FAB Facts: The Anderson Spin-Off Shows That Never Were

[@Loehengrin]

Victor, Tanya, Paul, and a small group of Alphans setting up a pioneer colony on an habitable world

[@ianthompson1929]

Wasn't space 1999 a sort of spin off when the second series of ufo was cancelled?

[@trevorbrown6654]

Yeah, you are kind of right. There was going to be a second series of UFO based entirely on the moon and Gerry Anderson had some new sets built before ITC cancelled it. Rather than scrap everything he managed to talk Lew Grade into letting him make a new show which evolved into Space 1999.

[@brandywell44]

Not forgetting Ayshea had her own rather good tv series too, "Lift Off with Ayshea". Not a Century 21 Production but Ayshea had star quality shown in UFO

[@iandeeley9033]

I'm just surprised they didn't do a Spin-off with Lady Penelope and Parker! #FabFacts

[@SabotsLibres]

That could have been risqué!!!!

[@rachelgrant1481]

Apparently Sylvia Anderson suggested a spin-off series focusing on Lady P and Parker but it was kicked in to the long grass by Lew Grade :(

[@markwardel6751]

Lady Penelope would have been the most perfect spin-off especially as she even had her own spin-off comic strip in TV21 and then even her own comic. It would work even today. Do it!

[@RogueWJL]

Lady Penelope-the Original. The reboot just completely missed the point and turned her into a Sloane Ranger and not particularly intelligent one. The Original by inference was the number Spy in the world and crime fighter supreme. Super intelligent glamorous and a match for any man.

[@markwardel6751]

@@RogueWJL I never bothered to watch it...if it ain't broke don't try to fix it (as they say)

[@RogueWJL]

@@markwardel6751 I saw one episode and it was terrible (imo). Changed her into a joke at the expense of néw female character. Early wokeism which completely failed to understand what made the original character so strong a person. Alpha female jettisoned at the expense of another Mary Sue

[@markwardel6751]

@@RogueWJL how depressing

[@paulbalogh4582]

Anything with Catherine Shell certainly had MY attention. My god what a beauty.

[@vinnyganzano1930]

Yeah she was a babe.

[@JONNOG88]

Everyone is 🇭🇺 for her 🙃😎

[@pauld6967]

She was the best thing about season two.

[@thefourteenth1982]

A Space 1999 spin off starting back on Earth focusing on a ship sent to track down the moon and/or a new homeworld

[@toumbryth7862]

I've had the same thought .that would be awesome.

[@richardmattocks]

Stu Dapples and Maya, assisted by Zeroids. What a combination that would be! Although, Stu’s life is very similar to Straker Studios so has a throwback to UFO too!

[@harlankrissoff9966]

Even though she was a puppet I would have loved to seen a Marina/Atlantis show from Stingray~

[@richardmattocks]

The Maya show could have been “Manimal with aliens” 😎

[@alanclarke4646]

Go and sit in the naughty corner!😁

[@aceflashheart2523]

They could have made 3 Supermarionation spin-offs based on the World Army, World Air Force and World Navy. The World Navy spin-off could have had a Stingray crossover episode and maybe an appearance from Captain Jordan from the Stingray episode ‘The Man from the Navy’. These would also have been good as comic strips. Something for the future, perhaps? 🤔

[@danieljudegennis]

UFO was supposed to go to a second series: UFO 1990 set entirely on an expanded moonbase. This didn't happen because viewing figures in America fell so the plans, technology and sets, were repurposed for Space 1999 instead.

[@leehomer6437]

I always viewed Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) as a backdoor pilot for a Zero-X show we never got anyway.

[@hamarlow]

The idea of a series starring an adult Joe 90 - perhaps assisted by his children? - really appeals....:-)

[@JONNOG88]

How about a Thunderbirds prequel. That chronicles the Life Of Jeff Tracey. & how he obtained the know how& funding To build IR. In the first place? 😮

[@fatdog1963rb]

Young Parker! To see him attain his brilliant skills!

[@RogueWJL]

Genius

[@alanclarke4646]

Like it!

[@APAMVs]

One of my favourite shows is of course Captain Scarlet. And I feel like a spin-off showing the bad guys the Mysterions themselves would be oddly interesting. For Thunderbirds maybe Brains too

[@amaan6394]

They could do a spin off for captain black since that could potentially be awesome

[@alanclarke4646]

@@amaan6394 I like your thinking!😁

[@AH-sr5px]

Skydiver - Lift aboard a covert submarine and story's about the complex crews lives on and off duty

[@hopebgood]

I'm trying to forget Terrahawks ever happened.

