Malice 1999 Malice 1999
Malice: The Webseries is a film series made for the internet by producer Phil Cook. The film series subject is Gothic horror, but for the Alpha 2012 convention in September 2012 a special Space 1999 tribute was made with the "Malice the webseries" title card and two of the actors, in their character names. The opening of the film states "This episode is not part of Malice's main storyline"
Left to right, Mark Hyde, Brittany Martz, Philip Cook at the Alpha 2012 convention, Los Angeles. Photo by Paul Stankevitch.
Produced, written, directed, photographed and edited by Philip Cook.
Filmed in Falls Church, Virginia, USA
Total length: 7 minutes, 28 seconds.
Cast
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SetsInt. Meta Probe. Int. Hawk Command Module. |
The SFX is all computer generated, using models by Philip Cook, Craig Frey and Don Showalter. Even the interior sets are computer generated.
The quality is good, if not the level of Hollywood movie CGI. The Space Dock and Meta Probe are impressive. The "target drones" are modelled on the spinning alien craft from UFO. Some effects are less effective- the lunar surface, pilots in spaceships, even the explosions, look computer rendered and composited.
The dynamic camera moves are typically modern, rather than the more static camera of Brian Johnson's effects (which was dictated by using models without computer motion control). Space is full of stars (Johnson's sparse stars were more realistic- with bright objects like spaceships in the foreground, starlight is too dim except for a few bright stars).
A future that never was ...
Except in imagination.
September 13, 1999
An Eagle flies to the Space Dock, where the Meta Probe is docked.
Aboard the Meta Probe, a lone female technician is checking measurements. She notices 50 Eagles in flight over the lunar surface. "What's that all about?"
Over the lunar surface, three Hawks are chasing target drones. The Hawks are ordered to return.
The woman notices a "massive radiation flux" from the Moon. There is an explosion on the Moon, and the Hawks are caught in it, two colliding and the other spinning away. On the Meta Probe, the woman uses the emergency module separation lever to separate the Probe from the Space Dock, which explodes as the craft spins away.
She calls mayday, and hears the voice of Captain Nate Turner. It is her father. "What happened?" "I think it's the end of the world, baby."
The Hawk docks with the Meta Probe, and aboard father and daughter watch the Earth news. They cannot get back to Earth, so they decide to catch the Moon.
The Meta Probe woman wears a red nylon suit and collar that resemble the Alphan astronaut suit, and the Hawk Captain wears a black version of the same. In detail, the suits are not that accurate to the Alphan suits, and have no insignia, presumably as they belong to different organisations.
The interior of the Meta Probe, and the Hawk, are very different in style to Moonbase technology, with large reflective screens and sleek grey bulkheads. The Meta Probe and Hawk are much more modern technology than Alpha (which is at least a decade old) and the Ultra Probe (five years old). The sets are not evolutionary refinement, but a completely new design. Even the text fonts are different (but still almost illegible). It is much closer to the look of 1980s or later Star Trek than the Space 1999 universe.
The "emergency module separation" uses the close up from Dragon's Domain (the beige uniform pants of Cellini are seen at the edge of frame, not the red baggy suit of the woman). The tumbling inside the Meta Probe recalls the similar sequence in Dragon's Domain.
We see Don Fellows as the GTV newscaster announcing the impact of the breakaway (scenes from Breakaway, as shown on the Big Screen in Main Mission, inserted into a screen).
Alice looks at a picture of her family (Martz, Hyde with Leanna Chamish and Rebekkah Johnson, the cast of Malice The Webseries) on an Apple iPad. The iPad is a tablet computer first introduced in 2010. Considering the space technology is still far in advance of what we are now capable of, we must presume that in the Space: 1999 universe Apple introduced the iPad before 1999 (although it was not popular enough to replace the paper clipboards on Moonbase Alpha).
The story ends as the Meta Probe fires it's engines. We don't know if it reaches the Moon.
Space 1999 copyright ITV Studios Global Entertainment
Page copyright Martin Willey