The Continuity GuideMoonbase Guide
by Martin Willey
The Continuity Guide
Cut-away views of the year 1 corridor, by Andrew Novinc. See 360° panoramas here
The Year 1 corridor was 60ft/18.3m long and 8ft/2.4m wide. At one end was the Travel Tube Reception, with communications post, and sometimes a wall map, wall video phones and desk.
The corridor set appeared in all but 3 episodes of Year 1, sometimes briefly, other times with major sequences. For each episode it was rebuilt, although the pattern was only altered for the side corridors or doors at the central intersection and either side of the travel tube. The corridor was always built on Stage H, although corridor sections connected to sets were built on L or M Stages.
While the Year 2 set was connected to other sets (Command Center, Medical Centre, Life Support), the Year 1 set was not. Consequently, the interior plan of rooms did not match the corridor set they were supposedly attached to.
Most Moonbase rooms, like the Command Office have doors that open onto narrow lateral corridors, normally just 4ft/1.2m or 6ft/1.8m wide. In fact these were just 2 or 3 wall panels immediately behind the door. Even when we saw the outside doors in the standard corridor (for instance, the solarium or the Nuclear Power Station), the interior has the same narrow lateral corridor. Only for certain sets, listed below, did they break this pattern.
We see a variety of other corridors with different designs, often extending other sets, including:
Further details:
Original 1973 design for the Moonbase corridor, by Keith Wilson. The final corridor closely follows this design, although the cylindrical communications post and the video phones look a little different.
The opposite end to the travel tube door, with two single doors and narrow 4ft side corridors.
Here is one of the two communications posts, which would sometimes shift to the side or disappear according to the needs of the shot. Normally both had a designation letter and direction signs (one with a spelling error- "Maintenanance Workshops", although a correctly spelled one also appears).
Normally we see Alphans walking left and right at the central intersection. We sometimes see one panel of these side routes.
In Matter of Life and Death and Force Of Life we see this short route leads to a narrow parallel corridor.
In Force Of Life and Collision Course we see dead-end alcoves, of differing depth.
And in Earthbound, Voyager's Return and End Of Eternity we see double doors of different designs. Voyager's Return opens up to an actual set, the Experimental Lab, but the other two open up to parallel corridors.
There are four single doors along the corridor. Each of these is a real practical door. Usually they are living quarters. All we can see of the room inside is one side wall (if we see the interiors of the rooms, they are different layout).
The Travel Tube door at the end of the corridor is frequently featured.
It often has different signs.
In one scene in The Troubled Spirit, the doors disappear completely, replaced by two blank panels.
The Jarama desk can be glimpsed briefly in shots from Breakaway and Black Sun, but is not present in other scenes in early episodes until Guardian Of Piri.
The Jarama desk often has a Luciolla desk lamp and Pio Manzu desk container. We only see Alphans at the desk in Voyager's Return, End Of Eternity and The Last Enemy. While it is normally tucked into one corner, it is sometimes sat alongside the travel tube.
In Breakaway, they are not present - the walls behind the communications post are blank.
The two wall video phones first appear in Black Sun, rather redundantly hidden behind the communications post. The one on the right has a small red label above it. We only see them properly in 4 episodes, although in others the bubble canopy is sometimes visible. They are never used in the series. The communications post itself sometimes moves or disappears.
In this one variation in Force Of Life, the wall phones move to a dead-end alcove to the side of the travel tube.
On the left side is a wall map, which is glimpsed in only 3 episodes, Force Of Life, End Of Eternity and Dragon's Domain. It will be featured prominently in the second series, but is barely seen in year 1.
Often Alphans walk to the left or right of the travel tube door. When we see the side corridors, it is a dead end, often with a chair or two; in Force Of Life both sides are dead-ends.
The light panels are normally white, but for some episodes we see other colours. One side strip of the curved panels is normally white.
We see damaged corridors, in Another Time, Another Place and War Games. In both cases the communications posts suffer the most damage.
Copyright Martin Willey