Do you remember the science fiction show that turned the moon on its ear? It was Space 1999, from the 1970’s and Andrew and Dave remember the shit out of it in Season Three, of ST:TNGEEZ! Not Another Star Trek Podcast.
Admiral Andrew: Do you remember Space 1999?
Commander Dave E Dave: Oh my god… how could I ever forget it?
A: Explosions cause the moon to fly out of orbit and it’s destroying the planet — the last contact they have with Earth… It’s like (CRACKLE)..the tides are out of…(CRACKLE)…the planet is going…(CRACKLE)And the idea is that the moon, because of course, inertia, the moon is flying across the universe.
D: I watched that show as a kid.
Andrew does theme music from Space 1999 from his mouth
D: It had this weird 70’s vibe, so it had this funky weird music and acting. I swear to god, if there was a Star Trek up against that show, clearly everybody would have been watching Star Trek. 1999 was like… (Hollywood voice) How do we make a space show… a Star Trek basically, where they’re not on a space ship? What else could we do?
I don’t know what kind of a Hollywood drug party was going on when they invented this. The invention that you would whack our moon out of orbit and that that would become a vehicle to fly across the galaxy! It goes to other planets and stuff, and encounters other aliens…it’s so out of control, it makes you wonder….
A: Moon Base Alpha!
D: Why couldn’t they just be on another space ship? You know, Trek didn’t invent space ships!
A: But Gerry Anderson is the one who invented it, and Gerry Anderson is also famous for coming up with the Thunderbirds, and some other British science fiction shows starring puppets.
D: Good for them for making it, and it’s so weird…
A: The fact that it’s starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain… For those of you who don’t know, look them up. Martin Landau won an academy award for Crimes and Misdemeanors. Later on in life.
D: Many, many years later — The Woody Allen Movie. And he was nominated for the Tim Burton movie, I don’t know if he won…
A: He played Bella Lugosi — Ed Wood! There’s nothing funnier to me than that Martin Landau would be the action star of a science fiction series.
D: The idea that you would propel the moon is more outrageous as a premise than Deep Space 9 as a space ship that doesn’t move in outer space because that’s what it is. We even call Avery Brooks one of the captains because he’s the captain of this thing that floating in space. But, the idea that they couldn’t propel a thing — that even Deep Space 9 couldn’t have been just another goddamned ship — I never understood that, the premise of the show, and 1999 makes even less sense.
A: Space 1999 is one of those shows where you really have to turn off your brain… and it was fun, it was a fun show. And again, at a time again, when there wasn’t a great deal of science fiction…
D: Well, there was no sci-fi on TV, that was probably one show that was on, there was just nothing…
For more of this nonsense, check out Episode 13 of Season Three, “Deja Q”!