Space: 1999 Megaset (1975-77)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Rare vintage interviews with cast and crew, including Gerry Anderson, Landau, Bain, Catherine Schell, and Brian Johnson
  
• Original Year 2 behind-the-scenes featurettes
  
• BBC "behind the scenes" segment
  
• Rare Black Pool "Space City" exhibit film
  
• Original theatrical trailers for two reworked Space: 1999 films Destination Moonbase Alpha and Alien Attack
  
• Season 1 trailer gallery
  
• Original Year 2 promo spots
  
• Gallery of pre-production artwork
  
• Photo galleries of production stills
  

Commander John Koeing (Landau) has just landed the position of head burrito on Moonbase Alpha. He is being pressured by the powers that be back on Earth that whatever problems need to be fixed as quickly as possible because a special mission to colonize the newly discovered planet Meta will be launched from their base. And of course, there's a problem that he was unaware of before he took the post: an apparent radiation leakage at one of the atomic waste dump sites is effecting the crew seemingly at random. When they discover the problem, they immediately try to remedy it by spreading the atomic waste out over a larger section of the surface of the moon, assuming that such close proximity is causing the surge. Unfortunately, their plan fails...in a big way. The resulted explosion at the waste site is large enough to knock the moon out of the Earth's orbit, taking the crew of Moonbase Alpha along with it. Their only hope is to find a way to get to Planet Meta and colonize it.

And thus you have the premise for a 48-episode television show that ran from 1975-1977. I must say that, while the story is intriguing enough (albeit admittedly a bit silly), the writing for the show was a little forced. It's a little difficult to tell whether it's the actors who don't know what they're talking about or the writers. To be fair, I'm going to assume it was a little bit of both. Landau was cast in a role that was very good for him, but he just didn't seem to be allowed to really take off in his performances. Barbara Bain, as the chief medical officer of the base, usually spends most of her time with her face fixed in some look of surprise and shock while she is giving Landau hell about whatever executive decision he happens to be making at the time. There's just not much of a character arc for her. The rest of the cast is almost like the Ensign that gets sent out on away missions with the crew of Star Trek; they either end up dead or barely rescued in the nick of time. The show is predictable at best, but I have to remember that I'm watching this twenty-eight years after it first aired and special effects have come a long way since then. I don't allow that excuse for the writers, however. After all, we are still enjoying Shakespeare and Moliere after several hundred years, right?

This "Megaset", which comprises the entire damn run of the series, is jam-packed with special features. Somehow, they managed to scrounge up lots of vintage interviews with the cast and crew and had the good judgment to include them. There are also trailers for the shows themselves and trailers for the two spin-off movies. This is great because now we have that television promos preserved--Lord knows I had forgotten what they were like.

The meat of the special features are spread out across the last four discs of the set. On disc 13, we get to see the BBC's look behind the scenes of Year 1. According to the DVD menu, it is from BBC Horizon. There's really not that much to it. It's a short interview with the guy who designed the moon bus shuttle that takes the astronauts from place to place--and that's about it. On disc 14, there are two "movie" trailers (for the aforementioned spinoffs), but, on the menu, it explains that the movies were made from Year 1 and Year 2 episodes that were edited together to make the film. Disc 15 brings us the "Rare Blackpool Exhibit Film"--a TV spot that was made for the Space: 1999 exhibit at a British amusement park. It is a very short film that shows absolutely nothing about the amusement park. Instead, it shows a shot of one of the moon busses launching while a voice-over is shouting things like "Alien craft on attack course, man your battle stations!" and things of that sort. There's really nothing to it at all.

The Commentary with Special Effects Director Brian Johnson is pretty good. It's him talking over a vintage film tour of the special effects department. He talks about the troubles that they had with the models and radio controlled moon buggies. It also shows various model screen tests and actual model shoots. If the history of special effects is your bag, then you'll find it rather interesting. Also on this DVD, there is a British TV commercial for the Space: 1999 "Ice Lollies" which were a spin-off product. Get this, it's frozen fruit flavored treats on a stick! Oh, blessed snacks from the future! They also had collectible cards inside each package, if you can but dig it.

Finally, disc 16 brings us a vintage interview with Brian Johnson. He's not incredibly exciting and his description of his model of the moon bus is very bland indeed. However, it's great to have these interviews saved on the DVD format. There are also interviews with Landau, Bain, Catherine Schell, Co-Creator Gerry Anderson and Producer Fred Freiberger on this disc. All of them are vintage interviews that give great insight into what the television world was like in the mid- to late-seventies (for example, during Bain's interview, she is smoking a cigarette--this, obviously, would never happen today).

Overall, I would say that this set is worth the rent if for no other reason than to see all the vintage footage that's available. If you are true fan of the series, you might consider dropping the cash to buy this Megaset--because it truly is a really good presentation of the entire shebang--for everybody else, check it out at least once.