Because of the Labor Day holiday weekend, I completely forgot a very big anniversary. September 4th was the 40th anniversary of the UK airing of “Breakaway,” the very first episode of Space: 1999. I was a HUGE fan of this show when it first aired – of course, I was six at the time, so most of the show’s metaphysical and subtextual points went way over my head…
While the show hasn’t aged well, it still is rousingly entertaining if you watch it with the proper mindset. And the special effects were amazing, and still stand up (mostly) today.
Here’s an article from the first issue of the Space: 1999 magazine, detailing how the show was made:
“The highest budget for an hour series ever committed in 20 years of production!” Of course, they had to keep building Eagles – they had a habit of exploding and/or crashing.
Here’s the awesome theme song:
Here’s the first episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cq7isloJj8
Here’s the “monster scenes” from the scariest episode of the show, ever – one that gave six-year-old me nightmares for weeks (and if you have seen the show, you know the episode I’m talking about)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WKfEj5JpwA
And here’s Dayton Ward writing about the anniversary.