Destination: Moonbase Alpha (79 page)

‘
Space: 1999
is loved by fans because it was about
real
people. It was the characters’ humanity that I think made people love it so much. [It had] high production values, thoughtful storylines, strong acting, good directing and – in the end – staunch and loyal fans.

‘It’s like some distant dream, really. I’ve absolutely not lost contact with it, though, because I get invited to conventions and go to them whenever I can. I also have a fan club, the International Nick Tate Fan Club, and I get fan mail all the time. So it’s never totally gone from my life. We all had a nice time working on
Space: 1999
, and we all felt that we were doing a show that could have longevity. Sure enough, here we are now, and people are still interested in it … I’m proud of
Space: 1999
. The show was good. I’ve done lots of diverse work in theatre and film, and
Space: 1999
represents a section of my life that I feel good about. For me, it’s a couple of years out of my life and they are proud years. I don’t regret it in any way.

‘
Space: 1999
finished in 1977. I’ve had to move on and have another life, and life’s been really good to me and I’ve been very happy with my career. I can’t keep on reliving what was in effect a disappointment to me. I thought
Space: 1999
would go on and grow, and I think it deserved to, but other factors caused its downfall. And that’s disappointing, because the show itself wasn’t disappointing. I loved working on it – I enjoyed the people immensely and I enjoyed what it did for me. But I can’t keep reliving something that isn’t going to come back. Unless it really does come back: and if it does, I’ll be there, if they want me to be. But if anybody was to remake it, they’d have all young people [in the cast]. So I can’t keep on going down that road.

‘I think if a new
Space: 1999
were to come out now it would have to have brand new actors in it, and there might be one or two cameo appearances by some of us that are still around – Prentis and Zienia and Anton and Clifton. We would all love to do it, and we are all young enough to. And Martin or Barbara could be in it, and Catherine Schell, who is a wonderful actress. I was very sad to hear about Tony passing away – he was a lovely man, a good man, and a fine actor, too. He and I never had any problems working together – we were put into a situation where it was hard for us. As two guys, we got on well together. So there would be no objections from any of the actors who worked on the show to come back and do it again – I’m sure we’d love to – but just how it could all be put together, I don’t know. It’s a shame that nobody’s ever done anything about reviving
Space: 1999
, because it was a great concept and had some really good characters.’

Zienia Merton asserted: ‘I think Year Two was too simple. Everybody was doing silly jokes and stuff … There were a lot of jokes in “
Full Circle”. There were a lot of nice moments in there. It’s very difficult to try to get the right mix between a series about scientists – scientific stuff – and a soap. You know, it’s very difficult. I know that we were told we were wooden in the first year, but it takes time … I thought what was put in its place, what was thought to be warm and funny, was absolutely boring.

‘
Space: 1999
is remembered because it was done with deep integrity, and the production values were brilliant … If there had been a Year Three I certainly wouldn’t have done it on the same terms as Year Two, which was absolutely ghastly for me. But I’m a very practical person and a very realistic person, and I [realised I] really wasn’t wanted on Year Two. You win some; you lose some – that’s life. The second year wasn’t that memorable for me – if it was memorable at all, it was for all the wrong reasons. But I
loved
Year One. My affection for Year One is undiminished.’

Catherine Schell explained: ‘
Space: 1999
was my favourite, because we all got along so well. We had so much fun doing it, so many giggles and laughs, and it was really sad when that ended. I was really sad. It was wonderful. We laughed so much and had a terrific time. It was one of the best years of my life, doing that show. It was very hard work though. Sometimes we would be working until nine o’clock at night, and then had to get up again the following morning. But I never had a feeling of, “Oh, I have to go to work again.” I always looked forward to it every day.

‘If anything,
Space: 1999
had a detrimental effect on my career, as is often the case when one becomes closely associated with a particular part. I was very grateful for the “Bronze-Otto” awarded to me by the German magazine
Bravo
for my portrayal of Maya, but believe me – it isn’t an Oscar! And I never received any work from Germany on the strength of the Otto.

‘I still find
Space: 1999
a beautifully photographed show that deserves to be paid attention to … I still like my part as Maya, but I do not like to be identified with Maya all the time, because that has not been my only role. Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and the others were great colleagues. We were a great team and enjoyed each other’s company a great deal. I also received quite a lot of fan mail, but hardly had the time to answer it. Sometimes my chauffer only showed me the photographs to sign. I did that, and he did the rest … It’s always a risk to play a part like that: it would be very difficult to find another job afterwards for a long time, because people would see you identified with that part … I didn’t work for well over a year after the series finished.’

Tony Anholt had a similar viewpoint: ‘I would have had qualms about [doing another season], not because I thought the show or any of the people were not good enough. It wouldn’t necessarily meet with my own particular aspirations as an actor, and having felt that
The Protectors
did me more damage, personally, than it helped, I would probably have had the same fears about
Space: 1999
… It seems to have done me more damage than good. I’d have probably fallen into the trap that actors tend to fall into: if there didn’t seem to be anything better, if the money and the security were good, and if I thought the fact that there was a third series meant it was getting more successful, I might well have said yes.

‘Following
Space: 1999
I had six months out of work; that is inevitable when you’ve been in work for quite a while. I had got rid of my agent, because I discovered he had no idea
Space: 1999
was being transmitted after seven episodes had gone out, and his interest in me seemed to be waning. I got another agent and said, “I want to get back to the theatre,” because my own feeling was that … the casting people, directors, if they still knew I existed, had forgotten I was capable of doing a bit more than pointing a laser gun at some monster on a cloud.’

