The idea to have a two-week wrap-up discussion originated in an earlier episode's discussion, and was to begin after "The Dorcons" -- but got a start a few days early.
This discussion was complex and extremely long (~500K of raw material!), and varied widely, from summary analysis, best/worst rankings, detailed response on some of those, overall series notes, and whole notes mostly or entirely on single episodes. On top of that, some notes covered Y2 only, some covered the entire series, and some covered Y2 only and then S19 as a whole in a single note!
All of this made this thread very difficult to edit and separate cleanly, so I have spun off threads from this Afterword in a somewhat different manner than just about any other thread I have edited, in ExE or Thread Pages; though as usual, I mark those departure points with some brief explanation.
From: "Anthony D." (atd1999@yahoo44.com) Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 14:26:06 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE Kudos, Y2 Summary - Petter for a Day - Pt II
All:
First, before I summarize Year 2 as I see it, I'd like to join the kudo parade in honor of Mateo. I was not part of the list for the vast majority of ExE...but wish I had been. Why wasn't I here you ask? Glad you asked...let me tell you...
I'm not sure how long the majority of you have been here, but this list has been around for a long while. Back in 1996, I decided to unsubscribe because the list was getting too unwieldy. There were inane posts of little or no merit. (aside --- I am currently on the UFO fan list and find much of the mail there to be rather lacking too --- no offense to list provider Marc Martin who is a swell guy, huge UFO fan and keeper of the best UFO site on the Web: http://ufo.simplenet.com -- nor any offense to the list members there who are also huge UFO fans that love to have with one another).
I, and a few others, including Robert Ruiz of Cybrary fame, decided to abandon Alpha and get on a life raft Eagle...I was going to re-join at some point (I think the fall of '96) but forgot about it and never did...finally, sometime this year I hit the button and rejoined...actually, I think I saw the ExE transcripts at David Welle's site and thought I should come back on. I had always wanted an ExE thread but they never seemed to get off the ground. I'm glad Mateo was able to launch this important discussion forum and to keep it going for 48+ weeks. It's weird when something so familiar comes to an end...as many have expressed -- confusion, lack of staying power, etc. Those things will sort themselves out as we move ahead. We have the exciting Breakaway Convention to discuss...we need to start pouring ideas into the Convention coffers (along with cash, I guess ;-) to get things going. If we, a core group of loyal fans, don't offer input, then who will??? If we don't make it "our" Convention, then who's will it be??? So, as another post-ExE thread, perhaps we should chat about the Convention...and for those in Europe, it's time to save those pennies, work your butt off and use the Convention as an "excuse" to go to L.A. You are as much, if not more (was it not Europe that gave us Space:1999 -- England and Italy for season 1?) fans of the show. I hope as many Europeans can attend as Americans and Canadians...and others! Geez, after all that, I hope I can attend! Hehehehe...
Well, I went to far... Y2 summary to follow.
Anthony
From: "Anthony D." (atd1999@yahoo44.com) Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 14:46:03 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
OK,
I'll make this brief as I rambled on too long in my other posts.
When Y2 first appeared 20 years ago, I was excited that a new season of Space:1999 was coming to television. I loved all apsects of the shows...the new sets, characters, etc. As a kid, I *sorta* missed Bergman and the others, but not for long. I loved the action episodes the best, especially Space Warp as we got to see all these "geez whiz" parts of Alpha. The stories were good for the most part, Maya was exicting and the humanity/humor added to the series was refreshing and welcomed.
As I grew older and went back to the series from time-to-time, I would watch Year One episodes and miss the granduer of it all...While Year Two had all the good elements of a series, it was also missing something important...the "thing" that made Space:1999. I don't know what that thing is/was...but it's there. Helena's "wooden" acting, Koenig's over the top acting, Bergman's non-science science...it's there...but I'm not sure where...but that's what is missing from Year Two...no grandeur, mystery, etc. No MUF...these people *need* a MUF -- there is nothing wrong with a MUF --- this was sort of a "religious" aspect added to the series either by intention or by fate...but it was there...to take this MUF away took away the very life of Space:1999 as portrayed in Year One.
I look at Year Two as an almost totally different series. Neither equal or unequal to Year One, just different. Watching the episodes back to back on the Columbia House tpaes allows one to see the contrasts so clearly. While I love Barbara Bain's performance in Year One, I also love her Year Two performance, though for very different reasons....Year Two was about human characters who happen to be on a moon adrfit in space. Year One was about a scientific community accidently thrust into a void. Very different. As someone somewhere said (either on this list or on a Web site), they were only seconds from death...in Year One. Year Two, being underground and all, didn't give the same impression. The grandeur in space was gone. No more could you go to a window in Main Mission and see a planet, stars, little satellites from another world give the Moon air. You couldn't see alien ships approach (or leave), a "force of life" leave Alpha as it continued its metamorphisis or life return to Piri...No, Year Two had everything come through a view screen...not quite the same...the taybor's ship was remarkable, but again it was viewed thru a TV screen only. Star light was not existent in this world, the awe and mystery of space was sheilded from its wanderers...safer? Perhaps...but perhaps too safe...too formulaic...
Was Year Two rubbish? Certainly not. Yes, it had its overwhelming share of rubber monsters, but if it added fans to the series, if it showed our beloved Alphans in all new adventures, it could not be rubbish.
As I get older (well at least for now), I will love Year One a bit more than Year Two...but respect Year Two for what it was...a "re-tuned" series that desparately needed to widen its audience to stay alive.
In the end, the operation was a success, but the patient died.
Anthony
ps: oops - I rambled!
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 20:29:26 -0800 (PST) Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
That was an eloquent, wonderful summary of the series. And THANKS for the kudos!!
Though I must say it was a group effort--on all our parts!
Mateo
From: "Simon Morris" (simes01@globalnet44.co.uk) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 18:59:45 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
Ref the Y1 versus Y2 issue,Anthony D. wrote:
As I grew older and went back to the series from time-to-time, I would watch Year One episodes and miss the granduer of it all...While Year Two had all the good elements of a series, it was also missing something important...the "thing" that made Space:1999. I don't know what that thing is/was...but it's there. Helena's "wooden" acting, Koenig's over the top acting, Bergman's non-science science...it's there...but I'm not sure where...but that's what is missing from Year Two...no grandeur, mystery, etc.
Yes I know what you mean Anthony! I prefer Y2 over Y1 but that said, some of my favourite episodes of any tv series come from Y1 and ,yes, there is no doubt that there was a profound grandeur about the first 24 episodes that was missing from the second 24. I didn't especially miss the grandeur,but re-watching a number of Y1 episodes recently remind me of why I was so hooked on SPACE 1999 in the first place.
I look at Year Two as an almost totally different series. Neither equal or unequal to Year One, just different.
Well this has always been my view,as List regulars will know. Saves ulcers!
....Year Two was about human characters who happen to be on a moon adrfit in space. Year One was about a scientific community accidently thrust into a void. Very different.
(Simon nods in agreement....)
Was Year Two rubbish? Certainly not. Yes, it had its overwhelming share of rubber monsters, but if it added fans to the series, if it showed our beloved Alphans in all new adventures, it could not be rubbish.
Supporter of Y2 I may be,but I have never really agreed that people who didn't like Y1 would like Y2 any better. A lot of people I knew thought Y2 was rubbish,but they also thought the same about Y1. I never thought Y1 was so bad that it needed changing to the extent that it * was* changed. In fact,I hoped that the second year would be a straight carry-on from Y1. When Y2 premiered,I remember thinking "What the hell is this?!" and being profoundly disappointed at the loss of so many names from before and behind the cameras,the loss of familiar sets and music etc. I grew to adjust of course,but I never liked the monster shows(still don't). I liked the pace and the characterisation,some of the humour,Maya and so on. I loved Barry Grays Y1 music but Derek Wadsworth's Y2 score was both so exciting,memorable and original that(for me anyway)it remains the highpoint of the Y2 changes. And I know that is true for many a fan. Apologies for those who disparagingly refer to it as "porno disco" !
As I get older (well at least for now), I will love Year One a bit more than Year Two...but respect Year Two for what it was...a "re-tuned" series that desparately needed to widen its audience to stay alive.
Its the other way round for me I suppose. Y2 had a lot of good ideas but they should have been executed differently to have made a good series great. I liked a lot of what Freiberger did but feel that in the end he was just too involved in the day to day side of things to see when it was going wrong. A great pity.
Simon
From: "Brian Dowling" (hellion@easynet44.co.uk) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 23:54:18 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
Hi folks,
Year Two had all the good elements of a series, it was also missing something important...the "thing" that made Space:1999.
