I remember Gerry Anderson saying that Terrahawks was by far his least favourite production that he'd done.
For me, I'm not a fan of everything about Terrahawks, but I like it on the whole a lot more than Space: 1999.
I did enjoy Terrahawks as a child, but then again I was only 4. The only thing I really remember about it now is Zelda.
Even Star Trek TOS, which was done years than 1999 earlier was a lot less bizarre and easier to watch, by my recollection.
Original Trek is in my top three shows of all time, but there are definitely episodes that are so weird as to be unwatchable. Shore Leave, The Alternative Factor, and that one with the giant cat for example. And there are just episodes that are plain bad, but they're outweighed by the good stuff. The fact that they had writers with science fiction pedigree definitely helped.
It's a very interesting observation. It's one I need to think about a bit longer, but you're definitely on to something.
Do you think it's in any way related to differences in humour as well?
American sitcoms are very easy to digest, whereas, things like Monty Python, The Goon Show and even the Hitch-Hikers Guide, to a certain extent, are a bit more of an acquired taste.
I'm not sure about humour - to be honest, I don't find most American sitcoms funny, but I also don't get Monty Python or Hitchhikers. I did see someone once suggest that US science fiction tends to be more militaristic while British science fiction, at least on TV, is more about loners or rebels. I'm not sure that entirely fits, personally, but maybe there is a trend there.
One is the acting and characterisation. I find on a lot of US stuff, the actors look the part (although I've noticed a trend in the past decade or so for casting more beautiful twenty-somethings rather than actors who look like they could be space veterans) whereas in UK stuff we're more likely to get someone out of a soap opera and who acts like they should still be in that soap opera. Yet stick a British actor in a US genre show – Jamie Bamber, or Tom Ellis, for example – and they look the part. So maybe it's the direction and the writing? In the US there is a long history of science fiction in Hollywood, and while the UK has some of the world's best science fiction novel writers, they're not involved in TV stuff and other than Dr Who (which I have my own issues with), there's no tradition of science fiction on UK TV, and I just don't think the UK TV landscape really gets it. Since Blake's 7 ended, there has been very little besides Dr Who: one series of Terrahawks, Red Dwarf of course, a 6-episode show in the 1990s called Invasion: Earth (which featured Lovejoy's girlfriend as a fighter pilot – see what I mean about casting?), Primeval (which had a pop star from S Club 7 – again, dodgy casting choices) and precious little else that I can remember. So maybe another reason I prefer US stuff is just because I'm more exposed to it given the dearth of UK material.