Dragon's Domain
| Belgium (Flemish) |
Het Spinneweb |
The Spider's Web |
| France/Canada |
Le domaine du dragon |
The Dragon's Domain |
| Italy |
Il dominio del drago |
The Domain Of The Dragon |
| Japan |
Emergence of Monsters in Space Tomb!
|
| Poland |
Domena smoka |
|
| Portugal |
Os Domínios do Dragão |
The Domains Of The Dragon |
| Spain |
El dominio del Dragón |
The domain of the Dragon |
| South Africa | Die Draak Se Gebied |
The Dragon's Region |
A macabre monster in outer space...an eerie graveyard of lost spaceships Real or imagination? Years of mental torment reach a terrifying climax. ITC summary
- Nick Tate states the original idea was for him to be featured as the pilot of the Ultra Probe.
I know it was originally written for me because Christopher Penfold invited me to his house and showed me the first draft of the script. The original story was very much like Alien - this creature kills everybody aboard a space station and Alan Carter is sent there to discover what happened.
(1995 interview). Obviously Carter would survive the episode.
- Original story treatment titled Web by Christopher Penfold featured pilot Jimmy Calder, and, after Garko was cast, Tony Cellini.
- After Penfold left, it was revised. Johnny Byrne does not remember working on it, so rewrites are likely to be by Charles Crichton, Gerry Anderson and Martin Landau.
- Shooting script dated 21st January 1975. Pink page amendments 24th January 1974. Blue page amendments (2pp) 29th January 1975. Yellow page amendments (12pp) 30th January 1975,
- Filmed 24th January- 12th February 1975 (last 2 days filmed simultaneously with The Testament of Arkadia).
- The Ultra Probe was in two sizes (6' and 3') plus a 20" lifeboat. The nosecone of the large Ultra Probe (to scale with the 44" Eagle) was used in Eagle hangar scenes of The Metamorph although it is not seen on screen.
- The design of the command module clamps to the main body was inspired by the 1973 film Silent Running. The original concept was to eject glittering dust just like the dome ejection scenes in that film.
- The Dragon ship was 102cm long (5 1/2 feet) and to scale with the smaller Ultra Probe. It reappeared in the graveyard in The Metamorph.
- Two other new ships were built; both were about 2-3 foot long and sparsely detailed. One reappeared in the graveyard in The Metamorph.
- Five other ships from other episodes were reused. These are:
- Martin Bower has claimed the SFX crew filmed shots with the Tardis from Dr Who and Enterprise from Star Trek. Although they were barely visible, it was decided to remove these shots from the completed episode.
- The Space Dock from Breakaway reappears, this time with a new landing pad (made from the saucer of a Star Trek Enterprise kit).
- The skulls of the corpses were made from Revell kits
- The dragon arms was rubber tubing covered in polystyrene, with open ends so air blown down them caused them to flick. After filming, the prop was discarded in the back lot, where Johnny Byrne used to walk his lurcher hounds. The male hound regularly sprayed the monster to mark its territory.
- Ultra Probe feature
- Dragon ship model photos
- SFX storyboards
- Library Special Effects
Library track: "Adagio for strings and organ in G Minor" attributed to Tommaso Albinoni (1671-1751)/ Remo Giazotto (1910-1998). Giazotto claimed to have discovered fragments of the Albinoni manuscript in Dresden in 1945, and composed the piece based on the fragments. It is now generally held to be an expert pastiche rather than an authentic baroque piece. It was first used as a soundtrack for a 1952 release of the 1928 film classic La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, which influenced a generation of film makers. This track is widely used in film, most famously Rollerball (1975, coincidentally at the same time as the episode was first seen) and Gallipoli (1981). It was also used in Orson Welles's The Trial (1962), Flashdance (1983), Manchester by the Sea (2016) and Dogs Don't Wear Pants (2020). Gerry Anderson had wanted to use it in his 1968 film Doppelganger (aka Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun), but Barry Gray had composed a track for the sequence (when the astronauts sleep on their way to the other planet). This version was arranged and conducted by Alain Lombard (1940-) with the Orchestre de la Societé des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1966 and published by the Delysé [Envoy] Recording Company (album ECB 3181).
- Bergman discovers Ultra, a 10th planet in the solar system in 1996. In 2006 a new classification was agreed, in which the solar system has just 8 planets, excluding Pluto (now classified as a dwarf planet like Charon, Ceres, and Eris).
