Destination: Moonbase Alpha (75 page)

Tony Anholt also spoke of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain: ‘I think Martin and Barbara were very involved. They were the stars of the show, and if it was a disaster it would be that much more difficult for them to work as actor and actress subsequently. Whereas if the show became a big success and was acclaimed, then they’d go up in the ratings, and so their livelihoods and their careers would develop further. So it was very much in their personal self-interest to make the show work. Plus, they’re very professional. They were always there, turned up on time, knew the lines and didn’t muck about. One has worked with other people who, because they’re the stars, think that nothing moves without them. But there was nothing of that with Martin and Barbara.’

Zienia Merton remembered:
‘We were working with amazingly top-notch English directors. We had an extremely good crew. I would like everybody to remember one name – Frank Watts, our lighting man. He was terrific. It’s thanks to Frank Watts that we had the quality on that show. Frank was on it both series; he was a delightful man. There was nothing he didn’t know, and it was his meticulousness that made sure that all the sets and shots were set up … My God, the pressure on that! We were doing a television series like it was a movie. That shows – all these years later, the quality is terrific. It stands up. As well as the [model effects] boys at Bray, everyone should remember Frank Watts, because he did an awful lot and he’s kind of been overlooked a bit.’

On the subject of the show’s costumes, Merton said: ‘We would break for lunch at 1.00. Because we were in our costumes, they were terrified that we would pour soup or ketchup or brown sauce over them. So, we had these hairdresser’s little nylon slips. The boys had blue and the girls had pink. And we used to put them all on and then go off and have lunch, so we wouldn’t make nasty messes on our frocks.

‘All I can say is that I found the costumes ghastly. My tummy is not made for costumes like that. We always used to know the shots that were before or after lunch, because there were very pained expressions after lunch, while we were trying to look svelte. The poor wardrobe department had a terrible job trying to keep the uniforms clean and in shape, and with the top coming down over the hips, well, you just ended up “hippy”. I always maintained that I didn’t think that we should have been in uniform anyway, because it wasn’t a military base. We used to make up little stories – like Sandra Benes volunteered for duty on Alpha to get away from all the kids in her terribly large family … things like that. At Cape Canaveral they don’t dress in actual uniforms. They dress smartly, but casually. I mean, Main Mission and Alpha were still a job – it wasn’t an army base. I felt they should have done what is practiced in some schools: you could wear what you liked, within reason, as long as it was navy blue and white, or something along those lines. The sleeves were useful, to identify the various sections, but I didn’t like the skirts. Again, this was thrown in as a sort of “Let’s see a bit of leg” sort of thing. I’m not a women’s libber, but I resent it as being there just to titillate an audience.

‘We had another problem, because the costumes were so fitting. There were lots of embarrassing shots of the guys. Not good in profile. I think that by the second day all guys had to wear jock straps. The women – no nipples – no protuberances: no protuberances on Alpha of any sort.’

Of her group of supporting characters, Merton states: ‘I [christened them] in Year One “The Second Eleven”, which is a cricketing term that means they are the inferior side – but if all else fails, bring them out! You know – Nick, Prentis, Clifton, Anton Phillips and me. Even Gerry Anderson – who’s not actually known for his humour – called it the Second Eleven, and we used to post notices saying, “The Second Eleven invites the crew to drinks tonight.” Things like that … But so much for the Second Eleven in Year Two – it was missing.’

Catherine Schell said: ‘I don’t go to see rushes. I go into a terrible depression and it’s awful. When we started doing
Space: 1999
, Martin and Barbara went to rushes every night and they forced me – well, they didn’t
force
me, [but they said] “Come on, Catherine, you’ve got to go. You’ve got to go.” So I thought, “If this is really being professional, then I have to go and watch myself,” and I walked out totally depressed. So I said, “Why do you do this? What are you learning from it?” Of course, Barbara was learning the best camera angles … Hands always above the elbows, which makes you look a bit like a puppet. And never move your neck, because you might get a wrinkle … I’m sorry, Barbara, but that’s not what you should go to rushes for. You should try to be as natural as you can … It’s a torture for me to watch myself; it’s a waste of time. I think it actually harms. It isn’t part of my job to watch myself. My job is to present myself and what has been written for me.

‘Martin and I were great mates and we laughed a great deal together. It was a pleasure to work with him, and when we finished, we kept in contact. He used to come to
London quite often and he always rang us, and we’d meet. And when I went to Los Angeles we’d meet up with him. So that contact remained. I haven’t seen him now for about 12 years [as of 2000].’

Schell also recalled: ‘Tony and I just had jokes together. There was almost never a scene where we actually embraced. The lovely thing about doing that series was that we all had a lot of laughs. Everybody laughed a lot … I don’t remember any moments of conflict. Things might have been happening off the set, but certainly on the set we all greeted each other happily in the morning at make-up. I thought some of the fellows were far more vain than the women were.
My
make-up took less time than Tony’s! And Tony and Nick made many comparisons with each other. You know, hair … “Should I put a bit of brown pencil on this balding spot here?” It is interesting to watch the vanity of men.’

John Hug noted: ‘I never saw Freddy argue with Martin at all. It’s a long time ago, but I didn’t see any bickering. All I noticed were little slightly disgruntled vibrations from Zienia and Nick – just because people didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know what was going on, either, but I didn’t care. I was just very happy to have a job. I got on very well with everybody … Where are we going and what’s on next? Nobody really understood what was happening. Was the third series being done? Are we going to be in it? There were always worries. Actors always wish about something.

‘The screen test I originally did was actually for the part that Tony Anholt played. I was fiddling around with all sorts of strange beer-making equipment, which was one of the things Tony’s character did – make his own beer. I just remember thinking what a
strange
thing it was to be doing: making beer on Moonbase Alpha. Obviously I did it well enough to get cast as somebody, but not well enough to get cast for Tony Anholt’s role.

