Thursday, September 10, 2015

Breakaway Day 2015: Space:1999 - Home Video Evolution

Four episodes released on VHS in 1990 by J2 Communications

Entire series released on laserdisc from J2, early 1990s.

Columbia House VHS "Collector's Edition," 1990

A& E "Megaset," Entire Series, 2002.



The complete series on DVD, 2007.

Year 1 Blu Ray, 2010
Space: 1999 (1975 - 1977) didn't run for long originally: just two seasons, 48 episodes.  Yet it has survived and experienced quite the afterlife, at least from a certain standpoint. 

In particular, episodes of Space:1999 have been released on VHS twice, on laserdisc, on DVD (in two editions) and finally Blu Ray over the decades, an honor bestowed upon few science fiction TV series other than Star Trek, X-Files and Dr. Who, I think.

Across the years -- to my wife's dismay -- I've purchased every single 1999 episode set, from the Columbia House "Collector's Edition" VHS to the 2010 Blu Ray of Year One.  That either makes me a sucker, a masochist, or just a very big fan of the program.  Or possibly all three.

I can tell you with great fondness that I purchased my first laserdisc player -- a Pioneer model -- so I could play all 24 episode "volumes" of the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series back in the 1990s.  That laserdisc player, my last one, finally gave up the ghost a few years ago leaving me a vast laserdisc collection without a player.  Still, I've used and abused that laserdisc player since Christmas of 1993, so it lasted about twenty years.  R.I.P.

Then I watched Space:1999 again on Blu Ray while I wrote t The Whispering Sea.  Now I eagerly await the official Year 2 blu-ray release. I can't wait to watch Catherine Schell's Maya in action, in high def.

Here's a look at "The Bringers of Wonder" in that format:





No comments:

Post a Comment

My Father's Journal: "Apologia"

Apologia By Ken Muir   I am a person of my age, of my time in history.    Born into an America that was on the verge of winning the greatest...