What is interesting is that Space 1999 initially was the 2^nd series of the 1970 TV show UFO, which by the way, celebrates its 55th anniversary this year in 2025. It was named UFO 1999 but ultimately it was decided to create a whole new TV show, and the name was changed to Space 1999. Gerry Anderson approached Martin Landau and Barbara Bain for the lead roles. They had just come off a popular American TV show called Mission: Impossible. Gerry’s wife Sylvia had preferred British actors, but Lew Grade insisted on Americans. She would have chosen Robert Culp (star of the 1960s espionage series I Spy) and Katharine Ross (co-star of 1960s blockbuster movies The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).

The first series got high praises but also quite some criticism, from “It is the most flashy, gorgeous sci-fi trip ever to appear on TV..." and "Space: 1999 is a visually stunning, space-age morality play...” to “Poor plotting and wooden acting, especially on the part of Barbara Bain” and "A disappointing collage of wooden characters, boring dialogue and incomprehensible plots...". Lew Grade cancelled the show abruptly in late 1975 when the ratings had dropped in the United States. He was also disappointed by the lack of an American network broadcast sale. Gerry Anderson and Fred Freiberger pitched some new ideas for series two, so at the last moment Grade renewed the show for another series that went into production in January 1976. Two new characters were added named Maya (Catherine Schell) and Tony Verdeschi (Tony Anholt).

Landau was not satisfied about most of the stories in the second series: He complained about stories he felt were lightweight or absurd when compared to the previous year's efforts. He wrote on the cover of one script: "I'm not going out on a limb for this show because I'm not in accord with what you're [Freiberger] doing as a result. He went on: I don't think I even want to do the promos—I don't want to push the show anymore as I have in the past. It's not my idea of what the show should be. It's embarrassing to me if I am not the star of it and in the way I feel it should be. This year should be more important to it, not less important to it ... I might as well work less hard in all of them. The fans response to the second series varied, it was not a successful second series in terms of fan approval.

Initially the producers and the studio intended to continue the show, renew it for a third series, because of budget reasons, it would be a shortened series of 13 episodes. Maya was considered to be a successful character and thus the third series was to be mainly focused on her. But when the second series was finished, it became clear that there wouldn’t be a third series. Apparently, it was not because of low ratings, because they were more than okay, but its cancellation was due to financier Lew Grade's decision to redirect funding from Space: 1999 to his new movie projects, such as Raise the Titanic.

Revival attempts and audio drama’s:

In 1999 Johnny Byrne and Christopher Penfold attempted to revive Space 1999 as a series of movies, like we’d seen with Star Trek. The first film would have picked up the story several years after the series ended and would have featured a heavily redesigned Moonbase Alpha. Ultimately, the project failed. In 2012 there was a second attempt to revive the series, this time not as a series of movies, but as a regular TV series. It was called Space 2099! Back then there was a lot of buzz around this revival, a few promotional posters were made, see below. It was announced as a reboot of the original series made by ITV Studios America in conjunction with HD Films. In 2018, six years after (!), Brian Johnson, special effects director for the original series, announced that the reboot was on track for production in the UK, pending "confirmation of the deal". Unfortunately, the series never got made.

In 2019 Space 1999 has gotten a new lease on life in the form of Big Finish audio dramas. Until 2023, 10 stories have been released with Mark Bonnar as John Koenig and Maria Teresa Creasey as Doctor Helena Russell.

Blu-ray:

In November 2010 the first series of Space 1999 was released on Blu-ray. It was a 7-disc set, five discs for the complete series and two more DVD discs for the special features. I purchased the first series myself back in 2012. Series two wasn’t released yet about that time, at least that is how I remember it and when I look on Amazon, I see a release date for the 2^nd series in 2015. I tried to purchase it between 2015 and 2025, many times I thought it was too expensive. At one time however, the second series was no longer available directly at Amazon, only via 3^rd party, which often meant: even more expensive. Because of me watching Blake’s – 1^st series on Blu-ray in 2025, I also got the urge for Space 1999. It turns out, that the standard complete series was as expensive or even less expensive than just series two, which I would have to purchase via 3^rd party. So, I purchased the complete series, and this box is thinner than my series one Blu-ray box! I am writing this in March 2025 (!), so, by the time the anniversary is there, I have watched the complete series.

Final Word:

By the time it is September 2025, I am finished with my (re) watch of Space 1999. It was a rewatch regarding series one, but series two was my first watch. So, inside of a year, there will be 3 Space 1999 blogs: An unboxing; Complete Series Rewatch/First watch and the 50^th Anniversary blog. I still would like to see a reboot of some kind, back when Space 2099 was announced, I was so excited, especially because in that period, there wasn’t any SCI-FI show set in space, back in 2012. I would welcome a reboot or much rather, a continuation. Same for Blake’s 7. Anyway Happy 50^th Anniversary Space 1999.

Anniversary blog written with help from wiki.