{"id":2561,"date":"2005-04-19T23:36:40","date_gmt":"2005-04-20T04:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2018-10-31T20:55:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T00:55:36","slug":"cult-culture-space-1999-season-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=2561","title":{"rendered":"Cult Culture: Space 1999 (Season Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The last season ended with the Alphans
\nfinding Mankind’s lost homeworld and addressing the universal questions
\nabout our destiny. Now, it’s time for the series to be dragged into a
\nback alley where a stranger from the studio will force it to fellate
\nhim.<\/p>\n

Fred Freiberger is the name of this criminal. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson broke up, and Space: 1999<\/em>
\nfelt the shockwave. The show fell into the greedy claws of the studio
\nand, as studios do, they destroyed everything the fans came to love in
\nthe first season.<\/p>\n

Now, don’t read me wrong. The second season had some great moments. The
\nbig problem was that the transition was handled poorly and the general
\ntheme of the show changed violently. Instead of gothic, introspective
\nsci-fi horror we now had colorful, goofy science fantasy with quirky
\nnew characters. Barry Morse – scientist, philosopher and loyal friend
\nto Martin Landau’s character – is gone without explanation. In fact,
\nmost of the crew has changed. The computer expert is gone, stoic Paul
\nMorrow has left, Zienia Merton’s character would fade before the end of
\nthe season, and all of the familiar faces from Main Mission have
\ninexplicably vanished. Characters who were nobodies, really, but you
\nnotice their absence.<\/p>\n

We still have Landau and Barbara Bain, of course. Australian flyboy
\nNick Tate is still on board. But those are the only hints that this is
\nthe same show and not “Space: 1999<\/em> the Next Generation.”<\/p>\n

To further confuse the viewer, they even bother to have an opening
\nsequence where Barbara Bain sets up the change – it’s been over a year
\nsince the last episode, and there have been several Alphan fatalities.
\nShe lists the fatalities, but none of them are people we know. Weird.<\/p>\n

Worse yet, the rock-out title sequence has changed, too. We get a
\nfrightfully low-key version of the original theme and the dramatic “In
\nThis Episode” clips have been removed in favor of gauzy-looking
\nrenderings of the moon moving out of orbit. The intro teasers have been
\ndropped as well. We go right into this emasculated opening sequence,
\nthen cut to a moon shot where, for most of the season, there’s a three
\nminute slow start while Barbara Bain makes her always annoying
\n“Moonbase Alpha Status Report,” which is just an excuse not to set up
\nthe story each week.<\/p>\n

The sets have closed in. The expansive, window-wrapped Main Mission has
\nbeen moved to a “Control Center” deep within the bowels of the
\nmoonbase, set up roughly like a bridge from a spaceship-based sci-fi
\nprogram.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Now, roll out the new characters. No time to wonder where the cast
\nwent, because we start out right away with these new people. There’s
\nTony, chief of security and second in command of Alpha. Okay, folks,
\nwe’re halfway across the universe in unknown space and, suddenly, there
\nare new people? Maybe Tony was promoted from the lower ranks after
\nevery single supporting actor from the first season got in a space ship
\nand moved to Missoula. But how about explaining that? We open up with
\nthe first episode of the new season and here’s this new guy, and
\nthey’re all squeezed into the new control room, and everyone’s goofing
\naround while the viewing audience sits there and wonders if they missed
\nabout 20 episodes.<\/p>\n

At least the addition of one of the title stars is explained. With
\nBarry Morse gone, the show needs a new scientist. Enter the lovely
\nCatherine Schell. She’s got legs, hair, a great face and, most
\nimportantly, cleavage. She plays the shape-shifter Maya, the last
\nsurvivor of her race, who joins the Alpha team after Landau convinces
\nher that Human cock is the way to go. She falls in love with Tony,
\nchanges into one of five monsters each week (mouse, falcon, bug-eyed
\nbeast, hairy troll, Martin Landau clone) and acts as a tool to explain
\neverything to the audience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

“Yes, Commander, my people have run into these aliens before and here’s
\nwhat they are and here’s what they want and here’s how to stop them.
\nNow, let’s walk through the remainder of the script and act like it’s
\nreally painful for us to be tied to a contract for 22 more episodes.”<\/p>\n

In an attempt to develop the “human aspect,” which the show was
\nunjustly criticized as lacking in the first season, we spend plenty of
\ntime getting to know the hooch-swilling Tony and his artificially
\nwritten relationship with Maya. A general thaw of the Landau-Bain
\nrelationship is also written in, though this is a bit more successful
\nbecause it was always sorta there in the first season. Nick Tate fills
\nthe buddy role, when Landau needs a sidekick on a dangerous mission and
\nBain’s contract forbids her from breaking a nail during filming.<\/p>\n

