MovieChat Forums > Space: 1999 (1975) Discussion > Season 1 or Season 2?

Season 1 or Season 2?

posted 10 years ago by Zanza8
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I've been reading the book Destination:Moonbase Alpha by Robert E Wood and I learned some pretty surprising things about why Space:1999 changed so much between the first and second seasons. I always loved the first season, and I wouldn't have watched the second season at all if Alan Carter hadn't been in it, but I was really disgusted with some of the things that the book brought out.

For one thing, all the criticism about the first season not having enough interactions with the characters? That was all Martin Landau and Barbara Bain's fault. They insisted on the whole show being just about them, to the detriment of the rest of the cast. Dragon's Domain was specifically written for Nick Tate so that Alan could be a hero and kill the dragon and Martin Landau axed the script and said Nick couldn't do it. Stuff like that-they killed any attempt to make it more of an ensemble show because of their huge Hollywood egos. I had read about them in the Mission:Impossible Dossier, so it wasn't such a huge shock, but still. They had a great show and they were so full of themselves they couldn't let anyone else shine, so the second season happened.

I could never stand the second season. The only improvement was the Moonbase Alpha uniforms. Aside from that it was awful. The look of the base was awful-so claustrophobic. These people are stuck out in space in an artificial environment with no fresh air or trees and we're supposed to believe they made everything smaller? The first season the base had a really spacious feel to it, especially the main control room with those high ceilings and big windows. You got the feeling that at least the people had some room to move.

The stories were so much better in the first season. I liked the Mysterious Unknown Force that was guiding and protecting them. I liked it that when Alan would have died in Collision Course, a mysterious woman named Arra saved him and then Koenig and Alan's faith saved her planet. I liked it that in Mission to Arkadia, humanity found its origins and started the circle of life again. I liked Professor Bergman and his thoughtful musings that had so little to do with science and everything to do with humanity.

Season two was like any science fiction show. It had no sense of granduer, no sense of purpose, no feeling of how lost and out of control these people were. And yeah, Maya was cool, but she was so aggravating. Someone's trapped? Maya can be a gorilla and get them out. Killer robot? No problem. Maya can turn into a bee and short out the circuits. Living rock? Maya can do that too. Honestly, the only episode I liked her in was when she was sick and ran off and Alan and Helena had to catch her before she killed herself. Generally I like aliens like Spock and Seven of Nine from Star Trek, but those people had vulnerabilities. They didn't magically save the day every time. And the forced humor! Pitiful. Not to mention that stupid Tony character-if they were going to get rid of everybody but Alan from season one, why didn't they just promote Alan? He was the third in command after Paul. For that matter, why did they get rid of everybody from season one? That was a bad call too.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

You hit the nail on the head with everything pertaining to season one.
With season two, two things went wrong. It made sense to hire an American as Producer, since Sylvia had walked away from the project at the conclusion of season one. But not only did Frieberger make a poor choice (for one thing, he expressed his dislike of almost every aspect of season one. For another, it was his idea to replace the entire cast except for Landau and Bain - Tate was asked back at the last minute due to his overwhelming fan appeal, and Zienia Merton and Anton Phillips were asked back without contracts, both being paid peanuts), but he was also given the command of script editor. Not only did he give every script cartoonish overtones, but he refused to listen to advice from the actors as to how the characters should behave.
The second thing that had gone wrong was the budget. Season Two made a lot of noise about how astronomical their budget was, but it was all a fallacy. And according to Sylvia Anderson, it was all due to Martin Landau's ego. The original deal with RAI (an Italian TV company who had invested in series one, part of the "Group Three" label) was to hire an Italian actor to play a regular character on the show. Reportedly Giancarlo Prete (Dan Mateo on "The Troubled Spirit") was to play Chief Eagle Pilot Alfonso Catani, but supposedly Landau felt the threat of being upstaged by this guy, so the producers dropped the idea. This paved the way for Nick Tate to join the show (he was originally to play Collins on "Breakaway"), but RAI refused to be involved with season two, and together with rising costs, put a crimp in the show's budget. A late OK on the production of season two also affected the quality, as they had shorter time to get everything together. Main Mission was scrapped because it took too long to set up the lighting each day, and a smallish standing set representing the Moonbase was used for the season for both budget reasons and setup time. And on four occasions two episodes had been filmed simultaneously to meet the deadline, but some of the characters were left out of some shows because of this.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Yes, I read about Freiberger. He had worked on Star Trek and he may have done a good job there but he really sunk Space:1999. Still, he wouldn't have had an opportunity to do that if it wasn't for Landau and Bain throwing their weight around. I read that Landau was upset about the loss of Barry Morse, but that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been such a Hollywood monster, insisting that he and only he could save the day and the whole moon had to revolve around him. There were so many ways in which Alan and Paul and Sandra and even Kano and Tanya could have been utilized and it would have made for a much better show, but no.

