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1* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The whole series might actually make more sense if viewed as [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace Fantasy IN SPACE]] rather than ScienceFiction.
2** All of the scientific... ahem... ''inaccuracies'' would go away. AWizardDidIt!
3** Many of the plots are about inner journeys, mind control, possession -- all classic Fantasy topics. As is fighting against the MonsterOfTheWeek.
4** And Professor Bergman would fit better as a wise old wizard than as a scientist -- he is almost never shown doing any actual science, or rational reasoning, but rather seems to have some mystical knowledge of what is going on.
5* {{Applicability}}: Similar to ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', the series exhibits this trope in spades, especially in the first season. See AlternateCharacterInterpretation above for a specific example.
6* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
7** Barry Gray's scores for Season One.
8** And the unworldly-sounding sitar score for "The Troubled Spirit".
9** The episode "Space Brain" uses Music/GustavHolst's "Mars, God of War" in its climax.
10** "Dragon's Domain" uses Tomaso Albinoni's "Adagio in G Minor"[[note]]Actually (according to Website/{{Wikipedia}}) written by Remo Giazotto[[/note]], later made famous by its use in ''Film/{{Gallipoli}}'', to great effect.
11** Derek Wadsworth's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM_aJ0Zy508 propulsive theme for Season Two]].
12* BrokenBase:
13** Among the sci-fi community, it's considered either an underrated classic (or at least the first half of it is) or an example of everything that can go wrong with a show in that genre. There's no middle ground.
14** In particular, the quality of the special effects seems to break the base between those who like the special effects for being quite good for the era, and those who focus on the cheap-looking, failed effects. There is something to both of these views; some special effects (especially the model shots) are very good, and others (in particular alien planets as seen from space) are quite bad indeed. Overall it's probably a question of seeing the glass as half empty or half full.
15* EnsembleDarkhorse:
16** Alan Carter was originally planned to be written out as part of the cast changes for Season Two. However, when the producers learned how popular he was with viewers, Creator/NickTate was kept on and given an expanded role.
17** To a degree, Fraser in Series 2.
18** Also [[TheProfessor Professor]] [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist Victor]] [[CoolOldGuy Bergman]]. The man was loved enough by fans that three of the official ExpandedUniverse novels ("Survival", "Alpha" and "Omega") showcase his (only briefly alluded on in a deleted scene) BusCrash between seasons ''and'' then go to work on bringing him BackFromTheDead. "Survival" was even liked enough by Bergman's actor Creator/BarryMorse that he wrote a foreword for it!
19* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: ''Two'' of them in "The Bringers of Wonder." First, part one begins with Koenig flying back in his Eagle, having had his brain made loopy by the aliens. The giggling and chortling, loud whooping, and wildly manic expressions Creator/MartinLandau adopts have to be experienced to be believed. Secondly, when one of the MonsterOfTheWeek aliens, disguised as a gorgeous (and notoriously vamp-y) woman from back home, starts putting the moves on Tony, Maya [[GreenEyedMonster immediately glowers]] and turns into a monstrous creature behind her back. Just as she's about to strike, Tony sees her and quickly (but non-verbally) urges her to cut it out; the alien turns to see Maya back in her humanoid appearance, and both her disarming pose and innocently smiling expression are hilarious and ''priceless''.
20* {{Narm}}: "All That Glisters" centres around the characters being terrorized by an immobile silicon-based entity - essentially an ''intelligent rock''. It's probably no surprise therefore that Martin Landau and the rest of the cast hated the episode so intensely.
21* RetroactiveRecognition:
22** Winters from "The Infernal Machine" is played by Creator/GaryWaldhorn, who would later be best known for playing David Horton in ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley''.
23** A guard from "Devil's Planet" is played by Creator/RikkiHoward, who would later be best known for playing Betty Whistler in ''Series/HiDeHi''.
24** Dave Reilly from "All That Glisters" is played by Creator/PatrickMower, who would later be best known for playing Rodney Blackstock in ''Series/{{Emmerdale}}''.
25** Barbara from "The Taybor" is played by Creator/VickiMichelle, who would later be best known for playing Yvette Carte-Blanche in ''Series/AlloAllo''.
