Destination: Moonbase Alpha (42 page)

‘Koenig was never put to the test, was he? They asked this question at the end of “Mission of the Darians”. He was never put to the test, and in fact all the evidence points to Koenig being someone who would defend the individual interests rather than the general interests. He would defend one life and hold it more sacred than the overall security and sanctity of the mission. But it never came to the test. In his responses that we witnessed throughout the series, it was always in defence of one or two. The big question was, would he respond in that way when put to the ultimate test? There’s a difference between morality and leadership. I think leadership changes depending on the threat and where the threat is coming from. I don’t think we have a fixed position. We are moral people, but the nature of our morality will change.’

Christopher Penfold continued:
‘Johnny is certainly right when he points out Koenig’s preference for fighting in the individual’s corner. But actually there are instances where collective security is his prime concern, and I think of Koenig as being somebody who is essentially human and who confronts each of those situations on its merits.’

Martin Landau noted of the cast: ‘Overall, I would say it was a happy family. The cast was terrific. Every single one of those people was very volatile, talented, crazy … It was a challenge to get that large a group together and have a harmonious, pleasant existence. Everyone was good and very willing to help each other out. A lot of the people were terrific and everyone was nice. So it was a very pleasant, hard, difficult time. There was nothing easy about the show …
While we were there Nick was doing some theatre there, too, and he was wonderful in the play that Barbara and I saw. [He] was the central character and carried that play, and brilliantly. These [supporting cast] actors were underused actually; they had much more to give than they were given. But there were never any temper tantrums or temperament … We treated our guests who came in as fellows. It was a happy set overall. We had actors like Richard Johnson come right into the swing of things, and after we’d worked with him I heard he was difficult. He was not difficult on our set … To work a couple of years together and never really have an altercation. I mean, we had individual problems here and there, but as a bunch of actors tossed together who never knew each other before this experience, it was amazing. There weren’t any flurries of temperament or anger or petulance. We actually got along and respected each other, and we needed each other, and we knew it. It was like a family. And we were in a foreign country – Barbara and I, and so was Nick, actually … Zienia was a delightful girl. She was always there for you, and professional, and delightful. All of the above. She was very sensitive to everybody … She and Prentis were a great pair; they complemented each other in a wonderful way ... I miss Barry. To think what he did with himself, coming from where he came [his Cockney background], it was majestic. Barry was a very special guy … He was just a delight. I thought that Professor Bergman was a terrific sounding board for Koenig; to have that kind of guy who doesn’t necessarily agree with the choices he makes. That could have gone further …’

Also on the theme of camaraderie amongst the cast, Barry Morse said: ‘I recall all of my fellows with great pleasure and happiness. Martin and Barbara are both immensely skilled and experienced in our profession. They certainly were a joy to work with. No hint of any kind of grandeur, such as sometimes comes with such people. Much better
fellows
, in the real true theatrical sense, than many others I can think of. Martin’s and Barbara’s adaptability, professionalism, and above all their kindly and good-natured attitude towards their fellow artists and the members of our crew, were quite admirable. Then there was Nick Tate, an Australian chap. And dear, lovely Zienia Merton. All of them – Nick, Zienia, Prentis, Clifton and Anton – were relatively inexperienced and were being thrown into the deep end with Martin, Barbara and me. We were all insufficiently prepared, as I shall go on saying till my dying day. They had to hammer their way through it and stay afloat as best they could. And they – to do them all equal credit – dealt with it all with admirable patience and good nature, and good humour. I remember them all fondly. They were all very gifted and keen.’

Zienia Merton said: ‘Considering the amount of time that we spent with each other, which was more than I spent with my own folk, I think it’s incredible that there were no lawsuits, there were no divorces, and I know it’s in retrospect, but I think we all just got on terribly well … Prentis, Nick, Clifton, Anton, Suzanne and I had a table at the restaurant at Pinewood Studios and the staff used to be absolutely amazed. We used to walk in there day after day to have our lunch and they used to say, “God, you’re still together? You’re still eating together? You’re still talking? God!” Fifteen months we did that – I think that’s a pretty good record.

