Read Destination: Moonbase Alpha Online
Authors: Robert E. Wood
‘Ring Around the Moon’ has many appealing special effects, including the sequence showing an Eagle (deflected from the Triton Probe) tumbling back to the Moon. Another very unusual and impressive effect displays an Eagle traveling through the absolute blackness within the Triton Probe. The final destruction of the Probe is a spectacular display of
Space: 1999
’s fireworks-style explosions.Unfortunately, not all of the effects are of the same quality. Some of the energy beams from the Triton Probe, and the force field around the nose cone of the Eagle, are poorly done and rank among the worst effects of the first series.
It is interesting to note the similarity Bergman points out between the ‘Eyes of Heaven’ in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom from Earth and the ‘Eyes of Triton’. There’s also the eye-like appearance of the probe, as well as that of the Tritonians themselves. It draws a fascinating comparison that could suggest that the Tritonians had been to Earth in ancient times, observing, and were recorded by the humans of those times as the ‘Eyes of Heaven’. It’s the first apparent inspiration from author Erich von Däniken (
Chariots of the Gods
) to appear in
Space: 1999
, and it won’t be the last. As stated in the show, the only purpose of the Triton Probe is to collect and record information: ‘We are the eyes of the planet Triton. Everything that is, has been and will be is recorded by us.’ Unfortunately, we don’t learn
why
they do this, and without that motivation they remain hollow ciphers.
Thematically, ‘Ring Around the Moon’ is about exploitation. The Triton Probe uses Ted Clifford and Helena Russell to its own advantage, with no regard to their wellbeing. To the Tritonian way of thinking, the end justifies the means. Their purpose is simply to possess knowledge, and that is also their flaw. What the Alphans are learning on their journey is clearly stated by Bergman (in his wisdom), ‘Perhaps knowledge isn’t the answer, after all.’ To which Koenig replies, ‘Then what is?’ As they speed through the universe, encountering moral and ethical challenges along with the purely physical ones, the Alphans are on a quest to find the answer to that question. The answer, as they come to realise, is the wisdom to use the knowledge.Although not a fundamental flaw of the plot, another factor that mars ‘Ring Around the Moon’ is that the script exhibits some astonishingly bad astronomy, confusing the terms ‘galaxy’ and ‘universe’. As well, there is an apparent lack of certainty from the writer as to what the point of the whole episode is. There is a strong degree of repetition in the back-and-forth Eagle flights (which accomplish nothing except to extend the running time of the episode), and a limited amount of story logic. In presenting the Voice of Triton, the decision was made to use Prentis Hancock projecting a forced whisper, when undoubtedly a better alternative could have been found that might have come across as somewhat more threatening.‘Ring Around the Moon’ is one of the poorest episodes of the first series, but still works on enough levels to be regarded as acceptable viewing. Even when Year One is bad, it’s still reasonably good.
Rating:
6/10
1.5
EARTHBOUND
Screenplay by Anthony Terpiloff
Directed by Charles Crichton
Selected Broadcast Dates:
UK LWT:
Date: 6 December 1975. Time: 7.00 pm
Granada:
Date: 26 December 1975
[20]
US KRON (San Francisco):
Date: 14 February 1976. Time: 7.00 pm
Credited Cast: Martin Landau
(John Koenig),
Barbara Bain
(Helena Russell),
Barry Morse
(Victor Bergman),
Prentis Hancock
(Paul Morrow),
Clifton Jones
(David Kano),
Zienia Merton
(Sandra Benes),
Anton Phillips
(Bob Mathias),
Nick Tate
(Alan Carter)
Guest Artist: Roy Dotrice
(Commissioner Simmonds)
Special Guest Star: Christopher Lee
(Captain Zantor)
Uncredited Cast: Suzanne Roquette
(Tanya Alexander),
Barbara Kelly
(Voice of Computer),
Sarah Bullen
(Operative Kate),
June Bolton
(Operative June),
Loftus Burton
(Operative Lee Oswald),
Andrew Dempsey
,
Joy Harrison
,
Robert Phillips, Maggie Wright
(Main Mission Operatives),
Tony Allyn
(Security Guard Tony Allan),
Quentin Pierre
(Security Guard Pierce Quinton),
Alan Harris
(Alphan),
Roy Everson
(Security Guard in corridor),
Maggie Henderson
(Alphan Medic in corridor),
Rhonda Parker
(Female Kaldorian),
Christine Hewett
(Female Kaldorian)
Plot:
Bound for Earth, an alien ship from the planet Kaldor crashes on the Moon. As the Alphans befriend the Kaldorians, the offer is made for one human to travel with Captain Zantor and his people back to Earth. Commander Koenig institutes a review by Computer to select the most suitable person on Alpha to make the journey … but Commissioner Simmonds plots to be the one to return – at any cost!
