Destination: Moonbase Alpha (78 page)

‘The thing we had clipped to our belts [i.e. the Commlock] was just a wooden thing, with a painted thing on it. It had no functional parts at all. You just sort of mimed that sort of thing that Martin used to do, slightly give it a shake, and make it look like you’re switching something. When it came to the close-ups that you saw, then they wired you up with the wire up your arm. The same with the laser guns – they were plastic or wood, you just pointed them and they laid the laser beam on afterwards.’

Barbara Bain reflected on the spacesuits: ‘We did have some interesting fittings with the spacesuits … [That was partly] in order to attach the Commlock and gloves to the wrist … They also had these things for the boots, around the ankles. They looked wonderful. They were big, square-edged, plastic objects that smacked the anklebone relentlessly! Their
work
was to hit the anklebone! Every step, you got a smack – there just wasn’t any way to avoid it.’

Bain also recalled: ‘I loved finding out that there was no point following certain scientific truths, like the fact there would be no sound on the explosions in space. We tried the effects without sounds, but it doesn’t work – the audience is expecting a noise.’

Gerry Anderson has said: ‘Whatever I did, my mental pictures cost a fortune to put onto film. It’s a fault of mine: every show I make is desperately expensive.’

Discussing the filming of the series, Martin Landau said: ‘On any given day I might have six pages of dialogue, and another scene immediately after that where I have to run down the hall 40 times, followed by a hugely emotional scene where I have to break down and cry.
That
is a heavy day! At the end of the day, you have to go back and learn ten pages of dialogue. The following day they pick you up at 6.30 and you’ve got the lines in your head, or halfway in your head. While the guy is driving to the studio, you’re sitting in the back – and it’s so nice to sit in the back of a Rolls Royce. Well, if I were driving, I wouldn’t have known anything! You’re looking at the cows and sheep outside.’

John Hug stated: ‘We did it until we got it right, or felt it to be right. Sometimes the actors messed up, sometimes the camera messed up, or something … and we had to go for several takes. By the time I got in there, most of the team that were filming were used to each other. They’d all been together and done a season, and most of them stayed on for the second season – the camera crews. There were several of them; different teams, but they all knew what they were doing. And everybody else, apart from me – well, virtually – had been in it before. They were quite happy with the set up. They knew where they were on Moonbase Alpha. Nobody worried about, “What’s my motivation?” They got on with it. Martin, Barbara, Zienia, Nick – they all portrayed characters they were at home with.’

Nick Tate remembered: ‘Strangely enough, while we were shooting
Space: 1999
in England, the English casting people and producers denied that
Space: 1999
had anything to do with the British industry – they really saw it as an American implant. They didn’t like it – it was not embraced by the British industry at all. I remember that my agent had tried to encourage some people (when I’d finished the series) to meet with me. I remember one casting director’s response to my agent was, “Well, yes, I’ve seen him in that show, but can he act?” She said, “Well, what do you mean? You’ve seen him in the show.” He said, “Yes, but he’s just being himself.” That’s actually a backhanded compliment, because it is actually very hard to appear on screen just being yourself. It’s hard to appear relaxed on television.’

Alibe Parsons said: ‘It was a bit scary at first, coming on to
Space: 1999
… not only because everybody had been working as a team on the series for so long before I arrived, but also because nobody knew what was going to happen with the series. It was a bit daunting, but everybody made me very welcome, so it was easier than I had anticipated. I was really taking over Zienia Merton’s role, because she was going off to make a film. So the role had already been established in the sense that there was a communications officer, but on a base that big it was obvious that they would have more than one communications officer, so I was just another one …

‘The character didn’t actually have a name in the scripts that had been written, because the part had been written for Zienia’s character, but the producer said, “Oh, you’ve got a nice name that’s unusual and sounds rather futuristic – do you mind if we use it?” I said, “Not at all!” But I’m not sure that it was the right decision, because it’s sometimes difficult for people to divorce the character that you’re playing from the real-life you, so using your own name – especially one as unusual as mine – probably wasn’t a good idea.’

Explaining the part-time basis of his involvement, John Hug said: ‘I wasn’t in all of the episodes, but when I was employed, they employed me on a weekly basis – one week or two weeks, whenever they wanted me. When it got to the last episode, they specified the days that they wanted me. I suppose it was a budget thing – they wanted to cut back on the money that they were forking out. So they specified three days, whereas before they would book me for two weeks even if I didn’t work every day. What happened was that all those three days that they booked me, they didn’t use me. So then they had to employ me on other specified days. They finished up paying me more money for the specified days than they would have had to pay to me for two weeks! So it was cutting off their nose to spite their face.’

Of her departure from the series, Zienia Merton related: ‘There were rumours, rumours, rumours about, “Is series three going to happen?” I don’t drive, so I used to travel with Tony Anholt, who would ferry me in, and if we finished at the same time I’d get a lift back, or whatever. Everybody was gossiping. I was offered a lead role in a film that was going to shoot in
Norway. I thought, “What should I do?” Then they eventually wrote a script where Sahn was let loose out of Command Centre and she went onto a planet! It was “Devil’s Planet”. I thought, “I don’t believe it – I finally get three lines! I actually go down a travel tube! This is wondrous. This is amazing.” But the dates clashed, didn’t they. The Norwegian film that was offering me a lead role was very accommodating, but the
Space: 1999
dates changed and kept conflicting. I don’t think they had that much imagination to be that mean, it was just in the planning that things changed.

