Destination: Moonbase Alpha (57 page)

Uncredited Cast: Sarah Bullen
(Operative Kate),
Robert Reeves
(Operative Peter Reeves),
Pam Rose
(Operative P Rose),
Micky Clarke
(Number),
Glenda Allen
(Number),
Jurgen Anderson
,
Zena Clifton
,
Hilary Ding
,
Paul Hastings
,
Maggie Henderson
,
Laraine Humphrys
,
Jason Mitchell
,
Barry Rohde
(Vegans)

Movements Arranged by Lionel Blair

Assistant choreographer Hilary Ding

Previously Titled:
‘One Second of Humanity’

Plot:
Tony and Helena are kidnapped by the alien Zamara and taken to her planet, Vega. There they discover a dual society – one of androids pretending to be humans, and the other of humans pretending to be androids. The androids have taken over Vega and want to dispose of their human creators for good, but first they must learn how to kill.

Quotes:

• Zamara to
  Helena:
  ‘You’re a liar. It sticks in your mouth, you decrepit hag.’
  
• Zarl to Tony:
  ‘You foul-mouthed lying cretin.’
  
• Zamara:
  ‘You’re beginning to sound human, Zarl. Be careful – you know the dangers.’
  
• Zarl:
  ‘The way he looks at her. To feel something as strongly as jealousy … Can we be missing so much?’
  
• Zamara:
  ‘Emotion is a weakness. We can use it, but we must never become ensnared.’
  
• Zarl:
  ‘Chastened as an icicle, fashioned by the purest frost – I will melt thee.’
  
• Zarl:
  ‘No, don’t be sorry: it was worth it. One moment of humanity.’
  

On-screen Date:
515 days since leaving Earth orbit.

Filming Dates:
Thursday 4
March – Wednesday 17 March 1976

Incidental Music:
The seduction scene includes music composed by Canadian Gino Vanelli, titled ‘Storm at Sunup’. Beethoven’s 9
th
Symphony is also featured.

Commentary:

Barbara Bain:
‘“One Moment of Humanity” was sweet. I liked that one, too. Leigh Lawson, I thought, was an actor who would do very well here in the USA. He was in
Tess
, but he didn’t kind of emerge out of it. I was surprised. He kind of didn’t catch on with the American public.

‘That dress [I wore] wasn’t ready when we started shooting. We had to shoot it from a limited camera angle, because it wasn’t stitched up yet. I had to walk around very carefully, because it was not closed up the back – it was maddening! I’m fairly easy to get along with, but when something isn’t right, it’s very disheartening. For some ungodly reason, it’s your fault! Even though I wasn’t making the dress: I was standing there. They kind of get really uptight with you. We kept stitching it the whole episode. By the time we got to the dance sequence it was still being stitched. I don’t know what the problem was.’

Emma Porteous:
‘We designed all these make-ups [for the aliens] with the dots, and bits and pieces in the hair. It was supposed to be a beautiful planet full of beautiful people, so it was as much exposure as you could get within certain limitations. The men were all well proportioned with bare chests, and the ladies’ dresses were all totally transparent with body stockings underneath, so when they caught the light you could see their figures. The whole thing was very soft and beautiful. The set designer started that look off and we went with him. Everything was terribly diffused. It was very pretty, that one.’

Review:
‘One Moment of Humanity’ is one of the supreme productions of Year Two. Like everything else in this gem of an episode, all of the performances are carefully refined and highly polished. Leigh Lawson, in particular, is outstanding as Zarl – both throughout the episode and especially in the scenes as he achieves humanity. His is a performance resonating with strength and subtlety, and he succeeds in creating a truly memorable character. Billie Whitelaw is also excellent as the powerful Zamara. The talents of Lawson and Whitelaw certainly aid in elevating this episode above many others.

Barbara Bain excels in one of her most significant roles in the second season, especially during her highly emotional, tearful scenes on the duplicate Alpha (created by the androids in an attempt to trick Helena and Tony into believing that each is trying to kill the other), and during her seduction scene with Leigh Lawson’s Zarl. While the seduction sequence depicts what is – essentially – the prologue to a rape, it is portrayed in a manner that makes it acceptable for a family audience. Koenig’s anger at
Helena’s seduction is very appropriate in these circumstances.

The sequence on the deserted duplicate Alpha is played to the perfected hilt by both Bain and Tony Anholt, including the latter’s humorous line, ‘Bang, bang, you’re dead,’ and Bain’s reaction. The opening sequence is also enjoyable as it portrays a simple scene of Helena and Maya interacting as close friends. It is to the credit of the performances of Bain and Catherine Schell that this scene rings true to the viewer and succeeds in the development of greater warmth and likeable interaction among the main characters.

Tony Barwick’s script provides strong plotting, characterisation and dialogue, epitomising the Year Two emphasis on humanity and emotion, while Charles Crichton’s direction delivers everything the viewer expects from his masterful eye. Visually, this is a beautiful episode. It is not heavy on special effects, and the view of the surface of Vega is actually a reuse of footage of Ultima Thule from Year One’s ‘Death’s other Dominion’. Despite this, the limited number of new effects that do feature in this episode are all convincingly well executed. Of special notice are the set design and art direction evident on Vega, which fit perfectly with the elegant and beautiful Vegan androids. The sets of the grove, hallways and underground rock cavern are all borrowed and re-dressed from ‘The Metamorph’ (a consequence of the budgetary restrictions affecting every aspect of production, including the art department), though the revisions are extensive and lead to sets equally deserving of appreciation. The costume design on both the humans and androids is believable and adds to the pleasurable quality of this beautiful and sensual alien world.

