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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Once more, I'm enthralled at how violent 2000AD was permitted to be - and how explicitly Wagner/Ezquerra delivered that violence.

Judge Dredd: Condo. A meteorite smashes into a space condo, killing residents and sucking them into space, where they explode.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Very enjoyable day has been had in Sheffield snatching up some sweet deals in the comic mart. Food time!

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I also finally unboxed Newage Octavian, and he's an absolute gem. Maybe the closest I'll ever need to needing a Studio Series Ultra Magnus style figure Firefox finally has a buddy!

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Rescue vehicles in Thunderbirds that *aren't* the Thunderbirds themselves?? There's more than you'd think! gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

Air Sea Rescue helicopter from Thunderbirds

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

People just love it when you gas up how awesome the mecha flavours of Thunderbirds are, really. gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The greatest I.R. machine is actually Thunderbird 1, CASE CLOSED. gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/w...

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Is there anyone who actually *doesn't* love Trapped in the Sky? gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Some of Thunderbirds' greatest stories are to be found in the pages of the newspaper of the future. gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

Thunderbirds, Operation Earthquake - art by Frank Bellamy

Thunderbirds, The Zoo Ship - art by Frank Bellamy

Thunderbirds, The Earthquake Maker - art by Frank Bellamy

Thunderbirds, Brains is Dead - art by Frank Bellamy

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The supernaturally gifted Hood ought to feel so ought of place within the tech-heavy world of Thunderbirds - but isn't that the point? gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

International Rescue's engineering genius has one of the most extraordinary character growths over the course of any Anderson series. gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Gerry Anderson very nearly remade Thunderbirds for the 1980s! Oohhh, what might have been... gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

The T-Force gang with element suspiciously close to what would become Space Precinct

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Speaking of creating the Thunderbird machines, I had a thought or two about what those Thunderbird 6 prototypes invented by Brains could have been... gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This Thunderbirds Day, let's have a rundown of my favourite pieces that I've written about the classic series for @gerryanderson.bsky.social over the last couple of years! Thunderbirds Thursday: Creating the Thunderbirds explores the origins of the I.R. machines. gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/t...

Concept art for Thunderbird 3 - note the craft is named Rescue 3

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The geographical ambiguity here amuses me greatly. Those are some very British buses on that bridge, but those are some very American skyscrapers crumbling behind old Juggers.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

At first, I thought they were Robot Archie, but they're the far cooler sounding Juggernaut from Planet Z. A cool robo dude who helps rebuild stuff.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Is there an option to just set up a permanent standing order direct to Dr. Wu, because this is just nuts what they get away with.

Dr Wu Airburst and Artillery in robot mode

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Splendid evening in Hull last night witnessing Holy Holy perform the best of David Bowie's glam years. Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansy were in top form and came armed with some great Bowie stories.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

85) For the spaceship graveyard scenes in Dragon's Domain, the sfx crew wanted to include the U.S.S. Enterprise and the TARDIS among the decaying craft caught in the creature's web.

Spaceship graveyard from Dragon's Domain.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

84) Other Eagle models were built at 22, 13, 12, 11, and 5 inch scales.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

83) A large variety of differently scaled Eagle filming models were used for the series, including three 44-inch models.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

82) In her autobiography, Sylvia later claimed that during the making of Year 2, Gerry would vent to her of all the frustrations he was experiencing in the drastic thematic surgery that Space: 1999 was now being subjected to.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

81) Gerry and Sylvia's marriage was at breaking point during the making of Space: 1999's first series. Gerry chose the series 1 wrap party to announce his and Sylvia's divorce - apparently without consulting Sylvia regarding making their separation public.

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

80) Aside from Space: 1999, Johnny Byrne also contributed to the worlds of Doctor Who. Director Pennant Roberts, who helmed Byrne's 1984 serial Warriors of the Deep, was convinced that the script was a leftover of Byrne's material from Space: 1999.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

78) Keith Wilson created numerous concept paintings for Space: 1999's alien worlds. Aren't they gorgeous?

