Filming Date: Saturday 27 April 2002.
JUDGEMENT
If longevity is valued as a sign of success, then Space: 1999 remains triumphant indeed. Now, decades after the show’s original run ended in 1977, fans continue to gather at conventions around the world to celebrate it. Many people continue to hold Space: 1999 in high regard as the most spectacular space science fiction series ever produced for television. Very few programmes can lay claim to the unyielding endurance of Space: 1999, or the stalwart passion of its fans.
In the opening of this book, both positive and negative critical responses to the series during its original run were presented. Well, the passing of decades hasn’t changed things in this regard, and in this new millennium the show continues to elicit fresh reviews as passionately conflicted as those of the 1970s. Negative views include:
‘Uniquely for a television show, Space: 1999 always managed to be less than the sum of its title sequences. They were, without exception, pulse-troublingly fab… And each week we would dupe ourselves that yes, this time it would be the funky, sexy experience it promised to be and not the tedious old tommyrot it always was.’[27]
‘Unfortunately, the science is often insane, and the stories range from intriguing to dumb.’[28]
‘It’s hard to develop much empathy with a crew who seem as distant as their surroundings … Everything depicted in this show is very flat. Perhaps that was a creative decision to reflect the bleakness of space. While there’s a certain logic to that, from a dramatic standpoint, it doesn’t work. It does look marvellous, though.’[29]
‘While the first season offered talkative and methodically paced stories, the second season tried to capture the quickly-fading attention span of American viewers with more action and humour – not necessarily a good thing for a serious sci-fi show.’[30]
‘From the stiff acting to rip-offs of Star Trek plotlines to the I-can-see-the-strings special effects, this is painful stuff … Space: 1999 isn’t so much science fiction as it is science mysticism, with weird things just randomly happening to the Moonbase … If you liked the tone of the last few seasons of The X-Files, in which nothing really made sense but everything seemed important, you may appreciate Space: 1999’s mystical tendencies… If you’re nostalgic for the days when you could hang an entire episode around a single space warp, go ahead and revisit Space: 1999.’ [31]
While those critics continue to be harshly judgmental of the series, there are also many who come up with favourable reviews:
‘Space: 1999 approached the genre differently, placing its characters in a far less controlled, bleaker situation than ever before. The question for the Alphans, certainly when the series was at its best, was never “What do we find out now?” but rather “How do we survive long enough to find it out?” The first season plays this card particularly strongly, and enters some surprisingly dark territory as a result. The series would move away from this theme but at its best, Space: 1999 remains a combination of sheer pulp energy and some genuinely surprising, very human stories.’[32]
‘Space: 1999 was less science fiction than a trippy journey through the Me Decade, with plots that focused inordinately on mind control, demonic possession, the quest for nirvana, would-be messiahs and other hallmarks of an era of expanding consciousness. The whole notion of the Moon cut loose reflected a Watergate-era mentality of unprecedented chaos … Commander John Koenig and Dr Helena Russell were, in effect, parent figures, looking for a new Eden where their charges could be fruitful and multiply.’[33]
‘Space: 1999 is as good-looking and lush as any series of the 1970s … At the very least, the show must be given its due for visual splendour and general ambition. Its contemporaneous fans included the peerless rocket scientist Wernher von Braun; a notable naysayer was SF writer Isaac Asimov, who unnecessarily picked the show apart on scientific grounds in a 1975 piece for the New York Times. Asimov was nitpicking. Braun, conversely, remarked that the show “characterises mankind’s exploration of space.” We tend to the latter view.’[34]
‘The DVD release will electrify the legions of cultists in this country and abroad who have grabbed on to the show as if it were Star Trek … “They wanted the TV successor to 2001: A Space Odyssey,” said Scott Bosco, a writer and consultant on DVD projects … “They wanted grand sets and costumes and special effects not even seen in films, an action series but cerebral and driven through theory and mysticism, raising questions of life and the creation of the universe …” Today the show looks remarkably good, a testament to the expense of each episode … [And] for the first year, Space: 1999 tackled big issues. Lead characters performed nobly.’[35]
‘The first batch offers eight or nine of the greatest pieces of TV science fiction ever put on film. The superb effects are obvious, as is the starkly impressive design of Main Mission, but it’s easy to overlook the arc-plot embracing the first season. It’s understated and entirely dependent on seeing certain episodes in the correct order.’[36]
‘Space: 1999 was without doubt the most lavish television series made up to that point. Its tremendously high production values, including absolutely first-rate model work and special effects, stand up particularly well … The original concepts and storylines were a first in TV terms and its thinking person’s approach to sci-fi is easily the nearest any television series has come to the science-fiction of the literary world.’[37]
While the critics will undoubtedly continue to be divided over its merits – as they always have been – the fact is that these 48 episodes from the 1970s (through all their highs and lows) continue to generate fervent discussion, rather than fading into history. So long as this discourse continues, the series will remain as vital and as stimulating as when it began, and so long as there is an audience enjoying it, Space: 1999 can be judged a triumph and the odyssey of Moonbase Alpha will continue.
