Of all the differences between British and American television shows the most telling of them all boils down to a simple matter of pacing.  The British like a slow burn in their cerebral storylines while American television audiences like immediate gratification and blood – lots and lots of it.  It’s a simple concept really but it reveals much about a culture; the faster the pacing, the more urgent the society and, typically, the more violent of one.  Consider the classic run of Star Trek.  It might have been heralded as the peaceful Wagon Train to the stars, yet a majority of its episodes revolved around violence and war.  Conflict and uncivil misunderstandings.  At a steady clip, most of its conflict came from external forces.  Even in 1966, its pacing was a lot more immediate than what the British were doing with Doctor Who (then, only three years old).  Yet, Star Trek’s troubled three-year run left a lot of room for other science fiction shows – shows like Gerry Anderson’s thought-provoking Space: 1999.

Starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Barry Morse, Space: 1999 is the story of a team of researchers based on the moon’s surface who find themselves rocketing through space due to a scientific cataclysm.  For years, mankind has been storing nuclear waste on the dark side of the moon.  On September 13^th, 1999, that waste reaches critical mass and explodes.  As a result, the moon is essentially launched from its orbit and becomes – for lack of a better word – a traveling spacecraft.  It’s also the team’s tomb as they can never return to Earth.  That simple doomsday fact, though, doesn’t deflate their will to live and explore what interesting oddities they come across in their trajectory against the stars.

Borrowing much of its visual style from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Space: 1999 is astonishingly cinematic for a television show from 1975.  Its lavish set and production design is full of clean lines and a clever use of anesthetized white that produces a calculated coldness to their journey through the vastness of space.  Yet, Moonbase Alpha retains a certain urbane look among its denizens even as the chaos outside – and sometimes inside - ensues.  The exterior locales pop with the same geometric cleanness while supporting a strange and ethereal boldness in color ala Star Trek worlds, and the space shots are epically rendered - even if the Eagle spaceship wire-work slips into Thunderbirds territory from time-to-time.

Of course, this being the HD age, these Blu-ray transfers reveal some of the limitations in the cost-cutting methods of the show at the time of its production.  For example, the computer is as big as a wall, the walking exterior shots are hysterically awkward (as the actors had to pretend to walk on the moon) and the television screens look suspiciously like my grandmother’s black-and-white set.  All this is to be expected and forgiven and, rightly so, it is.  This is a fantastically written show.  While its pilot episode, ‘Breakaway’, sets the stage for the grandness in its vision, the show really hits its stride with the twist ending of ‘Earthbound’ – in which one Commissioner Simmonds (Roy Dotrice) is justly dealt with by a situation he himself created.  From then on out, its one classic science fiction episode after another (making a total of twenty-four episodes for Series 1) and ultimately composing a sweet package of Greatest Hits and Near Misses stories that can delight any fan of the sci-fi world.

Yet, the series isn’t all straight-edge logic and unhip seriousness all the time.  There is a lot of fun to be had here.  After the “hook” of each beginning episode, the show absolutely ignites with a bell-bottomed vibe of seventies rock ‘n’ roll swagger courtesy of composer Barry Gray.  The inclusion of the “This Episode” introduction is famous for inspiring a whole slew of other science fiction shows opening credit sequences, but the music – combing strings with a disco-tinged guitar lick - is classic sugar on the tongue.  Nothing could be any cooler than that expression of modern glam.  One almost expects the screen to explode with the glittered fizzle of cocaine and fancy strobe effects.  Sometimes it does.

Combining elements of scientific theory with a healthy splattering of New Age mysticism and even some sci-fi gobbledygook, Space: 1999’s story consultants Christopher Penfold and Johnny Byrne feed the needs of the modern science fiction audience with a concern for man’s future by using wise words that speak of renewable energy and altered states of consciousness.  Sure, Space: 1999 has all the uniformed accoutrements of your typical science fiction show.  And it brazenly applauds, and then embraces what went before in episodic shows like Star Trek and Lost in Space and Doctor Who.  It doesn’t try to out edge out their borders or erase their memory, but it certainly isn’t afraid to let the viewer discover the answers to some of the more psychological aspects in its storytelling.  Yes, it’s strange and slow and takes its time with its themes in a very European manner, but Space: 1999 is well worth its own odyssey.

Component Grades Movie Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - November 30, 2010
Screen Formats: 4:3
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: DTS 5.1; English: Dolby Digital Mono
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Seven-disc set (5 BDs, 2 DVDs)

The show has been brilliantly transferred to Blu-ray in that it was remastered in HD and the picture has been cleaned up. It’s work that is nothing short of genius. Perhaps it is because the masters for this transfer were shot on 35mm, but the grain and the color is perfectly captured on disc in these vibrant transfers. The series is also restored to the correct 4:3 ratio of its original broadcast. The sound, too, has been remixed (from the original mono) in 5.1 Dolby Digital. Of course, you can choose to have the show broadcast to you in its original mono mix, but the surround is pretty decent on these discs.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• Series producer Anderson provides a fascinating commentary for two episodes: ‘Breakaway’ and ‘Dragon’s Domain’ and both, while Anderson sounds noticeably old, are quite informative and interesting.

Special Features:

This seven-disc set features the complete Series 1 of Space: 1999.  It also has a smattering of special features that fill in the questions one might have about the creation and transformation of the show (Series 1 to Series 2 was incredible leap for some audiences to take).  If there’s a fault with the special features its that they rely a bit too much on production stills and photographs than actual substance, which is ironic considering the strengths of the series.  The special features – most of them located on discs 6 & 7 – are as follows:

• Alien Attack trailer
• Journey Through the Black Sun trailer
• Series One Titles (w/out text)
• Barry Gray’s Demo
• Alternative Opening and Closing Titles
• Martin Landau and Barbara Bain US Premier intro/outro
• SFX Plates/Deleted SFX scenes
• “Concept and Creation” Featurette
• Special Effects and Design Featurette
• “These Episodes” Featurettes w/ individual analysis
• Text Commentaries on “The Last Sunset” and “Space Brain”
• “Clapperboard” Special
• “Guardian of Piri” Remembered

{pgomakase}