Production GuideObservations: Space Warp
Production Guide
Helena passes the scanner over Maya's face. There is a cut to Helena, during which we can still hear the scanner bleeping. In the next cut, Helena is now mopping Maya's head with a cloth, and the scanner has abruptly disappeared. Thanks to Thomas.
In the shots with Maya in bed, there is a stand alongside the bed with bottles (which is unaffected by the space warp turbulence, incidentally). When Animal One appears, the stand has gone, and the adjacent bed has moved closer. On the other side of the bed we first see a short cylindrical table (a Giano Vano Ruote telephone table), but this also disappears when Animal One replaces Maya.
Close ups of Animal One's face reveal pink eyelids behind the scaly mask.
When Animal One throws Helena over the chair, the face of the stuntwoman (Dorothy Ford) can be glimpsed.
Animal One's ability to use Alphan controls varies from scene to scene. When it leaves Medical, it forces open the door causing small explosions. When it uses the elevator, it carefully presses the correct buttons. At the Launch Pad reception, it is again forcing open doors, but shortly after in the Eagle it presses the correct buttons to launch the Eagle.
When Animal One is in the elevator, Alan and Sandra see its picture on their screen. The shot is obviously a still photograph, looking like a police mug shot. A CCTV shot of the moving animal would be more plausible.
How does the overhead rail that carries the Eagle from the lift shaft to the hangar get through the door? The sequence shows the point-of-view through the door into the hangar, but doesn't show the tricky manoeuvre of passing under the door.
The fire around the Eagles is huge and fierce. How can the two firemen get in and rescue Maya? Presumably the hangars would be able to dump halon gas in a section to suffocate the fire, or even vent the air into the vacuum of space. However, the firemen would be unable to enter without spacesuits, and unless the Eagle command module remained intact, Maya would have been suffocated too. Thanks to Thomas.
When Helena and Vincent are preparing the tranquilizer, the long shot shows Alan's uniform in light, but the close up shot of Alan shows his uniform in shadow. Thanks to Thomas.
During the fight with the Psychon, the other beds move position between shots. In the first shot above, there is only one bed, against the wall. In the second, as Vincent is thrown over, a second bed has appeared, and the tray has moved further down the room (it was in a third position during the preceeding operation). In the third shot, there is clearly no second bed (it would be where Alan is standing), but a third bed has appeared where the tray was (the tray itself has disappeared).
When Alan is thrown into the corner, one of the medical computer panels is sticking out from the wall. In the high shot as the Psychon approaches Helena, parts of the overhead light can be seen, and shadows of the other lights are visible on the roof.
In the long shot to the door of Airlock 7, the corner with the emergency air supply valve is in shadow. In the close shots of Alan and Helena, it is brightly illuminated. Thanks to Thomas.
As the creature bangs on the outer airlock door, the door looks like vacuum formed plastic over wood (which it is) - with the wood visible at the edges. One shot of the corner of the door shows a clear gap.
More than previous episodes, the moonbuggy is kicking up lots of "moondust". The moondust is actually the exhaust fumes from the petrol engine of the Amphicat (obviously not very well maintained by the production crew). This shot shows a hose from the exhaust pipe to under the moonbuggy, so the exhaust appears under the vehicle as if it were dust kicked up by the tyres.
When the moonbuggy knocks over the creature, we see the shocked reactions of Sandra and the Command Center staff. The girl behind Sandra shows her teeth, which actually looks more like a smile.
In later shots of the moonbuggy fight scene, there is a large piece of brown folded fabric visible on the lunar surface.
When the creature throws Alan, not only does his helmet visor open widely, a long strand of creature hair is stuck to his left hand.
Where is the rock that damages Alan's air pack? Alan jumps off a rock to kick the creature. In close up we see him on his back on the large rock, rolling off it. But the shot immediately before clearly shows he landed on his back on the flat lunar soil, clear of the rock. In subsequent shots Alan is in front of the rock.
During the space warp return sequence, there are a number of flopped scenes (left for right, so Koenig appears in the pilot seat, the door label "Eagle" appears in reverse, and jacket badges appear on the wrong side), the door is sometimes open and sometimes closed, and Tony sometimes disappears. Koenig's jacket badges switch sides in a couple of shots, but he is still in the pilot seat- it may be the reverse jacket from Seed Of Destruction. Thanks to James C.
In the final space warp sequence, we see various clips of the previous Maya incarnations, all from the same sequence earlier in the episode: Animal 3 (the first shot on the floor of Medical Center), the Psychon (with eyes closed on the operating table), and Animal 1 (zooming into its face as Helena urges her to change). The shots suggest that Maya reverts through her previous transformations, much as the T1000 does at the end of Terminator 2 (1991).
Maya was repeatedly stunned, seriously injured in the Eagle crash (presumably), and severely knocked about on the lunar surface. Does transforming cure all these injuries? Why couldn't she cure her fever in the same way?
Copyright Martin Willey