I watched most of the first season of Time Trax and enjoyed it. Andromeda I had a hard time getting into. A show you should check out, I don't know if you've ever watched but I think you may have referenced it in a previous video, is Total Recall 2070. It only got one season but it had some solid world building and episodes and was building to something for a second season. It actually has it's own TH-cam channel, Totalrecall2070, which has all of the episodes except for the premiere which can be found on other TH-cam channels. It's worth watching.
Here's a couple for you to look back on and ponder. Early Edition and Dead like me. I enjoyed both. Off to check out your review of Sliders, another show I really liked up until the departure of JRD.
Don't know if you've already reviewed it buy there was a series called 'Seven Days' starring Jonathan Lapaglia I think. I enjoyed it's first season a lot. Perhaps you could look into that one..
I loved the first two and a half seasons of Andromeda. After those first two and a half seasons, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a writer from TNG, left the show and it went downhill fast. But some great episodes were made before then.
I feel like when I read stuff like this, "Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a writer from TNG, left the show and it went downhill fast" It speaks volumes to poorly run companies. I'm sure from a political saving face stand point, this is true. But, from a realistic or perhaps more honest view. I bet it boiled down to money. A lot of people over value themselves and the typical company response is a good one. However, I find the opposite is true a lot as well. Where company heads don't realize an employees value and lets them go and as a result. They go down hill very quickly.
I had that feeling myself until both the internet, and being bored for a few minutes, let me look it up. Sliders and Andromeda are two shows that come to mind, aside from Heroes, where they had such strong starts and could have been real substantial shows for the sci-fi genre. But it all came down to writing and production changes. Andromeda was the hardest hitting of the lot, if because I loved the idea of what the show was going for.
@@tonyvieson9194 I understand your feeling but it is true for andromeda. Kevin Sorbo was co-producer. He wanted to return to a pure episodic-casual mode whereas R.H. Wolfe wanted to stick true to G. Roddenberry's vision and planned an ongoing arc spanning across seasons very much like DS9.
Yeah, Sorbonne basically fired him because he wanted the show to be more simple like his Hercules show. I liked the Hercules show as a silly goof waste of time, but Andromeda was so much better than that in the first 2 seasons, that it was a truly sad waste.
I've never re-watched the series but as I remember the last couple of seasons really seemed to be marking time to get past the 100 episode mark in order to get the show into syndication.
One of Andromeda's problems is they lost one of the more interesting characters halfway through. The actor who played Tyr got cast on the soap opera, The Young and the Restless. A network show with millions of loyal fans and a regular time slot was simply a better job than a syndicated sci-fi show.
Dave if you get the chance 'Space, Above and Beyond' is well worth a look. It got canned even before the end of Season 1. Started fast, then slowed down - but towards the end it picked up again and there was a whole conspiracy sub-plot going on between the Earth govt and the alien enemy. Got canned right before the big show-down space battle
@@TheAnanaki at the time I was expecting a lot more space battles and it was a personal disappointment really. Nothing against the detailed world-building, character development etc. I was hoping the whole series would be like the 2nd half of the pilot
@@Rambletripe1 True, but they made up for that with an epic love story that the girls could like and at times absolutely drugs fueled bonkers insane stories. That worked! That's the amazing part. That show took amazing risks in its writing and storytelling. Splitting the cast into two and follow them alternately, having key characters exist in people's heads, it was just amazing. I'm glad that after it got cancelled they at least managed to kinda wrap it up with Peacekeeper Wars, that S4 cliffhanger was evil to end the show on. Amazing show. I still feel that Farscape was what Star Trek Voyager should have been. A crew being chased and desperate to survive in a crazy part of the Galaxy.
@@whos-the-stiff Yeah, season 2 wasn't as good, but some American producer waded into the production, sacked a bunch of people, and threw his weight around demanding things change.
Lol. More people need to remember that context is key... the key? (not sure how that sentence structure should work.) If we all took half a breath to see where others were coming from, we might recognize that what motivates a decision is often WAY more important than the decision itself. Well said bob(etcetera)!@@bob_the_bomb4508
It only looks like the golden era because you now get to enjoy all of it. At the time shows like these were rare and far between. Growing up in the 70's and 80's you only had reruns of Star Trek TOS, Space 1999 and Battlestar Galactica, some places maybe Doctor Who with Tom Baker, the other Doctors never seemed to get much love outside of the UK. Sci-fi only really started to pick up when Babylon 5 came along and proved there was a market for scifi other then Star Trek. That opened some doors to new shows. Even then I still don't think there was a whole glut of scifi shows. If anything these days we get more then any. They're just f***ed from the start being vehicles for THE MESSAGE.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 The late 90's and early 2000's had way more weekly TV show then now or before that. I know because there are so many good Sci-Fi shows that came out during that time. Most of the shows now are fake reality shows that are cheaper to produce.
There are still good sci-fi shows today. Not as much like it used to 😂. shows like foundation, the expanse, raised by wolves, doctor who (before Jodie) I would say s3 Picard but that was just a movie cut up in parts and it was ok at best…well that’s I can think of on the top of my head, how sad 😂
@@SpartanOfFinance I thought and still do that it was one of the dumbest shows ever. It could never decide what it wanted to be, either a group of Marine special forces doing special forces stuff, or The Flying Leathernecks in space. No sane army in the world would ever use pilots as ground soldier cannon fodder. Pilots cost millions to train and only a rare few can do it. Anyone who breathes can be a ground soldier. Losing a dozen soldiers to rescue 1 downed pilot is an acceptable loss. The show should have had 2 separate casts, one the pilots, the other the groundpounders, follow them alternately and for key episodes bring them together.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Too many shows fall into that trap on wanting to keep the primary cast together so they get put into "unrealistic" situations (the entire bridge crew beaming down in Star Trek or Apollo and Starbuck on the ground to blow up a ship killing laser). Each military unit has a set of skills and training to complete their mission. Tough to do both but thats Hollywood for ya.
@@SpartanOfFinance That is true. Riker refusing to get his own command after Best of Both Worlds comes to mind. But I can see a reason for a bridge crew to go down to conduct negotiations in persons. I don't see a reason to send pilots whose training takes years into a meatgrinder where the average life span is less then basic training for regular soldiers. There's dumb, sending bridge crew down, which TNG tried to address by keeping the captain on the ship, and there's boneheaded stupid, what SAAB was. As a military history nut I cannot suspend disbelief on that.
I love the space 1999 ships and moonbase. Big lifts carrying around modular ships like containers, underground maintenance hangers and a real looking built for purpose design. Loved the few scenes we got to see.
I like the look, the stories weren't too bad, and back in the late 70's early 80's you were just starved of any scifi, so getting it as reruns was must see TV. But the basic premise of the moon achieving FTL speed to reach other stars and planets is bonkers. Only the 70's could come up with that. Kinda charming, but still bonkers.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 I did like the little details they put in, though. The last transmissions they could pick up from Earth before they moved out of range spoke of terrible environmental chaos, now that there were no longer any ocean tides due to the removal of the Moon. It left me always wondering what happened on Earth after they were gone, and if there was even a place for them to return if it had been possible.
For Andromeda, Harper was not supposed to be likable per se. More like Rodney (MacKay) in Stargate Atlantis, I think you were supposed to find him annoying... until you understood him a little better later, when the show took some time to dig into each character's backstory. And then he became more relatable.
I don't know how well known it is, but Space 1999 was born out of the cancellation of another scifi show from the Anderson's called U.F.O. Particularly the idea of having a base on the moon, which they expanded on. U.F.O. was another Scifi show I enjoyed from my childhood. It had a catchy earworm of an intro that stuck in my mind to this day.
