This tape opens with the end of an episode of The Simpsons. It’s almost nice to see it without the Sky One logo plastered all over it.
There’s a trailer for Spice Girls – After Geri, An O Zone Special.
Then, there’s an episode from the first series of Space 1999 – Collision Course. This is Art.
An asteroid is heading for the Moon, and there’s a race to plant nuclear explosives to destroy it before it hits. Naturally, Alan Carter’s Eagle is the one that’s malfunctioning.
Alan Carter survives the explosion, but he’s hearing a woman’s voice.
Koenig and Paul Morrow fly the stripey Eagle to find him, Koenig also hears a voice telling him where to find Carter.
But as they’re recovering Carter and his Eagle, they see that there’s a huge planet and the moon is also on a collision course.
Carter is seeing things. Dr Russell puts it down to radiation sickness.
Koenig flies back to the incoming planet, and gets swallowed by an enormous spaceship.
Maybe he’ll get some answers from whoever it is sitting on this rather ostentatious throne.
She’s an old woman, Arra, who tells Koenig they were destined to meet, and that her planet and the moon are destined to collide. “The gene of which I and my people are a part shall mutate.” This show has never really made an effort to get the science right, has it? It’s always mystical mumbo jumbo.
Back on moonbase, they’ve planned to plant mines to create a shockwave and redirect the moon, but the ship Koenig’s currently on is right where they were going to place the mines. But it seems like Paul Morrow is all ready to bomb it anyway – I guess he’d get promoted then.
Somehow, Arra persuades Koenig he should let the moon and the planet collide, but he has a harder time persuading the rest of his command crew. They say they believe him, but as soon as he goes to medlab for recuperation, they carry on with their bombing plan.
Koenig and Carter hear Arra warning them that the bombing is going ahead, so they take control of Main Mission in the pyjamas, and stop the detonation.
The moon and the planet touches, and the planet disappears. This seems to upset Koenig.
“How could anyone possibly know that a planet on a collision course would not collide but simply touch?” The nonsensical banality of this final line is almost painful.
BBC Genome: BBC Two – 17th August 1998 – 18:20
Before the next episode there’s the end of another Simpsons episode.
There’s a trailer for The X-Creatures and for Lamacq Live on the radio.
Then more from Space 1999 with Death’s Other Dominion. Brian Blessed guest stars, and I’ve seen this on another tape.
BBC Genome: BBC Two – 24th August 1998 – 18:20
After this, the recording continues with a trailer for Streets of Laredo. Then there’s the start of a short programme, Radical Highs which looks a some base jumpers. Or ‘idiots’ as I call them.
The recording stops during this, and underneath there’s more from the previous week, with the end of Wildlife Showcase.
Then, The Travel Show goes to Edinburgh and New York. Another programme that has supporting material on beeb.com.
BBC Genome: BBC Two – 17th August 1998 – 20:30
There’s a trailer for some Paul Newman films.
Plus a trailer for the Comedy Zone.
Then, a nice surprise, as there’s a whole episode of Have I Got News For You. It features guests Jeff Green.
And plummy art critic Brian Sewell.
This is quite a good episode. Sewell is very good value. He seems like he’s a posh duffer, but he’s a lot sharper than that. And Jeff Green has some excellent lines. This might be the only thing I’ve seen him do outside of all the I Love… shows, and he’s very good.
BBC Genome: BBC Two – 17th August 1998 – 21:00
After this there’s a trailer for Edinburgh Nights with Mark Lamarr. And for The Designated Mourner.
Then, another programme, The Aristocracy. A programme about very posh people and their big houses. What a shower of shits.
BBC Genome: BBC Two – 17th August 1998 – 21:30
After this, there’s a trailer for The Air Show.
Then, a short programme from BBC2’s Windrush season about a father and son, Still Here. The tape ends after a couple of minutes.
VHiStory 