Space 1999: A Tale of Two Moons

when space 1999's second season premiered in 1976 fans were greeted with a substantially different series than the one that had originally captured their imagination and attention what's happening down there suddenly there was a new title sequence and new theme tune new sets new main characters displacing old ones and a noticeable shift in tone from what had gone before and except for maya's arrival all of this happened without any on-screen explanation you could be forgiven for thinking that as far as this new incarnation of the show was concerned victor bergman had evidently never existed tony vadeshi had always been there and the senior staff had always operated out of command center it really was as if the first season had never happened i refuse to let them dismiss it like that various novels comics and fan projects produced since the series ended have attempted to explain the differences between the two seasons providing explanations for the disappearances of the missing characters and several other changes while also trying to serve as a bridge between the two years i think we know i could do that even the most casual of viewers can appreciate that the first and second seasons of space 1999 are two very different animals someone or something is looking after us god if you like our destinies are linked you know we'll determine our own destinies but many attempts have been made over the years to reconcile both into a single timeline of events but is that really possible we were the same person once somehow we became two different peoples [Music] ironically the show's most critically acclaimed episode dragon's domain may also be the strongest argument against the second season being a genuine continuation of the first it was the 8th and 77th day since our moon left earth the events of the story begin 877 days after the moon left earth orbit which in itself is not the problem the problem is that season 2 also gave us specific dates for most of its episodes and if we accept that both seasons take place in the same timeline then this chronology would put dragon's domains somewhere between the events of the mark of arcanon 640 days after leaving earth orbit and the rules of luton 892 days after leaving earth's orbit the opening log entry of the latter episode creates an additional problem by telling us we have just passed through a space storm duration 42 days which places the events of dragon's domain right in the middle of that storm but a storm obviously wasn't mentioned or even visible during that episode in fact quite the opposite we were between galaxies drifting through empty space ignoring the obvious real world explanation a simple mistake that nobody involved with the production would ever have expected to be noticed but you did and searching instead for an in-universe explanation yields a few potential fan theories for this date inconsistency one of which points to an explanation for the other inconsistencies between the first and second seasons relatively speaking either alpha's days since we left earth clock was adjusted at some point for some unknown reason or dragon's domain took place during some kind of nostalgia week on alpha where they randomly went back to the way things used to be or come on come on perhaps the moon-based alpha we see in season two didn't just look different to that of the first but actually was a different alpha entirely another moon base for some fans since the second season of space 1999 feels more like a second attempt at the same concept rather than a direct continuation of the first treating them as two different shows entirely is an idea that can appeal more and more as the years go by yeah i see surprisingly the series itself helpfully offered a very subtle and most likely unintentional possible explanation for all of these changes almost immediately after the opening credits of the second season's first episode we have just survived our second encounter with a space warp central computer states that we've been catapulted six light years from our previous position so where might the elephants have had their first encounter with a space warp let's think back to the first season did the moon ever encounter anything that could conceivably have been called a space warp a black sun the black sun is a possibility although since the moon apparently only survived due to the intervention of some kind of higher power we could maybe discount that as being not quite the same thing i'm an astronaut professor not a philosopher the only other candidate would seem to be the mysterious swirly space phenomena from another time another place and what did that do duplicate the moon and everybody on it with the original moon suddenly finding itself in a completely different part of space we've changed our position in space and the new duplicate moon then experiencing a significantly different future to the original this is the earth but not the world we knew if it happened once why couldn't it happen again leaving us viewers to follow the adventures of the new duplicate alphans it's a strong possibility helena's mention of we've had no casualties this time following the space warp she talks about in the metamorph seems to imply that there were casualties last time perhaps a reference to regina keslin who died following her encounter with the another time another place phenomena hardly a coincidence it seems very doubtful that the production team were thinking along the lines of directly referencing a previous episode although going into season two they did plan to explain the absence of victor bergman early drafts of the metamorph mentioned the professor's between season's death in a faulty spacesuit