First two season of Andromeda, with setup by Roddenberrys and under writing of later fired Robert Hewitt Wolfe was AWESOME SMART SERIES. Don't get eluded by 90s aesthetics and campy Lead. Even later ,scene with Magogs storming Andromeda was giving us chills. Name of ships, great cast and terrific episode with prision camp for starships.
Wasn't so much an upgrade as a costume change to help hide how much her body changed as a result of her pregnancy. She was just a head for a full season to hide the belly! :)
The problems with Andromeda become even worst when you remember that its original conception was as a Star Trek series set in the distant future of the period we're used to.
that in-body experience was stupid, thats why the time tunnel and time trax were much better, the time tunnel had also factual history in the beginning,like,the titanic,ww2,the alamo,etc, later they incorporated more sci fi like episodes
I enjoyed The Time Tunnel as a Kid. Was there around the time of 'Voyage to the bomb of the Sea', 'Land of the Giants' and 'The Invaders'. But it seems there is one more recent time travel series that was pretty solid was a show called 'Seven Days'. Darker than 'Quantum Leap' with a few plot twists since the main character was the only one that could remember the events and the relationships he had that would vanish in the next 'jump' (I forget what they called the process). Also, they went into details about how the tech was 'taken'. It's a must see if you want a darker show in vibe to Babylon 5 or The Invaders.
rewatched Andromeda recently and was very pleased. I`m one of those rare people who liked all the seasons. Even in the darkest and most depressive moments of the show it stll emited some hope and uplifting feel, with a tad of philosophy, which I personally like. It`s a kind of Star Trek basically, hence they ripped off this idea for Dicovery, but only at first and later it had its own twist (that`s why most people say they only liked first or first 2 seasons). Not perfect, some characters could be more 3 dimensional, yet almost all are likeable to me. Unlike Farscape (which wasn`t bad as well though). Tyr, Trance and Rhade reveal more during the show. The 5th season is quite unique and the least Star Trek-like. Also one of the rare space shows where Earth isn`t important😄 Space precenct was fun but 1 episode was more than enough
Space: 1999 had the MOST significant affect on my 10 year old self in 1975!!! The first season was magnificent - the second season was as heartbreaking as Kurtzman's bastardisation of Star Trek !!!
Thanks Dave. As I remember it, Andromeda, and Earth: Final Conflict were unfinished Roddenberry scripts that his widow, Majel released. I don't know if she needed the money, or just wanted to give fans a bit more of Gene before she died. Final Conflict started off strong, but went down quickly...I was disappointed, as I had high hopes for it. I agree about Andromeda, the first few episodes were intriguing, but Roddenberry hadn't completely fleshed out the concept, and the modern writers just couldn't pick up where he left off... for both series. I think these were ideas he came up with, and then abandoned when the Star Trek movies began, and Next Generation was created. But I do appreciate that Majel gave us a bit more of Gene that we might have never known. Check out Earth: Final Conflict if you've never seen it, just don't get your hopes up.
Both series have good concepts, I wonder if Gene realized there was only so far they could go. The potential was too limited so he abandoned them. When Earth: Final Conflict moved away from the main characters, I stopped watching. Especially when the story moved away from Da'an. The focus should have remained on Da'an as the power struggle with Zo'or continued.
Andromeda was actually a re-imagining of the 1973 Roddenberry story, "Genesis II". Even the character names were the same. The only difference is that Genesis II took place on post-apocalyptic Earth, rather than in space.
If I recall correctly, the first seasons of both shows were decent, but the higher ups wanted better ratings and re-tooled both shows to their detriment. Majel either didn't have the power to fight the changes, or took the money and ran.
Space1999 still looks good. I wonder if I watched it again if I would keep waiting for a man with a long scarf in a blue box to show up with his companion.
Lexa Doig was absolutely on top of her career in "Continuum". What do you think of that show by the way? One of rare Canadian gems I think, if we don't count almost all American SciFi made in Canada.
There was an actual overarching story line to Space:1999's 1st season, that fans at the time dubbed "The Mysterious Unknown Force", in which it was clear that there was some sort guiding entity or entities, which were overseeing Humans seeding the galaxy, and was clearly stated in episodes, like "Collision Course", "War Games", and "The Testament of Arkadia". This cerebral concept was sadly dropped by Freddy Frieberger (he also oversaw Star Trek's 3rd season) in Season 2 for the more action-oriented plots that were decent standalone episodes, but lost the epic metaphysical and philosophical feel of the 1st season stories.
Andromeda was a show that had a cool premise and could probably do with a reboot using tighter scripts and shorter seasons that focused on the world rather than episodic character stuff. The original run also suffered from a change in head writers. The original writer for the show put out some details of where he was trying to get the show to for its end point which was very surreal and would, I think, be much better recieved if done in today's streaming format.
Remember that the pilot episode of Andromeda was written by Gene Roddenberry after the original Star Trek ended. It wasn't for many years after he died that they actually produced it.
One show that I never missed an episode of was _Alien Nation._ I liked the James Caan film, but I liked how the series was able to explore the dynamic between Sikes and Frar better since it had the advantage of having more time to do so.
one of my all time favourites too. One of my first 'internet' fandoms - bulletin boards & user groups. I've read all the novels and even went to a fan convention in someone's small house!
Will u be reviewing Buck Rogers & Battlestar Galactica (70s & 80s version)? Both i loved as a kid, season 1 was solid but they wrecked both of them in season 2.
I remember reruns of Space 1999 being on TV when I was a teenager - about 6 years before the show was supposed to take place. I always wanted to watch Andromeda when it was on TV, but my favorite show Stargate SG-1 always won out.
In fact, seasons 1 and 2 were the best of Andromeda. Seasons 3-5 we're pale shadows of what S1-2 had. There's a large backstory from the original show runner about what went wrong. If you weren't impressed with season 1, then you probably didn't understand the subtext and philosophy of what was going on with the overall story arc.
I have to say... that I felt the same as you about the first season of Andromeda. It's funny... that we are willing to allow shows like TNG and Enterprise a year or two to find their legs but not shows like Andromeda. When I first watched it I thought it didn't make the mark, but as the show went on and especially by the late second season and into the third... it changed into a much better show. Trance Gemini ( the little pink girl ... actually purple) is transformed and the characters have far more depth... and most importantly... the stories are much better. There is also a parade of guest stars who come from Star Trek and Stargate SG1 who just add to the stories. Just my opinion... but the show really came into its own. And... yes... the ending was quite satisfying... but I was sad to see it end.
Uhm. Actually, later stories degraded and were ONLY carried by great setup and long term planning. Afterw Wolfe was fired, Sorbo changed it to kissing chick-of-the-week.
I remember reading that Gerda Nicholson who played the governor in Prisoner Cell Block H, was cast as SELMA in Time Trax but sadly passed away. Like most UK folk in the 90s I was really in to Prisoner at the time so always liked that connection.
I have horrible memories of that show eg stupidest robot ever, and some entity trying to get them to come down to the planet every week. Does first season really stand in company of eg B5, DS9,?SG1/A?
@@Scottlp2 it does. It was a totally original concept, as much fantasy as it is sci-fi, incredible music and cinematography, elements of horror and film noir, strong characterization, compelling stories touching on the philosophical and the metaphysical. The couple of weaker episodes still knock it out of the park as far as style, tone and mood. The set design and aesthetic come from 2001 A Space Odyssey and the models and special effects still hold up mostly. Then they gave it all up to become a campy Star Trek knockoff. Year Two has a handful of decent episodes and isn’t nearly as bad as Lost in Space or the second years of Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers. Still a big step down in quality from Year One.
