List of Space: 1999 books and other media

During the original run of Space: 1999, the science-fiction series generated a number of media tie-ins, including novelisations, original novels, comic books and audio dramas. Due to the series' ongoing cult following, new tie-ins continue to be released to this day.

Books

1970s novels and novelisations

In the mid-1970s, a number of books were published by both American (Pocket Books) and British (Futura) publishers, consisting primarily of novelisations of Space: 1999 episodes. These releases, mainly paperback, were supplemented by 16-page photo sections (Year One and Two in the United States, Year Two only in the United Kingdom), which comprised black-and-white stills from the episodes. Original novels, without photo section, also formed a part of the series. Many of the books were also translated for release in overseas markets, such as Germany, Turkey and Japan.

English-language releases

Year One
Year Two

Foreign-language releases

Space: 1999 novels and novelisations were also written in other languages for specific markets, mainly Germany and Italy, where the series was highly popular.

In Italy, adaptations of all 24 Year One episodes and eight of the Year Two episodes were published in oversized hardback volumes. These books typically contained two episodes and nearly 100 colour photos each. Like the Michael Butterworth English-language editions, many of these books were adapted from early drafts of scripts, and events and details sometimes differ significantly from the episodes later aired.

In Germany, the Butterworth Year Two novels were translated into German, with one significant difference. The ending of "The Edge of the Infinite" was altered in order to set up events that would be continued in six original follow-on novels. To this day, these novels have never been translated into any other language.

The final novel, Der Stahlplanet is notable in that it concludes the Space: 1999 odyssey by having the Alphans teleport to Texas City, Earth via the neutrino transmission process introduced in "Journey to Where". These books are also unique in that they are the only media tie-in novels for an English-language series written specifically for a foreign market.

2000s novels and novelisations

In 2002, Fanderson published a new edition of the novel Earthfall which corrected the typographic errors of the original publication and, with the permission of the author, separated the novel into its three component sections: Part One, "Breakaway" (set in September 1999); Part Two, "Colony Alpha" (January 2000); and Part Three, "Earthfall" (October 2018). Fanderson went on to publish a new original novel, Earthbound, written by E. C. Tubb, in 2003. This book contained an adaptation of "Earthbound", the one episode which was not included in the original novelisation run, as well as adaptations of two scripts of Year Two stories which retained the Year One format in which the scripts had originally been written: "The Exiles" and "The Face of Eden" (or "The Immunity Syndrome"). Also in 2002, Eagle One Media published a new edition of the novel Alien Seed with a new preface by Tubb. The same year, Powys Media launched a new series of officially licensed original novels and related works of non-fiction, and revised and expanded omnibus editions of previously issued novelisations for Year Two. All books are English-language releases, available directly from the companies' websites.

Fanderson releases

Eagle One Media releases

Powys Media releases

Future Powys Media releases

Non-fiction releases

The Making of Space: 1999

In 1976, Ballantine Books published a paperback behind-the-scenes guide, The Making of Space: 1999, by Tim Heald. It focuses mainly on the early months of production of Year Two. The episode guide for that season is incomplete, since the book was published while Year Two was still airing. It features an extensive photo section with more than 50 black-and-white photos.

The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook

In 1977, Starlog magazine published The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook.[1] It provides detailed blueprints of Moonbase Alpha, along with illustrations and information on various incarnations of props and costumes. It was intended to be updated on a regular basis, but this idea was abandoned due to low sales. Starlog had released the blueprints of the Eagle Transporter in its seventh issue (dated August 1977) as a possible preview of the The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook, which was first advertised in the ninth issue. Starlog also released blueprints of the Mark IX Hawk in issue 32 (March 1980), but these were not intended as an update to the The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook.

UFO & Space: 1999

By Chris Drake, overview and episode summaries. (Boxtree, London: 1994)

Cosmos 1999: L'épopée de la blancheur

By Pierre Fageolle, a socio-cultural analysis of the series, in French. (DLM Editions, Paris: 1996)

Exploring Space: 1999

In 1997, McFarland & Company released a non-fiction, scholarly monograph of Space: 1999 by John Kenneth Muir, titled Exploring Space: 1999: an Episode Guide and Complete History of the Mid-1970s Science Fiction Television Series. It was re-released in paperback by McFarland in April 2005.

Destination: Moonbase Alpha

In 2010, Telos Publishing released the most comprehensive non-fiction book published on the subject of Space: 1999. Written by Robert E. Wood and titled Destination: Moonbase Alpha: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Space: 1999, the book runs to 490 pages and contains a colour photo section featuring model spaceships created for Space: 1999 by special effects technician Martin Bower, as well as a foreword by Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes) and an afterword by Barry Morse (Professor Victor Bergman).

