5 Star

You’ll Believe We Lost Our Moon in 1999.

After the success of the original Star Wars, ITC decided to cut together episodes to make four Space 1999 feature films under the banner Super Space Theater. Now Network bring us the Blu-ray five disk release to please all fan’s of the show and introduce Space 1999 to a new generation of Science Fiction fans.

First up is the origin of the series, with Alien Attack. Earth are storing an increasing amount of Nuclear waste on the far side of the moon, also moon base Alpha is having personnel dying of a mystery virus and there is contact with Meta, an alien world, where they believe the virus originated.

Arriving is the new Commander John Koenig (Martin Landau, Mission: Impossible (TV Series), North by Northwest), he has been charged with sorting out the storage problems. People keep falling ill, and it seems that they have been out to storage area two, but there are no leaks and everything seems good, but it isn’t, and we soon find out there is a big issue.

Now we are sitting on the biggest bomb man’s ever made.

Dr. Victor Bergman (Barry Morse, Murder by Phone, Running Scared) works out that it is Magnetic radiation that is causing the problems all around them. Waste storage one explodes, and Bergman tells John that storage area two has one-hundred and forty times more waste than one. Eagle spacecraft are scrambled to spread the waste over a larger area of the dark side of the moon.

Too little too late as the heat rises in storage area two and boom. A chain reaction causes such an explosion that it forces the moon to leave Earths orbit and speed off in to outer space.

As Dr Helena Russell (Barbara Bain, Mission: Impossible (TV Series), The Spirit of ’76) deals with the injuries of the blast, Earth has to deal with earthquakes and floods as it loses the pull of the moon. Set adrift and free to roam the cosmos, Moon Base Alpha is about to have many adventures.

The three-hundred and eleven men and women of Moon Base Alpha are in danger in, Journey Through the Black Sun as an asteroid hurtles towards the moon base. Using the Eagles, they place nukes on the surface, and they blow it up, but Alan’s (Nick Tate, Bed of Roses, Hook) Eagle is caught in the nuclear dust cloud, The asteroid had distracted them from noticing a huge planet on the course. They have one-hundred and five hours to come up with a solution, and as always there is a dilemma and things always go down to the wire.

I go to shape the future of eternity.

Cosmic Princess sees the moon base now light years away from Earth after it passes through a space warp. They need titanium and a nearby planet seems to have the resource they need. But this is the home of the nasty Mentor (Brian Blessed, Flash Gordon, Much Ado About Nothing) and his innocent daughter Maya (Catherine Schell, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Return of the Pink Panther) who has a unique talent. Mentor is a driven man, he wants to return his ruined world back to the paradise it once was, but to do that he requires what the moon base has, it’s inhabitants. A fight to save all of John’s wards ensues.

Rapport with psyche benefits everyone.

Destination Moon Base Alpha sees Koenig in Eagle one, but he is acting strange, like he is drunk flying erratically, swooping low over the nuclear plant. The inevitable happens, he crashes into one of the plants. He survives, but with serious head trauma, so Helena puts him on a machine to help calm his mind and let it recover. It is going to take time, so they leave him in sickbay. There is no radiation leak at the plant, so they all give a sigh of relief. Their day gets even better as on the view screen, a miracle appears, a Swift spaceship from Earth travelling faster than the speed of light. It is here to save them and take them all back to Earth. All the moon base’s inhabitants know someone on the rescue ship, so everybody gets along well. Except the newly revived Koenig, who sees hideous aliens, but no one will believe him. He must once again fight to save his base.

The fifth disk is the Italian version Spazio 1999, subtitled with a score by Ennio Morricone score, which was shown in cinemas seven months before the UK, Australia and the USA.

This may not be all the episodes of the great Sci-Fi series, but now on Blu-ray, this is the next best thing. Great to see this series revived for the grown up kids that spent their Saturdays cutting their Sci-Fi teeth on these Gerry Anderson creations.

I’m an astronaut professor, not a philosopher.

Super Space Theater Space 1999 is exclusively available at Network

What’s in the Box?:

● Alien Attack: 4:3 version with original movie version soundtrack

● Alien Attack: 16:9 version with original TV episodes soundtrack

● Alien Attack trailer

● Interview with David Hirsch, the mastermind behind the Super Space Theater versions

● Journey Through the Black Sun: 4:3 version with original movie version soundtrack and optional original TV episodes soundtrack

● Journey Through the Black Sun: 16:9 version with original TV episodes soundtrack

● Journey Through the Black Sun trailer

● Journey Through the Black Sun original NTSC titles

● Cosmic Princess: 4:3 version with original movie version soundtrack and optional original TV episodes soundtrack

● Cosmic Princess: 16:9 version with original TV episodes soundtrack

● Cosmic Princess trailer

● Cosmic Princess original NTSC titles

● Destination Moonbase-Alpha: 4:3 version with original movie version soundtrack

● Destination Moonbase-Alpha: 16:9 version with original TV episodes soundtrack

● Destination Moonbase-Alpha trailer

● Spazio 1999: 16:9 version with original Italian movie soundtrack and Ennio Morricone score

● 24-page commemorative booklet