Comments on: 15 years after we lost the moon...

15 years after we lost the moon...

happyroach — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 23:19:41 -0800

With Saturday being the 15th anniversary of the tragic departure of the Moon from Earth orbit, it's a good time to visit The Boneyard, home to all the disassembled remains of the Eagles used in the Space 1999 series.

This is naturally, part of the Sci Fi Airshow site (previously), and is one of their best efforts to date. Also, previously: (episode list). And previously- .

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:27:34 -0800

It wasn't so bad losing the moon, but I've really missed Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and especially Barry Morse. (All those years on a wild goose chase in The Fugitive, and now this...) I did hesitate on the link about "the disassembled remains of the Eagles", but I was relieved not tofind Don Henley there. End Silly Transmission.

By: Sintram

Sintram — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:27:49 -0800

cute. Some wonky perspectives though. Loved the show when it was on. Didn't quite appreciate the quality of design it featured at the time.

By: Ursula Hitler

Ursula Hitler — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:59:41 -0800

Fooled me until I started clicking around and saw the rest of the site. I don't know if that says more about my gullibility, or more about the awesome weirdness of growing up in Southern CA. We really have shit like that, around here. You want a junk yard with a bunch of rusted spaceship hulks from some obscure 1970s sci-fi show, you can find it!

By: GallonOfAlan

GallonOfAlan — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 01:26:45 -0800

The Eagle is a great design, because it's functional and believable. It's made of girders, pipes, hydraulics with no concession to looking sleek for the sake of it.

By: emptythought

emptythought — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 02:15:49 -0800

Those ships look so fucking awesome covered in tags like that. It makes me think of like... cowboy bebop, and neuromancer, and space dandy, and firefly, and so many other semi-dystopian scifi future interpretations. It's like yea, if these ships were landing at shady spaceports and far out colonies and bases all over the solar system they'd totally get covered in tags. They're like the space fairing version of brooklyn side street box trucks and beat up train cars. I also totally agree that the eagle is shockingly realistic looking for it's era, and even for now. It looks like something spacex could build tomorrow. It somehow looks even more plausible than the space shuttle, and that actually existed. It just has a certain un-sleek realism to it. It looks like some kind of undersea research platform combined with a really basic space ship not designed for atmospheric flight.

By: fairmettle

fairmettle — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 02:45:00 -0800

It has always amazed me that Gerry Anderson's live action series managed to make the actors look more stiff than those in his marionette series.

By: GallonOfAlan

GallonOfAlan — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 03:15:38 -0800

Yes, and I could make a crass stiffness-related joke about the girls in his UFO series, but I'm too classy for that.

By: marienbad

marienbad — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 03:44:24 -0800

fairmettle - yeah, but he gave us some awesome and much needed tv sci fi so we love him anyway. This is ace, absolutely love it. The couple smiling crazily in every pic is superb. Thanks, happyroach.

By: fairmettle

fairmettle — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 03:59:06 -0800

Don't get me wrong, Gerry Anderson is altogether fab! However, if I were to choose his best live action series, it would have to be UFO - excellent sci-fi design and it still gives me the willies.

By: GallonOfAlan

GallonOfAlan — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 04:30:16 -0800

Yes, and I could make a crass willy-related joke about the girls in his UFO series, but I'm too classy for that.

By: valkane

valkane — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 04:48:21 -0800

I think it's the shipping container modularity of the Eagle that makes it seem so real, and is one of the reasons it still seems feasible to our eyes, even today. Also, the design language of Space: 1999 has a continuity to it; I can imagine Jonny Ive growing up watching that shit and it having a definite impact on him. That comlink is fucked up, dude.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 05:29:54 -0800

I hadn't seen the earlier link, so I assumed at first that these were actual sets or props from Space:1999, in the manner of the old Galileo shuttle prop from Star Trek that someone is restoring.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 06:18:11 -0800

The Eagle is a great design, because it's functional and believable. It's made of girders, pipes, hydraulics with no concession to looking sleek for the sake of it. And yet at the same time, it looks kind of gecko-like and cute.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 06:21:33 -0800

The Eagle is a great design, because it's functional and believable. It's made of girders, pipes, hydraulics with no concession to looking sleek for the sake of it. It's also more than a little cribbed from 2001's moon bus.

By: The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg

The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 06:58:40 -0800

I've managed to avoid every watching this show before. The aesthetic I'm seeing so far is so much "let's get as close to 2001 as we can on this budget" . A most pleasant surprise , that. Side note: my god, can you imagine the cost of hauling all that nuclear waste to the moon!?