Tyr is more like Avon from bakes 7. A self serving nihilist pragmatist. who finally meets a man of true honor, and than much to his own surprise he starts to believe in this man of honors massage.
Was a great concept. The idea of a long forgotten 'Golden Age' where worlds came together with the same optimistic and altruistic values of the Federation, and as such even in the far future, resources and technology have taken a back step as no-one is cooperating and collaborating anymore, and old relics like the Andromeda Ascendant can re-emerge and become a defining power in the region - as ships are no longer built to this level of scale and technology among all the disparate and quarreling factions, who in isolation lack the resources to build them. With Dylan Hunt as the physical embodiment of those lost ideals, trying to reassert them in a long jaded and burned-out future.
"1990" (1977-78) Edward Woodward stars in a show about a dystopian future, Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Public Control Department (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties.
All these years later I still like and remember the design of the Eagles on Space 1999. The stories... I have forgotten. Probably for the reason you gave - They changed something that didn't need changing.
Andromeda has very high highs, and very low lows. Half the time the show didn't know what it wanted to be. Most of season one, is basically a set up for the rest of the show, and the highest points are all post season one for the most part. If the show had a better focus on what it did well, it would of been a fantastic show. It's definitely worth watching all the way through if you have the time, and are a fan of sci-fi.
We had a hard time not mixing and not getting our wires crossed with Quantum Leap (which signed with the firm name of "Zurück in die Gegenwart" ("Back to the Present Time") and the formidable three-part-film-series (or trilogy) "Zurück in die Zukunft" ("Back to the Future"), so it was all in all funny time travel. In that big great country in the middle of Europe we love damn brillant time travel stories.
We really had a golden age of sci-fi, uptill I'd say Battlestar Galactica in mid-2000's. BSG while a great show, poisoned the well so to speak. After that every show tried to match it's "Vibe" and "Look". Tragically not realising why that worked for BSG.
I wouldn't go that far. They were certainly an interesting concept but they tended to be overacted and, like much of the rest of the show, descended into scooby doo villains. If only that pesky Captain Hunt hadn't interfered they'd have gotten away with it.
@@PaoloPatrassi the Magog were a great plot point and underused. Definitely similar in feeling to The Borg in that... they probably wouldn't just kill you... Although, I think they ended up like Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. A great character (as a whole), but then their mystery was removed and they were written in such a way, over time, that they were no longer scary and kind of useless.
@@PaoloPatrassiplenty of similarities between the Magog and Reavers. The would not just let you die but instead impregnating you. Though the Reavers didn’t appear to have a plan or a leader.
Andromeda's first season and a half when they were using Wolfe's scripts was excellent. Good overarching story with interesting characters. Then came the episode Ouroborous which ruined things as it took the show off trajectory into an auctioneer of the week. Weirdly it did get a bit better in the last season than we saw in Seasons three and four.
My favourite sci-fi show was on The banana splits It was a cartoon called Micro Ventures , where the main characters shrunk themselves in a machine to experience life from a insect's perspective, it was fantastic
Space:1999 when it came out in 1975. I was 6 years old and I was hooked ever since. I have a substantial collection of eagles and moonbase lunch boxes. Whats most disappointing to me is with all these rebooted shows and reimaging of shows Space:1999 really had a good premise. Trapped on the moon. Can't control where it goes and you can't have to follow it along to try and hope you can find someplace to live. In fact, it's never been brought back as a new show. Although many attempts were supposed to have been made.. ifs disappointing it has never happened. Great show that definitely deserves a comeback
Fun fact between season 1 and 2 of Space 1999 some of the cast did "The Day After Tomorrow" (Into Infinity UK) traveling to Alpha Centuri. Brian Blessed guest starred in Space 1999 when he held Helena's hand as he decomposed....🤣 Before he did Flash Gordon as Prince Vultan of the Hawk men.
Funny enough Lexa Doig and Lisa Ryder from Andromeda both appeared in Jason X. I still have all 6 issues of the Space Precient Manga comic and it had a bit of darker tone than the series
Space:1999 for me was a great first season, with a couple of weak episodes; season two was a weak season with a couple of good episodes. I was in my (very) early teens when it first broadcast, and was by far the best on television at the time. I watched it every time it was broadcast. In more recent years, I came across a set of interviews with the cast during season two production. The best comments were from John Landau; at the beginning of production he was excited by the prospect of a new season and interested to see where Fred took the show. In later interview, well into season two production, he is looking miserable and asks the interviewer, "just what have we got ourselves into…" I try and think of season two as something that doesn't exist… Story lines aside though, production values, especially for the model work, was really good. It is no surprise that Brian Johnson was snapped up from Century 21 to become part of Industrial Light & Magic by Lucas for the Star Wars movies, and others. He was also part of the 2001: A Space Odyssey production as well.
I very much liked S2's "The Seance Specter" which was the first real episode of either season to deal with the long-term effects of living in the isolated and sterile moonbase with crew actually suffering from severe psychological issues that put Alpha and everyone in danger. It's an episode that would've fit very nicely in S1.
I remember watching one episode in particular a couple of years ago - Mission of the Darians - and thinking the model work matched anything done today, even digitally... which it does! The design of Space 1999 was superb, from the communicators, to the base, and even the costuming for that day was ahead of its time.
I loved Space 1999, the eagles were awesome and still look like they would work on the moon today. I agree season 2 wasn't the best. I couldn't get into Space Precinct either. I don't remember time trax, Andromeda I watched a few episodes but I didn't stick with it. Great video as always
Nicely done. I always found Time Trax and Timecop as similar since they were pretty much concurrent. Also Mia Sara was in the premiere of Trax and starred in Cop. I hope you will continue and give your thoughts on War of the Worlds. Have a good afternoon.
Space 1999 Black Sun, S1 1974, was the very first story about a black hole on screen, 5 years before Disney’s movie The Black Hole, and 40 years before Interstellar.
Oh snap, Time Trax! One of only 3 PTEN shows I can remember. After going this deep into the barrel I can only hope Space Precinct is around the bend. EDIT: Nevermind, so glad someone else remembered it.
I watched every season and episode of Andromeda, they were all on TH-cam. I liked it. It kept me coming back for more. The characters like Trance etc developed hugely across the 5 seasons and the direction of the show was consistent. The Magog as an adversary were excellent as they were animals controlled by a an outside demonic force, Like locusts, unstoppable. The more human adversaries, the Nicheans were at first a bit cardboard but again over the 5 seasons did develop and their world view was explored, and quite frankly, seemed more attractive than the commonwealth that Hunt was so desperate to rebuild. In my view the series kept building on it's best aspects and did finish in a very satisfying way. Also I agree about Lexa Doig, great character acting.
Not sure if it’s still available but there was a document floating around years ago titled CODA that explained Trance and her origin, who she was to become and where her character was leading the rest.
Space: 1999, I tried to get into, but, I was getting older and less involved with TV at the time, plus, I compared everything to my gold standard of Star Trek, and of course everything fell short of my imagined "perfection" as a child. On the other hand, Space Precinct, although very campy, was also very enjoyable to me. I guess this is effective suspension of disbelief, because it worked (also I didn't see it until about 2008). Andromeda, I know I watched a lot of it, but I don't really remember a lot of it. Finally, you mentioned in the beginning about making changes to a show. One thing I very much enjoy about my favorite TH-cam channels is when they are consistent, regular, repeatable, and predictable. What I mean is, for example, you almost always end your video with the same music, which now, to me, is "Dave Cullen" music. I could say this about many good channels. When I tune in, and see "the same thing" every time, it makes the video comfortable and familiar to me. Not saying this is right all the time, but I know that Scotty Kilmer will always begin his videos with "Rev up your engines!" and end his videos with "Remember to ring that bell!" and this cements the channel in my head.
