|
For
the second season of Space: 1999, hyped in the media as “Year Two,”
a new producer was brought in to replace Sylvia Anderson, who had now
divorced Gerry. The job went to Fred Freiberger, whose previous production
credits had included The Wild Wild West and the final season of Star
Trek. Freiberger made sweeping changes to the show, changing it into
something almost unrecognizable as Space: 1999. Major characters like
Victor, Paul and Kano were dropped with no explanation, and new characters
like Tony Verdeschi and Bill Fraser appeared out of nowhere. But the most
sweeping change was the addition of a “resident alien” named Maya, from the
planet Psychon, who could perform mental arithmetic faster than computer
and who could change her shape. What secondary characters from Year One did
return were relegated to minor parts, to the extent that Anton Philips, Zienia
Merton and Nick Tate ended up leaving the show mid-season, replaced by
generic versions of their characters. Even the show’s theme and incidental
music were replaced with a new score by Derek Wadsworth. With the exception
of “Breakaway” it was like nothing in the first season had ever happened.
Year
Two stories were less cerebral, more action-oriented, and most begin with a
“Moonbase Alpha Status Report” recorded by Helena, a thinly veiled ripoff
of the “Captain’s Log” entries on Star Trek. Helena’s date system
was way off base, as well: the first episode of Year Two is dated 342 days
after leaving earth orbit, but in the first season episode “Dragon’s Domain”
she states that it is 877 days after leaving earth orbit. And in the
two-part episode “The Bringers of Wonder” the dates on Part 1 and Part 2
are almost two years apart from each other! (Perhaps Barbara Bain just spit
out a random number while reciting these lines?)
After his work on Space:
1999 Freiberger went on to give his kiss of death to The Six Million
Dollar Man.
|
