From: Petter Ogland
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 09:30:09 +0000
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
On http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8722/ytim.html, Martin writes about
THE INFERNAL MACHINE and BRIAN THE BRAIN. Seemingly very content
with THE INFERNAL MACHINE, he's not totally enthusiastical about BRIAN THE
BRAIN. In both instances he points to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1817) as
a possible source of influence.
In my case, BRIAN THE BRAIN is an episode that I've only seen in the French
dubbed version where Brian is interestingly given the name Marcel, an idea that
worked quite well, I think.
For me BRIAN THE BRAIN does not seem to work all that bad, it's a childrens
story in a childrens format. Brian in himself seems to be a sort of
Dennis-the-Menace, perhaps not evil, but rather a difficult child, I would
say. In some ways BRIAN THE BRAIN is perhaps closer to ALPHA CHILD than
THE INFERNAL MACHINE.
THE INFERNAL MACHINE, on the other hand, is a childrens story ill-put, I feel,
in Year One which seemed to have been addressed for family viewing, not
just for children, the season containing episodes like BREAKAWAY, MATTER OF
LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK SUN, etc. dealing with matters of life, hope and
survival.
THE INFERNAL MACHINE is perhaps one of the episodes that Fred Freiberger
would have approved of, I suspect, and, from my point of view, would probably
have worked better in the Year Two format.
While the intentions, and some of the philosophical ideas presented in this
episodes, could perhaps make one think of HAL-9000 in Kubrick's 2001, the
execution of the story and other aspects of it, however, makes it resemble
THE WIZZARD OF OZ more than anything else, I think. Perhaps this is the
influence of Elizabeth Barrows. Terpiloff, while obviously fascinated with
mythology and the fantasy genre perhaps more than sci-fi, often fared much
better on his own as I see it.
On the positive side, however, Wilson's production design is quite
impressive, in fact, some of his most impressive work since FORCE OF
LIFE, as I see it, perhaps because he is again working together with
visually stunning director David Tomblin that makes good advantage of
the sets on a few occations. My favourinte scenes are when they enter
Gwent and the burial of Companion.
There are a few interesting points in the script as well. At one time
Kano speaks about "Trust, hope and ...", the central ideas in most
of Terpiloff's scripts, I understand.
In regards of loneliness etc., this is parallelled to a great extent in
THE TAYBOR, and even as this epiosde is even more silly, it gives the
loneliness a human face, a sort of comic strip version of Arthur Miller's
"Death of a Salesman".
One could perhaps say that THE INFERNAL MACHINE was to a certain extent
about communication and isolation. While the father of Gwent has given
himself eternal life through Gwent, the value of such a life seems to
be rather so-so, obviously blind in more than one sense. He is to others and
consequently also blind to his own needs. Self-preservation is the ultimate
vanity, Victor says.
There are some interesting ideas presented in the script, it's just so sad that
it's so static and takes so long before it gets interesting. From my point of
view, the part with the dying Gwent in Act IV is the part of the episode that
contains sensible dialogue.
I know that there are others who enjoy this episode more that I do. It will be
interesting to hear what other have to say, perhaps there is more to this
episode than what I feel at present.
Petter
From: jcg@vh4tag.net
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 16:42:19 -0400
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
Not much to say about this one. It works and Leo Mckern is in it.
Two nits:
Gwent may be physically blind as far as inside his own "body", but you're
telling me he cannot process the video portion of a transmission?
It was for dramatic reasons, but in a structure that big, I do not believe
the breathable air would start to go within seconds like that. It would
take them awhile to use it up before they started to weaken. Maybe if that
had happened in the beginning of the episode, then it would have taken
longer for them to start suffocating.
Of course, if the producers had wanted to adjust the format, then instead
of Gwent destroying itself, Koenig would have invited the machine to stay
on Alpha and be a compaion to the base and travel with them (although with
the size of that ship, how about loading all personnel aboard and finding a
planet?...oh damn, I just ended the series.)
From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 19:50:08 EDT
1. Goofs / nits: Oxygen going too fast - I always got the impression
that a considerable amount of time did pass. Kano was trying to
establish communications as they lay there. Or when Gwent shut himself
off, perhaps the fresh oxygen was automatically expelled out some
ventilation system.
Laser equipped tanks - where did these come from? If Alpha is primarily
a research base why would they have these? Or could they have been
rigged up from spare parts? Not that I'm complaining, I thought they
were cool.
3. Artwork / visuals - N/A No planets in this one. Special effects
work great, as usual.
I think Gwent's control room set is the best "alien set" of the whole
series. The only one that I can think of that comes close is the War
Games set. I'm sure optical tricks and forced perspective were used
but it looked immense. Wilson did a great job.
4. Modelwork: No doubt about it, those tanks are great. Gwent's design
was sufficiently bizzare as well.]
5. Dialogue triumphs: "A lonely, blind creature looking for his death."
7. Continuity: That last eagle which picked up John, Victor, and Helena
sure made it there to Gwent pretty fast. :-)
The relationship between Sandra and Paul is shown once again (even though
Paul doesn't appear. According to a little episode guide that I have
from SFX magazine, Prentis Hancock was recovering from surgery for
removal of a growth from his neck).
8. MUF - Not applicable
9. Roots - Ditto
10. Bottom line - A. Drags just a bit. The "force field" sequence was
really unnecessary. I always felt they put it in there to make Gwent
more of a sympathetic character so the audience would identify with him
at the conclusion.
11. Misc: Again, only my opinion but I didn't care for the actor who
played Winters. I wish Koenig had given command to someone else in Main
Mission, Kano for example. Also, does anyone notice that Koenig likes to
work late? We saw him getting off in the early morning in "Space Brain"
and in this episode an Alphan says, "Good morning, Commander" as he exits
his office. Since the "super computer" seems to be a staple of science
fiction, all I can say is that "Infernal Machine" was far superior to
Star Trek's "Ultimate Computer."
Again we see the theme that seemed to run through Year one: the perils
of the quest for immortality. "Death's Other Dominion", "End of
Eternity", "Infernal Machine", and "Mission of the Darians" all had
their warnings about this.
One of the top 5 episodes of the series.
From: "Atomic Possum" (atomicpossum@toast4tag.net)
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 21:08:11 -0500
>Prentis Hancock was recovering from surgery for
>removal of a growth from his neck).
I thought that was his head (joke).
>all I can say is that "Infernal Machine" was far superior to
>Star Trek's "Ultimate Computer."
Well, no disrespect to the classic Trek, but this episode does take a
similar story from a different side...It makes the machine itself the main
character. A very interesting way to approach a similar theme..perhaps
even a better way, as it allows a very emotionally-based story. Is it just
me, or is this one of the most emotional stories of all?
> One of the top 5 episodes of the series.
No doubt.