I liked Barry Morse's character because of his cigar. Always tickled me that in the clean aesthetics sci-fi setting, there was someone smoking up. Downgrade of command in season 2 I always assumed was down to, (strory wise), reduced resources on moonbase. Anyway it came after Weekend World, (probably the best music intro for any political news programme ever). So had to endure that before what I wanted to watch.
One sci fi from the 90s that is rarely mentioned is Dark Skies. It had a X Files style to it, although it was set in the 1960s. It only lasted one season and starred Eric Close and Jeri Ryan. Apparently the showrunners had planned to have five seasons of the show each set in a different decade. I thought it was excellent and its only season is available to watch on TH-cam I believe.
I think there was a lot you missed on Andromeda. I think at times it was too much Kevin Sorbo Hercules in it but there were some interesting things: genetically enhanced humans, sentient beings (magogs) created to be biological weapons, time travel, etc.
If you don't plan on finishing Andromeda I at least recommend episode 20 of season 2 because it guest stars Michael Hurst. There's actually a few "wink, wink" Hercules jokes sprinkled throughout the show. My husband and I have our own headcanon that Dylan Hunt is either a reincarnation of Hercules or Hercules himself assuming a new identity 😆
The thing I find most amazing about Space:1999 is that it was made in 1975, so the makers apparently thought that in the space of just 25 years we would have a huge moonbase, the amazing Eagle spacecraft, plus lots of other technological advances like ray guns, force fields, and artifical gravity. Perhaps Space:2099 would've been a more plausible title.
Whoever told you Andromeda has a satifying ending lied to you - the final season competely jumps the shark ala seaquest and is mostly set on a random mad max style planet - complete garbage.
Andromeda was a decent sci-fi show for the first 2 seasons, and then it inexplicably changed genres and became a magical space fantasy. The craziest thing I've ever seen a show do. I've seen the whole show twice, and it still makes no sense to me. I recognize Time Trax. I really enjoyed the show back in the day.
Keep in mind, Dave, that there were video games of a lot of these shows as well. Time Trax, TekWar, and SeaQuest in particular were memorable for me. It's worth checking out.
"Space 1999" was interesting, sometimes. In our country it was named "Mondbasis Alpha" ("Moon Base Alpha"), because of the Moon, where it was settled. The actors were brillant and proved, that there was more good sci-fi beneath Star Trek The Original Series, Outer Limits and Twilight Zone in the golden 60s.
A spaceship full of interesting people poking around the galaxy is one of the most common sci-fi settings. Flash Gordon and buck Rogers set the standard
Glad you brought up Time Trax, I really enjoyed that show for the reasons you gave. I agree that it was a good show and deserved a longer run, only 2 seasons is a shame. I also gave up on Andromeda but after the second season. I did come back later and watched the final season to see how it ended.
I love Space 1999, but was devastated when I watched the first episode of season 2, it was just too different. While I’ve watched season 1 many times, I’ve only watched season 2 once.
I have been a huge Space 1999 fan since a kid. I named my old German shepherd Maya. I have both seasons on DVD. I celebrate Breakaway Day every year. Dave, I’d like your thoughts on the original Battlestar Galactica 1978-79.
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God I loved Time Trax ,wasthinking about it yesterday ,cant find it online .Dale Midkiff
I watched most of the first season of Time Trax and enjoyed it. Andromeda I had a hard time getting into. A show you should check out, I don't know if you've ever watched but I think you may have referenced it in a previous video, is Total Recall 2070. It only got one season but it had some solid world building and episodes and was building to something for a second season. It actually has it's own TH-cam channel, Totalrecall2070, which has all of the episodes except for the premiere which can be found on other TH-cam channels. It's worth watching.
Here's a couple for you to look back on and ponder. Early Edition and Dead like me. I enjoyed both. Off to check out your review of Sliders, another show I really liked up until the departure of JRD.
Don't know if you've already reviewed it buy there was a series called 'Seven Days' starring Jonathan Lapaglia I think. I enjoyed it's first season a lot. Perhaps you could look into that one..
When are you gonna cover farscape
I loved the first two and a half seasons of Andromeda.
After those first two and a half seasons, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a writer from TNG, left the show and it went downhill fast. But some great episodes were made before then.
I feel like when I read stuff like this, "Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a writer from TNG, left the show and it went downhill fast" It speaks volumes to poorly run companies. I'm sure from a political saving face stand point, this is true. But, from a realistic or perhaps more honest view. I bet it boiled down to money. A lot of people over value themselves and the typical company response is a good one. However, I find the opposite is true a lot as well. Where company heads don't realize an employees value and lets them go and as a result. They go down hill very quickly.
I had that feeling myself until both the internet, and being bored for a few minutes, let me look it up.
Sliders and Andromeda are two shows that come to mind, aside from Heroes, where they had such strong starts and could have been real substantial shows for the sci-fi genre.
But it all came down to writing and production changes.
Andromeda was the hardest hitting of the lot, if because I loved the idea of what the show was going for.
@@tonyvieson9194 I understand your feeling but it is true for andromeda. Kevin Sorbo was co-producer. He wanted to return to a pure episodic-casual mode whereas R.H. Wolfe wanted to stick true to G. Roddenberry's vision and planned an ongoing arc spanning across seasons very much like DS9.
Yeah, Sorbonne basically fired him because he wanted the show to be more simple like his Hercules show. I liked the Hercules show as a silly goof waste of time, but Andromeda was so much better than that in the first 2 seasons, that it was a truly sad waste.
I've never re-watched the series but as I remember the last couple of seasons really seemed to be marking time to get past the 100 episode mark in order to get the show into syndication.
Early Andromeda was good. The first few seasons.
Then it became Heracles in space.
Nostalgic on space 1999
And to this day I Still love farscape
Later there was too much "girl power" things in it.
One of Andromeda's problems is they lost one of the more interesting characters halfway through. The actor who played Tyr got cast on the soap opera, The Young and the Restless. A network show with millions of loyal fans and a regular time slot was simply a better job than a syndicated sci-fi show.
Dave if you get the chance 'Space, Above and Beyond' is well worth a look. It got canned even before the end of Season 1. Started fast, then slowed down - but towards the end it picked up again and there was a whole conspiracy sub-plot going on between the Earth govt and the alien enemy. Got canned right before the big show-down space battle
I don't recall Space Above and Beyond ever slowing down. But then again you can inject Glenn Morgan and James Wong into my veins all day long.
Space A&B really was getting pretty awesome and finding it’s footing towards the end of season 1 . FOX killed it by bumping the time slot all over …
@@TheAnanaki at the time I was expecting a lot more space battles and it was a personal disappointment really. Nothing against the detailed world-building, character development etc. I was hoping the whole series would be like the 2nd half of the pilot
Andromeda's second season is where the plot plots and not world builds excessively
I grew up with Farscape on TV and then later almost binged it for a few days, hands down my favorite sci-fi of all time.
I think it's one of the best of that era. Much like Babylon 5 fantastic overarching plot, though admittedly not as refined as B5's.
@@Rambletripe1 True, but they made up for that with an epic love story that the girls could like and at times absolutely drugs fueled bonkers insane stories. That worked! That's the amazing part. That show took amazing risks in its writing and storytelling. Splitting the cast into two and follow them alternately, having key characters exist in people's heads, it was just amazing. I'm glad that after it got cancelled they at least managed to kinda wrap it up with Peacekeeper Wars, that S4 cliffhanger was evil to end the show on. Amazing show. I still feel that Farscape was what Star Trek Voyager should have been. A crew being chased and desperate to survive in a crazy part of the Galaxy.
Not to mention some of THE best female characters in all of Sci Fi.
