Catacombs Reference LibraryThe Exiles Fantasy Flashback
Catacombs Reference LibraryReviews from TV Zone, "the monthly magazine of cult television", an early 1990s UK genre magazine
by David Richardson
TV Zone Number 73 (Dec 1995); p32-34 (5c)
The first season of Space: 1999 succeeded well enough for another twenty-four episodes to be commissioned, but the American backers required changes. Out went a number of characters, the pseudo-scientific storylines and the formal atmosphere; in came American producer Fred Freiberger, a sense of humour and much more action and adventure. As the publicity announced, this would be 'Bigger, better and more exciting than ever!'
As the second episode of Season Two, The Exiles displays all the promise of this new approach. It has a decent plot, some solid direction from series regular Ray Austin, and enough explosions, action and effects for an international market. There are even some totally gratuitous shots of a number of nubile girls in bikinis, covered in oil, sunbathing. Where the episode fails is in some unnecessary dubbing that is uncomfortable to watch. Peter Duncan, later on a Blue Peter presenter, cuts a sinister figure as the youthful sadist Cantor, but his voice has obviously been altered. Badly lip-synched, the pseudo-Atlantic lilt of the dubbed voice suggests that last minute amendments were made. A similar fate befalls Helena Russell. While we can hear Helena's voice telling Cantar he is ageing to death, her lips are not moving.
Such poor standards are also evident in the sloppy continuity when the Exiles take Helena and Tony to Golos; when they de-materialize the Alphans are unconscious on the floor, but when they re-materialize they are awake and standing upright... The Exiles was shot in Pinewood Studios over ten days, and utilized sets that had been built for Season Two's opener, The Metamorph. Even the control room on Golos featured elements cannibalized from Mentor's laboratory, including walls and transparent tubing. As production designer Keith Wilson noted: "I think I used that set about four times without actually doing much to it structurally. We did that all the time. We had to because it saved time and money."
Costume designer Emma Porteous created clothes for Cantar and Zova that reflected the colours and high tech style of the Golos sets, although her original ideas did change slightly.
"I put them in very shiny and tight fitting orange and yellow fabrics which had symbols on them, which could have meant anything in the world!" she told TV Zone. "For the sketch I had done some ideas for Stacy Dorning's hair, but it didn't work on her."
Make-up designer Connie Reeves continued this theme by adding red dots to the foreheads of Stacy Dorning and Peter Duncan, and by painting their fingernails using alternate orange and yellow polish. The hiring of a live panther necessitated a closed set. Shots were filmed of the panther leaping and prowling around the life support area, while a trainer (wearing a costume to match Peter Duncan's) stood in the background and was only visible from the waist down. Reaction footage of Peter Duncan and Stacy Dorning was filmed later.
The Exiles was first broadcast in Britain on Saturday 11th September 1976, directly opposite Doctor Who (airing the second episode of The Masque of Mandragora). This was scheduling suicide: placing the show in competition with a long established series at the height of its popularity. Within weeks, many ITV regions had knocked Space: 1999 out of the peak time schedule.
The Exiles is available on video (ITC 8170), and has recently been repeated by satellite station Bravo.
David Richardson