Catacombs Reference LibraryITC Video Reviews
Catacombs Reference LibraryReviews from TV Zone, "the monthly magazine of cult television", an early 1990s UK genre magazine
TV Zone 42 (May 1993) p33
SPACE: 1999 Volumes 10 and 11 ITC Video Price: £10.99 each Released: Apr '93
The Exiles is one of the finer episodes of series two; outcasts from an alien planet are found floating in Space inside missile-shaped canisters, and two are brought to Alpha. They claim a desire to live on the base, but are plotting revenge on their home world. Peter Duncan plays Cantar, in the days before he presented Blue Peter, and is surprisingly good. Less impressive is the set of the Golos control room; a redressed version of the biological computer from the previous episode The Metamorph. The stamp of new producer Freddie Freiberger can be perceived in two lengthy comic asides involving Maya's powers of molecular transformation.
There's a battle of fake accents in Journey to Where, as Freddie Jones and Isla Blair endeavour to pass themselves off as Texans, and Roger Bizley plays an all-too-English 14th Century Scotsman. Blair also has to contend with a ludicrous wig, but generally it' s a sound episode in which Koenig, Helena and Alan are accidentally transported back in Time. The woodland location filming contrasts effectively with the sterile environment of Texas 2120 AD, as designer Keith Wilson provides a monochrome vision of Earth in the future.
Those sets from The Metamorph reappear, re-sprayed, in One Moment of Humanity, a powerful story from Tony Barwick. The androids on the planet Vega need to learn emotions from the Alphans, so that they can dispose of their creators, and to this end they kidnap Helena and Tony. The character interplay is the strength of Barwick's script; Tony and Helena are in conflict when they believe each is trying to kill the other, while the android Zarl hovers between a desire to learn hatred or love. But Billie Whitelaw steals the show as the android leader Zamara - a classy performance from a consummate actress.
At the other end of the scale, All That Glisters is a dreadful load of hokum in which a landing party is lured to a barren world by the presence of the mineral Milgonite. They have to contend with a living rock which apparently kills Tony, then revives him as a zombie-like slave. The rock needs water to survive, and traps Helena inside an Eagle as it drains the supplies. This one should never have made it past the writer's submission synopsis; add to the duff story some poor sets (the arid desert bears a striking resemblance to the original Star Trek's polystyrene planet) and an irritating stereotyped guest character (Patrick Mower as Dave O'Reilly) and it equals an hour wasted in front of the television.
Richard Houldsworth
TV Zone 46 (Sept 1993) p35-36
Space: 1999 Volumes 13 and 14 ITC Video Price: £10.99 Released: July '93
An alien and his son are discovered in suspended animation beneath the lunar surface in The Mark of Archonon. However, they are suffering from an hereditary killing sickness and Doctor Russell's life is threatened.
It's superior season two fare, which allows a larger role than usual for Australian Eagle pilot Alan Carter (played by Nick Tate) a character who was very nearly dumped from the show after its first season.
Willoughby Goddard plays a loveable rogue with a taste for alcohol and an eye for Maya in The Taybor. It's pretty lightweight stuff, and the sets and costumes are as over-the-top as Goddard's performance, but for all the crass jokes it has a certain charm.
Brian the Brain handles a humorous idea more effectively, and at times touches moments of high drama. Written by Jack Ronder (who scripted a number of episodes of post-apocalyptic drama Survivors) it finds Koenig and Helena kidnapped by a deranged mobile super computer, Brian.
The prop itself looks like a child's toy - and this was probably intentional, given that the show's producers would be on the look-out for potential merchandise. Brian (voiced by Bernard Cribbins) has been left unstable by the death of its creator Captain Michaels (played by Bernard Cribbins). As a measure of his ability to control them, he conducts a "love test" on Helena and Koenig. It's nail-biting stuff.