One of the most insane love triangles ever put to screen as well.
Personally I think the females were far better written in B5, not saying they were bad in Farscape though.@@jonjohns8145
Space 1999 had some of the best horror stories for a TV show. Dragons domain and the troubled spirit, to name a few.
Amen to that! I remember not wanting to walk down the hall after seeing Dragon's Domain as a kid. lol
Saw Dragons Domain when I was 5 or 6. Terrified the life out of me. Space 1999 was simply brilliant...well season 1 was.
@@whos-the-stiff Me too, I'm 55 an that episode is still terrifying.
@@whos-the-stiff Yeah, season 2 wasn't as good, but some American producer waded into the production, sacked a bunch of people, and threw his weight around demanding things change.
Two of the best episodes in it's entire run. War Games, the Full Circle and The Testament of Arkadia being 3 others that come quickly to mind.
I am 62 and Space 1999 was my favorite show as a kid. There is nothing like watching these shows as a kid when they originally came out.
why do boomers feel compelled to share their age and life story in youtube comments
@@bigben8502 Someday, when you grow up, you'll understand.
@@bigben8502it’s called ‘context’. Go ask your dad what it means…
Lol. More people need to remember that context is key... the key? (not sure how that sentence structure should work.) If we all took half a breath to see where others were coming from, we might recognize that what motivates a decision is often WAY more important than the decision itself. Well said bob(etcetera)!@@bob_the_bomb4508
It was the golden era of TV, so sad we won't have anything like it in our lifetime again. :(
It only looks like the golden era because you now get to enjoy all of it. At the time shows like these were rare and far between. Growing up in the 70's and 80's you only had reruns of Star Trek TOS, Space 1999 and Battlestar Galactica, some places maybe Doctor Who with Tom Baker, the other Doctors never seemed to get much love outside of the UK. Sci-fi only really started to pick up when Babylon 5 came along and proved there was a market for scifi other then Star Trek. That opened some doors to new shows. Even then I still don't think there was a whole glut of scifi shows. If anything these days we get more then any. They're just f***ed from the start being vehicles for THE MESSAGE.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 The late 90's and early 2000's had way more weekly TV show then now or before that. I know because there are so many good Sci-Fi shows that came out during that time. Most of the shows now are fake reality shows that are cheaper to produce.
The 90s was the golden era of tv?? What about the 50s?
There are still good sci-fi shows today. Not as much like it used to 😂. shows like foundation, the expanse, raised by wolves, doctor who (before Jodie) I would say s3 Picard but that was just a movie cut up in parts and it was ok at best…well that’s I can think of on the top of my head, how sad 😂
@@justocho9090 The Foundation??? They BUTCHERED the books!
Earth 2, Space Above & Boyond, and Odyssey 5 are great shows to check out
Space Above & Beyond is almost forgotten today but as a young adult I was hooked on it during its only season.
Holy shit, someone else who has watched Earth 2!
I would also recommend Earth: Final Conflict, and while it is ocean based, SeaQuest.
@@SpartanOfFinance I thought and still do that it was one of the dumbest shows ever. It could never decide what it wanted to be, either a group of Marine special forces doing special forces stuff, or The Flying Leathernecks in space. No sane army in the world would ever use pilots as ground soldier cannon fodder. Pilots cost millions to train and only a rare few can do it. Anyone who breathes can be a ground soldier. Losing a dozen soldiers to rescue 1 downed pilot is an acceptable loss. The show should have had 2 separate casts, one the pilots, the other the groundpounders, follow them alternately and for key episodes bring them together.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Too many shows fall into that trap on wanting to keep the primary cast together so they get put into "unrealistic" situations (the entire bridge crew beaming down in Star Trek or Apollo and Starbuck on the ground to blow up a ship killing laser). Each military unit has a set of skills and training to complete their mission. Tough to do both but thats Hollywood for ya.
@@SpartanOfFinance That is true. Riker refusing to get his own command after Best of Both Worlds comes to mind. But I can see a reason for a bridge crew to go down to conduct negotiations in persons. I don't see a reason to send pilots whose training takes years into a meatgrinder where the average life span is less then basic training for regular soldiers. There's dumb, sending bridge crew down, which TNG tried to address by keeping the captain on the ship, and there's boneheaded stupid, what SAAB was. As a military history nut I cannot suspend disbelief on that.
I love the space 1999 ships and moonbase. Big lifts carrying around modular ships like containers, underground maintenance hangers and a real looking built for purpose design. Loved the few scenes we got to see.
The Eagle is one of scifi's greatest spaceship designs. Up there with the Babylon 5 Starfury in looking like an achievable concept.
Star Wars and Space 1999 share the same aesthetic regarding their spaceships, as they were built by the same people.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Yup. The design is terrific. It still looks great.
Fan film 'Eagle 1D5' is excellent@bumblebee9337
Space 1999 has by far the best and most intense episode starts in TV history.
Fully agree. U.F.O. had a good intro as well.
Great opening theme music, too.
That music drops, that's it, it's done. Go time.
I like the look, the stories weren't too bad, and back in the late 70's early 80's you were just starved of any scifi, so getting it as reruns was must see TV. But the basic premise of the moon achieving FTL speed to reach other stars and planets is bonkers. Only the 70's could come up with that. Kinda charming, but still bonkers.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 I did like the little details they put in, though. The last transmissions they could pick up from Earth before they moved out of range spoke of terrible environmental chaos, now that there were no longer any ocean tides due to the removal of the Moon. It left me always wondering what happened on Earth after they were gone, and if there was even a place for them to return if it had been possible.
For Andromeda, Harper was not supposed to be likable per se. More like Rodney (MacKay) in Stargate Atlantis, I think you were supposed to find him annoying... until you understood him a little better later, when the show took some time to dig into each character's backstory. And then he became more relatable.
I don't know how well known it is, but Space 1999 was born out of the cancellation of another scifi show from the Anderson's called U.F.O.
Particularly the idea of having a base on the moon, which they expanded on.
U.F.O. was another Scifi show I enjoyed from my childhood. It had a catchy earworm of an intro that stuck in my mind to this day.
First two season of Andromeda, with setup by Roddenberrys and under writing of later fired Robert Hewitt Wolfe was AWESOME SMART SERIES. Don't get eluded by 90s aesthetics and campy Lead. Even later ,scene with Magogs storming Andromeda was giving us chills. Name of ships, great cast and terrific episode with prision camp for starships.
Did you ever watch "Space, Above and Beyond"? It got the firefly treatment, but unfortunately also ended on a cliff hanger.
By far SAAB needs a reboot... It was all about war and none of the politics. The A.I. episodes were not needed.
The only thing I remember about Andrômeda is that Lexa Doig got an upgrade later in the show.
And Lauren Bertram (Trace Gemini)...
She got pregnant so had giant boobs and weight gain
& was naked when her android self was created !?
@@AsakuraYukikoand harper didn't wear gloves when her android body was built
Wasn't so much an upgrade as a costume change to help hide how much her body changed as a result of her pregnancy. She was just a head for a full season to hide the belly! :)
The problems with Andromeda become even worst when you remember that its original conception was as a Star Trek series set in the distant future of the period we're used to.
I’m old enough to remember ‘The Time Tunnel’ series. A similar premise to Quantum Leap but without the ‘in body experience’ angle.
I still watch the Time Tunnel. It's in my library of old scifi stuff. I like to put it all on random and re-watch old stuff.
that in-body experience was stupid, thats why the time tunnel and time trax were much better, the time tunnel had also factual history in the beginning,like,the titanic,ww2,the alamo,etc, later they incorporated more sci fi like episodes
I enjoyed The Time Tunnel as a Kid. Was there around the time of 'Voyage to the bomb of the Sea', 'Land of the Giants' and 'The Invaders'.
