Jupiter Moon

Details

Jupiter Moon, the lavish space drama that launched the careers of a galaxy of stars and whose demise is still mourned by fans nearly fourteen years later, is to be released on DVD by Oracle Home Entertainment Ltd. Featuring a host of bonus features, the first eleven episodes will be available on a double disc as from 21st June 2004.

Billed as "science possibility rather than science fantasy", Jupiter Moon was launched in a fanfare of publicity on BSB's Galaxy Channel on 26th March 1990. With an incredible first year budget of £6 million, young and attractive cast, cliffhanger endings and inventive scripts, this epic soap opera fantasy was an immediate hit. Commissioned as an ongoing serial, it would air three times a week for nearly a year before BSB's merger with Sky lead to the demise of the Galaxy Channel.

Jupiter Moon's cast and crew read like a who's who of British television and film, from writer Ben Aaronovitch (credited with penning some of the best ever episodes of Dr Who) and producer William Smethurst (The Archers) through to Lucy Benjamin (Lisa Shaw/Fowler in EastEnders), Nicola Duffet (Cat in Family Affairs), Jason Durr (Mike Bradley in Heartbeat), Nick Moran (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and A Funeral, Pride and Prejudice, Tipping the Velvet).

To ensure the series' authenticity, each plot was worked out with the cooperation of British Aerospace and every script checked by the University of Birmingham's Department of Space. Dr Bob Parkinson from British Aerospace also designed the spaceship Ilea, on which the action took place, using the very latest European Space Agency/NASA projections.

Main model work was undertaken in Prague and at one point, British Aerospace was concerned that the plans, which were based on very real and sensitive research, were being sent to the other side of the Iron Curtain in the then Czechoslovakia. Production was in fact later delayed when the crew found themselves in the middle of the 'Velvet Revolution' in November and December 1989. Additionally, Jupiter Moon's out of this world costumes were designed by, amongst others, Jean Paul Gaultier, Katherine Hamnett, Rifat Osbek and "Red or Dead".

The action takes place in the year 2050. Mankind has reached Jupiter where a space city housing over 1,000 inhabitants has been established on the moon Callisto and where scientists are building a starship to seek new life round other suns.

In orbit around Callisto is the fusion-powered spaceship Ilea, home of Columbus College, University of Space. Onboard the Ilea are post-graduates and gifted undergraduates who have come out from Earth along with the children of scientists and mining engineers working on the moons of Jupiter.

They live and study under the constant threat of the unknown for the conquest of space has brought with it both triumphs and terrors, including new and deadly space viruses and volcanic storms and meteor attacks from outside the Solar System.

Jupiter Moon is about the passions and ambitions of the students and crew and about the desires, courage and vision of men and women who have chosen a life on the furthest frontier of human existence.