By: Naberius

Naberius — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:03:40 -0800

Very well done, but really a strange conceit - not that the events of Space: 1999 actually happened. They make clear that it was a TV show, but a show that for some reason built actual, huge, full-scale spaceships and then dumped them after production was wrapped. Still, some really great work. the girls in his UFO series Oh. Gabrielle Drake in her silver lame and her purple wig... oh... But was there ever even an attempt at an explanation for why all the women on the moonbase wore silver lame and purple wigs. (Purple wigs?!?!) We saw plenty of women on Earth and none of them wore purple wigs. It clearly wasn't a fashion thing. Was it just something you ... did... on the moon?

By: cstross

cstross — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:28:18 -0800

The visual future of the 1950s-1970s was all about silver lame, miniskirts, thigh-high boots, and purple wigs. Personally I blame Mary Quant. Also: middle-aged men in skin-tight lycra or nylon who somehow never got love handles. Maybe it was all those food pills they were gobbling instead of burgers and sushi like us real people who come from the future?

By: blueberry

blueberry — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:38:18 -0800

(It is also the 20th anniversary of a runaway planet hurtling between the moon and the Earth, unleashing cosmic destruction. /Thundarr)

By: octobersurprise

octobersurprise — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:40:24 -0800

And yet at the same time, it looks kind of gecko-like and cute. Coolest Toy Ever—Mattel Space: 1999's Eagle 1. (I had one of those. I used to make-believe that the Alphans encountered the Planet of the Apes figures who, because of their size, ruled over the Fisher-Price people Land Of the Giants-stylee.)

By: thelonius

thelonius — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:49:48 -0800

Man I could have died happy after this show premiered. As long as I could have a plastic Eagle in the next world.

By: GallonOfAlan

GallonOfAlan — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 08:00:21 -0800

Dinky Toys made excellent quality die-cast metal Eagle Transporter and Eagle Lander toys at the time, I had a transporter and I still love the green.

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 08:25:25 -0800

Coolest Toy Ever—Mattel Space: 1999's Eagle 1. My friend John had one of these when we were twelve or so. I coveted it greatly. Of course, I had a Millennium Falcon, so these ships had awesome adventures together.

By: straight

straight — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:21:26 -0800

Coolest Toy Ever—Mattel Space: 1999's Eagle 1. The way the nose and engines could be removed and joined to make a little mini-spaceship was just the coolest thing ever. All my LEGO spaceship designs were influenced by that kind of modular design (although Battle of the Planets / G-Force was probably also an influence).

By: ZeusHumms

ZeusHumms — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:48:56 -0800

Something like this would be an interesting Burning Man attraction.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:04:46 -0800

I loved the Eagles. So utilitarian! They look like a cross between a space ship and the contractor's temporary office trailer at a construction site.

By: happyroach

happyroach — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:24:03 -0800

They make clear that it was a TV show, but a show that for some reason built actual, huge, full-scale spaceships and then dumped them after production was wrapped. To emphasize, they were functional full scale spaceships. As in "He still takes Eagle 4 on anniversary trips to the moon." Also, I had both the Dinky Toy and the NPC model kits of the Eagle and Hawk. I would have gotten the model rocket version, but they were illegal to fly in my home town.

By: jabah

jabah — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:52:18 -0800

Coolest Toy Ever—Mattel Space: 1999's Eagle 1. Wow, I had one of those toys too but had completely forgotten about it until seeing the linked picture of it. Good to know the old neurons can still fire!

By: rock swoon has no past

rock swoon has no past — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 11:08:57 -0800

The visual future of the 1950s-1970s was all about silver lame, miniskirts, thigh-high boots, and purple wigs. Personally I blame Mary Quant. Blame? I think you mean Thank! What can we do to make that aesthetic happen? Please?

By: xtian

xtian — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:36:31 -0800

One thing that sticks in my mind was Space 1999 and the Muppets were both produced by ITC Entertainment. As a kid I would wait to see the ITC logo at the end of an episode of the Muppets, because it reminded me of Space 1999 years after Space 1999 was off the air. The logo was also white on black and sort of space-age like.

By: qinn

qinn — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 22:25:26 -0800

Coolest Toy Ever—Mattel Space: 1999's Eagle 1. I had that and many fine adventures. I must call my mom to search the basement. Dinky Toys made excellent quality die-cast metal Eagle Transporter and Eagle Lander toys at the time, I had a transporter and I still love the green. This was the end of my Disneyland Adventure. Some kid in the toy store; "that shit's stupid". I punch! Back to the hotel room. Never diss the Space 1999 dinky toys you red headed little snot bitch!

By: billder

billder — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 07:05:17 -0800

Wow. After five minutes of that, I want to watch the entire series. I caught some of it as a kid, but I've forgotten all of this. But it's now really hard to see Martin Landau and not hear him say "Ed-dieeeeeee. Eddieeeeeeee." from Ed Wood.

By: fairmettle

fairmettle — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 03:19:44 -0800

5 Things that Space:1999 got right about the Near-Future