- The term "black sun" is used again. It is featured in the episode Black Sun and also mentioned in Seed Of Destruction.
877th day after leaving orbit (Wednesday, 6th February 2002). It is five years since 1997. This contradicts Year 2 dates, being after Mark Of Archanon (640 days) and just before The Rules Of Luton (892)
1 fatality (Tony Cellini)
- Koenig's appointment in Breakaway presumably follows his "grounding" in 1997 after the Ultra Probe failure. Victor's grounding seems to have been brief ("Still here?"). Although he was friendly with Mathias in 1996 (calling him "Bob"), in Breakaway they are on formal, last name terms.
- Kano also plays chess in Black Sun, but the chess set has flat pieces, not proper chess pieces. The same set is seen on Earth in Another Time, Another Place. See observations below for comments on their gameplay.
- Commander Gorski is mentioned as Commander during 1996. He was seen in Breakaway
Alpha Technology:
- The Space Dock appears. It also appears in Breakaway
- We learn Medical Computer monitors everyone's pulse and metabolic rate continuously.
- Helena uses a electric typewriter (a Triumph-Adler Gabriele 2000). By Year 2 she will be dictating into her Alpha Log Recorder, although the typewriter is seen again in Koenig's quarters in The Exiles.
- The laser rifle is seen. It is also used in War Games, The Infernal Machine and The Metamorph and is often seen in other episodes.
- Cellini comments "There are ships here that could make the dream of interstellar travel a reality. We could be liberated from our solar system". However, according to Brian The Brain, a 1996 mission with a mothership and Swifts was launched beyond the solar system. Note while the Ultra Probe was a high profile public mission, no-one can even remember the Swift mission in Brian The Brain. Also note the Swift uniforms are different to the standard moonbase uniforms worn by the Ultra Probe crew. Perhaps it was a different (more secretive) space organisation.
- The black box recorder is a real aerospace gyroscope. It is also seen in Voyager's Return. It is similar to the AE-35 unit from 2001: A Space Odyssey (a Sperry G.M.compass MK4), and it is possible it is the same prop, reused via a film prop company.
Eagle 1 (Cellini, left with Ultra probe); 2 (pick up); 3 and 4 (escort)
None.
Aliens:
Dragon. Ships of other alien races are seen.
Props:
Footage:
The footage of Victor doing calculations on a glass panel in his room (LQ12) is recycled from Black Sun
The shape seen before the dragon appears is the space brain.
News broadcast date is Sept 3rd 1996 (written in the script as "9/3/96" which the actor and director assumed to be American format- month, day, year, instead of English format- day, month, year). The Ultra Probe launch date is 6th June 1996
As Ultra Probe approaches the graveyard, the point-of-view shot of the alien ships shows the Ultra Probe already docked to the dragon ship
Cellini mentions "Tentacles, blood suckers, fiery breath". On screen the monster only had the former (the reason for the error is in the script it had those features).
- Christopher Penfold: At the time I had a house on the Welsh borders near Ludlow, which because of the pressure of work on Space I couldn't get to all that often. Whenever I did get there, the spiders' webs over the kitchen windows would be full of moths and flies that had had the life blood sucked out of them.
- Perhaps the most overtly mythological episode of Space: 1999. Although it credits St George and the Dragon, the ending also strongly echoes the final confrontation of Beowulf with the dragon. The dragon's skin cannot be penetrated by swords (as the space dragon is unaffected by lasers), and Beowulf is mortally wounded. His thane Wiglaf delivers the death blow to the dragon.
- The use of flashback and narration is also seen in The Testament Of Arkadia and the unfilmed Face Of Eden.
- Footage of the Ultra Probe has been used on several UK shows including comedy sketch programme Three Of A Kind (1983, a sketch based on Alien), and children's magazine Saturday Starship (1984).
- The video and DVD releases of this episode have been flawed. The original UK video release by ITC had to be recalled after a sound defect. The UK Carlton DVD release has a colour defect after 4 minutes 48 seconds, turning abruptly pinker (during the chess game). The US A&E release has this colour defect throughout; the bonus disc corrects the colour, but the film shows more scratches. The Network release in 2005 is the first unflawed release.
External Links
Episode Guide
Year 1 - Episode 23 
