From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 11:06:38 -0800 Subj: Space1999: Episode by Episode
This week's episode is Collision Course, which is the focus of our discussion from Monday, February 23 to Sunday, March 1. As a big fan of Terpiloff (and Barrows too) I love this episode! I recently showed a 1999 video to someone who had NEVER seen it before--I chose Collision Course. They said, "I would be interested in seeing more of that program." This fact that avoiding collision is secondary to the issues of trust and betrayal surprised them!
Mateo
From: Patricia Embury (Patriemb@sprintmail44.com) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 21:12:29 -0500 Subj: Space1999: Collision course
This is one of my favorite episodes. Yes, there is a disaster looming for the Alphans, but, as stated by an earlier poster, the disaster is not the main focus of the episode. It's about faith, and trust. Koenig had faith that Carter survived the blast, and went looking for him. Koeing, and the rest of the Alphans had faith in Victor, that Operation Shockwave would avert disaster. Koenig had faith that Arra would keep her word, and the Alphans would not be harmed. The Alphans had faith in Koenig's leadership, until they thought he was poisoned.
The writing was solid throughout, although there were a few lines I might have edited. Carter's "Where's Arra?" might have gone on a bit long, but was a necessary question in that scene. I also found some of Victor's lines in the opening sequence a little inconsistent. He seemed to say one thing once, then contradict himself a short time later. Arra's speech to Koenig, and his reaction was excellent. The scene where Carter meets Arra in the spaceship was a little too short for my liking. The novelization's dialogue of Arra inside Carter's head was written differently, and the author drew more things from Carter's past to make his effort of controlling the ship although unconcious/semi-concious more dramatic. I liked getting into Carter's head. This is probably easier to do in a novel than in a screenplay, but I would have liked to have seen it. The novelization also had a scene in Medical Center in which Russell shows Koenig some scans of Carter's flight that suggested someone/something else manipulated Carter's body in controlling the craft. It would have probably been overkill, but it would have been nice to see filmed.
The acting was superb. Martin Landau emoted in the opening so well, without it looking cheezy, or fake. You could feel the ension in the air as the last charge was placed, and the explosion detonated. Koenig faced one of the hardest parts of being in command: running the risk of sending a friend out on a potentially fatal mission. The interaction of Barbara Bain and Barry Morse in the second command staff meeting, after Koenig's returned, their facial expressions, making eye contact, led the viewer to know that they were just humoring Koenig, and that something else was up. Nick Tate was superb as the confused and disoriented Carter, desperately wanting to know who Arra was, and why he was picked for his role. Carter's determination to finish the job, despite the dawning realization that he'd probably end up dead, was understated enough to make it believable, not comical. The one Eagle pilot in the first shot was also seen in Voyager's Return.
From: South Central (Tamazunchale@webtv44.net) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 20:27:59 -0800 Subj: Space1999: Collision Course
Did anyone notice that the countdown at the end makes no sense. When the countdown--which is often referred to as having to do with Operation Shockwave--reaches zero...Victor yells, "Too late!!" WHY? The countdown then, obviously, was a countdown to collision. But this makes no sense--UNLESS everyone was agreed that OS would be detonated at C minus two minutes or something like that. This is the only thing that ruins an otherwise perfect episode in my opinion.
Mateo
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 10:31:58 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Collision course
Pat wrote:
This is one of my favorite episodes. Yes, there is a disaster looming for the Alphans, but, as stated by an earlier poster, the disaster is not the main focus of the episode. It's about faith, and trust.
This is one of my favourites too, and I'm happy to see that Mateo regards it so highly as well. I also view this as a story about faith and trust. The question about whether Arra exists in reality or whether she exists only in the minds of John and Alan is less significant than the attitudes of the Alphans towards John.
In some ways it makes SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION an interesting contrast, as it focuses on some of the same idea. In SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION, however, the blind loyalty towards John put the survival of Alpha in jeopardy.
In Year Two the blind loyalty seems to be inherit in characters. In the more psychologically complex world of Year One, the question whether one should follow the advise of John Koenig or not makes perfect sense. Alan was obviously not to be trusted, and even if John was partly sane, earlier episodes like THE LAST SUNSET had shown prominent characters turn wildly insane and totally incapable of responsibility.
The most natural thing to do is not to follow Koenig's advise, it seems, and it is highly interesting how the Alphans let go of all reason, abandon their plan and just crash into the planet. The situation is very similar to if Koenig would have decided to just turn off the Bergman shield in BLACK SUN for no apparent reason. Would the Alphans have accepted that as well?
