Space: 1999 endured an arduous creative process to become the beloved science fiction drama it flourished as. The series evolved out of the abandoned plans for a supposed second series of UFO, chiefly set on the Moon, with story and artwork concepts becoming rejigged to entice ITC to greenlight the making of a brand new and spectacular space-age adventure series.

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, along with scriptwriter Christopher Penfold and concept artist Keith Wilson, drafted numerous programme proposals outlining the basic concept of this new production, each proposal building on the efforts of the previous. Embryonic versions of what would become the Eagle Transporter and the series' lead characters are tangibly apparent throughout these documents, while the method of ensuring the series' Moon-exclusive action varies considerably. At one point, the Earth is outright destroyed, but in future proposals, the Moon becomes blasted out of orbit. 

Amidst the frenzied activity in outlining the concepts of this new series, from Moonbase technology to character personalities and proposed episode premises, Gerry and Sylvia produced a half-hour script which brought their flourishing concepts to life even further. The eventual Breakaway would differ considerably from this preliminary effort written by the Andersons, which offers a tantalisingly separate genesis of the Moon's cosmic odyssey. 

Gravitational Pull

Zero G has acquired substantial significance within Gerry and Sylvia's filmography. Despite the script never being filmed, it remains the first fully written story of Space: 1999. It would also prove to be the Andersons' final collaborative scriptwriting effort, ending a combined method of working that had been a staple of their professional relationship for years at that point. It was common for the first episode of each of the Andersons' series to be written by Gerry and Sylvia, a method that had been employed to great effect in Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, The Secret Service and UFO.

Several of Space: 1999's early series proposal documents include brief synopses of proposed episodes, some becoming fully realised, including The Last Sunset, War Games and The Testament of Arkadia. In a telling sign of Zero G's development, this particular story is not immediately apparent within these documents. It's possible then that Zero G wasn't explicitly envisioned as the very first episode to go into production, but instead an illustration to showcase the characters and concepts to secure the greenlight for production.

Zero G serves broadly the same function as the eventual Breakaway does - detailing the dramatic build-up of events that result in the inhabitants of the Earth's Moon-based establishment being blasted out of orbit. However, the manner in which Zero G depicts the Moon's unmooring are remarkably different to what we would end up seeing on screen. 

Wanderers of the Stars

The basic outline of Zero G goes thus: Aboard the lunar-based Moon City, Commander Steve Maddox and the crew of W.A.N.D.E.R. (World Association of Nations Defending Earth Rights) anxiously await the first detailed report of the Deep Space Reconnaissance Probe C-42, which is believed to have located an alien world beyond our Solar System that's ripe for human colonisation. The probe's eventual report confirms that the planet is inhabited by intelligent alien life.

Maddox makes contact with these aliens far sooner than anticipated. He finds himself teleported and captured within a surreal domed environment on the alien world. He is confronted by the aliens, who determine that W.A.N.D.E.R.'s proposed efforts to colonise deep space are antagonistic in nature and that all of mankind risks spreading its destructive presence across the stars if their mission continues

Maddox argues in humanity's pioneering favour, but it appears to fall in deaf ears. Maddox is freed from his surreal imprisonment and transported back to Moon City, where a string of inexplicable events beyond W.A.N.D.E.R.'s control culminates in the discovery that the aliens have loosened the Moon's gravitational pull around the Earth, resulting in the Moon being plunged into deep space. Despite the aliens' earlier misgivings about mankind, they determine that W.A.N.D.E.R. boasts the very best of humanity, freed from the tyrannical grip of Earth's war-hungry politicians and despots. 

The men and women of W.A.N.D.E.R will now embark on the journey of a lifetime - at the cost of their own safety within Earth's orbit. Zero G concludes with Commander Maddox declaring the impossibility of a return to Earth to the crew of Moon City. "We now commence a battle for survival. Survival in deep space."

Another Time, Another Place

So many differences and similarities to what would become Space: 1999 are apparent in Gerry and Sylvia's embryonic script for this first episode. We have an abundance of Alphan characters and places that are instalment recognisable, but with quite separate names. In place of Moonbase Alpha, we have Moon City. Rather than Commander John Koenig, we have Space Commander Steve Maddox. Before there was the Eagle Transporter, there was the M.T.U. - Multiple Transporter Unit. Character names and Alphan technology wouldn't be locked in with proper definitions until Christopher Penfold and George Bellak composed the writer's bible for the series.

