Destination: Moonbase Alpha (17 page)

Gothic and philosophical in nature, this is a superior example of the series and genre. In the beginning, the space storm caused the Alphans to separate from themselves. In the resolution, the two Moons collide and time corrects itself – ‘Normality will return. There will be one Moon, one community, one time,’ says the prophetic Bergman. The agrarian and technological Alphans are reunited and are whole, pointing out that our best hope lies not in a complete focus on either extreme, but in embracing both the past and the future.

There is a haunting power to the line, ‘If you are not back on your own Moon when time does correct itself, you will have nowhere to die.’ This opens up the possibility that the Alphans could be trapped in some form of limbo or purgatory, and makes the rush to return to Alpha all the more urgent. The delivery of this line, and the entire preceding speech, constitutes some of Barry Morse’s most inspired acting, and is one of the stand-out moments in
Space: 1999
, reconfirming Professor Bergman as not just a scientist, but also a philosopher.

In all regards, this episode shows a series that has found itself. It knows what it wants to express and what it wants to leave more vaguely to the imagination of the viewer. ‘Another Time, Another Place’ is an atmospheric masterpiece that achieves the combination of style and substance, of tone and pace, and of science and mysticism with which most of the best of
Space: 1999
would remain forever associated.

Rating:
9.5/10

1.7

MISSING LINK

Screenplay by Edward di Lorenzo

Directed by Ray Austin

Selected Broadcast Dates:

UK              LWT:

             
Date: 24 January 1976.               Time: 11.30 am

             
Granada:

Date:
6 February 1976.               Time: 6.35 pm

US
              KRON (San Francisco):

             
Date: 17 January 1976.               Time: 7.00 pm

Credited Cast: Martin Landau
(John Koenig),
Barbara Bain
(Helena Russell),
Barry Morse
(Victor Bergman),
Prentis Hancock
(Paul Morrow),
Clifton Jones
(David Kano),
Zienia Merton
(Sandra Benes),
Anton Phillips
(Bob Mathias),
Nick Tate
(Alan Carter)

Guest Artist: Joanna Dunham
(Vana)

Special Guest Star: Peter Cushing
(Raan)

Uncredited Cast: Patrick Brock
(Zennite),
Suzanne Roquette
(Tanya Alexander),
June Bolton
(Operative June),
Andrew Dempsey
,
Christine Donna
,
Robert Phillips
,
Alan Harris
(Main Mission Operatives),
Tony Allyn
(Security Guard Tony Allan)

Plot:
Koenig’s Eagle crash-lands on the lunar surface, leaving the Commander near death. While Helena struggles to save him, the society of Moonbase Alpha begins to crumble without his leadership. Koenig, meanwhile, finds himself in a fabulous city on the planet Zenno, where he meets the alien anthropologist Raan and his daughter Vana, and learns that the Alphans are the Zennites’ missing link.

Quotes:

• Raan:
  ‘This is my home. It is made of light. Outside is our city, one of many. … A city of light. Light is alive. Colour is alive. Magnificent. Ah – at last you are impressed.’
  
• Koenig:
  ‘Every scientist makes that claim. The end justifies the means.’
  
• Koenig:
  ‘Without feeling hate, one cannot feel the joy of love.’
  
• Duplicate Victor:
  ‘Oh, don’t philosophise, John! Not with me. I’m not talking about Sandra – I’m talking about everything! When are we going to stop kidding ourselves? We’re never going to get off this rock. This is our tomb! We walk about here breathing, but we’re not living, we’re existing! I tell you, I’ve just about had enough of it. I want to live like a human being again.’
  
• Duplicate Victor:
  ‘How does it feel to play God every day?’
  
• Alan:
  ‘Tanya, you have the most beautiful voice in the world.’
  
• Raan:
  ‘As a scientist I owe it to humanity to learn all I can. It is the only way to help man; to bring him closer to his true destiny.’
  
• Helena
  :
  ‘It may simply be John’s time to die.’
  
• Vana:
  ‘A world without fear.’
  