But it seems there is one more recent time travel series that was pretty solid was a show called 'Seven Days'. Darker than 'Quantum Leap' with a few plot twists since the main character was the only one that could remember the events and the relationships he had that would vanish in the next 'jump' (I forget what they called the process). Also, they went into details about how the tech was 'taken'. It's a must see if you want a darker show in vibe to Babylon 5 or The Invaders.
rewatched Andromeda recently and was very pleased. I`m one of those rare people who liked all the seasons. Even in the darkest and most depressive moments of the show it stll emited some hope and uplifting feel, with a tad of philosophy, which I personally like. It`s a kind of Star Trek basically, hence they ripped off this idea for Dicovery, but only at first and later it had its own twist (that`s why most people say they only liked first or first 2 seasons). Not perfect, some characters could be more 3 dimensional, yet almost all are likeable to me. Unlike Farscape (which wasn`t bad as well though). Tyr, Trance and Rhade reveal more during the show. The 5th season is quite unique and the least Star Trek-like. Also one of the rare space shows where Earth isn`t important😄
Space precenct was fun but 1 episode was more than enough
Space: 1999 had the MOST significant affect on my 10 year old self in 1975!!! The first season was magnificent - the second season was as heartbreaking as Kurtzman's bastardisation of Star Trek !!!
Time trax! Was awesome… I feel really old now.
Thanks Dave. As I remember it, Andromeda, and Earth: Final Conflict were unfinished Roddenberry scripts that his widow, Majel released. I don't know if she needed the money, or just wanted to give fans a bit more of Gene before she died. Final Conflict started off strong, but went down quickly...I was disappointed, as I had high hopes for it. I agree about Andromeda, the first few episodes were intriguing, but Roddenberry hadn't completely fleshed out the concept, and the modern writers just couldn't pick up where he left off... for both series. I think these were ideas he came up with, and then abandoned when the Star Trek movies began, and Next Generation was created. But I do appreciate that Majel gave us a bit more of Gene that we might have never known. Check out Earth: Final Conflict if you've never seen it, just don't get your hopes up.
I LOVED Earth: Final Conflict! I binge it about once a year.
I loved Earth: Final Conflict but it got really stupid by that last season.
Both series have good concepts, I wonder if Gene realized there was only so far they could go. The potential was too limited so he abandoned them. When Earth: Final Conflict moved away from the main characters, I stopped watching. Especially when the story moved away from Da'an. The focus should have remained on Da'an as the power struggle with Zo'or continued.
Andromeda was actually a re-imagining of the 1973 Roddenberry story, "Genesis II". Even the character names were the same. The only difference is that Genesis II took place on post-apocalyptic Earth, rather than in space.
If I recall correctly, the first seasons of both shows were decent, but the higher ups wanted better ratings and re-tooled both shows to their detriment. Majel either didn't have the power to fight the changes, or took the money and ran.
Space1999 still looks good. I wonder if I watched it again if I would keep waiting for a man with a long scarf in a blue box to show up with his companion.
Lexa Doig was absolutely on top of her career in "Continuum". What do you think of that show by the way? One of rare Canadian gems I think, if we don't count almost all American SciFi made in Canada.
I love Continuum. Some really great niche TV came out in that time. Lost Girl, Dark Matter, Killjoys were really well done shows.
Loved andromeda shame it's not more known
After all, I am a warship is one of my favorite recurring lines in fiction
There was an actual overarching story line to Space:1999's 1st season, that fans at the time dubbed "The Mysterious Unknown Force", in which it was clear that there was some sort guiding entity or entities, which were overseeing Humans seeding the galaxy, and was clearly stated in episodes, like "Collision Course", "War Games", and "The Testament of Arkadia". This cerebral concept was sadly dropped by Freddy Frieberger (he also oversaw Star Trek's 3rd season) in Season 2 for the more action-oriented plots that were decent standalone episodes, but lost the epic metaphysical and philosophical feel of the 1st season stories.
I forget about that, thanks
Well that's because FF didn't have a brain to be cerebral.
Freddie killed a lot of good tv shows.
Andromeda was a show that had a cool premise and could probably do with a reboot using tighter scripts and shorter seasons that focused on the world rather than episodic character stuff. The original run also suffered from a change in head writers. The original writer for the show put out some details of where he was trying to get the show to for its end point which was very surreal and would, I think, be much better recieved if done in today's streaming format.
Remember that the pilot episode of Andromeda was written by Gene Roddenberry after the original Star Trek ended. It wasn't for many years after he died that they actually produced it.
But it should not be in Space, but on Earth
One show that I never missed an episode of was _Alien Nation._ I liked the James Caan film, but I liked how the series was able to explore the dynamic between Sikes and Frar better since it had the advantage of having more time to do so.
one of my all time favourites too. One of my first 'internet' fandoms - bulletin boards & user groups. I've read all the novels and even went to a fan convention in someone's small house!
I loved Time Trax as a kid. Was one of my favourites!
Will u be reviewing Buck Rogers & Battlestar Galactica (70s & 80s version)? Both i loved as a kid, season 1 was solid but they wrecked both of them in season 2.
I remember reruns of Space 1999 being on TV when I was a teenager - about 6 years before the show was supposed to take place.
I always wanted to watch Andromeda when it was on TV, but my favorite show Stargate SG-1 always won out.
A couple of shows I loved as a kid were "The Champions" and "Sapphire And Steel".
I loved The Champions but never got Sapphre & Steel. I love British shows but this one never connected with me.
In fact, seasons 1 and 2 were the best of Andromeda. Seasons 3-5 we're pale shadows of what S1-2 had. There's a large backstory from the original show runner about what went wrong. If you weren't impressed with season 1, then you probably didn't understand the subtext and philosophy of what was going on with the overall story arc.
Absolutely loved space 1999 and I like Andromeda but sadly didn’t finish it either. All the shows you touched on I watched 😊
God, remember watching Space 1999 and it was great especially if you consider the time.
I have to say... that I felt the same as you about the first season of Andromeda. It's funny... that we are willing to allow shows like TNG and Enterprise a year or two to find their legs but not shows like Andromeda. When I first watched it I thought it didn't make the mark, but as the show went on and especially by the late second season and into the third... it changed into a much better show. Trance Gemini ( the little pink girl ... actually purple) is transformed and the characters have far more depth... and most importantly... the stories are much better. There is also a parade of guest stars who come from Star Trek and Stargate SG1 who just add to the stories. Just my opinion... but the show really came into its own. And... yes... the ending was quite satisfying... but I was sad to see it end.
Uhm. Actually, later stories degraded and were ONLY carried by great setup and long term planning. Afterw Wolfe was fired, Sorbo changed it to kissing chick-of-the-week.
@@piotrd.4850 Uhm... that is your opinion, to which you are totally entitled. However... not the experience I had. To each their own.
I remember reading that Gerda Nicholson who played the governor in Prisoner Cell Block H, was cast as SELMA in Time Trax but sadly passed away. Like most UK folk in the 90s I was really in to Prisoner at the time so always liked that connection.
The first year of Space 1999 is arguably the best season of Science Fiction to ever hit the small screen.
'Mission of the Darians' & 'Dragon's Domain'
@@robertbrown3413 ‘Black Sun’ and ‘Collision Course’ are my personal favorites
I have horrible memories of that show eg stupidest robot ever, and some entity trying to get them to come down to the planet every week. Does first season really stand in company of eg B5, DS9,?SG1/A?
