Bob Mathias (Space: 1999)

Doctor Bob Mathias
Space: 1999 character
Anton Phillips as Doctor Bob Mathias
Portrayed by	Anton Phillips
Date of birth	1967, Kingston, Jamaica
Home planet	Earth
Affiliation	Moonbase Alpha
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Posting	5 July 1999, third tour of duty on Moonbase Alpha
Rank	Doctor, Deputy Medical Officer
Section	Medical

Bob Mathias is a fictional character from the British science-fiction television series Space: 1999. He is played by actor Anton Phillips.

Bob Mathias is a medical doctor, serving on Moonbase Alpha at the time of "Breakaway", Space: 1999's opening installment. During this time, he acted as Doctor Helena Russell's deputy as well as one of her closer friends.

Like Helena Russell, Mathias had served a role in the 1996 Ultra Probe mission. Mathias was present on Moonbase as a staff physician when astronaut Tony Cellini's lifeboat was recovered and Cellini - barely alive - brought to Alpha. Between this incident and the arrival of John Koenig as the new commander of Moonbase Alpha in September 1999, Helena Russell became the base's medical chief and Mathias became her primary associate.

Mathias was always seen to be protective of his patients and the Medical department. In a possible future in "War Games", he gave his life to allow as many casualties as possible to be removed from a treatment room in danger of decompression; Mathias was blown out the broken window he had attempted to shore up when an alien strafing attack shattered it completely. One can surmise from several altercations with Paul Morrow over command decisions that threatened the operation of Medical Section (see "Force of Life" and "The Testament of Arkadia") that the two men were not on the best of terms for this very reason. One wonders if there was another falling out, between Mathias and Koenig (possibly over the Tony Cellini case); in the first few episodes, Koenig calls him as 'Mathias' or 'Doctor'; during the 1997 flashback sequence in "Dragon's Domain", Koenig addresses him as 'Bob'.