Episode Guide

• Background
• Cast/Sets
• SFX
• Music
• Science
• Continuity
• Errors
• Observations
• Links
• Transcript
• Images

One Moment of Humanity

A planet of human robots...but their complete mastery over those who have created them needs one further sense. They need the emotion that will enable them to kill. Can they learn from the Alphans? ITC summary

Background

• Shooting script titled One Second Of Humanity dated 12th February 1976, line amendments and amendment pages 19th February, further amendments 24th, 25th and 26th February.
• Filmed 4 March-17 March 1976, 10 filming days.

SFX

• No model effects (there is one shot of the Vega surface and one of Vega over Alpha, both recycled from Death's Other Dominion).
  

• The star cluster seen on the Big Screen showing the Moon's position was previously seen in Into Infinity. It also appears in The Taybor. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos.

• The SFX team also filmed the parrot/ Master Computer sequence at Pinewood: see storyboard.

Music

• Original score by Derek Wadsworth, recorded Tuesday 4th May 1976 at the Music Centre, Wembley.
• The dance music, Gino Vannelli's "Storm At Sun-Up", was selected by choreographer Lionel Blair before the episode was shot.
• Zamara selects Beethoven's 9th Symphony from the Alphan library. The extract is from the second molto vivace part.
• ITC Music Cue Sheet

Science

• In 1983 the star Vega was found to have a proto-solar system, a dust disc around the star from which planets may form. It was the first evidence that solar systems could exist outside of our own.
• The Vegans speak English (although they could have taken this information from the Moonbase computer). They also use Arabic numerals (1,2,3 etc).
• Vega has a thin atmosphere and subzero temperatures, insufficient to support human life. How did the Vegans evolve? Possibly the Vega sun had a recent fluctuation (if it got hotter, the warmed gases would escape the planet gravity and the atmosphere would thin, the planet would then become colder).
• Matter transportation is by "positronic transfer". Positrons are the antimatter form of electrons. When they encounter normal electrons, both are turned into energy. In other words, this mechanism would create a massive explosion through the roof of Alpha, the Vega surface, and the interplanetary gases between them.

Continuity

Chronology:

515 days after leaving Earth orbit (Fri 9 Feb 2001)

Alpha Personnel:

0 fatalities.

Alpha Technology:

• The Atmosphere Control seems to make Alpha very vulnerable. The hatch design is identical to the Essential Services hatch seen in other episodes.
• Helena uses the Alpha Log Recorder in her living quarters.

Eagles:

None

Maya transformations:

Hairstyle, Madagascar hissing cockroach, parrot (Green-Wing Macaw)

Planets:

Vega

Aliens:

Zarl and Zamara, Vegan androids, and the "numbers", humanoids.

Props:

• The Garden of Vega is a revamped set from The Metamorph

Cast:

• Choreographer Lionel Blair is a well known UK TV personality; he is the brother of actress Isla Blair (War Games, Journey To Where).
• Laraine Humphrys plays a Vegan. She is an Alphan in End of Eternity and The Taybor.

Errors

See More observations

Observations

• Why can't the androids just kill the humans dispassionately- why do they need to use hate or violence? They give the real Alpha just two days of life support, after which they would die, and if they wanted to do it faster, they nearly do it in the replica Alpha by turning off the air. Also the electro-forcefield that immobilises the Alphans could, as Helena says, easily kill them. Alan also demonstrates violence by shooting Zamara in the Recreation Centre. Punching, by comparison, is more brutal but is an inefficient way to kill someone.
• "Emotion is a weakness. We must use it, but never become ensnared." Destroying the humans is easily achieved without emotion (and more efficiently too).
• Othello is not necessarily a good model for the Vegans; he says: "An honourable murderer, if you will. For naught I did in hate, but all in honour." If Koenig were to copy Othello, he would kill Helena (for her betrayal in kissing Zarl), not attack Zarl.
• How do the Alphans return to the moon after the Vegans are disabled? Can they use the "positronic transfer"?
• The concept of disabling one element to shut down all the others was also used in the films Independence Day and Star Wars The Phantom Menace (1999).
• The parrots are Green-Wing Macaws (also called Red-and-green Macaw, Ara chloroptera), one of the largest parrots with a red head and breast and green and blue wings. Other species of parrot (Scarlet Macaw and Blue and Yellow Macaw) appear in Matter Of Life And Death.

A huge number of publicity photos were taken during the filming of this episode, especially of Koenig or Maya fighting with a stuntman dressed as a Vegan android in the Command Center. There were also some nice portraits of Helena and Maya in their off-duty dresses. More fight pictures

Click image for large picture.

Merchandise:

• Novelised in Mind Breaks Of Space by Michael Butterworth published by Star (UK paperback), Allan Wingate (UK hardback), Warner (US), Bastei (Germany) and re-edited in Year Two (Powys, 2006).
• UK video: ITC volume 12 (1993)
• UK DVD: Carlton (2001)
• UK Blu-ray: Network (2015)
• US video: Columbia House volume 9 (1997)
• US laserdisc: Image Entertainment volume 15 (1991)
• US DVD: A&E (2002)
• US Blu-ray: Shout! Factory (2019)
• Australia DVD: Magna Pacific (2003)
• Japan DVD: Pioneer (2001)
• France DVD: TF1 (2002)
• Germany DVD: EMS (2005)
• Germany DVD: Sunrise Entertainment / Crest (2013)
• Germany Blu-ray (SD): Crest (2012)
• Germany Blu-ray (HD): Fernsehjuwelen (2016)
• Italy DVD: Pulp Video (2004)
• Italy DVD: Collector's Edition Mondo Home (2007)

Links

• Images
  • High Definition Images
  • Publicity Images
• Transcript Copyright Martin Willey
• Script to screen
• More observations
• Critics comments Chris Bentley, Anthony McKay, John Kenneth Muir et al

External Links

• Ken Scott's episode guide
• Mailing List discussion