Nick Tate related a very telling anecdote about working with Landau-how Landau didn't like to be seen in right profile, so he would always walk around Nick and show his left profile. And Nick didn't like his right profile, but he just had to deal with it. And so did everyone else-the director would set up a shot very carefully and Landau would spoil the shot because only his left profile mattered. He told Nick that it was his show and he would do whatever he wanted and when Nick had a show of his own, he could do whatever he wanted. And it was very sad about Dragon's Domain. Nick Tate must be a very nice man, because the actor they hired for the part Nick was supposed to play in that episode barely spoke English, and Nick was the one who worked with him and recorded all his lines so he could speak them convincingly.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Yah, it's sad when an actor's ego spoils things.
Some actors had complaints about Nick Tate also, as he would interrupt filming to sign autographs!
It was due to Frieberger, though, that Barry Morse had left the show. He made sure Morse's negotiating fell through. "Science fiction needs young faces", was Frieberger's excuse.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

I hadn't heard that about Nick but it's kind of hard to believe fans were allowed on the set during filming. Perhaps there is more to the story? I did read that Frieberger torpedoed Barry Morse, offering him a contract at 1/3 cut in pay and then not taking his calls to negotiate and finally telling Barry when he was willing to take the cut in pay that he wasn't wanted.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Yah, that's what happened with Barry.
Apparently there were occasional tours through the soundstages during the filming of season one.
Not too long before Freddie Frieberger passed away he attended a convention and tried to defend his actions regarding season two and was booed off the stage.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Apparently there were occasional tours through the soundstages during the filming of season one.

Well, in that case, I don't blame Nick for signing autographs. If you don't want filming interrupted, you don't bring groups of fans on the stage! Besides, Nick was wildly popular-he didn't get 5000 letters a week as some sources have it but he did get quite a lot of mail and he was only in the second season because he was so loved by the fans. Sounds to me like somebody was jealous!  I wish they had kept the cast of season one. I particularly liked Sandra and I was always pleased to see her make an appearance, although I found her nickname San very confusing.

Not too long before Freddie Frieberger passed away he attended a convention and tried to defend his actions regarding season two and was booed off the stage.

That is profoundly satisfying to hear.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Always thought "Sahn" was just short for Sandra. She was called Sandra on "The Metamorph".
Nick Tate was asked his opinion of Frieberger. He thought it was insane that ol' Freddie wanted to replace the whole supporting cast. "We got along well enough, but I knew who he was from day one", Tate responded.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

