Abe Mandell stated, ‘The world-wide acclaim and popularity that characterised the first year of Space: 1999 provides an inspiring platform for the second year. We will build on the success of Space: 1999 … Fast action will be the keynote, human emotion the propelling force and life-or-death suspense the theme in our sci-fi hours … In 27 years in the entertainment business, I have never been as enthusiastic as I am about the second year of Space: 1999 … We are riding the crest of a huge wave of popularity throughout the world of science fiction … We are on top of this crest with the only new science fiction series … The world is going wild for sci-fi.’
ITC’s self-branded ‘Space: 1999 Network’ issued its own ‘Network News’ publication, serving to promote the series to its affiliate stations in the US. Indeed, the second issue began with the statement, ‘Welcome to new affiliates of the Space: 1999 Network! The Space: 1999 Network has been formed by ITC to better service those stations telecasting the only new sci-fi series. The Newsletter will keep you abreast of advertising, promotion and publicity plans by ITC and stations across the [US] telecasting the spectacular sci-fi series of the 1970s.’
One story of note, excerpted from the Space: 1999 ‘Network News’, Issue 2: ‘The Bicentennial Time Capsule in Kauai, Hawaii was spotlighted by ITC’s contribution of the video cassette recording of the first episode of Space: 1999 … In his letter to the people of Kauai, to be opened in the Tri-centennial year of 2076, Abe Mandell, president of ITC, said, “Our objective was to entertain television audiences throughout the world with exciting adventures in space. Based on the widespread acceptance of the series, we feel we accomplished that and, as an added benefit, hope that we helped stimulate interest in space exploration, an exciting endeavour we trust has continued and pray will continue for many, many years.”’
PERSONNEL
Changes to the regular cast were radical. Freiberger felt no connection to the characters he saw in the first season episodes and intended to replace all of them – apart from those of stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. He later recalled his impressions of Bain and Landau: ‘When I had spoken on the phone to Barbara [Bain], whom I had never met, she was charming and delightful. I tried to give her more to do. I tried to give her character some sense of humour, because she’s a natural in social situations. She’s sharp; she knows story and character very well. Marty Landau was a delight, an excellent actor and fun on the set … He tells beautiful stories.’
Gone were Prentis Hancock, Clifton Jones, Suzanne Roquette and, most significantly, Barry Morse, whose negotiations to return to the series had come to an unfortunate end on 17 December. Morse later noted: ‘I’ve seen only odd snippets of shows done in the second series. I’m not a devoted TV watcher in any event, but I certainly didn’t want to be taking up a lot of time watching what they were doing after I left. From what I’ve seen from the few glimpses I have had, the storylines got even more extravagant and wild. Whether the fans are merely being polite to me or not, the impression I get is that quite substantially the first series is regarded as being better than the second series. Well, as you know, I had my reservations about the first series, so I don’t know what that says about the second! I do know that Martin and Barbara and I – having formed a very close and loving professional association during the shooting of the first series – were all rather regretful I was not going to be with them for the second series.’
Prentis Hancock also reflects on his departure from the series: ‘Ultimately, I think, I was disappointed. At the time, no: I was quite surprised. It would have been nice to be informed. But, he who pays the piper calls the tune. The producers hired me, and I did the series. I was then free and at liberty to do anything else I liked, and I did. I learned that the series was going again, but it was a very strange season, and it had problems. I think a few years down the line I looked back and I was rather disappointed. It had meant more to me than I realised … For me to weave a fantasy about how life might have been if I had done series two is nonsense … It’s a shame, I think. There was probably more to be made with that series. In some ways it was a ’60s series, in the ’70s. The world had changed … But you cannot control things. Many series go down the drain that you think would have been lovely, and others, well … and they seem to be successful. I don’t think we can control anything in life.
