Destination: Moonbase Alpha

by Robert E. Wood

  Gerry and Sylvia Anderson initially contributed the first script, a half-hour entry entitled Zero G. The plot concerned a civilisation of aliens who reduce lunar gravity to zero, thus hurling the Moon and Moon City (which would later become Moonbase Alpha) into deep space. American writer George Bellak rewrote this first script as a 60-minute episode entitled ‘The Void Ahead’. Bellak was instrumental in the development of the characters and premise of the evolving series, but his time with the project was short. Bellak found himself at odds with Gerry Anderson and left the writing team to return to the United States. Bellak had no particular experience with science fiction television, but he had been a contributing writer to many popular American programmes, such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, East Side/West Side, Cannon, and The Streets of San Francisco.

  Script consultant Christopher Penfold recalls how Bellak joined the production, and the impact he made on Space: 1999: ‘Someone who was principally responsible for the philosophy of Space: 1999 was George Bellak. In the run up of preparation for the series, as a story consultant my name didn’t carry very much weight for people on the US side of the Atlantic. It was thought that it would be prudent to hire an American writer of note to front the series. Gerry and Sylvia went off in search of this person and came back saying to me that they had found somebody they thought I would like. I did. They were absolutely right. And George Bellak has been a lifelong friend from that point onwards for me. He wrote the first episode, [which eventually became retitled] “Breakaway”. Not many of George’s actual words survived, but in that first episode I think the basic lines were drawn up. They were philosophically derived, I think, from that immense humanism that resulted really from the conflagration that Western Europe experienced … through the sickness of Nazism and the Holocaust, and the migration across the Atlantic. I think that George Bellak’s huge contribution to the series was its inherent respect for humanity. Its regard for the processes of consensus and democratic decision-making, and so on – although the need of course was to have a very strong and determined and decision-making leader. I think that in the way Moonbase Alpha was set up, the hierarchy, the structure, the philosophy of the first series, although the actual words of George Bellak got quite substantially changed in the writing, it is his stamp that remains pretty firmly fixed on [“Breakaway”], and on many of the ideas and stories that ensued thereafter.’

  ‘The Void Ahead’ was re-written by Penfold and became known as ‘Turning Point’ and then finally as ‘Breakaway’.

  PRODUCTION

  It was the desire of the producers that there be as many big names – and spectacular explosions (another hallmark of Gerry Anderson productions) – associated with the series as possible. Nothing was spared in either time or money. In all manners the intention was that Space: 1999 would be the best, most incredible science fiction series ever seen on television.

  The series was initially set to film at Elstree, as actor Prentis Hancock explains: ‘We were originally in Elstree Studios. They couldn’t, or wouldn’t, get the set ready in time, so Gerry got everybody in from the design department one weekend – this was before I joined – and said, “This weekend we go to Pinewood.” So they pulled out of one studio, into another, where they did build the set on time. The look of it was slightly different, obviously.’ Keith Wilson recalls the same move: ‘We were actually setting up at Elstree Studios and we did a moonlight flit. It was, it certainly was. We picked our cars up and we were leaving. Literally the next day we were setting up at Pinewood.’ As a result of this ‘moonlight flit’ the production was blacklisted by the unions.

  Christopher Penfold also stated: ‘Space: 1999 actually started not at Pinewood Studios, but at Elstree Studios, where Gerry Anderson was in production with another live action series called The Protectors. At the same time, I was there with a series [called Pathfinders], which I was asked to begin to get the scripts together for, some three weeks before the first day of shooting. Under those circumstances I don’t think that anybody at Elstree thought that [Pathfinders] would survive. Actually it did, by virtue of my hiring a motor caravan and living 24 hours a day on the lot at Elstree and writing scripts through the night. This, I think, more than anything else, made an impression on Gerry Anderson. It wasn’t anything to do with my proficiency in science fiction, just the fact that the impossible seemed to have been achieved on this other series. And so he called me in to start discussions about what was going to be a new series of UFO. As the discussions got under way, I think [what we had in mind] was, more than anything, the influence of the already-successful Star Trek, which [based] its stories entirely extra terrestrially. I think that ITC, the producing company, thought that might be a direction in which to take a new series of UFO. I think Lew Grade, who was the big money man, would have gone to the next stage of UFO, but he really wanted something that was going to have all the bells and whistles of a big international hit. So the terrestrial element of UFO was abandoned. The discussions took place at Elstree Studios about the ways in which we might launch a group of Earthly humans off on this odyssey through space. The notion of … the nuclear waste dumps on the surface of the Moon evolved, and the idea of the explosion pushing the Moon off onto its journey was the origin of the series. All of that took place at Elstree Studios. It was about three weeks later that we moved to Pinewood.’

  Following days of rehearsal and screen tests, filming finally commenced at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, on Monday 3 December 1973. Special effects filming had already begun at Bray Studios on Tuesday 5 November 1973. Live-action filming was primarily conducted on the L and M stages of Pinewood Studios. L stage housed the regular standing sets (such as Main Mission in Year One, and Command Centre in Year Two), while M stage was utilised for episode-specific sets such as alien worlds or spacecraft. Other stages at Pinewood were also used as required for various episodes throughout the filming of the series.

