Destination: Moonbase Alpha (31 page)

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Authors: Robert E. Wood

BOOK: Destination: Moonbase Alpha
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Previously Titled:
‘The Second Sex’ and ‘The Other Enemy’.

 

Plot:
Moonbase Alpha drifts into the middle of an ancient and ongoing battle between two worlds, Betha and Delta, which circle their sun in opposite orbits. Both alien worlds see the arrival of the Moon as an opportunity to set up missile platforms to attack each other, and the Alphans find themselves attempting to mediate – and survive – an alien war.

 

Quotes:

  • Koenig:
    ‘I would love to remain neutral. But my idea of neutrality is not being a sitting duck and being shot at by both sides.’
  • Koenig:
    ‘Protect Alpha? What do you care about Alpha? You send up reinforcements, they send up reinforcements. You fire at their reinforcements, and they fire at your reinforcements. And where the hell are we? We’re the little guy in the middle. No thank you, lady – it’s not our war.’
  • Victor:
    ‘What a waste – total waste. Still, perhaps some good will come of it. Maybe now they’ll learn to live together.’
  • Koenig:
    ‘Yeah, too late. They’ve got their war, and we have all of space in which to find a home … somewhere.’

 

Filming Dates:
Friday 8 November – Tuesday 19 November 1974

Tuesday 25 February –
Thursday 27 February 1975

 

Incidental Music:
Includes ‘Cosmic Sounds No. 3’ by Georges Teperino (previously heard in ‘Force of Life’), from the Chappell Recorded Music Library.

 

Commentary:

Martin Landau:
‘I’ve always loved the genre … I’ve always felt that science fiction allows the most interesting writing to come through, because it can draw parallels to things that are happening today, but in interesting ways. And at the same time, it can entertain people while revealing things to them and informing them. I always felt a show like
Space: 1999
or
Star Trek
allowed you to do that. I remember one of the episodes of
Space: 1999
where our Moon is hurtling through space and becomes caught virtually between two warring planets [‘The Last Enemy’]. At the same time, Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State was in the throes of doing the very same things. On
Space: 1999
we were able to take that and turn it into something that we hoped would make people aware of [the current events], and hopefully entertain and inform them. It’s easier to do timely and topical and philosophical and psychological drama as point of view in a science fiction format. I’ve always liked that. Isaac Asimov was somebody who fascinated me, as did the older writers, like Jules Verne and H G Wells. I was fascinated when I was a kid by artists’ renditions of what the future would look like. They used to have, from time to time, true glimpses into the future, and I’d see things that were obviously fanciful, but that allowed my imagination to travel.’

 

Johnny Byrne:
‘A lot of money [was] spent on some episodes that were unacceptable [as originally shot], making them acceptable for the screen. I remember one ghastly occasion – it was on “The Last Enemy” – where Caroline Mortimer strides about as a dominatrix and she’s trying to get her steel barbs into Koenig. I remember being with David Lane, post-production, with two editing machines, looking at everybody’s position in those scenes to write things that would link them up and make sense out of something that had not happened. That should not have happened. And a lot of money was spent trying to make something that I think had always been an unacceptably low-grade episode into an acceptable one. Whereas the money should have been spent on making good stories better. There were lessons to be learned from that.’

 

Bloopers:
Moonbase Alpha is being bombarded, buildings are being blown up and Helena clearly makes a statement that casualties are mounting … Somehow by the end of the episode there have been no casualties and Helena announces that there are only five cases of middle ear damage on the base.

 

Observations:
The sequence of
Satazius
flying over Moonbase Alpha would later appear in an episode of
Wonder Woman
titled ‘Time Bomb’. The borrowed effects footage was given the added caption, ‘Planet Earth: November 10, 2155.’ (Also borrowed for that episode of the Lynda Carter series were shots of the domed cities of future Earth from Year Two’s ‘Journey to Where’.)

In the opening credits, one can see the Moonbase Alpha surface tanks that will feature in the later episode ‘The Infernal Machine’. However, they do not appear within the episode itself.

Additional scenes were scripted by Johnny Byrne and filmed at the end of the season (following ‘The Testament of Arkadia’), because the episode ran short. As Byrne recalled, ‘One major post-production event was the re-shooting of parts of the story starring Caroline Mortimer. Editing machines had to be set up and complex moments rewritten and shot to fit in with the existing material. David Lane directed these re-shoots.’ The additional scenes included the ending, and account for a lot of the episode’s visual inconsistencies.

 

Review:
Following the triumph of ‘War Games’, the disappointment of ‘The Last Enemy’ was almost inevitable. It is a very simplistic action script containing none of the metaphysical or philosophical aspects of the series. It is an obvious attempt to showcase the battle of the sexes: the Bethans shown are all women and the only Deltan shown is a man. But it’s a muddled battle lacking detail.

The views of Dione’s spaceship
Satazius
, and of Betha as the ship launches, are stunning. The name
Satazius
is rather appropriately derived from Sabazios, who was the God of the sky for the ancient Phrygians and Thracians.
Satazius
is one of the most spectacular spacecraft featured in the series, having some interesting similarities to the design of the original
Battlestar Galactica
.

