‘Seventies series to be revamped as Space: 2099 . . .

ITV Studios America and HDFilms, the outfit behind the cancelled V remake, has announced plans to “reimagine” Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s 1970s TV show Space: 1999.

In this series the moon is knocked out of its orbit by a huge explosion involving nuclear waste and is cast adrift in space. The series followed the adventures of the personnel of a permanent manned outpost called Moon base Alpha as they coped with aliens and other strange phenomena each episode.

The show was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, better known for Thunderbirds and other shows which employed string puppets instead of real actors. (Space 1999 had “real” actors though.)

Watching Space: 1999 today one realizes that it wasn’t always great science fiction, but rather someone new to the genre’s idea of what science fiction actually is. Still, the (expensive) series had a great visual style and some memorable spaceship and costume designs heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It probably informed an entire generation’s concept of what the future will look like one day.

HDFilms president Jace Hall, who will executive produce, says that “while we are indeed re-imagining the franchise and bringing something new and relevant to today’s audiences, I feel strongly that some of the overall tones set by the original Space: 1999 television show represent an exciting platform to explore possibilities.”

He’s got that right. In essence Space: 1999 followed the Star Trek template as a space-faring group comes in contact with alien planets each episodes. Due to the recession this sort of show has been largely missing from TV screens and sci-fi shows today follow the more budget-conscious earthbound X-Files template instead.

One can only hope that it turns out more exciting than the cancelled V remake Hall also worked on.

Don’t get your hopes up though: the series is in its development phase and hasn’t been shopped to any of the networks yet . . .