Is it just me, or does Victor seem at some of his most 'groovy' in
this episode? I happened to watch it YESTERDAY, before I resubscribed, and
was very impressed with the way Victor came across in this episode. His
final speech to Gwent was particularly well done...he looked both pained
and somewhat amused with the hubris of Gwent's existance. As the head
science guy on Alpha, it is particularly striking that Victor is the one
with the philosophical/metaphysical side as well. It is this kind of
complexity that makes Victor such a fascinating character, and why he is so
sorely missed in Season Two. Darn you, Fred Frieberger!
-----------------
Jon "Mr. Wonderful" Stadter
FREE COMICS FROM: http://www.toon-up.com
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4qtz.no)
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 08:11:48 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
> 11. Misc: Again, only my opinion but I didn't care for the actor who
> played Winters.
I rather liked the Winters character, cold and scientific, seemed very
reasonable for this kind of series, but would perhaps have fitted more in
the earlier episodes that had generally more "realistic" approach to drama.
> or is this one of the most emotional stories of all?
Leo McKern does an impressive job as both the master and the slave, but
so does Willoughby Goddard in THE TAYBOR. Apart from the impressive visuals
and generally good taste of Wilson, this could have easily have been presented
in a Year Two format, I feel, exchanging Maya for Victor.
> One of the top 5 episodes of the series.
It's nice to see that so many find regard this episode so highly, although
I have difficulty understand why. My list of top 5 episodes would consist
of the first five of the series; BREAKAWAY, MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH,
BLACK SUN, RING AROUND THE MOON and EARTHBOUND, well, perhaps exchanging
EARTHBOUND with MISSING LINK, GUARDIAN OF PIRI or WAR GAMES.
Personally I find THE INFERNAL MACHINE among the less satisfying Year One
episodes, perhaps enjoyable to the same extent as some of the better Year
Two episodes. Nevertheless, I'm curious why others enjoy this so much, and
I admit Gwent has a few good lines, especially in Act IV.
I also liked what David Lerda called a dialogue triumph: "A lonely, blind
creature looking for his death." I wonder what Terpiloff and Barrows were
actually thinking of when writing this. In some ways it seems consistent
with the general apathy in DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, people totally fascinated
with science and technology getting trapped by apathy, blindness and
finally looking for death.
DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION does not rank too high on my list either, however,
not having very good vibrations with what Terpiloff seems to be saying
and how his is saying it. Personally I find EARTHBOUND and COLLISION COURSE
much more fascinating, while equally absurd, feeling that they are much more in
touch with the initial concept of SPACE:1999.
> It is this kind of complexity that makes Victor such a fascinating character
I also feel Victor to be an enormously fascinating character, especially
in the early episodes, the first five in particular, but Barry Morse also gives
excellent performances in MISSING LINK and VOYAGER'S RETURN, giving more insight
to his character, perhaps also in GUARDIAN OF PIRI. In my opinion DEATH'S OTHER
DOMINION and THE INFERNAL MACHINE are rather on the weak side in the manner
Victor is written, and it is almost impossible for Barry Morse to make something
out of it, I feel. THE INFERNAL MACHINE is somewhat better though, perhaps, in
this respect. The lines about vanity in act IV are rather good, I feel, and
well performed.
Petter
From: South Central
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 10:52:01 -0700
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
This is one of my favorite episodes. But this letter refers to the
positive and negative highlights only.
Negative: I am embarassed by the melodramatic way in which Leo McKern
flops his head down on the table when Companion dies. This marrs an
otherwise wonderful performance.
Positive: I LOVE the piano music used during the scenes after Gwent
decides to give up the ghost. (WHO DOESN"T?) Actually all the
incidental music is really wonderful.
Positive: The line and its delivery. "Amen. Ah, men!" This line
shows us that Gwent respects humans for their weaknesses as well as
their strengths. He has the mind of a man, but he is no longer a man.
This is subtle and quite wonderful.
Positive: That set!
MISC: Now that I think about it. This episode does have a lot in
common with Brian the Brain: Computer who need fuel part anyway. In
BTB, they should have remembered Companion's advice and given Brian what
he wanted and let him be on his way. Who cares! At least in TIF it was
THEIR supplies. In BTB it was a fuel cell that didn't even belong to
them!
Mateo
From: "Mark Meskin" (plastic.gravity@newrock4tag.com)
Subject: Space1999: Infernal machine
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 16:16:37 -0600
Hi all,
A few comments on this episode, I'm not going to get deep into. Its OK as
epiosdes go, I'd rate it number 14 best of season wise.
Winters: Thumbs down. Annoying.
Alien Space Craft: I know why they tossed it against a wall after shooting,
I would have done so before shooting.
Leo Mckern: Thumbs up.
Sets inside Gwent: Thumbs up, some of the best sets ever.
Lunar tanks: Thumbs up, but wish they all looked the same. hardware this
specialized is expensive to design, from a reality standpoint I'd have to
wonder how alpha could have 3 types of tanks.......a few copies of one
design, that I can believe. I like the idea that someone brought up about
them being originally designed for mining.
Battle Sequence: So-So. We see eagles blow up, but Carter apparently
missed that little detail.
Fuel Rod: I have a real problem here. If this stuff is going to powewr
gwent for x-number of years, Koening is no going to be handling it with his
bare hands. Its most likley radioactive and high toxic. Yet Koenig picks
up a chunk like he's just throwing another log on the fire. And whoever
heard of putting the gas tank in the living room? Serious flub here.
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 15:59:11 -0400
From: Patricia Embury (Patriemb@sprintmail2meta.com)
Subject: Space1999: Infernal machine
I'm afraid I don't agree with the majority of the list members on this
episode. I don't think I'd put this episode in my top five. Maybe
towards the bottom of my top ten. Some of it just didn't flow for me.
I also think the "force field" sequence with Victor could have been
omitted, and the funeral scene could have been a little better written.
Granted, they didn't know Companion, but they could have said something
better than "I commend this body to space".
What I liked: I have to disagree with Petter. I felt Victor's
part was written pretty well. I especially liked his offhand comments
when they first walked onto Gwent's ship. I was suprised when Gwent
didn't pick Victor for his new companion. I was suprised at the choice
of Koenig, especially since Koenig disagreed with Gwent, and became
argumentative with it. Granted, Gwent may have been looking for someone
to control it, but Victor seemed to be the only one to really talk to
it.
Leo McKern. He was most effective as the voice of Gwent, and added
a nice balance/contrast as the living companion. His bewilderment upon
first meeting the Alphans was a chilling indication that a problem
existed. I've loved seeing him since "The Prisoner".
The sets. The set design/interiors were probably the best of the
first season.
Stuff I didn't get: Winters: I don't have a problem with him being
controller. However, why did Koenig tell him to refer to Carter if he
had a problem, and why didn't he appoint Carter in the first place?
After all, Carter is a member of the command staff, Winters is a main
mission operative. Maybe the writer's did this to develop a sub-plot of
conflict between Carter, who is a bit of a hot head in this episode, to
Winter's "iciness" (pardon the pun) Note the disagreement when Gwent
first appeard, Carter doing his own thing: using the excuse of following
Koenig's orders to lauch the strike force. They cooperated later when
they planned the assault party (note Winters' thumbs up to Alan as they
entered the travel tube.)
