I remember vividly, sometime around December 1972, walking home from school in the dark, looking up at the moon and wondering if I could spot the astronauts who were actually up there at that very moment. As a child growing up in the 70s, space wasn’t just a distant concept; it felt like the next frontier, something tangible thanks to the Apollo missions playing out on our TVs. It seemed perfectly natural to dream of becoming an astronaut, even if the adults just smiled politely when I announced my career plans!
It was against this backdrop of cosmic excitement that Gerry Anderson, already a hero to kids like me for his incredible puppet shows, ventured into ambitious live-action territory. His first major foray, UFO, hit screens in 1970, though I must have caught the repeats slightly later. Set in the futuristic world of 1980, it presented a planet under siege from mysterious aliens intent on harvesting human organs – quite a chilling concept!
To combat this threat, we had SHADO, the Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation. I always found it slightly amusing that this top-secret organisation operated beneath a working film studio, with Commander Ed Straker (the effortlessly cool Ed Bishop) moonlighting as a film producer. Straker, with his sharp silver hair and gull-winged car, was the epitome of 70s cool, leading the defence against the alien menace from Earth and a secret Moonbase.
I believe the show’s slightly darker, more adult tone, combined with the genuine menace of the rotating, whining alien saucers, made it incredibly compelling. That sound truly terrified me! We rarely saw the aliens clearly, adding to their mystique, and their main weapon seemed to be mind control, turning SHADO operatives against each other. Of course, I had the Dinky toy SHADO Interceptor – the one that fired the hard plastic missile with surprising force – though, bafflingly, it was painted the wrong colour, just like my Thunderbird 2 toy!
Following UFO, Anderson doubled down on his lunar ambitions, giving us Space: 1999 in 1975. This felt enormous, a truly epic production often dubbed Britain’s answer to Star Trek. The premise alone was mind-bending for my young self: Moonbase Alpha, a permanent lunar colony, is violently blown out of Earth’s orbit by a nuclear waste explosion and sent hurtling through deep space. How could you not be hooked?
Led by the dependable Commander Koenig, the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha faced a new existential crisis each week, encountering bizarre phenomena and alien races. The technology felt incredibly futuristic; I was particularly fascinated by the ‘commlocks’, handheld devices allowing video calls anywhere on the base. Imagine! And then there were the Eagles – those iconic, modular transporter spacecraft. They looked fantastic, though I could never quite figure out how they had an endless supply, given that at least one seemed to crash spectacularly in almost every episode!
I believe Space: 1999‘s strength lay in its sheer audacity and visual flair. The storylines were often completely bonkers – I still recall the chilling two-parter ‘Bringers of Wonder’ featuring hideous telepathic monsters masquerading as loved ones – but it all seemed perfectly logical back then. We watched, captivated, dressed perhaps not quite in the crew’s beige, flared-trouser safari suits, but certainly absorbing the adventure.
Sadly, neither UFO nor Space: 1999 lasted as long as they perhaps deserved, eventually falling victim to audience figures and funding challenges. Yet, they remain landmark shows for me and many others who grew up in the 70s, representing a bold, imaginative vision of the future, rooted in the anxieties and aspirations of the time. They were part of that shared cultural experience, the playground chatter the next day.
Did you follow the adventures of SHADO or the crew of Moonbase Alpha? What were your favourite moments or the scariest aliens from UFO and Space: 1999?
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I recall the miscoloured Interceptor, though I didn’t have one – weren’t they blue? The cockpit on the Eagle toy was miscoloured too, lizard green IIRC, if you had the one with the people carrier module (which most of my friends did). Mine was white (correctly), but I had the one with the nuclear waste disposal module on it. This was great, the four little plastic barrels had metal caps, and there was a magnet on a wound string, so I could lower the waste to ground whilst “in flight”.
I’m very jealous Glynn – I would have loved that Eagle but suspect the time has passed!