The book has Nick's account of his first meeting with Frieberger and how he wouldn't sign a contract because he thought he was just wanted back to come in once in a while and show his face. Nick sort of worked season two on a contingency basis, and it turned out that with the double-up episodes, he got quite a bit to do on season two, even though he wasn't in six of the episodes. He never did get to be the big hero, though. And why the heck didn't they make Sandra and Alan a couple? He was always sweet on her, and I thought they looked adorable together. She was definitely Paul's girl, but Paul was gone.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Nick was brought in late in the game. Eight episodes had already been written and not all of them were redone to include him ("The Taybor", "Brian the Brain", and he only had a cameo on "The Exiles").
They wouldn't have gone through the effort of having a permanent thing going with Sandra, as Zienia Merton and Anton Phillips were brought back without contracts, included in an episode whenever they were needed. Phillips threw in the towel after the first two episodes, Merton after her third appearance, but Barbara Bain contacted Merton a few months later, talking her into returning as she and Landau had a vacation planned and would be making a limited participation in an upcoming episode ("The Beta Cloud"). Merton appeared in several more, but left again toward the end of the season.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Yeah, Nick was the only actor from the first season who had a real presence in the second season. And Zienia walked when she saw that nothing would be happening with her character. I still think the series would have been better served by keeping all the first season cast, or if they were only going to keep Alan, promote Alan! Don't bring in some Tony person we've never seen before. So the guy who played his brother wasn't Italian either? That figures.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

The whole root of the problem was, I need hardly say, Fred Frieberger. I wonder if Gerry Anderson ever regretted choosing him.

[–] Jimmy-128 10 years ago

And why the heck didn't they make Sandra and Alan a couple?

Considering what happened to Sandra's first two lovers (Mike Ryan, killed in an Eagle explosion, and Paul Morrow, disappeared without any explanation), maybe Nick Tate decided that he didn't want his affiliation with the show to come to a premature end.

Seriously. Sandra was well on her way to black widow status by the time the second season started.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Good point, Jimmy!  Poor Alan-he did take an awful beating in a lot of the episodes, sometimes I'm surprised he managed to live till the end of the series. Still, him and Sandra were really cute together in The Full Circle. Although now that I think of it, Alan took quite a pounding in that as well.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Jimmy-128 10 years ago

He had worked on Star Trek and he may have done a good job there

So good that the show was cancelled...

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

That's true-he did work on season three, when Star Trek was canceled but I don't think he was the whole reason.  And he wasn't the whole reason on Space:1999. The biggest reason was Landau and Bain and their big fat Hollywood egos. Those egos got them bounced from Mission:Impossible and sank Space:1999.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

The main reason season two didn't succeed was that there were too many changes, and with the reduced budget the show lost much of its spectacle. When the season began, it lost some of its original audience, but gained newcomers. But half-way through the season when it was time for TV stations to renew the show for the following season (there were thirteen new episodes planned), renewals were low enough for paymaster Lew Grade to abandon the project.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Did Gerry Anderson choose Frieberger or was that ITC's decision? I am never clear on that. There were so many reasons the second season didn't succeed. I hated the cramped look of the base, and I couldn't stand Tony and the forced artificial humor and the unconvincing love story with Maya. Tony and Maya had about as much chemistry as a flat soda that has gone very flat. One thing I think they made a huge mistake on was losing the grandeur of the first season. There was something very appealing about the Mysterious Unknown Force looking out for Alpha and sending them where they needed to be, and I liked the magic of Arra's planet just touching the moon, and the planet being brought back to life in Guardian of Piri, and humanity coming full circle in Testament of Arkadia. Maybe magic isn't the right word but it's the one I think of. There was a beauty and symmetry to the first season, even to the bookend scene of Alan being out in space both times when the moon took off, in Breakaway and Arkadia. All of that was lost in the second season-it became like any other scifi show. And I like scifi, I love Star Trek and both incarnations of Battlestar Galactica, but the first season of Space:1999 was in a class of its own that first season. The second season was just like everything before and since and it just wasn't good enough.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