HINDSIGHT: 1999
Alpha: 2012 was a Space: 1999 convention held in Burbank, California in September 2012, with guests including series stars Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Nick Tate, Prentis Hancock and Anton Phillips, and script editor and writer Christopher Penfold. This event included discussion sessions with the guests, which provided a wonderful sense of nostalgia and numerous entertaining anecdotes. All of the quotes in this section are specifically drawn from that event.
Barbara Bain’s recollections included memories of her daughters, prior to moving to England: ‘There were a couple questions the kids asked. My older daughter wanted to know if she would ahve to wear a uniform at school, and said that if she did, she wasn’t going. I said, “No, you don’t have to wear a uniform at school,” and she said, “Okay, then I’m going.” That ruled that out. With my younger daughter, I went in and said (which is a feeble thing a parent does – you learn), “Would you like to go to England?” And she said, “Do I have a choice?” We made it an adventure; it was an adventure for them. And they learned to keep in touch with their friends [in the US] by writing letters. So they actually rediscovered the art of letter writing … Everything about [moving to England] was fine. You know, if you’re an actor, what does it matter changing where you live? You’re already half a gypsy; or even a whole gypsy, I don’t know. But the point is you’re used to going where the work is. That’s what you do …
‘There were some questions when we went to England, because we were going to be so “seen.” [Our daughters] came to us and said, “We want a meeting … Will you not go to school with us at first?” They wanted to be able to make friends and not have their friends say, “Oh, your parents are on television,” or whatever they would say. They wanted to find their way. They also wanted not to be driven in that Rolls; they thought that was really disgusting. So I said, “Here’s your choice, you can walk (it’s about 18 blocks, but you can walk – you’re young; you’re strong), or you can take the bus. You have to think of it as a piece of transportation: you get in, you get out, and you get to the place you’re going. And if that doesn’t do it for you, check the Daiml
ers that are out in front of the school.” So the Rolls was like nothing at that school. But we came to a compromise: they got driven almost to the school. They did not want to get out of a Rolls Royce and go to school, and I didn’t blame them.’
Martin Landau also recalled: ‘It was very good for my family. My kids got out of a school in Beverly Hills; they went to school with a lot of people from all over the world; from oil workers’ and embassy staff’s kids to even CIA agents’ kids, which I didn’t know about at the time. The experience was a joyful one, and Barbara and I were still together …’
As the actors were coming on board to star in the series, the writers were working behind-the-scenes, as Christopher Penfold remembered: ‘It’s probably not widely appreciated how much the show was shaped by the first script, which was initially written by George Bellack. Having a powerful role for a woman at the head of the show was hugely emphasised by George, as indeed was the whole ethnic diversity of the cast. That is one of the great things I remember George Bellack for … In the script department we had that amazingly free hand. The trio of George Bellack (initially), and Johnny and I, were able to set the tone of the series, which did have literary and philosophical aspirations, which [the fans] seem to appreciate, which is very nice.
‘We didn’t sit down and write together. We had story meetings between ourselves. After George’s departure, mainly it was between Johnny and me. We would talk the story through and then disappear into our separate rooms and write … I’ve spent my life either as a writer or as a script editor, and I’ve tried always to separate them out, and of course it wasn’t very easy to do that on Space: 1999 series one, but the way in which we tried to do it was that Johnny would edit me and I would edit Johnny.’
Penfold also recalled, ‘What was so exciting about Space: 1999 from the beginning – as you know, it grew out of UFO – was the decision that was taken to move it away from Earth and out into space. I think all the people on the original creative team – Brian Johnson, Keith Wilson, myself – were very excited about that prospect. What was so great about Gerry and Sylvia was that they also had a real sense of how that was going to present them with a completely original opportunity. And so we went to work on the scripts with a sense that we were doing a kind of science fiction for television that perhaps hadn’t been done before. I think of it as the thinking man’s science fiction.’
Prentis Hancock said of his first day filming: ‘I think the day we walked onto the set, the guy sitting next to me said, “We could be here in five years,” and I said, “We could be doing this in wheelchairs” – I meant that we could be doing it for a long time. It was sad that we didn’t. It could have gone on for a long time.’
The impression the sets made on the actors remains to this day, as Martin Landau recalled: ‘I think in the first year we did some more interesting work, and I felt the first main set, with the opening [from the Commander’s Office to Main Mission] and the desk – even though it was vast and big and took more time to shoot because it was harder to light – there was something very theatrical about that set itself. It didn’t look like anything else. The next Main Mission, [the Command Centre], became much more conventional, I felt. Although we did do some interesting shows; [“One Moment of Humanity”] with Billie Whitelaw that Charlie [Crichton] directed, [for example].’
Nick Tate also spoke on the subject of the sets: ‘In Main Mission it felt big. The room was all there, the ceiling was in, and all the furniture was around you, so you had a sense of being in the place. But in the Eagles we were at a console and the whole thing was open, and the whole studio floor was out there with 60 film crew walking around eating their sandwiches from the commissary, and the camera there, and guys waving around and stuff … And you’re supposed to believe you’re in space with nothing out there whatsoever … except 60 crew… And you know, they weren’t always being very professional. I was in the middle of a serious scene and I saw one guy come up to another, and he grabbed hold of this guy’s pants and pulled them down. He pantsed a guy! And I’m saying, “Commander, there’s a ….” Charlie Crichton goes, “Cut, cut! What are you doing? Why did you stop there?” “Uh … I uh, I just had a funny moment Charlie, that’s it.” You couldn’t tell on the guy; they would have fired him. Then I had to go to the guy and say, “Don’t pants somebody when I’m out in space!”’
