A Space: 1999 commentary podcast from the makers of Bondfinger.

Head shot of Barbara Bain from the title sequence of Series 1 of Space: 1999. She looks impossible to startle.

startling
Barbara Bain

Alpha Child

Barbara is wearing a lot of cling film this month, apparently because she has just delivered a baby. And here she is on the screen in Main Mission, smiling happily while the baby looks across at her with suspicion.

Season 1, Episode 7.
First broadcast on Thursday 16 October 1975.

Saturday 3 August 2024 · Episode 7

An eerie green glow is making for Alpha, bringing with it the most terrible consequences, as the first baby born on the base undergoes two periods of ultra-rapid growth, becoming in mere seconds a terrifying English moppet and shortly after that Julian Glover in a skimpy miniskirt. Is this the next stage in human evolution, or merely an invasion by an alien who wants to give his mother a nice makeover and a good rogering before (inevitably) killing everyone on the base?

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 0:59:41 · Recorded on Friday 2 August 2024
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Voyager’s Return

Barbara is in sickbay, standing in front of one of Alpha's glowing blue walls. Her face is half in shadow, and she is glaring disapprovingly at  someone off camera.

Season 1, Episode 6.
First broadcast on Thursday 9 October 1975.

Sunday 16 June 2024 · Episode 6

This month, John and Victor decide that the pursuit of a shoebox full of polaroids is a good reason to risk the crew’s lives — entrusting their safety to this week’s guest star, a Nazi rocket scientist or something with a secret past that inevitably involved killing a whole bunch of people in an easily foreseeable accident. However, things hot up with the arrival of three steatopygous spaceships captained by a heavily-made up alien with no facial expression, who is understandably resolved to kill everyone on the base and all the loved ones they left behind them.

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 1:00:44 · Recorded on Saturday 15 June 2024
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Death’s Other Dominion

On a terrifyingly cold and bleak ice planet, Barbara,  wearing an environmental suit and snow goggles and covered in foam,  lies down in the snow to get some rest.

Season 1, Episode 5.
First broadcast on Thursday 2 October 1975.

Sunday 5 May 2024 · Episode 5

This month, we’re faced with an alarming metaphysical choice: eternal life among a bunch of absurdly hot models in Hugh Hefner’s second least favourite Swiss chalet, or a normal lifespan cleaning up the corridors of Moonbase Alpha after its latest nuclear catastrophe. Victor, Helena, Bob and Alan all want to make the obviously correct (if basic) choice, but their fun is inevitably spoiled by miserable old John Koenig and the second law of thermodynamics.

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 0:59:36 · Recorded on Saturday 4 May 2024
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War Games

Barbara is a a glass tank in a brightly and colourfully lit room. She is wearing elaborate pink satin sci-fi robes and looking off into the\ distance. In the background is an alien man with a massive domed head.

Season 1, Episode 4.
First broadcast on Thursday 25 September 1975.

Monday 12 February 2024 · Episode 4

This month’s ethereal immortal beings in a surreal Pinewood studio are Isla Blair and Anthony Valentine, who are (reasonably enough) so keen to avoid meeting the crew of Moonbase Alpha that they decide to just kill them all instead. Or do they?

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 0:59:43 · Recorded on Sunday 11 February 2024
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Collision Course

At the end of the episode, Barbara and Martin stand at a window. Martin is  wearing a skimpy robe, revealing an unnecessary amount of chest hair. He's  not making eye contact with Barbara, who is looking at him with concern.

Season 1, Episode 3.
First broadcast on Thursday 18 September 1975.

Saturday 30 December 2023 · Episode 3

Moonbase Alpha is on a collision course this week, ineluctably destined to crash into a giant pustulent planet. Or is it? Commander Koenig — overcome by the charms of Queen Margaret Leighton — doesn’t think so, and so he turns up to Main Mission in his pyjamas like a Moonie and threatens to gun down anyone who attempts to prevent the collision, including, upsettingly, our own Barbara. But — inevitably — it all turns out for the best, and we end our second episode in a row staring out the window contemplating the metaphysical metamorphosis we have wrought.

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 0:59:40 · Recorded on Friday 29 December 2023
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Force of Life

In a darkened sick bay, Barbara is crouched, looking up at us. Lying on the ground in front of here is the frozen body of a bearded young man.

Season 1, Episode 2.
First broadcast on Thursday 11 September 1975.

Saturday 25 November 2023 · Episode 2

An eerie blue glow invades Alpha and takes control of a young Ian McShane, who suddenly becomes prone to bouts of German Expressionism and freezing attractive young people from the 1970s. A star is born this week, in Force of Life.

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 1:01:17 · Recorded on Friday 24 November 2023
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Breakaway

Barbara stands in front of a window in sick bay, her eyes wide and her lips pursed. She looks concerned.

Season 1, Episode 1.
First broadcast on Thursday 4 September 1975.

Saturday 28 October 2023 · Episode 1

September 13th, 1999. A nuclear waste dump on the moon is destroyed in an explosion so violent and so catastrophic that it creates a major science fiction show on ITV and the commentary podcast which tells its story. But before that, we witness some harrowing deaths, some attractive moustaches, and the quivering emotional restraint of Dr Helena Russell, from which this podcast gets its name.

Download · Open in new window · Duration: 1:08:22 · Recorded on Friday 27 October 2023
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