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Space 1999 reboot thoughts
Feb. 15th, 2014 01:25 pmWatched Sherlock 1x3 with Malin last night and the music that plays in the planetarium scene is from Space 1999. :D (Ep Space Brain.)
That was an excellent reminder that I needed to post an update to my previous Space 1999 post.
Since then I've watched the full season 1 on YouTube (plus some episodes of the completely different and in some ways abysmal season 2). I wished for, and got, a BluRay player for my birthday and am going to order season 1 on BluRay.
It's a very pretty show with amazing set design and special effects (only slightly dated) and it will look very nice in BluRay.
I have also discovered that there is a semi-official reboot!
The author of this book worked extensively with one of the main fansites and had permission from ITV Studios to write it. I bought it in hardcover and read it over the holidays.
I was very impressed! See, a big problem with Space 1999 is that it's, well, not very well-written. As a child I didn't realize it because I liked the characters and settings too much, and gladly filled plot holes myself.
Biggest problem:
Despite the fact that the story takes place in a contained setting with a limited number of people, there were new characters introduced all the time without explanation, and there was extremely little carried over from episode to episode. For instance, the moon is blasted out of Earth's orbit in episode 1, and yet we never see any real psychological effect on the characters.
The book does a marvelous job at filling the plot holes and introducing minor characters earlier in the story in a seamless way.
The book also explains the alternate history that led to the moonbase being built and describes what happened to the Earth in the aftermath of losing its moon.
And I started thinking.... if anyone wanted to bring Space 1999 back to screen in a way that preserved the original series they could just adapt the Earth-based part of the book. It would make a great mini-series, and the original characters would be mentioned by name and shown in photographs, just as they are in the story. One of the characters in Earth-based story is John's ex-fiance, one is Alan's daughter and another is Shermeen's father.
The special effects are developed enough that it wouldn't be that expensive to capture the disaster in all its fiery glory.
Now, if only I could make it happen...
That was an excellent reminder that I needed to post an update to my previous Space 1999 post.
Since then I've watched the full season 1 on YouTube (plus some episodes of the completely different and in some ways abysmal season 2). I wished for, and got, a BluRay player for my birthday and am going to order season 1 on BluRay.
It's a very pretty show with amazing set design and special effects (only slightly dated) and it will look very nice in BluRay.
I have also discovered that there is a semi-official reboot!
The author of this book worked extensively with one of the main fansites and had permission from ITV Studios to write it. I bought it in hardcover and read it over the holidays.
I was very impressed! See, a big problem with Space 1999 is that it's, well, not very well-written. As a child I didn't realize it because I liked the characters and settings too much, and gladly filled plot holes myself.
Biggest problem:
Despite the fact that the story takes place in a contained setting with a limited number of people, there were new characters introduced all the time without explanation, and there was extremely little carried over from episode to episode. For instance, the moon is blasted out of Earth's orbit in episode 1, and yet we never see any real psychological effect on the characters.
The book does a marvelous job at filling the plot holes and introducing minor characters earlier in the story in a seamless way.
The book also explains the alternate history that led to the moonbase being built and describes what happened to the Earth in the aftermath of losing its moon.
And I started thinking.... if anyone wanted to bring Space 1999 back to screen in a way that preserved the original series they could just adapt the Earth-based part of the book. It would make a great mini-series, and the original characters would be mentioned by name and shown in photographs, just as they are in the story. One of the characters in Earth-based story is John's ex-fiance, one is Alan's daughter and another is Shermeen's father.
The special effects are developed enough that it wouldn't be that expensive to capture the disaster in all its fiery glory.
Now, if only I could make it happen...
