Space 1999 (1 Viewer)

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by Nebiroth
Because it would be enormously expensive. This show uses an awful lot of model shots and they'd have to go through the lot frame by frame.

It's true, with BluRay you are viewing the show in much greater detail than the makers ever thought anyone would be able to. Remember the sort of TV's this would have been on! So be prepared for a lower suspension-of-disbelief. There are other things visible as well - you can see that certain of the sets are constructed of painted wood as well (such as the Ultra Probe interiors in Dragon's Domain)

Nonetheless, the production values are superlative. The effects stand up astonishingly well for a show of this age. They are easily up to the standards of what would be expected from a major film production of the time and stand head and shoulders above the other TV shows.

And you can see the wires in the standard DVD if you look for them

the one thing I noticed (on Network's restored DVD version, let alone BluRay) that I never had before was that some of the eagles were photographic cardboard cutouts!

 

[Nebiroth]

Oh yeah - those are outrageously obvious once you look for them. They are easily spotted - even on the VHS releases.

It's strange, sometimes the if there's a model Eagle and cardboard one together, the cutout and model will swap places even when you get the same model shot at different parts of the episodes. I've seen that a few times but can't remember the specific episodes.

I can see why they used the cardboard ones when they had to be next to explosions - since those model Eagles were expensive to make and they only had a few of them - but why they used the card ones in static shots, I don;t know. They are espescially glaring next to a "real" Eagle.

Everyone should be prepared for a major let-down in Missing Link. Zenno City might be made of light (I love that line "Light is alive. Colour is alive") but obviously Raan spent all his cash on gold makeup and is therefore forced to live in a low-rent tent!

 

[Nelson Au]

Just wait till we get the blu-ray of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds!

I read a review of the blu-ray that came out in the UK. It's cropped 16 x 9 and the screen caps showed a lot of wires!

I hope the sales of 1999 might encourage a Thunderbirds release in the US too, but at OAR of course!

 

[Nebiroth]

Correct, the Thunderbirds BluRay is butchered into widescreen instead of being pillarboxed like Space:1999.

There have always been loads of wires visible in Thunderbirds of course

 

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Nebiroth

There have always been loads of wires visible in Thunderbirds of course

Lets have a Blu-Ray of the "Buster Crabbe" Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers Serials!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au
Just wait till we get the blu-ray of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds!

I read a review of the blu-ray that came out in the UK. It's cropped 16 x 9 and the screen caps showed a lot of wires!

Of course, that release was from ITV DVD, not Network, and probably used the same prints that were used for the HDTV broadcasts. Any US release would be through A&E and might use different prints (assuming both 16x9 and 4x3 versions were done, as was the case with Space: 1999).

 

[Nelson Au]

This set is out tomorrow. Any HTF reviews coming? I saw the DVD Beaver review and it sounds pretty good.

 

[Kevin EK]

Nelson, I believe that I will be doing the review of the Space:1999 Blu-ray, once it gets to me for review. No copy has arrived yet from A&E, but I think that is likely due to the delay in street date.

It will not street tomorrow. I understand it will actually hit the street in two weeks, on December 14th.

I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on reviews from other sites, but I do appreciate that DVD Beaver includes bitrates and graphs of the picture information.

My intention is to compare the new Blus to the 10 year-old SD DVDs from A&E I still have of the first series, along with the bonus disc that corrected issues on "Death's Other Dominion", "Dragon's Domain" and "Testament of Arkadia."

I have the Network UK set from 2005, and I've already gone through the extras from there, including the material from Fanderson, and I'm very happy that they're making this available to US fans at long last.

My personal favorite episode is still "Another Time, Another Place", and a close second is still "Dragon's Domain." I fondly remember seeing these episodes when they were first aired on channel 9 in Los Angeles in the mid-70s, and then staying up late in the early 80s to watch the eps when they ran in the summer around 1am. I remember thinking that the episodes tended to work better in the wee hours - in that time when you weren't sure if you were really seeing something or just dreaming it...

This review, assuming I get a copy of the discs very soon, will be a personal labor of affection for me.

 

[RickER]

Mine shipped yesterday, from Amazon.

 

[Nebiroth]

As far as I'm aware, A&E will be using the same restored version as Network in the UK. This means that the US release should be correctly pillarboxed to the original 4:3 aspect ratio.

The A&E and Network releases of The Prisoner were identical, at least as far as the episodes themselves were concerned.

There may be differences in the extras though, because it's not always possible to obtain licenses for some material in both the UK and US.

 

[Nelson Au]

I look forward to your review efforts Kevin. Though the release date delays are confusing! In seeing Rick's post above that his copy shipped, I checked Amazon and it appears to be available and I'll probably pull the trigger now!

A Thunderbirds release on BD would be very welcome from A&E Richard!

 

[Kevin EK]

I'm surprised that Amazon is already shipping the title. They may also be confused as to when the correct release date is. Good news for Rick.

The thing is, A&E has not sent a review copy for this website yet. If their calendar is based on the 14th, it's possible that I may not see it for another week or longer. It is also entirely possible that they may not be sending out very many copies for review - this does happen on some titles.

But if I see the review copy land, I'll jump on here and discuss it.

