to give or to keep: ‘Space: 1999: The Complete Season One’ blu-ray

Until I run out of cool giftable stuff to tell you about or until we run out of days till Christmas, I’ll be sharing some neat-o things that your geeky pals might enjoy, or that you might want to give to yourself, if you’ve been especially good this year.

I have vague memories of Space: 1999 from when I was a kid, but now that I’ve been dipping into it again, for the first time since forever, I can see that I’m going to have to rewatch the entire series anew: it’s a lot thinkier and a lot more intriguing than I remember.

I still don’t have a blu-ray player, so I’m watching on DVD, but this show must look fantastic in high-res: it still looks great just in general. The FX aren’t really dated, even though they’re 35 years old now and were made for British TV -- if on a then-enormous budget -- but more importantly, the design of the show has now taken on a classically cool retro future look.

The blu-ray package includes the usual array of bonuses, from commentaries to making-ofs, as well as both the original mono soundtracks and those remastered for surround-sound.

No word on when Season 2 will arrive on blu-ray, but that’s when the show got dumbed down and actioned up to appeal to American audiences. Though I’m sure that’ll all look great in high-res, too.