Another Time, Another Place
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Year 1 - Episode 6
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| Belgium (Flemish) |
Splitsing |
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| France/Canada |
Autre temps, autre lieu |
Another Time, Another Place |
| Germany |
Fast weider daheim |
Almost Back Again |
| Italy |
Un altro tempo, un altro luogo |
Another Time, Another Place |
| Japan |
When the Moon Splits into Two
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| Netherlands |
Tijd en Plaats onbekend |
Time And Place Unknown |
| Poland |
W innym miejscu, w innym czasie |
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| Portugal |
Outro Tempo, Outro Local |
Another Time, Another Place |
| Spain |
Otro tiempo otro lugar |
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An eerie phenomenon grips the moon. Moonbase Alpha Personnel become duplicated and come face to face with their future selves on Earth again. But for how long?
- Shooting script 20th March 1974. Blue page amendments 25th March, 1st April.
- Martin Landau made notations in his script copy including "I feel Koenig makes a lot of decisions for no reason - no building of drama..." and "Koenig is a shmuck in this script!"
- According to Sylvia Anderson, Judy Geeson wanted to walk off the set, possibly after conflict with the director over her performance, or over her character.
- Shooting schedule dated 1 April 1974. Filmed 2 April to 19 April 1974, with additional day on 25 April
- Edited into the 1976 Italian compilation movie Spazio 1999
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- The scene where the crew leave the "full sized" Eagle is reused in The Testament Of Arkadia. The Eagle is a foreground cut-out.
- The space warp effects are relatively simple but effective: flashing coloured filters, slow motion and double exposures. Note also the split screens: during the pan from the dead Koenig past Helena to the door opening for the live Koenig; also the two Helenas (Zienia Merton stood in for the opposite Helena during this scene).
- Large domes (greenhouses?) are seen in the This Episode segment of the titles; these are not in the episode.
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Unused special effects from the episode
Original score by Barry Gray, recorded at Wembley on Tuesday 25th June 1974.
- It would be hard enough to fit two brains in one skull, let alone wire them both in. This over-literal detail was added over writer Johnny Byrne's objections. The thermographic scans seem to show just two hemispheres of a normal brain.
- It would seem that the minimum "emergency" roundtrip time from Moon to Earth is less than 48 hours before lunar impact, including less than ten hours of surface exploration... The required velocity would then be 8 kilometres per second to enter a low Earth orbit, followed by approx. 7km/s to move to a 130km lunar parking orbit in only 24 hours plus another 2km/s braking manoeuvre to land on the Moon. Including losses, course corrections etc., the total velocity requirement would be (2 x 20km/s = ~40km/s). This is presumably the Eagle's maximum speed.
- The Moon's motion through space seems highly variable. It reenters orbit around Earth only six days after encountering the mysterious cosmic phenomenon in interstellar space. It seems the relative positions of the two Moons does not change at first (Carter and Koenig presumably have to travel twice as far as the Earth-Moon roundtrip outlined above, i.e. roundtrip time of 3-4 days). Bergman only discovers the Moons are on collision course after Koenig and Carter have returned. The collision velocity seems very high as the second Moon moves one lunar diameter every six seconds, i.e. 500-600 kilometres per second (in contrast, the lunar escape velocity is only 1.5 kilometres per second!!). Perhaps time passes more quickly than usual due to the mysterious unknown force?
- The Moons return to the exact same orbit as before (we presume the mysterious unknown force is at work), but one is obviously in a retrograde orbit (orbiting in the opposite direction, so they will collide). A normal orbit takes a month; if the Moon entered orbit when the other Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth it should take 7 days for them to collide (both travelling a quarter of the lunar orbit). In the episode it takes 48 hours.
- The radioactive deserts suggest a nuclear war or nuclear power accident; the cause is not explained.
- The geodesic domes were based on the ideas of Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), a US architect, inventor and philopsopher who devised in the 1960s a spherical structure of light but strong triangular units. The structure needed no internal supports and the hemispherical shape promoted air circulation, while the low surface area diminished heat loss.
- The episode states there are nine planets. According to Dragon's Domain a tenth planet was discovered in 1996. The script actually states there are 11 planets. In 2006 a new classification was agreed, in which the solar system has just 8 planets, excluding Pluto (now classified as a dwarf planet like Charon, Ceres, and Eris).
- The choice of Santa Maria in California as a location that survives the devastation was inspired by a real-life study.
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| 1 fatality, Regina Kesslann. |
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Alpha Technology:
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The balcony has a solid low wall instead of open railing in this shot (and it only extends to the vertical post right). The stuntman will fall over the wall, which conceals the padded landing surface. Thanks to Shane Johnson. |
Unnumbered Eagles travel to the second Moon and Earth
Earth (a future or possible future?)
Aliens:
None
In some scenes, Koenig's commlock buttons are wonky. This prop was in use until Collision Course |
The shot of the children shows the girl is much shorter. In the reverse shot of Koenig with the two children, both children seem to be roughly the same height, with the fair haired girl possibly even taller (depending on the effect of camera angle) |
 
The background is mismatched in this sequence. In long shot, Helena (or her double) is immediately in front of the door. In close up, she is some distance in front of it. Also, the double's hair style is much "bigger" than Barbara Bain's (thanks to James C.).
Also note: Alpha's gravity towers (as seen in Black Sun) are seen on Earth. Why? |
When we first see Regina in Main Mission, her commlock photograph is actually of Simmonds (from Earthbound). When she runs into the Command Office, the commlock photograph has changed to her own. A publicity photo (shown above) shows the commlock photograph to be Helena. Thanks to Craig Rohloff.
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- Regina's painting is by Keith Wilson. This is not the actual pre-production painting (which is shown here). The Regina painting is more cheerful: large sunflowers, fluffy white clouds and a red sun with a Van Gogh halo. The pre-production painting is darker and desolate.
- A very eerie episode, especially in the scenes of the deserted Moonbase and Regina's frightening nightmare. Judy Geeson gives a stunning performance, fragile, confused, desperate (the script does not specify the sudden changes of emotion and is much less dramatic). Her long time boyfriend had recently died of a brain tumour.
- One of the first episodes to focus on Alan. Also makes Koenig and Helena's relationship much more overt (their doppelgangers on the planet are married). Both Paul and Bergman get nice roles as well.
- Why is Regina going up to the Main Mission balcony? A coffee break?
- The doppelganger spacesuits in the crashed Eagle have the names written inside the visors; the real Alphans have their names above the visors.
- The Alphans also return to Earth in Journey To Where. The picture of Earth here is consistent with a future version of the Earth of 2120 (the remark about "a civilization once flourished here" could refer to the metrocomplexes). The script specifies the top of a tower protruding from the ashy soil- Koenig recognises it as the Santa Maria satellite tower which used to be hundreds of feet high.
- When the two Helenas confront each other, we see a chess set in the foreground. This is the same chess set used in Dragon's Domain (as opposed to the set with real chess pieces seen in Black Sun). Presumably this is Koenig's personal set. Thanks to Richard Bendell
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