The Production GuideScript To Screen: Breakaway
by Martin Willey
The Production Guide
This scene follows immediately after the arrival of Symonds/Simmonds on Moonbase Alpha ("You didn't seem to be available" "I am now"). In the final episode we have Koenig, Bergman, Helena and Simmonds, but in this early draft, Helena is not present. Also attending are an aide to Symonds (with one line), and Murneau, a scientist who is head of Technical Section and originally a recurring character.
The opening science lesson from Bergman is muddled. The material used in nuclear reactors is Uranium-235. U-392 is significantly larger than the element with the largest atomic mass, Oganesson at 294; only 5 or 6 atoms of this element have ever been created. Caesium 137 is a fission product, and is the main source of radioactivity in atomic waste. So, yes, the nuclear waste disposal areas would be full of caesium ("cesium" is the American spelling). It is also true that there are different nuclear fuel mixes- oxides, metals, ceramics and molten salts - all of which produce different waste products. While the specifics are wrong, the general principle of an unknown waste mix reacting is not implausible.
Symonds is the conniving politician, dismissing the science as "guesswork". The very negative portrayal was probably influenced by the Watergate scandal unfolding at the time. It also reflected the attitude of many politicians to the ecological movement, which was just becoming popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many politicians were resisting environmental controls as an unnecessary expense on business. Nuclear power seemed to be the solution to the pollution problems of fossil fuels. Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth (founded in 1969, primarily on the issue of nuclear power) and Greenpeace (founded 1971) were beginning to push against any nuclear energy, partially due to the risk of accident, and partially the problem of nuclear waste disposal. Opposition to the proposed plant at Wyhl in Germany was already starting to attract international attention. George Bellak was obviously influenced by these early environmental groups, and the reference to "cesium" suggests he was using their literature, if not understanding it.
Much of this draft of "The Void Ahead" is the tension between discovering what is causing the astronaut's sickness, and the explicitly political need to keep it secret, even amongst moonbase staff. Even Koenig is, at first, defensive (he says of Grodno/Gorski "He's under Earth Control, doctor, the same as I") but increasingly uncomfortable with the political pressure from Symonds. By this stage is he openly hostile to Symonds. On screen, Simmonds isn't quite so scheming and Koenig only arraigns Simmonds when he proposes issuing a communique as the Eagles move the waste. The screen version is a milder version of the original Bellak dialogue which is strongly anti-politician: "we're breaking our backs and all you can do is run true to form...Wheeling and dealing..."
See below for the original dialogue filmed.
90 INT. KOENIG'S OFFICE.
On Bergman
BERGMAN
Simply put, in the early years
we used Expensive U-392 as fuel.
But in the last seven or eight
we have mixed it with Cesium,
good cheap Cesium. But what do
we know about the long-term
effects of that mixture? Very
little.
During this CAMERA WIDENS and we see where we are.
And Koenig and Murneau are ranged around Bergman.
Symonds is on the opposite side. An aide, tight-
lipped, is near him.
MURNEAU
Because we had little of it to
experiment with.. Now, up here,
we have a...sizable mass..
KOENIG
And it's there, reacting - though
not as we expect it to.
ON SYMONDS
SYMONDS
(great scepticism)
Magnetism - causing brain damage?
WIDE SHOT
BERGMAN
(he shrugs)
Magnetism is energy -- all energy
radiates...
KOENIG
Before we knew that atomic radiation
caused cancer, what did we think?
Symonds is still stubborn.
SYMONDS
Well, get a comprehensive report
together and I'll take it back to
Earth with me and...
KOENIG
(enraged)
Report?
He slams a button on his desk. The screen on the
Communications Post lights up.
ON THE SCREEN
91 EXT. NUCLEAR DISPOSAL AREA 2 SFX:
A remote camera pans the desolate and deserted area.
92 INT. KOENIG'S OFFICE
ON SYMONDS
As he stares at the screen
WIDE SHOT
KOENIG
Commissioner, the heat rise on
the interior of that depot is
murderous. And over a hundred
times the waste of Depot One is
stored in the ground, there...
Over a hundred times the danger.
SYMONDS
(now he's nervous)
Depot One burned itself out.
KOENIG
This Depot could go up! It could
explode in the biggest blast that
ever happened.
MURNEAU
(worriedly)
If it went up... if it did, there
is no way of knowing the magnitude.
ON SYMONDS
Still he fights.
SYMONDS
Well...now let's look at the whole
picture... This is all guesswork,
it seems to me.
ON KOENIG
KOENIG
(very near to rage)
Guesswork? You used this atomic
garbage here for years because
it's the cheapest way to get rid of
it, and the most political and you
just shrug it off, don't even think
about it, and now all this breaks
loose and you talk about guesswork?
WIDE SHOT
SYMONDS
(trying to stem the flow)
Koenig.
KOENIG
If that Depot goes up.....
SYMONDS
(his real concern)
It would affect the Meta probe...
KOENIG
(can't believe this)
Meta? It might have some over-
whelming effect upon this entire
installation. Did that ever
occur to you? I'm the Commander
here. I have the responsibility
for over three hundred people and
billions of dollars in equipment,
tens of years of work and development
to make this base damn near self-
sufficient.
Symonds is visibly nervous now.
SYMONDS
What.. do you suggest? What can
be done?
BERGMAN
We can try to break the pile apart...
Rip up the fuel rods, destroy the
mass.
ON SYMONDS AIDE
The first and only contribution he makes...
SYMONDS AIDE
We could shoot the stuff up into
space. Get rid of it that way.
Camera widens out...Koenig looks at him, with disgust.
KOENIG
Just as we got rid of it up here.
BERGMAN
If we could spread the mass over a
dispersed enough area, we might
have a chance...
SYMONDS
Then do that. Do it
KOENIG
(to Bergman)
What's the time factor?
BERGMAN
Very poor. Very. And the computer
can't help because we have no data
to go on. None at all... But we have
to try anyway.
CAMERA PANS about at the tense faces and finally, over
to the screen. A kind of tremor shakes the ground..
ON BERGMAN AND KOENIG
They have seen it and know what it may mean. All is
silence.
The scene was originally shot on Wednesday 12th December 1973. The dialogue below was originally recorded (and can be heard here). After filming was completed, a new version of the scene was scripted and filmed, using the dialogue we now know. This version of the scene is much shorter, but still includes the U392 and caesium references, and Simmonds is still sceptical.
BERGMAN
When this project started,
we used uranium 392 as fuel. But in the last seven years,
we've started mixing it with caesium. Ah, you know,
uranium was expensive, caesium was cheap.
But now it seems that uranium and caesium are reacting
adversely to one another, producing magnetic fields
of incredible strength. And, ah, that's our problem.
SIMMONDS
Magnetism... causing brain damage?
HELENA
Atomic radiation causing cancer.
BERGMAN
Magnetism is energy and all energy radiates.
SIMMONDS
I'd be prepared to look at a report on the subject.
When it's more comprehensive
KOENIG
Commissioner, unless we come up with some answers
damn soon, the fourth of July's going to seem like a very quiet day
in the country. Now Professor Bergman, and Doctor Russell, have
identified the problem, and analysed it's causes. They stick.