The Catacombs Century 21 Props

Two of the Main Mission keyboards were created by Century 21 Film Props for other TV series.

Keyboard 1

Earthbound

This is the keyboard that sits on the top of Paul Morrow's Main Mission desk. The keypad is 12 x 3 of unlabelled white buttons (more)

It first appeared in the children's series Timeslip, serial "Time of the Ice Box" (1970). It is painted olive green, like keyboard 2 was in UFO. The episode uses many computer panels from UFO, and some new props including the tape drives, which closely resemble the ones in UFO and Doppelganger.

In addition, another version of the keyboard appears embedded in a computer desk in Devereaux's office. The keys are dark, not white. The room does not appear in the 6th episode of the serial (the only one to survive in colour).

Jason King: A Deadly Line in Digits

The keyboard appears in the series Jason King (1971), in the New Scotland Yard computer room (populated with props from The Champions, Doppelganger and UFO, with SHADO HQ, Skydiver and Moonbase panels). The box colour has changed to grey, but all the keys are red. This is possibly the second Devereaux version of the prop, not the version that appears in Space: 1999.

Keyboard 2

Breakaway

This keyboard appears in Main Mission from Breakaway for the first 12 episodes. It is a refurbished prop from UFO;. (more)

Space Brain

The keyboard disappears from Collision Course because it is now embedded in Paul Morrow's desk (replacing his earlier keyboard). (more)

In UFO, Commander Straker's secretary Miss Ealand uses this keyboard as a typewriter (there is no attached screen or printer). The same keyboard appears in SHADO HQ in the episode "Sound of Silence" and in the security office of Fairfield Tracker Station in the episode "The Psychobombs", where it has a communications function. At this time it was olive green in colour.

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Moonbase 3

In 1973, it appeared in the BBC series Moonbase 3, now in the cream colour which it will retain in Space: 1999.


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Page copyright Martin Willey