THE MARK OF ARCHANON
Screenplay by Lew Schwarz
Directed by Charles Crichton
Selected Broadcast Dates:
UK LWT:
Date: 16 October 1976. Time: 11.30 am
Granada:
Date: 26 June 1977. Time: 2.35 pm
US KRON (San Francisco):
Date: 9 October 1976. Time: 7.00 pm
Credited Cast: Martin Landau (John Koenig), Barbara Bain (Helena Russell), Catherine Schell (Maya), Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Veronica Lang (Lyra / Maurna), John Alkin (Andy Johnson), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Anthony Forrest (Carson), Raul Newney (Dr Raul Nunez), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)
Guest Stars: John Standing (Pasc), Michael Gallagher (Etrec)
Uncredited Cast: Quentin Pierre (Security Guard Pierce Quinton), Annie Lambert (Command Centre Operative), Jenny Cresswell (Operative L Picard), Terry Walsh (Rescue Eagle Pilot), Barbara Kelly (Voice of Computer)
Plot: In the lunar caverns, Alan Carter discovers two aliens – Pasc and Etrec – from Archanon, the planet of peace. But a strange ‘killing sickness’ infects these aliens, turning them into mass murderers.
Quotes:
Maya: ‘Archanon – it’s the planet of peace … There are legends of the coming of the Peace Bringers; the conquest of evil by good.’
Lyra: ‘The terrible scourge we thought we had eradicated from our genes has returned.’
Pasc: ‘It’s the last privilege of the killing sickness: to kill oneself.’
Helena: ‘As a doctor, I should have known. Besides, it’s not a very satisfactory defence – ignorance.’
On-screen Date: 640 days since leaving Earth orbit.
Filming Dates: Tuesday 4 May – Tuesday 18 May 1976
Commentary:
Martin Landau: [Written on the front of his copy of this script] ‘If the people on Alpha don’t miss us – the audience won’t!’
Barbara Bain: [On guest stars] ‘Margaret Leighton [in “Collision Course”] was just wonderful and comes immediately to mind. Billie Whitelaw [in “One Moment of Humanity”] I had always admired. John Standing [in “The Mark of Archanon”] was great. There were a lot of good actors available because we were filming in London. As for directors, it was absolutely delicious to work with Charlie Crichton, who was a self-appointed oldest, meanest grouch in the whole world, but was actually a darling.’
Bloopers: A blooper in dialogue occurs as Tony orders Eagle One to launch: Eagle One is already launched, and away from the base – Koenig and Maya are in it!
Wires are visible pulling apart the rocks in front of the Archanon stasis chambers.
Observations: Alan Carter sings at the start of the show, as he has before on a couple of occasions. However, when he has sung before, his words have served to foreshadow future occurrences in the episode, while here it’s utterly meaningless.
Review: Space: 1999 continues a precipitous nose-dive in quality and manages the feat of producing the worst entry in its entire 48 episode run. There is little to redeem ‘The Mark of Archanon’.
On the positive side, Barbara Bain has a highly prominent lead role, which she handles beautifully. The notion of the mining of minerals deep within the Moon is an admirable one, and stands as one of the strongest additions to the series’ mythos initiated by the second season. The concept of ancient aliens buried beneath the lunar surface is also very intriguing, with possibilities that could undoubtedly have been explored in any number of more successful directions. If this had been Year One, the aliens might have been some of the original Arkadians who seeded life on Earth – but, as with most of Year Two, much of what came before has been forgotten. Like ‘The Testament of Arkadia’, this episode introduces elements of Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods into the Space: 1999 universe, with its premise of the Archanon’s visits to early Earth and the presumed impact they might have had on any civilisations they encountered. Note the strong Babylonian influence in the Archanon costume design. While appealing, these notions fail to recall the past experience of the Alphans, and thus what could have been an enriching and elaborating addition to earlier concepts is simply a weak display of generic sci-fi.
