The Production GuideScript To Screen: The Full Circle
by Martin Willey
The Production Guide
Just after Koenig and Helena disappear into the mist (scene 64), and before the search party follow them (scene 70), we see a shot of Retha from space. The script has some additional dialogue between Alan and Paul. These scenes were shot on September 24th (Eagle) and 25th (Main Mission), but cut from the episode. Perhaps they shouldn't be too surprised about night.
65 EXT. RETHAN SKY. S.F.X. DAY. 65
Eagle Two flying over the forest towards the
mountains. The sky is darkening.
66 INT. EAGLE TWO COMMAND MODULE. STUDIO. DAY. 66
SANDRA puts away her camera.
SANDRA
The light's going; I'm switching
to infra-red.
CARTER
It is too. How did that happen?
Eagle Two to base. The light's
going down here. What time is it?
67 INT. MAIN MISSION. STUDIO. DAY. 67
BERGMAN comes up to join MORROW as he answers.
MORROW
Base to Eagle Two. Fifteen hundred
hours Lunar Time. But I can see
your problem.
MORROW and BERGMAN look up at Big Screen.
68 INT. MAIN MISSION. BIG SCREEN FOR BURN IN. STUDIO. DAY. 68
69 EXT. SPACE SKY. S.F.X. DAY. BURN IN FOR SC. 68. 69
RETHA looms large. A crescent of darkness moves
slowly across it.
The major changes between the original 17th September shooting script and the 23rd September pink pages were a restructuring of the end of act 2, when Sandra meets the people in the cave.
In the 17th September version, Spearman arrives with Sandra and shows her to the cave chief and his wife.
163 INT. CAVE. STUDIO. NIGHT. 163
SANDRA'S P.O.V
CLOSE SHOT CAVECHIEF and CAVEWIFE. In spite of
the long matted hair; dark weatherbeaten skin
and fierce expressions, they are unmistakeably
JOHN KOENIG and HELENA RUSSELL. No flicker of
recognition crosses their face. They stare
curiously at the screaming girl in front of them.
Sandra cries to them, but they don't understand. Cave chief takes Sandra from Spearman, and pushes her to his area of the cave. In the 23rd September pages, and the scenes filmed on Thursday 3rd October, we don't see the chief and his wife clearly, either from a distance, or from behind, or in shadows.
163 INT. CAVE. STUDIO. NIGHT. 163
SANDRA'S P.O.V
MID-SHOT CAVECHIEF and CAVEWIFE. Long matted hair;
dark weatherbeaten skin; fierce expressions. They
are backlit; from their fire and their faces are only
dimly seen.
As the cave settles for the night, the cave wife now comes to the chief with a flambeau, which at last illuminates their faces as they watching Sandra. Sandra's cries then bring the act to a end. Not scripted or even planned in the call sheets, we cut to quick soft-focus shots of Koenig and Helena in Alphan uniforms, perhaps because they were worried the make-up was a little too good and viewers wouldn't recognise them. These may well have been additional shots made some days later.
174i RESUME 174g 174i
CAVECHIEF and CAVEWIFE make no sign of recognition
or understanding. But we can see they do bear an
uncanny resemblance to KOENIG and HELENA.
SANDRA (V.O,)
Helena, please help me. Don't
let them hurt me.
CAVECHIEF and CAVEWIFE look at each other.
FADE OUT
In the script, the Retha forest is a tropical jungle, with chattering monkeys, screeching parrots and croaking bull frogs. None of these are native to British coniferous forest, and apart from some obvious ornamental ferns in the foreground, there was little attempt to replicate this. When Sandra escapes from the cave, the script has her encountering exotic wildlife.
245 EXT. RETHA. FOREST AREA 3. STUDIO. NIGHT. 245
SANDRA approaches. In FOREGROUND a great snake
unwinds from the branch of a tree and dangles down.
SANDRA almost runs into it. At the last moment she
sees it and swerves away, stifling a desperate sob.
In the episode, all Sandra's escape is filmed on location, not in the studio. The Shooting schedule had listed these scenes (for day 6, 1st October, on M stage), and they were not included in the original call sheet for Friday 27th exterior filming. They were moved from the studio to location on the Monday 30th call sheet. Scene 245 was among the shots listed, but the snake was not. Instead the shots are largely hand-held shots, close on her face or following her running, without any animal surprises.
On page 44, Bergman and Kano have chased the cavechief into the mist, and they run around the mist to find Koenig. The dialogue is entirely deleted. Firstly, Bergman is suddenly a medical doctor here, and secondly the dialogue doesn't tell us anything we can't see.
44
264d CONTD.
BERGMAN
We must find him. You go that way,
I'll go this way. Meet round the
other side.
KANO goes off LEFT. BERGMAN hurries away RIGHT.
The mist swirls.
264e EXT. MIST AREA 1. STUDIO. DAY. 264e
From around a boulder BERGMAN appears, puffing
and hurrying. PAN with him revealing the wall
of mist beyond. There are more trees and under-
growth on this side of the mist. Suddenly BERGMAN stops
and looks. Then he hurries forward and kneels down.
Lying on the ground at the edge of the mist is a
man in Alphan uniform. BERGMAN turns him over
gently. It is JOHN KOENIG. Unconscious.
KANO joins BERGMAN kneeling beside him.
KANO
Is he alive?
BERGMAN
Yes. He's in a deep coma. We
must get him back to Alpha now
and I can save his life.
BERGMAN looks up at KANO.
So I was wrong. That Caveman was
not John Koenig.
FADE OUT:
Bergman's sudden medical expertise continues in the following scene in the Eagle (scene 266) when he tells Kano to contact Mathias.
Get through to Dr. Mathias. I
want everything prepared for
immediate tests on the Commander
for brain haemorrhage; and I
want the operating theatre staff
standing by in case we need a
trepanning.
The last line becomes "And I want the operating theatre standing by." Trepanation, or drilling a hole in the skull, is a prehistoric and medieval procedure; the modern term is craniotomy.
Copyright Martin Willey