Space: 1999: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Space: 1999: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 18, 2019

Anyone here remember A&E Home Video and/or A&E Networks Home Entertainment? Both of the A&E imprints and/or labels were two of the first labels that were assigned to me when I started writing for Blu-ray.com almost a decade ago, and for a while at least they were a lot of fun to handle, what with releases like The Prisoner: The Complete Series and Space: 1999 - Season 1. Neither A&E Home Video nor A&E Networks Home Entertainment seem to be very active anymore in the Blu-ray market, and in fact it looks like it’s been well over a year since either of them released anything, and even a lot of what they have released has been arguably lesser fare like the interminable Ancient Aliens offerings, perhaps one reason why their releases tended to start to feel lackluster to this individual reviewer. For those who have long been jonesin’ for A&E Home Video to finally release the second season of Space:1999, your long national nightmare is finally over, though it is (not to state the obvious, but to state the obvious) Shout! Factory that has come to this particular rescue, re-releasing the first season and including the second, along with a bountiful supply of bonus features. For some generalist background, as well as my thoughts on this series' premiere year, I refer you to my now long ago Space: 1999 - Season 1 Blu-ray review. The rest of the content of the main portion of this review will focus more on the second season. I have thoughts on both seasons' video and audio presentations below, and I've also listed all of the supplements on all of the discs included in this set.

As I mentioned in the review of Space: 1999’s first season, the memory of Star Trek loomed large in many fans’ minds as the show started airing, but that memory may have morphed into something closer to a ghost of sorts for the second season, haunting the show in some unexpected and some may feel unhelpful ways. As also mentioned in the first season review, Gerry Anderson had put together his own “network” to air Space: 1999, and the feedback he got from many station owners was that the show needed more “zing” to appeal to American audiences. That ultimately led to the hiring of former Star Trek producer Fred Freiberger, who had overseen the third and final season of that now legendary show. Unfortunately, Freiberger’s “magic touch” continued with his assignment on Space: 1999, leading to the demise of that show after its second year (so maybe his “skills” were improving, in a weird kind of way).

The changes Freiberger wrought are evident from the get go, with a new, "snazzier" credits sequence with a recomposed theme (still nowhere near Alexander Courage Star Trek territory in my estimation) and a new emphasis on "action", whatever that ultimately meant. There was some fairly major reshuffling in the cast as well, with former cast member Barry Morse jettisoned, and several new folks just kind of "showing up" on the supposedly isolated Moonbase Alpha. At least one of those new characters, a shape shifter named Maya (Catherine Schell), gets a proper introduction in the first episode of the second season.

Space: 1999 may have had ambitions to be the next Star Trek (in a good way), but often fell short, languishing in more camptastic Lost in Space territory almost despite itself. The second season tries fitfully to up the dramatics with more things that go boom, and some new if arguably unimproved interrelationships among the gaggle of crew on Moonbase Alpha. But the show is just downright silly most of the time, and some of the second season episodes feature absolutely outlandish “monsters”, along with makeup and costuming that may indeed have looked at least slightly futuristic in Star Trek’s heyday of the mid- to late sixties, but which was already looking weirdly old fashioned by the mid seventies timeframe of this show’s production.

Space: 1999: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Space: 1999: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. As mentioned above, A&E Home Video released Space: 1999 - Season 1 around nine years ago, and I refer you to that older Space: 1999 - Season 1 Blu-ray review for screenshots of the first season, since I frankly saw no discernable differences between the old presentation of the first season and this new one offered by Shout! Factory. The screenshots accompanying this review all come from the second season, and as can hopefully be made out, things look as good on this sophomore year as they did for the premiere "series" (to use British terminology). The palette is gorgeously suffused, helping to elevate an almost psychedelic choice of colors in the production design (this season seems to intentionally offer more bright hues than the often kind of bland looking first season). Detail levels are generally very good, though there is a tendency to use diffusion filters at times, especially in close-ups of some of the female stars, that can mask fine detail at times. As with the first season, the special effects have both positive and less positive aspects. Some of the paintings and other "artistic" creations often look stunning, and even some backgrounds for the miniatures often offer well above average saturation and detail levels. But some of the miniature work here may be laugh provoking for some — there are some moments, for example, of people tooling around in little moon buggies that almost look like something out of The LEGO Movie, had it taken place on a moon devastated by a horrific nuclear explosion. Shout! has provided a release with a solid technical presentation and no compression anomalies of any note.

