AWSUM SERIALS: Space 1999: S1 vs. S2

AWSUM SERIALS: 

Chalk and Cheese:

Space 1999, 
Season One vs. Season Two

 

For anyone who grew up loving Gerry and Silvia Andersons Season One, the shock finally came when entering the Fred Freiburger world of Season Two. Freiburger of course had previously worked on Star Trek and his vision for Season Two, was to make it more Trek and dumbed down for American audiences. As a result, Season Two became the bi-polar opposite of Season One. Chalk and Cheese. Gone were the existential and philosophical aspects of Season One, along with half the original cast, film sets and even the grand iconic theme music.

            What we were left with, was more Space 1979 than Space 1999, if that makes sense. It could be said that under Fred Freiburger’s reins the series had taken a serious nose dive into oblivion. To be fair, the second season isn’t terrible but its just quite jarring to see all the major elements of Season One blown out the proverbial air lock, including: the awsum Professor Bergman, Second in Command Paul Marrow, Dr Mathias and computer specialist David Kano, without a word of explanation. Its almost as if the production team really couldn't care less if we missed them or not. After all, its just a dumbass sci-fi series right? 

Wrong. 

Most notably missing, is Season Ones iconic theme music (a masterpiece of orchestral and funk rock all at the same time, its up there with 2001: a Space Odyssey and probably the most memorable sci fi theme tune ever. Enter Season Two and its crazy generic Starsky Hutch theme tune. Cue action shots of Commander Koenig, (seated at desk) suddenly swivel round and fires laser gun, James Bond Style. Bam ! Cut to head shot of actress Barbara Bain walking through a set of doors, looking mean and pissed off. Peow!

However, the slap dash approach to Season Two made it more Starsky and Hutch than Space Odyssey, as Freiburger attempted to revamp the show to appeal to American markets. Where as Season One, with its Neo Italian approach, was slow paced, atmospheric and often enjoyably surreal in experience,  Season Two hits us with condescending action, all the way.

The rest of Season Two is pretty much elementary stuff, marketed at Americans: Over the top Aliens, overpowering Moon Base Alpha with a click of a finger and taking Commander Koenig etc prisoner. There’s lots of hot chicks too and plenty of pointless shots of them in skimpy bikinis (on sun beds) lathering themselves with coco butter, at which point it begins to border on what used to be the 9 o’clock watershed. Perhaps the only saving grace of Season Two, was actress Catherine Schell as the Spock like character Maya, who’s performance was anything but. Mayas character was unsurprisingly, created by Freiburger but Schell brought the character to life and took it way beyond any similarity to Mr Spock other than appearance. But despite her best efforts, it wasn’t enough to save the series from what was already a foregone conclusion. The series was dead in the water.

INEVITABLE DEMISE

In a way, Space 1999’s demise was inevitable. It in itself, was simply a continuation of UFO but American broadcasters were getting tired of space shows with attacking aliens and so, (to save face) UFO had a major make over as Space 1999 and became the most expensive Sci-fi series produced at the time. However, the shows production was rife with disagreements on almost every level. Barbara Bain enjoyed the high life, so much so, that she would insist on coming to work in a Limo and then complained about not getting paid enough. Payment in itself was not just confined to her, other cast members, were expected to carry on (without Limos) despite a significant salary decrease. Storylines also suffered from various interference, resulting in them being pulled in too many different directions. A classic case of too many cooks.

Martin Landau in particular, was noted for clashing with producer Sylvia Anderson on numerous occasions: his childish outbursts on set (and trying to hog as much screen time as poss), often damaged the series relations with Italian actors (and investors) who endorsed the show. Landau went even as far as re-writing certain script elements to be more in his favour, leaving many promising actors battling for screen time, over Martin Landaus relentless re-writes. As a result, many of the plots in Season One became nonsensical and somewhat open to interpretation, falling into confusing philosophical drudgery, that tended to ruin the story’s basic premise.

