All Things Star Trek

[Ordnael]

the (crappy) first season

We have a point of discord here
Although Maya's is a great character, she still can't overshadow my perception that the writing got way worse in the 2nd season...also Tony kindda sucks for me, maybe I dislike him mostly mostly because he reminds me wow much I missed the previous Command Center personnel and the "cleaner" look!
The 2nd season is so weird I like to believe the fan theory that the Moonbase Alpha from the 1st season did split into two universes. A theory summed up by the producers website:

Space 1999 - A Tale of Two Moons | Season 1 vs Season 2

How can we reconcile the differences between season 1 and season 2 of Space 1999? Our Tale of Two Moons might help you with that...

gerryanderson.com

I can't recall memories from Thunderbirds Are Go! but I still remember vague images from the Stingray and pretending to play with the titular ship out of a random submarine like toy...I believe I also went as far as attempting to build my image of the ship out of base legos. I think I still have my lego God Phoenix from Gatchaman somewhere in the house

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Just saw this on Facebook. That's Catherine Schell, the Maya actress - you might recognize the man.

I'll defend the hill that the first season was bad, just no comparison intended - Maya and the second are 50 year-old memories. First season definitely had better -far more iconic- opening theme music.

It's important to note that beggar can't be choosers, and TV SF was still a vast desert in the 70s, with a rare oasis here and there. The not-much-later examples of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers -we geeks all watched, not having much choice- were hardly paradigms of Trying To Do Good Work --- Space: 1999 could be an exception, for all I know. There were definite signs the show took itself seriously, and they simply may not have had any good writers involved....

 

[Arakhor]

I have both series of Buck Rogers on DVD, which does have a few genuinely good episodes, even if the second series was clearly heavily inspired by the Star Trek revival.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

The Princess Arda actress was often quite good, not merely hot - a very funny lady. The lead, Gil Gerard, was fine as the Buck they intended. Erin Grey as Wilma Deering, I liked better in the pilot, a hard edged military woman w/ hair up in a bun, not the glammed-up version of the series in blue satin she didn't really have the figure to fill out - but yo, Erin Grey, Geek Goddess - you had to love her.

The show was sorta dumb-by-design, not unlike Star Wars in that they were trying to do fun high adventure, not disguised political commentary in the frequent vein Star Trek and The Twilight Zone mined. The show very much succeeded on its own terms. It was fun. -Much of all the same could be said of the original Battlestar Galactica.

I note that all this is not really off-topic to this thread. Capsule drive-by reviews of TV SF of the fifties, sixties and seventies provides context to improve younger fans' understanding of where Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds are coming from, and what they're riffing on...

 

[Ordnael]

First season definitely had better -far more iconic- opening theme music.

There can still be peace among us then
I can't recognise the man without the "mirror" goathee...btw isn't it neat and utterly funny that the goathee has reappeared in both Entreprise's and Discovery mirror universe episodes?
Catherine Schell's Maya is what makes season 2 worth a watch for me, and I don't mean the transformations or her looks, her character is genuinely interesting and well written!
I watched some reruns of Battlestar Galactica somewhere in my teens and it looked interesting. Before that I had only seen Dirk Benedict in the A-Team in copious amounts.
Buck Rogers is no an alien name for me, but if it ran here it didn't leave an impression on older folks, from whom I've learned about Space 1999.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

It was all about Maya for me at 12, yes. I remember that much.

And yes, evil goatee is Iconic. Yes, of course.

 

[Patine]

I have both series of Buck Rogers on DVD, which does have a few genuinely good episodes, even if the second series was clearly heavily inspired by the Star Trek revival.

One of those series was a classic example of an awesome first season, then the lead actor lets it go to his head, demands a LOT of changes for the second season to suit his ego, and quality and ratings plummet.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Ordnael, a thing you ought to know about me is that I feed my semi-feral cats at sunset - and for the roughly half the time the moon is visible in the still-blue sky at US east-coast twilight, I whistle the first season Space: 1999 theme as I walk down the hill; this has been going on for nine years straight, so the show is a big part of my life.

 

[Ordnael]

Ordnael, a thing you ought to know about me is that I feed my semi-feral cats at sunset - and for the roughly half the time the moon is visible in the still-blue sky at US east-coast twilight, I whistle the first season Space: 1999 theme as I walk down the hill; this has been going on for nine years straight, so the show is a big part of my life.

In case you haven't seen this before I'll leave here for you

 

[Buster's Uncle]