I was probably one of the very few people who watched all of "Space: 1999" when it first debuted. I was a pre-teen who loved sci-fi and there just wasn't much on TV at that time--so I watched the series even though, even as a kid, I could see the show had some problems. Now these problems weren't so apparent in the first two episodes...and I saw some of the problems in this third show when I saw it again tonight. The show had some action scenes but despite having nuclear explosions and meeting their first aliens, the whole experience came off as very muted and flat. In other words, there just wasn't much energy and most of the show seemed a tad dull--and that should NOT be based on the plot! In fact, the only one who came off pretty well was Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) as he DID show some nice emotions--something no one else seemed to do in the show.
The show begins with an asteroid on a collision course with the rogue moon. So, to save themselves, the Moonbase crews plant nuclear charges to blow up the asteroid. However, one of the ships (the one with Carter aboard) has problems and one of the guys appears to have been lost when they were forced to detonate the bombs while he was still awfully close to them. When Koenig goes to on a rescue mission, two odd things occur. First, a lady's voice talks to Koenig and Carter and reassures them everything will be fine. Second, after the dust settles a bit, they see that the asteroid is gone BUT an entire planet is heading towards the moon! As a result of the new imminent collision, the Moonbase crew plan to use more nuclear charges to try to divert the moon. But, when Koenig is kidnapped by an enormous ship that sucks his ship inside, the crew isn't sure what to do next. After all, this ship that took Koenig (which looks like a space shuttle and a Basking Shark combined) isn't communicating with the base and they can't get through to the Commander. While inside, Koenig meets with another amazingly non-animated person who assures him the best course of action is to do NOTHING!!! But, the rest of the crew think he's crazy!! As I said, the show was amazingly limp and dull considering it featured nuclear explosions, an alien first contact and Koenig apparently going nuts! But, while interesting, it failed to ignite much energy.
By the way, Nick Tate who played 'Carter' was one of the few who was in both season one and two (along with Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and a few others). I liked his character and when you see him imagine what a cloning experiment using Graham Chapman (from "Monty Python") and Paul Hogan would be like--that's Tate!
The show begins with an asteroid on a collision course with the rogue moon. So, to save themselves, the Moonbase crews plant nuclear charges to blow up the asteroid. However, one of the ships (the one with Carter aboard) has problems and one of the guys appears to have been lost when they were forced to detonate the bombs while he was still awfully close to them. When Koenig goes to on a rescue mission, two odd things occur. First, a lady's voice talks to Koenig and Carter and reassures them everything will be fine. Second, after the dust settles a bit, they see that the asteroid is gone BUT an entire planet is heading towards the moon! As a result of the new imminent collision, the Moonbase crew plan to use more nuclear charges to try to divert the moon. But, when Koenig is kidnapped by an enormous ship that sucks his ship inside, the crew isn't sure what to do next. After all, this ship that took Koenig (which looks like a space shuttle and a Basking Shark combined) isn't communicating with the base and they can't get through to the Commander. While inside, Koenig meets with another amazingly non-animated person who assures him the best course of action is to do NOTHING!!! But, the rest of the crew think he's crazy!! As I said, the show was amazingly limp and dull considering it featured nuclear explosions, an alien first contact and Koenig apparently going nuts! But, while interesting, it failed to ignite much energy.
By the way, Nick Tate who played 'Carter' was one of the few who was in both season one and two (along with Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and a few others). I liked his character and when you see him imagine what a cloning experiment using Graham Chapman (from "Monty Python") and Paul Hogan would be like--that's Tate!
