Production GuideObservations: Catacombs of the Moon
Production GuideThanks to Thomas and others
The map seen in the opening scenes is the "Geologic Map of the Taurus-Littrow Region of the Moon (Apollo 17 pre-mission map)". This is a 1:250, 000 geology map prepared for the NASA Apollo 17 mission (NASA reference I-800-1) in 1972. It seems the "Catacombs" are located less than 30 kilometres east of the Apollo 17 landing site. The vast subsurface caves extend about 60 kilometres(!) toward the north. Another NASA geology map appears in The Last Sunset. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos.
As the P.O.V. camera swings around the caves, we briefly see a light. It is a typical film studio lamp with shutters.
The catacombs start exploding, throwing Osgood to the ground. Did he set the explosives? If he did, or the other miners did, it was incompetent to fire them before he was safely clear. Thanks to Fergus.
Osgood appears to be wearing a Year 1 belt over his mining jumpsuit. Thanks to Richard Totis.
When Osgood is knocked to the ground, he lands on the floor of the tunnel. After a cut to the explosion, he is shown with his head resting on a rock at the side of the tunnel, with more rocks over his legs.
Shots of the bed surrounded by fire always obscure Michelle's face. Pamela Stephenson is only seen in close-up, or with fire only on two sides. It would have been too dangerous to surround an actress with fire. The stunt went wrong in reality- the set caught fire and shut down production for 2 days.
When Osgood leaves the travel tube, the map is tucked into his belt on his left side. When he arrives at Medical, it is in front (perhaps he used it to find his way to Medical?).
The headed paper that Helena is writing on is the "World Space Commission Medical Authority Case Report" form that we saw Helena typing on in Dragon's Domain.
When Osgood talks to Michelle, Helena leaves them. During their conversation, we see a shot of Helena, watching. Helena is standing in the same position as earlier, by the bed. Thanks to Fergus.
Co-pilot Bill was scripted as Bill Fraser- they didn't bother changing his name in the script. His jacket is Alan Carter's.
It's getting hotter in Moonbase Alpha. One way to reduce waste heat would be to turn off lights, which are fully on throughout the episode. Thanks to Fergus.
We see Ben Vincent placing the glass dome over heart number 10. In close up, there is a blue lead on the left. In the far view, the blue lead is on the right (it is the opposite way round).
The same thing happens with heart number 11.
And again with the tiranium heart.
Notice the cable following the line of the wall from the left and out into the corridor.
The sign on the door of the Explosives Storeroom. All the signs were made by hand with Letraset, and this one seems to have been made in a hurry. The central "S" is slightly higher than the other letters, and the "I" alongside it has a slight tilt.
Tony's first line as he walks into the Explosive Storeroom (facing away from us) is obviously dubbed- "Extreme heat can set off the explosives on this level, so let's move them down to level D fast."
The close-up of the temperature gauge in the Explosives Storeroom is different from the gauge seen in the full shot. The "Temperature Centigrade" is only present in the close-up. The end of the gauge is aligned with the end of the "E" in "Danger" sign above it in wide; in close-up it is aligned to the start of the "E".
In close up we see Osgood take Tony's stun gun. However, before the close up he is not wearing a stun gun, and afterwards he has no holster. Thanks to John Day. This is the only episode where Tony appears without his jacket, as Andy McKinney points out.
As the guard comes to the fight, we see the trolley stacked with Hyper-Nitro wheeling off by itself to the right. It disappears off the set, fortunately not colliding with anything.
The stuntman's face is visible when the dog attacks Osgood (although he does try to raise his arm to cover his face).
The padding around his forearm is also visible. When the dog leaves, there is no blood. We cut to James Laurenson getting from the floor. His arm is now bloody. He is also further forwards than the stuntman was, closer to the boxes on the right.
Before and during the dog attack, there are no boxes under the 'DANGER' sign. When Osgood rises from the floor, a large number of different boxes have been stacked under the sign and to the right.
On the bottom shelf of the trolley, on the right, is the fuel cylinder from Brian The Brain, alongside Helena's exploration box from Matter Of Life And Death.
Osgood is heading to the travel tube, but senses someone coming. After the two Alphans enter the travel tube, he heads off in another direction. The sign clearly says "Travel Tube to Launch Pad 4". Was he planning to take an Eagle? Obviously it wasn't a very clear plan, because he changes his mind.
The power lead for the Pileo lamp passes through the wall panel, bottom right.
Vincent changes his T-shirt from scene to scene. When they are testing heart number 11, his T-shirt has a wide neck. Tony arrives to tell them they have Osgood. In the next scene, they arrive in Medical. Vincent now has a narrow collar. Thanks to Richard Totis.
Osgood is brought to Medical and reveals his explosive belt. In close up, his head is turned right; in the wider view, his head is turned left. Tony's hands hold the end of the bed in a different position between close up and wide view.
In wide shot, Helena undoes Osgood's belt. In close-up we see her lift the tunic. The belt has turned round- in wide view the front buckle was still on his stomach; in close-up, it is underside studs visible.
Osgood's ID badge changes in this scene. Before it read "Engineering 4". Now in Medical the "4" has gone, it's just "Engineering". The pictures are different too.
In the episode Alan Hunter says "hey what a cloud..!" and Koenig goes onto tell him off for "stating the obvious". If you look closely Hunter has been over dubbed and actually says "plasma cloud". This is the correct line from the script. In this episode post production tampering is very evident in places, such as these Eagle scenes. There are a lot of shots of silent Koenig and co-pilot, and their dialogue is over cut away shots of the Eagle/space. This was the only way they could change the dialogue without a reshoot. Thanks to Simon Rhodes.
The Eagle emerges from the cloud to the fierce glare of the firestorm. Where has the cloud gone? There are no other clouds around the firestorm. The Eagle turns back to Alpha, but the cloud has disappeared. Thanks to Fergus.
The guard says they have found Michelle's "nameplate" in the catacombs. She was in pyjamas, she wasn't wearing a name badge. Thanks to Fergus.
Koenig and his co-pilot are close to the firestorm, yet they wear their jackets. Much further from the source of the heat on Alpha, the crew have discarded jackets and are wearing T-shirts. Thanks to Fergus.
The edge of the Moonbase cyclorama is visible.
Maya changes into a tiger to track and corner Osgood. After the rockfall, Tony tells Maya he won't leave Osgood, and during Michelle's operation we see him clearing rocks by himself. Why couldn't Maya help him, perhaps transformed as a gorilla or other suitably strong animal? Thanks to Thomas.
Tony moves massive rocks that have buried Osgood. The rocks are obviously light, like pumice, not typical lunar basalts, which would have crushed Osgood and been immovable for Tony. Thanks to Richard Totis.
A close-up shot of a Medical computer panel during Michelle's operation. Note the conventional gray computer panels below. This is actually a clip from All That Glisters, when the panel was mounted in the Eagle passenger module. Exactly the same clip reappears in Space Warp. Thanks to Simon Rhodes.
Osgood is remarkably intact for someone buried under rocks- but perhaps they were light pumice-type stones. It is not best clinical practice to put a patient recovering from major surgery next to someone covered in dirt.
As Osgood is placed alongside her, the lights of the "respiration" panel stop. When they hold hands she is still not breathing. Thanks to Simon.
When Tony goes to look at the thermometer, his hair changes.
Space 1999 copyright ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Page copyright Martin Willey