Production GuideObservations: Brian The Brain
Production Guide
The Alphans don't use their life detectors on the Swift (as they did, for instance, in The Metamorph).
The Alpha Log Recorder (the trolley with the yellow wheels) disappears from Command Center immediately after Brian's departure. In the initial scenes (while Helena is recording on it), a filing shelf is located where it stands.
As Brian, Helena, Koenig and the two guards leave the travel tube to go to Command Center, we can see Koenig's hands in one shot (his arm behind Helena), but they are in his pockets in the next shot. Thanks to Thomas.
Brian's antenna must touch the floor to keep in touch with the Swift computer. The Moonbase floor is not connected to the Swift.
When Koenig and Helena are first forced towards the airlock, the emergency button inside the airlock is not present in Helena's airlock. It only appears after she has entered the airlock.
Koenig recognises Captain Michael, although he had not seen him before (or remembered the mission). The toxic atmosphere has preserved all the bodies (perhaps killing the microbes that would cause the bodies to decay). Are the "spider webs" organic (fungal? spiders?) or inorganic deposits? Presumably Brian also let the atmosphere into the Swift mothership to kill Michael, whose body is also preserved. The mothership would have had supplies for the full crew, so if the atmosphere was not contaminated he could have survived for a long time (and when he died, his body would have decayed). So how can the Alphans walk round without helmets? Perhaps the mothership life support automatically cleaned out the toxins in the months or years since it was contaminated. It couldn't physically clean off the spider web deposits; it could still be dangerous to touch or disturb anything.
The backpack of Koenig's silver spacesuit is a plastic kitchen dish-drying rack. Identical models are seen on the interior walls of the Swift, mounted the opposite way up and painted grey. There are also plastic cutlery trays on the walls. The bin into which Koenig inserts the nuclear fuel is identical to the yellow versions seen in Breakaway- it is actually a roadside salt-grit storage bin, common in the UK near roads that become icy in winter.
When Maya turns into a mouse inside the mothership, she is standing on the floor, but Koenig picks up the mouse from the top of the console. Thanks to Thomas.
When Koenig and Maya/Captain Michael chase Brian into the airlock, Brian backs into a side wall. In a brief shot (as Koenig moves around in front of frame), we can see the perspex covering the computer panels has been shattered, presumably by Brian colliding with it in a previous take. The next shot shows a chipboard section under the computer panels, with the cracked perspex still visible over one panel. After the damage seen in the previous shot, the lower panels were removed.
When the airlock door closes on Brian, the door glass shows the clear reflection of a studio light (over Captain Michael's head). A little to the left is the reflection of somebody's head, with very little hair- it's not Koenig or Helena. Thanks to Marc Abernathy.
Brian is blown into space. The floor of "space" is dark gray (a little lighter than the upper part), and his shadow passes over it as he moves. Realistically he might be expected to float or at least shift his orientation a little as he leaves the airlock. Thanks to Marc Abernathy.
Brian's antenna is much longer when he's dangling from the Swift exterior.
In the epilogue, Brian is seen still dangling from the Swift exterior, which means that the ship is still in space. Presumably they must have docked in space with the Eagle to transfer Koenig, Helena and Maya. Why didn't Koenig take the Swift back to Alpha? Thanks to Thomas.
In the epilogue, a floor mat can be seen in Command Center, in front of Koenig's desk (where the cast will gather to talk to Tony).
Copyright Martin Willey