This clumsy response to ignorant critics goes a long way towards making
\nthe second season extraordinarily painful. There was a human element in
\nthe first season, but it was far more sublime and genuine than the fake
\n70’s sitcom nonsense we get between Maya and Tony. Like we need that
\nmotivation to get upset if Maya is captured? Come on, she’s their most
\nvaluable asset, and she’s pretty. We don’t need help to be worried.<\/p>\n

One good thing is the father-daughter relationship between Landau and
\nMaya, something that Star Trek will steal with Picard and Data. So the
\nmore-human Landau writing works well, but it doesn’t save us from
\nwondering what the hell’s going on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Each episode is opened by Barbara Bain’s personal log, the “Moonbase
\nAlpha Status Report,” which, disconcertingly, jumps around the
\ntimeline. Occasionally, an episode takes place in the year after the
\nMoon left Earth orbit, but do we get old characters back? No, of course
\nnot. My favorite goof, though, is when the finale of a two-parter takes
\nplace years after the first part, according to the Status Report,
\nthough the episode still picks up where the previous week’s
\nfreeze-frame cliffhanger left off. Now that’s bad writing.<\/p>\n

While there’s much to complain about, the second season delivers good
\nsci-fi about 60% of the time. All of the origin of Humanity stuff is
\ngone, as are the insane Humans from lost missions that fell into time
\nwarps, but that’s okay because they’ve been replaced by an endless
\narray of heavily armed rubber-suit aliens. No, wait, that’s not okay!<\/p>\n

If there’s a theme to the second season, it’s more of Man against
\nNature instead of Man against Man. Some of my favorite episodes come
\nout of the second season – “The Rulers of Luton” pits the Alphans
\nagainst a world dominated by plants, bent on the destruction of flesh
\ncreatures. “All That Glisters” delivered a groovy crazy crewmember
\nepisode. The Alphans contacted Earth, located an ancient species buried
\nin the moon and brought us action packed, poorly constructed episodes
\neach week.<\/p>\n

The season takes a plunge, marked clearly by the Maya’s Crazy episode.
\nThere are some saving moments in the final eight episodes – most
\nnotably an homage to season one ghost stories – but don’t expect
\nanything to bounce back. Despite faint glimmers of hope, everything
\nafter the Maya’s Crazy episode is offensive.<\/p>\n

Freiberger, by the way, destroyed every show he touched. After Space: 1999<\/em> failed, he went on to destroy the final season of the Six Million Dollar Man<\/em>. Then he served as the dictator of Iraq until 2003.<\/p>\n

It’s a real shame, too. 1999 had the usual list of powerful guest
\nstars. The directors would all go on to create big shows and movies you
\nknow well. The writers were all the best from Dr. Who<\/em> and Twilight Zone<\/em>
\nand big screen efforts that you probably own right now on DVD. True
\nability was flushed down the drain. That’s what makes the second season
\nespecially horrifying. It’s the “What Could Have Been” season. An
\nignoble ending for a show that was unique and inventive when it began.<\/p>\n

Your episode list:<\/p>\n

The Metamorph<\/strong><\/p>\n

The guest star who played “The Guardian of Piri” in the first season
\nreturns as Maya, the shapely metamorph. Catherine Schell is in the
\ncredits, so it’s not really surprising when she has a change of heart,
\ndoes not feed Martin Landau’s brains to her father’s insane computer
\nand joins the crew. Brian Blessed also guests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Exiles<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the midst of shape-changing shenanigans with Maya, the Alphans
\nrepeat a mistake they made in the first season and thaw out insane, ass
\nfucking demons bent on destroying the universe. But it’s not Peter
\nBowles this time, it’s a couple of kids who represent a large group of
\ntroublemakers. Teenagers are bad!<\/p>\n

One Moment of Humanity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stop me when this sounds like a Star Trek rip-off, or when you start to
\nthink that Fred Freiberger should be drawn and quartered. So androids
\ncapture – What? No, sorry, let me finish. So androids capture our stars
\nand force them to demonstrate Humanity so that they may – What? Really,
\nlet me finish.<\/p>\n

All That Glisters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank the Maker! A crazy rock tried to kill our stars on Bizarro World!
\nBack to basics – greed and madness! It’s a crazy crewmember episode!
\n(It’s actually that Star Trek episode with the salt sucking
\nwoman-beast, if you want to get technical.)<\/p>\n