What did they do with the supplies when they left Gwent? It looks
like they left them on the cart in the antechamber. Why didn't they
take them with them?
The Eagle that exploded and then reappeared. There is a shot of
Gwent firing on the first pair of Eagles that attacked. It looked like
it hit one of them, destroying it. Yet, when Winter's asks for an
update, Carter says that there is superficial damage to both Eagles.
What gives?
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi6psy.no)
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:58:11 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: Infernal machine
> I'm afraid I don't agree with the majority of the list members on this
> episode. I don't think I'd put this episode in my top five. Maybe
> towards the bottom of my top ten.
I begin to wonder about who's in majority. I appears to me that THE
INFERNAL MACHINE is either on someones top five or bottom five. I
enjoyed Pat's points about what she liked, like the design for the
interiors which she finds to be some of the best of the first season
series.
I have to agree on that, the only episode with equally impressive
interiors being FORCE OF LIFE, as I see it. Both THE INFERNAL MACHINE
and FORCE OF LIFE were directed by David Tomblin, so there may have
been some connection to why the sets are so well done. According to
Johnny Byrne, Tomblin took a deep interest in each particular episode,
at least in the case of ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE, FORCE OF LIFE and
TESTAMENT OF ARKADIA, the three episodes Tomblin constructed from Byrne
manuscripts.
THE INFERNAL MACHINE was the only non-Byrne script Tomblin worked with
on first season, which is rather sad. As I've understood, the idea was
the Crichton, Austin and Tomblin should split the 22 non-Katzin episodes
among themselves, but as it turned out, Crichton and Austin did about one
third each, and the final third was split among Tomblin (4 episodes) and
Kellett (3 episodes).
Johnny Byrne seemed extremely content working with Tomblin, and in my
opinion, the three episodes made in collaboration with him are some of
his finest. Byrne also did three episodes with Ray Austin, of which
I find END OF ETERNITY the most fascinating, apparently the least
fascinating accoring to Byrne's introspection on his own work, but
perhaps the Johnny Byrne episode I enjoy the most is his adaption of
Art Wallace script for what turned out to be MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH,
a wonderful episodes in all respects, as I see it, also one of Crichton's
most impressive works according to my taste.
The best part of THE INFERNAL MACHINE is the direction, I feel, with
it's nice use of Keith Wilson's tremendous sets. The story in itself
is a slight modification of DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, I feel, also written
by Terpiloff and Barrow's, but comparing these to installments, the most
striking thing is perhaps the difference in style of production in the
hands of Tomblin and Crichton.
While Crichton makes great use of the dialogue aspects from the
Shakespeare-similar DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION script, staging the episode
more or less as if it was a theatre production, Tomblin is purely
visual, using a language more reminicent of directors like Stanly Kubrick
and Ridley Scott. Crichton already had one Terpiloff script to his credit,
EARTHBOUND, which in my opinion is much more intriuging episode, one of
the first eight scripts that were do define the Space:1999 concept, but,
in the hands of Crichton, there is again a focus on words and action, and
very little effort put into understanding the psychology of the main
protagonists, I feel.
The Terpiloff script that was put best to use, in my opinion, was Ray
Austin's adaption of COLLISION COURSE. While COLLISION COURSE was
equaly absurd as most of Terpiloff's scripts, I feel that Austin managed
to make the actors explore their figures to a greater extent than what
was to be expected from a script written by Terpiloff who seemed less
familiar with the original concepts for the series.
> What I liked: I have to disagree with Petter. I felt Victor's
> part was written pretty well. I especially liked his offhand comments
> when they first walked onto Gwent's ship. I was suprised when Gwent
> didn't pick Victor for his new companion. I was suprised at the choice
> of Koenig, especially since Koenig disagreed with Gwent, and became
> argumentative with it. Granted, Gwent may have been looking for someone
> to control it, but Victor seemed to be the only one to really talk to
> it.
Very similar to DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, I felt that John, Helena and Victor
were just a random choice of characters used in this episode used in
order to tell the story of Gwent and his companion. The episode could
easily have been used as material for Star Trek or any other Sci-fi. This
also goes for many other episodes, especially those made during the
second half of the first series.
To me very many of the best episodes were among the original eight scripts,
that is BREAKAWAY, MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK SUN, FULL CIRCLE,
THE LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES, DRAGON'S DOMAIN and EARTHBOUND. The quality
of these episodes was weakened as the series dragged on, I feel, although
all of these were fairly good. The best episode of the series, from my
point of view, was RING AROUND THE MOON, however. The wonderful
collaboration between di Lorenzo and Austin, where everything seemed to
click. An almost perfect episode.
Petter
From: Tom Miller (tmiller@north99net.org)
Subject: Space1999: follow up on infernal machine...
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 23:56:50 -0700
I sent some comments on this one before, but in responce(defence) of
Winters, Carter has flight command experiance, but the post of Controller
requiers administration skills as well. Carter is too reactionary to be in
charge, so many rough edges.
The fuel rod could have been just a catalist that was need to power the
craft. It could have been inert to humans...At least I hope so.
Tom Miller
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 19:59:25 -0400
From: Patricia Embury
From: "Tom Miller" (tmiller@north96net.org)
Subject: Re: Space1999: follow up on infernal machine...
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 22:36:49 -0700
I beleive koenig wanted a strong administrater in Winters, and know alan was
not ready to command the base. Developing new staff would be an essential
part of day to day survival, for no new staff could come from Earth....
From: David Acheson (dkach@hot872mail.com)
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 06:07:33 EDT
Not since the gap between Terra Nova and the duplicate Earth have the
Alphans been travelling through space without bumping into a solar
system. Wow - deep space since Betha and Delta! Just a casual
observation.
Anway, to the matter at hand. My late analysis on last week's episode
for discussion. THE INFERNAL MACHINE marks the return of Anthony
Terpiloff and Elizabeth Barrows to the fold - their last effort being
DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION. In my opinion, sorry Petter, I feel this is one
of their better contributions to the series. Like DOD, there are
Shakespearean elements about but not as heavily so. What works for me is
the more personal approach the episode took towards philosophical ideas.
Definitely a showcase for our three main actors - Martin Landau, Barbara
Bain and Barry Morse. Yet it still remains within the structure of year
one. Petter, again I disagree with you - this one is not season two
material. However, I can see SPACE BRAIN as one of Freiberger's action
adventure stories.
Again, David Tomblin's visually stunning directorial style is evident
and works quite well with this somewhat different story. I tried to
think of the other year one directors doing this but kept coming up with
Tomblin as the best choice.
The moral of the story again is simple. Another man vs. machine
plotline. GUARDIAN OF PIRI did it on a philosophical level but this
story brings it down to a more personal one. While not much is known
about the Pirian Guardian (Do we care for it? - NOT!), Gwent comes off
as a tragic figure. The machine just got too cocky and it took Koenig's
slap in the face to make it realize its own vanity. Its own suicide
turns us away from hating it to feeling sorry for it. One of the few
first season guest characters we can actually feel for.