‘One Moment of Humanity’ is an episode of great depth in characterisation, and of thoughtful warnings of the dangers of all-powerful technology: a theme
Space: 1999
has been professing since ‘Breakaway’. The story revolves around the classic Man versus Machine conflict, heightened by the android Zarl’s desire to be human. Furthermore, this is an episode of the second season that ends naturally and dramatically on an emotional note, rather than with a forced comedic sequence, as was often the case.

The series is all the richer for having provided ‘One Moment of Humanity’.

Rating:
8.5/10

2.4

ALL THAT GLISTERS

Screenplay by Keith Miles

Directed by Ray Austin

Selected Broadcast Dates:

UK              LWT:

             
Date: 30 October 1976.               Time: 11.55 am

             
Granada:

             
Date: 10 July 1977.

US
              KRON (San Francisco):

             
Date: 5 February 1977.               Time: 7.00 pm

Credited Cast: Martin Landau
(John Koenig),
Barbara Bain
(Helena Russell),
Catherine Schell
(Maya),
Tony Anholt
(Tony Verdeschi),
Nick Tate
(Alan Carter)

Guest Cast: Patrick Mower
(Dave Reilly)

Uncredited Cast: Barbara Kelly
(Voice of Computer)

Plot:
While searching for the mineral Milgonite on an alien planet, an Alphan reconnaissance party discovers a rock-like entity with tremendous powers of mind control. The rock is dying due to a terrible drought, and it sees the Alphans as a source of water.

Quotes:

• Reilly:
  ‘The rocks understand me, Commander. Me wives never did, but the rocks do.’
  
• Koenig:
  ‘You’ve got a one-track mind in a stone-age skull. Helena’s trapped in that Eagle and all you can think about is that damned rock!’
  
• Koenig:
  ‘That planet’s going to be a piece of cake.’
  
• Alan:
  ‘Fastest gun on Alpha.’
  
• Tony:
  ‘For Milgonite, another time.’
  

On-screen Date:
565 days since leaving Earth orbit.

Filming Dates:
Thursday 18 March – Wednesday 31 March 1976

Commentary:

Martin Landau:
[Handwritten comments on his script] ‘All the credibility we’re building up is totally forsaken … The character of Koenig takes a terrible beating in this script – we’re all shmucks!’

Tony Anholt:
‘There was one big, big battle going on about the script “All That Glisters”. I got zapped pretty early on and spent my time walking around like a zombie carrying a piece of rock. Martin was desperately unhappy about the whole script; he thought it was absolute rubbish, as indeed we all did. Freddy, once he saw the opposition, just became utterly entrenched and would give nothing at all – [as he told it,] that was the greatest episode of the series, it was the most sci-fi type of story; it was going to stay, and he would prove his point. Short of walking off the set, completely screwing the whole series up, there was nothing we could do about it … I did say to Martin, who was quite upset about that particular episode, “Well, if you feel that strongly, why don’t you just refuse to do it?” He said he found it very difficult to work like that. It would mean a whole unit standing around wondering what the hell was going to happen, the schedule would be put back, it would cost more money, ill feeling – so, for the sake of one episode, it really wasn’t worth it.’

Catherine Schell:
‘I had to be actually shouted at – very rudely – before I would stop laughing. It was like a cold shower. I don’t know who wrote that script [“All That Glisters”]. There were things in it we had to say that were just so unbelievable for us. If you’re really into the part and you’re trying to say something with conviction, and then you realizes … there’s this little monster on your shoulder telling you, “This is rubbish!” I just wept [with laughter] every time. It was actually worse than working with Peter Sellers, that particular episode. He was a great mate, actually, that director – Ray Austin. Ray actually shouted at me, “Catherine! Be professional!” … ”I am! That’s why I’m laughing!”

‘It was a piece of rock that was changing in front of our eyes, and we would say, “It’s doing this … It’s going up … No, it’s going down … Oh look, it’s gone green … Now it’s gone red.” And when you knew what you were saying and knew what you were supposed to be looking at … it was just rubbish.

‘If you ever see that episode, there are still creases around all of our mouths from laughing, and sometimes we’re actually turning our heads away from the camera, because we didn’t want the camera to see us laughing. We just became totally hysterical. Anyway, it was a good morning.’

Bloopers:
Special effects sequences with the Eagle are inconsistent: a passenger module replaces the laboratory module as the ship takes off with Helena aboard.

As Catherine Schell mentions in her commentary below, she can be seen laughing and turning her head away from the camera while watching the rock-controlled Eagle go up and down.

Observations:
One quirk of this episode is that not a single scene takes place on Moonbase Alpha. Another peculiarity is that this is one of two episodes of Year Two in which the Alpha computer speaks – and even here, it is through the Eagle. (The other is ‘The Mark of Archanon’.)

Review:
Following three strong opening episodes, ‘All That Glisters’ marks the first failure of Year Two, and remains little more than a parody of earlier quality. However, looked on as a piece of camp sci-fi, purely for laughs, it can still be enjoyed for what it is.

The title itself, ‘All That Glisters’, comes from Shakespeare’s
The Merchant of Venice
where the Prince of Morocco states, ‘All that glisters is not gold.’ While being the closest this episode will come to literature, the title accurately reflects on the alien rocks, masquerading as the mineral Milgonite, required by Moonbase Alpha.