Spazio:1999 is an Italian compilation film, combining sections of the Space: 1999 episodes Breakaway, Ring Around the Moon and Another Time, Another Place into a single story.
Details[]
Opening in Italian cinemas on January 14th 1975 (seven months before the series would premiere on British, American and Australian television) Spazio:1999 replaced the original English dub with the voices of Italian actors – and making a lot of cuts, to reduce three fifty minute episodes to fit the film’s overall runtime of just over an hour and a half. These cuts heavily affected the characters of Commissioner Simmonds (essentially reduced to an extra only seen during the Breakaway itself) and Regina Kesslann, despite both Roy Dotrice and Judy Geeson sharing fourth billing in the opening titles credits after Barry Morse.
Other changes were made in an attempt to smooth the transition from one episode to another, and to help aid the appearance of this being a film rather than episodes of a television series. Although the events of the film largely follow the same narrative as the original English versions, the dialogue is often vastly different. The space phenomena that the Moon drifts into at the start of Another Time Another Place is described as being debris from the destroyed planet Triton, while material from Breakaway is moved into Ring Around the Moon to provide a sense of shock from the Alphans at their new situation. Most notably, Kano was renamed to Ouma to maintain consistency with the first episode, albeit with no attempt made to explain the sudden change to the character’s appearance.
Spazio:1999 also jettisoned the show’s original Barry Gray score entirely, in favour of a new soundtrack from famed composer Ennio Morricone. This score was released on CD in 2016 and on vinyl in 2017, and while listening to it in isolation is for the most part a less than rewarding experience the unsettling and nerve-jangling tone of the music really fits the ominous visuals of Space:1999’s early episodes. The piece heard during the Alphans’ return to Earth (and over the end credits) is a particular highlight.[1]
Differences to the episodes[]
- The opening titles begin with a standard shot of Moonbase Alpha with the Spazio 1999 title over. The next shots show the Moon leaving Earth orbit, Alpha dropping from the Earth, and the red planet from the series titles (normally used for Gerry Anderson's credit).
- The titles segue straight into the episode, showing Koenig's Eagle, and his dialogue with Simmonds (the fight with Nordstrom and Steiner is cut completely, as are the shots of the Space Dock).
- The conversation between Simmonds and Koenig on the office communications post is cut, as is the flight over navigation beacon delta (it jumps straight to the Eagle landing at NDA2 and watching Jackson and Ellis survey the silos).
- The robot Eagle sequence is cut. The arrival of Simmonds is cut, as is Victor's explanation about dispersing the waste. The sniping between Simmonds and Koenig is cut just before it explodes. The computer's diagnosis is cut (although the message "Human Decision Required" can be seen on the screens as Koenig announces his decision to the base).
- The second Eagle flight to the Triton probe (Koenig and Alan) is cut. Many individual exposition scenes in Ring Around The Moon are cut.
- As Main Mission approaches the spiral in Another Time, Another Place Koenig is called (as in the previous scene, the ending of Ring Around The Moon, he is with Bergman and Helena in Medical).
- Discussion of Regina's condition (apart from her initial scene in Medical) is cut. Regina's meeting with Alan is cut. Koenig's announcement and Regina's nightmare are cut, apart from her hitting Mathias, after which she immediately arrives in Main Mission and dies.
- Kano is called Ouma throughout.
- Although credited in the titles, Roy Dotrice's role as Simmonds is almost completely cut out, and Judy Geeson's role as Regina is minimal.[2]
In additipn, the Italian version names Dr. Russell HELEN not Helena. This is probably due to the fact that HELENA sounds exactly like the Italian name ELENA. The people who supervised the Italian version probably thought this was too Italian for an American character. The Eagle was called "Aquila" (Italian for eagle).[3]