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WGBH Boston
Space 1999 Megaset

Space 1999 Megaset

List Price: $199.95
Your Price: $179.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a must have!
Review: If you ever watched Space 1999 when you were younger, you must get this. Space 1999 was the bridge sci-fi show between Star Trek and Star Wars. When you watch these shows, not only will you NOT remember the episodes, but you will be amazed at how good they really were. Of course, there are the tacky episodes and every now and then you'll see strings holding up the Eagles, but the episodes are great and these flaws only add to the uniqueness of the shows. If you like Star Trek and Star wars, this is a 'Must Have' collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SPACE 1999 THE NEXT GENERATION!
Review: If you want to see the science fiction show that bridged the first Star Trek and the Next Generation, this is it.Many of the plots, characters and ideas would be used for the next generation series , and even The X-files and Alien. When Space 1999 came out in the early 70's George Lucas claimed he woudn't have been able to make Star Wars without it. Even today the show feels very modern with its blend of gothic horror, the paranormal and science fiction. Many episodes are filmed in a neo-surrealistic style akin to Luis Bunel and Hitchcock. This mega set is the way to go, since it has year 1 and 2 episodes in order and bonus material. In a long run it will be cheaper to buy this set than the individual sets. This is the sci-fi release of 2003!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SPACE 1999 THE NEXT GENERATION!
Review: If you want to see the science fiction show that bridged the first Star Trek and the Next Generation, this is it.Many of the plots, characters and ideas would be used for the next generation series , and even The X-files and Alien. When Space 1999 came out in the early 70's George Lucas claimed he woudn't have been able to make Star Wars without it. Even today the show feels very modern with its blend of gothic horror, the paranormal and science fiction. Many episodes are filmed in a neo-surrealistic style akin to Luis Bunel and Hitchcock. This mega set is the way to go, since it has year 1 and 2 episodes in order and bonus material. In a long run it will be cheaper to buy this set than the individual sets. This is the sci-fi release of 2003!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy Now
Review: If Your a fan of the show this is a must have.Gives you the complete series in one set.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All-time best Sci-Fi TV show
Review: It's my all-time favourite sci-fi TV show because, ironically, the sci-fi component is the least important. It is the psychological and metaphysical approach to the problem of humanity being unique in the universe that really gets everything going in each of the episodes. It was also fun, entertaining, and despite what one of the reviewers said, the characters were great. They were supposed to be scientists, and they act like that ! I remember the cool uniforms, the laser guns, and the Eagle spaceships... you should not miss this all-time TV success.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Space 1999 is a fantastic series
Review: Mega-set is a dream come true. The series was far ahead of its time, such wonderfully fun to watch. I remember sitting at home when I was a kid waiting for "Space 1999," to come on. Shamefully I have never seem "Space 1999," since it originally aired. And, after all those years its terrific to be able to watch them again at home.
As far as character go...i liked them. Maya, and tony hafd the most potential, but the series was canncelled before things could really get moving.
Mayas Catherine Schell was excellent as the shape shifting Maya...She was one of the major reasons I liked "Space 1999," as a kid, and now as an adult. She's gorgeous! And highly intelligent! Best episodes are: "The Beta Cloud,""Brian The Brain,""Guardian of piri,""The metamorph."
As far as comparing "Space 1999," to other sci-fi series...don't waste your time each one has its own uniqueness, which is good. The other reason is because I want their to be more sci-fi shows out there instead of creators being frightened of similarities to other shows, so they don't give a new show a chance--now thats a true shame...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Space 1999 is a fantastic series
Review: Mega-set is a dream come true. The series was far ahead of its time, such wonderfully fun to watch. I remember sitting at home when I was a kid waiting for "Space 1999," to come on. Shamefully I have never seem "Space 1999," since it originally aired. And, after all those years its terrific to be able to watch them again at home.
As far as character go...i liked them. Maya, and tony hafd the most potential, but the series was canncelled before things could really get moving.
Mayas Catherine Schell was excellent as the shape shifting Maya...She was one of the major reasons I liked "Space 1999," as a kid, and now as an adult. She's gorgeous! And highly intelligent! Best episodes are: "The Beta Cloud,""Brian The Brain,""Guardian of piri,""The metamorph."
As far as comparing "Space 1999," to other sci-fi series...don't waste your time each one has its own uniqueness, which is good. The other reason is because I want their to be more sci-fi shows out there instead of creators being frightened of similarities to other shows, so they don't give a new show a chance--now thats a true shame...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cute - but the DVDs lack several features
Review: Okay - I was around in the 70'ies and watched "Moonbase Alpha" as I knew it as, whenever "mom and dad" permitted it. They had good reason not to let me watch, because several episodes are still in the back of my mind as I woke up covered in sweat the night after having watched an episode.

