Destination: Moonbase Alpha (60 page)

While Koenig and Maya swim across the lake, astute viewers will note the following on, or near, the far shore: a white post, several people walking, a park bench, and a man in a canoe!

After Maya and Koenig swim across that lake they are both completely dry.

Observations:
Charles Woodgrove was a pen name used by Fred Freiberger to write three scripts for Year Two. Freiberger asserted that he was paid only expenses and wrote the scripts to help keep the second season’s reduced budget in line.

Review:
‘The Rules of Luton’ is the ultimate mixed blessing. This is
Space: 1999
’s infamous ‘talking plant’ episode, but unlike its counterpart from
Lost In Space
– ‘The Great Vegetable Rebellion’ – this has not benefited from being elevated to the status of camp classic by the passage of time. This is also a ‘double-up’ episode, filmed on location while ‘The Mark of Archanon’ was shot on the studio sets.

Martin Landau and Catherine Schell deliver expressive and warm performances and are provided with a wealth of character-building material in the script. Koenig’s speech about his wife and World War Three is striking (even if it is very difficult to reconcile with the timeline and history of Earth as evidenced in Year One episodes), as is Maya’s recounting of Mentor’s dream. Great depth is provided through the talents of Landau and Schell, and during these sequences the script shines: it is richly dramatic, emotional, character-driven material. Background detail on the civilisation of Psychon is fleshed out, portraying a very unified world with one class and one race, one religion and one government. As such there would be no conflicts or wars, no hatred or poverty. It’s a wonderful utopian vision, even though the validity of Maya’s comments can be questioned – after all, she was the naïve daughter of a mad scientist who drained the brains of passing aliens (which she didn’t know about) and then used them as mine workers (which she also didn’t know about). Whatever Maya’s memories of her planet are, they are certainly framed by what
Mentor told her and led her to believe, and cannot be taken as absolute fact. That Psychon could have been a utopian paradise is possible, but not certain.

The limitations of Maya’s powers, as presented here, are debatable. The rule established in ‘The Exiles’ (and ignored in ‘The Taybor’) that Maya can hold a transformation for only one hour is repeated, but will be broken again later in the season in ‘Seance Spectre’. Also anomalous here is the assertion that Maya is unable to transform directly from shape to shape without reverting to her own form in between, as she has been able to do in other episodes such as ‘The Metamorph’. The inconsistencies are undoubtedly the result of writer Fred Freiberger using his artistic license to fit Maya’s abilities into the confines of his own script.

Despite the stated pluses, the remainder of the script consists of nothing more than running to action music and a succession of tedious and predictable engagements with the alien trio, amounting to a laboriously dull viewing experience. The aliens themselves are merely grunting, one-dimensional caricatures, and their costumes are visibly cheap, especially in close-up shots. The talking trees (the ‘Judges’ of Luton) are an inexcusably stupid effort at presenting a plot based upon intelligent or purposeful plant life. It would have been far more intriguing if the plants on Luton had been portrayed as a more sinister, subtle or subversive threat, such as those in
The Day of the Triffids
or, from a later era, M Night Shyamalan’s
The Happening
.

This episode belongs to Martin Landau and Catherine Schell, with the remaining characters in peripheral – and largely forgettable – roles.
Helena is seen to be in command of Moonbase Alpha – sort of: she is never out of contact with Tony, and he seems to have the real authority.

The location shoot is welcome, as it was done so infrequently throughout the series. The locations are nicely dressed up with the odd tropical-looking plant, but the canyon setting for the final confrontation between plants and animals looks utterly unconvincing. It is actually the H F Warner Ltd landfill site in Knowl Hill,
Berkshire, and looks entirely out of place on this world ruled by vegetation. Worthy of praise however are the dinosaur skeletons covered in vines, providing a striking visual impact.

It must be stated that this episode is little more than a combined duplication of the
Star Trek
episodes ‘Arena’ (itself based on the 1944 short story of the same name by Fredric Brown) and ‘The Gamesters of Triskelion’, along with elements of the previously mentioned ‘The Great Vegetable Rebellion’ from
Lost In Space
. The similarities are undeniable. The moral core of the episode can be found in the following exchange: Maya says, ‘You mean people killed people just because they were different from each other? That’s disgusting.’ Koenig answers, ‘The one virtue of that war, if war can have a virtue, is that prejudice was wiped out. People realised if they were going to survive they would have to work together, accept each other for what they were. So we began to create a brand new, wonderful civilisation.’ The anti-prejudice theme is one always worth repeating, and the optimistic vision of all the peoples of the world coming together is an appealing notion.

‘The Rules of Luton’ is not to be recommended without a substantial warning of the radically different levels of quality between the superficial run-around plot and the pleasingly strong characterisation.

Rating:
4.5/10

2.8

THE MARK OF ARCHANON

Screenplay by Lew Schwarz

Directed by Charles Crichton

Selected Broadcast Dates:

UK              LWT:

             
Date: 16 October 1976.               Time: 11.30 am

             
Granada:

             
Date: 26 June 1977.               Time: 2.35 pm

US
              KRON (San Francisco):

             
Date: 9 October 1976.               Time: 7.00 pm

Credited Cast: Martin Landau
(John Koenig),
Barbara Bain
(Helena Russell),
Catherine Schell
(Maya),
Tony Anholt
(Tony Verdeschi),
Nick Tate
(Alan Carter),
Veronica Lang
(Lyra / Maurna),
John Alkin
(Andy Johnson),
John Hug
(Bill Fraser),
Anthony Forrest
(Carson),
Raul Newney
(Dr Raul Nunez),
Yasuko Nagazumi
(Yasko)

Guest Stars: John Standing
(Pasc),
Michael Gallagher
(Etrec)

Uncredited Cast: Quentin Pierre
(Security Guard Pierce Quinton),
Annie Lambert
(Command Centre Operative),
Jenny Cresswell
(Operative L Picard),
Terry Walsh
(Rescue Eagle Pilot),
Barbara Kelly
(Voice of Computer)

Plot:
In the lunar caverns, Alan Carter discovers two aliens – Pasc and Etrec – from Archanon, the planet of peace. But a strange ‘killing sickness’ infects these aliens, turning them into mass murderers.