The surface of Betha is depicted by an impressive matte painting – notable as this technique was used only rarely on
Space: 1999
. The Deltan battleship is the bomber from ‘War Games’, which has been painted yellow for this episode. Special effects are frequent, but they are also a bit repetitive and sometimes less than convincing, such as the paltry flames trailing the alien missiles. However, there is a truly classic visual sequence as a remote-controlled Moon Buggy (with an empty spacesuit simulating Koenig) heads toward
Satazius
, which is parked on the lunar surface. As the buggy nears the ship, the spacesuit helmet falls off and lands in the lunar dust. It is a very effective and highly memorable scene.

An early flaw in the script is the volatile Koenig ordering Eagles up with an intention to attack. This is too aggressive an action for his character, especially after the lesson learned in ‘War Games’. This episode also features the worst over-use of sound in space; the missiles flying over Alpha cause deafening sound and vibration inside the base.

Caroline Mortimer is capable in her large role as the arrogant Dione, although she is not among the best of the guest actors featured in
Space: 1999
. The less said about her motorbike outfit and helmet, the better; this costume is not one of Keith Wilson’s finer efforts. Thankfully the regular supporting cast – Hancock, Tate and Merton – all have interesting, if minor, parts to play. During the course of the show, Dione seeks asylum on Moonbase Alpha and Commander Koenig has her share Sandra’s living quarters. Of course, Koenig probably felt it was safer for Alpha to have someone keep an eye on Dione. During the filming, Zienia Merton wrote a joking note to Martin Landau that said, ‘When I volunteered for this job it was on the understanding I would have private quarters, and I’m not sharing with a ruddy alien.’

The script is plodding and repetitive, holding the episode back from achieving the potential that might have been contained within the basic concept. As it is, it has nothing substantial or insightful to say about the gender war. It has been widely reported that ‘The Last Enemy’ was based on an idea conceived by Barbara Bain, and that she prompted Bob Kellett in the writing of it. He, as the story goes, never quite grasped what she was trying to achieve. Perhaps if he had, ‘The Last Enemy’ might have been a successful episode. This was Bob Kellett’s final turn directing for the series (following ‘Voyager’s Return’ and ‘The Full Circle’) and the nadir of his efforts. His previous segments were more successful, particularly ‘Voyager’s Return’, which thanks to the script by Johnny Byrne feels united to the general tone of the series and contains levels of depth and substantial allegorical thought. Unlike fellow directors David Tomblin, Charles Crichton and Ray Austin, Bob Kellett left little memorable impact on the series.

This is an uncharacteristic episode that largely fails to fit within the realm of Year One. Beyond some of the special effects and the weakly stated lesson on the futility of war, there remains little to praise about ‘The Last Enemy’.

 

Rating:
5/10

 

 

1.19

THE TROUBLED SPIRIT

 

 

Screenplay by Johnny Byrne

Directed by Ray Austin

 

Selected Broadcast Dates:

UK              LWT:

             
Date: 14 February 1976.               Time: 11.30 am

             
Granada:

             
Date: 27 February 1976.               Time: 6.35 pm

US
              KRON (San Francisco):

             
Date: 7 February 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 Artists: Giancarlo Prete
(Dan Mateo),
Hilary Dwyer
(Laura Adams),
Anthony Nicholls
(Dr James Warren)

 

Uncredited Cast: Jim Sullivan
(Musician),
Val Musetti
(Spirit Mateo),
Suzanne Roquette
(Tanya Alexander),
Sarah Bullen
(Operative Kate),
Loftus Burton
(Operative Lee Oswald),
Binu Balini
,
Andrew Dempsey
,
Jan Rennison
,
Andy Sutcliffe
,
Maggie Wright
(Main Mission Operatives),
Tony Allyn
(Security Guard Pierce Quinton),
Quentin Pierre
(Security Guard Pierce Quinton),
John Clifford
(Security Guard in Concert),
Xanthi Gardner
(Botanist),
Vernon Morris
(Botanist),
Christopher Williams
(Medical Orderly),
Jeannie Galston
,
Judith Hepburn
(Nurses),
Robert Atiko
,
Eddy Nedari
,
Richard Shore
(Alphans)

 

Plot:
Dan Mateo conducts a scientific seance to establish contact between human minds and plants, but this results in the awakening of a spirit on Alpha. This horribly disfigured apparition has come from the future to avenge its own death, which hasn’t happened yet! No matter what efforts the Alphans make to save Mateo, the Alphan is inextricably drawn towards his predestined demise.

 

Quotes:

  • Helena
    :
    ‘You’re probing into areas of the mind we know very little about. Of course, that’s what makes it so fascinating.’
  • Victor:
    ‘Whether we believe in the occult or not, there is a tradition in our culture of ghosts, spirits; some force that continues to work after death, coming back in search of revenge or justice or whatever. But this thing that Mateo has summoned up is coming back to avenge a terrible death – its own death, which has not happened yet.’
  • Mateo:
    ‘We are living out here in space, living on borrowed time. If only one of our essential support systems fails, maybe we’ll survive. But if our food chain goes, we are finished. My work is important because I know it can increase the margin of survival.’
  • Sandra:
    ‘Does it matter what it is or where it came from? The important thing is that it is here, amongst us.’
  • Helena
    :
    ‘Life and death. Still the big questions … the greatest mysteries.’

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