Hmm... reading this got me wondering what the aforementioned "thing" was. Something Sylvester McCoy said on Tuesday night comes to mind about what might be called "classic British sci-fi"... "when Doctor Who and Quatermass were around there was a sense of Britain changing and looking to the future...class differences were collapsing...there was a feeling of a classless future and a brave new world..." - there was a feeling of wonderment which accompanied this and the self-confident nay, arrogant attitude which Star Trek or Lost In Space humans exuded was nowhere to be seen. There is, methinks, a grittiness, a realism of our limitations and existence which runs through the best British sci-fi up to around 1989. Please note that I'm not saying "all" - there were some truly awful moments along the way as well.
Season 1 was promoted as being large - large budget and a large main set (Main Mission must have been awesome to encounter) helped create an atmosphere which was beautifully accompanied by the main theme, orchestral and grandiose. And in some stories, it worked beautifully. In some stories it didn't. Strange how stereotypes and mickey taking are often derived from negative moments, eh?
Science fiction tends to be split into two camps, those who prefer the science in the stories to be as real as possible, and those who really don't mind whether or not the science bit is possible. Is the Moon blowing out of orbit as unbelievable as man's development being influenced by an alien race who use a bloody great black lump to monitor us? Science snobbery in sci fi does tend to get up my nose, and I get the feeling that, good film as it is, 2001 really gave a boost to the science snobs. So Asimov slagged it off. I don't recall him saying much about Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Life on Mars? But it is accepted as a wonderful piece of sci fi writing - hell, there's a new film of it planned, so I hear.
And lo, we were left with 24 episodes which asked many questions about the future of mankind. Would we blow ourselves into oblivion? Would we see the error of our ways and try to head for a utopia? How much do we think about our place in the universe or in life itself? With many of its stories not ending "happily ever after", Space:1999 was laid open to accusations of being downbeat, depressive even, when all it was seeking to do was make points and ask intelligent questions of its viewers, but without being as preachy as Star Trek, some Doctor Who or Doomwatch.
Some people at ITC weren't happy with this and wanted the series refocussed. It takes guts to try and refocus something - such efforts tend to fail - and the decision was made to drop sme characters and redesign things.
I look at Year Two as an almost totally different series. Neither equal or unequal to Year One, just different.
Season Two is a different character to Season One.
....Year Two was about human characters who happen to be on a moon adrfit in space. Year One was about a scientific community accidently thrust into a void. Very different.
It finds us joining the Alphans at a point where the "let's get off this rock sharpish" mentality has gone - they are more accepting of their situation, have learned more about their environment and adapted. Just as one would expect humans to (any extra-terrestrials reading, please forgive my arrogance here) I wouldn't say they are more relaxed, but they are more comfortable that they were in the first season.
Had the character disappearances been explained in the story arc, the changes between the seasons might have been more widely accepted. Character disappearances without explanations suggested (to me) quickly or badly written changes. It would have made for a coherent storyline between the seasons.
New arrival is Maya. OK, drop dead gorgeous, well portrayed, and with nothing else to compare her to, the media compare her to the only other sci- fi main character to be *clearly* alien, Spock. Comparisons were inevitable because Fred Freiberger worked on Star Trek and Maya soon became "science officer", a title I always disliked. There are few similarities between Spock and Maya anyway, so the comparison was hardly valid. Having nothing else to compare to without thinking or researching hard, the mindless link to Star Trek was made by the media.
And it stuck. With that comparison, taking the mick became too easy.
Was Season Two total crap? Not in my book. A different direction to please the New York office of ITC showed us Alpha in a new light. With the more comfortable approach in evidence, much of the feeling of wonderment from season 1 vanished. The faster pace was a good move, Derek's score stands out for me as well, and *some* of the humour worked. When it didn't, it did say "American scriptwriters at work here" in farily large letters to me. Compare this with the humour injected by Douglas Adams into the 1979/80 season of Doctor Who, where the near definitive performance of Tom Baker is consilidated by the addition of wit in appropriate places.
I did have a couple of gripes...
I was always a hardware guy at heart, and did not understand why, when the Alphans were strapped for resources, they overhauled their computer systems to the point where they were unrecognisable from the Season One kit. And then they fouled up continuity even more by making the Swift ship computer kit look like the current kit on Alpha! And why had the Eagles suddenly had large boxes added to the cockpit interiors?
That's a production thing, I suppose. I cannot see any evidence to support the argument that Season 2 of Space:1999 was total crap, or even "not Space:1999". Some argue that intellectually, Season 1 is better than Season 2. To be totally honest, if I want to intellectualise about something, I go watch The South Bank Show or something of that ilk. Spotting similarities or themes connecting with other works is one thing, but thinking deeply and searching for hidden meaning from something someone says off the cuff in an episode of Space:1999, Blake's 7, Doctor Who, The Professionals or whatever is not my cup of tea at all. IMHO, if people overintellectualise about something, they can ruin its charm and value for other people as well as their own credibility, like ultra right wing Christian preachers who do their damndest to condemn hard rock as the work of the devil and produce "evidence" to back their arguments up. I haven't sacrificed any virgins since I started listening to the stuff. (Sits back and waits for Birmingham jokes... :-)
I'm getting off-track here...
Like Simon I think that Season 2 had some great ideas but was sadly lacking in execution. Season 1 also had some great ideas which didn't quite turn out as they might have. The ExE thread has helped me to appreciate both seasons more, and the direction Season 2 took. I think it worked somewhat as well - not only do people remember the Eagles, they also remember that gorgeous lass who could change into other creatures. Now if only there had been posters of Maya in magazines like Look-In... :-)
I vaguely recall Space:1999 getting well messed about by the independent tv companies over here. Anglia always seemed to be showing it whenever I read the tv guide - ATV (Lew Grade's own company) seemd to hardly ever show it! Had it been given better treatment over here, it might have justified sufficient funds for at least the start of a third season.
Time for bed, methinks...
Brian Dowling - Birmingham, England
Online Alphan #144
From: "Simon Morris" (simes01@globalnet44.co.uk) Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 14:07:01 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
You mentioning THE PROFESSIONALS reminds me of something I read a few years ago Brian.(Incidentally,for those who don't know,this series was a filmed action series created by Brian Clemens after the demise of THE NEW AVENGERS and featured the operations of an elite special police-type unit called CI5. Its currently being rescreened on satellite tv and also being released on video). Its actually germane to what we have recently been discussing with regards to intellectualising everything....
Clemens was being interviewed and was asked(and I quote exactly both the question and his reply): "Could the success of THE PROFESSIONALS be attributed to our insecurity,wanting to believe that Big Brother is looking after our interests while we sleep safe in our beds?" To which Clemens responded:
"No I don't really. I think it is successful because it is wild and violent. It has got two very modern heroes that fellas want to be like and the girls want to get into bed with. I think it is as simple as that and always has been."
Clemens is my sort of producer and writer!
Simon Morris
From: "Brian Dowling" (hellion@easynet44.co.uk) Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 23:49:54 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
In response to my witterings, Simon wrote
You mentioning THE PROFESSIONALS reminds me [....]
BTW, a new series *has* been made; negotiations are underway to it bought up by all the countries that picked up the original series. The Professionals website is sadly out of date, but I believe that Australia has bought the series, along with several Euorpean countries, except Britain. Now why am I not surprised at that? :-)
> "No I don't really. I think it is successful because it is wild and > violent. It has got two very modern heroes that fellas want to be like and > the girls want to get into bed with. I think it is as simple as that and > always has been."
I reckon that is spot on. OK, I was only a youngster when I first saw it, but there was no intellectualising it back then or now. Bodie (Lewis Collins) was my hero, they drove fast cars, got plenty of women and got to shoot people. PC it most definitely wasn't, and that is probably why it was such a success.
Seeing the opening titles with the car bursting through the window and the Laurie Johnson theme tune accompanying it sure does get the testosterone going! Sure, Gordon Jackson would be the conscience of a particular story while espousing the values of a pure malt scotch ("There's no such thing as a particularly good malt scotch - they're all good!") and would even get to shoot a traitor in the back, but most guys wanted to be Bodie or Doyle.
Brian Clemens also provided some of the "pluspoints" which accompany The Avengers on video and the recent Granada Plus showings. Some of them are quite revealing and do serve to shatter the high brow ideas of those who chose to intellectualise this series as well. Evidently a talented writer and conceptualist, his answers show someone who is straight to the point. Now, if we could get some "pluspoints" for Space:1999....
Brian Dowling - Birmingham, England
Online Alphan #144
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 09:05:05 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
Simon Morris wrote:
Supporter of Y2 I may be,but I have never really agreed that people who didn't like Y1 would like Y2 any better. A lot of people I knew thought Y2 was rubbish,but they also thought the same about Y1. I never thought Y1 was so bad that it needed changing to the extent that it *was* changed. In fact,I hoped that the second year would be a straight carry-on from Y1. When Y2 premiered,I remember thinking "What the hell is this?!" and being profoundly disappointed at the loss of so many names from before and behind the cameras,the loss of familiar sets and music etc.