Leo McKern was great in the role of Companion (and I suspect it was his
voice that was the voice of Gwent). Just one of the many great first
season actors that lent their talents to this exceptional series.
A question for members! I always understood (if it was not directly
mentioned in the episode) that the Companion was the original Gwent and
that the machine took over the identity forcing its creator to be a tag
along. That was the way I had always interpreted the episode. Am I
correct in my assumption or am I way off base?
I have always wondered why Paul was so obviously absent from this
episode and this Winters character was in Main Mission. Thanks to those
who have mentioned Prentis Hancock having surgery. I agree with those
who believe Winters was a better choice than Carter as a replacement.
While Winters is not a memorable character by any stretch of the
imagination, the role of Main Mission Controller is an administrative
one. Carter was an Eagle Pilot so had no place in that position. One
realistic aspect of the plotline indeed. Flies in the face of television
convention of putting the next popular actor into the spot. Sorry Nick,
Alan was a great role but..........
Overall a good episode. Not one of my top five but one of the good year
one stories. Now that I have got caught up on to this week's episode:
MISSION OF THE DARIANS. I finally get to review something with Joan
Collins in it. This should be interesting.
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi3tag7.no)
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:43:46 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
I've never thought of THE INFERNAL MACHINE in terms of Shakespeare, but
perhaps this point of view could give more insight. What about King Lear?
Come to think of it, the dying king, the fool and the loneliness could
perhaps be suitable for comparison. Did you have other plays in mind,
David? Julius Ceasar?
Perhaps this is not too farfetched. Anyway, I feel there is a very
close relationship between THE INFERNAL MACHINE and DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION,
both concerned with progress, apathy and finally death. The bottom line
to DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION is Koenig questioning himself about whether
death is the only thing that gives meaning to life. This point of view
does not seem out of focus in the context of Gwent as a lonely, blind
machine looking for death, and it makes one wonder if Dr. Cabot Rowland
in fact knew what would happen to him as he left Ultima Thule.
> What works for me is
> the more personal approach the episode took towards philosophical ideas.
> Definitely a showcase for our three main actors - Martin Landau, Barbara
> Bain and Barry Morse. Yet it still remains within the structure of year
> one. Petter, again I disagree with you - this one is not season two
> material. However, I can see SPACE BRAIN as one of Freiberger's action
> adventure stories.
It's interesting that you mention this, David, and from my point of view
a little bit surprising, feeling that SPACE BRAIN was an episode much
closer to the Space:1999 canon suggested by the early eight scripts
BREAKAWAY, MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK SUN, EARTHBOUND, LAST SUNSET,
WAR GAMES, FULL CIRCLE and DRAGON'S DOMAIN.
While Landau, Bain and Morse are in view most of the episode, I don't
feel that it in this case makes a guarantee for a great story. In fact,
I feel the three main protagonists are used in THE INFERNAL MACHINE in
the same manner as Landau and Catherine Schell were used in, say, THE
RULES OF LUTON, in other words, choosing three other actors would have
made no difference. In fact the episode could easily have been used
as framework for any other sci-fi series, I believe. The script for
THE RULES OF LUTON could easily have been used as in an episode of
Scooby-doo, for instance.
It is perhaps not fair to compare THE INFERNAL MACHINE to THE RULES OF
LUTON, these are very different types of episodes indeed. Looking upon
THE RULES OF LUTON from the Fred Freiberger point of view, this is perhaps
one of the best episodes of the second season, illustrating in which
manner Freiberger wanted the series to look, and perhaps one the most
honost and interesting episodes seen from this perspective.
SPACE BRAIN, while perhaps one of the least complex and least psycologically
and philosophically interesting of Penfold's efforts does, however, take
the advantage of using central themes and central characters of the
series, and even if it is recycling of RING AROUND THE MOON and BLACK
SUN etc. to a certain extent, I feel SPACE BRAIN is a much deeper and
satisfying episode than THE INFERNAL MACHINE.
> Again, David Tomblin's visually stunning directorial style is evident
> and works quite well with this somewhat different story. I tried to
> think of the other year one directors doing this but kept coming up with
> Tomblin as the best choice.
Tomblin is exceptional, I agree to that. Personally I find
FORCE OF LIFE, with the equally impressive interior sets by Keith
Wilson, more enjoyable on visual terms than THE INFERNAL MACHINE, but,
on the other hand, THE INFERNAL MACHINE, at least parts of it, looks
more impressive than both ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE and THE TESTAMENT
OF ARKADIA, I think.
Speaking of visual directors, I feel that Ray Austin, especially in his
early efforts RING AROUND THE MOON and MISSING LINK is doing perhaps an
even more impressive job in visual terms, but while Austin seems to be
basically kinestetic, he keeps moving around all the time, Tomblin is more
of an artist in terms of being a painter of architect, I feel, and seems to
make more out of Wilson's sets than Austin manages, even when Austin gets
to play with Wilson visuals in episodes like MISSION OF THE DARIANS.
The likeness and differences between Austin and Tomblin are perhaps best
illustrated through episodes like FORCE OF LIFE, THE TROUBLED SPIRIT and THE
END OF ETERNITY, I think, all episodes using more or less only Alpha interior
shots. While FORCE OF LIFE uses perhaps more fanciful still shots, like
the rather psychologically disturbing shot of Anton Zoref entering the
Solarium or the equally sadistic killing of the girl in front of the
tunnel entrance, Austin gives much more movement and life to his performers,
I feel.
END OF ETERNITY, which has quite a few similarities with FORCE OF LIFE,
illustrates this rather severley, I feel, in the manner Balor is portrayed
as a contrast to Zoref. While Zoref is just an animal or a machine, very
much like Regina is also portrayed in ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE, Balor
is alive, and as I see it, END OF ETERNITY is a very much better episodes
than the two Tomblin efforts, the way I see it anyway, although I know that
Johnny Byrne thinks differently.
> Gwent comes off
> as a tragic figure. The machine just got too cocky and it took Koenig's
> slap in the face to make it realize its own vanity. Its own suicide
> turns us away from hating it to feeling sorry for it. One of the few
> first season guest characters we can actually feel for.
The effect of making us care for the machine, is a good one, I feel, but,
alas, much, much better exploited in 2001 and 2010. In some ways the plot
is reminicent of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, as Martin pointed out at
one stage, our feelings for the monster is reversed during the course of
the story.
> Leo McKern was great in the role of Companion (and I suspect it was his
> voice that was the voice of Gwent). Just one of the many great first
> season actors that lent their talents to this exceptional series.
>
> A question for members! I always understood (if it was not directly
> mentioned in the episode) that the Companion was the original Gwent and
> that the machine took over the identity forcing its creator to be a tag along.