Journey to Where<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freddie Jones guest stars as a scientist on Earth, some 500 years in
\nour future. This is good enough to be a year one episode. Future Earth
\nis a hopeless wasteland, thanks to the Moon destroying the environment.
\nBut the remnants of Mankind have developed a way to transport the
\nAlphans home. First – we test the device. Landau, Bain and Nick Tate go
\nin for the ride…and get trapped in 14th Century Scotland! Classic
\nadventure stuff. A favorite episode from the entire series.<\/p>\n

The Taybor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, but now Fred Freiberger is back from vacation. The Taybor is a
\ngalactic trader and, like us, he appreciates Maya’s cleavage. So much
\nso that he kidnaps her. I can see where he’s coming from.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Rules of Luton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Landau and Maya are held prisoner by a planet where Larch Trees rule
\nand sentence flesh creatures to death. Or, in this case, to fight other
\nflesh creatures. To make it more fun, Landau will be wounded and losing
\nblood fast while Catherine Schell will actually get the chance to act.
\nToo bad the script is a hodge podge of Twilight Zone, Star Trek and
\nLost in Space episodes and appears to have been written overnight with,
\npossibly, a 12 year old suggesting the finale. “And then they find…the
\nflesh creature’s last stand! And then they…they…talk their way out of
\nit and, uh, cut to commercial and pretend five minutes of the story had
\nbeen cut out by the network.” This is a crap episode, but I’ve always
\nenjoyed it.<\/p>\n

The Mark of Archanon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus Christ! The Alphans once again thaw out immortal ass-fucking demons! Stop it!<\/p>\n

Brian the Brain<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Nacho tries to think of something good to say instead of ranting about Fred Freiberger)<\/p>\n

New Adam, New Eve<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh? What? A cool episode? Again, yes, it’s a shining star from the
\nseason and a good episode for the series. A creature posing as God
\nsteals our main cast members and sets them up on a new Eden. Is he God?
\nOr is he just a powerful being who, in turn, worships a larger god? Are
\nthe Alphans breaking from the lessons they learned in the first season,
\nbucking against some of the deeper, metaphysical avenues that the show
\nexplored? Good stuff, all around.<\/p>\n

Catacombs of the Moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crazy crewmembers and an approaching firestorm. The crazy crewmember
\nepisodes can usually hold water. This one takes place in the caves deep
\nbeneath the moonbase, so we get some spooky sets and great mine-shaft
\nshowdowns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The A B Chrysalis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The delectable Sarah Douglas stars as one of the naked supermodels in
\nan episode that could have been great. Our heroes go down to a planet
\nto see why an alien race is trying to destroy the moon, only to find
\nthat the aliens are just waking up after a lengthy period in stasis.<\/p>\n

Seed of Destruction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Landau is kidnapped by an alien who sends an evil doppelganger back to
\nAlpha, and nobody notices for 45 minutes as he becomes increasingly
\ninsane. The real Martin Landau returns for a dreadful “No! I’m the real
\none! Shoot him<\/em>!” showdown. Yes, it’s like that Star Trek episode with the goatees.<\/p>\n

The Beta Cloud<\/strong><\/p>\n

Darth Vader Dave Prowse guest stars as Da Monster! Maya gets to turn
\ninto a fly, which is a nice change. This is standard robot monster
\nattack stuff, with a comically lousy villain – a disembodied voice
\ntelling everyone that they’ll escape death if they commit suicide.
\nStraight up action, though, so that’s cool.<\/p>\n

A Matter of Balance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anti-matter creatures strike again. Except where season one’s “Matter
\nof Life and Death” was an introspective episode, this one has an anti
\nmatter dude who likes gold lame hotpants.<\/p>\n

Space Warp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maya’s Gone Crazy! Every sci-fi series needs an episode like this. It’s what we call “Spock’s Brain syndrome.”<\/p>\n

The Bringers of Wonder<\/strong><\/p>\n

The series is on the chopping block, so they call out a two parter.
\nThis one was good enough to re-edit into “Destination Moonbase Alpha”
\nwhich appeared as a TV movie in the early 80’s and, for most of us, was
\nthe introduction to the series. It’s a worthy episode, too, except for
\nplot holes I could part my car in. Giant blancmanges with big eyes come
\nto kill everyone. Oh! Sorry, that’s the finale. Actually, the Alphans
\nare pleased to meet a shipload of family members and loved ones from
\nEarth…who are not what they seem! Only Martin Landau, suffering from
\nSpace Herpes, can see the aliens in their true form. But nobody
\nbelieves him for 90 goddamned minutes!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Lambda Factor<\/strong><\/p>\n

