And speaking of those domed cities of future Earth, they do bear a notable resemblance to the domed city complexes of the novel Logan’s Run – adapted as a movie in 1976 and as a spin-off TV series in 1977 – both physically and thematically, with the absence of nature in the lives of those within. Amplifying the parallel, the central characters even share the same name – Logan. Here D. Charles Logan is a slightly eccentric scientist who takes great risks with his largely untested equipment.
This is a strong story, well told, and heightened to a level of greatness by the performances of the three leads and the well-conveyed ecological concern of the script. No matter the weaknesses of Yasko, Isla Blair’s wig or dicey accents, ‘Journey to Where’ holds even greater impact today than when it was filmed, and is absolutely one of the pre-eminent episodes of Space: 1999.
Rating: 9/10
2.6
THE TAYBOR
Screenplay by Thom Keyes
Directed by Bob Brooks
Selected Broadcast Dates:
UK LWT:
Date: 6 November 1976. Time: 10.55 am
Granada:
Date: 17 July 1977.
US KRON (San Francisco):
Date: 25 September 1976. Time: 7.00 pm
Credited Cast: Martin Landau (John Koenig), Barbara Bain (Helena Russell), Catherine Schell (Maya), Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Jeffery Kissoon (Ben Vincent), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko), Laraine Humphrys (Karen), Rita Webb (Slatternly Woman (Maya)), Mel Taylor (Pilot Andrews)
Guest Star: Willoughby Goddard (Taybor the Trader)
Uncredited Cast: Sarah Bullen (Operative Kate), Vicki Michelle (Barbara), Jenny Clare, Chai Lee, Penny Priestley (Sunbathing Alphans), Micky Clarke (Medic), Glenda Allen (Technician)
Plot: An intergalactic trader named Taybor arrives at Alpha in his ship, the SS Emporium, and becomes infatuated with Maya. A robot duplicate of the Psychon is created to satisfy him, but the trader only collects originals. Taybor kidnaps Maya and takes her into hyperspace, but Koenig has devised a way to save her.
Quotes:
Taybor: ‘Taybor’s the name, trading’s my game.’
Taybor: ‘Just now? I’ve been trading my wares at the Three World’s Fair on Azoth. Or do you mean where do I come from? My natal soil. Soil, did I say? Dust is more the truth of it, if you know Pinvith the Lesser … Sixty parsecs from the notorious Frontier Worlds of Shmagod, on the Inner Vesica Route. You may well wonder at my humble origins, and how a lad from Pinvith the Lesser has dragged himself two hundred thousand parsecs from the wrong side of a dusty world, on the wrong side of the wrong galaxy in the wrong universe. To haul himself up by the gravitron straps, so to speak. And to venture forth in search of beauty, beautiful things, beautiful people …’
Taybor: ‘Without beauty surrounding him, a man’s soul corrodes into dust.’
Taybor: ‘It’s a big universe; a lonely place to wander in.’
Taybor: ‘Nectar, Mr. Verdeschi – pure nectar. Best meal I’ve had since the Rainbow Room on the Astra, and that merited two starbursts in The Gourmet’s Guide to the Galaxy.’
Taybor: ‘I’ve darkened many a space port of call, Skipper, and while they all have their share of goods to offer, there’s none that will suit you.’
Taybor: ‘My home – the old Emporium. Registered in Kantonrek for tax purposes.’
On-screen Date: None.
Filming Dates: Thursday 15 April – Monday 3 May 1976
Commentary:
Martin Landau: ‘We have an episode called “The Taybor”. He is kind of like a travelling medicine man from the Old West. He is a con man, a magician and a huckster of a certain kind with a lot of flamboyance, and that is a very interesting episode, all the while being terribly menacing.’
Review: A segment played for amusement, ‘The Taybor’ will be liked or loathed depending upon a viewer’s response to its humour. While there are a number of very good scenes in this script by Thom Keyes, there are also a number that fall flat. The story lacks substance and seems obviously padded with filler material in order to extend it to fill the 52 minutes of screen time.
In a particularly notable example of ‘borrowing’ between science fiction shows, Taybor the Trader has some significant similarities to the character Harcourt Mudd from the original Star Trek episodes ‘Mudd’s Women’ and ‘I, Mudd’. Even more significant similarities can be seen between Taybor and the later intergalactic trader Kivas Fajo from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘The Most Toys’, where he encounters the Enterprise-D and kidnaps crewmember Data. While this book has generally avoided listing comparisons between the various incarnations of Star Trek and Space: 1999, simply to avoid becoming a litany of such examples, this cross-generational instance is one too obvious to ignore.
Physically, Taybor bears striking resemblance to the character Sir John Falstaff, who appeared in three plays by William Shakespeare. Falstaff – apart from being one of the great comic figures in drama – was a fat, vainglorious, lying coward and glutton, given to excessive consumption of alcohol – all of which characteristics will be familiar to viewers of ‘The Taybor’.
