Gerry Anderson's "Odyssey"

A little something I've been pondering ...

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Deep Space Odyssey [commonly referred to as 'Gerry Anderson's Odyssey'] is s British science fiction television programme that ran for three seasons from 1982 to 1984. It is a conceptual follow up to the earlier production by Gerry Anderson, Space: 1999. The opening episode, set in 2012, establishes that Earth is suffering the catastrophic effects of global warming and that mankind must find another planet to call their home.

To that end, Earth Space Command builds the Zodiac Fleet - twelve ships sent out to find that new world. The series itself focuses on the crew of one of these ships - the Earth Starship Capricorn.

Whereas Space: 1999 had been co-produced by ITC and RAI, and that shows predecessor UFO, exclusively by ITC, Deep Space Odyssey was produced by Century 21 Productions for the BBC to air in the hiatus between seasons of 'Doctor Who' (with the first season airing between 'Time Flight' and 'Arc of Infinity') ...


* - I'm not entirely sure who designed the ship, I found the picture when googling '1970s Spaceship' and it looked like a very Anderson-esque design. Consider it, until further notice - as the Capricorn ...
 
Consider one major departure could be the 1981 and 1985 Writers' Guild Strikes. This would allow Hollywood actors and writers to guest star on the shows, and grant the shows a larger audiences...
 
It had been planned to continue Space 1999 with an abbreviated third season of 13 episodes, running alongside a thirteen episode spin-off that would star the character of Maya.

But as production on Space 1999's second season drew to a close in 1976, it was quite clear that these plans would not come to fruition.

But it is in these aborted plans that the seeds for what would later become Deep Space Odyssey can be found. In the shows timeline, it had been almost ten years since the moon was blown out of Earth's orbit and a conceit of the aborted third season plan was - How Is Earth Faring?

The earliest notes for the show were:

The moon has been blown out of orbit and, ten years later, Earth is suffering as a result. What do they think has happened to the moon? Does Space Command send a spaceship to find out what happened to the crew of Moonbase Alpha? Do they find out?

It is not known how these questions would have been answered in a third season (or even if a produced third season would have explored them), but from this simple pondering we begin the near five year development and production path to a debut over August Bank Holiday in 1982.

The popularity of Star Wars at the cinema in 1977 prooved that science fiction was still a viable entertainment medium, the continued success of Doctor Who and the debut of Battlestar Galactica in 1978 was evidence that science fiction was viable on television rather than just cinema.

It was the debut of Galactica 1980, the brief sequel series to Battlestar Galactica, that made someone at the BBC sit down and think that, perhaps, a new BBC produced science fiction show to sit alongside Doctor Who was exactly what was needed.

It was 1981.
 
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