‘You couldn’t afford not to get along. I mean, we’re all adults, so you can’t have great feuds. We also used to have lunches with the Italians brought over for the series – if Nick, Prentis, Clifton or any of the others were free. I’d say, “Come round to lunch,” and get whoever it was to come round. Nick would fetch them if they didn’t have transport and they’d come round to dinner or lunch. I know what it’s like filming in a foreign country, when everybody else has gone off to their wife and kids or friends and you’re left alone. It’s happened to me. And I thought it would be nice, if they had nothing to do.

‘I’m immensely grateful for everything that I learned while I was working on
Space: 1999
. To spend 15 months or so – and here I’m talking about the first year, because that’s where I learned it all – having that support of real good folk and everybody working together – the focus puller, the cameraman, the lighting cameraman … Learning where to stand and where to move to make it work for them – it was just an amazing university of filmmaking, which you couldn’t pay money for, and I’m eternally grateful for that. So, in terms of my career, it was invaluable. You can’t learn that – no drama school is going to teach you that. It was just incredible.’

Nick Tate recalled: ‘Generally speaking, it was a very happy time on the series. Martin and I became close friends. I liked Barbara as well; she’s a bright and friendly woman. I had great rapport with the rest of the cast, including Prentis,
Clifton and Zienia. We all got on very well and spent quite a bit of social time together away from the set. It was a very fulfilling time for us as young actors. Perhaps a little more so for me as the writers tended to give my character a bit more to do … I had a marvellous time during the first season. The atmosphere on the set was extraordinarily positive. The cast got on terribly well. We all thought we were on a winner and enjoyed working on the show. I don’t think there was ever a harsh word said on the set. Sometimes we were under time constraints and the pressure got on, but we all had a lot of laughs.’

Discussing Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Tate also said, ‘
Barbara is the consummate actress. She and Martin were the royalty of our show; they would arrive every day in a Rolls Royce. I was awestruck. It was just wonderful to have two people at the head of your show who had such dignity and class and really were consummate professionals who knew their job and came from a long history of American production and great shows. It gave us a great goal to strive for, and I think we all eventually hit our marks. It was wonderful. And Barbara was very friendly to us all. She and Martin were gracious. There was none of that “them and us.” It was all very friendly … Barbara was a very strong force. But Barbara was a very quiet person. Barbara’s not demonstrative; she’s very, very bright. I’m sure when she went into [Gerry’s and Sylvia’s] offices and talked with them they toed the line and went with what she wanted, or at least listened to what she had to say. But she never demonstrated that out on the set. She was always immaculate and calm. I would sometimes see something happening in a scene that she didn’t like it, but she wouldn’t say “I don’t want to do it like this,” or raise any negatives. She would just quietly go to the bathroom or something and she’d be gone for a little while, and things would change … Martin is very funny off camera. We used to joke around a lot together. He’s very funny on camera, too, but in that show it didn’t call for him being all that funny.’

Tate also praises Barry Morse, who passed away in 2008: ‘Dear Barry. When I came on the show he was established as a star actor. He had been playing in
The Fugitive
. I’d seen him in other things. He was a man of wonderful poise, of intellect. Barry had much that he could have offered the show, and really wasn’t given the sort of opportunities that he might have been given on it. He was a very private man. He was an intellectual human being who loved fine things, adored his wife … a family man. In many ways he was rather like Professor Bergman; he was interested in so many things. One could always go to him with questions about the script, and he would say to me, “You know, Nick, it isn’t Shakespeare. We just have to try to make the best of it.” I so wanted things to be right, and he knew what it was like to work in fast television, having done American series. He was a joy to work with, a real professional. He gave me, and others on the show, a sense of worth and value, because we valued his opinion and he told us that we were doing a great job. He would work with us when a script problem – or something else – arose; you could go and talk with Barry about it.’

