History Series / Space1999

* CompilationMovie: This series was edited into five of these (including the show's only two-parter, "The Bringers of Wonder", which became ''Destination Moonbase Alpha''). Some additional material was also filmed for the first movie, ''Alien Attack'' (which compiled "Breakaway" and "War Games"). One, ''Cosmic Princess'' (compiling "The Metamorph" and "Space Warp" -- interestingly enough, the events of both episodes happen days to weeks apart in series canon and are not connected, but the compilation makes it look like they happen one immediately after the other), was featured in an early season of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Before the series' launch in UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} one of these called ''Spazio: 1999'' released in Italian cinemas in 1975. compiling scenes from "Breakaway", "Ring Around the Moon" and "Another Time, Another Place", and given a ForeignRescore/RecycledSoundtrack made up of Music/EnnioMorricone pieces!

* CompilationMovie: This series was edited into five of these (including the show's only two-parter, "The Bringers of Wonder", which became ''Destination Moonbase Alpha''). Some additional material was also filmed for the first movie, ''Alien Attack'' (which compiled "Breakaway" and "War Games"). One, ''Cosmic Princess'' (compiling "The Metamorph" and "Space Warp" -- interestingly enough, the events of both episodes happen days to weeks apart in series canon and are not connected, but the compilation makes it look like they happen one immediately after the other), was featured in an early season of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

* NoPronunciationGuide:
** The pronunciation of "Koenig" is all over the place. Depending on who is talking it's either "Kay-nig", "Ko-nig" or "Kuh-nig" (approximating the original German pronunciation). The commander himself pronounces it "Ko-nig".
** Helena isn't immune either; being called "[=HELLena=]" or "[=HeLEEna=]" at various points.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: After being out in space for so long and seeing all kinds of aliens and monsters, the Alphans still spend a good part of the first act of "The Troubled Spirit" finding it hard to believe that there is an honest-to-goodness ''ghost'' running around Alpha killing people, and that such thing as researching the psionic potential of humans is still done back on Earth. It is the fact that one of the Moonbase researcher's skepticism makes him interrupt a seance on the prologue [[NiceJobBreakingItHero that starts the whole mess]].

** In one episode, Sandra's uniform is torn open, leaving her entire back bare and revealing that she isn't wearing a bra.

*** In the final confrontation with the last surviving alien, he suddenly replies in English when Koenig address him. He immediately provides the justification: the Judges see it as fit that they should be able to communicate before killing each other.

* MisplacedWildlife: "The Metamorph" shows [[Creator/BrianBlessed Mentor]] having a "lion" on an alien planet. It is later shown that said lion is a form assumed by Maya, who also assumes the forms of other Earth animals. It is not explained how she can know what these animals look like.

This British TV series was created by husband-and-wife team Creator/GerryAnderson and Creator/SylviaAnderson, the creators of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' and other "{{UsefulNotes/Supermarionation}}" fare as well as ''Series/UFO1970'', and was produced by Lew Grade's Creator/ITCEntertainment (in co-production with Italy's RAI during the first season, explaining the presence of Italian guest stars). It originally aired in the UK between 1975 and 1977, although several season one episodes were premiered in the US (like "Another Time, Another Place") and Australia (like "Ring Around The Moon").

** Mayas father has a computer that can do this to larger objects and, potentially, a whole planet.

This British TV series was created by husband-and-wife team Creator/GerryAnderson and Creator/SylviaAnderson, the creators of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' and other "{{UsefulNotes/Supermarionation}}" fare as well as ''Series/{{UFO}}'', and was produced by Lew Grade's Creator/ITCEntertainment (in co-production with Italy's RAI during the first season, explaining the presence of Italian guest stars). It originally aired in the UK between 1975 and 1977, although several season one episodes were premiered in the US (like "Another Time, Another Place") and Australia (like "Ring Around The Moon").

** Averted with the unisex uniforms of the first season, which were deliberately designed to avoid sexualizing the women. This was in marked contrast to the precursor ''Series/{{UFO}}'' and most other SciFi shows of the times. In the second season the women's uniforms are somewhat more feminine, with skirts as an alternative to trousers, though they still stay far short of the fanservice department.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The moonbase setting, with the living quarters, control room and Eagle launch pads, seems like an expanded version of the moonbase in ''Series/{{UFO}}''. The original concept of the show was a Moonbase-centric, 1999-situated continuation of ''Series/{{UFO}}'', but in the actual show the subject matter and typical plots are very different.

