In my original research study, I examined this British syndicated production that premiered in 1972. The plot is far-fetched and scientifically impossible: It is the year 1999 and the moon has been colonized by people from Earth. Hundreds of scientists and researchers live in a self-sustaining lunar base called Alpha. A cataclysmic nuclear explosion causes the moon to be blasted out of Earth orbit, thus beginning an uncontrollable space journey for the former satellite.

Space: 1999 at once demands viewers to take one giant step, conceptually, to suspend common sense and disbelief that the Alpha inhabitants would even survive the explosion and the absence of sunlight, let alone remain alive the necessary thousands of years before the moon came near any planetary systems outside our own.

Slick special effects, sets, and space vehicles lend a very high visual credibility, and this explains, in part, the popularity of the series. But, viewers expecting “idea content” like Star Trek proved is possible for sci-fi space adventures will be disappointed. It is not possible to ignore what ultimately is an embarassingly stunning lack of sensible goings on. From the unfathomable series premise right through all 48 episodes, Space: 1999 sinks into spaced-out flimflam. A prevailing absurdity makes the stories hard to accept, unlike those of Star Trek. The Space: 1999 characters, moreover, deliver lame platitudes instead of easy-to-understand verbal explanations of the apparent heavy metaphysical slant of the stories. In general, the dialogue adds to the series’ unintelligibility rather than clarifying for viewers what’s happening to the Alphans.

Portrayed as unwilling space explorers who all thought they had signed up for a mere six-month tour of duty at the moonbase (the moral equivalent of the S.S. Minnow’s three-hour tour), the Alphans never get a grip on how to cope with their incredible problems. The lead characters in season one were lifted directly from the Star Trek mold, but without the benefit of the three-way interpersonal interplay of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

John Koenig, played by Academy Award winning actor Martin Landau (pictured, right), is the patriarchal moonbase commander. He pales in comparison to Kirk because Koenig merely barks orders frequently, but does not demonstrate why he should be the leader. In the second season, he is served by a Spock-facsimile alien science officer, Maya, a female from the planet Psychon. Played by the beautiful Catherine Schell, Maya is a shapeshifter (a being with the ability to transform herself into any creature she chooses.) Nonetheless, she cannot manage to demonstrate any purpose in life.

Completing the trio is a female medical doctor, Helena Russell, played by Barbara Bain (pictured, left.) She was at the time of the production married to Martin Landau, and they are the only American actors in the British series. Her character is evidently greatly depressed and since apparently neither Prozac nor other suitable prescription drugs were available on moonbase Alpha with which she could self-medicate, throughout the entire series Dr. Russell exhibits far less emotionality and fewer facial expressions than Spock. In short, Koenig, Dr. Russell, and Maya come across as stiff figures rather than emotionally engaging lead characters.

These three and a supporting cast of very British-sounding performers and guest stars are pitted against an array of Irwin Alien-type Lost in Space “giant rutabaga” space monsters, beasts and freaks. The Space: 1999 stories rarely rise above the credibility of Saturday morning cartoons. If that were not sufficiently disappointing, the series relies upon plots that put characters through bizarre mutations as a matter of course. Representative episodes like “Breakaway,” “The Black Sun,” “Full Circle,” “Death’s Other Dominion,” and “The Troubled Spirit” feature people developing green, glowing eyes and then going insane, turning transparent and getting suddenly older, reverting into hairy Stone Age cave dwellers, undergoing bone-charring body burns, and becoming partially vegetable.

Despite of such vivid and horrific experiences, the characters on Space: 1999 do not show signs of either having learned learned or grown much. Stories emphasize terror and shock, but consistently the most that the Alphans can muster in response are puzzled gazes, shoulder shrugging, and inept dialogue.

Space: 1999 disrespects the science fiction fans’ intelligence by conveying the producers’ and writers’ apparent (but misguided) belief that whatever is shown on screen will be accepted merely because it is science fiction. The series developed a cult following of fans who defend every aspect of what others like this writer call flaws. Space: 1999 may certainly be fun to watch as escapism–true of Lost in Space as well. But Space: 1999 fails to measure up to the proven persuasive storytelling technique of adapting idea content to viewers. This series is a baffling combination of a production so poorly conceived at the storytelling level, yet aesthetically well executed with an extremely high visual credibility.