Barbara Bain also fondly recalled Barry Morse
: ‘Everything about Barry was so dear. When I first met him he was trying to explain the Brits to me, so he brought in a [newspaper] headline from when he was a kid, and it said, “Storm in the Channel; Continent isolated.” That sums it up; it was very helpful.’

Regarding the reception he and Barbara Bain received in the
UK, Martin Landau has said: ‘American actors in England had a reputation for being troublemakers then. And Barbara and I having left
Mission: Impossible
when we did, the studio had released a bunch of erroneous information about us that made us look like the bad guys. We dealt with the legacy of that and of a lot of the other American television stars that had been in England prior to our coming over. We quickly dismantled the rumour, because once they realised we were hardworking, serious, co-operative and certainly not troublemakers, the whole atmosphere of working on
Space: 1999
changed. I mean, all the snobbery broke down. Charles Crichton, who for one period of time directed almost every other show, had also directed
The Lavender Hill Mob
with Alec Guinness and went on to do
A Fish Called Wanda
, which he co-wrote with John Cleese. He realised Barbara and I were the most co-operative actors you could find, and in the end we got along wonderfully with everyone, by and large, on the set.’

Barry Morse agreed: ‘The fact that Martin and Barbara had been successful Hollywood actors in
Mission: Impossible
was impressive in itself, but they are – as anybody who knows them would readily tell you – a couple of wonderfully relaxed professionals, with charming personalities, who don’t have (as so many so-called Hollywood stars do) an inflated sense of their own importance or self-worth. They settled themselves down very readily amongst what was an almost entirely British cast and worked with marvellous equanimity with everybody in the unit. Of course, they were both of them experienced enough through their time with
Mission: Impossible
to know of the immense stresses that there always are in shooting a weekly television series. They were and are, both Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, first class real pros, as we say in the trade.’

Christopher Penfold recalled of Landau and Bain: ‘They had a very serious interest in the scripts – not unnaturally, being the stars of the show – and they were at pains to ensure that the large roles were written for them. Beyond that, they had a very intelligent input into the kinds of stories that we were writing, and into the way individual scripts went. I enjoyed story meetings with them. There was the requirement for screen time for Martin Landau, but it was entirely appropriate that it should be through him that the philosophical side of the series should be expressed.

‘It was incredibly valuable to have the experience and skill that both Barbara and Martin brought to the process of screenwriting. It was a huge learning experience for me. After we finished at the studios, quite often we would go back to their house in Little Venice and work on the script for the next day until four in the morning. It was an extremely valuable experience for me, and for the show as well. It’s not that often you get that level of commitment and involvement, with an overall determination to get the script right, and to be involved in the process with the two leads of the show as well was absolutely wonderful, and I think it shows … They were very precise about what their characters would do and what they wouldn’t do … I learned more about scriptwriting and script editing from Martin and Barbara in that house than I’ve ever learned since. It was a huge contribution that was made [by Martin and Barbara] to the show, not only in front of the cameras, but in the scripts as well.

‘If you’re writing popular drama series you take constraints on. I mean, Martin is out there at the front of the show. He is being paid a lot of money to do it. He is there because the audience want to see him. That is part of the process of writing for television drama series, where audience identification and loyalty build up episode by episode, and is an important consideration. Of course, once you’ve cast Martin Landau in the lead, you want to make the most of it. My approach to storytelling when I first start talking to other writers who are going to contribute episodes to a series like this, is to say to them, “First of all, tell your story.” Once you know as a writer what you want to write, once you’ve got the essence of it … and it may be more irritating for some people than it is for others, but you don’t really engage in this business without accepting certain parameters. Once you’ve got the story, in essence, it’s actually then relatively easy to crowbar and elbow the story around those kinds of production requirements. It’s not often that the real guts of a story get compromised.’