Space Brain
Alpha encounters an intangible mass as it heads though space...and towards disaster. Whatever the mysterious energy field might be, it possesses a strange and frightening power.
- Shooting script 1st December 1974
- Shooting schedule dated 5 December 1974
- Filmed 5th December 1974- 19th December 1974, reshooting 25 February- 28 February 1975
- As foam filled Main Mission, director Charles Crichton tried to cut the scene but could not be heard above the sound of the aircraft engines whipping up the foam. He ran forward waving his arms, slipped and disappeared into the foam. He emerged covered in it. The foam continued until it filled the set (account by Nick Tate in Starlog 4, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the Kindred/Fanderson video "The Space: 1999 Documentary")
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Library track: "Mars, Bringer Of War" composed by Gustav Holst, arranged by Malcolm Sargent (published by EMI Music For Pleasure)
- Bergman says there are only two schemes to move the moon: "Shockwaves and antigravity screens". Antigravity is an invention of the series. Shockwaves cannot travel through space (see Collision Course).
- "This is neither a sun, a star or a planet we're dealing with." A sun and a star are synonymous.
- "That part of the cerebellum that controls the will". The cerebellum controls muscular coordination; higher mental processes are controlled in the cerebrum.
- Symbiosis between two minds seems to be similar to Kano's link to the computer in Guardian Of Piri.
- Astronomer Fred Hoyle has proposed that space nebulae could become alive and novelised the idea in his book The Black Cloud.
- Where does the foam go at the end of the episode? The moon will be coated with it, and it will not erode or decompose in the vacuum of space. Where do they put the foam that was inside Main Mission?
- In his book The Biology Of Science Fiction Cinema (McFarland, April 2002); Mark C Glassy analyses this episode's treatment of antibodies. He approves of the concept of the moon and eagle as "antigens". Antibody proteins turn into bubbles when rapidly mixed with air, like the foam seen in the moonbase. He disapproves of the concept that the antibodies can gain weight and density.
- Helena induces "neuronic concussion" with a handheld direct ophthalmoscope (used to examine the eye). Visible are the little dial that you spin to
adjust the focus and even the eye aperture you look through on the 'top side' as it
is held over Kelly's forehead. You can even see the power cord dangling off the
back which seems appropriate for the 1970s since the lithium battery powered sort
didn't become readily available until much later. Thanks to Meredith Girard
3 fatalities, Cousteau, Wayland, Kelly.
In the script cast list and some publicity material, Melita is listed as "Melita Janni" - although the surname is never used in dialogue. They are married (Koenig talks to her about "her husband"), so it is possible that Kelly is a forename; alternatively Melita may use her maiden name.
Alpha Technology:
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Eagle 1 (Wayland and Cousteau, destroyed); 4 (
Rescue); 7 (Koenig, fastest); remote Eagle (
crashed); cargo Eagle
None
Aliens: Space brain |
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Reuse
Cast:
Kelly takes his helmet for EVA wearing a normal backpack. Later he has a special backpack (where is his oxygen?)
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When the Eagle door opens to the vacuum, how can Kelly get away from the artificial gravity? We could presume the gravity is turned down or off, but there are unsecured boxes on the shelves which could float away.
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Completing the wide angle turn, Koenig's Eagle and the robot Eagle merge.
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During the space-walk, the stripes on the rescue pod are gone.
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In the boarding tube between Koenig's Eagle and the robot Eagle, one door is the normal Moonbase door. |
The communications post where Koenig first sees the hieroglyphics shows a time of 15:09 (3:09 pm, a curious time for him to be exchanging "goodnight" wishes). The post in Kelly's quarters has a similar time. When Helena checks the screen in her quarters, the hour is not visible, but the minutes say :45. As Victor meets Helena in the corridor, that post reads 6:00. Thanks to John Day.
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Bergman talks to Koenig after the bomb Eagle has crashed. Note the detonation control mounted on the control panel (unexploded)- it should only be in the bomb Eagle, not Koenig's pursuit Eagle.
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In long view there is a strong shadow behind Lee. In close up, the shadow is gone. (Similar errors are seen throughout the series- these on-screen camera shots were filmed in front of a wall, not a full set. In "reality" they were often in Main Mission far from a wall).
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After the bomb Eagle has crashed, we see Koenig running down the corridor from the Travel Tube. Underneath the clock in the communications post are four "white" slots. As an Alphan passes behind the post, you can see him pass through the slots. The communications post only has two sides, and the lighted slots actually show the wall panel behind. Thanks to Craig Rohloff.
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- When John Koenig instructs Alan Carter to set the nuclear trigger to distruct at 18:45, he types in the number 1 - 8 - 7 - 4. "18:45, Commander" says Alan Carter (thanks to Alan Colosi). Joe Wagner pointed out he could be using decimal time. Alan Colosi responds that it doesn't correspond to any (Aristean) decimal time (which would be 22:30 or 18:22 depending on decimal point). Even if it's a decimal part of an hour, it's a 20 second error.
- On the launch pad the robot Eagle has the starboard docked. It launches with the portside to the tube.
- The views of Moonbase Alpha as the two Eagles fly to it are inconsistent.
- Christopher Penfold:
The microcosm meets the macrocosm. The universe that the single complex cell of Alpha moves as itself only the interior of a brain that was huge beyond comprehension. It's a science fiction idea I find appealing, that within ourselves other universes exist.
- Does everyone on Alpha do the same puzzle? (Helena's puzzle is different from Koenig's). Koenig's jigsaw shows a painting of the Visitation: the pregnant Virgin Mary places her hand on the stomach of Elizabeth - in her womb, the baby John the Baptist leaps for joy.
- Melita only calls her husband "Kelly". We never learn his first name.
- Why can Kelly see more on a spacewalk than in the Eagle with all its sensors? Isn't there a danger of being hit by wreckage from the missing Eagle 1?
- The human link to the computer, complete with fast typing, is also seen in Ring Around The Moon.
- Several publicity shots exist of a fight between Kelly and Alan Carter in the Eagle cabin. This makes no sense in the context of the episode and is not seen in the final print.
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Two shots on the Carlton DVDs are in widescreen (with black borders top and bottom). They are zoomed in on the Network DVDs, cropping the sides of the shot.
External Links
Episode Guide 
