Thread by @PulpLibrarian

Today in history: a massive nucleat explosion sends the Moon hurtling into space!

Well that was the premise of #Space1999. Let's take a look at some of the many impossible questions the series threw up... #FridayFeeling

In #Space1999 Moonbase Alpha is a 4km wide settlement in the Plato moon crater. It's both a research centre and a monitoring station for the vast amounts of nuclear waste Earth has dumped on the Moon.

Sounds like fun...

But that's the problem with setting sci-fi on the Moon: nothing tends to happen. Sure there's filing to do, computers to monitor, occasional meteors etc, but where's the action?

There's literally no atmosphere.

But #Space1999 had a solution. A nuclear explosion would send the Moon hurtling across space, meeting metaphysical aliens, transcendental plot-holes and the cold indifference of many TV critics.

More baffling was how the Moon in #Space1999 managed to travel so quickly across space. And what happened to earth once it left? And what's with all this gravity on Moonbase Alpha? And all this beige?

Well Moonbase Alpha is surrounded by Anti-Gravity pylons! These stabilise the base's gravity, deflect meteors and allow aliens to take over peoples' minds. That's just science!

Not long after leaving Earth's solar system, the Moon passed through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" pushing it even further out into the universe.

I know, I know, three impossible things...

And don't ask why there's normal gravity in the Eagle Transporters. There just is.

OK, all the nuclear weapons ever created couldn't blast the Moon out of orbit, and Earth would be destroyed etc. Harshing on #Space1999 for not being hard sci-fi misses the point: the show is about space being weird and frightening, not about physics.

And those unisex series 1 beige costumes for #Space1999 were created by Austrian fashion designer and topless swimsuit pioneer Rudi Gernreich.

By Series 2 these had been jazzed up somewhat.

If Elon Musk and #SpaceX plan to create a Moon Base Alpha as a stepping stone to colonising Mars then they may want to re-watch #Space1999. Life in space can be pretty boring, and the number of astronauts taking guitars into orbit should be a cause for concern.

Anyway I hope that's answered some of your many #science questions about #Space1999. We shall never see its like again.

Play the credits: