22. Mission of the Darians
Written by: Johnny Byrne
Directed by: Ray Austin
Guest Star: Joan Collins
Guesr Artist: Dennis Burgess and Aubrey Morris
Filming dates: Friday 10th to Friday 24th January 1975
World premiere broadcast: 30th October 1975 (ATV/Ulster/Yorkshire)
The story was inspired by the famous case of a football team whose plane crashed in
the Andes which spawned the films Survive! (1976) and Alive (1993). Writer Johnny
Byrne said in a Fanderson interview that this was his favourite episode. The original plot outline, at which point it
was entitled "Mission of the Darya", was to have been more explicitly about Naziism with the alien DNA bank being used to
create super warriors.
The Darians' silver spacesuits were resprayed props originally made for the 1969 Hammer film Moon
Zero Two, though one of the helmets was a replacement, originally produced for Century 21's film Doppelganger.
The fire used during one of Aubrey Morri's rituals was a clever bit of recycling, as it was originally a probe in The
Last Sunset. Brian Johnson and Martin Bower's SS Daria was itself soon cannibalised for other Anderson
productions, most notably the Delta Space Station in The Day After Tomorrow and Year Two episodes including
Journey to Where.
Mission of the Darians features one of the most impressive special effects shots of the entire
series: a 'glass shot' (when the camera shoots the performers through a glass plate on which is pained part of the final image)
24 minutes into the episode as the Alphans walk through the Daria which makes the ship look convincingly vast.
Although it is not clearly explained on screen, the machine that disintegrates mutants is reducing
them to their basic proteins, which are used to help the Darians survive.
23. Dragon's Domain
Written by: Christopher Penfold
Directed by: Charles Crichton
Guest Stars: Gianni Garko, Douglas Wilmer
Filming dates: Monday 27th January to Monday 10th February 1975
World premiere broadcast: 23rd October 1975 (ATV/Ulster/Yorkshire)
Story Consultant Christopher Penfold had left the production by this point, and his
script required major rewriting. Originally written as a showcase for the character of Alan Carter, the need at this
point to have major roles for Italian actors meant that the part was rewritten for Gianni Garko. It is believed
that the rewrites were completed by Gerry Anderson, Charles Crichton and Martin Landau. Unusually even for Space:
1999, a series bedevilled by the need for rewrites, the script was being rewritten with amendments dated 29th and
30th January 1975.
The costuming for this episode, particularly in the flashback
sequences, gives an insight into Keith Wilson's thinking at the time, which led to the Year Two costume changes. Jackets
are heavily featured, both here and in the following episode, and both Koenig and Cellini's orange jackets and Bergman's blue
jacket appear in Year Two episodes. Koenig and Russell are the closest we see to becoming an item in Year One, as he
gives her a flower and she kisses him. Like the costumes, this is perhaps a foreshadowing of how their characters
would be written in Year Two.
Thsi is the episode of Space: 1999 in which
Gerry Anderson's promise to Abe Mandell that no scenes be set on Eath is finally broken. It was probably known by then
that not only had the series failed to sell to the American TV networks but that it was perhaps ending, so it hardly mattered.
Dragon's Domain contains a nice reference to Breakaway
in the flashback sequence, when Moonbase Alpha Commander Gorski is mentioned. As in Breakaway, nobody
seems to have much respect for his command abilities. The Ultra Probe interior is a redress of Voyager from Voyager's
Return. The set would be used again in Gerry Anderson's pilot film The Day After Tomorrow.
24.
The Testament of Arkadia
Written
by: Johnny Byrne
Directed by: David Tomblin
Guest Stars: Orso Maria Guerrini and
Lisa Harrow
Filming dates: Tuesday 11th to Tuesday 25th February 1975
World premiere broadcast: 27th December 1975 (TF1, France)
UK premiere broadcast: 12th February 1976 (ATV)
Johnny Byrne wrote his final Year One script after
discussing with director David Tomblin what sort of story they wanted to do. One important consideration
was that as most of the series budget had been spent extensive use was to be made of existing sets and props and the reuse
of one shot, of the Alphans disembarking from a mock-up of a full-size Eagle, was specified in the shooting script.
Also returning are the silver ski jackets last seen during cold conditions on Alpha in Black Sun.
Byrne was very impressed by the use of a narrator and flashback structure
in Dragon's Domain to give the episode an epic, mythic feel. After producing a draft of the script with a more
traditional structure, he rewrote the entire work to incorporate those elements.
Italian guest star Orso Maria Guerrini gives a fine performance as Luke Ferro, but his English was
not judged to be good enough so his dialogue was dubbed - remarkably well - by Robert Rietty.
The Testament of Arkadia gains much power if viewed as the last episode of Space:
1999, which it could easily have been, instead of the last episode of Year One. It is filled with imagery and
concepts around the Moon's journey (from its literal halt in the pre-credits sequence to the discovery that they have travelled
full circle to man's origins) to Koenig closing the book on the series at the end of the story. As already mentioned,
the effect was lost when broadcasters chose to screen The Last Enemy as the final story instead.