The Archanon space cruiser is of appealing design and impressively filmed by the effects team. If only it was featured on screen for a little longer it could be appreciated more fully. Guest star John Standing’s attempts to give some dignity to his preposterous part, horribly unconvincing beard, pointless make-up and cardboard costume are commendable but mostly in vain. Even worse for Standing is that Pasc fails to be a menacing threat and comes across as benign rather than as a killer. The closing sequence featuring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain is pleasant: their talents and charm provide a lift for the end of the show. But that’s all there is.
On the negative side, shockingly terrible special effects see apparently tin-foil asteroids being hurled at Koenig’s and Maya’s Eagle. This is a sorry excuse for an asteroid field, utterly unworthy of appearing in any episode of Space: 1999. It also seems to be extremely localised – why don’t Koenig and Maya simply fly around it; and, given the visibility of space and the aid of their instrumentation, why did they fly into it to begin with? Koenig and Maya make only token appearances so that the latter can deliver a couple of feed-lines back to the base. This is another ‘double-up’ episode, as Landau and Schell were off on location filming their marginally better segment, ‘The Rules of Luton’.
The script is feeble and delivers nothing of substantive intellectual appeal or intrigue. Written by Lew Schwarz (whose name is misspelled in the credits as Schwartz), it contains countless nonsenses. Starting at the very beginning, why is Chief of Reconnaissance Alan Carter leading geologists through the catacombs of the Moon on a hunt for minerals? Perhaps it’s a hobby, or a volunteer activity; but without an explanation, it’s merely careless writing. In the same vein, why does Chief of Security Tony Verdeschi perform the scientific analysis of the Archanon equipment? Professor Bergman might be missing, but surely there are still scientists on Alpha! Again this displays utter disregard for audience intelligence and for the basic outlines of the main characters of the series. Why are the aliens repeatedly left alone and unguarded throughout the episode, so they can proceed to wander about Alpha on their own? Where are the security protocols, or any semblance of common sense? These Alphans are idiots who seem not only to have learned nothing from their previous encounters with aliens on the base (such as Dione, Balor or Cantar and Zova), but also to have lost any sense of caution they might have once possessed.
Unforgivably, this episode also completely forgets the single most important purpose – apart from basic survival – in the lives of the Alphans, which is finding a new world to live on. In Year One, the Alphans contemplated living on the frozen Ultima Thule, and later in Year Two they will give thought to the idea of colonising an asteroid field – clear illustrations of their occasional desperation and willingness not to rule out any possibilities. But here, with friendly aliens possessing an impressive spaceship and an unknown wealth of information about diverse worlds that might be able to support the denizens of Moonbase Alpha, not a single mention is made of their search. Not one thought is given to asking these compassionate aliens for help. It is inexcusable for the writers and producers to have abandoned the prime focus of the series simply because they found it expedient to do so.
The planet Crom II is mentioned, and apparently the Alphans have been there, but this has never been shown in any of the episodes. While not technically a blooper, since the Alphans could have had other adventures unseen on screen, this is another case of the scriptwriter resorting to an easy contrivance to provide the Alphans with knowledge they otherwise couldn’t have. While some might consider this to be a welcome expansion of the scope of Alpha’s past encounters, it can also easily be looked upon as lazy writing.
Watching Michael Gallagher portray Etrec is wearisome. Nearly every action he takes is agonisingly unconvincing, and his voice has
been dubbed (badly) in much the same manner as that of Cantar in ‘The Exiles’. And, unfortunately, he’s not the only unconvincing actor in the episode. Never before, and never again, would Nick Tate be so wildly broad in his portrayal of Alan Carter, or be fed so much drivel by a script. This was an attempt, seemingly, to make Carter more likeable; but why? He is likeable. He has always been likeable. Here he is transformed into a stereotype of an Australian, tossing a football and throwing around words like ‘cobber’. He becomes a caricature, rather than a character. His arbitrary and unconvincing friendship with Etrec and subsequent trips down the corridor for hamburgers should have been avoided at all costs. If anyone involved in the production had bothered to look back to Year One, they could have seen how comfortably and touchingly Carter had shown his paternal side and bonded with young Jackie Crawford in ‘Alpha Child’. That was a well-portrayed relationship; this is embarrassing to all involved. Tate is an exceptional actor who certainly should have been used more effectively throughout the series. This was not the way to do it.