Leo McKern is fine, but not better than Goddard in THE TAYBOR, I feel,
and this is perhaps one of the second season episodes I instantly
think of, watching THE INFERNAL MACHINE. In both these episodes the Alphans
are treated as children, which also gives me the impression that these
episodes were written for the very young indeed. "Said the spider to
the fly", Victor mutters as they enter Gwent.
Another second season episode, not too different from THE INFERNAL MACHINE is,
of course, BRIAN THE BRAIN. I have only seen this in the French language
version, but find THE INFERNAL MACHINE no better nor worse than this.
> imagination, the role of Main Mission Controller is an administrative
> one. Carter was an Eagle Pilot so had no place in that position.
I liked Gary Waldhorn very much as Winters. His subdued performance in this
episode is perhaps a bit wasted with McKern's over-the-top sort of
acting as Gwent, but could have worked very nicely in other episodes.
I've noticed a character sometimes in the background in main mission in
other episodes that looks a bit like Waldhorn. Does anyone know if
this really is him?
Happy to read your analysis, David, I look forward to hearing your
comments on MISSION OF THE DARIANS, one of Johnny Byrne's favourites,
I've understood.
Petter
From: JSchill824 (JSchill824@aol9qever.com)
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 12:59:28 EDT
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
Hi all,
I really love how this episode has sparked much discussion. Sorry I'm late
but I'd like to add that one reason I still enjoy watching this episode is the
use of the Victor, Helena and John. Like David had mentioned it was a great
showcase for the three main charters and given and opportunity this trio
always worked for me. I'd like to add here that I see why Barry Morse felt he
wasn't being used towards the end of the season. We really didn't get to see
much of him in the last few episodes, except for a scratch to his head and a
brief comment. I did liked him however in this episode and even more so in
the next. As we draw to the end of the yr1 discussion and on to yr 2, for me
Victor will be greatly missed.
Lastly, I too liked the Lunar tanks! I wished they could have used them in
other episodes like maybe The Last Enemy, War Games? (I really liked your
comments on the gas tank in the living room Mark :-)
Not on my top five, but not the last 5 either. I really loved every ones
comments! Thanks
Janet
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 18:37:53
From: David Welle (dwelle@dct.online.com)
Subject: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
Well, I'm finally getting to join back into the discussion, so I'll just
chime right in on "The Infernal Machine," an episode I like.
First off, I think this is a great title, in that the words themselves
can evoke so many images. "Infernal" was a great one to use. Besides
its own evocative meanings, it sounds so similar to "Inferno" -- as in
Dante's /Inferno/ -- that it evokes a few other feelings for the word
"Infernal," despite there being little in common thematically between
"The Infernal Machine" and the /Inferno/. Anyway...
Some people were making comparisons between this episode and
"Death's Other Dominion," as well as with "Guardian of Piri."
I guess I never saw much thematic connection with DoD before
reading Petter's interesting comments on death giving purpose
to life; but I always saw connections with "Piri."
"Infernal Machine" and "Piri" are somewhat like flip sides of the
same coin. Both episodes dealt with machine intelligences run amok,
yet with striking differences. The theme, in general, is certainly
a common theme in science fiction, but I really think these two S19
episodes are among the most interesting instances of the theme, and
can stand along with many of the other portrayals in SF.
The Guardian was arguably the more powerful machine, in terms of
what it could do to its surroundings. It could modify the course
of the moon, the course of Alpha's computers, and even the course
of most of the humans' minds. It drove its own creators to extinc-
tion, and almost did the same to the Alphans. Yet for all the exotic
exterior of the Guardian, and the seductive beauty of its Servant, it
was, under the surface, a very robotic, single-minded machine pursuing
a fixed set of goals, namely the ill-conceived "Peace of Piri" and its
interpretation of "perfection," which was nothing more than dystopic
motionlessness. The Guardian performed its directives, but showed
little extra in the way of a higher -- however artificial --
intelligence.
Gwent was a very different machine. It was a single, self-
contained ship, large in its own right but small compared to
how the Guardian influenced an entire planet and much of the
neighboring space. Gwent's means of influencing the Alphans
were much more crude: just physical force, such as flashing
its laser weapons or simple kidnapping. Effective enough in
their own right, but different in form than the Guardian's
(and Servant's) actions. But from the beginning, Gwent seems
a lot more "human" in many ways than the Guardian. First and
most importantly, we discovered Gwent had needs which, in a
person, could only be called emotional (needs). Gwent needed
companionship, Gwent got angry, Gwent was tender, etc. Gwent
seemed more creative in its methods, whereas the Guardian /
Servant simply smothered everything with its seducive powers.
The difference between these machines, however, most striking
in their ends.
The Guardian was destroyed as it still insistently pursued its
goal. Koenig adapted to the Servant's attempts at seduction,
but the Servant/Guardian, though it tried rousing the Alphans
(temporarily counteracting its own desired "peace"), it really
hadn't adjusted fast enough to Koenig. The Guardian learned
little in the end, and was destroyed for it.
Gwent, however, learned how strongly people hate being kidnapped,
manipulated, and forced about. Gwent learned how arrogant it/he had
been. Simply put, Gwent learned. The lesson, however, was so painful
that it destroyed Gwent. The machine couldn't face the combination of
its own loneliness, grief over the loss of the original Companion, and
Gwent's remorse over its own actions towards the Alphans.
Using the terms *very* loosely for the sake of brevity, it seems that
while the Guardian has an amazing -- if deadly -- form of artificial
intelligence, Gwent seems to have gone beyond just intelligence, and
possibly achieved sentience, or at least a fairly convincing semblance
of it.
I must point out another similarity between Gwent and the Guardian
(and no, it's not that they both start with the letter 'G' :-), and
that's the Companion and the Servant. I can't help the image of them
both being "satellites," which is so utterly appropriate for a series
dealing with another satellite -- the Moon. A curious bit of symbol-
ism. In both cases, the "satellite intelligences" were integral and
well-written and well-played (fine scripts for the characters & great
acting by Leo McKern and Catherine Schell). But like satellites in
our own solar system, they couldn't be more different: One female,
one male; one cold and robotic, one essentially human; one little more
than an extension of the machine, the other having *created* the other
machine in question; and so on.
Yes, I had the same impression as David Acheson, namely that the
companion was original Gwent, who created the machine which later took
over, so much to the point that the machine really didn't even think
of the Companion as being the creator. Many science fiction machines
with some sort of ability to "think" are shown as obsessing over their
creator, whether to find, help, rebel against, or destroy the creator.
In S19, however, we're back to a remarkable internal similarity and
external difference, because neither the Guardian nor Gwent bother
much to think of their creators *as* creators. The Guardian's are
long dead, and even Koenig's query as to their whereabouts meets with
silence from the Servant; Gwent's creator, in my opinion, was with
him all along, until the Companion died, yet Gwent made no indication
acknowledging the true nature of the Companion. It was instead the
Companion's own words which indicated the possibility.