For that reason alone I found the boxset interesting. Not only can I now watch the episodes that I wasn't allowed to watch, and now I can also watch the "scary" ones again, while dying laughing. Movie technology (FX) has certainly come a long way since then - and so has writters and acting. But like Dr. Who, you get nostalgic because you remember how taken with it you were in the 70'ies. So as several other people have written, Space 1999 must be viewed as a 1970'ies production - not compared to what we are used to see today.

Now to the DVDs themselves. I give only 3 stars because I find the DVD collection missing a lot of features and information that I'm used to in my quite extensive DVD collection. Each DVD contains 3 episodes. The "bonus" is basicly a series of screen-shoots combined with one or two "set" pictures, and a page with the DVD producers name - why the HECK do I need to see that? On a few DVDs additional bonus material can be found, but it's short and quite out of context.

Where's the behind the scenes and notes for each episode? Where's the sound-track with producers or actors commeting on the episode? Where's the "putting into context" background of the series, helping people younger than me to understand the series? Actor profiles - this is the FIRST time I've not seen even a simple actor profile of the main cast - how come they are missing? What about background in how some of the FX tricks where done, that back then were ground-braking? I see people refer to the "lack of science facts" - it would have been an interesting subject to include on the DVDs with interview of the writers/producers to see how they tackled this critique. And a "where are they now" reunion seems to be in place too. Compared to my Monthy Mython DVD set, this is truly lacking lots of features.

Additional - there is a chaptor selector, even though it's only divided into 5 or 6 chapters. But you access them from the main menu, then the episode, then the chapter. Why not have a menu for each episode, and a screen with a synopsys where we could choose to view the epiode, choose chapter, see the list of actors and many even access to script or story-boards?

I was very taken by Space 1999 - and watching the episodes again is worth getting the whole set. But for the price I had expected more. It seems to have been thrown together without much thought of it's usefulness. Basicly this is VHS transferred to DVD with a few extra scenes. Very disappointing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A level-headed review for the novice SPACE: 1999 fan...
Review: Some of the 5-star reviews are undoubtedly from fans who grew up watching these episodes in their 1970's heyday. I'm one of those fans, but I hesitate to give this set 5 stars. It certainly deserves it just for the overall wealth of material alone (the complete two seasons, plus extras; some good, some fairly lame--did we really need about 57 different station identifications hosted by Landau and Bain?). However, take it from me (and I'm a fan)... the series is seriously flawed, and I'm not just talking about the science. It makes me wonder if there's a new audience waiting for these episodes or not.

While the overall tone is one of seriousness, these episodes still come off as quite silly. What some of the 5-star reviewers neglect to mention is that SPACE: 1999 has some of the worst actors and dialogue ever featured in a sci-fi series, with some fairly ridiculous special effects and costumes to boot. Any kid today who watches this who's over the age of five will probably snicker with comtempt at what passes on the screen.

The actors/characters who come off looking better than most are Barry Morse (Prof. Bergman), Nick Tate (Carter), Catherine Schell (Maya) and Tony Arnolt (Tony). While Martin Landau and Barbara Bain fair better in Season Two, they're stiff as boards in Season One. Plus, all the actors are surrounded by some of the worst extras you'll ever see. The poorly-written dialogue doesn't help their matters... you don't have to be a science major to realize that some of the "science" quoted is really just made-up gobbledygook by writers who have no real understanding of real science at all. To make matters worse, any instance of "humor" between the characters feels shoehorned in and falls flat 9 times out of 10--rather than laugh along with the characters, you'll most likely groan and roll your eyes.

However, SPACE: 1999 is still a real hoot to watch. The special effects, when not laughably bad, can be quite impressive (for 1976, anyway) and are suitably groovy. There's no shame in enjoying a show like this PRECISELY for its kitsch value. Also, if you're a big fan of the STAR WARS movies, you may be able to spot where George Lucas got some of his production ideas! And if you're into science-fiction history in general, it's a lot of fun to see how SPACE: 1999 bridged the gap between STAR TREK and STAR WARS.