The show starred Creator/MartinLandau as Commander Koenig, the commander of the moon base, and Creator/BarbaraBain as Dr. Russel, its chief medical officer. It consisted of two seasons, each with a different approach; season one was relatively slow-paced and cerebral, touching on existential and philosophical questions, whereas season two had more of an action-oriented MonsterOfTheWeek approach.

During this catastrophic event, the 300 persons crewing Moonbase Alpha avoid getting smeared into jelly; once things settle down a bit, they make the best of bad situation by surviving for at least three years with no means of support. They also deal with all the usual [[SciFi skiffy]] hackery -- aliens, monsters, mysterious events, the works -- without much thought to any serious science (or, often, common sense) in the resulting plots.

** Some of the aliens encountered wear quite revealing clothes. An example is Maya, who wears a dress with AbsoluteCleavage in her first appearance. Once she joins the crew she wears the same uniform as everybody else, of course.

** The dress worn by Maya in her first appearance at first appears to have a bare back and AbsoluteCleavage; in fact, the top part is made of nude-coloured fabric, but so sheer that it is obvious that there is no undergarment beneath.

** The Dorcons in the episode with the same name can become immortal by implanting a Psychon brain stem in their brain. The leader of the Dorcons is prepared to kill everybody on Alpha to take the brain stem of Maya, who is the last surviving Dorcon and therefore his only chance to gain immortality. Since losing her brain stem would naturally kill her, Maya and the rest of the Alphans are less keen on the idea.

* ImmortalitySeeker: Deconstructed in "Death's Other Dominion", where Dr. Rowland's attempts to learn the secret of the immortality he and his group now possess results in several of them being reduced to mindless vegetables and ultimately [[spoiler:earns him a messy death upon leaving the planet]].
%% ** "The Dorcons".

%% * ImmortalitySeeker: "The Dorcons". Deconstructed in "Death's Other Dominion".
%% * [[IntrepidMerchant Intrepid Merchants]]: "The Taybor"

** The thin fabric of the first-season uniforms makes it rather obvious that many of the women aren't wearing bras. This is not played for fanservice and may actually be a conscious part of the unisex costume design[[note]]Bras had no place in Rudy Gernreich's vision of a unisex future.[[/note]]. Averted in the second season when the women's uniform design was changed to look more feminine.

* AbsenteeActor:
** When producer Fred Freiberger came on board he set up a system where from time to time two episodes would be filmed simultaneously for scheduling purposes, specially scripted so that key regulars would have a minimal presence in one episode while taking centre stage in another. The most notable pairing was "Dorzak"/"Devil's Planet" - Martin Landau does not appear at all in the former, while he's the main character in the latter.
** Sandra is missing from most of the second season, because Zienia Merton left after three episodes. She was later asked to return when both Creator/MartinLandau and Barbara Bain would be missing from the same episode, leaving it without any of the regulars from season 1. She appeared in some but not all of the remaining season 2 episodes.

** Many shots of high-tech equipment featured the large, open-reel tape drives typical of 1970s computers (but in real life made obsolete long before 1999).

* SpecialGuest: Among those who made guest appearances were Creator/BrianBlessed, Creator/JoanCollins, Creator/PeterCushing, Creator/JulianGlover, Creator/ChristopherLee, Creator/IanMcShane, Creator/MichaelSheard and Creator/PatrickTroughton.

* ShoutOut:
** The second-to-last episode is called "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E18TheImmunitySyndrome The Immunity Syndrome]]".
** [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor Patrick Troughton]] guest-stars in "The Dorcons".

* SpaceIsNoisy: Spectacularly in "The Last Enemy".

** Doctor Matthias, as well, has an important role in many episodes, being one of only two doctors on the base. Unlike Kano he returns for season two, although the character only appears in two episodes of the final season, making him the only black main character (though there are at least two recurring black extras - Quentin Pierre and Alibe Parsons, who has lines in several episodes).

** Doctor Matthias, as well, has an important role in many episodes, being one of only two doctors on the base. Unlike Kano he returns for season two, although the character only appears in two episodes of the final season, making him the only black person on Alpha.

A fan-produced featurette, "Message from Moonbase Alpha" (written by regular series writer Johnny Byrne, starring Zienia Merton as series regular Sandra Benes, using footage from the series and done with permission of the copyright holders, therefore ''almost'' being canonical) eventually established that the Moonbase crew found an Earth-like planet to live on.

