Space: 1999/YMMV

• Complete Monster: Balor, the near-indestructible sadist in "End of Eternity".
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: John and Victor's warm conversation as the moon approaches the Black Sun and their conversation with the "cosmic intelligence" as they go through.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Barry Gray's scores for Season One.
  • And the unworldly-sounding sitar score for "The Troubled Spirit".
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Alan Carter was originally planned to be written out as part of the cast changes for Season Two. However, when the producers learned how popular he was with viewers, he was kept on and given an expanded role.
• Fridge Horror: With every death of any of the irreplaceable 311 people on Moonbase Alpha, even Red Shirt characters, and to a lesser extent the loss of equipment, the bleaker the isolated crew's chances of survival become through the series even as they helplessly drift out of control through space.
• Idiot Plot: the second season, especially - so much so that even series star, Martin Landau, complained.
• Nightmare Fuel: The first season featured several examples:
  • The tentacled monster in "Dragon's Domain"
  • The fate of Commissioner Simmonds in "Earthbound".
  • The fate of Dr. Rowland in "Death's Other Dominion".
  • The titular "Troubled Spirit": Dan Matteo's "ghost".
• Our Vampires Are Different: Anton Zoref is transformed into a heat-craving one in "Force of Life".
• Special Effects Failure: Largely thanks to the low budget; inevitably, it was nicknamed Space: £19.99
  • At the time, it was the most expensive TV series ever made and the effects still stand up today, so this is probably an indication that critics Did Not Do the Research.
    • The spaceship F/X are extremely high quality, and usually achieved using double-exposure rather than blue screen. This means the images are captured on the original negative and don't suffer from extra grain, although this does limit the angles that can be used. On the other hand the show does have some extremely poor matte paintings.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Fred Freiberger - the man who produced the oft-maligned third season of Star Trek - was brought in as the script editor and producer for the second season of Space: 1999. His influence shows: out with the thinking-man's scf-fi, in with the Monster of the Week.
• What the Hell, Casting Agency?: They hired Brian Blessed to be the guest star in "Death's Other Dominion", then had somebody else be the Large Ham.

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