Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site topaz.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!columbia!topaz!milne@uci-icse From: milne@uci-icse Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Space: 1999 Message-ID: <2423@topaz.ARPA> Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 03:38:56 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.2423 Posted: Fri Jun 28 03:38:56 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jul-85 06:38:59 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 42 From: Alastair MilneSpace:1999 was far from being one the best series I've ever seen, but it was at least nice to look at. A great deal of work went into having striking and aesthetically pleasing scenery, and equipment. If a similar amount of work had gone into removing Barbara Bain, the series might have done better. What wonderful things contracts are: you have no acting talent worthy of the name, no expressiveness, no spark of character, and they can't get rid of you because you have a contract. The absurdity of the pseudo-science? About par for the course, I'd say. Dreadful compared to what it could have been, but average compared with its contemporaries. I find I get numb to such things after a while, and just content myself with enjoying what there is to enjoy from it. Better than waiting for a ship that looks as if it'll never come in. When medical shows with their pick of decent medical advisers declare that "X-rays ruled out concussion", I give up any hope. If they can't get that one small thing right, what expectations shall I hold for shows where science is supposedly the lifeblood? Well, I've simply stopped holding any at all. There were enjoyable bits. I thought those hand weapons were a fresh idea. I liked the Eagles, even if there are strategic problems with using freighters as fighters. Those little communications devices they used (visual communications at one end, electronic key at the other) seemed a very practical idea. The transport system around the base (the "lavender subway", I called it, because of the colour of the light in it) was well done. And people like Alan Carter and Paul were enjoyable. By the way, was it Prentis Hancock who played Paul? I've seen him in a couple of Dr. Who's ("Planet of Fear"; "The Ribos Operation"), I'm sure I've seen him before, and I'm wondering if it was in Space:1999. I thought at the time that the second-season changes were the beginning of the end, as similar changes were for Bill Bixby's "The Magician". The show was losing what steam it had had, and not even Catherine Schell made up for it. And they kept Barbara Bain!!!! Does nothing ever go right? Oh well, at least it didn't have as bleak an outlook on life as UFO did. But, as a certain Parisian gentleman would say, that's another story. Alastair Milne