26* SecondSeasonDownfall: Although the first season faced some criticism for the [[ArtisticLicensePhysics physical improbability of its setup]], it was still well-received for the most part and often compared to ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. The second season, on the other hand, was an entirely different story, seen by many as one of the most egregious examples of the trope in sci-fi.
27* SpecialEffectsFailure:
28** The show has been nicknamed ''Space: £19.99'' because some (not all) of the special effects are rather cheap-looking. It is sometimes claimed that this refers to the whole series being a low-budget effort, but this was definitely not true: at the time it was made, it was the most expensive TV series ever.
29** Averted for the the spaceship and lunar surface FX, which is of extremely high quality for the period, and usually achieved using double-exposure rather than blue screen. This means the images are captured on the original negative and don't suffer from extra grain, although this does limit the angles that can be used.
30** The show has some extremely poor matte paintings, mostly in the case of the surface of alien planets.
31** There is a certain dissonance between good and bad special effects. Obviously, some viewers remember the good ones and other the bad ones. As an example, in the first-season episode "Dragon's Domain", we see a number of abandoned spaceships -- created as very detailed and realistic-looking models -- orbiting a supposedly Earth-like planet that looks more like a brightly-colored plasticine ball (perhaps from a third-grader's art project) than any real planet.
32** The eponymous "Dragon" of the episode mentioned above is a very static tentacle monster that appears stuck in a doorway. In some shots it does look rather nightmarish, but the fight between it and the protagonist looks very much like a stage fight, with an actor trying to look like he's fighting obviously plastic tentacles. The monster's static appearance might be justified in-story by its being able to teleport between ships, therefore only needing to move enough to reach its victims. (Plus, it can infiltrate their brains and force them to run toward it.)
33** In "Space Brain", the situation itself is rather dire--on the one hand, the very real threat of Alpha being crushed into superdensity, killing everyone inside, and on the other hand the moon causing the destruction (by passing through it) of the eponymous space brain and all the worlds and beings inside that region of space that depended on it. And the climax, as they are forced to pass through and hope they can survive the pressure, is accompanied by very dramatic, tense music (as mentioned above, the awesome "Mars, God of War" by Holst). But what did they use for the effect to represent the crushing antibodies? When it's flying through space, it looks like wisps of cotton candy. On the moon and inside Alpha? [[{{Narm}} Giant piles of foam. Yes. They're being crushed by detergent soap suds.]] It's completely impossible to take the threat seriously after that.
34** One area where the special effects consistently do fail is modelling alien planets. They usually look like plastic balls painted in swirly patterns, with no resemblance at all to any known planet.
35** Just a couple of years later, the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies came along and changed everything. Compared to ''Star Wars'' and later productions, ''Space: 1999'' does indeed look a bit on the cheap side. ''Star Wars'' made ALL sci-fi on a TV budget -- and indeed, an awful lot of SF movies -- look cheap. That does not alter the fact that ''Space: 1999'' was, at the time, the most expensive TV series ever made and many of the effects do still stand up far better than would be expected for a mid-70s TV SF show.
36* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Whatever else you can say about the series as a whole, you can at least admit that the model work is top-notch (as was usual of a Creator/GerryAnderson production).
37* WhatTheHellCostumingDepartment:
38** Despite the first-season uniforms being designed by famous fashion designer Rudy Gernreich they didn't look very cool or interesting even back in 1975. It didn't help that the uniforms were designed not just to be unisex, but to de-emphasize the women's bodies (they were rather loose-fitting and worn without bras) - the effect was more bland than interestingly androgynous. Both the Andersons admitted later that Gernreich's involvement was far more for the "marquee value" of his name in the opening credits, making the show look as prestigious as possible, than because they thought he'd be the best person to design the uniforms. The fact that Gernreich was a personal friend of Creator/BarbaraBain also played some part in it. It was not entirely surprising that for the second season, the uniforms were changed without Gernreich's involvement, both to make the somewhat more colourful and more feminine or masculine depending on the wearer.
39** Many of the costumes worn by the aliens encountered during the series were almost ridiculously over the top, though that was not uncommon in SF series of the period.

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