Destination: Moonbase Alpha (69 page)

Rating:
8/10

2.20

THE SEANCE SPECTRE

Screenplay by Donald James

Directed by Peter Medak

Selected Broadcast Dates:

UK
              LWT:

             
Date: 10 September 1977.               Time: 11.30 am

             
Granada:

             
Date: 2 October 1977.               Time: 1.15 pm

US
              KRON (San Francisco):

             
Date: 5 March 1977.               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),
Zienia Merton
(Sandra Benes),
Nigel Pegram
(Cernik),
James Snell
(Stevens),
Christopher Asante
(Security Guard)

Guest Stars: Ken Hutchison
(Greg Sanderson),
Carolyn Seymour
(Eva)

Uncredited Cast: Robert Reeves
(Operative Peter Reeves),
Jenny Cresswell
(Alphan),
Quentin Pierre
(Security Guard Pierce Quinton),
Harry Fielder
(Security Guard George),
Terry Walsh
(Security Guard / Stunt Arranger),
Paul Weston
(Security Guard / Stunts),
Christine White
(Maya Child),
Candy Wilson
(Maya Child),
Caroline Munroe
(Girl in Picture #1),
Venicia Day
(Bikini Girl – cut from final print)

Previously Titled:
‘The Mutiny’

Plot:
Moonbase Alpha is on a collision course with a planet in the earliest stages of development – a vast cloud of gas and dust in space that the Alphans have called Tora. A plan is devised to alter the course of the Moon by exploding the remaining nuclear waste dumps. But a few Alphans suffering from ‘green sickness’ believe Tora to be a habitable world, and will let nothing stop them from colonising it.

Quotes:

• Koenig:
  ‘We’ll be swallowed by a vast swamp of dust.’
  
• Sanderson:
  ‘No! There is a habitable planet out there – the prediction said so.’
  
• Koenig:
  ‘1999: the way this whole thing started.’
  
• Helena
  :
  ‘How long are we going to survive on a fleet of transporter Eagles? We’ll be at each other’s throats.’
  

On-screen Date:
2,012 days since leaving Earth orbit.

Filming Dates:
Monday 18 October – Saturday 30 October 1976

Bloopers:
During the fight sequence with Koenig, Sanderson’s spacesuit visor is knocked open.

Review:
‘The Seance Spectre’ is a first-rate script by Donald James, filled with action and countless dramatic peaks. James previously scripted ‘The Exiles’ and ‘Journey to Where’, and once again he demonstrates himself to be one of the finest writers working on the series. For exciting and dramatic action in Year Two, ‘The Seance Spectre’ is certainly one of the very best episodes.

Many interesting possibilities are explored throughout, including the efforts to blow up the waste dumps in order to change the course of the Moon and avoid the collision with Tora. While by this point in the series it is getting to be a tired plot premise to place the Moon on a collision course with
anything
, it is certainly well handled here, and the concept of re-creating the ‘Breakaway’ explosion is effectively discussed. The aspect of blowing up the remaining nuclear waste dumps harks back to ‘Collision Course’, where the exact same proposal was put forth.

Another winning aspect of the script is the idea of the ‘green sickness’. It makes sense that a group of people stranded on the Moon for such a long period of time (especially those surface workers who are sent out on extended tours of duty away from the relative comforts of Alpha) could develop an irrational, compulsive and potentially delusional need for an Earth-type planet, lending credibility to the mutiny seen here.

Director Peter Medak helms his second and last high-octane episode of the series, his first being ‘Space Warp’. Medak seems a director ideally suited to the requirements of the season, and here he improves upon his first segment largely through the benefit of having a far superior script to work with.

Derek Wadsworth’s score is again extremely effective and serves to help drive the sense of pace and urgency, as in many other episodes. His compositions suit the style of Year Two, just as Barry Gray’s orchestral arrangements worked within the grand scope of Year One.

Martin Landau and Barbara Bain provide the most notable performances, particularly in the scenes where Koenig is dealing with the mutiny amongst his crew while Helena Russell is trying to treat the ‘green sickness’ the mutineers are suffering from. This is the last episode in which Zienia Merton appears, and as such it is an opportunity to bid a fond farewell to another member of the original
Space: 1999
ensemble. Happily, Sandra Benes has a respectable role to play in the proceedings. Catherine Schell’s most memorable moment here occurs in the cute scene where Maya transforms into a young Psychon girl – perhaps herself as a child?

An over-the-top performance from Ken Hutchison (who is incorrectly billed as ‘Ken Hutchinson’ on-screen) detracts from his character’s impact. Greg Sanderson is a madman and a tragic figure, similar in concept to that of Patrick Osgood in ‘Catacombs of the Moon’, and to some degree should be portrayed with obvious fanaticism, but Hutchison’s lack of subtlety goes beyond this and creates a caricature. Perhaps if an actor possessing a more subtle menace (such as Peter Bowles from Year One’s ‘End of Eternity’) had been cast in this role, the episode could have been even better. Carolyn Seymour shines in her role and successfully imparts a personality to Eva that extends beyond the words of the script.