• Raan:
  ‘Until tomorrow, John Koenig. Until tomorrow …’
  

Filming Dates:
Monday 22 April – Thursday 9 May 1974

Monday 22 July 1974
(Second Unit)

Incidental Music:
From the
Stingray
episode ‘Ghost of the Sea’, composed by Barry Gray. Utilised here for the Zennite city, it is later used as ‘Kara’s Theme’ in the episode ‘Mission of the Darians’.

‘Vana’s Theme’, consisting of electronic organ music, was composed for ‘Breakaway’ by Barry Gray, with the intent that it would be used as a general establishing theme for views of Moonbase Alpha. This never happened, and the theme features only in this one episode, projected from Vana’s mind.

Commentary:

Zienia Merton:
‘One of the funniest incidents I can remember … They built a huge tent [for “Missing Link”] and they pumped it full of dry ice to get a misty effect. The cameramen were given directions, and they got lost! We couldn’t see anybody in that mist. It was Ray Austin who directed. I said, “Listen Ray, how far is this mist coming up?” and he said, “To Martin’s chin.” You know how little I am, so I said, “Well, if it’s coming up to Martin’s chin, I can throw my lines in. I needn’t appear. All Martin has to do is hold a black mop for the top of my head.” He said, “Yes, I see what you mean.” We had marks to walk forward to, but there was no point because we couldn’t see anything. It was absolutely fogged up. Poor Gladys, the continuity lady – who always sits on a stool – we never saw poor Gladys the whole time we were doing that.

‘It was a marvellous show, but you get very wet as well in the dry ice, and it’s an awful feeling. And of course I had these pajamas on – I won’t tell you what it felt like. Between each take, of course, they’d pump in more dry ice as well, because it evaporates so quickly. It’s a wonderful effect, and it was terribly funny as well. Because, as you know, Peter [Cushing] brings me back, and the running gag was that because I was so small, every time I had to do a shot they’d stand me on something or else everybody else had to take their boots off. I remember turning around, and there was this great trestle table suspended six feet off the ground and I said, “Hey, I’m not that short!” But the effect they wanted was to make it look as if we were floating in the air, and it was a marvellous effect. “Missing Link” was good, and it was nice my knowing that something was wrong … because of course in the Eagle crash both Martin and I had head injuries, and that’s why we could go to Zenno.

‘Poor Joanna was in a costume that she couldn’t even sit down in, so they gave her this thing that made her look like a Mummy … a sort of thing with armrests, and that’s where she rested. She couldn’t sit down. Peter could sit down. And that gold paint as well – that wasn‘t pleasant and took hours to apply.’

Nick Tate:
‘Peter Cushing was a charming man, and an extraordinary actor.’

Anton Phillips:
‘Peter Cushing in “Missing Link” was terrific. I really liked him. He was such a charming, charming person. And he was always impeccably polite to you, and complimentary. He really was nice. Of all our guest stars, he was the one that made the most impact on me, because he was such a nice person. And then there was Christopher Lee [in “Earthbound”], who was not like Peter Cushing. He was very, very grand.’

[Regarding a fight scene in ‘Missing Link’ between Alan Carter and Bob Mathias:] ‘[Nick Tate] knocked me. He didn’t knock me out. He made a mistake. We’d rehearsed the fight all morning, and all I had to do was hold him (with both arms on his shoulders), and he had to break free, step back and throw a punch past my chin. So he broke free but instead of stepping back he stepped forward, and it took me across the chin. That was my involvement with the scene. After that, my stunt man, Paul Weston, came in. The rest of it was him fighting. I think Nick was really very shocked when that happened. Because he thought he would hurt me, and he didn’t. He was surprised that I didn’t go down!’

Martin Landau:
[Regarding Nick Tate accidentally hitting Anton Phillips during the filming of ‘Missing Link’] ‘Yes, I remember that. I don’t believe in that. When you actually hit someone, it doesn’t look as good. Most of the time, you cry. I hate to see a grown man cry.’

