asked could we perhaps talk for a little while about who our characters are, what our relationships are, a few things like that? They looked quite baffled, and then told us who was going to make the boots.    "From that moment on Martin and I re- alized that we were going up the down staircase. I can't tell you the number of times that Martin and Barbara would come back to my place, or I'd go to their's after a day's shooting, and we'd sit around with the upcoming script and ask ourselves how we could make it work?    "We used to send the scripts up terribly. On one famous occasion when we had a particularly preposterous scene to play, knowing Gerry and Sylvia's connection with puppets, Martin and I decided to play a wicked trick. On take one we acted like
puppets." Barry illustrates his point with an excellent impression of Brains from Thunderbirds: 'But-there-are-men-dy- ing-out-there-John'.    "You have to be concerned about the people, not just the special effects. I was the kind of 'Space Uncle', and I was for- ever being called upon to kind of stand by dreadful diagrams and maps and say 'we are now pointing towards planet Pluto' or some such boring rubbish, which would lead into special effects. I remember writ- ing a memo one night that said, 'Dear Gerry, Dear Sylvia, please remember that geography is about maps, but drama is about chaps.'"    It was that unhappiness with the series that led Barry to abandon Moonbase Al- pha at the end of the first season. "Thank God, the option was on my side. I've al- ways said to my wife, the best of all luxu-	ries for an artist is freedom of choice. When they talked about this second series coming and the changes they were pro- posing to make, bringing in Freddy Freiberger as producer and so on, I went to Gerry and Sylvia and said 'look, my dears, I've had a lovely time, but if it's all the same to you I think I'd like to go away and play with the grown ups'." Tek World    WIth Space: 1999 a long way behind him, Barry is returning to Science Fiction television to work with that young actor he employed all those years ago in Canada. "We always talk about him in our family as young Billy Shatner. When we were first in Canada, we ran a theatre in Mon- treal, and William Shatner's first acting job was working for us.	"We've kept in touch, and of course he has now written the Tek World books. One of the, Tek War, is being made into a se- ries in which I'm playing a recurring role. It's another space uncle, a character called Professor Kitteridge, who is the father of the heroine. Bill himself is playing in it, and there is a group of younger actors who are playing the more substantial parts. They're doing about ten hours to start with, and we've filmed some and there's more to do."    As well as movie and tv appearances, Barry continues to tour in his one man show about the history of acting, the pro- ceeds from which support retirement homes for actors in Canada. "The first Performing Arts Lodges, or PAL as the charity is called, recently opened in To- ronto and another is planned for Vancou- ver. I tour with the show, called Merely Players, in the USA and Canada, and hope
		to bring it to London one of these days."    Does Barry enjoy watching his past per- formances? "Spending my whole life in- volved in it, as you can imagine I don't go to the movies to relax, or watch much so- called entertainment television. Once in a while, something will come on that I haven't seen in a very long time. The other day they were showing an old Will Hay comedy made at Ealing before the war, in which Peter Ustinov and I both played stu- dents. I like to let my children, or more usually now my grandchildren, know when my old appearances are going to be on, but quite frankly you get sick of the sight of your own face after a while."    Fortunately, the rest of us will be only too happy to watch any Barry Morse ap- pearances, past, present and if young Billy Shatner has any say in the matter, future.                   John Porter