Only a handful of episodes survived this hacksaw approach and tend to be the best of the series. While Deaths Other Dominion is a good example of strong characterisation, End of Eternity, shows actor Brian Bowels capabilities beyond his usual type cast of sombre millionaires and British spivs.

The best story without doubt of Season One is The Last Sunset, offering actors a real chance at proper character development for a change. Paul gets jiggy with Sandra and later shows children at home, the adverse effects of taking mushrooms but all this unfortunately wouldn’t last. By the next episode all characters are ‘reset’ and no romance continues at all.   

Lack of continuity in Season One is especially noticeable right off the bat:  immediately after the Pilot episode, is Force of Life, which simply cracks on without any reference to the previous story (of the Moon being blasted out into space with no hope of return). There’s no mention as to how long the moon has been set adrift and no indication that anyone is particularly traumatised by it. Nope, Force of Life simply just gets on with it, in a sort of generic Space 1999 episode, that could fit pretty much anywhere in Season One. 

It wasn’t long before all the confusing storylines, budgetary cuts and diminished salary’s came to a head with cast and crew: Actor Barry Morse, (forever immortalised as Professor Bergman) soon became sick of being treated as a second rate actor and quit the series, while the majority of the cast, either followed in his footsteps or were simply fired under Freiburger’s new direction for the show.

FRIEBURGER: THE SERIAL KILLER

Freiburgers reputation as “The Serial Killer” would go down infamy: as every series he ever worked on (such as Star Trek) was cancelled. However, Freiburger wasn’t entirely to blame, since budgetary constraints tended to limit what was possible, in a supposedly high end Tv serial such as Star Treks latter seasons.

His experience on Star Trek however had severely blighted his approach to saving Space 1999 in Season Two. The bulk of the budget for Season One was originally supplied by Italian investors, RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana, the biggest Tv company in Italy at the time but by Season Two they had already pulled out, (possibly because Martin Landau had pissed off too many Italian actors).

The end result was a second season, rife with substandard plots and continuity errors. Barbara Bain in particular would play the part of Captains Log, giving us totally inconsistent dates from one episode to the next. In one story she states ‘Its been 8066 days since we were blasted out of the Earths Orbit…” the next episode, it would be 329 days and so on. The only continuity prevalent is the likable Tony Verdeschi’s hap hazard attempts at brewing drinkable beer, yet romantic suggestions between the commander and Maya are initiated but soon mulled over and forgotten. 

THE SHOWS LEGACY

Perhaps the only aspect of the show that more or less survived the budgetary culling and revamps was the general special effects: The iconic Eagle transporters look great as ever and the miniature work is top notch. In many respects, the series was a kids show with adult potential but like its American counterpart Battle Star Galactica, the imaginative but Star Wars approach to the model work, tended to stand out as the most memorable aspect of the entire series.

On a whole, the model work of the iconic Eagles, general explosions and awsum alien space ships and costumes etc, tended to hold the fraying threads of the show together. Season Twos The Bringers of Wonder, is most memorable for giving the show a memorable monster, in the form of the horrifying brain washing Jelloid Creatures. If only the rest of the series was as consistent as Gerry Andersons direction over the effects, which in most cases tended to out stage the actors themselves.

It is perhaps the special effects and general aesthetics that made Space 1999 the series we all love so well but it was also the bone of contention with the actors, having to play second fiddle to the monsters, props and FX work. Series creator Gerry Anderson, was used to working with marionettes in Thunderbirds but this approach didn’t work too well when dealing with real actors, who’s performances as a result,  tended to be as wooden as their puppet counterparts. You only need to watch the 2005 re-imagined Battle Star Galactica to get a good idea of how good strong characterisation can engage even the most cynical sci fi sceptic.

In summary, Season Two of Space 1999 may have packed the punch but Season One had all the best elements of a great Tv show, its just a shame that many of the differences between actor Barry Morse and the Italian RAI Tv company were not resolved when shooting began for Season Two. Never the less, Space 1999 still remains a fan favourite and despite all the in house fighting behind camera, the show survives, as a great example of the universal tale:  Mankind’s humility, in the face of extraordinary odds.