The force of the blast propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the 311 personnel stationed on Alpha.

This was followed by a title sequence that managed to convey prestige for its two main stars, Landau and Bain (both billed as 'starring') and to give the audience some thirty-plus fast-cut shots of the forthcoming episode.

To appeal to the American television market and sell the series to one of the major U.S. networks, Landau and Bain were cast at the insistence of Lew Grade over the objections of Sylvia Anderson, who wanted British actors.

The Andersons and their team would quickly revamp the production, flashing ahead nearly twenty years for UFO: 1999 with Commander Ed Straker and the forces of SHADO fighting their alien foes from a large new Moonbase facility.

However, toward the end of its run, UFO experienced a drop in ratings in both the US and the UK; nervous ITC executives in both countries began to question the financial viability of the new series, and support for the project collapsed.

[12] Anderson would not let the project die; he approached Grade's number two in New York, Abe Mandell, with the proposal for taking the research and development done for UFO: 1999 and creating a new science fiction series.

Producer Sylvia Anderson let it be known that she would have preferred British lead actors; since Grade insisted on Americans, she would have chosen Robert Culp (star of the 1960s espionage series I Spy) and Katharine Ross (co-star of 1960s blockbuster movies The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).

[citation needed] 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.

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).

Response to the series varied: some critics praised it as a classic, citing the production values and multi-layered storytelling ("Space: 1999 is like Star Trek shot full of methedrine.

He criticized the acting, saying, "The special effects are good, but the actors are awful, even Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, whom you will remember from Mission:Impossible; and Barry Morse, of The Fugitive.

Gerry Anderson had staff writer Johnny Byrne prepare a critical analysis of the first twenty-four episodes, assessing their strengths and weaknesses in order to mount a new and improved second year.

[12] Then ITC Entertainment President Sir Lew Grade abruptly cancelled the series' production in late 1975 when ratings in the United States had dropped during the later autumn months of the year.

Most importantly, however, her Psychon abilities as a metamorph with the power of "molecular transformation" allowed her to convert herself into any living thing for an hour at a time, were designed to add a certain "wow" factor to the newly revamped series.

Likewise, it was mentioned in this publication that Morrow and Kano had died in an Eagle crash between series and explained that Dr. Mathias, supposedly Alpha's psychiatrist (although he seems to be more Russell's assistant), was on sabbatical doing research.

Fred Freiberger felt that these characters were one-dimensional and had no fan support; he told Nick Tate that the audience would not remember them and that, as far as he was concerned, they were just "somewhere else" on Alpha, lost in the crowd of three hundred other people.

New series composer Derek Wadsworth's new theme dropped Barry Gray's alternation between stately, orchestral passages and funky rhythmic ones in favour of a more consistently contemporary piece.

)[16] The sombre mood created in Year One by the effective use of light and shadow in the filming of Moonbase Alpha interiors was abandoned in favour of a generally brighter cinematography, and even the lettering used in signage and costuming—most noticeable on spacesuits and Eagle Transporter doors—changed to a simpler, less futuristic style.

Production Designer Keith Wilson stated in an interview in Destination: Moonbase Alpha that he was always being ordered by Producer Fred Freiberger to make sets smaller, taking away the expansive (and expensive) look of the first series' interiors.

This measure was used to complete eight stories as four pairs: "The Rules of Luton" and "The Mark of Archanon"; "The AB Chrysalis" and "Catacombs of the Moon"; "A Matter of Balance" and "Space Warp"; "Devil's Planet" and "Dorzak".

A ninth episode, "The Beta Cloud", was intentionally scripted with only one day's worth of work for Landau and Bain to allow their planned holiday to the French Riviera not to delay the series' production; the four supporting cast members (Schell, Anholt, Tate and Merton) were the recipients of much greater than usual exposure.

After the 1976–77 broadcast year (in which second-series episodes were run and rerun), the show's ratings were sufficiently high for CBC Television to give the first series a full-network airing – and with further repeats – from 1977 to 1978.

And after a pre-emption for New Year's Day sports, new episodes resumed airing on 8 January 1977 with "A Matter of Balance", followed by "The Beta Cloud", "One Moment of Humanity", "The Lambda Factor", "All That Glisters", and "The Seance Spectre".

In Finland the first series was originally aired by the commercial MTV (Mainostelevisio) channel in 1976, but it was withdrawn after couple of episodes on demand of the national programme board as the show was considered too brutal and horrifying.

Following the series' cancellation, four feature-length films were compiled from various episodes for syndication and foreign theatrical release: Destination Moonbase Alpha (1978), Alien Attack (1979), Journey Through the Black Sun (1982), and Cosmic Princess (1982).

[51] It was released on 14 January 1975, a year before the series was broadcast in the country, and compiled scenes from the episodes "Breakaway", "Ring Around the Moon" and "Another Time, Another Place", accompanied by scores from noted soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone.

For this release, to coincide with the series' 30th Anniversary, each episode was digitally restored by creating new 35 mm film elements (a new interpositive made from the original negative which is then used to make further copies).

This boxed set also included two booklets and a new set of extra features that were not on the Carlton DVD releases, including featurettes on "Concept & Creation" and "Special Effects & Design" (edited from an earlier "Fanderson" documentary made in 1996), textless and alternative opening and closing title sequences, a two-part Clapperboard special on Gerry Anderson from 1975, and also a brand new 70-minute documentary entitled "These Episodes" in which Anderson, Christopher Penfold, Johnny Byrne, Zienia Merton and David Lane reflect on the making of key episodes from the first series.

On 12 August 2019, Anderson Entertainment announced that they would collaborate with Big Finish to create an audio drama reboot of Space: 1999 starring Mark Bonnar[61] as John Koenig, Maria Teresa Creasey as Doctor Helena Russell, Timothy Bentinck as Commissioner Simmons and Clive Hayward as Victor Bergman.

Mark Bonnar, Maria Teresa Creasey, Tim Bentinck, Clive Hayward, Glen McCready, Susan Hingley and Amaka Okafor reprise their roles with Anthony Howell, Chris Jarman and Nicholas Asbury joining.