Chasing the Cyclops

William Latham, author of Space: 1999 Omega and its sequel Space: 1999 Alpha, wrote a non-fiction book that detailed the conception, planning, and writing processes that went into the writing of the two novels. It contains a foreword written by Mateo Latosa, the publisher at Powys Media, a small independent publishing company that published officially licensed novels and other works in the Space: 1999 series. (Powys Media. February 2011.)

Space: 1999 The Powysverse Compendium

Patricia Sokol's detailed analysis of the novels, short stories and audio books in the Space: 1999 series published by Powys Media. It contains a detailed synopsis of each of the works, a timeline and an encyclopedic section of all the persons, places and things in the expanded Space: 1999 universe, meaning the original series and the officially licensed works published by Powys Media. It features a foreword by Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes) and an afterword by Martin Willey. (Powys Media. February, 2012)

Cosmos 1999: Le fabulaire de l'espace

Didier Liardet's analysis and commentary, in French (Edition Yris, September 2014)

Space: 1999 - Episode by Episode

Petter Ogland's edit of the 1997-98 analysis and commentary by Online Alpha (Lulu Press, November 2014)

Destinazione Obbligata: Alpha

Giuseppe Turdo's overview and episode analysis, in Italian (Lulu Press, April 2015)

Space: 1999 - the 40th anniversary celebration

John K. Balor's edit of the 2013-15 episode by episode analysis and commentary by Online Alpha (Lulu Press, September 2015)

Comic books

In the 1970s, U.S. publisher Charlton Comics released seven issues of a comic based on Space: 1999, as well as eight issues of a black-and-white illustrated magazine featuring more adult-orientated stories.

In Germany, publisher Koralle Verlag produced 18 adaptations of Year One episodes as part of their Zack colour comic anthologies, one adaptation and four original stories in their Zack Parade line, as well as two full-length graphic novel original adventures in their Zack Box imprint. Many of the episodic adaptations were later translated and reprinted in Italy.

In the UK, a two-page comic strip appeared in Look-In children's magazine from autumn 1975 to spring 1977. Writer Angus Allan had previously contributed to a number of other Gerry Anderson-based strips in the 1960s for TV Century 21 comic. John M. Burns illustrated the first three stories, to be succeeded by Mike Noble when the strip would convert to black-and-white in early 1976. In the autumn of 1976, the strip adopted the Year Two format, with Burns returning for a brief coda story that November. Some of these strips were reprinted in black-and-white as complete compilations in the Portuguese TV Junior comic.

In 2013, a 'rebooted' and elaborated new graphic novel appeared, entitled Aftershock and Awe. In this context, the events of Space 1999 occur in an alternate history. In this timeline, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was never assassinated, and the space race continued apace. In 1987, a Third World War broke out, between the United States and North Korea, causing widespread devastation, but limited harm, given that international expenditure on the space race diminished the intensity of the escalated nuclear arms race in our world's Cold War during the eighties. Ronald Reagan and Kim Jong-Il are forced to resign their presidential offices after the catastrophe. On September 13, 1999, the Moon is blown out of Earth orbit by an intense nuclear accident and into a space warp. The series will also carry on the narrative into a 'third season.'[2]

Audio dramas

In the 1970s, Power Records produced seven child-oriented audio dramas based on Space: 1999, most of which on Year One episodes. "Breakaway", "Death's Other Dominion" and "Mission of the Darians" were released on a single 33 rpm LP, while a second album contains "End of Eternity" and "Dragon's Domain" accompanied by the two original adventures "Return to the Beginning" (in which, after the Moon passes through a violent space storm, the Alphans discover that they have returned to Earth, but arriving on the surface find themselves in Biblical times, encounter Noah and witness the Flood) and "It Played So Softly on the Ear" (in which a strange tune leads the Alphans to a habitable planet where solar flares have placed the population in suspended animation; two remaining conscious scientists, who can reverse the process with blood transfusions, abduct the Alphans to serve as donors). In addition, Power Records published individual comic "book-and-record" editions of "Breakaway" and "Return to the Beginning" with 45 rpm vinyl records enclosed.[3]

Powys Media releases

See also

References

  1. Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook
  2. Andrew Gasska et al: Space 1999: Aftershock and Awe: Fort Lee, New Jersey: Archaia: 2013: ISBN 1936393883
  3. Catacombs Guide to Space: 1999 - Power Records

External links

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