CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : SPACE 1999 .. ITC ENTERTAINMENT .. UK 1975 ..

 

ITC ENTERTAINMENT
Presents

SPACE 1999

MARTIN LANDAU as Commander John Koenig 
BARBARA BAIN as DR Helena Russell 
BARRY MORSE as Professor Victor Bergman 
PRENTIS HANCOCK as Paul Morrow 
NICK TATE as Alan Carter 
ZIENIA MERTON as Sandra Benes 
CLIFTON JONES as David Kano 
ANTON PHILIPS as DR Bob Mathias

'' MISSION OF THE DARIANS''

   (  Season 1 - Episode 9 )

Guests.. 
JOAN COLLINS as Kara 
DENNIS BURGESS as Neman 
AUBREY MORRIS as High Priest 
RON TARR as Hirsute Darian Guard 
GERALD STADDEN as Male Mute 
JACKIE HORTON as Female Mute

Moonbase Alpha picks up a call for help from a nearby space craft which contains the remains of a dying world, that has travelled through space for 900 years! Deciding to mount a rescue mission, they discover an environment of ageless beauty, but populated by wretched looking creatures.. But it soon becomes apparent that all is not what it seems and the appearance of a beautiful leader, who holds the key to a deadly secret that could wipe out Moonbase Alpha, Forever!!

Like "Star Trek", "Space 1999" was not a big success on it's first screenings, but over the years it has built up quite a cult following.. First screened in 1975, the series ran for two seasons and was the last production from Gerry & Sylvia Anderson, legendary creators of "Thunderbirds" and other cult favourites.. 
Set in the year 1999, it all begins when nuclear waste is ignited by magnetic radiation, which causes the moon to shift from earth's orbit. This shift means that all 311 inhabitants of space station 'Moonbase Alpha' are stranded...in charge of the crew is Commander John Koenig (Landau)..who is aided by Dr Helena Russell (Bain) and scientist. Professor Victor Bergman.. Their mission now is to find a new home, along the way they encounter many strange civilisations, not all of them friendly! 

On casting the series, Sylvia Anderson recalled..

" When we were casting the series, we saw many people and wanted Robert Culp to star.. I thought he was far out and just the right person. However Lew Grade rang us and said he felt someone like the stars of "Mission Impossible" would be his choice. That is how Martin and Barbara came to the series.. However I did not feel they were right for the parts. I was determined to cast Culp, but then the network changed it's production heads and we ended up with Martin and Barbara, who I am not saying were no good, but I do think they could have been better!" 

However Sylvia was impressed with Martin & Barbara's efforts in establishing their characters for the series as she recalled a dinner at the Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel.

'' I remember spending long hours with Martin and Barbara when we were setting up Space 1999. They were helping me invent their own background as lead characters in the series. They were sticklers for detail and over dinner at The Beverly Hills Hotel, they began talking about their fictitious relatives and school days. It seemed a little odd that we should spend so much valuable pre-production time talking about events that we would never see or hear about on screen. Yet it was all part of the method acting philosopy that had served Martin so well in his brilliant character performances.''

Joan with Martin and Barry Morse and guest star Dennis Burgess

Joan was one of many guests and she had worked with Martin Landau on "Mission Impossible", Lew Grade was also Joan's godfather, as he had been in a partnership with Joan's dad Joe back when she was growing up. 

Series co-star Barry Morse recalled.

" I enjoyed making the series and working with it's many guest stars which included my good old friend Peter Cushing and I recall Joan Collins, who was a big name. She was very disciplined and well behaved! However I was astonished to learn that at the point when we started to shoot the series, we had only one script..Which in my book was an act of lunacy..Even in that one script, there was no indication of the backgrounds of any of the characters. I wrote a biography for my character, Victor Bergman, where I saw him as a much more eccentric sort of character, than he turned out to be in the series. I also hated the uniforms that everyone else had to wear. I did not think my character would ever wear a uniform..After all he was a senior world class scientist!"

You can get the complete series on blu-ray from Network with many features.. More details here!

ORDER BLU-RAY OF SPACE 1999 SERIES HERE!