These EpisodesThe Last Sunset
These EpisodesFrom the These Episodes documentary originally on the 2005 Network DVD boxset.
One of the things that I wanted to explore in The Last Sunset was the fact that I want to deal with the issue of home sickness.
This was an all Alpha team, there were no guest stars in it. And basically the story was that we'd go past a planet, the planet Ariel. They obviously eavesdrop, and know that we want to settle. So they send off various space ships that listen in on us, and as we say things, Barry says something or Martin says something, they supply us with things that we want.
Although they, as a result of their adventures, had come into contact with a rich variety of species and physical dilemmas, that actually they were quintessentially human. And that driving them at all times, at some level of their consciousness, was the desire to be home. And if not home, that to be in a place that had the characteristics of home.
I suppose it was that homecoming scenario which made me think more of Alpha in terms of what it was as a human community. Made up of people who were leaders, and who were leaders of different departments and specializations.
When you enter a sound stage there are two doors. Outer and inner doors. When they ring the rehearsal bell, that's a warning that everybody who wants to get out, get out quick. And then when they ring the shooting bell, absolute silence, pain of death otherwise. Well, sometimes you get caught in-between, you don't get out quick enough. Well I got caught in between those double doors with Gerry. And he was looking quite sort of sombre, and I don't know, I said something like, "you okay, everything okay Gerry?" And he said "I did this, I gave it Earth's atmosphere, thinking if we have blue sky it'll be cheaper. But it isn't cheaper is it, because we can see all the wires and all the models now."
The Andersons have always been forward thinking; I mean on UFO they had ladies piloting. And then the women were still basically meant to be at home, doing the nappies and the Shepherd's Pie. What I found interesting is that, many years later, when I went to the Breakaway convention in the actual year of 1999, as opposed to the make believe year of 1999, a lot of girls came up to me. And put forward something that had never occurred to me. They thanked me and I said good lord what for. And they said well it was because of you that I am now in my present job and I said "Could you explain please" because I didn't know I was a teacher. And she said, no, we saw you doing a job, a scientific job. You weren't having babies, and you weren't a supermodel. But somehow you were a working woman. And that gave us the impetus to look beyond - not that there's anything wrong with it, it is not a women's pro-lib, anti-lib argument. But it was a question that the choice was there. And they said thanks to you, you know, one of them a marine biologist, and I thought, my god, I'm still a jobbing actress. Some people had joined the army. They had gone for careers that they hadn't actually thought about, until actually seeing that there was somebody out there playing a useful role, and that meant they were a person in their own right. And it's very humbling to know that, you know, I was a role model; gosh.
It was a very very small set that we had to do, with the crashed Eagle. As well as the extremely hot; I was meant to be shivering with cold from a fever. But I was actually, as well as the the ordinary costume, I then had the space suit, and then a blanket over me, the sort of blanket they give to people after they've done the marathon to make sure that nothing gets frozen.
At some point, when they opened the door, all the Fullers Earth came in. And I was meant to be concussed and out of it. And I suddenly thought, well, if I'm concussed, I can't react to the dust, can I? Everyone else was going cough, cough. I don't know what happens to people who are concussed if there's a dust storm, do they react? I thought I better not, so I remember taking a huge gulp of air before they said "action", hoping it would last until it's finished, because I thought if she's concussed, she can't start coughing, she should be out of it.
Martin and Barbara were a proven team, they'd been together on Mission Impossible. On Space: 1999 as everybody knows, she played the part of the doctor. I thought she was very believable as a doctor. And she was very attractive women. To look at. And also an attractive personality. But, for me the important thing was that she was attractive but she wasn't a dolly-bird. If we had a dolly-bird then the whole credibility of a show would have gone through the floor.
I suppose, in the Last Sunset, as well as the humans coming home, I also must have had in the back in my mind, the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land.
I suppose it was that idea which gave rise to finding manna from heaven. And it may very well have been notions of what magic mushrooms where doing for the minds of my peers at the time, that gave me notions that maybe the manna from heaven wasn't quite as heavenly as it might at first have appeared.
Contents copyright Martin Willey