‘So I went to my agent, who said, “What are you going to do?” Poor Tony, giving me lifts in and out, would hear, “Oh Tony, what am I going to do?” Decision time came. I rang my agent and said, “Okay – go for the Norwegian job.” I thought in regard to
Space: 1999
that they didn’t really want me that much on the second series, so maybe by the third I could be really out in the cold. And the film was a lead. You have to take chances – that’s what life’s about …

‘So on the next day of shooting in the afternoon Tony said to me, “Zienia, can you hang on? Are you in a hurry to get home? Because I’ve got to go see Gerry …” So I said, “Sure. Okay. I’ll meet you in the bar.” So I was waiting in the bar and finally Tony arrived and I remember he said, “Well, who’s a clever girl then? There is no series three.” And that is what I remember of it.’

Gerry Anderson acknowledged the difficulties the production faced regarding their filming and broadcast schedules: ‘It is of course true that we, the production company, failed to maintain deliveries and keep pace with transmissions, but in fairness to myself, the decision to proceed with the second season was made so late that it was known both by ITC and me that a breakdown in deliveries was likely even before the cameras started to roll.’

Christopher Penfold related:
‘I didn’t stay with the series. The series changed quite substantially in series two, and it wasn’t repeated after that. So, in the scheme of things, I’m not sure that it is considered hugely successful. The fans consider it successful, and that’s wonderful. I felt it was something that we could really have built on. I think
Space: 1999
– like
Star Trek
– could have gone on for four generations.’

Johnny Byrne said: ‘If I had any regret it was that, due to the demands of the format, [we had to have our] main characters on screen for most of the time, [and that meant keeping] in the background a host of really fine actors and actresses, like Nick Tate and Zienia Merton, to whom we would otherwise have been able to give something a bit more profound. In one story we would have Sandra, in others Nick Tate, and of course Clifton Jones. It was very difficult because not only were these good actors – and like all actors and actresses they have egos – but also it was very demoralising week in, week out, for Sandra to have to say [lines like], “The heat levels are rising, Commander.” You know, she wanted a bit more than that. I would like to have seen more of Zienia Merton, a very talented actress.

‘The other regret is, looking back, I would have loved to have brought out a bit more acutely the sense of wonder that they were taking with them: to have made it an absolute point, and to have shown the degree of leadership needed to stop them reverting into any of one of ten thousand possibilities we never really examined. Occasionally, Alpha Moonbase was swept by great typhoons of unreason, mind control and things like that, but we never tackled the problem of people in such a desperate situation. Their morale would have crumbled but for having very strong leadership. We tried to show the strong leadership, and I think Martin did it well. He is a good actor, Martin. He is a very instinctive actor.

‘I was very sorry when I had to move on. It was like having to pass on your favourite toy.’

Martin Landau has said: ‘
Space: 1999
fans are more die-hard than
Star Trek
fans. They are amazing. The show had an enormous following. It’s very popular everywhere …. Barbara won the Bravo Award as most popular actress in Germany for
Space: 1999
. It was a much better show than most people realise. We hit some, we missed some, we tried things. I liked the first season better. It was truer. They changed it because a bunch of American minds got into the act, and they decided to do many things they felt were commercial. I think the show’s beauty is that it wasn’t commercial. It had it’s own rhythm. I felt the episodes we started with in the first season were much more along the lines I wanted to go. To some extent, that was corrupted. I felt it would grow. Episodes like “Earthbound”, “Black Sun” and “War Games” were ones with ideas and integrity. Fred Freiberger helped in some respects, but overall I don’t think he helped the show. I think he brought a much more ordinary, mundane approach to the series.
Space: 1999
had a style of its own, a feel of its own, a look of its own that would have grown if it had been left alone. It needed time and wasn’t given that time. They rushed the process. If the format hadn’t been changed, I know it would have hit.

‘I think
Space: 1999
is going to become a period piece. I enjoyed working on it. I liked the idea, as did Barbara, of a show set in the not-too-distant future. I liked the concept of a group of people being forced into a situation they weren’t either emotionally or technologically prepared for. Had they wanted to, they couldn’t have done it. They couldn’t have gone into deep space with the technology they had and survived. So this accident caused them to face perils and the unknown and all kinds of things. And not being in control [of] their trajectory added a wonderful element. The characters in
Star Trek
were so far into the future that they were sort of in control of their destiny to a much greater degree than the denizens of Moonbase Alpha. And because
Space: 1999
was only 25 years into the future, it didn’t remove us, or make us into beings that were too greatly advanced, beyond what is going on today … So I felt it was a great idea and an interesting show in terms of testing human capabilities and strengths and weaknesses, and coming into contact with many other kinds of species they were completely unprepared to encounter. Being on
Space: 1999
was an interesting time.’

Barbara Bain said: ‘If one was philosophical about it, the show might be described as an allegory of the human will to survive … Most people thought of it purely as entertainment. And it was. Martin and I [had] a good time working on it.’

Nick Tate observed: ‘There were a lot of damn good episodes that came out of the second year, and I got to do quite a few good shows. But, quite frankly, I preferred the majority of storylines from the first. In the first season there had been a sense of truth and humanity about the concepts. It was built around certain known concepts and wasn’t just science fiction; it was more science fact. In the second season, they tried to be more fanciful, but they didn’t spend the money and take the time that the show really needed … I’d had three years on
Space: 1999
– the first series started in November 1973 and we worked most of 1974 and finished in March 1975. So it was a 15-month production for those first 24 episodes. The second season was shot from about the end of January through to December 1976, all in 11 months … So if you notice any difference in quality in the shows [in the second year, remember that] they were made very fast.

‘The show’s original concept had been [formulated] by both Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. When they broke up, it really destroyed much of what had been established during its first series. It seemed as if Gerry was prepared to allow somebody else to come in and totally change the humanity Sylvia had brought to the programme. We moved further away from science fact and started moving deeper into stories that had a much weirder slant. In the second season we would up having, I think, some very silly characters. We weren’t able to spend either the money or the time on the original concepts and, as a result, many of the creatures we encountered looked more like pantomime dragons.