Schell summed up the series by saying: ‘There was an awful lot of moving and running around in corridors, sudden head-turnings, meaningful looks. I don’t know what they were about, but there was a lot of that … The scripts, on the whole, were fine; they were very good. But there were some really cheesy lines!’

John Hug said: ‘Everyone who worked on
Space: 1999
was totally committed to it, and they made me feel completely at home. Nobody was standoffish, they were all very friendly, and it made for a pleasant working environment. I think we
all
thought
Space: 1999
was good. It looked polished, it was well made, the sets were good and it was fun to do. That’s what I basically remember about it – it was an enjoyable summer.’

Emma Porteous recalled: ‘The joy of being in the film business is that every new script is something different. There are always other nice things beckoning, and one has to move on. But I did enjoy
Space: 1999
very much.’

Fond of his time working on the series, Brian Johnson said: ‘
Space: 1999
was just the sort of show I’d always wanted to do, from the point of view of producing a lot of effects in a short time without an excessively large budget. And knowing we had to get all those shots in time made me try to think of new ways of doing things like Moon surfaces. For instance, I used a lot of photographic cut-outs. All those shots you see of Moonbase Alpha are photographs.’

Derek Wadsworth stated: ‘I was extremely lucky. At the time I did the music, I imagined that it would go on air a week or two later and, with a little luck, might possibly enjoy a later repeat. There was no concept that it might still be showing actually in 1999! … I am a science fiction fan. We are dreamers who sometimes get a bad press. Scientists are the ones who seek the answers; I like to think that sci-fi fans are amongst the ones who seek the questions. Thank God for imagination.’

Summing up his impression of the series, Fred Freiberger said: ‘I thought it was a great show. I thought it was terrific, and the people I was working with – they were all just great. I loved them all. It was very, very pleasant – a happy set, as they say … One of the things I loved about
Space: 1999
was that there was no interference from a network. If there was anything wrong, Gerry and I, as producers, had the responsibility. ITC may have spoken to Gerry about things, but I had no interference. When you’re involved with a network, there’s a lot of interference. There’s somebody always on your back. But with
Space: 1999
, the greatest pleasure was there was no network to deal with. The mistakes you’re making are your own – they’re not forced on you. I don’t expect the fans to make any allowances … If anybody doesn’t like the show, that’s quite all right.’

Gerry Anderson said: ‘This is only a gut reaction, but I would say that the more serious-minded science fiction fans preferred the first year. However, I think the higher proportion of letters I’ve received preferred the second. I think that if, as a producer, you do exactly what you want to do, it can be said that you’re a strong personality and you know exactly where you’re going. Equally, it can be said that you’re pigheaded and are totally ignoring the advice of the people who know the market. I decided that, since I was not in
America, I really should take the advice of the people who were there on a day-to-day basis. I don’t think either the first year or the second year is necessarily the type of show I would like to make if I were left to my own devices.’

While Year Two of
Space: 1999
aired around the world, plans were underway for a potential third season, as was reported in the media: ‘Now entrenched in its successful second season boom, ITC is looking forward to a third season with more fantastic events and additions, although mum’s the word at the studio. They will only say that Maya and Miss Schell will be kept in and that the budget may be raised again. But that’s all until final preparations and an official announcement are made.’
[25]

It was rumoured that this third season would consist of 13 episodes, which was probably a proposed cost-cutting measure – reducing the number of episodes, yet maintaining the production values viewers had come to expect. These additional 13 episodes would have served the series very well in syndicated re-runs, increasing the total number of episodes from 48 to a far more marketable 61.Catherine Schell has talked about the potential third season: ‘There were plans to do another series. There was even talk of a spin-off series … with – as I was told – Maya as the leading character. I don’t remember Tony or Nick ever being mentioned, but I presume that they would have been featured in it … I would of course have gone on to make another series. Greed almost always wins over common sense, and I had been promised an American type contract, giving me residuals on all the foreign sales and repeats. It would have been an ideal form of a pension plan. As for Maya’s character developing, that would have been entirely in the hands of the writers. I am sure I would have thought of something and made some suggestions, but this is now merely rhetorical … It wasn’t only Freddy [who mentioned the thought that there might be a spin-off of the Maya character], it was also Gerry. [That] obviously would have been very interesting for me. The conversation was really about what would happen, what did I think, and would I want to do it? Yes, of course! And they were very sweet, because … I was with an agent at the time who was really a small-time agent. When I received the contract, even to sign, I had to send it back twice because I spotted mistakes [and payment issues] … I was sending the contract back [with queries], and they noticed that it was coming from me, not from my agent. My agent had actually said, “Catherine, don’t make waves, for heaven’s sake. These are important people and you want to work for them, so work for peanuts,” or whatever. So they told me, “If we do another series, we advise you – as the ‘enemy’ – to find another agent. You have to go to a better agent.” But, anyway, [the spin-off] never happened. It was in [just the early stages] of the planning system. There were no scripts involved. It was just a theory: there was some interest, and perhaps we could do this.’ Martin Landau recalled the reason why Year Three never happened: ‘We got sacrificed. Lew Grade was getting into the motion picture business and it turned out his advertising budget for his films, like
Raise The Titanic
, was our total budget for another season. It would have served them, from a syndication point of view, to have another season, but it came down to economic priorities. I think there was a very good chance of our going for another season if he hadn’t gotten into movies and needed that money.’