The loss of Professor Bergman was mentioned in Johnny Byrne’s script ‘The Metamorph’, and Zienia Merton recalls filming the sequence, although the scene never made it to the final edit of the episode. The dialogue in question was to have come in Scene 146:
Simon [later Tony Verdeschi]: ‘I wish Bergman was here.’
Sandra [nods]: ‘But he isn’t.’
Simon: ‘One lousy space suit with a faulty helmet and Victor had to be in it.’
Sandra [gently]: ‘We can’t bring him back, Simon.’
A new crop of faces appeared. Apart from Catherine Schell, Tony Anholt joined the cast as Tony Verdeschi (originally called Simon Hays), a hot-blooded Italian in charge of Moonbase security. Anholt said: ‘I got a phone call at home out of the blue from Gerry Anderson who said, “Have you seen Space: 1999?” I think I had seen one episode of it and, to be perfectly honest, had thought, “What a load of rubbish.” I said, “No, I don’t think I have. Why?” He said, “Well, we did a year of it and it was sort of shelved, and now we think we’re going again with the second year. Freddy Freiberger is coming over to give it a slightly new feel and Abe Mandell,” who is ITC New York, “wants you in it. Lew Grade wants you in it. I would be very happy to have you in it. Would you be interested?” The deal was set up and it all seemed favourable, so to the end of the following January I found myself in one of those outfits, as what I think was billed as “The Most Dynamic Explorer in the Universe” or something!’
John Hug took on the semi-regular role of Eagle pilot Bill Fraser. Fraser had a wife, Annette, who was introduced as a new supporting character in ‘The Metamorph’, portrayed by Anouska Hempel –,but she was promptly dropped and never heard from again! Jeffrey Kissoon played Dr Ben Vincent, replacing Dr Mathias … that is, until Dr Vincent vanished and was himself replaced by Dr Ed Spencer, played by Sam Dastor. And then there was ‘The Mark of Archanon’, in which Dr Vincent is missing, replaced by Raul Newney as Dr Raul Nunez, who appears in only this one episode. Sandra’s replacements would be Yasuko Nagazumi as Yasko Nugami and Alibe Parsons as Alibe. Also featured in several episodes was the character Petrov (originally called Jameson), stationed in Weapons Section, portrayed by Peter Porteous (husband of costume designer Emma Porteous). Confused? The producers didn’t think the audience would notice.
Fred Freiberger made the following comments regarding the cast changes: ‘We thought if we were going to drop a main character, we would drop Nick Tate, and then I reconsidered. I thought, “No, this guy’s brilliant. He’s a real asset to the show.” So every time you want to cut something you can find it’s an asset … But we started the second season and we had Tony Anholt there … We didn’t have to explain Tony Anholt. He was just there – the characterisation, if it’s done well, will explain in the action what’s going on. When I first got to the show I got a call from Barbara, and she had a wonderful sense of humour. I wanted to give her character more of that. We may have discussed putting in explanations as to what happened, but I don’t know. I don’t remember if we did.’
SETTING
Major set alterations and relocations were implemented. Most significant of all, the vast Main Mission was replaced by the tighter confines of Command Centre. (While prominent signage utilised the American spelling of ‘Center’ – obviously tailoring the series to the American market as much as possible – smaller labelling also visible on-screen featured the British spelling, as does this book). In general, sets were smaller and more compact, and in an interesting twist, the producers decided to move most of the active areas of Moonbase Alpha into the underground sections of the base. This meant the elimination of the prominently featured windows from the first season. While no explanation was provided for any of these changes, the assumption and common behind-the-scenes explanation is that it was a choice made for the safety of the Alphans – they would be more sheltered from radiation, alien attack and other hazards in underground locations than in surface installations. It was also a stylistic choice prompted by Fred Freiberger, who felt the larger Year One sets were depersonalising and that the smaller scale would assist in his desire to achieve a sense of excitement and urgency. The Eagles shrank as well – in the second season, the Stewardess Section between the command and passenger modules is missing (which is, of course, incongruent with the external model design, which didn’t change). Even the travel tubes became smaller and now included only four seats instead of six.
Keith Wilson discusses the design changes: ‘I think the biggest mistake in the second series was concentrating everything – concentrating the scale of the sets, particularly. We’d achieved a scale on the first series that was big. On the second series – why, I don’t know – they decided it was too big. I wasn’t allowed to make the sets as big as I had on the first series. I think we lost a lot by doing that. Everything was concentrated, and I think it was a mistake, because I think it made the show “small”.
‘It was too claustrophobic. It was like they were living underground, and I didn’t like the confinement. The fact of living on the Moon – I felt you could make the buildings as big as you liked. There were no restrictions. But Freddy Freiberger, and the powers that be, didn’t feel that was correct. [On the base, however,] that main set was really the only one that suffered. Everything else was pretty much the same – the Eagle, the Travel Tube.