I always wondered that myself - if Frieberger had been forced on Anderson by the ITC moguls.
I was psyched when I found out that there was to be a second season. But as I sat down to watch The Metamorph, I was appalled to discover that Barry Morse was no longer with the show. By the episode's end, my enthusiasm for the show had returned, just for the fact that there was a whole new season ahead. The new character of Maya was likable from the start, due to the great Catherine Schell. I was glad Carter was back, and I eventually got used to Tony. The season began great (The Metamorph, The Exiles, Journey to Where), but I wasn't very impressed with the rest of the season's first half (12 episodes were shown followed by some repeats, then another batch of new ones). The second half I thought was a big improvement (Space Warp through The Dorcons). April '77 I got the bad news that there was to be no season three. Here in New England, though, the show reran heavily the next couple of years.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Oh, I know! I was so excited to start the second season and while Maya was a little silly, she was great fun. And Alan was there, and he had some good episodes. But most of the shows were just awful. Journey To Where was a very good episode, and I did like All That Glisters, as silly as it was. That episode always stands out to me-nobody got killed except Tony and he got better, and they saved the rock at the end. I liked Space Warp, and The Bringers of Wonder had such an interesting theme. But mostly season two just didn't even begin to live up to season one. I was so aggravated that not only were so many people missing, there wasn't a word about them. How could they get rid of Victor Bergman and not even say what happened to him? It was worse than on Gunsmoke where Miss Kitty disappeared after nineteen years in Dodge and no one noticed. At least she was only one person-here the base was apparently decimated and no one cared!

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Actually, there was a scene while the robot eagle filled with explosives was headed for Psychon where Tony and Sandra discussed Bergman's death. Supposedly he was either out in space or on the lunar surface and was wearing a spacesuit with a faulty helmet. It's a little-known fact that every episode was produced at 52 minutes, but trimmed down to 51 for syndication. And unfortunately those are the versions released on disk.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

I did read that scene in the book Destination:Moonbase Alpha. Naturally they cut it out and left everybody wondering. And what about Paul, and Tanya, and all the rest of the cast? Did they also have faulty space helmets? Did they blow up in an Eagle? Get eaten by a creature on a planet? Get lost in the catacombs? It's positively offensive that all those people disappeared and nobody noticed. Nobody but the audience.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Frieberger didn't care. He listened to no one. He put up a friendly front, but refused to compromise his own ideas of how the show should be.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

He wrote three of the worst episodes of the second season too, under the name Charles Woodgrove. I never got that-did he know they were awful and he was ashamed to put his name on them?

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

I don't think he was ashamed; he probably wanted it to appear that they were written by a professional British writer.
I found all three to be entertaining back in the day (still do, I guess), but there's plenty to criticize looking at these episodes logically. With "The Rules of Luton", logic gets shot out the window from the start by having Koenig blast the Eagle (their only form of resources and refuge) back to the base without so much as packing a lunch for he and Maya, when he simply could've sent for another ship, which also would've been more expedient. Then when the planet disappears from Alpha's sensors, they can't punch up its previous location (it's a planet, not a comet), and don't attempt to home in on its gravitational field. And viewers have complained that the two aliens (who seem to be garbed in home-made Halloween costumes) died too easily.
With "The Beta Cloud", they could've deactivated the launch pad when a lifeless Eagle Six landed itself and made their way into it from the outside for investigation. Then once onboard the base, the Alphans make no attempt to keep track of the creature's whereabouts. At one point Tony's asked where the creature was and his response was a nonchalant "Oh, I don't know. Probably somewhere hunting for our life-support system, I guess." And instead of attempting to carry away Alpha's oft-mentioned life-support system, all the creature grabs for is the mechanism's power converter Simmonds stole on "Earthbound". So the aliens possessed a duplicate mechanism in their cloud...
With "Space Warp" the most criticized aspect was how the devices on the alien's ship were numbered and lettered in English, as well as the alien's video logs; and how easily the foreign devices were adapted to Alpha's equipment.
One of season one's great writers, Johnny Byrne, explained that "The Dorcons" had to be written in a way that Frieberger would approve of - in other words dumbed-down and comic-strip influenced.
Ashamed? Not ol' Freddie. He was proud of his Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space approach to the series.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

With "The Rules of Luton", logic gets shot out the window from the start by having Koenig blast the Eagle (their only form of resources and refuge) back to the base without so much as packing a lunch for he and Maya, when he simply could've sent for another ship, which also would've been more expedient. Then when the planet disappears from Alpha's sensors, they can't punch up its previous location (it's a planet, not a comet), and don't attempt to home in on its gravitational field. And viewers have complained that the two aliens (who seem to be garbed in home-made Halloween costumes) died too easily.

