I'm getting old i suppose. When I heard that this was finally out on a restored Blu Ray I picked it up. It was the first series i followed as a child growing up. So this was surely going to be a trip down memory lane.
That Space 1999 has become a cult series can be seen in the pilot, Breakaway. You can see that the cast was sublime and that the acting was above mediocre. But the effects used and the way it was shot never gave you nowadays a feeling that this was made mid seventies. They had a lot of money to invest in this series and it was going to be the next big thing but it failed and it spawned only 2 seasons.
The first episode is what it's all about, on 13 September 1999 there's something going terrible wrong with the moon. A big explosion made it possible that the moon went out of orbit from earth and the people left on Moonbase Alpha are left in deep space on their own. The contact with earth is over and they have to survive in space.
The effects as I said earlier were really well done for the time being. Just for a series they used miniature sets, it shows, but it do works. And they weren't afraid to add a bit of gore to the infected people, their eyes do have a weird look and two have some kind of burned skin. Nowadays you wont turn your face away for this but back then it was something to talk about.
Not a moment that made you think, this is slow or boring. Just have a look for yourself. High tec gadgets used, see the mini televisions, no effects used it's the real stuff, amazing.
And if you want to pick it up be sure to catch the restored Blu Ray, it looks amazing and has 5.1 sound! Filled with a lot of never seen before extra's.
Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5