Actually, I have to say that it still isn't perfectly clear that that
was the situation, perhaps because I've never been able to clearly
make out the Companion's words in that spot of my copy, but that has
been my impression for quite some time.
The other similarly-themed episodes are "Brian the Brain" and "One
Moment of Humanity," which also pose human vs. machine questions very
directly. I don't want to make comparisons until we actually reach
those episodes, however.
One other question, food for thought: what did the Companion actually
do? Gwent and the Companion may have kept each other company, but I
wonder what the Companion actually did with his time. It makes me
remember David Bowman in /2001/, aging away in that hotel room mockup
after going through the stargate, eating nothing but blue flakes and
watching old television. Of course, the way /2001/ plays, it's a
mystery how much of that Bowman actually *lived* (as opposed to the
Monolith playing with time in some way), but one must wonder about
Companion's existence. Of course, there may have been books and
computer files -- not to mention the exploration of space -- to keep
him busy, but one can picture both Gwent and Companion as having led a
very lonely existence, even *with* each other.
I have to go somewhere between David Acheson's and Petter's
evaulations of the use of the three main characters (John, Helena,
and Victor). I don't fully disagree with Petter's impression that
three other characters could have been written into the same roles in
this episode, but I'm not entirely sure that's the point, because
these were very "character building" roles, ones that I felt were
good for John, Helena, and especially Victor.
Yet I *can* see Petter's point in another way. His "Rules of Luton"
example is especially curious, because my understanding of that
episode is that it was originally written for Catherine Schell (Maya)
and Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), rather than Catherine and Martin
Landau (John Koenig). I'm not sure why it was changed, but it has
even been argued that the episode would have been better off with Tony
and Maya, because the crucible of challenge would have more visibly
forged a stronger bond between them, so to speak. On the other hand,
we did have those two characters fighting a battle close together in
"The Beta Cloud," so we got something like that in the end (a somewhat
fascetious argument, but I'm trying to illustrate a different point);
and in "Luton," got to see John and Maya deepen their friendship, and
to hear elements of both their pasts. My point is that yes, the roles
could indeed be seen as interchangable, yet I would argue that the
same approach means essentially *any* episode could have character
exchanges. Some may have strengthened the episode, some (many?) could
have left the episode "feeling" about the same, while some (many?)
would have weakened the episode.
Is *this* maybe the basis you're making this statement, Petter --
that some episode's structure allows more flexibility?
Even then, though, I might argue that this does not necessarily
weaken the episode on its own. Actually, though, I'd argue that with
"Infernal Machine," changing out the three main characters *would*
have weakened the impact of the episode. I think they were the right
characters to have in "the belly of the beast," as it were.
I agree that this episode had a quality of Shakespearean tragedy with
Gwent as well. I liked Koenig's words at the end as well (""), and
agree that one went from disliking Gwent to feeling pity.
Petter wrote:
>Tomblin is exceptional, I agree to that. Personally I find
>FORCE OF LIFE, with the equally impressive interior sets by
>Keith Wilson, more enjoyable on visual terms than THE INFERNAL
>MACHINE
Hmmm, I'd say they were about equal. I agree "Force of Life" had a
stunning kinestic view (my favorite shot was, as I mentioned a couple
months ago, was Zoref collapsing on the floor, early in the episode,
while the camera whirled and eventually ended up showing the scene
upside down, which I remarked was chillingly symbolic of how his life
was being turned upside down). Yet I also enjoyed the sheer size,
almost empty and static "feel" of the sets in "The Infernal Machine."
Very different approaches, both of which worked well in their
respective episodes.
>but, on the other hand, THE INFERNAL MACHINE, at least
>parts of it, looks more impressive than both ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER
>PLACE and THE TESTAMENT OF ARKADIA, I think.
Agreed!
>Speaking of visual directors, I feel that Ray Austin, especially
>in his early efforts RING AROUND THE MOON and MISSING LINK is
>doing perhaps an even more impressive job in visual terms, but
Hmmm, I have to say that I much prefered the kinestetic approach in
"Force of Life," but felt it was too over the top in "Missing Link"
for my taste. Sometimes I like this approach, sometimes I don't.
S19 rarely went wrong with the still artistry, especially when it
(stillness) was part of the point in episodes such as "Guardian of
Piri" and "The Infernal Machine." Indeed, S19 overall has a very
uniquely artistic feel that is rarely rivaled by other SF series,
even today. There were a few not so hot sets, but most were quite
stunning.
Radically changing the focus... I am glad to finally find out why
Prentis Hancock (Paul) was missing from the episode, though in the
meantime, I always just assumed that either he (the character) had the
flu, or that Winters was being "crosstrained" for another position,
just in case (I wrote a long note on this topic in general, about a
year ago: "Jack of All Trades, Master of None?").
I think the discussion of whether Alan was too hotheaded and/or too
busy to take on a formal command role is interesting. As head of the
Pilot Section, he was a valuable person to have in discussions, both
for his position and his ideas, but I couldn't picture him as a "desk
jockey" -- and perhaps *that* is the main reason he was rarely in
partial or full command of the base (trivia: which episode *did* put
him in partial command? I'm thinking of one episode in particular,
but there may actually be more than one).
Of course, the command staff got around too; but even with that fact,
S19 still lessened the feeling of characters being totally
interchangable (at least with the main character, and most of the time
anyway: some of the less seen characters seemed interchangable at
times). If you have fully interchangable characters, you really don't
have character development, in a sense, and it just doesn't feel
realistic anyway.
Curiously, though Winters didn't seem like much of a character
compared to Paul, it never occurred to me that Alan should have taken
Paul's position temporarily, so the replacement is, surprisingly
enough, a *good* replacement for Paul, as others pointed out. It
would have been nice, however, for the episode to have at least
acknowledged a "reason" for Paul's absence. For example:
John: "Alan, you may have already met, but this is Winters. He's
taken over while Paul's in surgery." (or "under the flu" or
"recovering from that accident in..." -- and I can't remember Winters'
FIRST name, dang it! I keep wanting to say Frank Winters, which is
the name of one of the Green Bay Packers players. :-)
IMO, S19 just has too many characters disappearing without any
explanation.
Anyway, the other characterizations, including Leo McKern's as the
Companion -- as well as Gwent's -- are very good, among the better of
the series. The sets are grand, impressive, and do feel alien.
Gwent, the spaceship itself, is quite delightfully bizarre, and I
enjoyed the bumblebee comparison (indeed, for the 15-year drought when
I didn't see S19 again, and had no reference material, I remembered
this episode as "Flight of the Bumblebee" :-). It certainly had to be
an exotic mode of propulsion, whatever it was, though the Alphans
referring to aerodynamic principles or some such factor made little
sense in specific, because there is no air in space! There was really
nothing wrong with having such a bizarre design in and of itself, so I
could overlook the odd statement about aerodynamics (?), while still
admiring the ship's bizarre and unexplained form of flight through
space.
The sense of scale was excellent too: seeing the little moonbuggy
coming up to and into one of the scoop-like extensions, knowing those
"scoops" were themselves small compared to the whole size of Gwent.