The writing was solid throughout, although there were a few lines I might have edited. Carter's "Where's Arra?" might have gone on a bit long, but was a necessary question in that scene. I also found some of Victor's lines in the opening sequence a little inconsistent. He seemed to say one thing once, then contradict himself a short time later.
I liked the seeming inconsitency of Victor. To me it makes his character more human, and very consistent with Barry Morse's portrayal. More contradictions and more emotions makes him just more interesting in my eyes.
The acting was superb. Martin Landau emoted in the opening so well, without it looking cheezy, or fake.
Im constantly impressed at Landau in almost all the 48 episodes. Sometimes he outdoes himself, however, BREAKAWAY, BLACK SUN and RING AROUND THE MOON come to mind, but COLLISION COURSE is also an example of a superior actor in top form. Not surprisingly COLLISION COURSE is directed by Ray Austin who seem to have had a remarkable rapport with the actors, getting all from major to minor cast to excell their performances.
You could feel the tension in the air as the last charge was placed, and the explosion detonated. Koenig faced one of the hardest parts of being in command: running the risk of sending a friend out on a potentially fatal mission. The interaction of Barbara Bain and Barry Morse in the second command staff meeting, after Koenig's returned, their facial expressions, making eye contact, led the viewer to know that they were just humoring Koenig, and that something else was up.
Nice you bring this up, Pat, some of the very finest scenes in the whole of COLLISION COURSE as I see it. I wonder how come Ray Austin, a former stuntman, manages to get these kind of miniature scenes to work so perfectly, so finely tuned. Similar round table conferances in episodes like VOYAGER'S RETURN and WAR GAMES seems awkwardly heavy handed in comparison, I feel.
Nick Tate was superb as the confused and disoriented Carter, desperately wanting to know who Arra was, and why he was picked for his role.
It's episodes like this, and ALPHA CHILD, the really bring out the character of Alan Carter, I feel. We all know that he is a highly competent pilot and a strong personality, but letting Nick Tate explore and show his weaker sides is highly interesting, I feel, giving much more insight to who this person really is.
Petter
From: David Acheson (dkach@hotmail44.com) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 03:18:01 PST Subj: Space1999: Collision Course
I feel like I am missing out on some cosmic joke. Everyone else seems to get the punchline but I am there on the sides still trying to figure it out. What I am referring to, of course, is this week's episode for discussion, COLLISION COURSE.
I really hate to be a downer but I just do not highly praise this episode like the many here who have done so in the past. In fact I would put this down as one of the few turkeys in season one (much like I did for the highly debateable RING AROUND THE MOON. Maybe its because Ray Austin directed these two episodes that I do not praise him as highly as Chrichton or Tomblin. Austin has done some fine work in the series though.
I do give full credit to Anthony Terpiloff and the production crew to give us something philosophical and mature in sci-fi (compared to the other stuff at that time and even today) but it ended up, for me, a confused mess. I believe the same attempt worked much better with BLACK SUN. This is not a criticism of Terpiloff of which this is his second scipt in the production order. I quite like many of his episodes and his style but COLLISION COURSE does not work for me.
The episode is about faith - no question about that. Koenig comes back from an encounter with an ancient alien queen whom most of the Alphans have never seen or heard. Add to that an incredible tale of two worlds colliding but nothing bad will happen. Alpha stays the same and the alien world transforms into a higher purpose. Can one blame Helena for confining John to his quarters? The purpose of a good script is to make the audience suspend their disbelief. In fact we had to endure this over the whole premise of the series. Many have done so with this episode but I just was never quite that convinced. Maybe my problem with the episode is my obsession with the unbelievable aspects over the storyline of faith and trust?
Its interesting to note that this was one of Margaret Leighton's last appearances on film. I believe the actress died in 1975 - I remember reading that somewhere. In the MAKING OF SPACE: 1999 book Gerry Anderson made some crack about the monster in DRAGON'S DOMAIN being more expensive than having Margaret Leighton guest star. I take it that it was a major coup for them to have the actress on the series.
Anyway gotta run off and get ready for work. Sorry I cannot praise the episode the same but that's the way things go sometime.
David
From: Mark Meskin (plastic.gravity@newrock44.com) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 21:46:57 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Collision Course
Did anyone notice that the countdown at the end makes no sense. When the countdown--which is often referred to as having to do with Operation Shockwave--reaches zero...Victor yells, "Too late!!" WHY?
At a certain point the moon would have moved beyond the point at which the charges were layed, this point obviously wasn't on the planet, or the moon. But after the counter has reached zero, the moon is probably too close to the planet or the charges to do any good.
The countdown then, obviously, was a countdown to collision.