  Keith Wilson was responsible for the design and look of the interior of Moonbase Alpha, as well as all the aliens and environments encountered throughout the series. He recalled, ‘I had two basic stages. I had one stage with all the Alphan sets on it. I had designed a modular system so I could – overnight – build a set very quickly, because every panel was exactly the same size as the next. So it was like a big Lego kit. I could put all of these pieces together. So if there was an episode that took place on the Moon, or Alpha, it was very easy. It would give me a chance then to plan ahead. But if it had a big new set – an interior of a spaceship, or a planet surface – then I would have to work very fast. But I would have the other stage to do that. They were identical size stages. So I had one for Moonbase Alpha, and the other for all those planet surfaces. I would have ten days to do anything that had to be done. It wasn’t a problem: I was well organised and I just did it.’

  Writer and story editor Johnny Byrne recalls joining the production: ‘I was called down to Pinewood when they were still considering Space: 1999 as a follow-on from UFO, and I heard nothing for some time. I met Chris [Penfold] there. Then some time later I was called in again when it was now Space: 1999, and I was asked to re-write a script that eventually became the second episode, “Matter of Life and Death”. I found myself, shortly thereafter, in a private little part of Pinewood, away from all the madness of L & M Stages.’

  Christopher Penfold said: ‘I asked Johnny Byrne to come on to the show. When he joined we began to work very closely together. I commissioned him, first of all, to write a script. Then very quickly he became a part of the writing team and did a lot of absolutely wonderful work. I had admired Johnny’s work, which was the reason I asked him on. We got on extremely well together, and we were doing pretty much what we wanted to do, within the parameters of the series. We were on a high, there’s no doubt about that … I certainly loved what I was doing. I think that’s the secret – passionate commitment.’

  The production encountered problems from the beginning, as Gerry Anderson recollects: ‘We had
so many problems … When we first started filming Space: 1999, we had a horrendous situation in the financial sense. We shot six weeks of effects without getting one shot in the can. Every day when we went to screen the dailies the density of the image was in constant fluctuation. Under normal circumstances, this is a problem that can be tracked down quickly, but we just could not discover the cause of it. We changed cameras. We changed lenses. We called in experts from Eastman Kodak. We called in camera engineers. We had daily conferences trying to find out what the trouble was. We even used different film stocks. Then we shot in black and white instead of colour. Nothing worked. We lost everything. Finally, we found out it was a very simple fault. It was a brake on one of the film magazines, which was dragging. Every time it dragged it slowed down the transport mechanism, thus increasing the exposure. It was a minute problem but we lost thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds.’

  Special effects for Space: 1999 were nothing short of earth-shattering by television standards and were accomplished by a team under the leadership of Brian Johnson, who had previously worked on the visuals for 2001: A Space Odyssey. The influence of Johnson’s effects work on science fiction television and films to follow (notably Star Wars) is undeniable.

  An early glimpse of Space: 1999’s spectacular special effects was seen on the 23 December 1974 edition of Horizon, a science program on the BBC. This particular episode was titled “How On Earth Do They Do That?” and focused on the special effects industry. The footage provides a fascinating look behind-the-scenes, and this Horizon segment has been included on DVD releases of Space: 1999 as a bonus feature.

  The budget for the first season of 24 episodes was £3.25 million, making Space: 1999 the most expensive science fiction television series ever produced at that time. Those 1973 funds, adjusted for inflation, would now have the buying power of well over £27 million!

  PERSONNEL

  As viewers would soon discover, Space: 1999 told the tale of 311 men and women living on the Moon. Christopher Penfold said: ‘I didn’t really know a lot about science fiction when Gerry Anderson approached me, but I very quickly [learned] … Although the subject has always interested me, this was the first time I had worked on a sci-fi series. And when you are tackling something new, you do your best to bring a brand new approach to it. Since most of the investment money actually came from the United States through ITC, the first thing that they wanted to have was an American story editor on board and to include a large number of scripts from American writers. Gerry and Sylvia went off to find an appropriate script editor in the States, and found George Bellak. Principally, George and I created the characters in conjunction with Gerry, and Sylvia had some input in the early stages. George left the series quite early on as he didn’t get on very well with Gerry, so the ball was back in my court. It meant I had the responsibility for finding the writers, talking about ideas for individual episodes, commissioning them, and doing the normal script editing jobs, and eventually writing a fair number of the scripts myself.’

  The lead roles of Commander John Koenig and Doctor Helena Russell went to husband and wife stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, while Barry Morse came aboard as Professor Victor Bergman. Sylvia Anderson has stated: ‘Initially Martin was not my choice – I have to say that. I wanted Robert Culp, someone a bit more offbeat. I think Martin grew very well into the role … He’s a very serious actor, and a fantastic character actor. I never thought that he was really a lead, but when he was given the lines in a serious scene, I think he played it very, very well. One of the problems in the show, really, was that Martin and Barbara wanted to be in every scene and make every decision. Now there was nothing unusual about that because they were the stars. Well, Nick Tate’s a very good actor, and I cast him because he was a younger element and had great authority on the screen, but invariably if he had more lines than Martin there would be a problem. Nick Tate had to walk three paces behind Martin. So we did have that all the time, but I think given a good scene … Martin rose to the occasion. He’s a very good actor, there’s no doubt about it. I just think that … he and Barbara were a force to be reckoned with in terms of getting their own way. So that was a problem we had on the show. We had to cast Barbara and Martin, whom I freely admit I did not want. I battled very hard and stood up to Lew Grade and said, “I don’t think they’re right. They were okay in Mission: Impossible, but having seen them I don’t think we’re going to get what we should get.” I’m not saying they were bad, I just think they could have been so much better.’

