Destination: Moonbase Alpha (52 page)

Keith Wilson discusses the design changes: ‘I think the biggest mistake in the second series was concentrating everything – concentrating the scale of the sets, particularly. We’d achieved a scale on the first series that was big. On the second series – why, I don’t know – they decided it was too big. I wasn’t allowed to make the sets as big as I had on the first series. I think we lost a lot by doing that. Everything was concentrated, and I think it was a mistake, because I think it made the show “small”.

‘It was too claustrophobic. It was like they were living underground, and I didn’t like the confinement. The fact of living on the Moon – I felt you could make the buildings as big as you liked. There were no restrictions. But Freddy Freiberger, and the powers that be, didn’t feel that was correct. [On the base, however,] that main set was really the only one that suffered. Everything else was pretty much the same – the Eagle, the Travel Tube.

‘I loved the scale of the first series. I loved the first shot when we see Main Mission and Koenig swings around in his chair and the wall separates and beyond you have this whole huge set. That’s one of my favourite shots in the whole series. I thought we needed that scale; I thought it gave the series size.
Star Trek
didn’t have that sort of scale. I can’t think of anything else that had that scale. That’s why I went for that sort of scale – I wanted it to be spectacular, and in my opinion it was …

‘It got much smaller in the second series … I was just told to make it smaller. I would do a drawing and say, “This small?” Freddy would say, “Make it smaller,” or “That’s fine.” So he had the last say. On the clothes as well – I hated the uniform for the first series, but I couldn’t touch it because it was in Rudi Gernreich’s contract that he had to have front credit. All he designed, in fact, was the uniform on the first series. I designed the alien costumes, alien make-up, everything alien. But by the second series his contract had ended, so I was able to do something with the costumes. I didn’t want to change them too much, because everyone knew the uniform: it’s part of the look of the show. But we gave them jackets and pockets, so they could do things with their hands. Otherwise, they’d just be standing there. It was dreadful. So we put badges on; anything just to get away from that dreadful uniform.’

Fred Freiberger recalled: ‘One of the things we were talking about was to lower costs. Gerry mentioned to me to take out the little television screens from the Commlocks, and I said, “Gerry, I wish you wouldn’t do that. I think that’s such an asset to the show,” and so he kept it in.’

The sound of the series was dramatically different as well, due to Year One composer Barry Gray being replaced by Derek Wadsworth, who had provided music for Anderson’s pilot
The Day After Tomorrow (Into Infinity)
. While Gray was inclined towards grand orchestral scores, Wadsworth delivered a more action-orientated sound with up-tempo modern beats. While Gray’s sound worked superbly within Year One, Wadsworth’s distinctive jazz/pop contributions were ideally suited to the style of the second season, and his opening theme remains a favourite of many fans.

Wadsworth
created individual scores for five episodes, with the resulting compositions totalling a little more than two hours. His first three scores were for the episodes ‘The Metamorph’, ‘The Exiles’ and ‘One Moment of Humanity’ – quite naturally, as these were the first three episodes filmed for the second season. Subsequent episodes that Wadsworth wrote scores for were ‘The Taybor’ and ‘Space Warp’. The former called for a more light-hearted series of compositions, while the latter required a driving action score. These five episodic scores were re-mixed and re-used by music editor Alan Willis for the remaining 19 episodes of Year Two. Due to the post-production schedule, the ‘Space Warp’ score was also used on the preceding episode, ‘The Beta Cloud’, to which it was also ideally suited.

As on Year One, directors on Year Two operated on a rotating basis. However, this time they tended to be a bit more transitory, with eight different individuals helming various episodes. They were:

CHARLES CRICHTON
, who returned from the first season to helm an additional six episodes, including the Year Two premiere ‘The Metamorph’, making him the most prolific director of the second season (as he had been for Year One).

RAY AUSTIN
, who also returned from Year One and took on directorial duties for an additional two episodes.

BOB BROOKS
, who directed two episodes. Brooks had previously been a director of commercials.
Space: 1999
represented his first directorial work on a dramatic production.

Tom Clegg
, who took on five episodes, was a relatively new director at the time, having helmed episodes of
Marked Personal
,
Special Branch
and
Armchair Cinema
.

KEVIN CONNOR
, who directed two episodes, had notable experience directing the fantasy films
The Land That Time Forgot
and
At the Earth’s Core
, as well as
From Beyond the Grave
.

VAL GUEST
, who directed three episodes, had extensive experience as a producer, writer and director of films and television. His film directorial credits included
The Quatermass Xperiment
,
Quatermass 2
,
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
,
The Abominable Snowman
and
When Dinosaurs Rules the Earth
. On television he had directed episodes of
The Persuaders!
and
The Adventurer
.

ROBERT LYNN
, who directed two episodes, had extensive experience directing for television, including for such programmes as
Ghost Squad
,
The Saint
and
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
. His films had included
Dr Crippen
and
Mozambique
. He also served as assistant director on an additional ten episodes of Year Two.

PETER MEDAK
, who directed two episodes, was notable for his credits on
The Strange Report
and
The Persuaders!
, as well as on films such as
The Ruling Class
and
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
.

