The Production Guide
Filming
by Martin Willey

Behind The Scenes

Behind The Scenes Bloopers: What went wrong

	Matter Of Life And Death	On Terra Nova	Everybody stopped when they heard Charles Crichton call "Cut!". But it wasn't Crichton- it was one of the parrots.
	Missing Link	Alan's fight with Mathias	Nick Tate choreographed the fight with a stuntman, but when it came to shoot the scene at the end of the day Anton Phillips stood in. Instead of jerking his head back, he jerked forward onto the punch and was knocked out.
	The Full Circle	Sandra slumps by tree	Zienia kept falling out of her leopardskin.
	Space Brain	Foam fills Main Mission	Charles Crichton called "stop the foam!" but could not be heard above the sound of the aircraft engines whipping up the foam. He ran forward waving his arms, slipped and disappeared into the foam. He emerged covered in it. The foam continued until it filled the set (account by Nick Tate in Starlog 4, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the Kindred/Fanderson video "The Space: 1999 Documentary"))
	Mission Of The Darians	Alan fights survivors	Nick Tate had a back problem. Thrown through the air by the stuntman, he landed awkwardly on his shoulder, with a loud crack. But his back was cured.
	The Metamorph	Maya appears as a lion	The first lion employed was uncontrollable. The second was also uncooperative- it had toothache. The third was tame, but too friendly: it put its paws on the still photographers shoulders. (see also story in The Making Of Space:1999 by Tim Heald p29)
	Catacombs Of The Moon	Dream sequence: Fire surrounds Michelle in bed	The set caught fire for real; the fire brigade was called and production was closed for two days.
	Space Warp	Alan thrown by Maya/animal in Medical	The shot involved a false ceiling. The stuntman bounced off a trampoline, but was so intent on missing the ceiling he landed two feet short of the mat. He broke two teeth and his shoulder.
	The Bringers Of Wonder	Maya stuns guard in Medical	Promptly after the guard had fallen, Shaw trips over the guard's body (seen on "It'll Be Alright On The Night" UK blooper program). More.
	The Lambda Factor	Command Centre staff frozen; Maya is turned into a chimp	The chimp was amused by the frozen people and tried climbing over them, slobbering in their face, turning upside down to get a reaction. At one point he climbed to the floor and clung to Zienia's leg affectionately.
	Dorzak	Sahala	Jill Townsend was sick throughout filming, with suspected flu. It turned out to be appendicitis. She insisted on carrying on and having the operation after filming.

Contents copyright Martin Willey