[@johnwilkins275]

Dear Jamie. If you ARE and HOPEFULLY reading THIS comment, I have a very serious question, or questions for you and your Century 21 colleagues. On "Episode 32" of the "Original Captain Scarlet", "The Inquisition", why was that decided as the final episode of the show? Why did Gerry Anderson chose to not finish it, by ending the war against The Mysterons, destroying their martian complex on Mars and finally capture, or kill Captain Black? Did Captain's Scarlet and Blue go to Mars and destroy the complex in a Zero X vehicle? Did Captain Black kill Captain Blue before getting killed himself by Captain Scarlet? Why wasn't the original show finished, to see how it and the war all ended?

[@canundrumsixnine6830]

I had a major crush on Maya .. Catherine Schell is a beauty

[@wells5150]

UFO was to have a spin-off UFO 1999, became Space 1999.

[@bryansammis998]

I thought of 2 possible spin-offs: 1- Thunderbirds: Station 2( Jeff Tracy expands IR with a second and possible third station) 2- UFO: SHADO-scouts. Think if this as SHADO’s version of the Australian coast watchers. Plus, this is recruited and trained from the civilian MUFON-type organizations

[@DarioMalagigi]

a reworked UFO, with today standard, with the cold war era mood would be amazing. Battlestar Galactica is an example

[@goodoldbubba6620]

Absolutely correct!!

[@AH-sr5px]

There's so much potential in a new UFO show today with the wider acceptance of possible aliens and UFO's reported by the public and mainstream media. With the original story board all ready successfully tested it's hard to understand why this has never made it back to TV.

[@DarioMalagigi]

@@AH-sr5pxespecially with new sci fi series that break the balls with the teen angst,

[@folginator]

@@AH-sr5px Think they’d ruin it today with politically correct box ticking.

[@Bartok_J]

A reworked UFO, set in the politics of the Cold War and the real 1980's. The West knows about the aliens, but does the Communist bloc? Is Reagan's Star Wars satellite defence project really aimed at Soviet missiles, or alien spacecraft?

[@donm5354]

At end of SPACE: 1999 S.2 Ep. 15 SPACE WARP, Koenig requested Maya assemble a team to study the derelict spacecraft Koenig and Tony brought back. A Maya show could have been her and a team from Alpha using the alien ship to scout planets where they might settle on and build more of them to evacuate Alpha to planets outside Eagle range. If they ever reboot SPACE: 1999, in order to make the MOON leaving orbit more logical, it could be revealed the MOON actually came from another part of the Galaxy and near the core there is a hyperspace jump drive that was used to transport the last humans from a dying world (like ARCADIA in S1 E23). Scientists accidentally trigger a countdown to a series of jumps that would follow a course back to humanities original homeworld - with the MOON stopping off at planets originally visited by humanities ancestors eons ago as resupply points. Some best episodes from Season 1 and a few from Season 2 could be reworked. And Alpha should have HAWKS for defense and a large shipyard that could be used to build new ships-perhaps on a 2nd base Moonbase Beta. Or even more than 1 or 2 Moon bases all over the MOON. During the trip Victor would have a team studying the MOONs propulsion and navigation system to figure out if they could return the MOON to Earth orbit.

[@kidstlme8230]

precisely my point... your premise is perfect for a reboot similar to mine and that they discovered that the Moon is indeed Halo back in the fifties they set up a moon base to discover that it was an artificial satellite with its own propulsion system and in my version The Scientist fuck around and reactivate the engine system causing the disaster but it does have an auto computers....

[@loanaoftheshellpeople5627]

I like your idea about other people being on the moon besides the Alphans. Why couldn't the Chinese or Russians also have Colonies on the moon?

[@andrewdavidhunt9433]

One show that would work would be project Sword, which was put into Century 21 but never left the comic I have the Project sword Annual and have been working on the idea for some time

[@FireStormDel]

I'd love to see something with The Mysterons and their side of the war, granted, it'd take away the intended mystery of them by learning what they exactly are, how they came to be, why they sent their signal around the galaxy besides sharing ideas about the universe they all live in, and why they were so quick to jump to war with Earth.

[@GodPikachu]

Wasnt the Zero-X idea sort of realised in the 90s thunderbirds comic?...i recall reading it back in the day.

[@QuackVideo]

That was a reprint of the strips from TV21

[@smithdream]

Hmmm I wonder if Maya was going to be part of the Anglo German STAR MAIDENS TV show?

[@kevinrussell2718]

How about a Harper & Judd spin-off from "Supercar"? The misadventures of two bumbling criminals would make a perfect comedy series.