Completely new show, I'd say. Not only did they alter the music and visuals, including a "new" moonbase Alpha now small and cheap-looking, the only thing that was left of the characters were the names of John Koenig, Helena Russell etc., the characters were completely remodelled, and had nothing to do with the complex characters we got to new in the beginning of the first season.
In my opinion that change was not done completely over night as it sometimes appears. My feeling is that the first 3 cycles of Y1, the Crichton/Austin/Tomblin cycles, were highly experimental and creative, probably the main reason for SPACE:1999 becoming TV history, the second sequence of cycles, the Crichton/Austin/Kellett cycles, seemed to represent a more mature stage of the show, while the final 3 cycles seemed to bear the mark of death in more than one way, old scripts being reworked under strain, Penfold leaving the house, the ITC New York apparently beginning to worry about ratings and forcing more tasteless elements on the show, as can be seen in DRAGON'S DOMAIN.
Although there is a steep fall from DRAGON'S DOMAIN to THE METAMORPH, it is by no way as steep as the fall from BREAKAWAY I would say. I suppose the development of SPACE:1999 was in many ways quite a natural thing, probably not being very different if Freiberger had been replaced by another person in similar position.
Well, all things must pass. To me the life cycle of SPACE:1999 was more or less completely inherit within Year One. Year Two was a very different show with a life cycle of its own, beginning its first unsecure steps with THE METAMORPH, THE EXILES and so on, maturing perhaps as early as with JOURNEY TO WHERE and then slowing dying off as Freiberger grew less interested in the scripts in at least the three last episodes that were produced.
I grew to adjust of course,but I never liked the monster shows(still don't). I liked the pace and the characterisation,some of the humour,Maya and so on. I loved Barry Grays Y1 music but Derek Wadsworth's Y2 score was both so exciting,memorable and original that(for me anyway)it remains the highpoint of the Y2 changes. And I know that is true for many a fan. Apologies for those who disparagingly refer to it as "porno disco" !
I have no idea why the strange term "porno disco" has been used, enthusiastically so, about Wadsworth's music for Y2. To me it sounds a bit like the sort of thing that Miles Davis and Weather Report were doing in the early seventies, and I usually use the term "jazz rock" myself.
Nevertheless, the use of visuals and music in THE EXILES, the episode with the double Helenas in particular, is very similar to a passage in Just Jacklin's EMMANUELLE (1974), I remember. Perhaps Ray Austin was producing a hommage to Jacklin, soft focus and extremely seductive use of voice by Bain, at least her German voice was. Well done by Austin in any case, the top quality director as ever, even when producing THE EXILES.
On the other hand, the track called DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION on the RCA soundtrack, probably by Vic Elms and, of course, never used in that episode nor in any SPACE:1999 episode, was during our discussion of the album identified as incidental music to a pornographic film. The title of the film was not identified, however, but as both "Death's other dominion" and "Black Sun", along with "Breakaway", are composisions by Elms for the RING AROUND THE MOON episode, it was probably lifted from the ITC music library for use in thie particular film.
The music called "Black Sun" was not either used in any SPACE:1999 episode, but was, apparently, used as incidental music in an epiosde of the ITC series RETURN OF THE SAINT.
The "Breakaway" track, used to magnificently counterpoint the low gravity slow movements in RING AROUND THE MOON, has been labeled "disco" by some. It does have a strong beat, and gives an interesting effect, perhaps, of the astronauts "dancing" on the moon surface, but it is not "disco", I think, in the way the term was identified with Abba and Boney M. from 1976-79, but, in lack of a better term, "disco" is perhaps not all that bad.
The porno-music "death's other dominion" has little of this disco style to it, I think, it seems more like a paraphrase on "The house of the rising sun", I think, although there were some disco-versions of that topping the charts in the late 1970's.
Y2 had a lot of good ideas but they should have been executed differently to have made a good series great. I liked a lot of what Freiberger did but feel that in the end he was just too involved in the day to day side of things to see when it was going wrong. A great pity.
I look forward to the Y2 ranking and discussion. I believe that THE DORCONS will rate fairly high on my list, although I haven't put too much thought on the ranking yet. Some of my favourites so far are ALL THAT GLISTERS, NEW ADAM/NEW EVE and DEVIL'S PLANET. More on this later.
Petter
From: "Brian Dowling" (hellion@easynet44.co.uk) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 20:38:53 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
Hi folks,
There's bubbles everywhere! Yes, it's Space Brain on BBC 2...
I have no idea why the strange term "porno disco" has been used, enthusiastically so, about Wadsworth's music for Y2.
Perhaps those who call it "porno disco" aren't too well up on the kind of music used in those kind of movies. One discussion I had with a musician revolved around the stuff he'd written and when the subject of adult movies came up, he said that slow sax based music was best for such soundtracks.
To me it sounds a bit like the sort of thing that Miles Davis and Weather Report were doing in the early seventies, and I usually use the term "jazz rock" myself.
Ahh, jazz rock. I have to be in a certain mood to really enjoy it, but the works of Alphonse Mouzon, the early Ian Gillan Band and the like come to mind. For me, Derek's scores do hit parts of jazz rock and some elements of disco, but not to the point where they sound as "dated" as some of the stuff on the Space:1999 Y1 original soundtrack.
Nevertheless, the use of visuals and music in THE EXILES, the episode with the double Helenas in particular, is very similar to a passage in Just Jacklin's EMMANUELLE (1974), I remember. Perhaps Ray Austin was producing a hommage to Jacklin, soft focus and extremely seductive use of voice by Bain, at least her German voice was. Well done by Austin in any case, the top quality director as ever, even when producing THE EXILES.
Wasn't the soft focus insisted on by Barbara Bain? It would be interesting to see how the dubbed versions compare to the original versions, to try and see how the soundtrack directors wanted the dialogue interpreted.
On the other hand, the track called DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION on the RCA soundtrack, probably by Vic Elms and, of course, never used in that episode nor in any SPACE:1999 episode, was during our discussion of the album identified as incidental music to a pornographic film.
I don't recall that one - did I miss it?
The music called "Black Sun" was not either used in any SPACE:1999 episode, but was, apparently, used as incidental music in an epiosde of the ITC series RETURN OF THE SAINT.
If you could get the episode title, I could look out for it on tv or video.
The "Breakaway" track, used to magnificently counterpoint the low gravity slow movements in RING AROUND THE MOON, has been labeled "disco" by some. It does have a strong beat, and gives an interesting effect, perhaps, of the astronauts "dancing" on the moon surface, but it is not "disco", I think, in the way the term was identified with Abba and Boney M. from 1976-79, but, in lack of a better term, "disco" is perhaps not all that bad.
*Visions of the Alphans doing YMCA on the moon's surface...* :-)
Brian Dowling - Birmingham, England
Online Alphan #144
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 17:34:46 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Y2 Summary (really) - Petter for a Day - Pt III
Brian wrote:
Wasn't the soft focus insisted on by Barbara Bain? It would be interesting to see how the dubbed versions compare to the original versions, to try and see how the soundtrack directors wanted the dialogue interpreted.
In the case of Barbara Bain, both the French and the German dubbing perform miracles, I feel, it is almost as if you are watching one of the French or German European films that are works of art, although soft focus, and general bad taste features such as Mondrian as colour inspiration rather than Kandinsky and the soft-disco approach of Wadsworth in certain scenes makes the mind more likely to travel in the direction of Just Jacklin's films with Sylvia Kristel, Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot which is not really all that high-brow.
I don't recall that one - did I miss it?
During the discussion of the soundtrack album this was brought up by somebody as a piece of trivia, but neither title, director nor year of the film was mentioned, so it is a rather vague identification so far. Sadly I have not seen it myself, so I cannot provide any further information.
If you could get the episode title, I could look out for it on tv or video.
Actually, I haven't seen much RETURN OF THE SAINT since 1978 or there about. I believe that it was David Acheson that told us that the "Black Sun" title was used as background music during a scene in a dress shop. Perhaps he knows more.
Petter
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 09:02:42 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: Episode by Episode
Well the discussion of the individual episodes is over. Now begins, as Simon suggested, week one of a two week period (appropriate, I think) of discussion of the series as a whole, final thoughts, summing up, season comparisons, episode rankings, continuity, character arcs, story arcs, etc.
I'd be curious to see what our favorites episodes are if we could only name ONE.
Mateo
From: Mark Meskin (plastic.gravity@newrock44.com) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 12:08:35 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Episode by Episode
However, runners up go to
My top ten anyway(For Both seasons)....and the bottom ten(For Both Seasons), with the absolute worst at the bottom.........
Before anyone jumps on me for being a Y1 bigot, its worth noting that my absolute worst episode of both seasons is RATM, a season 1 epsode....Missing link clocks(or clunks in, as the case may be)at position 44, just beating the infamous Woodgrove Trilogy by a hair.