Not true, the moon continues to move for about what was it...15 seconds + or so after zero, BEFORE it touches the planet. Doesn't matter what speed you guess the moon is moving at, during that 15 seconds it may cover 200 miles or so.
But this makes no sense--UNLESS everyone was agreed that OS would be detonated at C minus two minutes or something like that. This is the only thing that ruins an otherwise perfect episode in my opinion.
I love this story, but the premise is pure whoee. First off, space is SO big, that even when GALAXIES collide, very few stars even collide(much less planets), nearly all of the interaction is gravitational. Secondly, Operation Shockwave would never work in space, there is no shockwave generated in a vacuum. Thirdly, the moon would have been torn apart by the planet(which was 34 times the moon's size) long before it collided due to gravitational stress.
Its still a good story though ;-)
Mark
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 10:34:32 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Collision Course
I really hate to be a downer but I just do not highly praise this episode like the many here who have done so in the past. In fact I would put this down as one of the few turkeys in season one (much like I did for the highly debateable RING AROUND THE MOON. Maybe its because Ray Austin directed these two episodes that I do not praise him as highly as Chrichton or Tomblin. Austin has done some fine work in the series though.
It is somewhat surprising, but still interesting to read this. While COLLISION COURSE is not one of the episodes I remember most vividly from first viewing in 1976, it is one of the episodes that has struck me as SPACE:1999 on its best when watching the series now, some twenty years later.
RING AROUND THE MOON is one of my favourite episodes which happen to be directed by Ray Austin, and that is perhaps one of the reasons I care so much for it. Austin headed, however, about one third of the episodes of Year On and a couple of episodes for Year Two, episodes very different in approach and style. While I find the style associated with the di Lorenzo episodes RING AROUND THE MOON and MISSING LINK his most interesting, the seven other episodes seem highly personal too, very different both from Crichton and Tomblin, and easy to point out.
Crichton worked on many of the most "classic" SPACE: 1999 scripts, such as GUARDIAN OF PIRI, THE LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES and DRAGON'S DOMAIN. Cricthon is not one of my favourite directors though he headed some very fine episodes and collaborated with interesting writers. As a director I think he did his best work on MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH and GUARDIAN OF PIRI, the latter in particular perhaps, reflecting his attitude towards treating Science Fiction as "Alice in Wonderland" and similar.
Tomblin I admire for his visual style. In many respects he is reminicent of Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott, I think. Like Stanley Kubrick he seems like a very "cold" director, however, and while certainly committed to his work, I assume, many of his episodes, ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE, FORCE OF LIFE, TESTAMENT OF ARKADIA, Alpha is presented like a sort of menagerie, I feel. This is perhaps most apparent in FORCE OF LIFE and the scenes with Judy Geeson in ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE. My feeling when watching a Tomblin episode is more like being to an exhibition than understanding and sympathizing with the characters.
Austin, I feel, is, in stark contrast to the others, an extremely empathic and emotional director, often more concerned with emotions than logic, and therefore an excellent choice for episodes like RING AROUND THE MOON, MISSING LINK and COLLISION COURSE. Further to his credit, he is certainly the only director who could make something watchable out of such nonsense as ALL THAT GLISTERS. He left the production after that episode, however, perhaps feeling that there were limits even to what he could do within the later developments of SPACE:1999.
I do give full credit to Anthony Terpiloff and the production crew to give us something philosophical and mature in sci-fi (compared to the other stuff at that time and even today) but it ended up, for me, a confused mess. I believe the same attempt worked much better with BLACK SUN. This is not a criticism of Terpiloff of which this is his second scipt in the production order. I quite like many of his episodes and his style but COLLISION COURSE does not work for me.
One of the notable things about Terpiloff, in the context of SPACE:1999, is his ability to make simple, pointed stories with a philosophical, ethical or religious flavour. As regards simplicity he must have been the anti-thesis of di Lorenzo, whose scripts seem to explode with ideas in all directions at the same time. Terpiloff contributed four episodes to Y1 while di Lorenzo was credited for two, but may have been responsible for the central ideas of either ALPHA CHILD or GUARDIAN OF PIRI, there seems to be contradictory information about this.
Of Terpiloff's work for SPACE: 1999, I perhaps find COLLISION COURSE his most interesting, one of his simplest scripts dealing with one of the most difficult philosophical problems concerning faith and trust.
I feel that the thing that makes this effort work is the direction of Ray Austin, giving the story a more "confused" style than the other Y1 episodes which he did for Cricthon. It also works better than CATACOMBS OF THE MOON of Year Two, I feel.