The Rules of Luton is the series at its lowest ebb. Written under the pseudonym Charles Woodgrove (ho ho) by second series producer Freddie Freiberger, it's a B-Movie story in which Koenig and Maya are tried by the Judges of Luton for picking some vegetation. Their punishment is to fight three alien creatures - one of which is a heavily disguised David Jackson, better known as Blake's 7's burly Gan. Apparently the story title was inspired by a road sign to Luton. Enough said.
Richard Houldsworth
TV Zone 49 (Dec 1993) p34
Space1999 Volumes 15 and 16 ITC Video Price: £10.99 Released: 8th Nov 1993
Season two lurches onwards with four more unremarkable episodes. New Adam, New Eve finds Moonbase Alpha visited by a being who claims to be God. He then takes Koenig, Helena, Tony and Maya to a planet, and pairs them in the hope that they will breed. A standard plot is not helped by some woeful miscasting. Guy Rolfe makes a dire Magus - the kind of actor who plays a down-trodden sit-com neighbour, or maybe an EastEnder, he is by no means a deity.
Seed of Destruction is also tired Science Fiction fare. Commander Koenig is captured and his duplicate sent to Moonbase Alpha, to steal energy for the seeds of The Kalthon race. The evil doppelgänger idea has been done to death countless times, and Space: 1999 provides no new slant.
Things look up in The AB Chrysalis, which at last restores some of the mystery and enigma that had been a trademark of the first series. Alpha is being buffeted by shock waves emanating from a planet, and Koenig, Maya and Carter visit one of its Moons. They discover that the population is in a chrysalis stage; when they reawaken, the resulting energy release will destroy the Moon. Great stuff, ably directed by Val Guest, whose bouncing alien spheres are a joy.
Catacombs of the Moon is a kind of Casualty: 1999, in which Michelle Osgood is dying and needs an artificial heart. Dr Russell has a crisis as there's no Tiranium available (the vital component) and Michelle' s husband has had visions of The base being destroyed in a firestorm. Pamela Stephenson is the token guest star, but is required to do little more than look pasty-faced and whimper occasionally.
Richard Houldsworth
TV Zone 53 (Apr 1994) p36
Space: 1999 Volume 17 ITC Video Price: £10.99 Released: 21st March '94
These death throes of the series committed to videotape must be quite distressing for fans. Gone are any of the wonder or mystery that typified the first season; the second year of Space: 1999 is populated by scaly monsters and fiendish clouds in space.
The protagonist of A Matter of a Balance is Vindrus, an entity from the Universe of antimatter who, with his bald head and yellow underpants, resembles some fourth member of Right Said Fred. Vindrus is exploiting Shermeen, an Alphan woman who is lovesick for Tony Verdeschi, in an attempt to transfer to a positive existence in his Universe evolution is running backwards. Lynne Frederick makes a believably gullible Shermeen, and there's some exotic location filming and sharp work from Space: 1999's finest director, Charles Crichton. However, there's yet another plastic monster, which makes one wonder how a programme with such a large budget could turn out such shoddy creations. The lightweight script by Pip and Jane Baker, who provided some of the more notable turkeys for latter-day Doctor Who, contains their usual potpourri of innovative ideas and absurd claptrap.
The Beta Cloud is quite remarkable in that it features not only a scaly monster, but it comes from a fiendish cloud in space! As realistic as Mr Blobby but not half as entertaining, the creature ransacks Moonbase Alpha, where the crew are already disabled by a space virus, in order to steal the life support system. Producer Freddie Frieberger, writing as Charles Woodgrove, provides possibly the worst ever1999episode - it's hopelessly shallow, low on plot, and looks unforgivably cheap. Dave Prowse, before his better days as Darth Vader in Star Wars, dons the ludicrous monster costume.