Concept painting for Space: 1999's Missing Link

Concept painting for Space: 1999's A Matter of Life and Death

Concept painting for Space: 1999's The Infernal Machine

Concept painting for Space: 1999's Another Time, Another Place

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

77) The phrase 'Mysterious Unknown Force' came into being not during the scripting of the series, but long after the series ended in a 1980 edition of Gerry Anderson's ongoing Space Report series in Starlog magazine.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

76) The likes of Collision Course, War Games, Force of Life, Death's Other Dominion, Voyager's Return, Dragon's Domain became the earliest episodes shown when the series debuted across the ITV network. In prod. order, Black Sun is the debut of the MUF, but in 1975, Collision Course came first!

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

75) Production order is, I'd argue, the best way to view Space: 1999 - so those four episodes mentioned above are best viewed in that order given. But that wasn't the case for viewers in the '70s. Johnny Byrne's critical commentary resulted in several later-produced episodes bumped up the schedule.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

74) Black Sun, Collision Course, War Games and Testament of Arkadia are the episodes that grapple most explicitly with the Mysterious Unknown Force which guides Moonbase Alpha on their epic journey. But which order should you view these in to get the intended effect? Hmmm.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

73) Oh no, I miscounted the facts!! The Infernal Machine features the only substantial appearance of the Alphan laser tanks. They also pop up briefly during the THIS EPISODE segment for The Last Enemy.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

71) Ironically, ITC Entertainment's renewed emphasis on film-making likely enabled the Super Space Theatre compilations into existence. Space: 1999 *did* continue in a post-Star Wars landscape, just not in the way anyone expected!

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

71) But! TV production was still a big part of ITC Entertainment's output in the late 1970s/early 1980s. The Muppet Show was a sustained hit and further success was had with the epic bio-serial Jesus of Nazareth. Evidently, Year 2 just wasn't enough of a hit to justify the series' continuation.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

70) In reality, age regulations prevented the 70-year-old Lew Grade from operating a TV franchise, hence ITC's transformation into ITC Entertainment and a renewed focus on film-making.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

69) Space: 1999's cast and crew loved to tell you that money *was* there for a third series, but instead, Lew Grade went with his doomed efforts to Raise the Titanic.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

68) Dr Bob Mathias appears in The Metamorph and The Exiles before also vanishing from Year 2, though he is briefly mentioned in One Moment of Humanity.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

67) As we enter Year 2, Paul Morrow, Victor Bergman and David Kano all vanish without any explanation.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

66) Among the many, MANY cut scenes from Breakaway under Katzin's direction (and a prolonged shooting script), I think the ones we missed out on the most were more scenes of Commander Gorski undermining Dr. Russell's findings of the Meta astronauts.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I don't mean to brag, but after months of being too scared to touch him, I've succeeded in getting DX9's Mini Superman back into vehicle mode with minimal help from every YT video of him. 😊

Definitely Not Ginrai ready to roll out.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

65) Martin Landau's copy of A Matter of Balance features these lively comments: "I'm not going out on a limb for this show because I'm not in accord with with what you're doing as a result... I don't think I even want to do the promos... it's embarrassing to me if I am not the star..."

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

64) Space: 1999 marked the professional debut of model designer/maker Martin Bower, a childhood fan of Anderson shows who impressed Gerry enough to be invited by Brian Johnson to join the sfx team after designing a spaceship for Alpha Child.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

63) Yorkshire TV inexplicably marketed The Taybor as a Christmas episode, presumably due to its premise of a jovial, heavy-set fellow dispensing gifts.

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Fred McNamara - ALL SECTIONS ALPHA is out NOW! 🌔 @commandermac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

62) Episode four, Earthbound, features the first 'big name' star in Space: 1999 with Christopher Lee.

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