The Metamorphosis of Space: 1999

hello i'm martin landau i'm barbara bain the new space 1999 is more exciting than ever we have catherine charles maya the wonder woman of science fiction and lots more doctor who fans can argue for hours over who is the best doctor james bond aficionados have similar debates over the best actor to play double07 star trek fans can debate at length whether the next generation or the original series is the best star trek a waste of time since obviously it's deep space nine space 1999 fans however are faced with a debate that occurs in very few fandoms do you prefer the first or the second season what difference can it make to those unfamiliar with the series this may sound a strange question but most fans know that the two seasons are so different from each other as to be almost different shows entirely and the story of how one became the other is yet another example of just how quickly things can go wrong behind the scenes space 1999 first aired in the autumn of 1975 but by this time it had been more than six months since filming had concluded on the first season as they went their separate ways the cast and crew certainly expected to be getting back to work again around august or september 1975. but as september came and went with no sign of a second season being commissioned all involved began to believe that the series had been cancelled i refuse to believe we have no future during this down time jerry anderson assigned space 1999 writer and script editor johnny byrne to provide a critical analysis that summed up the series strengths and weaknesses in the hopes that should a second season be commissioned the production could learn from past mistakes going forward we're the kind of people who take note of public reaction and we have listened to what they've had to say because after all our job is to entertain additionally burn and fellow writer donald james were also working on possible scripts with james contributing the exiles and burn the biological soul eventually filmed as the metamorph children of the gods which would never be made and the face of eden later to be filmed as the immunity syndrome in late october 1975 itc indicated to anderson that they would be willing to go ahead with a second season on one condition what condition that an american head writer be assigned to reformat the series for the american market in the hopes of getting the crucial network sale that the first season had failed to achieve if we could get down the disgusting trade i'm always ready to discuss trade anderson agreed and headed to los angeles to interview potential candidates for the position his eventual choice was a controversial one fred freiburger [Music] freiburger's television writing career had begun in the 1950s and had encompassed such hit shows as bonanza and ironside plus several saturday morning cartoon series while he had also held the role of producer on the first season of the wild wild west and most importantly the third season of star trek the latter would seem to make him the most obvious choice to revamp space 1999 with a more american flavor although the third season of star trek had also been its last this hadn't entirely been freiburger's fault since the season had also suffered from budget cuts a poor time slot and an unhappy cast and crew only i could forget but there's also no denying that during his stewardship of star trek the series produced some of its very worst episodes and scenes [Music] how can you let this go on regardless itc seemed happy with the arrangement for about five minutes then they officially cancelled the show altogether damn it in an eerily similar situation to the one anderson had found himself in following the cancellation of ufo2 he and freiburger searched for a hook that would make the second season irresistible to itc that hook was to be the addition of a new alien character the scientific genius maya i thought it was a nice gesture i thought so too the bait was taken and in mid-december 1975 lou grade announced that a second season of space 1999 would indeed be entering production oh that is good news since ensuring success with american audiences was even more of a concern than usual while perhaps also looking to absolve himself of any blame should the changes to the show prove unpopular jerry anderson offered freiburger the role of producer and he accepted i have a bad feeling on arriving in london freiburger had the opportunity to review eight episodes of the first season and presented anderson with a document containing his recommendations as to the changes he felt needed to be made while hugely impressed with the look of the show he felt the characters lacked warmth and personality and that the series could only benefit from a more humorous approach to their relationships going forward let's not take him however his belief that the show's primary focus should be on its characters conflicted with one very important fact he didn't actually like any of the characters thus with the exceptions of martin landau and barbara bain he proposed replacing the entire cast with younger and more dynamic characters so gone for good were prentice hancock as paul morrow clifton jones as david carno and susan raquette as tanya although none of the actors were actually fired they just weren't asked back there's no need to state the obvious despite apparently not being a hit with freiburger attempts were initially made to include barry morsey's much-loved professor victor bergman in the second season so what are we going to do negotiations continued throughout december 1975 with morse initially rejecting an offer that would see him take a 33 pay cut while also losing his transport to and from pinewood studios and then making a counter proposal that was also rejected i knew it was impossible when further attempts to contact anderson himself proved unsuccessful morse then instructed his agent to accept the original offer only to be told that other plans have been made barry morse's diary entry for wednesday december 17 1975 and thus his association with the series ended with the words space 1999 all over goodbye alpha aside from landau and bain several other first season cast members survived this mass cull well that's something nick tate's alan carter was retained when it was realized that itc received more fan mail for him than any other cast member and that it was important to keep one or two familiar faces around however the returning actors would find that instead of being under contract to appear in almost every episode as had been the case during the first season they would