Guest Willoughby Goddard, as Taybor, is mildly entertaining, however his role and performance are both rather over-the-top, and his significantly slurred speech is an annoying distraction. He doesn’t so much speak his dialogue as chew it up before allowing it to fall out of his mouth. Goddard was best known for portraying Sir Toby Belch, another not dissimilar Shakespearean character, in productions of Twelfth Night.
Alphan characterisation and performances vary from merely acceptable to quite strong: Barbara Bain looks beautiful in her blue gown, and Catherine Schell is especially prominent, providing a depth of charm to Maya that reaches beyond the words of the script.
There are a number of aspects of the episode that don’t fit into the series as a whole, including the Star Trek-style association of trading worlds – although in a vast universe, there are bound to be all kinds! But the most glaring is Helena’s ability to create a walking, talking, robotic version of Maya that looks exactly like her. Sure, it’s little more than a moving mannequin, but this is an instance of technology surely well beyond the realm of Moonbase Alpha.
Catherine Schell’s appearance here as a robot version of herself oddly recalls her appearance as the Servant of the Guardian in ‘The Guardian of Piri’, and in both instances the robots she portrays end up with their faces blown apart.
Director Bob Brooks does a serviceable job with ‘The Taybor’, his debut episode for the series, but his style is mostly unremarkable. He would return to helm one additional episode: the vastly superior ‘The Immunity Syndrome’.
Taybor’s ship, the SS Emporium, is charming in internal and external design and was inspired by a NASA concept from 1970 for a Mars Excursion Vehicle. His home world also sports one of the most creative planet names in the series: Pinvith the Lesser. Some nice cinematography and special effects shine as highpoints of the episode.
Taybor’s passion for beauty lies at the core of the story and is both his obsession and his downfall, though this is not achieved with any degree of subtlety: it is mentioned countless times throughout the episode. In trying so formidably to get its point across, ‘The Taybor’ only truly succeeds in hitting viewers over the head with something pretty.
‘The Taybor’ could be easily interpreted as commenting rather effectively on materialism and consumerism. The central dichotomy of the episode is that Taybor has lots of beautiful possessions, but he leads an empty existence. It is a valuable commentary on our economically orientated world. Taybor also bears parallels with Companion from ‘The Infernal Machine’ – a solitary being travelling space in a ship – and thus also recalls the themes of that earlier episode: isolation and loneliness. However, these more internal concepts were dealt with more effectively through the serious tone of ‘The Infernal Machine’, rather than the comedic approach found here.
There are a number of
delightful lines in Taybor’s dialogue where he refers to various travels he’s had and planets he’s visited. They are referenced so casually it’s clearly just pure habit for him, but he succeeds in entertaining and dumbfounding the Alphans quite often.
‘The Taybor’ is charming fun, but – quite frankly – when a science fiction programme attempts to become a comedy, it has to be better than this. It has to be funny, like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, rather than slightly amusing. As something of an amusing romp, ‘The Taybor’ works reasonably well, but it commits the sin of ultimately being boring, and remains an unsatisfactory segment when compared to many other vastly better episodes of Space: 1999.
Sadly, ‘The Taybor’ is the first in a stretch of four of the worst episodes of Year Two.
Rating: 5/10
2.7
THE RULES OF LUTON
Screenplay by Charles Woodgrove (Fred Freiberger)
Directed by Val Guest
Selected Broadcast Dates:
UK LWT:
Date: 23 October 1976. Time: 11.00 am
Granada:
Date: 3 July 1977.
US KRON (San Francisco):
Date: 16 October 1976. Time: 7.00 pm
Credited Cast: Martin Landau (John Koenig), Barbara Bain (Helena Russell), Catherine Schell (Maya), Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), David Jackson (Alien Strong), Godfrey James (Alien Transporter), Roy Marsden (Alien Invisible), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)
Uncredited Cast: David Jackson (Voice of the Judges of Luton), Annie Lambert (Command Centre Operative), Jenny Cresswell (Operative L Picard)
Plot: While exploring the planet Luton, Koenig and Maya pick some flowers and eat some berries and find themselves accused of murder: the dominant species on Luton are plants, not animals! Koenig and Maya must fight to the death against alien beings accused of similar crimes; each endowed with a special power – invisibility, great strength and teleportation.
Quotes:
Koenig: ‘Obviously animals are a lower form of life on this planet. If we all kill each other, it’s acceptable.’
Koenig: ‘All right, then I thank the bird for its keen eyesight and the lion for its terrible roar.’
Koenig: ‘She was like … Helena.’
Koenig: ‘When I’m around, never pick a flower.’
On-screen Date: 892 days since leaving Earth orbit.
Filming Dates: Monday 3 May – Friday 14 May 1976
Commentary:
Martin Landau: ‘We did one episode [“The Rules of Luton”] in which Catherine and I are alone on a planet which is very similar to Earth … We shot that outside and we spent nine days out on location. It is virtually a chase picture.’
Catherine Schell: ‘We were all so ill when we did [“The Rules of Luton”] – we were working with 104 degree fevers. England was suffering a drought and a heat wave, and that had hardly ever existed before. Working in the studios, the studios were obviously air conditioned, but going home or coming to work … The differences in temperature all the time [meant that] everybody came down with a terrible, terrible flu. Some of us had pneumonia, and we were working! So I remember that one, because we were having to work outside and we were sweating and everybody was terribly sick. But that’s all I remember about it.’