Richard Houldsworth
TV Zone 55 (June 1994) p34-35
Space: 1999 Volume 18 ITC Video Price: £10.99 Released: May 9th 1994
Scripted by Doctor Who stalwart Terrance Dicks, and directed by the superb Charles Crichton, The Lambda Factor is a cut above the usual second season fare. The macabre death of Sally Martin, her body internally shattered, and the appearance of a cloud in space - yes, a cloud in space - leads to an investigation into the presence of the Lambda Variant on the base - a waveform associated with ESP in humans. Meanwhile Koenig is experiencing bad dreams, and sees the ghosts of two colleagues he was once obliged to leave for dead.
It's a hugely enjoyable instalment, with some well devised set pieces, most notably the scene in which Alan Carter is trapped with an overheating atomic engine. The script also gives Martin Landau the chance to show the range of his acting skills. The sequences featuring the desperate Koenig, haunted by a past guilt, allow one to appreciate why Landau went on to become a respected Hollywood character actor.
Despite the implications of its title, The Seance Spectre is not another ghost story. It in fact follows the actions of a defiant group of Alphans, led by surface explorer Sanderson, who are collectively suffering from space sickness and predict that The planet the Moon is approaching is habitable. Koenig's declaration that they are wrong, and that the Moon is on direct collision course, are scorned as Sanderson and his team put the whole base in danger. It's a mediocre yarn, but stands head and shoulders above many other second season stories because it avoids cliché.
Carolyn Seymour, recently seen on video as Abby Grant in Survivors, and on television as Quantum Leap-er Zoey, gives a charismatic performance as Sanderson's girlfriend, Eva. There's some pleasing model work as an Eagle crash-lands on The planet, and some uncharacteristic continuity as Koenig decides to re-create The explosion which blew the Moon out of Earth's orbit. Where's Victor Bergman when you need him!
Richard Houldsworth
TV Zone 57 (Aug 1994) p34
Space: 1999 Volume 19 ITC Video Price: £11.99 Released: 25th July 1994
Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) does not appear in Dorzak. Helena Russell says he's off scouting 'the fourth quadrant', but it's more likely Landau was away shooting Devil's Planet at the time. Written by Christopher Penfold, a major force behind 1999's first season, Dorzak is one of the finest episodes of the second year. A ship from the Croton system approaches Alpha; the occupant, Sahala, explains that she holds The Psychon 'criminal' Dorzak in stasis, and takes an instant dislike to Maya. However, Maya knows Dorzak as a philosopher and poet, and frees him.
There is much in this story that works well. With Landau away, Tony Verdeschi (Tony Anholt) takes over the Commander 's chair and makes an excellent leading man. Alan Carter is also developed further, as he falls in love with Sahala. However. the Croton is the only weak link: Jill Townsend's performance is insipid. and the actress is not helped by a bizarre costume in which she resembles an animated feather duster.
The star of the show is Lee Montague, who is simply terrific as the charismatic Dorzak. If there had been more episodes like this in the second season, it is just possible that Space: 1999 would have run to a third year. Any script editor worth his salt would have linked Dorzak to Devil's Planet, in which Koenig appears without Helena, Tony, Alan and Maya. Despite the fact that the stories follow chronologically, Koenig is not investigating 'the fourth quadrant'. He's now on a separate mission to 'the east quadrant', and discovers a habitable planet, where the population has died of plague, and a penitentiary moon, ruled by Elizia and her female wardens.
Any moments of dramatic integrity in Devil's Planet are marred by its overbearing sexism. It's ideal TV for fetishists: the wardens all swagger around in their skin-tight red jumpsuits whipping the predominantly male convicts.
It should have been made in The Fifties as a B-Movie - with a title like 'Space Vixens of The Prison Moon', of course.
Richard Houldsworth
TV Zone 66 (Apr 1995) p30
SPACE: 1999 Volume 20 Price: £10.99 ITC Video Out Now
It's been an interminable wait for ITC's final volume of Space: 1999 (the last release was way back in July 1994), but finally fans can complete their collection.
