MEANWHILE....I WAS STROLLING ON THE MOON ONE DAY
September 13th, 1999, is the day that the fictional Moonbase Alpha and all of its astronauts were carried off into deep space, riding a lunar rocket after the nuclear waste dumps on Farside exploded!
A promising (if scientifically dodgy) premise that never quite lived up to its epic sounding scenario but still delivered some pretty good television entertainment between 1975 and 1977.
The British sci-fi series was Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's last live action television collaboration and at least in part was initially intended to be a sequel to their covert alien invasion show, "UFO".
I recall being rather fond of it at the time, mostly because of the excellently realised model hardware, orchestral score and the brilliant costumes, even the silly ones worn by many of the exotic special guest 'aliens', played by a splendid parade of notable actors and actresses.
It didn't move me to collect much material from it, though I do remember the giveaway cards they included in packets of bread when the show launched in Australia. Quite what the connection was, I don't know; perhaps it was something to do with the lunar crust.
There were some fine spin-off novelisations by Edwin Charles Tubb that successfully made some kind of sense of it all and even managed to brings things to a relatively satisfying conclusion.
Many of the plots in Season One had their fuzzy metaphysical side, which, me being me, didn't appeal to me at all, though at least those stories were more cerebral than the artificially pumped up 'all action' episodes of Season Two, which were generally a bit of a let down.
There, is, by the way, precedent in the series for the characters standing on the naked surface of the moon without their spacesuit helmets on....
Rather more fun is the fact that real astronauts DID stroll on the moon and sensibly opted to keep breathing so they could sing about it....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qBSYFGkwkM
Although I couldn't resist filching the popular "Lord Of The RIngs" internet meme, "One does not simply stroll into Mordor" for the caption. Perhaps it should be "Memebase"?
The male and female leads appear in the picture, that's Doctor Selene Russell alongside actor Martian Landau, of course.
MEANWHILE....I WAS STROLLING ON THE MOON ONE DAY
September 13th, 1999, is the day that the fictional Moonbase Alpha and all of its astronauts were carried off into deep space, riding a lunar rocket after the nuclear waste dumps on Farside exploded!
A promising (if scientifically dodgy) premise that never quite lived up to its epic sounding scenario but still delivered some pretty good television entertainment between 1975 and 1977.
The British sci-fi series was Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's last live action television collaboration and at least in part was initially intended to be a sequel to their covert alien invasion show, "UFO".
I recall being rather fond of it at the time, mostly because of the excellently realised model hardware, orchestral score and the brilliant costumes, even the silly ones worn by many of the exotic special guest 'aliens', played by a splendid parade of notable actors and actresses.
It didn't move me to collect much material from it, though I do remember the giveaway cards they included in packets of bread when the show launched in Australia. Quite what the connection was, I don't know; perhaps it was something to do with the lunar crust.
There were some fine spin-off novelisations by Edwin Charles Tubb that successfully made some kind of sense of it all and even managed to brings things to a relatively satisfying conclusion.
Many of the plots in Season One had their fuzzy metaphysical side, which, me being me, didn't appeal to me at all, though at least those stories were more cerebral than the artificially pumped up 'all action' episodes of Season Two, which were generally a bit of a let down.
There, is, by the way, precedent in the series for the characters standing on the naked surface of the moon without their spacesuit helmets on....
Rather more fun is the fact that real astronauts DID stroll on the moon and sensibly opted to keep breathing so they could sing about it....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qBSYFGkwkM
Although I couldn't resist filching the popular "Lord Of The RIngs" internet meme, "One does not simply stroll into Mordor" for the caption. Perhaps it should be "Memebase"?
The male and female leads appear in the picture, that's Doctor Selene Russell alongside actor Martian Landau, of course.