Bloopers: Following Koenig’s instructions to Maya for her to stay on hard ground in order not to leave footprints, watch Maya’s jacket: it mysteriously disappears in one shot while she’s running.
While Koenig and Maya swim across the lake, astute viewers will note the following on, or near, the far shore: a white post, several people walking, a park bench, and a man in a canoe!
After Maya and Koenig swim across that lake they are both completely dry.
Observations: Charles Woodgrove was a pen name used by Fred Freiberger to write three scripts for Year Two. Freiberger asserted that he was paid only expenses and wrote the scripts to help keep the second season’s reduced budget in line.
Review: ‘The Rules of Luton’ is the ultimate mixed blessing. This is Space: 1999’s infamous ‘talking plant’ episode, but unlike its counterpart from Lost In Space – ‘The Great Vegetable Rebellion’ – this has not benefited from being elevated to the status of camp classic by the passage of time. This is also a ‘double-up’ episode, filmed on location while ‘The Mark of Archanon’ was shot on the studio sets.
Martin Landau and Catherine Schell deliver expressive and warm performances and are provided with a wealth of character-building material in the script. Koenig’s speech about his wife and World War Three is striking (even if it is very difficult to reconcile with the timeline and history of Earth as evidenced in Year One episodes), as is Maya’s recounting of Mentor’s dream. Great depth is provided through the talents of Landau and Schell, and during these sequences the script shines: it is richly dramatic, emotional, character-driven material. Background detail on the civilisation of Psychon is fleshed out, portraying a very unified world with one class and one race, one religion and one government. As such there would be no conflicts or wars, no hatred or poverty. It’s a wonderful utopian vision, even though the validity of Maya’s comments can be questioned – after all, she was the naïve daughter of a mad scientist who drained the brains of passing aliens (which she didn’t know about) and then used them as mine workers (which she also didn’t know about). Whatever Maya’s memories of her planet are, they are certainly framed by what Mentor told her and led her to believe, and cannot be taken as absolute fact. That Psychon could have been a utopian paradise is possible, but not certain.
The limitations of Maya’s powers, as presented here, are debatable. The rule established in ‘The Exiles’ (and ignored in ‘The Taybor’) that Maya can hold a transformation for only one hour is repeated, but will be broken again later in the season in ‘Seance Spectre’. Also anomalous here is the assertion that Maya is unable to transform directly from shape to shape without reverting to her own form in between, as she has been able to do in other episodes such as ‘The Metamorph’. The inconsistencies are undoubtedly the result of writer Fred Freiberger using his artistic license to fit Maya’s abilities into the confines of his own script.
Despite the stated pluses, the remainder of the script consists of nothing more than running to action music and a succession of tedious and predictable engagements with the alien trio, amounting to a laboriously dull viewing experience. The aliens themselves are merely grunting, one-dimensional caricatures, and their costumes are visibly cheap, especially in close-up shots. The talking trees (the ‘Judges’ of Luton) are an inexcusably stupid effort at presenting a plot based upon intelligent or purposeful plant life. It would have been far more intriguing if the plants on Luton had been portrayed as a more sinister, subtle or subversive threat, such as those in The Day of the Triffids or, from a later era, M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.
This episode belongs to Martin Landau and Catherine Schell, with the remaining characters in peripheral – and largely forgettable – roles. Helena is seen to be in command of Moonbase Alpha – sort of: she is never out of contact with Tony, and he seems to have the real authority.
The location shoot is welcome, as it was done so infrequently throughout the series. The locations are nicely dressed up with the odd tropical-looking plant, but the canyon setting for the final confrontation between plants and animals looks utterly unconvincing. It is actually the H F Warner Ltd landfill site in Knowl Hill, Berkshire, and looks entirely out of place on this world ruled by vegetation. Worthy of praise however are the dinosaur skeletons covered in vines, providing a striking visual impact.
It must be stated that this episode is little more than a combined duplication of the Star Trek episodes ‘Arena’ (itself based on the 1944 short story of the same name by Fredric Brown) and ‘The Gamesters of Triskelion’, along with elements of the previously mentioned ‘The Great Vegetable Rebellion’ from Lost In Space. The similarities are undeniable. The moral core of the episode can be found in the following exc
hange: Maya says, ‘You mean people killed people just because they were different from each other? That’s disgusting.’ Koenig answers, ‘The one virtue of that war, if war can have a virtue, is that prejudice was wiped out. People realised if they were going to survive they would have to work together, accept each other for what they were. So we began to create a brand new, wonderful civilisation.’ The anti-prejudice theme is one always worth repeating, and the optimistic vision of all the peoples of the world coming together is an appealing notion.
‘The Rules of Luton’ is not to be recommended without a substantial warning of the radically different levels of quality between the superficial run-around plot and the pleasingly strong characterisation.
Rating: 4.5/10
2.8
Destination: Moonbase Alpha Page 43