and the artificial heart seen in catacombs of the moon was originally meant to be his it is however not beyond the realms of possibility that writer johnny byrne might have tried to slip some nod to the past into his metamorph script although there's nothing to confirm that but since he also wrote another time another place the notion that some kind of duplication has taken place again becomes more significant just wondering if there's any future at all of course this duplication alone doesn't explain the extensive cosmetic changes to alpha it certainly makes sense that main mission and many other surface buildings might have been closed down or relocated underground between seasons following repeated alien attacks [Music] but there's nothing on screen to confirm that that's what happened it's the not knowing it's getting everybody down however if we accept that another duplicate moon was created just prior to the metamorph and the second season follows the adventures of that alpha rather than the old alpha then it's not too much of a leap to suppose that this new moon had perhaps experienced a different history to the first as well as a different future leading to a different appearance it seems that we've been traveling faster than the speed of light which means of course time might be affected indeed there are several minor differences between the two alphas seen in another time another place such as helmet names appearing below the visors on the duplicate alpha rather than above that support the notion of the duplicate having experienced a slightly different history from the original back in 2009 the first of the new star trek movies was based on that very premise a catalytic event creating a new timeline where the adventures of kirk and spock now took place in a radically different universe the so-called kelvin timeline from the one we were familiar with the prime timeline these were obviously the same characters but the universe they lived in and even the faces they wore were now very different please spock do me a favor and don't say it's fascinating no but it is interesting so why couldn't something similar have happened to the alphas in our past history we've been betrayed too speaking of new faces one issue many fans have with the changes made for the second season was where exactly did this new security chief called tony suddenly appear from he wasn't there before alpha never even had a security chief before and yet suddenly he's a vital part of the command structure what do you make of that except there was a security chief in the first season and his name was tony we searched the whole section commander there's no one in here played by tony allen in 18 episodes of season one and often seen paired with quentin pierre's security guard yes sir this character was actually named on screen as tony in the episode earthbound tony go back to the ship bring back some lights and dr russell's equipment with the surname allen visible on his spacesuit helmet in ring around the moon tony represented the security section during the command conference in the episode guardian of perry so from this we can assume that he was head of security even if it was never explicitly confirmed in dialogue commander he's been an attack on the food store he often reported to koenig on security issues and was usually the commander's first choice for security on landing parties approaching section could it be that in a different universe the man who would have been tony allen instead grew up to be tony vadeshi different surnames different faces but both born to be head of security on moon base alpha it's crazy but i feel i've seen him before well it's no more ridiculous than koenig's main requirement for a security chief apparently being must be called tony yeah well maybe that goes hand in hand with my being head of security and if this one life could have changed so dramatically surely others might have been too uh that's a good question might victor bergman paul morrow david carno and tania alexander have not appeared on the moon base alpha of season 2 because they were never assigned there in the first place it's a totally esoteric supposition okay it's definitely a stretch but it's also a good example of how the lack of answers provided on the show can produce all sorts of fascinating theories and ideas to explain the differences between seasons one and two what else can we do ultimately with the series itself providing no answers there can never really be one definitive in-universe explanation for what exactly happened between seasons to bring such drastic and even contradictory changes to alpha less than a year after the breakaway but discussing the possibilities can be rather fun and in the end the answer really comes down to personal preference ultimately i suppose we all believe what we want to believe while the a space warp did it theory may not be perfect it does at least give equal validation to both seasons as well as leaving the door open to the possibility of future adventures from each i wonder if the others made it if they survived did they ever really exist personally i certainly prefer to watch the action-packed mayhem of season two in the belief that season one's professor bergman is still out there somewhere on a season one moon pondering over mysterious happenings rather than buried somewhere on the season two moon after suffocating in a spacesuit oh totally and who knows maybe the two moons later crossed paths again somehow we've caught up with ourselves [Music] so you

Channel: Gerry Anderson

Views: 58,807

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Id: HmF_GquotUM

Length: 11min 53sec (713 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2022