simply be called in to work here and there if needed are you asking to be relieved of duty no sir this coupled with a significant pay cut due to the second season's lower budget caused in part by the loss of financing from italian state broadcaster rai meant that anton phillips as dr matthias would leave the show after just two episodes and xenia merton sandra benich after three although she would later be convinced by barbara bain to return what do i do freiburger's response to concerns about these sudden unexplained disappearances plus those of bergman and co not to mention all the other cosmetic changes imposed on the show remained the same nobody will notice where did this come from what are you talking about and the most blatant example of this casual approach to maintaining continuity of characters came in the form of the replacements for phillips and merton jeffrey kasoon and yazuko nagazumi while we'd like to imagine that it's just a coincidence that dr ben vincent and yasko look very similar to their predecessors it certainly fits with freiburger's nobody'll notice attitude that this might have been a very specific casting direction providing they look a bit like the old characters and are doing the same jobs who really cares which actors fill those roles look being cynical won't solve anything that helps keep the mind clear of personal emotions as if to confirm this during the production of the episode the mark of arkanon jeffrey kissoon was apparently unavailable to play vincent get wrong and so replacing him for one week only was actor raul nunes as dr raul nunes presumably so named because it only involved slightly more imagination than calling him doctor find another black guy asap throughout the second season the jobs of moonbase alpha's deputy chief medical officer and communications officer essentially became revolving door positions as various actors came and went and came back again and then went again hinting that perhaps the newcomers too found the situation as untenable as their predecessors but it wasn't until production on the second season was almost complete that the casting process would dare to think outside of the mathias and sandra models for these roles don't ask questions just talk to me the romantic relationships between konig and helena and newcomers tony and maya would also receive much focus in the new season we're now shooting the 15th one of our new episodes of 24. and i think the first year was spent a lot finding our way just in the material itself trying to define the characters not being terribly successful in that area being successful in other areas i think the thing that i like best is is there's much more humanity written into the series thanks to the addition of freddie freiberger to our family i think there's more humor the first series had a lot of very good things going for it but i think it it did lack some of the things that i felt were essential versus barbara and i dr russell and i have a much clearer adult physical emotional relationship the commander and the doctor who were sort of looking at each other across long corridors last year have gotten much more they're crazy about each other how's that the addition of catherine shell as our resident alien and tony i annholt and their relation ship is is a very interesting one and a fun one they're all but tremendous group to work with so it's quite easy to fit in and we you know everybody sort of has made their own place within it and um it's been very comfortable we've now focused on the relationship with the people we've we've found where to pull in humor and generally speaking have a good time with in between the dramas and that's been very rewarding for all of us it was what we were trying to do last year and couldn't find a way to shape it in or pull it in and it's kind of great having a second chance to do that one of the things we discussed as we went along was the fleshing out of the people and i feel that we have succeeded and we intended to succeed in that area so i think that there's much more many more levels to to the character now we feel very good about what we've come up with this year but aside from the characters other notable changes to the series included a new composer with derek wadsworth replacing barry gray and the loss of the expansive main mission set in favor of the much smaller command center this was another of freiburger's suggestions as he believed that a smaller more enclosed set would give the show's characters a greater sense of immediacy to the viewer we've changed the uniforms we have changed the physical setup of moon base alpha to give it a more driving kind of just feel physical feel it looks more like cape canaveral or whatever but as it turned out the new set would prove visually restrictive for directors hence perfectly constructed shots like this one in which a prop takes up one-sixth of the frame that could work we hope that we're going to add to what we feel is a wonderful show and one of the things that we would like to emphasize which has been a dearth of it in the first series and we feel that it would be a big asset to add it to this series is humor we want to really get some fun into the show show that everything in terms of the future isn't grim and serious and always facing death and destruction we will also we hope round out their characters a bit more in terms of them being able to laugh cry and be able to be perhaps a little more human in their emotions so we do want to sort of broaden the characterizations of our people have them come across situations which could elicit some humorous remarks and perhaps have some kind of some situations in which they could react in other than a grim manner you're right tony it doesn't have any effect at all all i wanted was an honest opinion know about beer anyway give me that again this is a illustration of the humor that we do use all of this resulted in a series that made no reference to the first season at all beyond the shared backstory that the moon was blown out of earth's orbit by a nuclear explosion in the year 1999. 