In The Immunity Syndrome, an Alphan survey team is exploring an Earth-like planet which would appear to be an ideal new home. That is until Tony Verdeschi and Joe Lustig come across an alien creature which drives them both insane. Then the planet becomes 'an ecological disaster"; food and water become poisonous, and metals corrode, making the Eagles inoperative. The survey team is stranded, and the Moon will soon be moving out of range...
An odd combination of Star Trek's Is There in Truth No Beauty and Doomwatch's The Plastic Eaters, The Immunity Syndrome, besides having a completely irrelevant title, is an unusually tired affair from Space: 1999's veteran scripter Johnny Byrne. It's also unforgivably cheap and cheerful, with a studio forest set that cannot compensate for some much needed location filming. Nevertheless, the special effects hold up well after twenty years, and for once Helena and Maya get a shot at doing the boys' stuff by embarking on a daring rescue mission. But even that's not enough to breathe some much needed life into an episode that does little more than tread water.
Maya's up for unwillingly donating a vital organ in The Dorcons. A Dorcon spacecraft arrives near Alpha, and the aliens demand that Maya is handed over, so that her brain stem can be transplanted into their leader, making him immortal. The process will leave the Psychon a vegetable, but if Koenig refuses, Alpha will be destroyed. When Maya is kidnapped, Koenig follows her to the spaceship, and finds an ally in the most unexpected place...
This final episode of Space: 1999 rattles along at a fair pace, with plenty of explosions, stunts and special effects to keep viewers from hitting their remote controls. The guest cast is also appealing: Patrick Troughton is superb as the ailing Dorcon leader, a role very different from his stint as the second Doctor Who, while Gerry Sundquist is wonderfully Machiavellian as Malik, providing a refreshing turn that's as camp as knickers.
Ultimately, though, this is Catherine Schell's episode in which she gives her best ever performance in the series, as Maya pleads to be killed by her friends, rather than be taken by the aliens.
Johnny Byrne's script is entertaining enough, although a bit heavy on hyperbole ("They're the most powerful race in the Galaxy!"), but as a conclusion to a two-year space saga one might have hoped for something a little more substantial.
Matthew Cooke
TV Zone 54 (May 1994) p30
The Making Of UFO And Space 1999 by Chris Drake Publisher: Boxtree Price: 29.99 Published: April 21st '94
While it's encouraging to find a publication devoted to two series that haven't been swept along by the BBC2's Gerry Anderson revival, this book is a disappointment in that it isn't about the making of UFO and Space: 1999 at all.
It's very nicely packaged, with some striking design drawings and photographs, but hardly scratches the surface of these two shows. There are some little known facts for instance that SHADO was originally to be called UFoeDO (Unidentified Foe Defence Organization yuck!), and Chris Drake does throw some light on UFO's metamorphosis into Space: 1999. However, the behind-the-scenes treats are rarities, as Drake instead opts to concentrate this publication on the hardware, character breakdowns and extensive episode guides.
The book would have benefited hugely from extensive research and interviews with the cast members and behind-the-scenes crew. True, there are quotes from Gerry Anderson, script editor Tony Barwick and art director Bob Bell, but for die-hard fans there are no major revelations or insights into production problems. For instance, the first season of Space: 1999 was dogged by power cuts because of the miners' strike; the second season's final episode Children of the Gods was never made; Barbara Bain at first resisted the casting of Catherine Schell as Maya... I know these facts because I read them in interviews in TV Zone, not from reading The Making of UFO and Space: 1999.
The style of writing also causes the occasional wince, and can be as dated and sexist as these two shows from the 1970s. Wanda Ventham is 'beautiful' and 'elegant', Gabrielle Drake is 'beautiful' and Catherine Schell is 'better looking' than Tony Anholt (I think some people might just disagree with that!).
Buy The Making of UFO and Space: 1999 for the stunning illustrations; you can savour them, but skim through the text.
Matthew Cooke