‘I was disappointed with the way series two went. I knew all about the budgetary stuff, and what have you. I wasn’t asked to join series two, so I got on with my life as an actor. But I heard funny stories, and I got the odd message saying, “You’re probably better off where you are.” So that was quite rewarding for me in one sense, but I kept an eye out on the people who were involved…
‘Paul Morrow wouldn’t have fit into series two, and from what I hear Zienia tell me, I wouldn’t have fit into series two, because I wouldn’t have been there on those terms. In the first series, everybody made me very welcome. We were joined by Nick, Zienia, Clifton and Anton, and we did form a team. There were the stars up there on the top shelf, and then there was us. We gave the whole thing backbone and we were there all the time … Paul Morrow [must have been] killed, or atomised, or whatever happened … Actually, I think he went on holiday. He went with Victor Bergman and took up guitar playing, or chess manoeuvres. Perhaps he thought he’d join The Hitchhiker’s Guide and see how it went. I think Paul wouldn’t have coped with series two and would have had a nervous breakdown.’
By 22 December 1975, Johnny Byrne’s script ‘The Biological Soul’ (originally written for the Year One format and cast) had been revised as ‘The Biological Computer’ and introduced for the first time the character of Maya, who – as portrayed by Catherine Schell – eventually became one of the most memorable and defining aspects of Space: 1999. An emotional alien from the planet Psychon, capable of molecular transformation, she could become any living thing at will: monster, person, plant or animal. Freiberger created the character and envisioned her as Moonbase Alpha’s science officer. The usage of ‘Maya’ as a moniker for a metamorph has been interpreted by fans in many ways over the years; one of the most significant meanings is that ‘Maya’ is the Sanskrit word for ‘illusion’.
Fred Freiberger stated: ‘We went after Teresa Graves for Maya. We wanted her but we heard she was deep into religion and had gone into retreat somewhere – had left acting. The original Maya was to have been a black girl. We did test a lot of black girls in England. Abe Mandell recommended Catherine Schell; we looked at the Return of the Pink Panther film she was in and were quite impressed. The character of Maya was a tough concept to sell to the British writers, but for some reason, easier to sell to the Americans. I knew that science fiction fans would accept this character if we did it right.’
Catherine Schell said: ‘I know they had a tremendous problem casting Maya. It was all very strange. I was visiting some friends and I had lunch at their house that day. I hadn’t worked for some time and I was a little bit desperate, and the friend’s husband told me, “Don’t worry about it Catherine. When you get home there will be a telephone call and you will get a wonderful job.” I said to him, “But Gerald, it’s Sunday. Agents don’t work on Sunday.” When I got home, the phone rang. It was Gerry Anderson. He said, “Excuse me for ringing you up personally, but we have a huge problem. We’re desperate to cast this part in Space: 1999 as a regular, and I’d love to see you and talk about it. Can I send my chauffer-driven Rolls Royce to come and pick you up?” I said, “But of course.” I drove out and we had a long chat at his house, and he offered me the part. That’s when Gerry actually said, “We are doing another series. We are introducing another character, and we would be very interested if you would play that character, and it’s the character of an alien.” The only alien that I’d seen up until then was Mr Spock, with the long ears. I said, “No ears!” It just sort of developed from there.’ Schell also recalled actor Barry Morse from their time working together on The Adventurer: ‘We got on very well. He’s a nice man, and i
t was sad he wasn’t in Year Two.’
Schell has also stated: ‘Barbara was very much against my taking the part [of Maya], because we are very similar. Obviously, I’m younger than she is, but as types, we are similar. She was looking for an Asian girl or an African girl, someone who could really never be confused with her, so that these two women were completely alien to each other. But the production side wanted me to do this and so, obviously, I was going to have to look incredibly different.’
When it came to designing the look for Maya, Schell says: ‘I did a sketch [of Maya]. The finished version of the make-up still has a lot of the ideas that were in that original sketch – the colouring was very much the same, the peak on my forehead, and the bit around my cheeks. The sketch was actually more pronounced. I was also willing to wear a white curly wig. The whole thing was sort of raccoon-like, with a mixture of dark and light. If you look at my first episode, “The Metamorph”, you can see that my ears are brown. However, when they saw the finished episode they decided to drop that idea, because the Americans said that it looked as though my ears were dirty. They gave me the dark hair, which was to make me look more human, I suppose. It was the designer’s idea to give me those octopus-type eyebrows, which he actually wanted to put all over my face. We did one screen test with these – we called them octopods – in various patterns on my cheeks and on my forehead. I said, “Well, if you want to make acne popular, we can begin here.” It was really the most ridiculous idea ever. So we compromised and only the eyebrows were done.