That pretty much sums up my problems with that episode.

With "The Beta Cloud", they could've deactivated the launch pad when a lifeless Eagle Six landed itself and made their way into it from the outside for investigation. Then once onboard the base, the Alphans make no attempt to keep track of the creature's whereabouts. At one point Tony's asked where the creature was and his response was a nonchalant "Oh, I don't know. Probably somewhere hunting for our life-support system, I guess." And instead of attempting to carry away Alpha's oft-mentioned life-support system, all the creature grabs for is the mechanism's power converter Simmonds stole on "Earthbound". So the aliens possessed a duplicate mechanism in their cloud...

My biggest problem with The Beta Cloud was Tony's stupidity in letting the creature out of the vacuum chamber. He had it safely contained-why not just leave it there and take a breather and figure out how to get rid of it? I realize that's like asking why Hamlet didn't kill his uncle in the first act (forgive me, Will, for mentioning your work in the same breath as The Beta Cloud) but still. It was unbelieveably stupid not to just leave the door closed!

With "Space Warp" the most criticized aspect was how the devices on the alien's ship were numbered and lettered in English, as well as the alien's video logs; and how easily the foreign devices were adapted to Alpha's equipment.
One of season one's great writers, Johnny Byrne, explained that "The Dorcons" had to be written in a way that Frieberger would approve of - in other words dumbed-down and comic-strip influenced.

That makes sense, in a horrible Frieberger way. We certainly wouldn't want the Alphans to be confronted with people who had a different language or mysterious technology! It worked in the first season, but oh, well. Frieberger really seems to have had a massive contempt for the intelligence of the audience.

Ashamed? Not ol' Freddie. He was proud of his Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space approach to the series.

Good one!

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] kerryedavis 10 years ago

Ashamed? Not ol' Freddie. He was proud of his Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space approach to the series.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good one!

But Josie and the Pussycats ROCKED, dudes!

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

I watched it when it originally aired. And you do know that Freddie Frieberger was one of the writers...

[–] kerryedavis 10 years ago

The original deal with RAI (an Italian TV company who had invested in series one, part of the "Group Three" label) was to hire an Italian actor to play a regular character on the show. Reportedly Giancarlo Prete (Dan Mateo on "The Troubled Spirit") was to play Chief Eagle Pilot Alfonso Catani, but supposedly Landau felt the threat of being upstaged by this guy, so the producers dropped the idea.

How does this mesh with apparently Italian character Tony Anholt as Tony Verdeschi in season 2, basically replacing Prentis Hancock as Paul Morrow? Freddie Fried-Burger gave the Italian investors what they wanted AFTER they'd already gotten out? Brilliant.

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Frieberger did nothing of the sort. Tony Anholt was a British actor. RAI would've balked at that, if they'd been involved with season two with the same conditions.

[–] Zanza8 10 years ago

Tony Anholt is not Italian. They may have given him an Italian name but he was as British as warm beer.

http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

The guy hired to play his brother (Stuart Damon) wasn't even European; he was as Italian as a McDonalds hamburger.

[–] TVholic 10 years ago

How dare you guys badmouth Landau and Bain??? According to some around here (like Superturbo4), they were consummate professionals, fantastic actors and the best thing about the show. Without them, the show would have been nothing. Nothing!

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

It always bugged me when Landau and Bain's acting was called "wooden".

[–] kerryedavis 10 years ago

Because it was an insult to actual wood?

