Space: 1999 - Visual Effects, Set Design, Costumes, and Music

Visual Effects, Set Design, Costumes, and Music

The show's vehicles, including the Eagle space shuttle and the Moon Buggy, were represented with a mixture of full-sized props, photographic blow-ups, and detailed scale models. Dozens of models for the various alien spaceships and the Mark IX Hawk from the War Games episode were built by model maker Martin Bower, often at several different sizes to account for the intended use.

Rather than relying on the expensive and time consuming blue screen process, as for Star Trek, Johnson's team often employed a technique that went back to the earliest days of visual effects: spacecraft and planets would be filmed against black backgrounds, with the camera being rewound for each successive element. As long as the various elements did not overlap, this produced convincing results. In technical terms, the advantage was that all of the elements were recorded on the original negative, as opposed to blue screen, which would have involved several generations of duplication. Another plus was that the camera's exposed negative contained completed effects—once this film was lab processed—thereby avoiding the costly, in time and money, blue screen "optical" technique. The disadvantage was that the number of possible angles was more limited; for instance, a spaceship could be seen approaching a planet from the side, but could not move in front of it without the elements overlapping.

Special effects director Brian Johnson and most of his team went on to work on Ridley Scott's Alien, followed by Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Space: 1999 used Pinewood Studios sound-stages L and M. (Each studio measures 90' x 105', with a floor-to-grid measurement of 30 feet.) For the first series, Stage L housed the "standing sets"; such as Main Mission, the Eagle interior, the travel tube, and a small section of corridor. Due to the limited studio space, other sets depicting Alpha interiors, such as Medical Centre, were assembled as needed. Stage M was the "swing stage"; used for planet exteriors, spaceship interiors, and whatever else was needed for a given episode.

The unisex "Moon City" uniforms for the first series were created by renowned Austrian fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, a personal friend of series star Barbara Bain. Other costumes were designed by Production Designer Keith Wilson, who was also responsible for set design. Wilson's innovative Moonbase set construction, using 4-by-8-foot (120 by 240 cm) plastic foam-board panels, linked together Lego-like into whatever room configuration was required, made for a uniform and realistic appearance for the Alpha interiors (not to mention being relatively cheap and quickly assembled). A muted colour pallette and the integration of recognisable equipment and accessories added to the verisimilitude.

For the second series, the Moonbase uniforms were updated having been perceived by some as "bland". Coloured decorative stitching and turtleneck collars were added, as were various badges and patches. Red, navy, or dark-green jackets also appeared, originally on just the senior staff, then on many of the male extras. The women characters tended to wear skirts and knee high boots throughout the second series, rather than the flared trousers used in series one. The costumes for series two were designed by Emma Porteous, who later designed the wardrobes for several James Bond films.

The Alpha interiors were also upgraded for the second year, with the existing stock of wall panels, doors, computer panels, etc. (along with some bits from other Anderson productions) being assembled for the first time—on Stage L- into a standing complex of interconnected sets. (The first series' sets had been assembled as needed and the size of the Main Mission/Command Office complex was prohibitive for the construction of a lasting series of rooms.) Vibrant colour was much more evident in this series' Moonbase sets. Gadgets and equipment with a futuristic appearance typical of contemporary science fiction were also more evident. For example, Helena no longer used a stethoscope, but a little beeping, all-purpose medical scanner similar to Dr. McCoy's whistling medical "Feinberger" on Star Trek.

The opening credits for the first series featured a dramatic fanfare composed by long-time Anderson associate Barry Gray, whose scores for the series were his final compositions for an Anderson production. Gray scored five episodes — Breakaway, Matter of Life and Death, Black Sun, Another Time, Another Place, and The Full Circle—Vic Elms provided a completely electronic score for Ring Around the Moon, and Big Jim Sullivan performed a one-off sitar composition for The Troubled Spirit. Library music, classical compositions, and score excerpts from earlier Anderson productions augmented the five Gray scores and gave the impression of an expansive musical repertoire.

The second series was scored by jazz-musician and composer Derek Wadsworth; American producer Fred Freiberger wanted a more "driving, searing" score for his new action-adventure format. Wadsworth composed original music for The Metamorph, The Exiles, One Moment of Humanity, The Taybor, and Space Warp, that music being assembled for reuse in the other episodes to accompany appropriately similar thematic content.

Other Anderson shows influenced the Space: 1999 spacecraft and elements. The cockpit of the Eagle has a slight resemblance to the cockpit of an earlier Anderson Supermarionation series, Fireball XL5. Thruster and engine sounds were similar to those previously used in Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet. Lighting effects for Moonbase Alpha were comparable to those from UFO, as well as the concept of the elevating spacecraft launch pad.

After almost 30 years, the original Moonbase Alpha model reappeared in the public eye online when a site gained exclusive access to photomap the model and solicit its sale.