@@Scottlp2 it does. It was a totally original concept, as much fantasy as it is sci-fi, incredible music and cinematography, elements of horror and film noir, strong characterization, compelling stories touching on the philosophical and the metaphysical. The couple of weaker episodes still knock it out of the park as far as style, tone and mood. The set design and aesthetic come from 2001 A Space Odyssey and the models and special effects still hold up mostly. Then they gave it all up to become a campy Star Trek knockoff. Year Two has a handful of decent episodes and isn’t nearly as bad as Lost in Space or the second years of Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers. Still a big step down in quality from Year One.
@marpsr: thanks for reply, it is very helpful (things you look at).
Tyr is more like Avon from bakes 7. A self serving nihilist pragmatist. who finally meets a man of true honor, and than much to his own surprise he starts to believe in this man of honors massage.
I always saw the Andromeda series as a what if the Federation fell... what would happen to the planets and people?
Was a great concept. The idea of a long forgotten 'Golden Age' where worlds came together with the same optimistic and altruistic values of the Federation, and as such even in the far future, resources and technology have taken a back step as no-one is cooperating and collaborating anymore, and old relics like the Andromeda Ascendant can re-emerge and become a defining power in the region - as ships are no longer built to this level of scale and technology among all the disparate and quarreling factions, who in isolation lack the resources to build them.
With Dylan Hunt as the physical embodiment of those lost ideals, trying to reassert them in a long jaded and burned-out future.
IIRC this was Roddenberry's original concept for the series. Which was also used for Star Trek: Discovery season 3.
"1990" (1977-78) Edward Woodward stars in a show about a dystopian future, Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Public Control Department (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties.
Farscape and the series Alien Nation were my favorite shows back in the 90's ... But Space: Above and Beyond has to get a special mention ...
Claudia Black…”sorry about the mess”…
"Fred Freiberger..." And you need say no more.
90s and early 2000s sci-fi tv just has a special feel that will never be matched
All these years later I still like and remember the design of the Eagles on Space 1999. The stories... I have forgotten. Probably for the reason you gave - They changed something that didn't need changing.
Back when SciFi was able to stimulate brains in the audience.
Also , back when the audience had actual functioning brain cells.
Thoughtful, short but thorough reviews! Great stuff!
Andromeda has very high highs, and very low lows. Half the time the show didn't know what it wanted to be. Most of season one, is basically a set up for the rest of the show, and the highest points are all post season one for the most part. If the show had a better focus on what it did well, it would of been a fantastic show. It's definitely worth watching all the way through if you have the time, and are a fan of sci-fi.
We had a hard time not mixing and not getting our wires crossed with Quantum Leap (which signed with the firm name of "Zurück in die Gegenwart" ("Back to the Present Time") and the formidable three-part-film-series (or trilogy) "Zurück in die Zukunft" ("Back to the Future"), so it was all in all funny time travel. In that big great country in the middle of Europe we love damn brillant time travel stories.
We really had a golden age of sci-fi, uptill I'd say Battlestar Galactica in mid-2000's. BSG while a great show, poisoned the well so to speak. After that every show tried to match it's "Vibe" and "Look".
Tragically not realising why that worked for BSG.
Space 1999 was one of my favorite shows as a kid.
The Nietzscheans in Andromeda were by far the most interesting villains of all time. ALL TIME.
I wouldn't go that far. They were certainly an interesting concept but they tended to be overacted and, like much of the rest of the show, descended into scooby doo villains. If only that pesky Captain Hunt hadn't interfered they'd have gotten away with it.
I also loved the Magog, the fear that instilled in me when they punctured into the hull and entered the ship knowing they wouldn't simply kill you.
@@PaoloPatrassi the Magog were a great plot point and underused. Definitely similar in feeling to The Borg in that... they probably wouldn't just kill you...
Although, I think they ended up like Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. A great character (as a whole), but then their mystery was removed and they were written in such a way, over time, that they were no longer scary and kind of useless.
I agree, they were really a well-written and complex antagonist. "Double-Helix" is one of my favourite episodes in the entire show.
@@PaoloPatrassiplenty of similarities between the Magog and Reavers. The would not just let you die but instead impregnating you.
Though the Reavers didn’t appear to have a plan or a leader.
Andromeda's first season and a half when they were using Wolfe's scripts was excellent. Good overarching story with interesting characters. Then came the episode Ouroborous which ruined things as it took the show off trajectory into an auctioneer of the week. Weirdly it did get a bit better in the last season than we saw in Seasons three and four.
My favourite sci-fi show was on The banana splits
It was a cartoon called Micro Ventures , where the main characters shrunk themselves in a machine to experience life from a insect's perspective, it was fantastic
People really love the POV of being smaller as in fantastic voyage, honey I shrunk the kids, and the video game, grounded.
Space:1999 when it came out in 1975. I was 6 years old and I was hooked ever since. I have a substantial collection of eagles and moonbase lunch boxes. Whats most disappointing to me is with all these rebooted shows and reimaging of shows Space:1999 really had a good premise. Trapped on the moon. Can't control where it goes and you can't have to follow it along to try and hope you can find someplace to live. In fact, it's never been brought back as a new show. Although many attempts were supposed to have been made.. ifs disappointing it has never happened. Great show that definitely deserves a comeback
Fun fact between season 1 and 2 of Space 1999 some of the cast did "The Day After Tomorrow" (Into Infinity UK) traveling to Alpha Centuri.
Brian Blessed guest starred in Space 1999 when he held Helena's hand as he decomposed....🤣
Before he did Flash Gordon as Prince Vultan of the Hawk men.
Funny enough Lexa Doig and Lisa Ryder from Andromeda both appeared in Jason X.
I still have all 6 issues of the Space Precient Manga comic and it had a bit of darker tone than the series
The best part about that was that in Jason X Lisa was the android and Alexa was human!
Space: 1999 looks like a an old folks home in space.
I've watched the whole lot of UFO, Space 1999 and Blake's 7 over the last few years, Glorious.
Andromeda was also loosely based on a couple TV movies about the same character, called Genesis II.
Space:1999 for me was a great first season, with a couple of weak episodes; season two was a weak season with a couple of good episodes.
I was in my (very) early teens when it first broadcast, and was by far the best on television at the time. I watched it every time it was broadcast.
In more recent years, I came across a set of interviews with the cast during season two production. The best comments were from John Landau; at the beginning of production he was excited by the prospect of a new season and interested to see where Fred took the show. In later interview, well into season two production, he is looking miserable and asks the interviewer, "just what have we got ourselves into…"
I try and think of season two as something that doesn't exist…
Story lines aside though, production values, especially for the model work, was really good. It is no surprise that Brian Johnson was snapped up from Century 21 to become part of Industrial Light & Magic by Lucas for the Star Wars movies, and others. He was also part of the 2001: A Space Odyssey production as well.
I very much liked S2's "The Seance Specter" which was the first real episode of either season to deal with the long-term effects of living in the isolated and sterile moonbase with crew actually suffering from severe psychological issues that put Alpha and everyone in danger. It's an episode that would've fit very nicely in S1.
I remember watching one episode in particular a couple of years ago - Mission of the Darians - and thinking the model work matched anything done today, even digitally... which it does!
The design of Space 1999 was superb, from the communicators, to the base, and even the costuming for that day was ahead of its time.
Space 1999 season one was excellent, great special effects , and exciting stories.
The Bringers of Wonder in season 2 was so much fun.
I had an episode of Space 1999 on VHS! (the one with the alien vessel looking for a new 'companion').
I picked up a Space 1999 VHS from Boots for 50p back in the day, just to watch the intro 🤩👍
I Completly forgot about Time Trax! Thank you for the reminder
I loved Space 1999, the eagles were awesome and still look like they would work on the moon today. I agree season 2 wasn't the best. I couldn't get into Space Precinct either. I don't remember time trax, Andromeda I watched a few episodes but I didn't stick with it. Great video as always
2001: the space odyssey, inspired design.