‘I loved the scale of the first series. I loved the first shot when we see Main Mission and Koenig swings around in his chair and the wall separates and beyond you have this whole huge set. That’s one of my favourite shots in the whole series. I thought we needed that scale; I thought it gave the series size. Star Trek didn’t have that sort of scale. I can’t think of anything else that had that scale. That’s why I went for that sort of scale – I wanted it to be spectacular, and in my opinion it was …
‘It got much smaller in the second series … I was just told to make it smaller. I would do a drawing and say, “This small?” Freddy would say, “Make it smaller,” or “That’s fine.” So he had the last say. On the clothes as well – I hated the uniform for the first series, but I couldn’t touch it because it was in Rudi Gernreich’s contract that he had to have front credit. All he designed, in fact, was the uniform on the first series. I designed the alien costumes, alien make-up, everything alien. But by the second series his contract had ended, so I was able to do something with the costumes. I didn’t want to change them too much, because everyone knew the uniform: it’s part of the look of the show. But we gave them jackets and pockets, so they could do things with their hands. Otherwise, they’d just be standing there. It was dreadful. So we put badges on; anything just to get away from that dreadful uniform.’
Fred Freiberger recalled: ‘One of the things we were talking about was to lower costs. Gerry mentioned to me to take out the little television screens from the Commlocks, and I said, “Gerry, I wish you wouldn’t do that. I think that’s such an asset to the show,” and so he kept it in.’
MUSIC
The sound of the series was dramatically different as well, due to Year One composer Barry Gray being replaced by Derek Wadsworth, who had provided music for Anderson’s pilot The Day After Tomorrow (Into Infinity). While Gray was inclined towards grand orchestral scores, Wadsworth delivered a more action-orientated sound with up-tempo modern beats. While Gray’s sound worked superbly within Year One, Wadsworth’s distinctive jazz/pop contributions were ideally suited to the style of the second season, and his opening theme remains a favourite of many fans.
Wadsworth created individual scores for five episodes, with the resulting compositions totalling a little more than two hours. His first three scores were for the episodes ‘The Metamorph’, ‘The Exiles’ and ‘One Moment of Humanity’ – quite naturally, as these were the first three episodes filmed for the second season. Subsequent episodes that Wadsworth wrote scores for were ‘The Taybor’ and ‘Space Warp’. The former called for a more light-hearted series of compositions, while the latter required a
driving action score. These five episodic scores were re-mixed and re-used by music editor Alan Willis for the remaining 19 episodes of Year Two. Due to the post-production schedule, the ‘Space Warp’ score was also used on the preceding episode, ‘The Beta Cloud’, to which it was also ideally suited.
THE DIRECTORS
As on Year One, directors on Year Two operated on a rotating basis. However, this time they tended to be a bit more transitory, with eight different individuals helming various episodes. They were:
CHARLES CRICHTON, who returned from the first season to helm an additional six episodes, including the Year Two premiere ‘The Metamorph’, making him the most prolific director of the second season (as he had been for Year One).
RAY AUSTIN, who also returned from Year One and took on directorial duties for an additional two episodes.
BOB BROOKS, who directed two episodes. Brooks had previously been a director of commercials. Space: 1999 represented his first directorial work on a dramatic production.
Tom Clegg, who took on five episodes, was a relatively new director at the time, having helmed episodes of Marked Personal, Special Branch and Armchair Cinema.
KEVIN CONNOR, who directed two episodes, had notable experience directing the fantasy films The Land That Time Forgot and At the Earth’s Core, as well as From Beyond the Grave.
VAL GUEST, who directed three episodes, had extensive experience as a producer, writer and director of films and television. His film directorial credits included The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, The Abominable Snowman and When Dinosaurs Rules the Earth. On television he had directed episodes of The Persuaders! and The Adventurer.
ROBERT LYNN, who directed two episodes, had extensive experience directing for television, including for such programmes as Ghost Squad, The Saint and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. His films had included Dr Crippen and Mozambique. He also served as assistant director on an additional ten episodes of Year Two.
PETER MEDAK, who directed two episodes, was notable for his credits on The Strange Report and The Persuaders!, as well as on films such as The Ruling Class and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
CONCEPTS
Episodes in Year Two normally began with a voice-over Status Report by Helena Russell, introducing the viewer to the happenings on Alpha. This feature, while obviously inspired by the Captain’s Log from Star Trek, was an addition that worked successfully and appealed to the audience. More significantly, Fred Freiberger completely changed the style and direction of the stories themselves. He was unimpressed by the metaphysical and mysterious aspects of the first season; in their place he wanted clearly explained stories grounded in science fiction and featuring lots of action. He increased the humour quotient in the scripts and altered the philosophy of the series in order to provide what he believed the American market wanted – namely, outwardly warmer (and younger) Alphans who more readily joked with each other. Indeed, the characters did become a more easily likeable group than in the first year. Gone, however, was the vision of the universe as a huge, mysterious place of great grandeur in which the Alphans were a lost and wandering tribe at the mercy of whatever they encountered. Gone too was the Mysterious Unknown Force that had seemed subtly to guide or direct the journey of Alpha in ways and for purposes often left to the imagination. Instead, the stories, characters and motivations became clearer (or occasionally, some would say, transparently shallow).