Episodes in Year Two normally began with a voice-over Status Report by Helena Russell, introducing the viewer to the happenings on Alpha. This feature, while obviously inspired by the Captain’s Log from
Star Trek
, was an addition that worked successfully and appealed to the audience. More significantly, Fred Freiberger completely changed the style and direction of the stories themselves. He was unimpressed by the metaphysical and mysterious aspects of the first season; in their place he wanted clearly explained stories grounded in science fiction and featuring lots of action. He increased the humour quotient in the scripts and altered the philosophy of the series in order to provide what he believed the American market wanted – namely, outwardly warmer (and younger) Alphans who more readily joked with each other. Indeed, the characters did become a more easily likeable group than in the first year. Gone, however, was the vision of the universe as a huge, mysterious place of great grandeur in which the Alphans were a lost and wandering tribe at the mercy of whatever they encountered. Gone too was the Mysterious Unknown Force that had seemed subtly to guide or direct the journey of Alpha in ways and for purposes often left to the imagination. Instead, the stories, characters and motivations became clearer (or occasionally, some would say, transparently shallow).

Keith Wilson offers his thoughts on the thematic side of the series: ‘Freddy Freiberger was like a troubleshooter. It was his task to come in and change the show to make it more acceptable for an American audience. The first series, it was unusual that a science fiction show would be so intense. We were dealing with really quite important subjects – disguised subjects, but nevertheless. The second series it became like a comic strip. It lost that wonderful quality.’

The new series was truly tailored to be action-adventure sci-fi, which was Fred Freiberger’s conception of what the show should be. In his own words, ‘We cut down the whole vast control centre [Main Mission] … cut down the loss of Eagles. I felt if we were going to use violence of that sort, use it meaningfully. The English, when they did these shows, desperately wanted to reach the American market, since that’s where all the money is. And they would interpret “action” literally as action – shooting down a million Eagles … and doing wild physical things … instead of dramatic action, conflict. These are tough concepts for them to be able to understand and accept.’ Freiberger also shared his thoughts on what he liked in Year One, ‘I’d prefer to say the characters, but it was the special effects – they were just amazing. I admired the standard of the work these guys did. My main concern going into Year Two was getting stories. We had a situation with a preparation of ten days and a shoot of ten days. And it was meeting people: I didn’t know any of the directors, so Gerry hired the directors; I didn’t know any of the writers, so Gerry brought in the writers. I found everybody very eager, very professional and easy to work with.’

Perhaps if Freiberger had viewed more than eight episodes of Year One he would have felt differently about it. However, the responsibility for the changes made in the second series cannot be placed completely on his shoulders …

Where was the co-creator of the series, the man credited as Executive Producer – Gerry Anderson?
Space: 1999
was his greatest success – it would be logical to assume that he would have had a great vested interest in controlling as much as possible the direction of the series that so prominently carried his name. For Anderson to have allowed outside influences to revamp drastically a ‘Gerry Anderson Production’, sitting seemingly quietly in the background even though he himself apparently did not think highly of the changes and scripts being produced (as interviews with him have since clearly shown), seems more than slightly strange. Even accepting that ITC New York was demanding changes be made in order to secure their financial backing, Anderson should surely have been triumphing the strengths of the first season and making sure that they were not overlooked while changes were implemented. He should have ensured that continuity between the two seasons was as strong as possible, and that inconsistencies of a significant nature were explained to viewers.

In recent years,
Anderson seems to have had a revisionist view of history, to the point of ignoring any mention of his ex-wife and creative partner, Sylvia. He has also repeatedly claimed credit for aspects of
Space: 1999
in which he appears to have had little direct involvement, and – as shown in the commentary section for ‘Breakaway’ in this book – has gone so far as to portray himself as being single-handedly responsible for ‘rescuing’ the pilot episode. While Anderson blames Fred Freiberger and ITC for the ultimately unpopular changes made for Year Two, he has never acknowledged in interviews that he could have done more to stand up for his co-creation. But beyond the responsibilities of any one man (Anderson or Freiberger), ultimately the greatest blame lies with ITC for not having faith in the team producing the series, for not sticking with the original vision, and for ordering the implementation of changes. Anderson himself has said, ‘When it came to the next series, they introduced the new member of the cast. They had this bloody silly idea of Maya turning into different creatures. I mean, if we could have done it with morphing, fine, but that wasn’t possible at the time. The scripts became very juvenile. For me – I mean, I’ve met people who prefer the second series – but for me, the first series was infinitely better, and the second series was downgraded and almost “comic-cuts”.’

Fred Freiberger was simply a producer hired to do a job. He was a hired gun. He did his job, made decisions he felt were for the best of the series, and is substantially to credit for the fact that there was a Year Two at all. Fans are free to criticise the changes he made, and it is often felt that many of them were misconceived. But he did undeniably do some things well, and to this day many fans love the second season.

Johnny Byrne’s reflections on the development of Year Two included: ‘It’s hard to separate retrospective wisdom now from how I felt
Space: 1999
should develop then. But I always believed that Year One was a testing of the waters for the overall concept, with a result that demonstrated it could intrigue, mystify and entertain. A direct follow on Year Two would have been based on the enhanced awareness of the Alphans to their situation, leading to a greater ability to cope with it, not least philosophically, metaphysically and spiritually. It would also have shown in part a coming to terms with the knowledge that something greater than the random forces of space and time – the MUF, if you like – was an active player in their destiny. If one accepted the epic, mythic potential of the series, which I always did, then the Alphans were in the process of not just surviving and questing for a new home, but also creating their own origin legend. That being said, in some ways Fred returned the show to the basic mechanistic format concept of the Moon blown out of orbit. It was the writers of Year One, initially Chris and I, then others, who read into it the metaphysical and philosophical implications for the Alphans; an Earth in miniature, suddenly and catastrophically plunged down the snake to square one. I’m not sure Fred grasped this aspect of
Space: 1999
and its potential to lend enduring context to stories that would otherwise feature as “what you see is what you get” … The second season had, of course, a basic appeal, because it was more like
Star Trek
, and on that level, it made for easier viewing to a certain extent – but not more pleasurable viewing.