Space 1999.

So, "Space 2099" is in production, a reboot of the original that promises to hold to the axioms and ideals, to try and add some plausibility to all they do, and to avoid the whole "oooh let's make it dark and gritty now!"

official site:
http://www.space2099theseries.com/content/

Article:
http://io9.com/5884500/why-space-2099-wont-be-a-dark-and-gritty-reboot-of-space-1999

I for one am interested on the one hand, but I am also growing tired of "reboots" - why not just write something totally new for Pete's sake? I'm all for recycling to save the planet, but I don't think this helps....
 
I am hopeful that their frequent use of the word plausible is a real indicator of the show's stories. I was disappointed by 1999's rapid move to supernatural elements, especially, Maya. At least the T-1000 had to morph into something of equal mass/volume!

If the show had included supernatural elements from the very start, I think I would feel differently about it.
 
If the show had included supernatural elements from the very start, I think I would feel differently about it.

The pilot, "Breakaway," had some very weak science. "Matter of Life and Death," the second episode aired, had Lost in Space science, if I'm remembering the episode correctly. That is, Dr. Russell's "dead" husband returns with promises of an Earth-like haven, which sounds to me like dead is dead and haven is heaven. From what I recall, the man was anti-matter, yet had no problems standing around in the same environment as Dr. Russell. So the Alphans were not yet ready for the other world.

The third episode, "Black Sun," was definitely supernatural. Koenig and Bergman talk to god during their passage through the black hole, and the survival Eagle sent off in another direction somehow manages to return to Alpha, unknown lightyears distant.

The whole first season was pretty much supernatural. The second season wasn't actually a second season, it was a totally different show. And it wasn't supernatural, it was more like a comicbook, or a saturday morning kid's show. SMASH! BAM! Super powers, evil twins, and happy endings where everyone laughs together.

I can't say that I'm looking forward to the remake/reboot/re-imagining if they intend to keep the same general scenario (the Moon tossed out of Earth orbit into deep space), while rationalizing a better explanation for the whole thing. Originally, the show was supposed to be a sequel to Gerry Anderson's UFO where a massive attack destroys Earth, leaving behind the handful of humans left alive on the Moonbase—but still in orbit around Sol. Somehow it developed into Space: 1999, which I enjoyed for what it was: a dark castle in space with Twilight Zon-ish or Night Gallery-ish stories.

If they really want to reboot, don't call it Space: 2099. Call it something else. Don't use the same character names, and don't have a nuclear waste dump accident. Come up with something more radical. Make the base a staging point for the exploration of the Solar system. An installation on Farside is set up to test advanced propulsion systems. The big accident might be a hyperdrive engine employing a radical new physics. A "static" ground test works far better than expected because mass has no relevance in the equations, and switching on the engine—rather than failing, or imploding, or vanishing, or any number of other possibilities—takes the whole Moon with it.

(When the A-bomb was first tested, some thought it might ignite the atmosphere, or start a chain reaction in all the Earth's matter. The reboot might have a similar "we really don't know what to expect" situation.)

Once hyperspaced away from Earth, the people on the Moonbase (moonbases, plural, from different countries, perhaps?) find themselves completely lost. Either they won't recognize a single thing in the sky, or maybe they do, but the only way to get back to Earth is with the same hyperspace engine. Only the engineers and physicists have no idea how to use it. That might be a developing issue as the series goes on, and would account for the interstellar travel. The writers can come up with any scenario they like where the engine tends to favor output points near other masses (planets and stars).

But the closer they try to stick to the original without changing it while they're busy changing it, the less I think I am likely to enjoy it.
 
Visually impressive but very implausible . It does entertain. :)
 

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