Space 1999

Space 1999 (Cosmos 1999), originally uploaded by FRANCK44.

How cool was this toy. Based on Space 1999, it was the first attempt since the demise of Star Trek in 1969 at producing a large-scale weekly science fiction series, and the show drew a great deal of visual inspiration (and technical expertise) from the Stanley Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. The show's special effects director Brian Johnson had in fact previously worked on both Thunderbirds (as Brian Johncock) and 2001.

It was the last in a long line of successful science-fiction series that the Andersons produced as a working partnership, beginning with Supercar in the early Sixties and including the famed marionette fantasy series Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and Joe 90, as well as the gritty live-action alien-invasion drama UFO. Space: 1999 owes much of the visual design to pre-production work for a never-made second series of UFO which would have featured a more extensive Moonbase. It has since become a cult classic, and is available on DVD.