The Production Guide
Sound
by Simon Rhodes

Roll 1: Wednesday 28 November 1973, Breakaway). First on the roll is slate 15 take 1. The audio consists of several minutes of the Meta signal and I'm assuming that, as there is a clap, a camera is running and they are filming an oscilloscope that is taking the audio signal and converting it into the images that were then played back on the screens. At the end an American voice (Katzin?) says "That's really eerie". There then follows a wild track, no clap, verbally identified as "Effects track 15 take 2, Meeta signal (he's not sure how to say it) direct in from amplifier". Then the Meta signal plays back again for a few minutes.

Roll 2: Thursday 29 November 1973 (Tests) These are the main cast tests done in Main Mission with our heroes introducing themselves, starting with Nick Tate jogging down the steps and ending with Martin Landau entering as the sliding doors of his office thunder open. These are boarded as slate 22 and go up to take 5. Zienia Merton never gets it right! Lastly on this tape is slate 24 take 1 . This consists of the Meta signal playback. We do not know what is happening visually.

Roll#3: Friday 30 November 1973. Here we have slate 1 and it is Don Fellows as the newsreader who appears at the end of the episode. This goes to 6 takes. Now we go to slate 27. Here the Main Mission crew introduce themselves. I don't know what's happening but they do seem to walk into shot. We have Loftus Burton,Chai Lee,Chris Matthews,Suzanne Roquette, Michael Zorba, Paul Weston and finally Prentis Hancock who has already done an intro for the previous tests with the rest of the main cast. They walk in and just say the same line but substituting their own name eg: "Hello, my name is Suzanne Roquette and I am part of Main Mission on Moonbase Alpha". Prentis Hancock however introduces himself, says who he's playing and welcomes you to Main Mission control, Moonbase Alpha. This all goes to 2 takes.