makes good science fiction, as evidenced here (the opening crawl is nonsense in particular). Even such sci-fi classics as "Star Trek" and Star Wars suffer from bad science, but people overlook them because they have redeeming qualities-the philosophy of "Star Trek", the fun of Star Wars. Suspension of disbelief is a necessary trait for lovers of sci-fi and fantasy, and you'll need it for Destination Moonbase-Alpha

First, a little background. When I was seven, I was the ghost of my local Mom 'n Pop video store, and I recorded just about every movie that played on TV blindly, just to experience as many movies as I could and learn as much as I could. On one trip to my local video store in 1995, I found a used copy of Destination Moonbase-Alpha for sale, having never heard of "Space: 1999" or any of the stars and, since I had recently been exposed to the likes of Star Wars and the underrated The Black Hole, decided to give it a try (my folks bought it for me because it was cheap, and hey, at least I wasn't interested in R-rated movies!). I watched the first three minutes of it before the prehistoric VHS tape got chewed up, and, knowing nothing about tape repair at that age, foolishly got rid of it without having seen the rest. (I only years later realized how rare that tape was, since I scoured ebay for it for years, only to find that the only copies available were on Beta...)

Many years later, I saw the uncut episodes of "1999" this film was compiled from, primarily the pilot "Breakaway" and the two-part episode "The Bringers of Wonder." The former I found dull, nihilistic and flat. The latter was mostly good, but I found the slow-motion fight scenes on the surface of the moon silly, and it spoiled an otherwise good story. Also there were some ambiguities I thought should've been explored in the plot (but weren't) which I'll get to in a moment, but figured that was because they were constrained by the limitations of TV.

Just yesterday I finally saw all of Destination Moonbase-Alpha, to see how it compared to the TV episodes. The run time on the video box (and the IMDB) listed it as being shorter than the combined "Bringers of Wonder", and, knowing they also included pieces of "Breakaway", I wondered what they had cut out, and how good the editing was. I was pleased that they condensed the best and most watchable parts of "Breakaway" down to a four-minute prologue, and that "The Bringers of Wonder" was mostly left alone, save a few time-wasting moments deleted. (The run time on the box and the IMDB, according to my VCR counter, was incorrect-it is longer than 93 minutes).

I'd heard a lot about fans being disappointed in the second season of "Space: 1999", which puzzled me because I found "The Bringers of Wonder" (which was part of that season) far more interesting than "Breakaway", but then my taste tends to be different from most sci-fi fans. What did I like about it? It had a theme not altogether unlike the best of "Star Trek" (a theme which became especially interesting in the final scene), though I found it somewhat diluted by a conflicted script. The "friends" on the "rescue ship" were revealed as being villainous aliens far too soon-I thought it would've been much more effective had they been revealed in the scene where they are revealed to Commander Koenig. Also, when they are inevitably revealed to everyone else, the rest of the cast seemed to take the idea too lightly. They *were*, after all, so excited about the reunion with their loved ones and being returned to Earth, and they don't seem let down by the revelation at all. I don't know what this compilation could've fixed about this plot hole, but it was a fault in the original that I wish could've been remedied, along with the goofy slow-mo on the surface of the Moon (which seemed somewhat shorter in Destination Moonbase-Alpha, but I can't verify that claim without watching them side by side).

So yeah, it was faithful to the series, and combined the best of the two episodes into a coherent, very interesting movie. Of course, with the whole, uncut series on DVD now, Destination Moonbase-Alpha is little more than an oddity today, but I was pleased to see it in the format I wanted to see it in so bad when I was a kid.

(As an odd sidenote, the summary on the video box is totally wrong, because it provides the summary of "Breakaway" rather than "The Bringers of Wonder." All of the plot details provided in that summary are nowhere to be found in this film, since, as I mentioned, "Breakaway" had been condensed to a breathless four minute prologue for this film. This surprised me when I watched it, because, having read the video box when I was a kid and didn't get the chance to see the movie, it was certainly not what I was expecting, but then, it was much better...)