Production GuideObservations: Ring Around The Moon
Production Guide
Where are Tanya and Sandra? When Clifford is mesmerised, we can see Tanya has returned to her desk beyond, and Sandra is sat alongside her. When the box drops to the floor, the reaction shot of Tanya shows her standing at a desk, with the command office beyond. She looks in the direction of the computer- the opposite direction to Clifford. Clifford then walks past the desks, where Sandra is now standing.
Clifford lifts Kano up by the neck. In a reaction shot, Tanya moves into the arch entrance. In the next shot, Clifford throws Kano, but in this shot Tanya is still at her desk, talking to Robert Phillips, not seeing the action behind her. She is still standing at her desk when Koenig goes to Clifford.
Suzanne Roquette can just be seen on the left of picture, wearing a pink smock. The cast wore these tops when going to lunch, to protect their costumes, so this shot was immediately before or after lunch.
The woman sitting on the floor here, with Robert Phillips, seems to be Kano's assistant. When Kano is thrown, she is still standing. When Koenig runs up, she has fallen to the floor and Phillips is moving to help her. Why did she fall? In the script Clifford also beats 2 technicians before Paul jumps up, and perhaps this is a missing stunt shot.
The face of Dorothy Ford, the stuntwoman playing Helena, is briefly visible.
Under the desk, electrical cables can be seen hanging down. On the bottom right a junction box is visible. Thanks to Glenn McCrabb.
There are 5 astronauts in the rescue party. Jack McKenzie remembers days walking in a spacesuit in slow motion, and may have been a stand-in for these scenes.
When Koenig wakes up in Medical after Helena is abducted, the first frame of the shot shows the medical notes by the side of his bed (which Mathias reads while Koenig and Bergman talk). The text reads "Moonbase Alpha Autopsy Report".
Helena is seen rotating in the void. This was filmed on 14th March 1974 using a special rotating camera lens (the lens rotated; Barbara Bain stayed still).
These publicity photos were taken of Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson posing by the special camera mount, which rotates the lens through 360 degrees. The actual camera is on the right (the standard BNCR 309 35mm Mitchell camera). The clapperboard gives the date as 14 March 1974, slate 244 take 3.
Koenig tells Alan to cut the engines, although the switch is clearly on his side of the cabin (when Koenig operates the gravity shield switch above, he uses his left hand, so it is on his left side).
When Helena is transported into Main Mission, there is a reaction shot of Tanya. The same shot appeared at the start of the episode when Ted Clifford went to the computer. Then the doors to the Command Office were open, but in the later sequence they are closed.
When Helena is typing on the computer, one speeded-up close up is flopped left for right- note her right sleeve is white, and the ring is on her left hand.
Victor has a photograph of the Andromeda galaxy on his noticeboard. The large elongated blob in the middle is M31/Andromeda itself while the small bright spot directly below is M32, a satellite galaxy. It seems M110 (another satellite galaxy) is faintly visible at upper right. This image shows the position of the supernova S Andromedae. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos
A small photo of Skylab can be seen on Victor's noticeboard, taken from the departing Skylab 2's final fly-around inspection on June 22 1973. The single solar panel and parasol solar shield, rigged to replace the missing micrometeoroid shield (damaged during launch), can be seen. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos.
The third and final Eagle is shown twice with the tube to starboard. It launches with tube on the portside.
Not from the actual episode- this behind the scenes shot show the actors behind the Eagle control panels. There is a microphone on the top and studio light top right.
Not from the actual episode- this behind the scenes shot shows the actors with their helmet visors up.
More behind the scenes shots. The camera dolly is on a flat platform; beyond the back of the Eagle interior set is visible. Ray Austin directs, Frank Watts holds a light meter in front of Koenig stand-in John Clifford, Barbara Bain stands on a trolley with a plank behind her, and Martin Landau's stunt-double has a wire fitted to pull him back.
Many publicity photos were taken during filming of the moonwalk sequence. In many shots, Landau and Bain have their helmet visors open.
Koenig falls over. A stuntman is in the suit instead of Landau.
A helmet with the name tag "Quinton" is held up. Koenig puts his hand on it: "You won't need that.". Narratively this establishes they don't need spacesuits, a point made in a very staged shot. Normally when putting on spacesuits, the helmet is the last to be put on. It's Tony Allyn holding up the helmet (normally named "Allan"), for another unssen guard. The helmet belongs to guard Quintin Pierre, who wore this helmet earlier in the episode. He's standing to attention by the door, nowhere near the helmet. Thanks to Richard Totis.
The Alphans watch the Triton sphere exploding. On the right, notice the clipboard standing upright behind the Sorella lamp. It's hiding something with a black cable, perhaps a microphone or light (although the scene has no dialogue).
On the left at Tanya's feet, we can see her pink smock on the floor, for the second time this episode. Thanks to Simon.
Copyright Martin Willey