Nick Tate also remembered occasional challenges with the spacesuit costumes: ‘There was an episode in which Martin and Barbara and I were all in the spacesuits together during the time that it was the hottest summer in history in England, in1976, and the air conditioning broke down on Stage L that we were working on. And everybody was walking around wearing shorts and T-shirts, but Martin, Barbara and I had to wear these bloody suits, which were like being in Swiss sleeping bags; in fact I think they made them out of Swiss sleeping bags. They were full suits, like jump suits. You had to put the whole things on, and yet we were being shot half the time only from [chest] up. So what we did was we took [the pants] off and just had the tops on. We were sitting there in our bare legs, and I had little more than underpants on, and there we were sitting in the Eagle.’
Of his character, Anton Phillips said: ‘I thought about [Bob Mathias] as being a very efficient guy, and someone who was on top of his game, who could be relied on. He wasn’t thrown by anything, in spite of the weird things that were thrown at him … I’ve played other doctors in various television things where you have to deal with a broken arm or something, which is quite different. Here you were looking at dials and reading things off screens and so on, which we hadn’t quite got to stage of yet. 1999 must have seemed far enough away for all this fantastic stuff to be happening. But here we are in 2012 and we haven’t even got a man on the moon, so perhaps it should have been set 100 years ahead; and even then I’m not sure we’d have that kind of space station and facilities to be self-sustaining … So we’re a long way away from a Space: 1999. I read a lot of science fiction books and some of them are set in the far distant future where all sorts of strange things are happening … We’re only just catching up with George Orwell’s 1984 – and circling Britain certain aspects of it are becoming more and more real in as much as the population is under more and more observation, which certainly suggests what Orwell said in 1984, where everyone is watched all the time. If you walk through the streets of London they estimate you are photographed something like 300 times during your walk from one side of the city to the other. So we are coming on well with that police state aspect of Orwell’s book.’
Of the scripts, Prentis Hancock said: ‘We had a script read every fortnight. Martin and Barbara, I suspect, would have already looked at the script with the writers. We [the supporting cast] were included, but not included. It was difficult, because we had an enormous amount of people working on the show. There were three stars, and then you had me. I led the second line billing, if you like. In America that part would have been billed, but of course we in Britain didn’t do things in the American style completely in those days. We didn’t take billing very seriously. But in the rear-end crawl, I was always top of the list. Those people on the rear-end crawl were invited to the script reading, but in fact the comment from us was quite a way down the line. It would be Barbara first and then Martin … We did [have input], but not hugely. Not enough to disturb the pond.’
Contractual issues were a problem that Nick Tate recalled: ‘We [the supporting cast] did have a network contract. Martin and Barbara had some other deal with America, but we were signed to the British Equity contract, which was a network contract only. And it was pretty tough for us, because we therefore weren’t involved in the syndication. It made it even tougher when Abe Mandell made it very clear and boasted that they had the largest syndication deal ever in the history of television for Space: 1999. And the British actors didn’t have that contract.’
Martin Landau recalled some of the technical aspects of filming Space: 1999: ‘We were the only show in Britain at the time sh
ooting on film. Everything else was on tape. Everything. And this gave a lot of work not only to actors, but also to technicians, camera people … This is why they actually let Barbara and me do the show, because the British do protect their actors. Even Broadway shows that go there from the States can only play a limited time there before the British company takes over. We don’t do that here. In fact, there are probably more British and Australian actors on television [in the US] than there are American. But think of that – we were the only show in our first season shooting film on a weekly television show. Everything else was on tape. And 35mm; it wasn’t 16mm.’
Nick Tate agreed: ‘Going onto that show was like being in the Moon program. It was the most high-tech thing I’d ever seen in my life. We were using full 35mm Panasonic feature film cameras with feature film crews. Every episode was like shooting a mini feature film.’
Christopher Penfold explained how the majority of his episodes came to be directed by Charlie Crichton: ‘There’s a certain amount of maneuvering that you can do as the story consultant … I had a wonderful relationship with Charlie, and I suppose I ought to confess that when I had an episode coming up, I would slot it into the schedule when I knew Charlie would be on the job.’
Barbara Bain recalled an incident that occurred one day: ‘We had a flat tyre in Mayfair, in that Rolls, so Ray the driver said, “It’s a bit awkward, madam.” What’s a bit awkward? So we got out of the car. Martin was always complaining about the car, “Why am I being driven around in this fancy car, I don’t like it, etc …” So we got out and we were walking around Mayfair while Ray was fixing the car, and I said to Martin, “Don’t tell me this isn’t the best flat tyre you ever had.” He never complained again …
Destination: Moonbase Alpha Page 60