[@pauld6967]

I think you were faithfully reading a typographical error. The femme fatale would be *Ruby* Cube, not Rudy.

[@Laceykat66]

Spinoffs were not a big deal at that time. Just how many Irwin Allen spinoffs were there? Hollywood et al were actually creative back then, and not just repeaters.

[@estondunn]

There was even talk of doing a 3rd Season involving the Year One character "Jackie Crawford" being added to the cast as well as another alien boy, Philo, to bring in the younger audience. But, alias, never happened.

[@goodoldbubba6620]

Do a reboot of UFO!! With all the garbage shows getting reboots, why can you not do that??

[@batfink67]

actually i was wondering why not do a bang upto date UFO serise... Ooh just how good would the tech be now?

[@charlespfaff6585]

SHADO 1989, a further adventures of SHADO and the establishment of Moonbase as the first line of defense.

[@dinomonzon7493]

A Lady Penelope series might’ve worked as she was trained as a spy.

[@trevormillar2755]

There was! In "The Protectors" Nyree Dawn Porter's Character was clearly based on Lady P.

[@trevormillar1576]

Lady P was a straight ripoff of Peter O'Donnell 's Modesty Blaise.

[@smallredcow918]

For Thunderbirds maybe one about Air sea rescue. For captain scarlet one about The angle piolets

[@SamIIs]

UFO the movie.

[@AH-sr5px]

Long overdue

[@SabotsLibres]

The captions are hilarious at times - Moon Bay South instead of Moonbase Alpha...

[@lewiscarty5517]

I like to see a couple Stingray spin-off serials, one with Marina and her father, at the underwater city of Pacifica before their attack from Titan and Marina’s kidnap and forced them to be silent, before being rescued from Titan by Troy and Phones, and the second with Titan and the other undersea creatures of the series, being like anti-heroes, for each other. Just a couple of ideas there.

[@StillABigKid]

A stew dapples spin off? I can only imagine that as a child friendly version of nathan barley

[@johnbower7452]

Real shame Maya didn't get her own show; I'd have watched that and bought the series on DVD.

[@thedonttouchthatdialguy]

I'd have liked to have seen a Space Precinct spinoff about Demeter City at large, maybe incorporating elements of some of the earlier iterations such as Space Police.

[@Whalewraith]

Anderson shared universe, love to see Thunderbirds rescue cloud base.

[@taramcblakeshire8516]

The Maya show, for that actress to walk in and takeover space 1999 then offered her own show. Boy she was really putting out!

[@lukedominicodonnell2347]

I've always thought an at-home with Brains show would have delivered something interesting.

[@juddgoswick2024]

Captain Black, Renegade Tobacconist!

[@peteriuliano5846]

In general, add some more adult world complexity and these shows would have hummed along quite well.

[@brianartillery]

From Thunderbirds, it would have been nice to have a show featuring Jeremiah and Ma Tuttle, from the episode 'The Imposters.' I always wished that we'd seen them again, as they steal that episode, and are a lot of fun.

[@trevorbrown6654]

There was a point in the 1970s when Catherine Schell seemed destined to become a big star. She'd already done the movie Moon Zero Two (which admittedly wasn't a huge hit), had a small role in a Bond film, and then had a major role in a Pink Panther film and then again with Peter Sellers in The Prisoner of Zenda. For some reason she never did become a breakout international star though . She was memorable in the excellent Dr Who story 'CITY OF DEATH' alongside another Space 1999 alumnus, Julian Glover, and then....nothing much. She turned up as guest stars in stuff like Bergerac, The Bill and Lovejoy and even opposite Tony Anholt in a series 5 episode of the BBC1 drama 'Howards Way'. According to IMDB she was screen tested for the role of Katherine Janeway in Star Trek - Voyager before they cast Genevieve Bujold (who quit after two days and was replaced by Katie Mulgrew). Apparently she retired from acting and went off to run a hotel in France with her husband. But it does make you wonder if a Maya spin-off show (which sounds a terrible idea I admit) would have taken her career down a different path.

[@donh7909]

Spin this... Space 1999, returns back with the children of the original crew.. In addition, there would be a collective of other races and technology...

[@RogueWJL]

Adored Maya and Catherine Schell. Maya spin off BIG FINISH then? I think the Zeriods did reappear in season three finale of Nu Who with the Master.....just saying..... Lady Penolope and Parker, Allan Tracey, Thunderbirds Tracey brothers children, Maya, Dragons Domain prequel featuring Dragon slayers (still scares the life out of me). Just some ideas...

