Episode Guide

Year 2 - Episode 21

• Chris Penfold wrote (probably) two drafts. The script was completely rewritten (by Fred Freiberger): Penfold says the only thing he recognised was his name on the cover. The overall story was the same so Penfold decided to keep his name on the episode.
• Shooting script dated 4th August 1976. Revised 3 November 1976.
• A "Double Up Helena" script, filmed simultaneously with Devil's Planet
• Filmed Tuesday 2nd November- Tuesday 16th November 1976.
• Jill Townsend was sick throughout filming, with suspected flu. It turned out to be appendicitis. She insisted on carrying on and having the operation after filming

Cast

Sets

Int. Command Centre
Int. Medical Centre
Int. Detention
Int. Dorzak's Quarters
Int. Technical Lab
Int. Alpha Corridor
Int. Boarding Tube

Int. Croton ship

• The Croton ship was a Brian Johnson design, made by Martin Bower. One of the SFX crew put a lampshade on it as it made a good light stand.
• The Croton ship lands in front of a large photo of Moonbase Alpha, not the actual model.
• The forcefield was simply coloured perspex bars, removed by bump cuts.
• The kaleidoscope patterns shown to Clea are also seen in The Taybor and New Adam New Eve.

• Koenig is investigating "a belt of asteroids which give us some hope for colonisation". Living on an asteroid would be less hospitable than the Moon.
• The Croton computer knows about Earth as it identifies the Moon.
• "Organic pyscho-waves" sounds like the lambda variant in The Lambda Factor.
• Tony requires surgery to insert and remove the neuro-pulsonic jammer capsule into his skull. How did Clea remove her own capsule?
• Croton is an entire galaxy of planets including Norvah.
• A photon drive usually means a laser pushing the ship (the slight pressure of photons against a large sail slowly increases the ship's speed). Presumably the large sails are retracted at this point and the ship is coasting.
• An alternative type of photon drive is the use of electron-positron annihilation to produce thrust, first proposed by Eugene Sanger in 1953 in an article titled The Theory of Photon Rockets. The popular 1972 book The Challenge of the Stars by Patrick Moore and David Hardy featured a beautiful painting of a photon ship arriving at the Orion nebula. (Thanks to Jorge Luiz Calife).

Alpha Technology:

• Medical thermographic scans are used. They are also featured in Breakaway, Matter Of Life And Death, Ring Around The Moon, Another Time Another Place, Missing Link, Force Of Life and Space Warp.
• Note the use of the silver decontamination suits (also seen on firemen in various year 2 episodes).

• Croton is a Calabrian port, an important city colony of Magna Graecia founded by Myscellus in 710 BC. It was famous for its medical school and success at the Olympic Games. Between 530 and 510 BC the philosopher Pythagoras and 300 of his disciples settled in the city. There he founded a religious, political, and philosophical movement known as Pythagoreanism. The more dictatorial aspects of his ideas led to them being ousted by democratic government. The poet and philosopher Dorzak seems to be based on Pythagoras.
• Ed Spencer's role was scripted to be Ben Vincent. The character was originally named Ed Spandau in the call sheets. Richard Le Parmentier is named Sam in the script and episode, but credited as Ed Malcolm (the name used in script revisions).
• Alan's description about his Australian cattle ranch and surf boards is cut.
• Another cut was Maya telling Dorzak about the gastronomic delights on Alpha (he tells her "You have become very Earthly, Maya")
• Another cut was Sahala explaining to Alan why she did not mention the neural jammer. "It was my only protection from Dorzak's powers. I feared in your ignorance you would try to remove it from me and leave me vulnerable too....like Yesta."
• The scripted ending was cut, where Tony asks if the jammer can be adapted so he doesn't hear Maya's voice. She asserts she will stay by him until he recovers and changes into Dorzak.
• Maya turns into a Guinea Pig with black spots. In the script this was a white mouse with zebra stripes.