Actors John Alkin and Anthony Forrest, as Johnson and Carson, appear to be in a contest to see which one of them can produce the most stilted delivery of dialogue – it appears to be a draw. However, as English actor John Alkin has been dubbed in this part, it’s difficult to judge him fairly. Actress Veronica Lang is the most impressive of the guest performers in her part as Lyra/Maurna. Watch for her dress to re-appear on Yesta (actress Kathryn Leigh Scott) in the later episode ‘Dorzak’ – perhaps both ladies purchased their gowns from the same intergalactic fashion designer?
The revolving door of secondary doctors on Alpha continues to spin. This time around it’s Dr Raul Nunez, played quite capably by Raul Newney (who is wrongly credited as ‘Raul Newey’). While it does begin to strain credibility to have so many doctors (Russell, Mathias, Vincent, Nunez and later Spencer) as well as countless nurses, all servicing a population that is now under three hundred, Alpha was undoubtedly serving as a medical research facility while still in orbit around Earth and many of these doctors might have been there conducting experiments rather than actively taking care of patients.
Director Charles Crichton faced an impossible task with this script, and failed through no fault of his own. To borrow a phrase from actor Barry Morse, it was almost as if he were being asked to construct the Taj Mahal out of chicken droppings.
The concept of an alien race of peace-bringers who can’t kill, but are threatened by a ‘killing sickness’ that turns them into mass murderers, certainly has potential. Perhaps if it had been treated with the chilling approach of an episode like ‘End of Eternity’ it would have been more successful As it is, the jokes evoke winces, and moments like Pasc’s strangling of Carter and Etrec’s near-strangling of a dove (strangling the symbol of peace – no sign of subtlety in this episode!) shoot completely off the melodrama scale.
‘The Mark of Archanon’ is an absolute embarrassment to the series.
Rating: 3.5/10
2.9
BRIAN THE BRAIN
Screenplay by Jack Ronder
Directed by Kevin Connor
Selected Broadcast Dates:
UK LWT:
Date: 2 October 1976. Time: 11.00 am
Granada:
Date: 13 May 1977. Time: 7.30 pm
US KRON (San Francisco):
Date: 23 October 1976. Time: 7.00 pm
Credited Cast: Martin Landau (John Koenig), Barbara Bain (Helena Russell), Catherine Schell (Maya), Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Marc Zuber (Security Guard), Michael Sharvell-Martin (Brian Robot), Annie Lambert (Command Centre Operative), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)
Guest Star: Bernard Cribbins (Captain Michael / Voice of Brian)
Uncredited Cast: Quentin Pierre (Security Guard Pierce Quinton)
Plot: Brian the Brain is a robot found on board a Swift ship from Earth. It has survived an encounter on the nearby Planet D, which killed the crew of the Star Mission of 1996, consisting of four Swift craft and a mother ship. But its initial friendly appearance is deceiving: Brian kidnaps Koenig and Russell and takes them to Planet D.
Quotes:
Brian: ‘Don’t step on my antenna! It gives me the heebie-jeebies, not to mention a headache.’
Fraser: ‘What is this Brain – some crazy, hijacking slot machine?’
Brian: ‘Wowee! It was simultaneous! You can have all your air back.’
Koenig: ‘That Brain is mad.’
Brian: ‘All I wanted was life, and friends. I’m so lonely – take it all. Take it all!’
On-screen Date: 1,150 days since leaving Earth orbit.
Filming Dates: Tuesday 18 May – Wednesday 2 June 1976
Commentary:
Martin Landau: ‘One that is interesting is called “Brian the Brain”, which [involves] a computer that talks like a human being and moves around. It sounds like a cross between Jerry Lewis and Mickey Rooney, but it turns out to be terribly dangerous. It starts out as a kind of charming object, and actually it is kind of a fun show.
‘The English stuntmen are not as good as those in [the USA], and very often I would end up actually gaffing, or coordinating, the fight scenes, which really wasn’t my job. Part of the reason for doing that was so I wouldn’t get hurt. That was because I was in them! If you’re not doing it right, you could get really hurt.’