IF I were to break out the episodes by season, My Y1 list would be the same as my all time fav list, but Y2 had some standouts as well. Here are my Top Eight for Y2....yes, only eight.
Well, thats my take, feel free to pick it apart!
Mark
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:26:29 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: Absolute favorite episodes
The Running Count:
Mark Meskin: Dragon's Domain
South Central (Mateo): The Troubled Spirit
Petter Ogland: Ring Around The Moon
Now, Petter hasn't actually responded, but I feel confident with this prediction! Why? Oh...I don't know....
Mateo
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:29:12 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE: Absolute WORST episode
The Running Count:
Mark Meskin: Ring Around the Moon
South Central (Mateo): The Taybor
Please respond to the list or to me personally. I will update the running count daily.
Mateo
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:30:56 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE: Absolute favorite episodes
Please notify me or the list of your choices and I will update it daily. The current list is [above, instead of:] attached below.
Mateo
http://members.tripod.com/~tamazunchale/index-HOME.html
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:37:01 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update
Best Episode:
Mark Meskin: Dragon's Domain
Christina Perrins: One Moment of Humanity
South Central: The Troubled Spirit
Worst:
Mark Meskin: Ring Around the Moon
Christina Perrins: Devil's Planet
South Central: The Taybor
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:41:59 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE and Breakaway Convention
Perhaps our vote here on the ABSOLUTE BEST and WORST episodes should be reflected at the Convention. These two episodes could be shown back to back (WORST FIRST) for, alternately, derision and praise!
Mateo
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:54:22 -0800 (PST) Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update 11:00am PST
Best Episode:
Mark Meskin: Dragon's Domain
Christina Perrins: One Moment of Humanity
South Central: The Troubled Spirit
David Welle: The Metamorph
Worst Episode:
Mark Meskin: Ring Around the Moon
Christina Perrins: Devil's Planet
South Central: The Taybor
David Welle: Ring Around the Moon
http://members.tripod.com/~tamazunchale/index-HOME.html
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 14:31:55 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update 2:30am PST
Best Episode:
Mark Meskin: Dragon's Domain
Christine Perrins: One Moment of Humanity
South Central: The Troubled Spirit
David Welle: The Metamorph
Andre Beauchamp: Breakaway
Ellen Lindow: Black Sun
Worst Episode:
Mark Meskin: Ring Around the Moon
Christine Perrins: Devil's Planet
South Central: The Taybor
David Welle: Ring Around the Moon
Andre Beauchamp: Brian the Brain
Ellen Lindow: (no response yet)
Mateo
From: TERALISHA@aol44.com Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 18:57:21 EST Subj: Space1999: RE: 1999 best & Worst
Good evening all - hope everyone is doing well.
Dr. Russell still didn't show up with a good cure for the common cold so I have lost my voice entirely and my head feels like Alan landed an Eagle on it. And so it goes, but I still have my humor!
One question about Earthfall - does it involve Yr1 or Yr 2 characters? Anthony wrote that he thought it was distributed only in England - could explain why this American doesn't know about it, although I do have a few Tubb novelizations such as alien seed, collision course, and breakaway Odd but Breakaway I didn't obtain until 1985 so it's actually the newest of my collection of novelizations and in really good shape.(I won't tell you how I obtained Breakaway - rather bad of me.)
Earthfall isn't listed under any of the Books in series lists at front of my books.
I anxiously await viewing your discussions on this anyhow.
Now on to more amusing things. I will think about my favorite/least favorite episodes but so far I can't figure it out. There are so many Yr1 & 2 that contain a lot of good things (& some REALLY God-awful as well) but I will try to remain impartial.
Perhaps we could/should really make things interesting. How about telling us your favorite scene - it might be something from an episode that you otherwise totally hate.
Now let's move on to Yr2 - You get the idea...
Good God - I think I just created the Alphan Oscar Awards or something. (And no I haven't been indulging in Brew #29 - just antihistamines)
I probably haven't said anything intellectually stimulating in this but hey, who cares? To quote Cyndi Lauper - girls just want to have fun and I'm still having a good day despite being sick. (Maybe Vitamin C overload?)
By the way, I have still haven't received my cal. yet but I am anxiously awaiting. The transaction was posted on 10/20 so that's a month today. As long as they get here by the 23rd of Dec. One is to be a Christmas present!
Now that I have all my assignments/projects completed for classes tomorrow and have recovered from work I'm beaming back to fanfiction land.
Goodnight everyone!
From: David Acheson (dkach@hotmail44.com) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:48:49 EST Subj: Space1999: Best and Worst of 1999
My vote for favourite episode: WAR GAMES.
My vote for worst episode: A MATTER OF BALANCE.
From: Ariana (ariana@ndirect44.co.uk) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 11:53:45 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE: Absolute WORST episode
Absolute worst episode is easy to pick out for me:
This is the only episode of Space:1999 where my boyfriend and I were actually cringing with embarrassment! I think we even found a more coherent, meaningful plot in RATM (well, only just).
Composing a bottom 10 list isn't all that difficult, but I have a feeling I'll have some difficulty getting a top 10, as I do like a lot of the episodes... but more on that later. Here's my bottom 10:
48. Missing Link
Embarrassing, slow, plotless... ick. I will forgive an episode for
being silly (hey, I like Y2! :), but I will not forgive anything
for being *boring*.
47. Ring Around The Moon
Victor becomes psychic and Helena talks to Christmas lights in her
nightie -- plus that trademark alien-influenced person typing very
fast on those unmarked keys on the computer, a theme reprised in
"Space Brain" (which narrowly missed this list despite the fact
the Moonbase Alpha cleaners obviously put too much Persil in their
washing machines...)
46. Matter of Life and Death
Just click your heels three times and you'll be back in Kansas...
Helena the robot fails to register any emotion whatsoever at meeting
her dead husband again, and the technobabble is excruciatingly awful.
45. Space Warp
You want cartoonish Y2? Here you go. The production schedule splits
the cast, forcing both halves into pointless run-arounds which even
*I* get tired of! (you all know what *will* be in my top 10 ;)
44. The Full Circle
De-evolving cavemen with metamorphic clothes. Nice one. No wonder so
many people hated Space:1999 with rubbish like this around.
43. A Matter of Balance
Shermeen is cute as a bug on a rug, and there's a little interplay
between my favourite characters -- and that's just about all I can
think of to save this episode from the absolute bottom. Aside from
that, this episode is like a broken pencil... pointless.
42. All That Glisters
Tony the Zombie vs the Space Cowboy. No wonder Martin Landau nearly
had a nervous breakdown. Still, like Petter, I'll give it points for
camp value and I rather liked the rock.
41. Death's Other Dominion
Pointless Shakespeare rip-off with scantily-clad cavewomen and the
usual half-baked technobabble. Every time I see Jack, I'm reminded
of Baldrick hopping around the cemetary in BlackAdder II -- and I
wish someone would push Jack into a puddle too...
40. The Troubled Spirit and Voyager's Return
Frankly, I couldn't care less whether Mateo's ghost catches up with
him or Linden is Queller or not. Give me stories about people I care
about: the main characters! They're not bad episodes, just ones I
won't watch again if I can help it.
BTW, the following episodes are out of the race for me because I haven't seen them yet: The Infernal Machine, Mission of the Darians, Dragon's Domain, Testament of Arcadia (still waiting for the BBC to show them).
Favourite episodes coming up later...
Editor's Notes:
The prior email receives a detailed response from Petter,
which and triggers another thread about one episode.
Though the response is about various episodes, it is too entangled in the
thread it triggers, so it is all in this separate thread:
Red Wine and RATM Anonymous
From: LKJ1999@aol44.com Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 06:53:33 EST Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update 2:30am PST
My favorite episode is SPACEWARP...
FORCE OF LIFE is my least liked episode..
Chas P. LKJ1999
From: relax@videotron44.ca Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 09:12:46 -0500 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE: Absolute WORST episode
Ariana wrote:
BTW, the following episodes are out of the race for me because I haven't seen them yet: The Infernal Machine, Mission of the Darians, Dragon's Domain, Testament of Arcadia (still waiting for the BBC to show them).
Hi Ariana !
Those 4 episodes are in my season one top 5 list (including BREAKAWAY at the very top).
Dragon's Domain is a (both seasons) classic, and Testament of Arkadia is the season one last epsiode with a special final touch in it.
Please, DON'T MISS THEM !
Hopefully for you, the BBC will not cut important scenes for their %^*#*~@#* commercial breaks.
Andre Beauchamp
From: "Brian Dowling" (hellion@easynet44.co.uk) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 19:29:58 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE: Absolute WORST episode
The BBC don't seem to be cutting any scenes (as far as I can tell), and although there aren't supposed to be any adverts on the BBC, there are plenty for BBC related products. They are between programmes rather than in the middle of them, so they can argue that there aren't any adverts per se...