[@walrus4046]

How about the Diaries of a Droidian Mole. Spin off prequel about the growing pains of the young Thunderbirds burrowing machine

[@alanclarke4646]

Groan! Naughty corner for you!

[@troubadour723]

I would be interested in a new show based on the Maya spinoff that never was (as opposed to yet another reboot of an existing show from the Boomer era) if they could find an actress with the talent and charisma of Catherine Schell. I mean, it would probably just be her changing into a bunch of CGI creatures but at least that would be better than changing into a bunch of guys in rubber suits.

[@Kylelikesguitars]

A captain scarlet angels show

[@paulbalogh4582]

Exactly what Ian said.

[@peteriuliano5846]

MAYA would have been a great show for sure.

[@smithdream]

CANDY & ANDY Horror film where they battle killer alien pandas to protect their toy shop H.Q.? Stripey the mini transforms into a robot. I'd watch that.

[@Bartok_J]

Not a spin-off, but a development of The Secret Service plot. Father Unwin and Matthew get themselves into a series of insoluble scrapes, but an unseen benefactor saves the day. What the audience knows, but Unwin and Matthew don't, is that Mrs Appleby is not as naive as they supposed ...

[@nriqueog]

I would loved to see a spin off, really a mash-up of UFO and Doppelganger. But from the POV of the OTHER EARTH and how THEY are responsible for the UFO activity on our earth.

[@alanclarke4646]

Ooh! I like it!

[@colinmclean3029]

I would have loved to see the Angels from Captain Scarlet or the Cloudbase intelligence officers doing their dangerous stuff.

[@andrewpinner3181]

Miya returns to Moonbase Alpha with Inspector Clouseau (under the attempted influence of the Mysterons) total havoc ensues ...

[@alanclarke4646]

Why not a Fireflash spinoff? Or a Joe 90 sequel, where Joe is a teenager (Joe 19? ). Maybe "The adventures of Marina"?

[@c.alderman]

Might be an idea to get a real human to start doing the captions for these videos! 0:53 “Moon Bay South” haha

[@GerryAndersonTV]

But then they might be less entertaining for you!

[@c.alderman]

@@GerryAndersonTV Touché!

[@JulianneRemley-l2q]

It would have been interesting to see either a thrird season of space 1999 oe a maya spin off

[@mahlkov]

Moon Bay South?

[@human7740]

I would love a crossover between the various shows, whether its puppets or live action, doesnt matter.

[@alanclarke4646]

Yes. Gordon Tracy's back story has him in the World Navy, so he could easily have met the Stingray crew.

[@brycat61]

Okay a Space Precinct reboot ( possibly with a new name but set some 30 years later but the main characters are now a Male human Detective (something they were missing) his partner.( an alien) The other main Character was a reporter who is the girlfriend of the detective. for the city news service and how their jobs sometimes force them to clash. For some nostalgic fun Haldane is back and he now plays a high level city official in Demeter City who is a bit shady ( we know he had it in him and something I bet the actor would love) okay just a thought

[@brotherkellymatthewbarnes8882]

1)A Doctor Bergman & Maya show. A state of the arts CGI: 2) Stingray, 3) Joe 90, 4) Space Precinct, 5) Four Feathers Falls; Series. #FaBfACTS

[@zodiacstorm]

why did they put sideburns on her?

[@michaelleary9233]

Her whole race had them, may have had something to do with being a shaoeshifter.

[@alanclarke4646]

So that Americans would know she's an alien.

[@davidcooper7383]

Imagine if Catherine turned up as Maya now in another sci-fi show.... trouble is most show's are just to woke now!

[@battywattywoo]

I'm rather sorry Ruby Cube never materialised.

[@flacosgarden6816]

Maya's sideburns always bugged me

[@trevormillar1576]

Any truth in the story that Brigitte Bardot sued Gerry Anderson fir copyright violation as he based Marina on her?

[@davidbarry7134]

The Ned Cook Show. Well, it would rival Wogan! And I already have the theme music!

[@ripwreckraceway]

ouh the Maya show would have been fantastic and FAB! thats a show i would have watched and it wasn't the space ship id be watching ! Wink saaaaaay nooooo mooooorrrreee no what i mean :D

[@oddjob7821]

Parker spin off. Could be interesting.

[@michaelhughes838]

A live action xl5

[@josephadam291]

Fireball Xl5 Couldn't done Spin Off Called Ninety Then Thunderbirds Couldn't done 2 Spin Off The Adventures of Lady Penelope And Parker Then Zero X Couldn't Have they show two

[@morgangallowglass8668]

What should have been.

[@Jestunes]

Less talk and more content...

[@GerryAndersonTV]

Talking is content…