Oh just remembered a short 6 episode CBS series "Space Rangers" had Linda Hunt and Clint Howard
Oh and Mission Genesis/Deepwater Black staring a pre DS9 Nicole Deboer
Nicely done. I always found Time Trax and Timecop as similar since they were pretty much concurrent. Also Mia Sara was in the premiere of Trax and starred in Cop. I hope you will continue and give your thoughts on War of the Worlds. Have a good afternoon.
I didn't know of long time that Time Trax was from Australia.
Space 1999 Black Sun, S1 1974, was the very first story about a black hole on screen, 5 years before Disney’s movie The Black Hole, and 40 years before Interstellar.
Oh snap, Time Trax! One of only 3 PTEN shows I can remember. After going this deep into the barrel I can only hope Space Precinct is around the bend. EDIT: Nevermind, so glad someone else remembered it.
I watched every season and episode of Andromeda, they were all on TH-cam. I liked it. It kept me coming back for more. The characters like Trance etc developed hugely across the 5 seasons and the direction of the show was consistent. The Magog as an adversary were excellent as they were animals controlled by a an outside demonic force, Like locusts, unstoppable. The more human adversaries, the Nicheans were at first a bit cardboard but again over the 5 seasons did develop and their world view was explored, and quite frankly, seemed more attractive than the commonwealth that Hunt was so desperate to rebuild. In my view the series kept building on it's best aspects and did finish in a very satisfying way. Also I agree about Lexa Doig, great character acting.
I feel season 5 was rushed (Kevin Sorbo has said they planned on 7 season) but I agree with you
Not sure if it’s still available but there was a document floating around years ago titled CODA that explained Trance and her origin, who she was to become and where her character was leading the rest.
Space: 1999, I tried to get into, but, I was getting older and less involved with TV at the time, plus, I compared everything to my gold standard of Star Trek, and of course everything fell short of my imagined "perfection" as a child. On the other hand, Space Precinct, although very campy, was also very enjoyable to me. I guess this is effective suspension of disbelief, because it worked (also I didn't see it until about 2008). Andromeda, I know I watched a lot of it, but I don't really remember a lot of it.
Finally, you mentioned in the beginning about making changes to a show. One thing I very much enjoy about my favorite TH-cam channels is when they are consistent, regular, repeatable, and predictable. What I mean is, for example, you almost always end your video with the same music, which now, to me, is "Dave Cullen" music. I could say this about many good channels. When I tune in, and see "the same thing" every time, it makes the video comfortable and familiar to me. Not saying this is right all the time, but I know that Scotty Kilmer will always begin his videos with "Rev up your engines!" and end his videos with "Remember to ring that bell!" and this cements the channel in my head.
What about Red Dwarf from 1988.
I liked Barry Morse's character because of his cigar. Always tickled me that in the clean aesthetics sci-fi setting, there was someone smoking up. Downgrade of command in season 2 I always assumed was down to, (strory wise), reduced resources on moonbase. Anyway it came after Weekend World, (probably the best music intro for any political news programme ever). So had to endure that before what I wanted to watch.
First and yes, Andromeda is a good show indeed.
One sci fi from the 90s that is rarely mentioned is Dark Skies. It had a X Files style to it, although it was set in the 1960s. It only lasted one season and starred Eric Close and Jeri Ryan.
Apparently the showrunners had planned to have five seasons of the show each set in a different decade.
I thought it was excellent and its only season is available to watch on TH-cam I believe.
I liked it, but didn't love it. There was inconsistent writing quality, with a mix of mystery, drama, and camp.
I think there was a lot you missed on Andromeda. I think at times it was too much Kevin Sorbo Hercules in it but there were some interesting things: genetically enhanced humans, sentient beings (magogs) created to be biological weapons, time travel, etc.
The initial roadmap for Andromeda was amazing. Its a shame the showrunner got fired in season 2 because he refused to make it more episodic.
If you don't plan on finishing Andromeda I at least recommend episode 20 of season 2 because it guest stars Michael Hurst.
There's actually a few "wink, wink" Hercules jokes sprinkled throughout the show.
My husband and I have our own headcanon that Dylan Hunt is either a reincarnation of Hercules or Hercules himself assuming a new identity 😆
Far enough in the future it could be a descendant.
The thing I find most amazing about Space:1999 is that it was made in 1975, so the makers apparently thought that in the space of just 25 years we would have a huge moonbase, the amazing Eagle spacecraft, plus lots of other technological advances like ray guns, force fields, and artifical gravity. Perhaps Space:2099 would've been a more plausible title.
Whoever told you Andromeda has a satifying ending lied to you - the final season competely jumps the shark ala seaquest and is mostly set on a random mad max style planet - complete garbage.
Yeah I thought we all agreed to ignore nigh everything after _Ouroboros..._
I loved how it started, I own it on DVD, and I still never finished it 😂
Andromeda was a decent sci-fi show for the first 2 seasons, and then it inexplicably changed genres and became a magical space fantasy. The craziest thing I've ever seen a show do. I've seen the whole show twice, and it still makes no sense to me.
I recognize Time Trax. I really enjoyed the show back in the day.
I LOVED Space 1999
Space 1999 and Andromeda both hurt after their respective Season 1's.
Keep in mind, Dave, that there were video games of a lot of these shows as well. Time Trax, TekWar, and SeaQuest in particular were memorable for me. It's worth checking out.
"Space 1999" was interesting, sometimes. In our country it was named "Mondbasis Alpha" ("Moon Base Alpha"), because of the Moon, where it was settled. The actors were brillant and proved, that there was more good sci-fi beneath Star Trek The Original Series, Outer Limits and Twilight Zone in the golden 60s.
I feel that Andromeda is ripe for a reboot!
I vaguely remember that show with the computer AI living in the credit card. The future portrayed on television.
I loved space 1999, was gutted when they cancelled it.
I almost forgot about Time Trax.... But that brings up another 'you can only time travel a short way back ' show.... Seven Days.,
Farscape’s tv series ending still wrecks me.
Me too but thankfully the fans never gave up and was brought back for that movie two parter
@@alanmike6883 damn right.
But that “NO” is still hard to watch.
@@AncestorEmpire1
Oh definitely.
I remember my first reaction when I Saw that. Stayed with me
@@alanmike6883 yeah
@@AncestorEmpire1
Even the mini series took a lot of effort to Get made and even then Man the ending was bittersweet
A spaceship full of interesting people poking around the galaxy is one of the most common sci-fi settings. Flash Gordon and buck Rogers set the standard
Please do Voyagers! 1982
was sorta quantum leap like time traveling
Very nostalgic from my childhood
Eagle 1 ship design is cool as f*** Kudos to the man or woman who created them.
I had one when I was a kid, loved it.
Loved space 1999 as a kid. Wish I still had my Eagle spaceship.
Glad you brought up Time Trax, I really enjoyed that show for the reasons you gave. I agree that it was a good show and deserved a longer run, only 2 seasons is a shame. I also gave up on Andromeda but after the second season. I did come back later and watched the final season to see how it ended.
I love Space 1999, but was devastated when I watched the first episode of season 2, it was just too different. While I’ve watched season 1 many times, I’ve only watched season 2 once.
Catherine Schell as Maya makes season 2 for me. I had a huge crush for sexy alien science officer from planet Psychon.
I have been a huge Space 1999 fan since a kid. I named my old German shepherd Maya. I have both seasons on DVD. I celebrate Breakaway Day every year.
Dave, I’d like your thoughts on the original Battlestar Galactica 1978-79.