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

You sound like the majority of Star Trek fans back when this show premiered. For various reasons they would "dis" this show any way they could. Visually, 1999's production made Star Trek look bad. And some of Star Trek's acting was - shall we say - over animated? In the US Star Trek became the model of how television science fiction should be portrayed (when the reruns became popular, of course, since hardly anyone watched the show during its original run), so any kind of departure was looked down upon - especially by critics.

[–] TVholic 10 years ago

I'd say Landau was every bit as "over animated" as Shatner ever was, and that's not a compliment. His fight scenes were just as hamtastic, while being much more laughable. Unlike Shatner, Landau just didn't have the physicality to make his fights believable. His trademark Landau slump didn't help.

The thing is that low assessments of Landau's and Bain's performances continue to this very day. The opinions have not softened over time.

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

I agree with some of the fight scenes - Carter should've kicked his ass on "Guardian of Piri". I've always had the same feeling about the Bond movies - Connery was much more believable in the fight scenes than Moore.
But I always thought Landau's and Bain's acting (in most instances) were one of the things that made the show.

[–] kerryedavis 10 years ago

You sound like the majority of Star Trek fans back when this show premiered. For various reasons they would "dis" this show any way they could. Visually, 1999's production made Star Trek look bad. And some of Star Trek's acting was - shall we say - over animated? In the US Star Trek became the model of how television science fiction should be portrayed (when the reruns became popular, of course, since hardly anyone watched the show during its original run), so any kind of departure was looked down upon - especially by critics.

I was 16 when 1999 first came on. I watched it because it had space ships, but as indicated previously, the ridiculousness of the plot was not lost on me.

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

I was thirteen when the show premiered (it was shown in prime-time in Boston) and I was riveted from start to finish. Of course the first episode focused more on the tension, action and special effects sequences than the acting. I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen on TV, with the one exception being the World Television Premiere of the original Planet of the Apes movie a year earlier.
I couldn't stand Star Trek (experienced a negative intro to it three years earlier - my interest in sci-fi at that time was limited to Godzilla and giant bug movies. I thought Star Trek was like sitting through a dry science lecture in school).

[–] kerryedavis 10 years ago

Oh, something else that was off-putting from season 2, right from the first episode of it: That special booster thing they added to the Eagle going down to Maya's planet, the direction of the nozzles was wrong, and there would have been no face distortions from "acceleration" since they were being held and DIDN'T accelerate.

I still watched, since it had space ships. But I knew that was crap.

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

They didn't experience face-stretching from acceleration; they were being bombarded by forces of gravity from Mentor's ship. It was the Eagle's resistance to it that played havoc on their bodies.

[–] kerryedavis 10 years ago

That still doesn't really account for it. And the "booster" nozzles were still aimed wrong.

[–] Fletcherj119 10 years ago

Whatever...

[–] srb-3 9 years ago

I've been reading the book Destination:Moonbase Alpha by Robert E Wood and I learned some pretty surprising things about why Space:1999 changed so much between the first and second seasons. I always loved the first season, and I wouldn't have watched the second season at all if Alan Carter hadn't been in it, but I was really disgusted with some of the things that the book brought out.

OK.

For one thing, all the criticism about the first season not having enough interactions with the characters? That was all Martin Landau and Barbara Bain's fault. They insisted on the whole show being just about them, to the detriment of the rest of the cast. Dragon's Domain was specifically written for Nick Tate so that Alan could be a hero and kill the dragon and Martin Landau axed the script and said Nick couldn't do it. Stuff like that-they killed any attempt to make it more of an ensemble show because of their huge Hollywood egos. I had read about them in the Mission:Impossible Dossier, so it wasn't such a huge shock, but still. They had a great show and they were so full of themselves they couldn't let anyone else shine, so the second season happened.

Well, yeah. It's pretty clear the show is about them and the science officer.

I could never stand the second season. The only improvement was the Moonbase Alpha uniforms. Aside from that it was awful. The look of the base was awful-so claustrophobic. These people are stuck out in space in an artificial environment with no fresh air or trees and we're supposed to believe they made everything smaller? The first season the base had a really spacious feel to it, especially the main control room with those high ceilings and big windows. You got the feeling that at least the people had some room to move.