As I said, the review won't be that difficult to write - this is more of a labor of affection for me, and I've already seen most of the extras on the 2005 set and listened to the commentaries. It's the new transfers that interest me, and the small amount of new extras. I'm most looking forward to the interview with Sylvia Anderson, as I had to enjoy the cattiness of her commentary on "Testament of Arkadia" on the A&E Bonus disc. I think I mentioned before that I regret that they did not include the three commentaries found on that bonus disc here. So I'll just hang on to that disc and put it in the new set.

 

[Nelson Au]

Kevin,

There must be some muck-up somewhere about release dates. I just ordered 1999 from Amazon, should have it by the weekend or shortly after.

I understand your affection for the material. I feel the same about Star Trek The Original Series, if that wasn't too obvious.

 

[younger1968]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au
Kevin,

There must be some muck-up somewhere about release dates. I just ordered 1999 from Amazon, should have it by the weekend or shortly after.

I understand your affection for the material. I feel the same about Star Trek The Original Series, if that wasn't too obvious.

I purchased the set a few years ago and i love the show. I remember watching the show on late afternoon. I also think there is a different following of Space 1999 as compare to Star Trek. I do not have many friends that i grew up that like Space 1999 as much as they liked star trek.

There are some really good episodes in the set, especially on their plot. I did fine the creatures/enemies to be very rough imagatry as compare to star trek. However, i think it would be costly to do a complete re-mastered of the creatures, especially in lieu that i do not think there is a huge market for this set as compare to Star Trek.

 

[Sam Favate]

Originally Posted by younger1968
I purchased the set a few years ago and i love the show. I remember watching the show on late afternoon. I also think there is a different following of Space 1999 as compare to Star Trek. I do not have many friends that i grew up that like Space 1999 as much as they liked star trek.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Gene Roddenberry, who, when asked about the "competition" to Star Trek from Space: 1999, said "I think the fans are lucky because they get to watch both shows." Illustrates that everything isn't a competition and several varieties can be appreciated.

 

[Nelson Au]

Yeah, both shows have their pluses. I prefer the world of Star Trek. But Space 1999 has it's own little universe that I like to visit every now and then. I would never advocate that the effects work on 1999 be redone in CGI. The work is really good and holds up very well, even if you can see the strings every now and then.

That's a great quote from Roddenberry. I don't remember it, but I'm sure I heard it back in the day.

 

[Kevin L McCorry]

I have the A&E set, and "The Metamorph" is included on Disc 5. The documentaries on the bonus disc look softer, possibly due to conversion from PAL to NTSC. And for some reason I can't put my finger on, for the Blu discs, my eyes seem to be biased toward the Network set. The image on the episodes on that seems to be of a deeper, richer texture. Could be a bit rate difference. I don't know.

 

[Michael Rogers]

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Gene Roddenberry, who, when asked about the "competition" to Star Trek from Space: 1999, said "I think the fans are lucky because they get to watch both shows." Illustrates that everything isn't a competition and several varieties can be appreciated.

I was a kid in the 70's so to me, Star Trek and Space:1999 were just two awesome space shows. I think of them as sister shows, in a way. That's because Star Trek and Space:1999 would invariably be run together whenever I would see them in the 1970's (like Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie). In my kids mind, I saw Star Trek as a bit more fun and Space:1999 as more far out and somber, but I love them both as a kid and now.

Later on, I heard about Trek fandom dissing 1999 and vice versa and I was happy I was too young and innocent to be privy to it.

The early to mid 70's pop culture for myself and kids I knew was Star Trek, Planet Of The Apes, Space:1999, the main Superheroes, classic monsters, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Those were the ones that extended beyond the TV, comics or movies and had a presence wherever a kid liked to go. Go to a toy store or the toy section of a department store or drug store (which I would usually see toys since my father wasn't one to drive me to toy stores) and there would be teeming with toys from all of it. This was before the Star Wars deluge of 1977 which sort of eclipsed everything for a while.

So, I always love it when one of my kid culture tent poles gets attention. From the blu ray set which is so much better than what the US had for 1999 before (mine came yesterday) to the Six Million Dollar Man set(finally), they both can join the POTA and Trek releases as a testament to the pop culture we cut our teeth on being the stuff of legend.

 

[Kevin EK]

I am startled to hear that the second season premiere (Or second series premiere, if you will) has been included in the US set. We were told we weren't getting it.

Now I really want to see what's in this package. It still hasn't shipped for review, but this may not mean anything, given that the street date isn't supposed to be for another 2 weeks...

 

[Nelson Au]

Nice post Michael, I recall having friendly Trek vs 1999 discussions at the time in the mid, late 70's!
Kevin, I am surpassed to find The Metamorph included in the A&E set, I just got the set today and wanted to see if it was included!
The Metamorph is on the blu ray disc while extras are on DVD discs 6 and 7 as Kevin posted above. The image looks quite sharp on The Metamorph, I only watched the teaser and titles, the audio is Dolby mono from what I can tell. Makes sense since they consider this an extra. The inclusion of this episode is quite the nice surprise! On the same disc I tried The Infernal Machine. Also looking quite sharp with good color, but what surprised me more was the DTS audio.
Kevin, you and the others are more expert on Space 1999, so I'll look forward to what you guys think of the transfers.