Party Like it's 1999

I used to love Gerry Anderson's Space 1999 when I was a kid in the 1970s. The theme tune was brilliant – a fast piece of wah-wah guitar funk with orchestral and horn breakdowns – and the special effects were pretty well done, Anderson employing the same model techniques he'd used in the likes of Thunderbirds. The only comparison I had at that point was the original Star Trek, and though I loved Trek, Space 1999 seemed somehow more believable. And it was quite polished, at least in the first season (even at the time I could tell the quality had dropped in the second season). But it was also easier to relate to, due to the presence of so many British actors.

Anyway, I was in Tunbridge Wells at the weekend and picked these up in one of the bookshops there:













The first two Space 1999 novelisations. No idea what they're like, but they're nice little paperbacks, and E. C. Tubb was a big name in SF. I vaguely recall reading a Space 1999 spin-off when I was a kid where Maya – a shapechanging alien lass who was the only highlight of the rubbish second season – gets off with Commander Koenig (er, possibly). I think that might've been an early erotic awakening for me.

Ahem.