In fact, my belief is that an episode like EARTHBOUND would have worked extremley much better if it were directed by Austin. What that episode lacks, the way I see it, is the emotional understanding of its characters. This is almost ever present with Austin and very seldom with Cricthon, I feel.
Can one blame Helena for confining John to his quarters?
Her actions seem perfectly natural the way I see it, and I feel Austin does very little to reason to blame Helena here. In fact, I feel this is essential to the story, and one of the reasons that it works so well, for me at least.
The purpose of a good script is to make the audience suspend their disbelief. In fact we had to endure this over the whole premise of the series. Many have done so with this episode but I just was never quite that convinced. Maybe my problem with the episode is my obsession with the unbelievable aspects over the storyline of faith and trust?
I feel that the thing Austin and his crew does is to enhance the contrast in Terpiloff's script of faith and trust by letting the viewers take part in the problem the Alphans are facing. Should they believe John? After all he is the commander, they have trust in him, he has always been right so far etc. On the other hand, what he suggests them to do, just to wait until the moon crashed into Atheria, is incredibly silly. In fact, it defies logic, as Kano says. What would you do, David, being in this situation? I have no idea what I would do, but I feel sympathy with Victor's fatalistic approach, not all that different from how he acted in BLACK SUN.
Petter
From: LKJ1999 (LKJ1999@aol44.com) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 18:35:05 EST Subj: Space1999: Collision Course.
My short & Sweet comments on Collision Course.
Eagle Action. Very good in this episode...
NO. of times Eagle was said. (45)...
Liftoff's (1)...
Landing's (1)...
Bloopers. None that I could see...
Arra's Space ship. Was used on. The Metamorph.
This episode is on my top 10 list !
Chas P. LKJ1999
From: David Welle (dwelle@online.dct44.com) Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 11:11:11 Subj: Space1999: Arra of Astheria -- The Great Purpose of Mutation
Hello all,
I don't know how much time I'll get to analyze "Collision Course" -- one of my Top Five favorite Year One episodes -- today, but several months ago, I wrote a character study entitled, "Arra of Astheria -- The Great Purpose of Mutation," for The Dominion's SCIFI.CON 2.0. "Arra" is at
http://www.scifi.com/scifi.con/screen/space1999/character/arra/
Yes, the virtual booths are still standing. Besides three more character studies and a novel of mine, there is: a comprehensive series overview written by Robert Ruiz; and alien planets exhibit created by Marcy Kulic and Catherine Bujold; and a collectibles exhibit by Phill Wright -- all put together for the Dominion by Marcy. The general address for the S19 booth is:
http://www.scifi.com/scifi.con/screen/space1999/
Editor's Updates (A-08/19/07):
The character studies exist at/in both of the following links (either the author's S19 website or at the Cyber Museum), and all of the S19 material for SCIFI.CON 2.0 is copied at the second link (at the Cyber Museum):
From: djlerda@juno44.com Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 05:59:21 EST Subj: Re: Space1999: Collision Course
Thirdly, the moon would have been torn apart by the planet (which was 34 times the moon's size) long before it collided due to gravitational stress.
Is this the "Roche Limit?"
Its still a good story though ;-)
Plus an outstanding performance from Landau. Even better than usual. Good supporting cast performances, too.
David J Lerda, djlerda@juno.com
From: jcg@vh44.net Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 15:12:12 -0500 Subj: Space1999: Collision Course
I was surprised to see how well I thought this episode worked. Except for one brief exception below, I found the dialog to be well written and sounding like it rang true. Even Arra's big speeches made some sense, and did not have sections in them that were included only because they sounded metaphysical or sciencefictiony.
I would be curious to know how much time passed between the filming of this episode and the previous one. Within a minute of its starting, my first sense was that they had been away for awhile. I especially see it in Landau and Tate, and in some of the production values as well.
If they are wearing spacesuits in the eagles in case of depressureization (sic?), then they must have their helmets on as well. It was something that was never consistent in the series.
The one bit of bad dialog (or thinking) is the idea that "the radiation out there might be different from what we know about" so it is dangerous to send an eagle out with the exact same shielding that the base has...except the entire moon is moving through that self same radiation. Makes no sense...it would if they had said the eagle can't generate as strong a shielding as the base...but they didn't.
We have to put on to Dr. Asimov's list this business about explosions in between able to change the trajectory of the moon and A WHOLE PLANET??!!
At this point in my notes I wrote "dialog is good." Lines came on top of each other like in real life, ideas and interjections came in from all angles in different scenes like they would for real, and what was being said made sense.
Now it is Helena's commlock that is missing buttons.
I always thought that the crew's reaction to the impending collison by backing up from the image on the main screen was absolutly real and one of the best things I remember from year one.
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