Space: 1999: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Space: 1999 features two DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, a 2.0 mono rendering presenting the show with its original broadcast audio presentation, and a 5.1 surround repurposing. The surround version is intermittently immersive, springing to life when there are sound effects (often in terms of spaceships or things like incoming missiles, etc.), but which doesn't really offer a consistent surround experience. Amplitude struck me as rather anemic on the surround track. The mono versions of the soundtracks actually suffice remarkably well for this series, with typically well done prioritization keeping dialogue mixed decently above sometimes cacophonous sounds of explosions and the like. The series' almost discofied score sounds fine and full bodied as well on the mono track, but it struck me as being a little "phase-y" on the surround track.

Space: 1999: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Year One Disc One

• Breakaway Audio Commentary with Gerry Anderson


• Ring Around the Moon Audio Commentary with Scott Michael Bosco


• Breakaway Gallery (1080p; 8:30)


• Matter of Life and Death Gallery (1080p; 7:27)


• Black Sun Gallery (1080p; 4:11)


• Ring Around the Moon Gallery (1080p; 3:39)

Year One Disc Two

• Earthbound Gallery (1080p; 8:21)


• Another Time, Another Place Gallery (1080p; 3:09)


• Missing Link Gallery (1080p; 1:30)


• Guardian of Piri Gallery (1080p; 4:00)

Year One Disc Three

• Force of Life Gallery (1080p; 1:03)


• Alpha Child Gallery (1080p; 3:15)


• The Last Sunset Gallery (1080p; 2:33)


• Voyager's Return Gallery (1080p; 1:06)

Year One Disc Four

• Collision Course Gallery (1080p; 3:00)


• Death's Other Dominion Gallery (1080p; 4:27)


• The Full Circle Gallery (1080p; 3:00)


• End of Eternity Gallery (1080p; 3:51)

Year One Disc Five

• War Games Gallery (1080p; 3:30)


• The Last Enemy Gallery (1080p; 2:42)


• The Troubled Spirit Gallery (1080p; 1:51)


• Space Brain Gallery (1080p; 00:51)

Year One Disc Six

• Dragon's Domain Audio Commentary with Gerry Anderson


• Dragon's Domain Audio Commentary with Anthony Taylor


• The Infernal Machine Gallery (1080p; 2:12)


• Mission of the Darians Gallery (1080p; 3:18)


• Dragon's Domain Gallery (1080p; 2:27)


• The Testament of Arkadia Gallery (1080p; 1:51)

Year Two Disc One

• The Metamorph Audio Commentary with Anthony Taylor


• The Metamorph Gallery (1080p; 3:03)


• The Exiles Gallery (1080p; 2:18)


• One Moment of Humanity Gallery (1080p; 1:39)


• All That Glisters Gallery (1080p; 3:45)

Year Two Disc Two

• Journey to Where Gallery (1080p; 2:24)


• The Taybor Gallery (1080p; 00:48)


• The Rules of Luton Gallery (1080p; 3:09)


• The Mark of Archanon Gallery (1080p; 2:09)

Year Two Disc Three

• Brian the Brain Gallery (1080p; 1:00)


• New Adam, New Eve Gallery (1080p; 2:18)


• Catacombs of the Moon Gallery (1080p; 2:39)


• The AB Chrysalis Gallery (1080p; 2:48)

Year Two Disc Four

• Seed of Destruction Gallery (1080p; 00:54)


• The Beat Cloud Gallery (1080p; 4:09)


• Space Warp Gallery (1080p; 2:21)


• A Matter of Balance Gallery (1080p; 3:48)

Year Two Disc Five

• The Bringers of Wonder Gallery (1080p; 3:49)


• The Lambda Factor Gallery (1080p; 1:39)


• The Seance Spectre Gallery (1080p; 1:51)

Year Two Disc Six

• Dorzak Gallery (1080p; 1:30)


• Devil's Planet Gallery (1080p; 3:48)


• The Immunity Syndrome Gallery (1080p; 1:42)


• The Dorcons Gallery (1080p; 1:06)

Special Features Disc

• Interviews

  Mission to Moonbase Alpha (1080p; 10:36) is a new piece with Barbara Bain, who discusses the production, working with her (then) husband, and the Andersons.