‘In the picture I drew, I had very short hair – like fuzz that I would have on my head. It was a thing of doing animals – different animals, different pigmentations and looking almost like a badger or a panda. That was in my mind, to do something like that. In the drawing, I even did a little whisker, and my neck was completely dark. Oh, very important – stars in my eyes. The pupils were stars, and I lived through a whole month of trying to piggyback contact lenses: soft lenses and hard lenses on top, with the stars. My eyes could never take it. The moment light would shine in, my eyes would water. So that’s why that particular thing didn’t happen. Then we did tests with Keith, and Keith had me as peacocks, multi-coloured, and all sorts of other things.’
Keith Wilson also recalled this period: ‘Catherine was brought in to do the second series, and we spent a period of time working together. We built a little stage within the stage, had a video camera set up, and lights, and we would – just the two of us – just play, basically. I would come up with new ideas, Catherine would have an idea, and we’d get the make-up people in. And we just played for about two weeks. We had to send the videos to America, for Abe Mandell and the people at ITC to approve before the actual character was sort of agreed upon. It took about two weeks. Catherine would have an idea and she’d go off and I’d do something else for an hour or two, and she’d come back and have different make-up on. We’d film it and then she’d go off and do another thing. One particular time she stood there and said, “Are you ready?” I said, “Yes.” I turned the camera on, she smiled, and she had blackened out her front teeth!’
Anton Phillips would return for the first two episodes of Year Two, until he would also choose to depart Moonbase Alpha. Zienia Merton would appear in more Year Two episodes, though she was also replaced by two different substitutes. Merton stated: ‘I was told quite some time before that I would be in series two. But when I got to series two, the first thing Freddy [Freiberger] did was change my character’s name to Sahn. He called me into his office – like I was a child – and he said, “I’m changing your name to Sahn.” I said, “Why? Sandra isn’t a difficult name.” I think, in retrospect, it was Freddy trying to prove his power.
‘Freddy had bottles of champagne waiting for us when we arrived, so I wasn’t made to sit in a dungeon. I was given a dressing room, now and again. I’m not joking. Then they put me into a short skirt. Well, I do trousers or long skirts. I have friends who have never seen my legs. But they put me into this skirt and I didn’t like it.’
Nick Tate managed to return and eventually appeared in 18 second season episodes – despite early efforts to remove his character as well, until ITC and Fred Freiberger realised the great popularity of the Australian Eagle pilot amongst fans. He was to have been dropped and replaced initially by a character called Gary Wolusky, who then went through a name change to become Mark Macinlock, before Nick Tate was invited back at the end of the first week of January 1976, to reprise the familiar role of Alan Carter. The Year One cast members who did return did so at the last minute, after Freiberger apparently realised the benefit of a couple more familiar faces being around on Moonbase Alpha, or learned of a character’s popularity (as in the case of Tate specifically). As Tate recalled: ‘I called my agent and said, “People are asking me if I’m going back into the series?” I was told that they were casting it again. How could this be? So I called Prentis, I called Zienia and I called Clifton – none of us had heard a word. Then some people started hearing that it was happening, but we weren’t going back. Barry wasn’t around, so I couldn’t ask him. Martin and Barbara weren’t around – they were back in the States – so I couldn’t ask them. I didn’t know whether it was real or not. I asked my agent to contact Gerry Anderson at Pinewood Studios and learned that they were indeed doing another series, but sorry – they didn’t want to have anything to do with the actors from the first series. This was now going to be very controlled by America and they were bringing in a new Producer, called Fred Freiberger, and he had his own ideas about what he was going to do with the series. And so we all just had to eat it. Freddy didn’t have a very high opinion of the first series at all and wanted to change everything. He decided to get rid of everyone on the show, apart from Martin and Barbara. So they recast the show and brought in a stack of new people.
