Alvis Stalwart Space 2099 Lunar Rover - FINISHED!

[Weaver]

In the late 1990's a group of fans, financiers and film people started trying to put together a reboot of the 1970s TV show Space 1999, with the encouragement, if not direct involvement, of Gerry Anderson's company. Intially, like most such projects, it got nowhere, but in the early 2000's the team caught a couple of breaks. Firstly, the immensely successful reboot of Battlestar Galactica created an appetite amongst TV studios for rebooting old franchises. Secondly, Joss Whedon's sci-fi series Firefly got cancelled after one season, amidst howls of protest, due to network politics. This left Whedon with an 'unscratched itch' to do more sci-fi, and when one of the team had the idea of approaching him, he was more than willing to get involved.



Whedon liked some things about Space 1999 but disliked others. The visual style and near-future setting appealed to him, indeed he became quite obsessive about making it more realistic, but he dislike the 'wandering moon' plot, feeling that modern audiences just wouldn't buy it (they'd barely bought it in the 1970s). The show thus began to evolve away from a straight reboot into more of an homage to the original's style, but with a plot that merged elements of both Space 1999 and UFO, with mankind established throughout the inner solar system, but now faced with mysterious and apparently hostile invaders. Gerry Anderson got re-involved when it appeared that the series might actually stand a chance of getting made.



Gerry Anderson's Space 2099 entered production in 2007 and began to air 14 months later. Most of the spacecraft and settings were provided by CGI, partial exterior and full interior sets, but one type that required at least one full-size vehicle was Moonbase Alpha's   lunar rover. Whedon had used an Alvis Stalwart (briefly) in the Firefly pilot episode and, impressed with the vehicle's chunky sci-fi looks, immediately sought out another one. Budgets were tight and timescales short, so the company tasked with converting the vehicle looked for creative ways to cut corners. They'd previously been involved in the 1995 Judge Dredd movie, which had used a couple of Alvis Saracen APCs as futuristic vehicles. The company had made several full-size fibreglass replicas of these to fill out a scene that was then cut from the script, and they still had a couple lying around. The upper body of one of these was, therefore, trimmed a bit and then fitted on top of a flat steel plate that was fitted across the stop of the Stalwart's load bed. Several other mouldings from the Saracen, as well as many others, were then applied to disguise and dress it up.



Although the vehicle looked the part, using it for filming presented several challenges. To start with it not only had no interior, but it wasn't even possible to step into it, so shots of astronauts boarding or disembarking from the rover had to be carefully edited, using exterior shots only from the left, where the door blocked the view of the obstructed interior, together with interior shots of the open doorway taken from within the interior set against a greenscreen. The interior set, in time-honoured Space 1999 tradition, did not, in any way, fit inside the exterior of the Stalwart, with much more space that would actually have been possible. The interior set design was also done by a different team from the vehicle conversion, who gave the control cabin two seats side-by-side with a doorway in between them, apparently in ignorance of the Stalwart's central driving position. This was dealt with on-set by adding a dark tint to the vehicle's cab windows and having the driver wear an all-over black leotard and hood to make him 'vanish' as much as possible.



Another problem was the exhaust, which left prominent clouds of smoke hanging in the air, which was highly problematic for a supposedly electric vehicle operating in a vacuum. Sometimes these were edited out in post-production using CGI, and sometimes the driver would cut the engine and coast onto the set! Cosmetic wheel covers originally fitted to all six wheels had to be removed from the forward pair since it was essential to step on the hubs in order to board the vehicle, whose only real access was through the cab roof hatches.



Space 2099 ran for three seasons, but was then cancelled due to a loss of quality and viewership in the final season. This was mostly due to Joss Whedon stepping back from running the show in order to concentrate on film projects, cast and crew both suggesting that the replacements brought in to replace him lacked the same 'feel' for the show, and for a good script, that he'd displayed. Somewhat inevitably, the show has acquired 'cult status' and has a loyal fan following, who organise various conventions at which the cast appear to speak and sign autographs. One of those fans now owns the lunar rover, and since, with a few minor modifications, it's as driveable on the road as any Stalwart (that is to say, it's doable, but difficult) it now appears at fan events all over the Western half of the USA.

[Weaver]

Models that contributed parts to this build:

S&M 1/76th Alvis Stalwart Mk.II
Airfix/JB 1/76th Alvis Saracen
Revell 1/100th Apollo Lunar Lander
Airfix 1/72nd Shorts Skyvan
Airfix 1/32nd De Dietrich car
Airfix 1/76th Matador fuel bowser
Revellobox 1/76th T-34 tank
Airfix 1/76th Shop and Flat
Hasegawa 1/72nd Hind E
Craft store googly eye
Evergreen. Lots of Evergreen...

[JayBee]

FANTASTIC, that is all that needs to be said!

[PR19_Kit]

To quote a Guiness advert of many years ago 'I said I think it's BLOODY MARVELLOUS!' 

The back story is a work of genius and worthy of a Whiffie nomination in its own right! 

[Old Wombat]

To quote a Guiness advert of many years ago 'I said I think it's BLOODY MARVELLOUS!' 

The back story is a work of genius and worthy of a Whiffie nomination in its own right! 

Agreed!

[Weaver]

Cheers Folks!

[Ed S]

Looks good!

[Cobra]

Superb Job :thumbsup:has that Gerry Anderson Flavor to it along with a bit of NASA Thrown in. You did a Top Notch,Worthy of a Whiffie Job! Dan

[Mossie]

Like it.

[zenrat]

Well done H.  Good job.

[NARSES2]

That is just brilliant 

Mind you I can't work out if it's a mobile de-pressurisation chamber or the LCC (Lunar County Council) rubbish truck ? 

Well done H

[Rheged]

This build, and attached backstory, are absolutely magnificent.   This is indeed whiffery at its best.

[Weaver]

Wow - thanks again guys, it's much appreciated. 

[loupgarou]

Very neat (and unusual) idea and build.

[Weaver]

The seller of the Moonbase Alpha stickers is back on Ebay. They're called Eagle_Arts and this is their shop:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/eagle_arts/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=