‘First or second day, I was introduced to Martin, and he was explaining about the Commlock. There’s this man with a bit of wood with numbers stuck on it, and I thought, “What sort of lunatic asylum have I walked into?” Martin was saying, “You press this when you want to go into the … and this operates those doors … and you press it and the doors open.” Well, it was just a bit of wood with sticky numbers on it. No doors were opening – that was all happening later. I thought, “I’ve entered a lunatic asylum.”’

Tony Anholt stated: ‘One thing I think Freddy was right about is that he was trying to make the people more human, in the sense that everybody in the cast thought that if you’re going to have a bunch of people stuck up on the Moon for God knows how long, whatever else they are, they are human beings. They would have relationships, recreation, be seen doing human things, and not just staring at a screen and launching into space and fighting the baddies, and coming back wondering whether or not they are ever going to return to Earth. I think that elements like Tony Verdeschi’s beer-making were to try to give it a human face. I gather from what I’m told that fans fall into at least two camps – those who think that was rubbish, and those who think that it was right. As an actor, I think that the premise was right. I don’t think it was ever realised anything like to the extent it could have been.’

Anholt admired Catherine Schell: ‘She is sweet. One thing about that show is that you had a unit that, I suppose if you take into consideration everybody who worked on it from the highest to the lowest, numbered about 70. It’s a lot of people, and there was very, very little upset or bitching or rowing going on. It was a very, very happy organisation, which worked together very well. What went on behind the scenes, and who called whom what, I don’t know. But on the floor it was very smooth.’

Nick Tate said: ‘I didn’t have to dig too deep with Alan Carter. He was all the things I was as a young man: friendly, happy-go-lucky, someone who loved adventure and accepted a challenge. Although there were ten of us in the regular cast, the weight of the work fell on Martin, Barbara and Barry during the first series. I was, undoubtedly, the luckiest of the rest of the cast, as I ended up with some nice scenes. But it was not really until the second series that they started writing for the other characters. That’s when they brought in Catherine Schell and Tony Anholt, and I shared that work with them.

‘[Catherine Schell] was a very irreverent person. She wasn’t like some polite little girl who came on the show and was shy. She was a very outspoken person; she could trade punches with the best of the guys. She was an all-around fun person to have on board … She was more bloke than most blokes I know. She was plenty of woman, too, I can tell you.
’

Alibe Parsons remembered: ‘Most of my work was with John Hug, who played Bill Fraser. He’s a very good actor, and he was particularly easy to work with. I also did some scenes with Nick Tate and Tony Anholt, and they were very good to work with. Martin Landau was a lovely chap and liked to joke quite a bit and had time to have a bit of a laugh. Barbara Bain was okay, but she was a bit remote. Catherine Schell was quite different, she was very down to Earth and, God bless her, she had to be, because she had to be in before anyone else to put all that make-up on. I think she deserved a Brownie point for that – many Brownie points in fact! We all enjoyed each other’s company very much and we had a lovely time.

‘I had just done a film with Lynne Frederick in Spain the previous year, and when I was being costumed for the series, I looked inside my costume and there was Lynne’s name. She had appeared in an earlier episode and her costume was being recycled for me, so I rang her up the next day and we had a great giggle about it. The series went on for a long time and had a lot of different people in it, so there was always somebody’s costume that had somebody else’s name inside it.’

Nick Tate reflected: ‘I think
Space: 1999
would have run for years if certain people – not just Martin, but other people – had allowed there to be a much more symbiotic relationship [between the characters,] and other [cast members] had [been given] more things to do. It just centred way too much on certain figures and that was its downfall, ultimately, I think. Then they made all those changes for the second series … Catherine Schell was a wonderful actress and a great asset for the show, but they made her do really stupid things. The whole premise of that character is so ridiculous – if she could turn into a gorilla or a monster she could save everybody! Suddenly she’s not vulnerable anymore and nobody else is gong to be vulnerable, because she’s always going to be there to protect them. She could become an ant and crawl under a door that couldn’t be opened, and all those things. It was ridiculous, and it was all Fred Freiberger’s idea.

‘One of the reasons I feel
Space: 1999
eventually folded was that the second series didn’t have the same sense of truth and honesty that the first did. I preferred the first season – [although] that’s not to say that I didn’t like doing the second series. Some of the episodes we did were very good, but overall I think our best shows were those first 24. We felt like we were making a successful series, and for it’s time, it was.’

Johnny Byrne recalled: ‘I had an exceptionally good relationship with the stars. I respect actors. They are not the kind of people I would like to spend all my spare time with, but professionally I respect them very much. Martin and Barbara were absolutely wonderful … On the human level I had nothing but the nicest friendship with Martin and Barbara. They came to my wedding, and brought me a wedding present. At the end of shooting the first series, they gave every member of the cast a wonderful address book stamped “
Space: 1999
” and they gave a party. And at the end of the second season they gave everybody a little electronic clock stamped “From Martin and Barbara” and “
Space: 1999
”. So … they knew their stuff. They were professionals and they had come a long way. Nick Tate is still a good friend of mine. I didn’t get to know Prentis Hancock awfully well. Catherine Schell I didn’t know very well but that was essentially because I wasn’t in the studio complex in the second series … Barry was a very intelligent man with a wide range of interests. One became very friendly with the regulars who were there, and I made a lot of friends. Although I haven’t worked with Gerry since then, we keep in touch. I have the greatest respect for him. The sad thing is that, [although he was] responsible for starting this kind of cycle of science fiction dramas, the whole thing should to a certain extent have gone by him, and that a man with such incredible science fiction know-how should not be employed all the time.’