The Production Guide
Sound
by Simon Rhodes

Roll 4: Monday 3 December 1973. That roll contains slate 48 take 1 which is verbally corrected to slate 2 take 1. This goes up to take 5 and involves the moon buggy driving along and stopping, The petrol engine is very noisy, and it is odd that sound was recorded at all when there is no dialogue and the moon buggy sound will be replaced in post production. These are takes without a clap and are run wild. There then follows slate 172 take 1, again corrected to slate 6 take 1 (on the end), again run wild with no clap and involving the buggy driving and stopping - its stopping may not have been part of the scene. This runs to 5 takes. Slate 7 has only one take, I'm not sure what is going on either the buggy again or the camera running at high speed.
Slate 10 take 1 is clapped and involves the "Unit 21 in operation, radiation count normal" bit. This is recorded with a mic in the helmet and with an English accent, re-dubbed in post and goes to seven takes. There then follows the same dialogue wild tracked for audio only and is better quality probably with the helmet visor up or off altogether. The sleeve has been signed by Gerry Anderson.

Roll #5: This has no date but as roll# 4 was 3rd and number 6 is 5th it's a fair bet it's Tuesday 4th December. It just contains slate 27 which goes to 4 sync takes and is followed by a few wild track attempts noted as slate 27 X take 1. It is the "Point 1 check complete, radiation normal no leakage.... etc". bit. Again our man is in a space suit and the mic is clearly picking up his breathing and the rustle of the costume. This is an English actor, in the episode, he's an American put on in post-production. The wild track, as with the earlier astronaut stuff, is cleaner with better tonal quality and free of rustle etc.

Roll #6: Wednesday 5th December. We start with slate 33 and go to 3 sync takes followed by slate 33 X take 1, several wild track attempts. This scene is "Commander, point 48 check complete, radiation normal, no leakage....that's it sir etc." Slate 34 goes to four takes and is Koenig's first arrival in Main Mission and his greeting/meeting with Benjamin, Tanya, Paul and the rest of the crew. The first take is halted by rolling bar trouble on the monitors. Slate 35 goes to six takes and starts with the Alpha News girl talking about the Meta Probe launch and this develops into Koenig's arrival in Main Mission. Slate 36 goes to four takes and is another attempt at the above, presumably from another angle...

Roll #7: Thursday 6 December 1973. Starts with slate 37 going to 5 takes and concentrates on Koenig's audio, Bergman is off mic. It is the scene, in Koenig's office, talking about the virus infection: "No virus infection huh?" "No, no virus infection" "Then what is it...?" "Well Dr. Russell has some interesting ideas..."
Slate 38 is mainly Bergman's audio and goes to two takes. Katzin praises the performances: "Very nice gentlemen".
Slate 39 is the complete scene concentrating totally on Victor. There are four takes.
Slate 40 is the piece missing from the final cut involving Paul talking about the Meta signal being a language and ending with the Alpha news girl/announcer butting in with a call for Koenig from Simmonds on the scrambler, there are three takes.
Slate 41 is as above but mainly Paul's audio, going to five takes.
Slate 42 is another angle of the "language" scene going to three takes. On take two the Announcer (Valerie Van Ost?) fluffs and for some reason take three is no good either.

Roll #8: Also Thursday 6 December 1973. Slate 42 continued with take 4 and we go to take 7.
Slate 43 is the first time our team tackle the chat in Koenig's office, between the latter and Simmonds. This is where the Commissioner askes Koenig if he's settling in, what his first impressions are etc. and terminating with the bargain of a temporary halt to nuclear waste coming up to the Moon in return for getting the Meta Probe launched. They will do this scene several more times in the coming days and is the one scene present on these tapes that is reshot so many times....There may be other scenes that are no longer in existence. Here Sc43 goes to four takes.
Slate 44 is another version of the above, I don't know what the difference is but it goes to 3 takes (on this roll, there are more on roll #9), Landau fluffs take 2 and Dotrice blows #3 by calling Meta "Metra".

Roll #9: Also Thursday 6 December 1973. This whole roll is a continuation, from roll # 8, of slate 44. Here we have takes 4 to 9. It's a very long scene for the actors to do and between them they managed to fluff every take. By the way in the finished episode Simmonds has his voice filtered to sound like he's on the other end of a telephone. In the raw footage he is just off stage, on another microphone, sounding as though he is in the room standing next to Koenig. There are also many instances were the dialogue overlaps. As both mics are mixed down onto the same track (the Nagra IV-L is a mono machine) it would have been inevitable that the whole sequence, or a lot of it, would have to be re-laid in post as it would be impossible to separate the dialogue overlaps in order to create the "speaker" effect on Simmonds and not on Koenig as well.

Roll #10: Friday 7 December 1973 This tape begins with the missing sequence of Helena coming into Koenig's office with the autopsy report on the Meta Probe astronauts and develops into the fact that Gorski "indicated an interest" in Helena which she did not reciprocate. This is boarded as slate 46 and goes to six takes followed by slate 46 X - a wild track of a bit of Helena's chat which has been obliterated by background noise.
Slate 47 comprises of 4 takes and picks up further into this long scene.
The two takes of slate 48 seems to consist of the opening to the scene and slate 49, takes 1 and 2, apppear to be close ups on Helena. This is a great sequence for several reasons but is really good as it has many off camera quips from both Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. eg: slate 46 take 6: Martin: "He's made certain references...." Barbara: "To what....my underwear...???" slate 47, take 4 pick up: Barbara is hot and makes reference to having "Operations on armpits...!" Slate 48 take 1: a reference to commlocks must have occured, Martin doing what sounds like an impression of Groucho Marx: "Everyone should have a commlock..." slate 49 take 2, Katzin is very pleased with the performances, Barbara (very loud and excited) "He loved it...he loved it....!"
Slate 50 takes 1 to 4. Here Koenig enters Main Mission, speaks to Sandra and he and Bergman exit into the Command Office

Roll #11: Friday 7 December 1973. Here slate 50 continues from the previous roll with takes 5 to 7. We end this sequence with a wild track of slate 50 and then lunch is announced.
Slate 51 consists of 8 takes. Now we are back in the "Autopsy Report" sequence. This is the end of the piece where Ouma enters with a report for Koenig.
Slate 52, 7 takes all with end boards, goes back to the start of the scene where Helena enters. Katzin says "buzz" to indicate that someone is at the door. Helena appears on Koenigs screen: "I have the autopsy reports on the Meta Probe astronauts". (Her voice unfiltered as with Simmonds earlier) The office door rumbles open and she walks over to Koenig. These doors must have been a real problem and one reason why a lot of the episodes are re-voiced in post.
We now go to slate 45. This follows on from slate 44 on roll #9, and is another attempt at the Koenig/Simmonds "Ah John how are you settling in..?" chat on the compost. I don't know what the difference, if any there is in the shot and it's quite possible that, as the first attempt was the previous day, they've looked at the rushes in the morning and have decided to reshoot it... It's a possibility though the takes are not boarded as re-takes which they are when they do a complete day of re-takes a nearly a week later. There is one take on this roll and it continues on #12.

Roll #12: Friday 7 December 1973. Slate 45 continues with takes 2 to 10. Again there are many fluffs, it's a long scene for them but take 10 gets the thumbs up...! As in the earlier attempt at this scene you can see how difficult it was to capture as this whole roll is filled with the attempts as on the earlier outing. They will still need to tackle it again however, on the re-take day, nearly a week later on the 13th December.