The special effects are exemplary, including in the sequences of the space phenomenon Tora, and of the Eagle’s crash, subsequent damage and flight back to Alpha. These are some of the finest effects produced for the series and remain visually astounding to this day. Brian Johnson and his team once more prove how advanced their effects were for 1976. Once again, viewers are presented with nuclear waste disposal areas on the Moon, and again they are different in design from those shown in previous episodes (‘The Bringers of Wonder’ and ‘Breakaway’, which itself featured two different waste dump designs – older and newer.)

When the Eagle carrying Koenig and Maya has less than enough oxygen for one passenger, the Psychon transforms into a huge amount of foliage in order to assist in oxygen production to help the Commander survive the flight. It’s memorably the only instance where she becomes a plant. But she must have repeated the transformation three times, as the flight from Tora to Alpha is three hours long, and the maximum period of time for which she can hold a transformation is one hour. In a significant lapse of logic, Koenig and Maya fail to consider using the oxygen stored in the spacesuits on the Eagle.

The slow motion effects of Koenig and Sanderson duelling on the Moon’s surface are first rate, with this scene probably constituting the finest lunar surface fight sequence of the series. While scenes of this type have certainly been prominent in prior episodes – ‘The Bringers of Wonder’ and ‘Space Warp’ specifically – this is an instance of practice making perfect.

The possibility of evacuating the base onto the fleet of transporter Eagles is investigated as well: it’s something the Alphans certainly would not wish for, but a viable survival option that is explored effectively.

Conceptually, ‘The Seance Spectre’ is concerned with human conflict amongst the Alphans, and as such it bears similarities to other second season episodes such as ‘Catacombs of the Moon’ and ‘The Lambda Factor’. Here the themes are betrayal and mutiny, and the original title of ‘The Mutiny’ was a more literal description of the episode than ‘The Seance Spectre’ – the seance itself actually bears little importance to the plot, and the episode might actually have been better off without it. The mutiny is the culmination of weaknesses in the Alphan command structure, which have been apparent in episodes of both seasons including notable examples in ‘Missing Link’, ‘Collision Course’, and ‘Seed of Destruction’, which all feature a crisis of command. Koenig himself is the reason for the mutiny, as his information lockdown serves to amplify mistrust that has already been simmering beneath the surface amongst Sanderson and his friends. Could this mutiny have been avoided? Certainly. But human nature being what it is, it was virtually inevitable that at some point Alpha would experience insurrection in the ranks. To make matters even more interesting, there is conflict within Sanderson’s own group of supporters, who serve as a microcosm of Alpha itself.

The philosophical underpinnings of Year Two are again stated clearly by
Helena: ‘The John Koenig philosophy: if there are chips on the table, we’re still in the game.’ Koenig hammers the point by responding: ‘Right on.’ Not only consistent with other statements of the second season, this is also admirably in line with the ideas presented in Year One, where human resourcefulness and innovative thinking were often the keys to survival. It’s worth pointing out again that Year One’s Alphans remained Earth people lost in space, rather than the science fiction superheroes of Year Two (embodied by the powerful shape-shifting Maya). But while earlier Year Two statements like Koenig’s ‘We’ll determine our own destiny,’ would have been jarringly out of place in the first 24 episodes, this ‘chips on the table’ exchange would fit comfortably into such earlier episodes as ‘War Games’.

For its successful melding of fast-paced action adventure with character-based drama, ‘The Seance Spectre’ is highly recommended as one of the finest episodes of the season, excelling in both concept and execution
.

Rating:
8.5/10

2.21

DORZAK

Screenplay by Christopher Penfold

Directed by Val Guest

Selected Broadcast Dates:

UK              LWT:

             
Date: 5 November 1977.               Time: 11.00 am

             
Granada:

             
Date: 9 October 1977.               Time: 1.15 pm

US
              KRON (San Francisco):

             
Date: 12 March 1977.               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),
Kathryn Leigh Scott
(Yesta),
Sam Dastor
(Dr Ed Spencer),
Seretta Wilson
(Clea),
Richard Le Parmentier
(Sam Malcolm),
Yasuko Nagazumi
(Yasko),
Paul Jerricho
(First Security Guard),
John Judd
(Second Security Guard)

Guest Stars: Lee Montague
(Dorzak),
Jill Townsend
(Sahala)

Uncredited Cast: Quentin Pierre
(Security Guard Pierce Quinton),
Jenny Cresswell
(Alphan)

Plot:
A ship captained by the alien Sahala asks for help, but when it lands at Alpha it is discovered that there is a Psychon aboard called Dorzak. He is being held in stasis as a prisoner, accused of crimes on Sahala’s planet Norvah, and is being sent to exile on Thesalena, the most distant planet in their Croton system. Maya doesn’t believe Sahala: she remembers Dorzak as a kind man and a philosopher, and wants him to be set free.

Quotes:

• Sahala:
  ‘Technologically, they were very advanced and we welcomed them on Norvah. But in time we realised the Psychons were a virus that would destroy our society.’
  
• Alan:
  ‘Well, he sleeps easy for someone who perverts minds.’
  
• Dorzak:
  ‘It may be dekons old, but your civilisation was based originally on military supremacy. Only when that was achieved could the luxury of culture grow.’
  
• Dorzak:
  ‘But your civilisation is enfeebled by contentment. We Psychons are steeled by the struggle for survival.’