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“The
Metamorph” |
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While looking
for minerals on a volcanic planet, the Alphans encounter a mad scientist and
his beautiful shape-shifting daughter Maya, who will become the newest member
of the Alphan family. Writer: Johnny
Byrne Director: Charles
Crichton Guest Cast Brian Blessed as Mentor Anoushka
Hempel as Annette
Fraser |
Fred Freiberger
needed to write his new character, the shape-shifting alien Maya, into Space:
1999, and this story was as good an excuse as any. It was originally a
script by Johnny Byrne titled “The Biological Soul” about a mad scientist and
his computer that sucks people’s brains. Maya was written into the script as
his daughter. If he looks familiar, that’s because he’s Brian Blessed, who
appeared last season as Cabot Rowland in “Death’s
Other Dominion.” There’s a whole new
crop of Alphans this season. John and Helena are back, of course, as is
Sandra, but Victor, Paul and Kano are nowhere to be seen. No mention is made
of whatever happened to them, nor any acknowledgement that they ever existed.
Also, we this episode marks the sudden appearance of Tony Verdeschi, the
chief of security and second in command, who’s otnay ootay ightbray
sometimes, if you know what I mean. Bob Mathias is somewhere in the
background, but he won’t be around much longer. The episode is
reminiscent of Forbidden Planet and its inspiration before that,
Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Then there’s Psyche, the biological
computer that eats brains. Anyway, Psychon is
destroyed at the end, Mentor dies and Maya goes with the Alphans to live a
new life among them. Catherine Schell
does an amazing job of portraying Maya, with a glee and youthful exuberance
that will save the role from being ill-conceived and badly written. She, too,
was a Year One veteran, having played the Servant of the Guardian in “Guardian of Piri.” |
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RELATED PAGES: [Ken Scott] [Martin Willey] |
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Chronicle Online ©2001 by Matt Butts. Space: 1999 ©1975 Carlton
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