Gerry then swiftly moved on to another series – taking some ideas from the cancelled second series of UFO. Space: 1999 was made at Pinewood on the L and M stages, starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. The effects department took over Bray Studios – starting shooting in November 1973. Brian Johnson was now in charge of SFX – since leaving Century 21 he had worked on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey amongst other films. One technique he brought to this show was to keep the spacecraft models static and move the camera on tracks instead. This produced much smoother and more realistic results and had helped to create such stunning images on 2001 .
The first series of Space: 1999 wrapped in March 1975. It also marked the end of Gerry and Sylvia’s personal and professional relationship. The show however was relatively well-received and a second series was commissioned – albeit with several changes, insisted upon by the American sales team who had sold it to 155 syndicated US TV channels. Catherine Schell replaced Barry Morse as one of the leads and more American writers were brought in. Filming of series 2 began at Pinewood in January 1976. The final episode wrapped in December of the same year. 48 episodes in total were made.
