The Production Guide
Script To Screen: Matter of Life and Death
by Martin Willey

Script To Screen

• Siren Planet
• Shooting script
• Call sheet Interrogation
• Call sheet Planet
• Call sheet Hurricane

Matter of Life and Death was shot using a revised script dated 8th January 1974, with previous revisions dated 17 December and 27 December 1973. The shooting schedule was published on the 10th January, with filming starting on Monday 14th January. It was due to finish on Monday 28th January after 11 filming days; in fact, it overran 2 days, finishing on Wednesday 20th after 13 days.

In Byrne's version of the script, the mystery has been dialled up, while the illusions, revealing the character's backgrounds and emotions, have been removed. Only the illusion of the verdant planet remains (in the Wallace script, it is not seen; we see only the barren rocky reality). In the end, there is an unseen alien force trying to keep the Alphans from the planet, but Lee Russell is really Helena's husband ("What I became, what I now am, ended up here on this planet.").

In the Wallace script, Telford Russell wakes up early, and there is some nice dialogue between him and Helena: "The speed of your recovery....the fact that you were able to get out of bed at all." "Iron Man McGinty... isn't that what you used to call me?" "Funny, I was just thinking of that, myself.". There's also good dialogue with Koenig: "Why did I have to be Helena's husband? That's the only fact that's really bothering you, Commander, and you know it!" In the Byrne script, Lee Russell is unconscious for much of the episode and then dies. Helena has very little interaction with him, and Koenig has only one significant interrogation scene with Lee.

There is one significant scene that was filmed but cut. After Lee dies in the interrogation, Koenig goes to talk to Helena in her quarters ("I've already said it all to myself, John. I don't blame anyone for what happened to Lee."). At the end of the scene, Koenig and Helena are called to Medical. The scene was filmed (on Wednesday 16th January), and photos of Stuart Damon sitting up in bed exist.