‘Early in January, I think it was 6 January, Gerry Anderson called my agent and said he wanted to meet with me. I couldn’t work out why – I knew by this stage he must have had the thing cast. So I went down and met him. All the crew were there – I knew all the crew. I walked in and saw all the sets being built and changes being made. I saw Catherine Schell walking around – I didn’t know her, but I could see that people were getting ready for tests and stuff. Gerry brought me into his office and said, “As you can see, we’re getting ready for the new series.” He said, “I’ve got some good news for you. They would like you to be back in the series.” I said, “How is this possible, Gerry?” I looked at a script he showed me, and I could see my character wasn’t in it, Prentis’s wasn’t there, Barry’s wasn’t there, and I couldn’t believe that this was going ahead.
‘The things that Fred said were logical and real and intelligent. We were dealing with a guy who really understood how to make television. But he didn’t understand the show that we had. That was my argument about it – and a lot of other people felt about the same way – that the kind of show that we had and the direction that Sylvia Anderson had intended to go in [was not suited to what he wanted to do] … [Sylvia] might have been able to pull it off. He was clever and maybe would have been able to help her pull it off, but when he came onto the show, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson had been through an unfortunate break-up of their marriage and she was out. Sylvia was a wonderful woman and a wonderful producer. She was great fun and a rather clever actress. She understood the process greatly, and I think her instincts were very good. Her absence didn’t help the show at all.’
‘I was lucky to have even been invited back to the series and I was in a very tenuous situation, but he made certain promises to me about what would happen. I could tell straight off that I was dealing with somebody who was a manipulator. I therefore didn’t sign a contract. I said, “I’ll just come in and see what happens. You’ve got nine scripts written – seven done and two others [already] in production – and I’m not in any of them. You’re just going to have me walk in and say, “Hi guys, I’m here.”’ I felt certain that they just wanted me back as window
dressing. They had invited Zienia back, as well. I think there were also a couple of other very peripheral characters that had been around in the background before – one of them was [played by] Sarah Bullen. Freddy had to understand that if you had these people who were constantly in Moonbase Alpha in Command Centre, then you had to have some of the original people back, just to make it look like the same show. Even if you didn’t like them. And I’m sure that was the situation with my hiring. Fred told me something very strange. He said, “You know the reason I’m asking you back in the show?” I said, “No, Fred, what’s the reason you’re asking me back?” He said, “My kids love you. My kids love the show and I went to them and asked who I should have back. They said I’ve got to have Nick Tate.” What an extraordinary thing for him to say! Didn’t he speak to his kids in all the weeks leading up to when we were going to start, or did he only have that conversation with them the day before? He was a very strange piece of work.’
The virtual slaughter of the Year One characters took place in the background and was not addressed in any regard in the episodes of Year Two. It was as if Victor, Paul, Kano and Tanya had never existed. And then, as Mathias vanished, Sandra was replaced on occasion and Nick Tate didn’t appear in six of the new episodes, the programme ran the serious risk of alienating past viewers who might tune in and recognise no-one beyond Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. Landau recalled: ‘We were testing black actresses like crazy. I was still lobbying for Barry. Right up until about three days before, there was a black actress going to play the part [of Maya]. She was terrible! She couldn’t say three words in a row and chew gum at the same time – it was unbelievable! But I loved Catherine! In fact, when we did “Guardian of Piri”, Catherine and I had enjoyed our time together. She’s a delight. But I thought it was “Spock”, you know? We had a magic person suddenly, and that wasn’t what the show was. It was basically … again, you win some and you lose some. We lost some, but I’ve got to say, she was reality. Once you accepted the fact, there was never any reluctance. Nick wasn’t receptive with the addition of Tony, and Nick got short-changed in the second season. Prentis certainly got short-changed. Clifton went by the wayside. But I think the first season was a superior season. Some people don’t. I’ve talked to some people and they like the second season better …’
Destination: Moonbase Alpha Page 37