We get some Landau backstory but, more importantly, an impish blonde
\nwith a great rack has been given psychic superpowers thanks to a
\nmysterious space cloud…and she’s insane!<\/p>\n

The S\u00e9ance Specter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening up in the middle of the story, Landau and Nick Tate rush back
\nto Alpha to tend to an emergency in the command center – a group of
\nminers have gone nuts, formed a cult and put a paranoid in charge who
\nthinks Landau is the devil. They try to take over Alpha in the ultimate
\ncrazy crewman episode.<\/p>\n

Dorzak<\/strong><\/p>\n

A survivor from Maya’s homeworld shows up as a prisoner. He’s insane,
\nbut Maya just can’t believe that he’s an immortal ass-fucking demon so
\nshe frees him, teaches him the secret of shape changing, lets him knock
\nher out and assume her form and wreak havoc. Maya doesn’t like cheddar
\ncheese! What’s going on here! You’re not —AAAHHH!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
{mosimage}<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Devil’s Planet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Landau lands on a prison planet run by Ilse, She Wolf of the SS and her
\nlesbian prison guards. Little do they know that their homeworld has
\nbeen destroyed. Now Landau must convince them of that fact and escape
\nand give the cameraman plenty of opportunity to soft focus on scantily
\nclad women. Well he succeed?<\/p>\n

The Immunity Syndrome<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alphans are driven crazy by a glow-light alien on a pretty planet.
\nAfter some crazy crewman moments, Landau gets to talk to the alien and
\nwork things out. We get some great scenes where our boys discover what
\nremains of a previous alien expedition to the planet – all bones and
\ndusty captain’s logs. Nice work, there. This was intended to be the
\nfinal episode in the series (and it is, with a rewritten ending, in the
\nnovels). Alas, we have one more episode to deal with…<\/p>\n

The Dorcons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Patrick Troughton, the second Dr. Who, this is the bottom of
\nthe barrel. The money is gone, everybody but the title stars and Tony
\nhave left the show, and Alpha faces imminent destruction. Deep down,
\nthis is an okay episode. It tries for greatness, and we’re fed some
\ngood explosions and a final, desperate moment where the command center
\nfills with the wounded and the frightened. That moment almost outweighs
\nthe chickenwire sets and the fact that there’s no money for slow
\nmotion, so the actors have to pretend to be thrown slowly across the
\nroom. But then we get Landau’s worse-than-Shatner brawling and a
\nconclusion that appears to have been written on the day of filming.
\nIt’s quite embarrassing.<\/p>\n

The Bonus Disc<\/strong><\/p>\n

Released in March 2003 after several years of fending off attacks from
\nthe fans. It’s focused on season one and features the much sought
\nafter, fan-produced “Message from Moonbase Alpha” mentioned in my last
\nreview, an interview from the year 2 set designer (which is rehashed
\nfrom one of the year two DVD’s because A&E are cheapskates), and an
\nalternate sequence from “Collision Course” that is actually quite
\ninteresting.<\/p>\n

Commentary tracks include a witty, informative and must-watch
\ncommentary by Sylvia Anderson on season one finale “Testament of
\nArkadia.” She barely even mentions the episode and, instead, talks
\nabout where the show was going, what they were trying to do and why she
\nhad to leave. It’s one hour of solid series history.<\/p>\n

Writer Johnny Byrne and story consultant Christopher Penfeld speak on
\n“Dragon’s Domain” (one of my favorite episodes). Byrne is the man
\nbehind the “human factor” in the first season – the metaphysical god
\nstuff, eventually culminating in “Testament of Arkadia.” He talks a
\nlittle about that but, sadly, sticks with the episode and general
\nanecdotes about filming.<\/p>\n

Space: 1999<\/em> guru Scott Bosco talks over “Death’s Other
\nDominion.” Now he does get more into what Johnny Byrne was doing and
\nthe series as a whole, especially the direction of the first season and
\nhow things became re-envisioned in the second season. Another great
\nhistorical commentary that has nothing to do with the particular
\nepisode.<\/p>\n

The three episodes themselves are remastered for the bonus disc and I
\nhave a sneaking suspicion that they’re better quality than what we get
\nin the box sets… But I’m a paranoid shut-in who just watched over 25
\nhours of Space: 1999<\/em>, so don’t listen to me.<\/p>\n

Nacho’s gin rating: If you’re a die-hard fan, then you’ve got to
\nswallow season two. If you’re a casual fan, watch the episodes I single
\nout as good ones and save your soul.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,352],"tags":[403,353,347],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cult-culture","category-gsarchive","tag-cult-culture","tag-gs-archive-2004-2008","tag-space-1999"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}