4.
Ring Around the Moon
Written by: Edward di Lorenzo
Directed by: Ray Austin
Filming dates: Wednesday Febraury 27th to Thursday March
14th 1974
World premiere broadcast: 22nd September 1975 (HSV 7 Melbourne,
Australia)
UK premiere broadcast: 15th January 1976 (ATV)
In this episode the first of several amendments are made to the Main Mission
set, with the viewports moved forwards.
This is the only episode in the season in which guest actor Max Faulkner,
as the ill-fated Ted Clifford, was not thought to be a recognisable enough name to have either Guest Star or Guest Artist
credit, though his role is no smaller than Paul Jones' in Black Sun.
Ring Around the Moon was another episode with a protracted writing
process, with Edward di Lorenzo's first draft script (believed to be based on one of Gerry Anderson and Christopher Penfold's
original story concepts) is dated 14th December 1973. After amendments dated 17th January 1974 the final draft was complete
on 8th February. The long (by Space: 1999 standards) gap between the completion of the shooting script
and the start of principal photography can be explained by the epic length of the Breakaway shoot, overruns on Matter
of Life and Death and Abe Mandell's insistence on reshoots for Black Sun.
With no named guest stars and no complex planet or alien sets and models,
Ring Around the Moon has a lower budget feel than many other episodes, with the Tritons as a disembodied voice
and the interior of their ship a blur. Imagery suggesting tape spools and film projectors are used when the Triton speaks,
suggesting both cleverly and cheaply the idea that the Tritons are running on automatic. Even on a series with the budget
of Space: 1999 money had occasionally to be saved to pay for spectaculars such as War Games and Mission of the
Darians.
5. Earthbound
Written by: Anthony Terpiloff
Directed by: Charles Crichton
Guest Artist: Roy
Dotrice
Special Guest Star: Christopher
Lee
Filming dates: Friday 15th
March to Monday 1st April 1974
World premiere broadcast:
25th Augsut 1975 (HSV 7 Melbourne Australia)
UK premiere broadcast:
4th December 1975 (ATV/Ulster)
Further changes to the Main Mission set included discarding the steps to
the viewports and the desks being more widely spaced.
The Kaldorians are the first alien life form we get to actually see in
Space: 1999 and efforts are made to make not only the actors look alien but also their craft, an approach
again taken later in the series for Gwent in The Infernal Machine.
The building of the Kaldorian spaceship was outsourced to Space Models
which would continue to contribute to the production even after Martin Bower was brought in to design and build spacecraft
models. Most notably, Space Models would build the second 44 inch Eagle, first seen in The Last Sunset.
Christopher Lee disliked having to wear a false nose in this episode, especially
when removing it after the first day's shooting also took the skin off his real nose! Already six feet four inches tall,
Lee stood on a box to give his character added physical stature.
This episode sees the first of several appearances by June Bolton as a
Main Mission operative. She later changed her name to Emily Bolton and starred in the film Moonraker
(1979) and TV series Tenko and Capital City. It's interesting to
note that while the aliens are portrayed as completely guileless and lacking in malice, both Koenig and Captain Zantor know
perfectly well that a matrix of Simmonds needs to be taken for the suspended animation process to work. Although the
script makes nothing of this, they are as responsible as Simmonds is for his ultimate fate.
6. Another Time, Another Place
Written by: Johnny Byrne
Directed by: David Tomblin
Guest Artist: Judy Geeson
Filming dates: Tuesday 2nd to Friday 19th April 1974
World premiere broadcast: 23rd September 1975 (USA)
UK premiere broadcast: 18th December 1975 (ATV/Ulster)
Another episode with last-minute rewrites - despite the shooting
script being ready for 20th March new script pages were still being written on 25th March and 1st April, the day before the
episode went onto the studio floor.
Despite Johnny Byrne's fondness for Another Time, Another Place
(the first episode he wrote for Space: 1999 from scratch, delivering his script in an impressively speedy
three weeks) some cast members were less than keen. Martin Landau's script notations include "Koenig is a shmuck in
thes script!". Guest star Judy Geeson meanwhile, playing Regina Kesslan, is reported to have wanted to walk off the
set over an unknown dispute.
As everyone falls over in this episode (again!) it's a very good time to
check out footwear fashions on Alpha. Not all the male cast get to wear the uniform zip-sided stack heeled boots, some
are kitted out with more economical tan Hush Puppies instead. This doesn't appear linked to the actors' relative importance
to the production. Nick Tate is wearing boots here, but in Guardian of Piri he's in Hush Puppies.
Prentis Hancock cuts a very biblical dash as Paul Morrow on the alternative
Earth, which makes one wonder if Christopher Penfold had this in mind when writing his character in The Last Sunset.
