The Late Replacement
As filming progressed these plans had to be altered asLee
Katzin left the production after filming wrapped on his second episode, Black Sun, an unacceptable five days behind
schedule and still requiring reshoots. The production couldn't run with only two directors and a replacement had to
be found urgently. Ironically the new director was both a safe pair of hands who had worked on two previous Anderson
series and a boldly artistic writer-director who had produced a series notorious for oblique plotting and cost overruns.
David Tomblin's movie career began as far back as 1947, when the seventeen year old was Third Assistant
Director on The Ghosts of Berkeley Square. His career began in earnest in the
mid fifties when he was Third Assistant on the 1955 supporting feature Police Dog, produced by Douglas Fairbank's
Jr's company and starring Tim Turner (the uncredited voice of see-through scientist Peter Brady in the 1959 ITC series HG
Wells' Invisible Man) alongside German Shepherd Rex III. Like Turner, Tomblin's future was in TV and he quickly
became ITC's Assistant Director of choice on their half hour adventure series such as Hawkeye and The
Last of the Mohicans, The New Adventures of Charlie Chan and William Tell.
He first worked with Patrick McGoohan on the original series of Danger Man, but the
spy drama came ahead of the James Bond-led boom in such things and failed to make an impression on the US market. His
growing reputation within the industry led to a return to feature films, racking up nine credits before he was recruited for
the 1964 revival of Danger Man. David Tomblin became one of McGoohan's most trusted colleagues, moving
from Assistant Director to Second Unit Diector by the wildly successful show's final series in 1966. The pair formed
a production company, Everyman Films, which was contracted by Lew Grade to make a follow up to Danger Man,
The Prisoner, on which Tomblin was Producer and wrote and directed episodes.
Despite plans to move into film production Everyman failed to get further projects off the ground,
and Tomblin was hired by Gerry Anderson for UFO's second production block. His initial offering as
writer and director, The Cat with Ten Lives, is one of that series most higly regarded episodes. After UFO
he stayed with Anderson to direct an episode of The Protectors, bringing real pace and visual flair
to Wheels before moving on to Space: 1999.
Stanley and Barry
Crichton, Austin and Tomblin handled the
follwoing episodes until the latter received an offer he couldn't refuse. Stanley Kubrick wanted him as First Assistant
Director on his latest production, Barry Lyndon. All concerned realised that this was the chance of a lifetime and Tomblin
was allowed leave from Space: 1999 to work on the film. It is no exaggeration to say that this was
to change the course of his career. Already growing disenchanted with what he saw as the artistic compromises of directing
for television, he quickly gained the reputation as the world's best First Assistant Director, working on a huge number of
major American productions based in the UK. His films included The Omen (1976), Superman
(1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and the original Indiana Jones trilogy
(1981 to 1989). After completing two more Space: 1999 episodes on his return to the production David
Tomblin left directing behind for good.
A temporary replacement for Tomblin was
arraged in the form of Bob Kellett. Unlike the other three directors who had worked on the series, Kellett had had no
background in series television. What he did have was a solid, practical filmmaking background. Kellett had produced
and written films since the sixties, mainly comedies, which he had been making exclusively during the first three years of
the seventies. Before joining the Space: 1999 team he had directed, amongst other things,
the cult favourite Ronnie Barker short film Futtocks End and three movie spin-offs of Up Pompeii
- an attempt by producer Ned Sherrin to mount a rival movie series to the Carry On films.
Kellett proved as inspired a choice as
David Tomblin had been, attempting to bring a different approach to Space: 1999. The production had
up to this point remained in the studio and even then had consistently struggled to keep to its ten day per episode shooting
schedule. He successfully proved that location filming was possible within the time and budget constraints of the series
when he shot scenes for The Full Circle on the Paramount backlot and at nearby Black Park. Kellett even wrote
his final episode as director, The Last Enemy (from a suggestion by Barbara Bain), which was no mean feat
considering that the challenge of writing a Space: 1999 script had defeated David Tomblin.
Another
Time, Another Place
Producing
any television series is difficult and demanding, a major science fiction production doubly so and it is impossible for the
layman to imagine the pressures added by factors unique to the series and to this period. Interference by the New York
office, a last minute change of sudio facilities, union blacklisting and a budget being constantly eaten away during the sixteen
month shoot by the twin demons of scedule overruns and raging inflation.
There was a long, hard road ahead, but
Space: 1999 had proved at this early stage of shooting that an intelligent, thoughtful science fiction series
could be produced for television with cinematic production values. Now there was the small matter of completing the
episodes on time, within budget and selling the series to the world.
Article courtesy of FAB Issue 65
produced by Fanderson