Johnny Byrne:
‘Ed [di Lorenzo] wrote “Missing Link” and “Ring Around the Moon”, but they were heavily re-written by Chris [Penfold]. Wonderful man though he was, and a writer with a delicate touch and philosophical feel, Ed had problems with the type of story needed for
Space: 1999
at the time. His great love was the book he was writing. I think it was called
White Light
, and like his script work, it was poetic, delicate, a sort of post-hippy
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
(Chris’s description). According to Chris, Ed left because he was fed up with the rewrite demands, and anyhow, his book was his first priority. I was very sad and disappointed when he left, because I felt he would have grown into the series and thus made it all the more special.’

Bloopers:
When the Eagle crashes at the start of the episode, to the left of the ship one of the small special effects explosions detonates and launches a puff of dust where it shouldn’t be.A second error marks an obvious continuity flaw. Or does it? The name Koenig is misspelled ‘Keonig’ on the duplicate Alpha’s medical monitor. In an adjacent scene, the spelling is shown correctly. Was this a mistake, or was it a sign to Koenig that something was wrong? Was it meant to demonstrate a degree of fallibility on Raan’s part?

One definite mistake occurs as the nose cone of the crashed Eagle is lifted away from the body of the ship – interior shots show the Stewardess Section of the ship being moved, which is clearly not the case when you see the exterior angle. The same error will be seen again in ‘Dragon’s Domain’.

Observations:
The Main Mission set receives a revamp with this episode, as Kano’s revolving desk appears for the first time.

One entertaining story that is sometimes told in relation to this episode concerns Barry Morse’s hair. Morse believed that Victor Bergman would have matters of greater importance on his mind than his appearance, so the actor didn’t have his hair cut throughout the filming of the entire series. If you watch, you’ll see it getting longer as the episodes continue.

This wasn’t the first time modern film science fiction retold Shakespeare’s
The Tempest
(see the classic movie
Forbidden Planet
) and it wouldn’t be the last (see
Space: 1999
’s upcoming Year Two opener ‘The Metamorph’ and
Doctor Who
’s ‘Planet of Evil’.)

Of interest to
Space: 1999
trivia fans – in real life, there is an impact crater on the Moon called Zeno in honor of the philosopher.

Review:
This episode is the second teaming of writer Edward di Lorenzo and director Ray Austin (the other being the abstract ‘Ring Around the Moon’), and is di Lorenzo’s final script for the series. ‘Missing Link’ is filled with tension, character drama and emotion on both Alpha and Zenno. The special effects, cinematography and direction beautifully combine with a perfectly fitting musical score (mysterious and lovely) during Koenig’s journey from the crash site to Zenno. The tumbling Eagle and the crash itself are certainly some of the finest Eagle effect sequences in the series. The story excels once the magical world of Zenno is shown; it’s no wonder Koenig believed it to be all a dream. The planet is wonderfully presented through the use of a convincing matte painting, given life by an overlay of moving lights.

‘Missing Link’ is a fairly straightforward re-telling of Shakespeare’s
The Tempest
, in which Prospero possesses magical powers and lives on an island with his daughter Miranda. (Here we have Raan and daughter Vana on the planet Zenno.) The play opens with Prospero discovering that his brother Antonio is passing nearby on a ship. Prospero summons the tempest to cause the ship to wreck on the shores of his island. Also in the boat is Ferdinand, whom Prospero encourages into a relationship with his daughter. The two fall in love quickly, though Prospero worries about the strength of the relationship. In the end, Prospero uses magic to return everyone to Italy, as Raan does to return Koenig to Moonbase Alpha.
The Tempest
is essentially a romance, as is ‘Missing Link’, featuring a tale set far from ordinary life, in an exotic locale. Koenig serves as a composite of both Antonio and Ferdinand – flying nearby Zenno in his Eagle, crashing, and then falling in love with Vana. Koenig is also symbolic of Prospero’s brother, as he is a ‘missing link’ between the Zennites and their ancient ancestors – essentially a distant part of Raan’s ‘family’. Raan does say, ‘His blood is our blood,’ though Koenig is also the missing link between a purely emotional state and an entirely logical one. Common romance themes include loss and retrieval, and exile and reunion – in ‘Missing Link’, Alpha loses and then regains its commander, and Koenig is trapped on Zenno and then later reunited with Helena.