Brian Dowling - Birmingham, England
Online Alphan #144
From: Jim Small (Eagle1@mts44.net) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:51:09 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Episode by Episode
#1- Dragons Domain....see, that was easy. :-) However, runners up go to 2- WarGames
3- Black Sun
4- The Troubled Spirit
5- Collision Course
6- Breakaway
7- Force of Life
8- Testament of Arkadia
9- Guardian of Piri
10- Voyagers Return
Were you reading my mind Mark? Those are just about the top ten I would have chosen too, with few exceptions! I'd have left out Troubled Spirit and Force of life though. Dragon's Domain is definitely right up there for sure!
Before anyone jumps on me for being a Y1 bigot, its worth noting that my absolute worst episode of both seasons is RATM, a season 1 epsode....Missing link clocks(or clunks in, as the case may be)at position 44, just beating the infamous Woodgrove Trilogy by a hair.
Heh heh heh... I couldn't agree more!
IF I were to break out the episodes by season, My Y1 list would be the same as my all time fav list, but Y2 had some standouts as well. Here are my Top Eight for Y2....yes, only eight. [Editor's Note: Proceeds to Mark's list with some comments, which I will shorten here: #1 The Seance Spectre, #2 The Immunity Syndrome, #3 One Moment of Humanity, #4 Journey To Where, #5 Devils Planet, #6 Bringers of Wonder P1, #7 AB Chrysalis, #8 Dorzak] Well, thats my take, feel free to pick it apart!
Pretty good! Not much picking apart necessary there, except that I must say I kinda liked "The Taybor" episode as one of my faves in Y2. It was quite funny in spotsa and generally entertaining.
E. James Small
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 17:17:02 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Episode by Episode
Mark Meskin wrote:
#1- Dragons Domain....see, that was easy. :-)
No surprise there, for those of us who read Mark's comments on a regular basis. It is not one of my favourties, though, the plot obviously derived from a STAR TREK like script conceived long before production of BREAKAWAY, then changed somewhat radically by first Penfold and then perhaps more slightly with Byrne during production stage.
In my opinion it is closer to the middle level of Y1, or slightly below, as Landau and Bain change acting style 180 degrees and sound like Y2 sit-com characters, adding to insulty a "motherly" soft-spoken Barbara Bain voice-over during most of the episode. Yuck!
Negative points apart, the minature work by Bowers and Johnson accompanied by Albinoni's is probably the best of it's genre since 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY, and Charles Crichton's direction of scenes that do not include the regulars are among his most impressive work on the series as a whole, I feel. If one does not mind using the fast-forward button, there is much to enjoy in this episode, it's only sad that it was made so late in the series. With better rewriting by Byrne and Penfold, more comprehensible contributions by Landau, Bain and Morse this episode could easily have earned the high mark of being as enjoyable to the rest of us as it apparently is to Mark. This is how I view it anyway.
#1- Dragons Domain....see, that was easy. :-) However, runners up go to 2- WarGames
3- Black Sun
4- The Troubled Spirit
5- Collision Course
6- Breakaway
7- Force of Life
8- Testament of Arkadia
9- Guardian of Piri
10- Voyagers Return
On the rest of the top-ten list I feel a much greater correspondance with Mark, great episodes all, except that I would perhaps have RING AROUND THE MOON in there somewhere, preferably on the top, and I also miss MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH and MISSING LINK on the list. If we swapped THE TROUBLED SPIRIT and COLLISION COURSE for MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH and MISSING LINK then we would be more or less in perfect agreement.
...and the bottom ten(For Both Seasons), with the absolute worst at the bottom......... 38- The Taybor
39- Brian the Brain
40- The Dorcons
41- Catacombs of the Moon
42- The Lambda Factor
43- A Matter of Balance
44- Missing Link
45- Beta Cloud
46- Space Warp
47- Rules of Luton
48- Ring Around the Moon
While not a bad list, I see RING AROUND THE MOON and MISSING LINK, some of the best episodes of SPACE:1999 ever, incongruently among some of the more tiresome contributions. It is more difficult to make a list of worst episodes than best, I think, but RULES OF LUTON and MATTER OF BALANCE are definitely among the episodes that I don't enjoy watching every second day.
Top Eight for Y2....yes, only eight. #1 The Seance Spectre [....]
I'm a bit surprised at the top episode here, just like in the Y1 + Y2 ranking, THE SEANCE SPECTRE being a candidate for the bottom row in according to my taste, but otherwise it is not unlike how I perceive the series. NEW ADAM/NEW EVE would perhaps be on my list among the ones mentioned, and the list would probably include ALL THAT GLISTERS as well.
Petter
From: Horst Noll (HNoll@t-online44.de) Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 18:21:29 +0100 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update
Best Episode : Dragon's Domain
Worst Episode : Brian the Brain
Horst
From: Brian Dowling (hellion@easynet44.co.uk) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 19:59:01 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update
Hi,
I go with Horst on this one.
From: "Robert Gilbert" (bcpgd@shaw.wave44.ca) Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 16:13:56 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE: Absolute WORST episode
Ariana wrote:
40. The Troubled Spirit and Voyager's Return
Frankly, I couldn't care less whether Mateo's ghost catches up with him or Linden is Queller or not. Give me stories about people I care about: the main characters! They're not bad episodes, just ones I won't watch again if I can help it.
No kidding, eh??? I feel the same way! Like --- who actually cares if an *EXTRA* gets killed?
BTW, the following episodes are out of the race for me because I haven't seen them yet: The Infernal Machine, Mission of the Darians, Dragon's
The Infernal Machine is rather Kewl in its own rights (in it --- this *MASSIVE* spaceship comes along looking for a companion to replace the one who is dying).
--
Robert C. Gilbert
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 14:41:17 -0800 (PST) Subj: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst Update 12/1
Best episode: (14 responses)
Mark Meskin: Dragon's Domain
Horst Noll: Dragon's Domain
Brian Dowling: Dragon's Domain
Christine Perrins: One Moment of Humanity
David Welle: The Metamorph
Andre Beauchamp: Breakaway
Ellen Lindow: Black Sun
Janet "Schill?": Missing Link
Guiseppe Medulla: Another Time, Another Place
Chas P: Space Warp
Petter Ogland: Ring Around the Moon
Robert Gilbert: Space Brain
David Acheson: War Games
South Central: The Troubled Spirit
Ariana: (NO RESPONSE YET)
Pelle: (NO RESPONSE YET
Worst episode: (16 responses)
Mark Meskin: Ring Around the Moon
David Welle: Ring Around the Moon
Andre Beauchamp: Brian the Brain
Brian Dowling: Brian the Brain
Horst Noll: Brian the Brain
Ellen Lindow: Missing Link
Ariana: Missing Link
Janet "Schill"?: A Matter of Balance
David Acheson: A Matter of Balance
Christine Perrins: Devil's Planet
Guiseppe Medulla: The Rules of Luton
Chas P.: Force of Life
Pelle: Full Circle
Robert Gilbert: The Troubled Spirit
South Central: The Taybor
Petter Ogland (NO RESPONSE YET)
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From: Paulo Pereira (starblade@technologist44.com) Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 19:40:22 -0800 Subj: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst
Related to the discussion of the degree of intelectualization in S1999 I wish to point this. There are more reasons for intellectualization in S1999 than in ST:Any Generation, Stargate McGuyver, Battlestar Bonanza or even Earth:Final Conflit. Babylon 5 is another matter. We all know that the main purpose of S1999 is entertainment, but that doen't mean it was just plain fun without having some good ideas behind. Most of the plots contain fresh new ideas and at the same time trying to get the best of old ones. I think there was a real efford to produce a good series, with some philosophical ideias behind it. Otherwise it was just cowboys in space. Of course S1999 is not Shakespeare or a greek classical play, and so we must not extrapolate that much, but episodes like Black Sun, End of Eternity, Voyager's Return, etc, did raise questions about human nature. As I see it everyone is free to see the episodes on any way he likes.
It's like saying that "Starship Troopers" and "Dark City" are both films of entertainment, when there's a major difference; the 1st one is just a happy-trigger fast action SF movie with tons of SX effects, while the second one has also tons of SX effects but raises lots of questions like what really makes a human being, his past experiences and memories, or his natural soul ? And believe me we can achive this degree of intellectualization and still have a fast action SF movie without making a boring plot like "The Shpere".
And now the episodes,
Favorite Episode:
Dragon's Domain
Like in Voyager's Return or Force of Life the main role is not at the hands of a regular character (Alan, Koenig, Russel), but on an unknow alphan. At least the series is not so dry on ideias that all episodes must be around one of the main characters.
The way the story is told on a flashback works very good on this episode and Helena Russel makes a great storyteller. Also we get to know better what were Alpha's tasks before the separation from Earth and how the space exploration was handled by those days. The monster is a master piece, the special and sound effects a must, the plot and the narrative structure are very good. This episode suffers from one or two bloppers, but not as bad as the bloppers from the average S1999 episode.