Blame that on Lord Lew Grade cutting the budget.

The stories were so much better in the first season. I liked the Mysterious Unknown Force that was guiding and protecting them. I liked it that when Alan would have died in Collision Course, a mysterious woman named Arra saved him and then Koenig and Alan's faith saved her planet. I liked it that in Mission to Arkadia, humanity found its origins and started the circle of life again. I liked Professor Bergman and his thoughtful musings that had so little to do with science and everything to do with humanity.

I completely disagree with you and I will tell you why: the stories you are talking about are hardly science fiction but philosophy and religious programming. The other 1st season stories were horror stories. Very little science fiction in first season.

Season two was like any science fiction show. It had no sense of granduer, no sense of purpose, no feeling of how lost and out of control these people were. And yeah, Maya was cool, but she was so aggravating. Someone's trapped? Maya can be a gorilla and get them out. Killer robot? No problem. Maya can turn into a bee and short out the circuits. Living rock? Maya can do that too. Honestly, the only episode I liked her in was when she was sick and ran off and Alan and Helena had to catch her before she killed herself. Generally I like aliens like Spock and Seven of Nine from Star Trek, but those people had vulnerabilities. They didn't magically save the day every time. And the forced humor! Pitiful. Not to mention that stupid Tony character-if they were going to get rid of everybody but Alan from season one, why didn't they just promote Alan? He was the third in command after Paul. For that matter, why did they get rid of everybody from season one? That was a bad call too.

You do admit that Season 2 is actual Science Fiction. These people chose to be on the Moon and they are making the best of things. Fred Freiberger thankfully cleaned house. He replaced Bergman and Kano with Maya, and replaced Paul with Tony. Let's face it, Maya and Tony are much better characters than Bergman, Kano and Paul. Don't get me started on the bad science that Bergman and Kano have. Paul is just not an interesting character. When he isn't whining, he broods. Tony is dynamic and that's what the show needed. He also humanized Koenig and Russell and spelled out their relationship.

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

Everyone has their opinion. I agree with every point made by the OP. I've already responded, so I'm not going to repeat myself.

[–] roland-rockerfella 9 years ago

Season 1 is far superior that season 2. Also the crude changes were not even explained. Professor Bergman, Paul, and Kano are all suddenly missing with no explanation. Tony has suddenly appeared out of nowhere and is now 2IC?. Season 1 was all about exploration and the Human spirit, season 2 they tried to turn in into Star Trek or Buck Rodgers and it totally sank the entire concept that was Space 1999.

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

Which was why Fred Freiberger was booed off the podium at a convention in 2000 and something.

[–] roland-rockerfella 9 years ago

It was like season 2 was almost a totally diffirent show. Victor, Paul & Kano have vanished without explanation, Tony has appeared out of thin air and taken on a major role with no explanation, and the main control room has vanished with no explanation. Even if they had taken 5 minutes to explain perhaps that the main command centre had taken a hit by a meteor or something and all three of the season 1 casualties had been sucked out into space, something, anything.

While I was never a fan of the Maya character at least she was given a proper introduction, you knew why she was there. It's a bit like if classic Star Trek came back for season 2 and Spock and Scotty are simply not there, no explanation given, just vanished. That's simply not good enough. Also Professor Bergman was my favourite character, he gave the show a real Human feel to it.

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

Season Two got the green light so late in the game that there wasn't much time for filming, so Main Mission was scrapped since it took so much time to set up the lighting each day. And with a smaller budget due to one of the investors, RAI, not being involved with the new season, a smaller standing set was set up. Unfortunately the on-screen explanation was never spelled out - the main sections of the base were moved underground, resulting in the creation of the Command Center.
The show suffered from the separation of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It seemed logical at the time to fill Sylvia's spot with an American, but not only was Freiberger a poor choice, but he was given too much power: Producer and Script Editor.