Yeah, you know you watched it. We all watched it, sneaking peaks at it on PBS or late night on one of the local stations after Doctor Who. Created by Gerry and Silvia Anderson, the genius pair behind Captain Scarlet and The Thunderbirds, Space: 1999 was nerd wonderland. It had people speaking with accents, goofy costumes, long, drawn-out stories that were borderline frustrating and boring, and Dr. Helena Russell was always getting into some kind of damsel-in-distress scrape on a nutty, primitive or fashion-advanced planet.
Not again...
and sometimes it had really great monsters.
I know, it looks like the dryer at a car wash with a big headlight in the center, but watch your back, man. It'll suck you into that red underbelly and fry you into charcoal before you can say crab nebula.
Told you so.This episode, the one with the car wash monster, also has a very special guest star. No, not Joan Collins again. Think European ... think Macaroni Combat ...
That's right John/Gianni Garko. You may remember him as the blond American in Five for Hell.
At least in Space: 1999 he gets to look like himself and speak in his own very heavy Italian-accented voice. He struggles with each word he says, over-pronouncing them like opera. It's really cute. Not that I don't still respect him as a GI Joe, but I think I like him better as a troubled, sensitive space man.
Speaking of GI Joe, this show brings back childhood memories of how we never got the toy we wanted at Christmas, but would constantly get the next best thing. Barbie? How about a Dawn doll instead? Or Skipper! GI Joe? No, but Santa brought you Big Jim and he comes with a camper ... no, not Barbie's camper, Big Jim's. Toys R Us was sold out of the Six Million Dollar man, kids, but we got you Oscar Goldman! He comes with a briefcase! So while all our friends were playing with the Millennium Falcon or an X-Wing Tie Fighter, we had a replica model of Eagle One.
Shown here with optional removable transport unit.Of course no one else knew what Eagle One was, but they were just dumb.
Oh, did I mention? Space: 1999 also had the funkiest theme music on television:
6 comments:
"before you can say crab nebula..." I'm totally using that.
Dang, good eye LH! I don't know if I would've caught the main guy was also in Five for Hell. Of course, you are one of about eight people worldwide who has seen both FfH and Space:1999, so you are in rare company indeed.
(:
it's hard to say it while drunk, comes out as cra-neblahblah.
This is crazy because I was just looking up Gianni Garko because Daniele De Rossi, the mid-fielder for the Italian team, has been looking a lot like Garko in the Sartana series.
Ok...so, yeah, I'll be the token nerd. This show was seminal. I made models of the Eagle...AND the Alpha Moon Base itself, complete with lunar landscape setting. My best friend had an Eagle that was about two feet long and had opening functioning compartments and shit!...At nine, this was like the most awesome thing ever!...I'm not suggesting it holds up all that well. I've seen episodes since then and all I can say is that "science" advisers were not that crucial...But, the nostalgia factor for me is enough to get me all verclempt.
Mr. Bascomb, I knew there was a reason we were friends.
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