  Sylvia has also shared her perspective on characterisation: ‘I think unless you have strong characterisation, you don’t have anything … I remember sitting with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the Beverly Hills Hotel talking about their characters in Space: 1999. And I didn’t quite understand – I didn’t appreciate at that time – back-story. They started talking very earnestly about how he came from the Mid-West and Barbara was talking about how they met, and I thought, “Where on Earth is this going?” But of course it was all back-story for their characters. So I always remember that – you never write a character without thinking, “How did they get there?”’ So that was a very important lesson for me personally. And so, for me, characterisations are just as important, if not more, than all the bangs that are going on, and all the other wonderful things.’

  Bain and Landau had experienced their greatest success on Mission: Impossible, while Morse had achieved his widest recognition chasing The Fugitive. Morse was also attractive to ITC because of his proven track record with them. He had been the second lead in The Adventurer and one of the four stars of the European-based ITC series The Zoo Gang. With this team of internationally known and award-winning performers, Space: 1999 was clearly led by a strong and appealing triumvirate.

  Barbara Bain explains: ‘Space: 1999 was a project put together by English people. They came over to talk to us about it and we hired a story editor – an American story editor [George Bellak] – because it was going to be broadcast here [in the US]. They wanted a certain kind of mix with the English-based show. They were able to do the technology much cheaper there than here, all the effects, that sort of thing. Okay, so that was all exciting. But they wanted to prepare it for the American market as well as the world, which meant a certain kind of writing. With English television, there is a commercial network, but they’re also kind of brought up on the BBC, which does not have commercial interruption. As a result, it’s a very different dramatic form. We have – if you’ll pardon me – six to eight “climaxes” an hour, dramatic moments where you have a commercial; cliff-hangers. The English don’t, nor do they quite understand it. So we went over there with the American story editor. Then he left – about an hour after he touched ground in England!’

  Bain also recalled, ‘The first day I arrived in England I went into what was going to be my dressing room. I had asked them to please build me a bar… I walk in and there are a bunch of carpenters, and they’re building me a bar! Like a bar for whisky and beer. What kind of actress asks for [that]? I meant a ballet bar! I said, “Look guys, all you need is a dowel and a couple of things to hang it up on.” They were building me a bar … I don’t drink! There were all kinds of moments like that, that were fun.’

  The three lead characters were all carefully delineated in the original Writer’s Guide, although certain details were altered or expanded upon as the series developed. Certain later details (such as the death of Koenig’s wife in World War III, as posited in the Year Two episode ‘The Rules of Luton’), however, completely contradict the details established in the Writer’s Guide. Only the three leads were examined in the Guide, and it did provide a reasonably detailed look into their personal character traits.

  John Robert Koenig is said to be ‘not only the American Commander of the Moonbase, but at 40 he is an astrophysicist of very high repute … an interesting and somewhat complex man. He has two streaks in him: one, rather ruthless and efficient, the “mind-as-computer” a
spect; and on the other hand, a moody and introspective strain. Born in 1959, he is not the total space child. He has had, along with science, more humanities education than some others of his generation.’ The Writer’s Guide goes on to explain that he had been ‘married for five years to a woman who was a highly gifted artist.’ However, they had separated more than six years prior to 1999 and ‘John Koenig carries the scars with him and holds back at relating deeply to other women. As to men, Koenig demands a lot, but he demands a lot of himself too.’ Koenig is summed up as being ‘a man with one foot somewhat in the past and one foot somewhere in the future. The Commander’s last name is symbolic of his position on the base, originating from the German word ‘König’, which means ‘King’.

  Of Dr Helena Russell, the Writer’s Guide states: ‘Her cool good looks belie her abilities and her responsibilities … A woman in her early thirties (born, say, in 1965) whose father was a West Coast physician of great energy and drive.’ Barbara Bain herself has explained that in her own envisioning of the character, she decided that Helena’s father had been the one to discover the cure for cancer. There was thus a pressure on her to live up to the expectations put upon her by following her father’s footsteps in the medical profession. The Writer’s Guide also states: ‘Helena drove through medical school, where she met and married a fellow student … Telford Russell … Telford became a medical mission man – going out into space. Helena, now in her late twenties, worked at NASA and delved into space disorientation and psychology … Then a mission disappeared into space … Telford was on that mission, and Helena to all intents and purposes was widowed. Helena grieved and then went on working and living her full and liberated life … As we pick Dr Russell up, she has been on Alpha for 12 months, working and living, and to some extent retiring emotionally in that space womb environment.’