Wonderful!
"Tilting at windmills?"
Though not in my top five of Y1, this episode is probably in the top
ten, IMO. "Guardian of Piri" was a stronger episode, but "Infernal
Machine" did well too.
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 19:59:03 -0400
From: Patricia Embury (Patriemb@sprint494mail.com)
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
> One other question, food for thought: what did the Companion actually
> do? Gwent and the Companion may have kept each other company, but I
> wonder what the Companion actually did with his time.
Companion was ( or felt himself to be) a great scientist. Maybe he created
Gwent to explore and create experiments, and became the ultimate experience.
> (trivia: which episode *did* put him [Alan]
> in partial command? I'm thinking of one episode in particular,
> but there may actually be more than one).
Are you thinking of Space Warp? Carter is pretty quick to the trigger
(issuing shoot to kill orders before knowing the monster is Maya.) in this
one also.
> and I can't remember Winters' FIRST name
I don't think they gave him a name.
> IMO, S19 just has too many characters disappearing without any explanation.
Definitely, one of the things I would have changed in the series. But, it
is fodder for fan fiction!
> The sense of scale was excellent too: seeing the little moonbuggy
> coming up to and into one of the scoop-like extensions, knowing those
> "scoops" were themselves small compared to the whole size of Gwent.
And the alphan tanks firing on the goliath. Wonderful!
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 21:48:04
From: David Welle Companion was ( or felt himself to be) a great scientist. Maybe he created
>Gwent to explore and create experiments, and became the ultimate experience.
Pat,
That's true, though I guess what I saw and remembered was a tired, worn-out
old man in the so-empty looking spaceship. He probably built Gwent for the
very reasons you pointed out, but that just seemed to have left that so far
behind.
>Are you thinking of Space Warp? Carter is pretty quick to the trigger
>(issuing shoot to kill orders before knowing the monster is Maya.) in this
>one also.
Yep, that's the one! He actually did pretty well otherwise, in a freakish
situation; but yes, "quick to the trigger" describes that one action perfectly.
>I don't think they gave him [Winters] a name.
That might just explain why I can't remember it! :-)
>Definitely, one of the things I would have changed in the series. But, it
>is fodder for fan fiction!
Absolutely. Thank you for reminding me! I do like filling in various gaps
(as I perceive them) as I go along in my fan fiction. I suspect it would
be much more difficult to "wedge" new fan fiction into the tightly woven
storylines of Babylon 5, for example; it would probably be easier to write
B5 fiction that's more on the edges of the storyline than somewhere in the
middle -- though I may be quite perfectly wrong.
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 10:25:01 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Infernal Machine
> First off, I think this is a great title, in that the words themselves
> can evoke so many images. "Infernal" was a great one to use. Besides
> its own evocative meanings, it sounds so similar to "Inferno" -- as in
> Dante's /Inferno/ -- that it evokes a few other feelings for the word
> "Infernal," despite there being little in common thematically between
> "The Infernal Machine" and the /Inferno/. Anyway...
I think this is an interesting approach. If not THE INFERNAL MACHINE
has something to do with Dante's Inferno, it's companion piece
DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION seems to take full advantage of Dante's imagery.
> Some people were making comparisons between this episode and
> "Death's Other Dominion," as well as with "Guardian of Piri."
> I guess I never saw much thematic connection with DoD before
> reading Petter's interesting comments on death giving purpose
> to life; but I always saw connections with "Piri."
Thanks, David. To me the resemblence with DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION seem
much greater than with THE GUARDIAN OF PIRI, but, nevertheless, your
deep analysis of similar themes in these two episodes is vastly
fascinating, especially the aspects of artificial intelligence, also
linking the episodes to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
I also enjoyed your thoughts on the male/female psychology of
the two machines. By comparing the two episodes, my consequent
feeling is a remembrance of what a magnificent episode THE GUARDIAN OF
PIRI is. Partly a wonderful study of female psychology, or rather a study
of male psychology under the influence of women. In this respect I think
it was more illustrative than THE LAST ENEMY, the episode where Bob Kellett
almost ran amok, but was sadly hold foot by most of the others on the
production theme, I suppose.
I've noticed that most of those who are enthusiastic about THE
INFERNAL MACHINE speak of Gwents display of emotions. THE GUARDIAN
OF PIRI is about machines apparently without emotions, but using
the Servant's fake emotions in order to convince Koenig et al.
Similar to 2001, we are made to feel more for the computer than for
the astronauts, which in it self is an interesting idea. For me
2001 worked better in this respect, however, feeling Leo McKern
over-the-top performance was less effective than the more subdued
style of the early episodes.
> The other similarly-themed episodes are "Brian the Brain" and "One
> Moment of Humanity," which also pose human vs. machine questions very
> directly. I don't want to make comparisons until we actually reach
> those episodes, however.
Fair enough, David. From my point of view THE INFERNAL MACHINE
anticipates these two stories, perhaps BRIAN THE BRAIN to a greater
extent than ONE MOMENT OF HUMANITY. On the other hand, ONE MATTER OF
HUMANITY seems to focus on some of the ideas used in THE GUARDIAN OF
PIRI, the relationship between life, intelligence and emotions, although
not as efficiently as the former, I feel. Anyway, discussion delayed
until we reach the episode.
> these were very "character building" roles, ones that I felt were
> good for John, Helena, and especially Victor.
I felt Janet had a good point the other day, quoting Barry Morse's
resent about having his roles too sketchily written during the later
episodes.
There is mention of Victor's artificial heart, and he has some nice
one-lines, but there doesn't seem to be much purpose to the heart matter,
and many of his sentences, though quite good some of them, could easily
have been put into the mouth of John, Helena or Alan. In the respect
of characterisation I feel we are a long, long way away from BREAKAWAY,
MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK SUN and RING AROUND THE MOON.
> Is *this* maybe the basis you're making this statement, Petter --
> that some episode's structure allows more flexibility?
I've always felt that THE BETA CLOUD was a far superior episode to THE
RULES OF LUTON. The three Charles Woodgrove scripts seems to illustrate
the mind of Fred Freiberger to a great extent, and are quite fascinating in
this respect, I think. The focus on Maya and Tony in THE BETA CLOUD
probably illustrates what he ment with "a more youthful look" to the series,
and there are many examples of what he ment by "humour", "emotions",
"honoust adventure", "characterisation", "likeable characters" etc.
In fact, I don't think Freiberger was especially fond of main characters John
and Helena at all, and would have dumped them along with Victor, Paul and Kano,
had he been given the opportunity. Although this seems a bit drastic,
the second series would perhaps have been more coherent using this
approach, but on the other hand, it's link to the initial Space: 1999
concept would have been even thinner.
On the other hand, Johnny Byrne and other too, perhaps, were still fighting
to keep some of the things that made the original series work within the
concept of the new series. Well, more on this later, as we catch up
with Year Two.