Catherine Schell: ‘I remember turning into a mouse. I had quite a good time turning into an ape. And I absolutely loved being the hawk. But the most fun I had was when I turned into Bernard Cribbins!’
Kevin Connor: ‘It was great fun to shoot on those sets, because you can do anything you like. I mean, anything goes, because nobody knows really about that world. “Brian the Brain” was a tongue-in-cheek story, a humorous one. Bernard Cribbins was the voice, and he’s a wonderful English comedian. We had a little dwarf inside. It was just great fun. It’s a great genre to work in.’
Bloopers: Series continuity is broken when Brian the Brain mentions that the Moonbase computer doesn’t talk – which is entirely contradictory to Year One, as well as the Year Two episodes ‘The Mark of Archanon’ and ‘All That Glisters’.
Review: ‘Brian the Brain’, written by Jack Ronder, features an excellent and dramatic opening teaser. Sadly, this has nothing to do with the episode that follows, and before long a series of stunning stupidities are being hurled at the viewer: Maya calculates that the Swift spaceship (the size, more or less, of an Eagle) is a small planet. Tony vaguely states that the Alpha computer seems to have ‘slowed up’ (another rather pointless distraction from the lack of plot). An evacuation of Alpha is undertaken and immediately abandoned, while the mystery of what pulled the Moon off course is nearly completely forgotten. Ultimately, it turns out that Brian was fooling with the computer on Alpha and the Moon never was pulled off course in the first place – but it all makes one wonder what the point was, aside from stretching a threadbare concept into an hour-long episode.
On the plus side, the Swift is a very nice ship; a finely crafted miniature incorporating an enjoyably 1970s style and feel. As with the already established Eagle and Hawk ships, the name js taken from a bird, but it’s also appealing that it implies a capacity for very high speed.
Series continuity is strained to breaking point by the disclosures about the Star Mission of 1996, involving a Mother ship and four Swift craft taking off on a major deep space exploration journey – which implies the ships were capable of faster-than-light travel. In the context of everything established in Year One, this level of technology was beyond the capacity of Earth technology at that time. Exploration in 1996 was on the scale of the Ultra Probe mission in ‘Dragon’s Domain’, which involved just a single craft within Earth’s own solar system. All the indications were that this – and potential other missions of its kind – was prohibitively expensive. The five-ship Star Mission posited by ‘Brian the Brain’ is totally out of scale for Space: 1999.
The Star Mission idea presents other
problems. Following the unbroken chain of disastrous Earth space missions from Year One (the Meta Probe, the Astro 7, the Uranus Expedition, the Voyager ships and the Ultra Probe), it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that there are yet more failed Earth missions out in space. Who funded them all? And where did the faster-than-light capability come from?
Planet D is a strikingly unique world of yellow lighting, low gravity, heavy mists, unbreathable atmosphere and dead trees covered in cobwebs. Its realisation is, in fact, excellent – thanks to Keith Wilson. Keith also got to play around with some nicely coloured Perspex while designing the interior set of the Swift, which certainly makes the episode more watchable … but when the colourful bits of Perspex are more interesting than the characters or plot, there is a clear problem.
What is annoying about Planet D is its name – had the production team run out of ideas for interesting names to give planets? Possibly it is meant to imply that it is the fourth planet in a star system, but it seems to be lazy scriptwriting when previous writers had come up with such marvellous planet names as Terra Nova, Zenno, Piri, Atheria, Ultima Thule, Ultra, Arkadia, Psychon, Golos, Vega and Pinvith the Lesser – just to cite some of the mostt memorable examples. In comparison, Planet D is insipid.
In flagrant disregard of their usual priorities, the Alphans ignore the fact that there are three Swift crafts and a Mother ship on Planet D (not to mention the fourth Swift that Brian is piloting), when they should be making every effort possible to salvage them and incorporate them into Alpha’s fleet. The potential value of these ships is incalculable, and yet no one thinks to try to fly any of them back to the Moon.
Destination: Moonbase Alpha Page 44