* RaceLift: Sandra is an unusual case: Although she's played by Zienia Merton in both seasons, she looks much more Asian in the second season (Merton was of mixed race and could pass as both European and Asian). In later episodes, her name has also changed from the Hungarian-sounding Sandra Benes to just Sahn.

** David Kano, Moonbase Alpha's computer expert in the rest of the first season, was played by Jamaican-born Clifton Jones. He averts his "mere token" status fairly well for a '70s series, and he certainly gets a lot more to do per episode than, say, Lt. Uhura.

* RaceLift: Sandra is an unusual case: Although she's played by Creator/ZieniaMerton in both seasons, she looks much more Asian in the second season (Merton was of mixed race and could pass as both European and Asian). In later episodes, her name has also changed from the Hungarian-sounding Sandra Benes to just Sahn.

* SpaceClothes: Not as bad as some examples, but the unisex, beige jumpsuits with shiny plastic belts and plastic platform boots are [[{{Zeerust}} still very '70s]]. The second season actually manages to tone this aspect down by adding a jacket to the basic moon base uniform.

* TerraDeforming: In one episode, the Alphans make contact with Earth, where it's a couple of centuries later due to relativity or something, and the entire population lives in domed cities because the outside environment is toxic. That exact phrase "Who needs nature" has become something of a CatchPhrase, and you get the sense that nobody on Earth is too bothered about the loss of the ecosystem, in a manner similar to ''Film/SilentRunning''.

** David Kano, Moonbase Alpha's computer expert in the rest of the first season, was played by Jamaican-born Creator/CliftonJones. He averts his "mere token" status fairly well for a '70s series, and he certainly gets a lot more to do per episode than, say, Lt. Uhura.

** Sandra is a curious case. Her actress, Creator/ZieniaMerton was half Burmese, half English, and in the later episodes of the second season the creators seemed to try to emphasize her Asian roots with a different makeup and hair style, even renaming her to Sahn.

This British TV series was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the creators of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' and other "{{UsefulNotes/Supermarionation}}" fare as well as ''Series/{{UFO}}'', and was produced by Lew Grade's Creator/ITCEntertainment (in co-production with Italy's RAI during the first season, explaining the presence of Italian guest stars). It originally aired in the UK between 1975 and 1977, although several season one episodes were premiered in the US (like "Another Time, Another Place") and Australia (like "Ring Around The Moon").

** The first season's beige, unisex uniforms with flared trouser legs and broad, shiny belts -- and the no-bra look for the women -- seem very much like The Seventies today.

The show starred Creator/MartinLandau as Commander Koenig, the commander of the moon base, and Creator/BarbaraBain as Dr. Russel, its chief medical officer. It consisted of two seasons, each with a different approach; season one was slow-paced and cerebral, whereas season two had more "monster of the week" episodes.

The massive production cost of the show meant that a network sale in the USA was more-or-less essential. Lew Grade, the head of ITC, pulled defeat from the jaws of victory by raising the asking price at the last minute in negotiations with a previously enthusiastic NBC, who called his bluff and passed. On learning of this, CBS and ABC also declined to buy it, and Grade was forced to sell it into syndication. Regardless, the ratings were successful enough that ITC commissioned a second season, with the provisos that there should be an American producer and the budget should be cut. The second season was also popular enough that a third almost happened.

It consisted of two seasons, each with a different approach; season one was slow-paced and cerebral, whereas season two had more "monster of the week" episodes. Its premise was simple: on September 13th 1999, a ridiculously small[[note]]that is, small compared to what would really be needed to move the moon - it's huge by human standards[[/note]] explosion blows the moon out of its orbit and accelerates it to a velocity sufficient to send it hurtling out of the solar system and travelling interstellar distances in improbably short times.

%% * MadScientist: "The Metamorph"

%% * TheMutiny: "The Testament of Arcadia", "The Seance Spectre"

%% The following is both a ZCE or a generic example. Please elaborate.

%% * OurWormholesAreDifferent: "Black Sun", "Space Warp"

* SleeperStarship: "Earthbound", "The Exiles", "Dorzak"

%% * SpaceClouds: "The Beta Cloud", "The Lambda Factor"

%% * UnrealisticBlackHole: "Black Sun"

* XDaysSince: Episodes in the second season usually begin with the narration "X days after leaving Earth's orbit". The totals, however, frequently don't agree with numbers used during the first season, or with each other.

* YouCantFightFate: In "The Troubled Spirit", the man who called the spirit into being was, in the end,[[spoiler the spirit in life -- with his highly-burned body being the final evidence]].

%% * HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: "The Rules of Luton"