1999 the way this whole thing started when the nuclear waste stumps blew up it's difficult to reconcile the two seasons as being part of the same series thanks mostly to the cast changes and the switch from a vaguely metaphysical and spiritual storytelling approach to a more action heavy one and any attempts to do so in the scripts such as explaining away bergman's disappearance due to his dying in a faulty spacesuit were dropped before they reached the screen i'm sure he'll survive freiburger's arrival had also coincided with the departure of one of the most important creative forces in the jerry anderson universe his wife sylvia although the couple would not be divorced until 1981 their breakup at the end of filming on space 1999's first season saw silvia also cut ties with the production entirely to pursue her own separate life and career sylvia of course was there the first year i loved her she was great she had a great kind of energy and then of course they split so the second season of space she was no longer there and i missed her a lot jerry anderson was a man with big and exciting ideas but many who worked on his shows have commented over the years that he didn't always handle people well and that sylvia was the person to talk to if you had a problem without her familiar presence to advise and reassure the team the set of space 1999's second season was reportedly a much less happy place to work than that of its first with martin landau in particular being extremely dissatisfied with the poor quality of scripts like all that glisters and a matter of balance i felt the show diminished the second season i felt that the concept could have grown from that first year and become very interesting we were beginning to find our but the american itc began to think more commercially the star trek phenomenon started so the metamorph and those kinds of things started i felt it corrupted the show i i never liked the second year nearly as much as the first year for his part fred freiburger would listen to his complaints but they only made him more convinced that the show was firmly on the right track you're full as always the production was constantly subject to the whims of itc new york and the regular visits to the set of american executive abe mandel on one such visit made early in the second season during which he viewed several completed episodes of the show he was horrified to discover that the series didn't include any monsters which were apparently all the rage in american shows at the time we have on this present series a lot of monsters that we didn't have on the on the last series accordingly the space 1999 production team began throwing together a variety of monster costumes which were soon terrorizing the alphans on a weekly basis until abe mandel made a return visit and demanded to know why all these monsters have been added to the show nobody in america wants monsters anymore can't we stop it no we have no control over it when the second season began airing in autumn 1976 fans were presented with a new and improved space 1999 but for many it was a significant downgrade from the show they were used to not only did all these changes occur without any on-screen explanation or even acknowledgement that the first season had ever happened but the process of americanizing the show had robbed space 1999 of many of the unique qualities that had caught their imagination in the first place wait it was now just another sci-fi action series at times a reasonably good one but for many fans the magic had been lost the physical look as i say would be a more driving kind of a look just just as you view the show you'll have a feeling of energy going with it the show had seemingly been fixed to the point where it had become irrevocably broken as production began on the final episodes of season two it was clear that there would be no season three despite all these improvements the show had once again failed to sell to an american network nothing we've done has had an effect nowhere in the jerry anderson story is the power and influence of the american market more keenly or more tragically felt than in the story of space 1999's transformation from season one to season two first year the whole essence of the show was a bunch of people who didn't belong in deep space they weren't equipped emotionally physically technologically to be there star trek they go out there to do it and we were thrust by an accident a nuclear accident in deep space and the whole idea is that there were 300 people trying to survive to find a planet compatible with our needs in essence and i love that concept we got away from that the second year it became more of a comic strip i can only say that we tried to make that show as good as possible we tried to keep the integrity up but even in the second season when i i didn't agree with the changes i fought with with them with freddie freiberger often while many fans of both star trek and space 1999 have pointed the finger of blame firmly in fryeburger's direction his nickname of the serial killer is perhaps undeserved when it comes to 1999 since the series was essentially dead before he even arrived on the scene and was only revived thanks to the addition of a character that he helped to create he's a wonderful man i know him he certainly isn't to be entirely absolved from blame of course but the majority of it would have to be laid at the door of itc america for failing to understand the series they already had and their decision to twist it into something it was never meant to be it's better to live as your own man than as a fool in someone else's dream jerry anderson himself also commented in the years following the show's cancellation that he regretted simply handing over the reigns of the series to freiburger and not standing up to the demands of itc new york although it's very hard to see to what extent he could have achieved the latter with any chance of success resistance is futile while it may forever remain a poor successor to the first in the eyes of many fans the second season of space 1999 isn't without its charms the problem is that unfortunately you sometimes have to wade through a lot of dross in order to find them what the hell went wrong this time knowing that the second season we got came very close to not existing at all makes it hard to actively hate surely you'd rather have 24 more episodes featuring a somewhat different john helena allen and sandra than nothing at all don't listen to him this is not john koenig if i'm not john koenig who am i but for many fans it's even harder to accept that such a unique and special series could be so traumatically reshaped into something that seemed so ordinary by comparison why has all this happened to us professor god's using us for their sport perhaps but on the other hand the second season did give us tony and holt hitting dave prowse and the ghoulies with a fire extinguisher he'd never get that in the first season [Music] you

Channel: Gerry Anderson

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Length: 21min 26sec (1286 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021