Quotes:

• Maya:
  ‘Archanon – it’s the planet of peace … There are legends of the coming of the Peace Bringers; the conquest of evil by good.’
  
• Lyra:
  ‘The terrible scourge we thought we had eradicated from our genes has returned.’
  
• Pasc:
  ‘It’s the last privilege of the killing sickness: to kill oneself.’
  
• Helena
  :
  ‘As a doctor, I should have known. Besides, it’s not a very satisfactory defence – ignorance.’
  

On-screen Date:
640 days since leaving Earth orbit.

Filming Dates:
Tuesday 4 May – Tuesday 18 May 1976

Commentary:

Martin Landau:
[Written on the front of his copy of this script] ‘If the people on Alpha don’t miss us – the audience won’t!’

Barbara Bain:
[On guest stars] ‘Margaret Leighton [in “Collision Course”] was just wonderful and comes immediately to mind. Billie Whitelaw [in “One Moment of Humanity”] I had always admired. John Standing [in “The Mark of Archanon”] was great. There were a lot of good actors available because we were filming in London. As for directors, it was absolutely delicious to work with Charlie Crichton, who was a self-appointed oldest, meanest grouch in the whole world, but was actually a darling.’

Bloopers:
A blooper in dialogue occurs as Tony orders Eagle One to launch: Eagle One is already launched, and away from the base – Koenig and Maya are in it!

Wires are visible pulling apart the rocks in front of the Archanon stasis chambers.

Observations:
Alan Carter sings at the start of the show, as he has before on a couple of occasions. However, when he has sung before, his words have served to foreshadow future occurrences in the episode, while here it’s utterly meaningless.

Review:
Space: 1999
continues a precipitous nose-dive in quality and manages the feat of producing the worst entry in its entire 48 episode run. There is little to redeem ‘The Mark of Archanon’.

On the positive side, Barbara Bain has a highly prominent lead role, which she handles beautifully. The notion of the mining of minerals deep within the Moon is an admirable one, and stands as one of the strongest additions to the series’ mythos initiated by the second season. The concept of ancient aliens buried beneath the lunar surface is also very intriguing, with possibilities that could undoubtedly have been explored in any number of more successful directions. If this had been Year One, the aliens might have been some of the original Arkadians who seeded life on Earth – but, as with most of Year Two, much of what came before has been forgotten. Like ‘The Testament of Arkadia’, this episode introduces elements of Erich von Däniken’s
Chariots of the Gods
into the
Space: 1999
universe, with its premise of the Archanon’s visits to early Earth and the presumed impact they might have had on any civilisations they encountered. Note the strong Babylonian influence in the Archanon costume design. While appealing, these notions fail to recall the past experience of the Alphans, and thus what could have been an enriching and elaborating addition to earlier concepts is simply a weak display of generic sci-fi.

The Archanon space cruiser is of appealing design and impressively filmed by the effects team. If only it was featured on screen for a little longer it could be appreciated more fully. Guest star John Standing’s attempts to give some dignity to his preposterous part, horribly unconvincing beard, pointless make-up and cardboard costume are commendable but mostly in vain. Even worse for Standing is that Pasc fails to be a menacing threat and comes across as benign rather than as a killer. The closing sequence featuring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain is pleasant: their talents and charm provide a lift for the end of the show. But that’s all there is.

On the negative side, shockingly terrible special effects see apparently tin-foil asteroids being hurled at Koenig’s and Maya’s Eagle. This is a sorry excuse for an asteroid field, utterly unworthy of appearing in any episode of
Space: 1999
. It also seems to be extremely localised – why don’t Koenig and Maya simply fly around it; and, given the visibility of space and the aid of their instrumentation, why did they fly into it to begin with? Koenig and Maya make only token appearances so that the latter can deliver a couple of feed-lines back to the base. This is another ‘double-up’ episode, as Landau and Schell were off on location filming their marginally better segment, ‘The Rules of Luton’.

The script is feeble and delivers nothing of substantive intellectual appeal or intrigue. Written by Lew Schwarz (whose name is misspelled in the credits as Schwartz), it contains countless nonsenses. Starting at the very beginning, why is Chief of Reconnaissance Alan Carter leading geologists through the catacombs of the Moon on a hunt for minerals? Perhaps it’s a hobby, or a volunteer activity; but without an explanation, it’s merely careless writing. In the same vein, why does Chief of Security Tony Verdeschi perform the scientific analysis of the Archanon equipment? Professor Bergman might be missing, but surely there are still scientists on Alpha! Again this displays utter disregard for audience intelligence and for the basic outlines of the main characters of the series. Why are the aliens repeatedly left alone and unguarded throughout the episode, so they can proceed to wander about Alpha on their own? Where are the security protocols, or any semblance of common sense? These Alphans are idiots who seem not only to have learned nothing from their previous encounters with aliens on the base (such as Dione, Balor or Cantar and Zova), but also to have lost any sense of caution they might have once possessed.