An unknown life form waiting dorment for a long periode only to wake up when the preys were nearby, always lurking in the dark, that uses other races's ships to move, an escape pod that takes a sole survivor and returns to Earth, a character that everybody says he's a liar or a lunatic, and a comeback to face the enemy that has killed all the crew. I'm not talking about Ripley and the Alien, but Cellini and his alien. Both stories have tons of similarities. So I think S1999 producers should write a letter to the guys that make Aliens films telling them they are violation copyright laws. ULTRAPROBE style...
If I don't call "Dragon" to the monster it's because I think the title is more related to the tale of S. Jorge (Cellini) and the Dragon (alien), like on a futuristic version of the legend. After all the monster didn't look like a dragon.
If you add lots of special effects and a kick ass story... we have a winner in here. Force of Life also cames very close.
Worst Episode (that I can remember):
Brian The Brain
It'a very stupid and a very embarassing episode. If someone is used to work with computer as I do will know how stupid this machines are. If you don't tell them EXACTLY what to do they will not do it at all. Even if you consider the advent of Artificial Intelligence, no one will program a computer to display emotions and then sent it in a exploration party. An emotive computer programmed for study purposes or research purposes I can cope with, but for a deep space exploration, no way. Human emotions are a source of problems in exploration mission, why add more emotions and raise the potencial of problems?
And before someone says something there's not much ground to put 2001 HAL and Brian the Brian side by side. Although they both threathen human life, HAL's decision is driven to protect the secret mission (exploration of the monolith) like he was instructed to do. HAL doesn't have any emotions, BB does. BB is a selfish and arrogant piece of junk. I guess someone has forgot to stuff him with the Asimov's laws of robotics.
Besides that crying act of the computer at the end is one of the most embarassing thing I ever saw in sci-fi. And *again* Maya was there *again* to save the day. My father has watched this S1999 episode with me when I was a kid and let me say, it was (sadly) one of the few episodes that he has ever seen and the last one. Guess why...
Paulo Pereira
From: "Mark Meskin" (plastic.gravity@newrock44.com) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 21:14:37 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst
Related to the discussion of the degree of intelectualization in S1999 I wish to point this. There are more reasons for intellectualization in S1999 than in ST:Any Generation, Stargate McGuyver, Battlestar Bonanza or even Earth:Final Conflit. Babylon 5 is another matter.
I think we'd all agree with that statement Paulo. I think Space:1999's Y1 is in good company with Babylon 5. Some people poke fun at B5 saying its just too complicated for the average viewer....and Ive heard similar comments about Space 1999.....and that makes them all the more special to me.
so we must not extrapolate that much, but episodes like Black Sun, End of Eternity, Voyager's Return, etc, did raise questions about human nature.
Space1999 always has had heavy doses of the metaphysical and philosophical aspects of SciFi. Another thing that sets it apart from the other Space Cowboy shows.
And now the episodes, Favorite Episode:
Dragon's Domain
Very Cool, my friend.
Like in Voyager's Return or Force of Life the main role is not at the hands of a regular character (Alan, Koenig, Russel), but on an unknow alphan. At least the series is not so dry on ideias that all episodes must be around one of the main characters.
Yessss! True! Limiting your focus ultimately reduces the scale of the show. And one of the things we all like in Space1999 is the large scale, the sense of show have a big, grande purpose. The same thing can be said of the sets......in Y1 the sets were large and many......Alpha seemed huge and majestic. The Y2 sets were small and crowded, even the corridors seems shorter in Y2. And in effect, Alpha seemed small and cheap, more of a congressional compromise than man's crowning acheivement. One of the things I always disliked about Trek(except DS9, which in free of this affliction) is that the rest of the crew are only there to provide dead crewman fodder or for "bit" parts. Not so in Y1! We see Qeuller, Jim Haines, Tony Cellini, Mateo, etc. in the center stage! The moonbase always seemed to me that 311 people lived on it. On Vooyager it seems as if you can run the whole ship with 20 people and a trained Borg. I never get the impression that its a starship in deep space. Another show with bad sets.....look at the size of their cafeteria! maybe 20 people can fit in there.....the ship supposed to hold over 150! Next Gen's first year did a very good job of making 1701-d seem to be a bustling place filled with 1000+ people cruising between the stars. As the show went on they narrowed the focus too much on just the bridge crew, and it made the show seem small.
The way the story is told on a flashback works very good on this episode and Helena Russel makes a great storyteller. [....]
[Editor's Note: Mark quotes the entire rest of Paulo's note, starting from the text quoted above, regarding "Dragon's Domain," as well as proceeding through comments on "Brian the Brain" as the "Worst Episode," then comments:]
Nicely said Paulo!
-Mark
From: Mark Meskin (plastic.gravity@newrock44.com) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 20:49:20 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Episode by Episode
#1- Dragons Domain....see, that was easy. :-)No surprise there, for those of us who read Mark's comments on a regular basis.
Also no surprise if you read *any* of Petter's posts..hehe...
It is not one of my favourties, though, the plot obviously derived from a STAR TREK like script
Show me how you think this is a Trek script Petter. Its a modern telling on an old story, and aside from a rather poorly convcieved monster, a damn scary one. This is Space:1999's finest moment! In addition to the fine story we have great music, dialogue that is free of technobabble, a plot that advances itself briskly to its inevetable tragic ending, and some of the best model work of the whole series! How can you dimiss this episode because of the "toothbush" comment? Oh well, we all agree to disagree........
conceived long before production of BREAKAWAY, then changed somewhat radically by first Penfold and then perhaps more slightly with Byrne during production stage.
Who cares? The final episode is a masterpeice of Sci-Fi and TV terror. This is the pentultimate Space:1999 story. I find much in common between this episode and The Troubled Spirit........not so much in what the stories are about, but more in how they are handled. Both episodes have a mysterious creepienss to them(something that seems to be a trademark of all the good episodes) that grabs your attention, in both the fate of the main characters is inevetable and heavily foreshadowed with tragic endings, both episodes make excellent use of non Gray music, and they are 2 very engrossing episodes.
-com characters, adding to insulty a "motherly" soft-spoken Barbara Bain voice-over during most of the episode. Yuck!
That's your take anyway. I enjoy the voiceover.....it stands out from the rest of the episodes, and ties the flashback sequences to the present very effectively.
much to enjoy in this episode, it's only sad that it was made so late in the series. With better rewriting by Byrne and Penfold,
I agree that it would have been helpful to the series as a whole if episodes of this high of a calibre showed up earlier in the series, but like so many things in life, finding your footing takes time. This is how the show could have been if ITC new York and Freddie hadn't gone for the Trek:1999 theme of Y2.
more comprehensible contributions by Landau, Bain and Morse this episode could easily have earned the high mark of being as enjoyable to the rest of us as it apparently is to Mark.
Just informally based on the Best/Worst poll running on the list right now, I'd say youre dead wrong on that last point Petter. Dragons Domain has the most votes for Best Episode, where as RATM and ML are only surpased by Brian the Brain in the worst episode category.
While not a bad list, I see RING AROUND THE MOON and MISSING LINK, some of the best episodes of SPACE:1999 ever,
No kidding, eh?
incongruently among some of the more tiresome contributions. It is more difficult to make a list of worst episodes than best, I think, but RULES OF LUTON and MATTER OF BALANCE are definitely among the episodes that I don't enjoy watching every second day.
Missing Link beats out The Woodgrove trio only because inspite of bad dialogue, insipid acting by EVERYONE, and a way too implausible romance, there is a great story concept hiding in there. Too bad it was so poorly realized.
mentioned, and the list would probably include ALL THAT GLISTERS as well.
All that Glisters would have made #9 in my list, but overall there weren't enough standouts in Y2 for me to go to 10. A great set and a cool prop can't save this episode from the Irish Texan and Zombie Boy Tony....
Mark
From: Mark Meskin (plastic.gravity@newrock44.com) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 20:14:14 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Episode by Episode
Were you reading my mind Mark? Those are just about the top ten I would have chosen too, with few exceptions! I'd have left out Troubled Spirit and Force of life though. Dragon's Domain is definitely right up there for sure!
Microsoft Internet Telepathy, its a new plug in for your browser......hehehe
Pretty good! Not much picking apart necessary there, except that I must say I kinda liked "The Taybor" episode as one of my faves in Y2. It was quite funny in spotsa and generally entertaining.
It was a tuff call on the Taybor......somehow the combination of the hammy acting and sudden crowding(the galactic trading network idea....it seemed too trekish and seems to have been shoved into this episode just to please freddy....)of the "space lanes" was too much to keep this one afloat I'm afraid to say. I did think the jump drive idea was kinda neato, and was a nice change from Space 1999's general ignorance of the speed needed to travel between stars in a reasonalble amount of time.