The most startling element of Zero G that would ultimately be discarded is Moon City's apparent positioning within the hierarchy of W.A.N.D.E.R. and the fact that Moon City exists as a strategic defensive outpost against marauding powers. The defence of human rights isn't a consideration for the more neutral, benevolent Moonbase Alpha, who aren't acting in service of any higher organisational power. In Zero G, however, the widely accepted acknowledgement is that aliens are real, they're coming, and they're a threat.  

At just half and hour in length, Zero G understandably struggles to allow for all of the various strands of characterisations to breath as they do so in the finished Breakaway. Still, several embryonic versions of classic characters are identifiable. General Heineman, head of Earth Command, reads like a first pass at the character who'd become Commissioner Simmonds.

The only other significant character to appear is Science Officer Marc Miller, whose scientific expertise is a clear forerunner to Professor Victor Bergman. By comparison, Lieutenant Caron and Doctor Gordon are briefly seen. Gordon would evidently become Doctor Helena Russell, while the Lieutenant has a rather more fractured genesis. Series proposal documents outline the series' three-star leads as the Commander, the Doctor and the Lieutenant, whose character biography suggests a blend of the personalities that would become Main Mission Controller Paul Morrow and Eagle daredevil Alan Carter. Evidently, putting their concepts into practice shifted the priorities of how these characters interacted. 

The moon serving as a dumping ground for the Earth's nuclear waste and the mysterious virus infecting Alphans, so crucial to the narrative development of Breakaway, aren't apparent here. Without that dramatic thrust of the nuclear stockpiles going haywire, the methods in which the Moon becomes unmoored in Zero G come off rather lacklustre by comparison. There's no grand explosion that propels the Moon out of Earth's orbit, which rather punctures the ambitious claims made in the proposal documents of this series' outlandish and spectacular special effects.

The Deep Space Reconnaissance Probe C-42 throws forward to the Meta Probe, and is something we can safely presume was one of Gerry's ideas contributed to the script. He would recycle the ide of a man-made space probe discovering aliens with his outline for Thunderhawks in 1977, which itself would later emerge as Terrahawks.

Maddox becoming entrapped within a surreal, geometric alien world bears the hallmarks of a similar environment experienced by Koenig in Missing Link. Far more transparent however is the aliens' declaration of humanity's aggressive state finding itself most loudly and eloquently proclaimed in War Games. Perhaps not entirely by coincidence, War Games was one of the episodes envisioned in early series proposal documents. Zero G's closing moments of Commander Maddox addressing Moon City of their newfound plight across the stars remains the most tangible element of Zero G's creative DNA finding its way into Breakaway.

Into the Void

Much of this debut script would ultimately be discarded by Bellak and Penfold when writing their own efforts. The Void Ahead, Turning Point and Breakaway would all undergo their own distinct evolutionary pinpoints, but Zero G remains a crucial stepping stone in that path. Moon City's functionality oddly foreshadows the gung-ho attitude of Year 2, in which several episodes showcase gargantuan laser rifles as being part of Moonbase Alpha's defences. These were most definitely not a feature throughout Year 1!

While Zero G went unutilised, it was adapted in prose form by David Hirsch for the 1978 Space: 1999 convention booklet, and later into Maybe There: The Lost Stories from Space: 1999. Zero G remains one of several insightful 'what-ifs?' of Space: 1999's development and was clearly written with a strong UFO-esque mentality in portraying mankind's iron grip on the Moon as a means of warding off alien invaders. Space: 1999 would ultimately emerge as a more intelligently abstract series than what Zero G implies, but the script is a vital point in the series' evolution out of UFO's shadow.

Celebrate Space: 1999's 50th anniversary and shop around our Breakaway Day Collection 2025 for a fantastic range of incredible forthcoming releases! Be sure to discover our in-depth celebratory retrospective of Space: 1999 and join a host of celebrity fans in uplifting Space: 1999's cosmically philosophical soul with our brand new documentary - Space: 1999: 50 Years Out of Orbit!

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