If you're a new fan, you might be better off sampling the indivdual box sets (which gather together six episodes each), rather than blowing nearly 200 smackers on such a gigantic undertaking like this ultimate box set. My personal suggestions would be to check Sets 1 and 4 (which give you a healthy sampling of Season One, with notable episodes "Breakaway," "Earthbound," "The Infernal Machine" and "Dragon's Domain"), and Sets 5 and 7 (which showcase Season Two and feature standouts "The Exiles," "Journey to Where," and "The Bringers of Wonder, Parts 1 & 2"). Either you'll fall in love with the series and want to get the rest, or you may find it's more than you'll ever need of SPACE: 1999. Either way, you'll enjoy yourself... getting sucked right in to the sci-fi drama, or laughing yourself silly.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A breakthrough series
Review: Space: 1999 was a futuristic science fiction series, produced in the 1970s, after Star Trek, and still had a basic hopefulness for the progress of science and the future of the world that such science fiction would strive to have during the height of the Cold War. Space: 1999 is in many ways more in the style of 2001: A Space Odyssey than Star Trek in several respects, not the least of which is that it was set in the very near future -- going from simple orbits to moonlandings in a decade made some people optimistic about the pace of science, space science in particular. It is in some ways sad that we are no closer to building a moon base or sending people to Jupiter than we were twenty years ago.

It is hard to imagine that there was a time when we thought 1999 was so far off that it had to be something futuristic and incredible. The design of the outfits was 70s-style future (just as the Star Trek outfits were 60s-style future, mini-skirts and all). The furniture of the future could have been described as Danish Post-Modern; everything is plastic and steel, everything gleams. Computers are a bit more realistic in Space: 1999, although it is fascinating what did advance beyond.

However, Space: 1999 wasn't about the gadgets. It was a cosmic voyage of discovery. Being a fairly low-budget television production, the producers had to be very creative with special effects and mood setting scenes; actual science took a back seat to the kinds of planets and situations the crew of Moon Base Alpha would face. These ideas were innovative -- from various peoples who were predecessors of earth civilisations to outside civilisations and cosmic forces that combined mystical and psychological elements well.

There are two seasons, rather loosely related. The first season had Moon Base Alpha on the surface of the moon -- the first episode has the moon blast out of orbit due to a nuclear waste-storage accident. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain are the main characters as the commander of the base and the chief medical officer; Barry Morse stars as science officer in season 1, but one of the changes for season 2 is that he disappears, which is unfortunate, given the stability his character lent to the show. Nick Tate was the Australian pilot (there was a fleet of Eagle spacecraft on Moon Base Alpha); season 2 added Catherine Schell as a shape-shifting alien orphaned on the moon base (Brian Blessed, in one of his myriad of b-roles, played her father for one episode). Her love interest (season 1 was all about the science and the journey of discovery; season 2 was all about love affairs) was the dashing Tony Verdeschi, played by British actor Anthony Anholt (rather unknown to American audiences, but frequently on British programming). Meanwhile, Commander Koenig and Dr. Russell (Landau and Bain, married in real life) were also falling in love, and the base was relocated for unexplained reasons underground, with a complete redesign even of the uniforms (rather dramatic changes for a resource-strapped moon base).

There were 48 episodes in all, 24 for each season, and like many a good series, it ended without resolution -- our moon base travellers are still hurtling through space, hoping to find a home.

The ideas were often ahead of their time, and it is interesting to see the character developments over time, also. It was perhaps a blessing that the show ended after two seasons, as the directions for the series were beginning to be limited (Battlestar Galactica, several years later, would encounter the same problem). The acting was mostly solid, but sometimes cheesy - Joan Collins playing an elitist doomed to mate with the barbarian she might at another time have had to synthesise as food; Christopher Lee playing himself (as usual) in an interesting role (the same is true for Peter Cushing and Leo McKern).

There is a certain style about Space:1999 that still is pleasing and future-oriented despite its now-dated title. The plots are inventive if not always entirely original, and the central characters carry the show well through the episodes. The moon-base minatures and space-craft effects are well done; the general sets, particularly for the first year, are very well done, from central command to the underground tube transport system.

Take the journey! This remains one of the best science fiction series ever produced.


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