-Mark
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 10:36:38 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Episode by Episode
Mark made a comment on something I wrote:
[DRAGONS' DOMAIN] is not one of my favourties, though, the plot obviously derived from a STAR TREK like scriptShow me how you think this is a Trek script Petter. Its a modern telling on an old story, and aside from a rather poorly convcieved monster, a damn scary one. This is Space:1999's finest moment! In addition to the fine story we have great music, dialogue that is free of technobabble, a plot that advances itself briskly to its inevetable tragic ending, and some of the best model work of the whole series! How can you dimiss this episode because of the "toothbush" comment? Oh well, we all agree to disagree........
The basic premise of DRAGON'S DOMAIN seem like more or less a perfect mirror of the STAR TREK season 3 episode OBSESSION, written by Art Wallace, although the realisation, of course, is far superior in the SPACE:1999 version. Instead of a dragon, the episode OBSESSION deals with a BETA CLOUD similar type of entity. In a way very similar to the first drafts of MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH also by Art Wallace to be found on Martin's Catacombs sites and FULL CIRCLE, also made by the Americans Laskey and wife who probably also thought that TV science fiction was identical to STAR TREK, DRAGON'S DOMAIN seem be one of the scripts that was written on comission and should have been much more thoroughly rewritten in my opinion before it was produced.
After Penfold had left production, I suppose Johnny Byrne was more interested in developing his own ideas than reworking those of others, and from his comments about how he systematically aired his dogs and let them set their mark on the Octopus-monster, I don't think I really fancied that episode all that much.
On the other hand, on the list statistics so far, DRAGON'S DOMAIN seem to score fairly high, and even though I think the dramatic elements in the episode, notably those concerning Landau, Bain and Morse are close to their least successful contribution to Y1, I certainly agree that much of the directon by Crichton was handled in an elegant manner, surprisingly suspenceful in parts, and, of course, miniature work and use of Albinoni's Adagio as a leitmotif is next to brilliant.
...conceived long before production of BREAKAWAY, then changed somewhat radically by first Penfold and then perhaps more slightly with Byrne during production stage.Who cares? The final episode is a masterpeice of Sci-Fi and TV terror. This is the pentultimate Space:1999 story. I find much in common between this episode and The Troubled Spirit........not so much in what the stories are about, but more in how they are handled. Both episodes have a mysterious creepienss to them(something that seems to be a trademark of all the good episodes) that grabs your attention, in both the fate of the main characters is inevetable and heavily foreshadowed with tragic endings, both episodes make excellent use of non Gray music, and they are 2 very engrossing episodes.
Interesting thoughts here, I think. As a child I found THE TROUBLED SPIRIT rather tense. Unfortunately I did not see DRAGON'S DOMAIN until many years later, so not being exposed to it at a very young age it did not make the same "car-wash monster from hell" impression on me as it did on so many else, apparently not being able to sleep quietly for weeks.
Like Paulo said, however, there are many similarities between the episode and ALIEN (1979), just like there are similarities between ALIEN and END OF ETERNITY and perhaps THE TROUBLED SPIRIT as well. It seems likely then that DRAGON'S DOMAIN is TV history in that it scared the wits out of so many of my generation, people born in the mid sixties, and may quite possible have anticipated the fusion of Gothic and Science Fiction that became so immensly popular with ALIEN and its parasites.
Nevertheless, even though the episode is interesting on its own part, I do not feel that it conveys too much of the SPACE:1999 feeling as such, at least not to the same extent as more substansial episodes like RING AROUND THE MOON or any of the first nine episode that was the product of the first three cycles of the series. If DRAGON'S DOMAIN represents SPACE:1999 as a whole, the it surely represents the third wave of cycles, episodes 19 to 24, when Tomblin rejoined the team of alternating directors. It is quite possible, I suppose, that Crichton's ghost story approach to the episode was influenced by Austins work on THE TROUBLED SPIRIT.
Petter
Editor's Note: The following email discusses two threads; and is split between this thread and Red Wine and RATM Anonymous.
From: "Monica M. C. Pereira" (nick@msm44.com.br) Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 13:42:06 -0200 Subj: Space1999: RATM - again and Always;-)
[moved part of note to another thread]
MY FAVORITE EPS: Breakaway, Matter of Life..., Black Sun, RATM(!;-) ),
EARTHBOUND (KOENIG/SIMMONDS ARGUMENTS ARE SUPERB, PRICELESS!!!),
Another Time..., War Games, The Full Circle (save for Barbara Bain's screams<cringe>), JOURNEY TO WHERE(!!!), Immunity Syndrome (Helena/Maya dialogues are really nice!).
Worst Eps: Missing Link, Space Warp, Rules of Luton, A Moment of Humanity, Brian-the Brain, All that Glisters....
...But, I still watch 'All that Glisters' and 'Brian', and they make me ROFL... That is, I have a kick out of this show even 'with' the worst eps...
As for DRAGON'S DOMAIN... I still laugh at Helena's complete disregard for the Commander's order("Helena. Maybe you'd better stay here."), just like in "Mission of the Darians" and "Immunity Syndrome". Check them out!...
DOES ANYBOBY REMEMBER ANY OTHER OF RUSSELL'S INSUBORDINATIONS???
Oops! Look at the time! Gotta get some serious work done. See U later, friends.
Bye, Alphans.
Monica (Mônica)
From: Ariana (ariana@ndirect44.co.uk) Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 12:43:44 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE Best/Worst
congressional compromise than man's crowning acheivement. One of the things I always disliked about Trek(except DS9, which in free of this affliction) is that the rest of the crew are only there to provide dead crewman fodder or for "bit" parts. Not so in Y1! We see Qeuller, Jim Haines, Tony Cellini, Mateo, etc. in the center stage! The moonbase always seemed to me that 311 people lived on it.
And in Y2, we see Bill Fraser, Alibe, Yasko, Carolyn Powell, Greg Sanderson and Co, Patrick and Michelle Osgood, Ehrlich, Bartlett, Dr Vincent, Dr Spencer, Raoul... Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that seeing these bit part characters help build the impression of a base with 300 people on it (and they're also a lot more useful in fanfiction than Star Trek's Ensign Expendable! ;). However, I am not sure that letting a different character have center stage every week is such a fine example of thoughtful writing, especially in the first season of a series.
I do agree that the dogged determination to involve no-one but the main characters every single week was a flaw in Star Trek TOS, and to some extent, TNG (the latter did have more characters, but as they were all cardboard cutouts compounded by wooden acting, that did little good -- eps like "Lower Decks" were intriguing, though). And indeed, when a series spans seven seasons, there comes a point when you get tired of the same old characters doing the same old things, especially when you're supposed to be on a ship with 1400 people on it.
As you point out, DS9 does not suffer from this problem, and as a fan of that show, I agree that this is one of its great strengths. The writers on DS9 have a large variety of fascinating, well-rounded characters to work with, and they use that to great advantage in episodes that focus on Garak, or Dukat, or Quark, or Weyoun, and so on. And these characters are at their best when they are played against DS9's main characters, as they give the writers a chance to view the Federation "goodies" from a different angle. Dukat brings out aspects of Kira's personality which she typically does not display under "normal" circumstances (bigotry, stubborness, you name it...); Quark's unashamedly capitalist approach to life casts a different light on the Federation's "moneyless" society; Garak's deviousness shows up the Federation's complacency.
But Space:1999's secondary characters rarely get an opportunity to do anything so grand. The reason the characters I mentioned above are one of the strengths of DS9 is that they are *recurring* characters. The audience cares about Dukat's actions and Kira's reactions to him because we already know Dukat. When he beams into Ops to accompany Kira on a mission in "Indiscretion", we know who Dukat is, and the subsequent revelations about his illegitimate daughter and the Bajoran woman he loved mean a great deal more to us because they build on a base contructed by previous episodes. If he was just the Guest Star of the week, I think we would just shrug our shoulders and think "hmm, we'll never see him again -- who cares?".
IMO, this was a bit of a problem in Space:1999. Not something I would go on a crusade against, but not one of its strong point anyway. Except for Jim Haines, all the secondary characters you mentioned were brought in for one episode, developped and then killed off. We never saw them before, we never see them again. Ultimately, they're just tools created for the story, like Eagle boosters we never see again, and the alien/monster of the week.
Now, I'm not pretending that all the stories like this were failures. "Force of Life" was fascinating, and indeed "The Lambda Factor" and "The Seance Spectre" were both examples of the way guest characters can be used to good effect to draw reactions from the main cast. I just don't agree that bringing in a new character every week just for the sake of having someone to kill off is the epitome of story-telling.
It's a lot easier to create a character to fit the story rather than fit the story to existing characters, so that bringing in the Guest Star of the week can be akin to laziness and lead to uninteresting story-telling. I believe someone once said that episodic television should be about the characters' reaction to the gizmo of the week, not the gizmo of the week itself (by gizmo, read previously unmentioned space probes, experiments with plants, large aliens in bell-bottom trousers... ;). IMHO, new characters need introduction to be really interesting, and 50 minutes packed with the technobabble of the week aren't always enough.