Quotes:
Filming Dates:
Friday 15 March – Monday 1 April 1974
Commentary:
Martin Landau:
‘
Space: 1999
was a difficult show to do on a weekly basis because of the special effects, because of the logistics, because of the problems with miniatures and all the stuff that was done on the screens down at Bray Studios. There were questions one had to ask all the time: “What does the spaceship that we’re frightened of look like? How big is it?” Take the Chris Lee show [“Earthbound”], which was early on, where we were reacting to this thing coming towards us. When I saw the thing in the rushes it looked like a flower! I couldn’t believe it. I walked into Gerry’s office and said, “You can’t use that! Take those things off, because it looks benign. It looks harmless, sweet, like a panda.” Anyway, he did. He changed it. But it still didn’t look as precocious as it should. It didn’t look as if it had enough history behind it.’
Barbara Bain:
‘I liked doing “Earthbound”. We had the most amazing moments in that. Christopher Lee was probably six foot five or eight inches tall. He was an enormous, tall, sweet, gentle man. His height was intrinsic to the story and I had some scenes with him. I’m not six foot six, but they wanted as much disparity as possible. They put him on a box. They used to do it, and still do it in the movies, to line up the height between the two principals. They call it an “apple box”, or “half an apple”. Christopher Lee never in his life had to stand on a box! They usually have to prop up everybody next to him. He couldn’t believe it. So, they did prop him up on a box, which of course made the disparity between us even greater. He was stunned, but he enjoyed it. It was fun. That was the only time in his life he’s ever been asked to be taller!’
Barry Morse:
‘Roy Dotrice was one of our guest stars, appearing in our “Breakaway” and “Earthbound” episodes. I don’t think I’d worked with him before, but he’s a good pro and a good actor. Christopher Lee was a chum of ours, and I had worked with him before.
‘The political structure of Moonbase Alpha wasn’t discussed, but there again I have to revert to saying that there was precious little time for in-depth discussion of relationships or structures, because we were starting with less than one script and it was immensely important to get on with just shooting it. So, unfortunately, there was very little opportunity to discuss such things as the militaristic as opposed to socialistic structure of the community itself. These things emerged more by chance than by consideration. It may have been presented that the crew of Moonbase Alpha were a more or less socialistic outfit. They needed to be, of course, having been cut off from Earth. It may be this sense of community gradually established among the Alpha crew was perhaps interpreted as being
too
socialistic by people in the United States who had control over the various networks. I don’t know what Gerry’s or Sylvia’s personal political views might be – I never discussed it with them, and they didn’t express any firm opinions about such things.’
Prentis Hancock:
‘When you do something like
Space: 1999
you work in a vacuum, in a way. We see what we do, our work. Down the road at Bray Studios there were a whole bunch of other guys working on special effects. And Barry Gray was working elsewhere on music. The only time we saw them was when they melded together and we saw the whole finished show. I think one of the biggest and best compliments we ever heard was when Zienia and I were watching this thing and some of the boys from the special effects department – who had previously done a lot of puppets for Gerry – left the screening saying, “It’s better with actors!”’
Zienia Merton:
‘We had very bad arrangements at the stages. There were hardly any dressing rooms and we often had to double up. But I do remember one episode with Christopher Lee and the Kaldorians. The three Kaldorian girls shared my dressing room, which I didn’t mind, except they were so big and I was so tiny. I felt like I was intruding. So I said, “Next time, I only want people my size”. On the first series I always had my own dressing room. If I was away, someone else might use it, but I’d always come back to it. There was none of that on the second series. I was shunted around like no one’s business. But I never felt on the first series that I was being hard done by in sharing my dressing room. After all, you have to muck in.
‘On the first series, they didn’t actually write [specifically] for us. They said they did, but we all struggled like mad to find something human, something plausible in all the characters. I remember on the second day, we did a sort of mock test, everybody coming along and introducing themselves, saying, “I’m Zienia Merton, playing the part of Sandra Benes, chief data operator.” I could never say that. And I hated it so much that I was very coy about it. I hate being brash [anyway], although some people said very brashly, “Hi, I’m so and so and I’m terrific,” and so on … I sort of crept forward and quietly mumbled my lines. The scriptwriters worked up on this, [so] in subsequent plots I would smile shyly at someone. But the point is that I wouldn’t be that timid or reserved for the position I was holding in Main Mission. Actually, someone in
America wrote and said, “Thank God you’re in the series, because at least we get a signal about what the plot is saying. Because it seems anytime anything is about to happen, you fall down and faint, and we know when the action is over because you get up.” I was a sort of emotional barometer.’
Christopher Lee:
‘[
Space: 1999
] was an interesting thing to do because, I think I’m right to say, it was almost the first British science fiction television [film] series. British in so far as it was made in Pinewood. And we, as I recall, were aliens who were in a state of suspended animation, lying inside these great big sarcophagi. You might say that this sort of series preceded a great many of the [later] science fiction films and television. The clothes were fascinating actually because we weren’t like [aliens are portrayed] today – or have been for the last 10 or 15 or 20 years. We weren’t creatures who were unrecognisable. We were to all intents and purposes more or less human beings. Of course, everyone was very, very tall, including the girls … They were very charming, too. It gives one a little bit of hope for the future if you can explore space and find girls like that.’