Trivia / Space: 1999

• Space: 1999 holds the dubious distinction of being the only TV show referenced by a United States Supreme Court decision, in which watching it was considered a hypothetical form of torture. In the case of Hudson v. McMillian (1992), Justice Clarence Thomas quoted from an earlier Seventh Circuit decision:
  Many things — beating with a rubber truncheon, water torture, electric shock, incessant noise, reruns of Space: 1999 — may cause agony as they occur, yet leave no enduring injury. The state is not free to inflict such pains without cause just so long as it is careful to leave no marks.
• Creator Couple: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
• The Danza: Tony Anholt as Tony Verdeschi.
• Divorced Installment: The series was developed from concepts planned for the never-made second season of UFO, which would have been primarily set on Moonbase.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Gerry Anderson wanted to make a fairly straight space-colony science-fiction show. Then the executives asked if there would ever be stories set on Earth. He said probably. They said they weren't willing to allow that. Hence the much-maligned setup with the moon being blown out of orbit.
  • Anderson was originally planning to make a second season of UFO, entitled UFO: 1999, set 19 years after the original series. The idea was that the fight against the aliens had intensified and the defensive moonbase had been greatly expanded. Falling ratings for UFO in the States led to ITC Entertainment cancelling the second season during pre-production, at which point Anderson suggested salvaging something by redeveloping it as an entirely different series. However, it's certainly correct that ITC insisted that some means should be contrived by which no stories could be set on Earth.
  • Sylvia Anderson's choice for the two leads were Robert Culp and Katharine Ross. Her choices were nixed in favor of the more high-profile Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.
  • Meddling with the writing was also one of the reasons that Barry Morse quit after the first season, and the second became more action-oriented. Other reasons for him leaving were the extremely long shooting schedule, the quality of the scripts, the lack of time devoted by the producers to developing the characters as opposed to hardware, and finally money. In his autobiography he claims that he wasn't given any information about Bergman's back story, so he had to invent it all himself in order to have something to work with in creating the character.
  • Stories vary on why Morse left. While Morse stated he left of his own accord, Martin Landau and others have said producer Fred Freiberger did not want Morse, preferring a younger cast. Morse was offered a much lower salary and his paid transportation to and from the studio was reneged in Morse's return salary offer ahead of season two. Morse's agent initially tried to negotiate but Freiberger refused to alter the deal. When Morse decided to accept the initial offer, nobody would answer his calls. Gerry Anderson refused to get involved. Landau said Morse's removal was a major detriment to the series.
  • Many of the changes from the first to the second season were executive decisions to make the show more appealing to an American audience. This includes making it more of a conventional action-adventure, replacing some characters, making the relationship between Dr. Russell and Cmdr. Koenig openly romantic, and changing the dynamics between other characters. This video goes into more detail on the subject.
  • Sylvia Anderson was so adamantly opposed to the series two format changes that when they became imminent, she left the series and separated from Gerry Anderson.
• He Also Did: Fred Freiberger took a lot of heat for overseeing the third and the final season of Star Trek: The Original Series but he did get The Wild Wild West off and running.
• Playing Against Type:
  • As the leader of a group of aliens heading to Earth in "Earthbound", Christopher Lee is cast, for once, in a sympathetic role.
  • "Death's Other Dominion" has BRIAN BLESSED playing the straight man to John Shrapnel's hammy ravings. You read that right, BRIAN BLESSED GIVES THE MORE RESTRAINED PERFORMANCE.
  • "The Taybor" featured Rita Webb, better known for comedy.
• Real-Life Relative: In addition to being former costars on Mission: Impossible, Landau and Bain were husband and wife.
• Spiritual Successor: The moonbase setting, with the living quarters, control room and Eagle launch pads, seems like an expanded version of the moonbase in UFO (1970). The original concept of the show was a Moonbase-centric, 1999-situated continuation of UFO, but in the actual show the subject matter and typical plots are very different.
• Technology Marches On: The Alphans' Commlock: a combination of portable computer, communicator, Tracking Device, identification item and security key that is essentially a somewhat bulkier and more limited version of today's typical smartphone.
• Troubled Production: Suffice to say, it had its moments. As an example, the story goes that the model that portrayed the titular "Infernal Machine" was so literally infernal to manipulate, that the special effects artist tossed it across the room when the final take with it was done.
• Typecasting: The one villain who was undoubtedly played for laughs was cast and voiced by Bernard Cribbins ("Brian the Brain").
• Uncredited Role:
  • Vicki Michelle as Barbara in "The Taybor".
  • Valerie Leon as a Thule girl in "Death's Other Dominion".
  • Rikki Howard as a guard in "Devil's Planet".
  • Zena Clifton as a Vegan in "One Moment of Humanity".
• Underage Casting: Lynne Frederick was 22 when she played Shermeen Williams in "A Matter of Balance". If we assume that Shermeen is the same age as the actress, this means she would have been only a teenager at the time of the accident that launched the moon out of Earth orbit.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Alan Carter was supposed to be the protagonist of the memorable episode "Dragon's Domain", achieving personal vindication by killing the monster at the second encounter. Martin Landau had it changed so Carter's role went to guest actor Gianni Garko (of Sartana fame), and Koenig killed the monster. Adding injury to insult, Carter gets beaten unconscious twice in the episode, which seems rather mean.
  • Sylvia Anderson wanted Robert Culp and Katharine Ross for the leads. The decision was nixed by higher-ranking executives in favor of Landau and Bain.
  • Giancarlo Prete was initially sought to play a role that eventually was morphed into Alan Carter. Prete had to decline do to scheduling conflicts, and the role was changed and cast with Nick Tate. Prete later guest starred as Dan Mateo in "The Troubled Spirit."
• You Look Familiar: Multiple instances; but no guest plays more than two different characters.
  • Catherine Schell guest-stars in the first-season episode "Guardian of Piri"; then in the second season joins the regular cast as beautiful alien metamorph Maya.
  • BRIAN BLESSED plays Dr. Cabot Rowland in an episode of the first season (dying at the end of it), then returns in the second season to play Maya's father (and dies again).
  • Isla Blair and Stuart Damon also play two different characters each.

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