Take "End of Eternity" for instance. Good, ponderous, episode in the tradition of Y1 (my boyfriend fell asleep during it). Loved Peter Bowles, the eerie atmosphere, the desperate attempts to get rid of Balor... but who gives a toss about the twerp with the Dinky Toy aeroplanes? If it had been Alan, I'd have been rooting for him to recover, but I was just waiting for Mr Expendable to snuff it -- and, sure enough, he promptly did. Woe betide hitherto unseen characters sudden thrust upon center space.
BTW, for all my ranting here, this is by no means a characteristic specifically imputable to Space:1999, and so I'm not going to start pointing this out as a great failing (any more than, say, the plethora of scantily clad ladies and those noisy explosions in space ;). I'm just reacting to what was said about this characteristic being a great success which, imho, it wasn't.
It was the style of the time to have unchanging, static main characters with non-evolving characterisation, placed in situations where they react to various guest characters (whether the alien of the week or hitherto unseen colleagues and "buddies"). Until recently, most TV series didn't bother with character arcs or recurring characters because it is cheaper and simpler to wrap up the story of the week with the guest stars of the week and then move on to the next show. This way, there is no need to worry about the order in which the stories are broadcast, and consistency in characterisation is easier to maintain. The Reset Button reigned supreme and it was rare for a new character or event introduced in one episode to survive to be seen/mentioned in another episode (it did happen, but not often).
I'm glad that shows like DS9 and, even more so, Babylon 5, are breaking the mould with their evolving characters and on-going story arcs. It is very rewarding for a viewer to be able to watch an event on the show and then think "aha! this happened because so-and-so did such-and-such a few weeks ago". But I digress -- it's bad enough trying to compare Y1 to Y2, but compare Space:1999 to Babylon 5 is definitely apples vs oranges territory! :)
In conclusion, I think the shows which focus on guest stars are useful to add variety to a series, but they're not the epitome of the series (or else there's something seriously wrong with the series' premise/main cast). Boy, I did have to waffle a lot to get there, didn't I? <g>
Emma
From: Ariana (ariana@ndirect44.co.uk) Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 16:48:35 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE: Absolute favorite episodes
My favourite episode is (still!):
- The Beta Cloud
I have already waffled on enough about what I happen to like about this episode. In a nutshell: Tony and Maya have a runaround, a snog and a tif. It's silly, it's shallow, it's in the bottom 10 of most people, but I like it.
Now, I know this is not the *best* episode by a long shot -- indeed, it wouldn't make the top 10 based on any semblance of objective criteria -- but we were asked to vote for our *favourite* episode, and that's mine. If I were trying to determine a BEST episode, based on pseudo-objective criteria, I'd vote for New Adam, New Eve. :)
So without futher ado, here's my top 10+1 of favourite S1999 episodes, complete with ramblings courtesy of Sudafed Cough Medicine:
10. Breakaway
Space:1999 starts off with a bang. There's some weak technobabble to wade
through, but on the whole the first episode is a good introduction to the
premise of the series, and definitely deserves a place in the top 10. It's
sitting at number 10 mainly because I haven't seen it for a while, and my
main recollection is that the technowaffle let it down somewhat.
09. Black Sun
IMO, this episode is the epitome of early Year 1; it features the same
talking-to-Christmas-decorations concept which is so annoying in RATM, but
makes up for it by a good portrayal of the Alphan's desperate attempts to
protect themselves (aha! technobabble that fails!), and their eventual
resignation to their fate. I'm personally not very keen on mystical mumbo
jumbo, but the possibility that the Voice was simply a wormh-- uh, black
hole alien was sufficient to make me comfortable with this scene. However,
the Xmas garlands are still the reason the episode is only number 9.
08. The Last Sunset
This is the sort of story I like Y1 for. The unexpected gift of an
atmosphere turns out to be a mixed blessing; the fact that the gift was
withdrawn by the end of the episode was to be expected due to the Rule of
the Reset Button, but the interim, with all the problems caused by new
weather patterns on the Moon, was intriguing. Two things stop this episode
from being a top 5 one. I could have done without the Mr Exposition voice
at the end; yes, we needed some kind of explanation, but I can't help
thinking of Pigs in Space -- which, obviously makes it a bit difficult to
take seriously. And then, there's the unforgivable opening windows in Main
Mission... whatever klutz thought that one up deserves to be shot! :)
07. Collision Course
Faith, treachery and a big beach ball. ;)
I'll forgive the episode for the beach ball, because this was well paced
and suspenseful, bringing up issues which it did not attempt to answer
straight away. The main concept here is trust -- not so much the trust
that Arra inspired in Alan and Koenig, but the trust Koenig asks the
Alphans to have in him as a leader. To be honest, Collision Course and
Journey to Where were the last two contenders for a place in my top 10 --
Collision Course won the place mainly for the scene where Koenig's seem to
agree with him, only to immediately about-face and knock him out. I admire
originality like this (when used sparingly -- it could get tiresome).
06. The Metamorph
For all the unexplained disappearance of virtually all the old Main
Mission staff, Maya's introduction itself was well handled, coming as it
did in a well plotted and fast paced story which produced threads that, in
unusual style for series of the time, were actually picked up later in
episodes like The Rules of Luton or Dorzak. Maya's gradual loss of
confidence in her father is beautifully portrayed by Catherine Schell (as
always, of course: but then, she could even act her way out of that wicked
rock In All That Glisters!).
05. Seed of Destruction
Mutiny on Moonbase Alpha as Koenig's senior staff gradually realise their
commander isn't what he seems. The variety of reactions to this is what
makes the episode so strong; from Maya's initial suspicions and Tony's
relatively rapid agreement with her, to Helena's hesitations and Alan's
dogged loyalty, all the portrayals are on target and well studied, as is
essential to this type of story. Like the Seance Spectre (relegated to
the limbo of positions 11-37 because of the unnecessary mystical waffle),
this story posits the problem of what would happen if the commander came
to falter. No fun epilogue for this one, and the dimmed lighting as the
energy beam drains power from Alpha adds to an unusually dark tone for a
Y2 episode (I like some variety in life :).
04. The Last Enemy
Y1 at its best -- dark, depressing and unexpected. With no prime directive
nonsense at his back, Koenig is free to do anything necessary to save his
base, even if it means playing dirty. I hadn't seen this episode before,
and I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Maybe once
I get over my surprise, I'll move this episode further down the list, but
right now, I'm too busy being impressed. ;)
03. The Bringers of Wonder (I&II)
It's a pity Terence Feely didn't write more for S1999; he imbued the
characters with a humanity and a fullness which wasn't always apparent
in other episodes. With the time granted by a two-parter, the writer can
finally give us a larger view of the Alphans, not only as a community
living on the Moon, but as people who left friends and loved ones behind,
an issue they somehow managed to avoid for all of Y1 and most of Y2! I'm
glad to see that the Alphans lived in the real world before joining Alpha.
02. The Lambda Factor
An excellent episode which pitches the Alphans against themselves for a
change, relegating the "whirly-gig thing" to the role of a catalyst for
human emotions to run rife on the station. Like "The Bringers of Wonder",
this episode deserves its high score, imo, for portraying Alphans as
human beings again, subject to the same desires and failings as we are.
No happy end for Carolyn Powell and we're left with the uncomfortable
knowledge, so often repeated in both seasons of S1999, that no matter how
far away humans go, we'll still carry the same plague of violence with us.
All it takes is a spark (or, alternatively, a whirly-gig thing <g>)
01. New Adam, New Eve
Depending on whether you have a sense of humour or not, you'll see this as
the pits or a brilliant episode. I happen to think the latter, whence its
very high placement on my list. The author has a sharp wit, and it's nice
to think that Koenig and Verdeschi might share this characteristic: I
admire that in people ;). Good dialogue, interesting story and a little
bit of romance. Like the Beta Cloud, and probably more deservedly, this
was one of the episodes I remembered best in all the years when I didn't
see S1999. I even considered applying this storyline to some of the TNG
cast in a fanfic story... having seen the original again, I'm glad I
didn't: I would never have done it justice.
(Anyone know if this spawned any "morning after" fanfic? Considering how
violently jealous both Koenig and Russell have proved to be in the past,
I wonder if everything was hunky-dory between them and Tony & Maya...)
00. The Beta Cloud
Not the best, so I won't actually put it in my top 10, but the favourite
nonetheless. :)
As anyone else who has attempted to draw up a top 10 will know, it's difficult to compare Y1 and Y2 episodes, but I somehow managed to get 5 of each, so I guess I'm not as biased as I may often seem (though the positioning is significant). For die-hard fans of either series, here are my top 10s by season (considerably easier to do, given there are only 24 episodes to choose from in each season!)