  
  

  Into the Uncertain Future (1080p; 16:44) is a new interview with Nick Tate, who discusses his reluctance to join the series.

  
  

  Brain Behind the Destruction (1080p; 9:14) is a new interview with director Kevin Connor, who also discusses some of his other SFX extravaganzas.

  
  

  Interview with Sylvia Anderson (480p; 16:54) is a fun archival piece with Anderson, who is not exactly one to hold back on offering her opinions about things.

  
  

  "Guardian of Piri" Remembered with Catherine Schell (480p; 1:41) is a brief archival piece with Schell discussing the episode.

  
  

  Vintage Year Two Interviews (480p; 30:25)

  
  

  Vintage Brian Johnson Interview (480p; 3:21) offers the series' special effects guru.

• Featurettes

  These Episodes (480p; 1:39:10) is an interesting archival documentary featuring interviews and production information on episodes.

  
  

  Moonbase Merch: A Tour of 'Space: 1999' Ephemera with Author John Muir (1080p; 11:16) will appeal to collectors.

  
  

  Memories of Space (480p; 7:33) is another archival piece which has some good interviews.

  
  

  Behind the Scenes (480p; 6:49) has some fun candid footage with Brian Johnson offering commentary.

  
  

  Concept and Creation (480p; 17:34) looks at the genesis of the series.

  
  

  Special Effects and Design (480p; 17:34)

• Promos and Trailers

  Barbara Bain and Martin Landau TV Promos (480p; 1:41)

  
  

  Year One Promos (480p; 11:37)

  
  

  Year Two Promos (480p; 1:35)

  
  

  "Destination Moonbase Alpha" Trailer (480p; 2:10)

  
  

  "Alien Attack" Trailers (480p; 3:04)

  
  

  Blackpool "Space City" Exhibition Advert (480p; 00:39)

  
  

  Lyons Maid Ice Lolly Advert (480p; 00:28)

• Galleries

  BTS and Contact Sheets (1080p; 2:11)

  
  

  Bubble Gum Cards (1080p; 3:30)

  
  

  Cigarette Cards (1080p; 5:09)

  
  

  Portraits (1080p; 5:03)

  
  

  Models and Model Making (1080p; 5:39)

  
  

  Year Two Models and Props (1080p; 5:03)

  
  

  Year Two Promo (1080p; 2:51)

  
  

  Storyboards (1080p; 1:31)

The Special Features keepcase also houses a nice little booklet with some writing and episode summaries, along with trivia factoids. There's also mention of commentaries by Robert Meyer Burnett that I personally couldn't find anywhere.

Note: There's been a fair amount of discussion on our Forum about the supplements on this release versus other releases, and those interested are encouraged to read through the posts by our knowledgeable international readers for more information in that regard. Some may therefore find my 4.0 score as overly generous, but as I've stated in other reviews where similar comparisons to other releases have cropped up, I'm scoring what's here, not what's missing or could have been here.

Space: 1999: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was a kid in a major market that aired Space: 1999 during its original broadcast run, and I remember to this day being excited about it all, especially since I had also been a huge fan of both Star Trek and Lost in Space (probably for different reasons). But even as a little boy I felt something was "off" about this show — it never engaged me as fully as either of its arguably better remembered American "cousins", and that tendency was even more pronounced in its second season. Still, Space: 1999 has its adherents, and those fans will find a really nice looking and sounding technical presentation here, along with some interesting supplements, both old and new. As I mentioned in the review of the show's first season, Space: 1999 probably kind of hilariously had high- falutin' ambitions, but often came across as a glorified B-movie. For those with a penchant for such fare, Space: 1999: The Complete Series comes Recommended.