September 13th, 1999

Between the era of Star Trek re-runs (maybe 1974?) and the dawn of Star Wars (1976) my favorite show in the universe was Space:1999. I must have only been nine years old when the show came out, but man did it make an impression on me for years to come. Every year when it’s September 13th I always think of the first episode which was titled Breakaway.

When the show came out it was slagged on all ends, I even recall an Issac Asimov article in Newsday ripping apart the show for being bad science fiction. I also later found out that Kubrick wanted to sue them for being quite inspired by 2001. But to me the genius of the show was the storytelling and amazing quality of the visual design on the screen. For the hour that you were watching the show you had the feeling that you were stranded on the moon roaming every haunted corner of the galaxy. Of course looking back Asimov was correct that the science was pretty lame, but that doesn’t make me love the show any less as the years roll on.

The other thing about Space:1999 that’s burned into my mind were the fast paced opening titles which had great combo of classical music mixed with tiny bits of disco guitar and plenty of shots of things blowing up in outer space (nope can’t get any better than that):