Keith Wilson offers his thoughts on the thematic side of the series: ‘Freddy Freiberger was like a troubleshooter. It was his task to come in and change the show to make it more acceptable for an American audience. The first series, it was unusual that a science fiction show would be so intense. We were dealing with really quite important subjects – disguised subjects, but nevertheless. The second series it became like a comic strip. It lost that wonderful quality.’
The new series was truly tailored to be action-adventure sci-fi, which was Fred Freiberger’s conception of what the show should be. In his own words, ‘We cut down the whole vast control centre [Main Mission] … cut down the loss of Eagles. I felt if we were going to use violence of that sort, use it meaningfully. The English, when they did these shows, desperately wanted to reach the American market, since that’s where all the money is. And they would interpret “action” literally as action – shooting down a million Eagles … and doing wild physical things … instead of dramatic action, conflict. These are tough concepts for them to be able to understand and accept.’ Freiberger also shared his thoughts on what he liked in Year One, ‘I’d prefer to say the characters, but it was the special effects – they were just amazing. I admired the standard of the work these guys did. My main concern going into Year Two was getting stories. We had a situation with a preparation of ten days and a shoot of ten days. And it was meeting people: I didn’t know any of the directors, so Gerry hired the directors; I didn’t know any of the writers, so Gerry brought in the writers. I found everybody very eager, very professional and easy to work with.’
Perhaps if Freiberger had viewed more than eight episodes of Year One he would have felt differently about it. However, the responsibility for the changes made in the second series cannot be placed completely on his shoulders …
THE PRODUCERS
Where was the co-creator of the series, the man credited as Executive Producer – Gerry Anderson? Space: 1999 was his greatest success – it would be logical to assume that he would have had a great vested interest in controlling as much as possible the direction of the series that so prominently carried his name. For Anderson to have allowed outside influences to revamp drastically a ‘Gerry Anderson Production’, sitting seemingly quietly in the background even though he himself apparently did not think highly of the changes and scripts being produced (as interviews with him have since clearly shown), seems more than slightly strange. Even accepting that ITC New York was demanding changes be made in order to secure their financial backing, Anderson should surely have been triumphing the strengths of the first season and making sure that they were not overlooked while changes were implemented. He should have ensured that continuity between the two seasons was as strong as possible, and that inconsistencies of a significant nature were explained to viewers.
In recent years, Anderson seems to have had a revisionist view of history, to the point of ignoring any mention of his ex-wife and creative partner, Sylvia. He has also repeatedly claimed credit for aspects of Space: 1999 in which he appears to have had little direct involvement, and – as shown in the commentary section for ‘Breakaway’ in this book – has gone so far as to portray himself as being single-handedly responsible for ‘rescuing’ the pilot episode. While Anderson blames Fred Freiberger and ITC for the ultimately unpopular changes made for Year Two, he has never acknowledged in interviews that he could have done more to stand up for his co-creation. But beyond the responsibilities of any one man (Anderson or Freiberger), ultimately the greatest blame lies with ITC for not having faith in the team producing the series, for not sticking with the original vision, and for ordering the implementation of changes. Anderson himself has said, ‘When it came to the next series, they introduced the new member of the cast. They had this bloody silly idea of Maya turning into different creatures. I mean, if we could have done it with morphing, fine, but that wasn’t possible at the time. The scripts became very juvenile. For me – I mean, I’ve met people who prefer the second series – but for me, the first series was infinitely better, and the second series was downgraded and almost “comic-cuts”.’
Fred Freiberger was simply a producer hired to do a job. He was a hired gun. He did his job, made decisions he felt were for the best of the series, and is substantially to credit for the fact that there was a Year Two at all. Fans are free to criticise the changes he made, and it is often felt that many of them were misconceived. But he did undeniably do some things well, and to this day many fans love the second season.
Johnny Byrne’s reflections on t
he development of Year Two included: ‘It’s hard to separate retrospective wisdom now from how I felt Space: 1999 should develop then. But I always believed that Year One was a testing of the waters for the overall concept, with a result that demonstrated it could intrigue, mystify and entertain. A direct follow on Year Two would have been based on the enhanced awareness of the Alphans to their situation, leading to a greater ability to cope with it, not least philosophically, metaphysically and spiritually. It would also have shown in part a coming to terms with the knowledge that something greater than the random forces of space and time – the MUF, if you like – was an active player in their destiny. If one accepted the epic, mythic potential of the series, which I always did, then the Alphans were in the process of not just surviving and questing for a new home, but also creating their own origin legend. That being said, in some ways Fred returned the show to the basic mechanistic format concept of the Moon blown out of orbit. It was the writers of Year One, initially Chris and I, then others, who read into it the metaphysical and philosophical implications for the Alphans; an Earth in miniature, suddenly and catastrophically plunged down the snake to square one. I’m not sure Fred grasped this aspect of Space: 1999 and its potential to lend enduring context to stories that would otherwise feature as “what you see is what you get” … The second season had, of course, a basic appeal, because it was more like Star Trek, and on that level, it made for easier viewing to a certain extent – but not more pleasurable viewing.
Destination: Moonbase Alpha Page 38