Anyway, as to your comments, David, about "essentially any episode could
have character exchanges", this may be true to a certain extent, but not
with respect to any episode what so ever, I feel. The line up of John,
Helena and Victor in, say, BREAKAWAY, MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, EARTHBOUND
and RING AROUND THE MOON are definitely not exchangable. If characters were
exchanged here there would have been completely different episodes and
finally a completely different series.
Episodes like THE INFERNAL MACHINE and DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION makes rather
marginal impact on the series as a whole, I feel, and could in principal
have been left out of the series without lessening our understanding of
Alpha and its inhabitants. The focus in these episodes were not on the
Alphans, but rather on external characters and situations. After
ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE, I feel this trend was becoming more and more
apparent, apart from the early eight scripts, of course, which were
produced in rather random sequence through out the series, it seems.
Nevertheless, even an interesting early script such as DRAGON'S DOMAIN
lost much of it's impetus because of the rewriting of Tony Cellini into
a role that was originally designed to flesh out the Alan Carter
character to a greater extent as I've understood.
In the case of THE RULES OF LUTON, THE BETA CLOUD and SPACE WARP, these
are episodes for the die hard Freiberger fans, I feel, contrasting other
episodes, like the Byrne episodes, but, on the other hand, emphasising
the Freiberger impact which is prevailent through out the second series.
In order to understand Year Two, I feel watching these three are rather
vital. These could not have been left out.
> >Tomblin is exceptional, I agree to that. Personally I find
> >FORCE OF LIFE, with the equally impressive interior sets by
> >Keith Wilson, more enjoyable on visual terms than THE INFERNAL
> >MACHINE
>
> Hmmm, I'd say they were about equal. [....] Yet I also enjoyed the sheer size,
> almost empty and static "feel" of the sets in "The Infernal Machine."
> Very different approaches, both of which worked well in their
> respective episodes.
I still feel FORCE OF LIFE being more enjoyable in what Tomblin makes
out of Keith Wilson's sets, but I may be mixing this with my general
preference for FORCE OF LIFE as a story.
The visual highlights of THE INFERNAL MACHINE, as I experience it, is
the scene when they enter Gwent and the scene with Companion's burial.
Most of the rest is mostly three people on an empty stage talking to
a voice from above, almost a sort of Samuel Becket concept.
Petter
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 13:19:33
From: David Welle (dwelle@online.dct.com)
Subject: Space1999: An Infernal Variety of Things
(As the subject sort of indicates, this is partially about "The
Infernal Machine," and mostly about a wide variety of things. :)
Petter,
Thanks for all of your comments, which I enjoyed reading!
Petter wrote:
>I've noticed that most of those who are enthusiastic about
>THE INFERNAL MACHINE speak of Gwents display of emotions.
>THE GUARDIAN OF PIRI is about machines apparently without
>emotions, but using the Servant's fake emotions in order
>to convince Koenig et al.
Well, I do find "The Guardian of Piri" a stronger, more interesting
episode, for some of the same reasons. In fact, "Piri" is probably
my favorite Y1 episode. I do like "The Infernal Machine" for its
strong contrasts to "Guardian of Piri." "Machine" itself isn't the
one of the best episodes, but *is* one of the better ones.
>Similar to 2001, we are made to feel more for the computer than for
>the astronauts, which in it self is an interesting idea. For me
>2001 worked better in this respect, however, feeling Leo McKern
>over-the-top performance was less effective than the more subdued
>style of the early episodes.
I could see how McKern's performance was over-the-top, yet I felt it
was an almost Shakespearean oratory style that played perfectly in
this episode. The resulting Companion seemed like a worn-out out
old man who still had enough fiestiness to occasionally argue and
bicker with Gwent, while at other times, he was weighted down with
a sense of defeat. This alternation of emotion in the Companion
shows hints of what he once was versus what he has been reduced to.
The alternation is paralleled in Gwent as well; indeed, Gwent is
most mercurial, seemingly like a younger version of the Companion
may have been. Their personalities match so well. These are some
of the reasons I found "Infernal Machine" to be of interest.
Did Leo McKern do a lot of theater acting, by any chance?
>Fair enough, David. From my point of view THE INFERNAL
>MACHINE anticipates these two stories, perhaps BRIAN THE
>BRAIN to a greater extent than ONE MOMENT OF HUMANITY.
>On the other hand, ONE MATTER OF HUMANITY seems to focus
>on some of the ideas used in THE GUARDIAN OF PIRI, the
>relationship between life, intelligence and emotions,
Yes, I think these episodes are "arrayed" much as you indicated.
>although not as efficiently as the former, I feel.
Considering "One Moment of Humanity" is my second *least* favorite Y2
episode, and "The Guardian of Piri" is my *most* favorite Y1 episode,
I most definitely agree! Still, there'll be enough comparisons that
will be interesting to make. Actually, there are a number of inter-
esting ideas to explore in "One Moment of Humanity," but there were
a couple of scenes I couldn't stomach, and that really dragged my
opinion of the episode way down. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
>There is mention of Victor's artificial heart, and he has some nice
>one-lines, but there doesn't seem to be much purpose to the heart
>matter, and many of his sentences, though quite good some of them,
>could easily have been put into the mouth of John, Helena or Alan.
Hmmm, you may be right about Victor here, but I will probably have
to watch the episode again, to look at it from this perspective. I
am perhaps reading too much into Victor. I guess I've always liked
making a lot of comparisons when it comes to "The Infernal Machine,"
and I think I am comparing Victor to Companion here. Both were
scientists, both had tendencies of getting too enthusiastic, to the
point of taking bad risks, yet both also seem to have been tempered,
Companion having had to live with -- or should I say WITHIN? -- his
decisions, and Victor with a degree of wisdom (which itself often
comes from experience).
One excellent example of Victor's enthusiasm getting the better of his
wisdom comes, interestingly enough, from "Death's Other Dominion,"
where Prof. Bergman had more than willingly submitted himself to an
experiment in a device he knew little about, and with a *very* shaky,
overly-quick approval from Dr. Russell. Companion, once a free
individual, threw himself into a different box. Come to think of it,
that now makes me wonder if Companion had been seeking a form of
immortality, not so much for his own body, but for his mind, copied
into the form of Gwent. Did someone already mention this? With
Victor, I always figured he must have learned some lessons on Ultima
Thule, and that was partly why he later rejected Gwent. On the other
hand, Gwent was using force against him and the rest of the Alphans,
so it's rather hard to draw conclusions.
So maybe I am reading too much into Victor in the Infernal Machine,
especially considering Barry Morse's own words as relayed by Janet
and yourself. Perhaps, more than anything, there were lost oppor-
tunities in regard to Victor in this episode. I'll have to keep
all of this in mind the next time I watch "The Infernal Machine."
Also, I'm not trying to downplay the Companion's desire to
explore the universe, because I'd certainly love to be able
to do that as well, but I'm looking more at the Gwent machine
that Companion was locked into -- the man that had put himself
at the mercy of a machine that had, in effect,gotten the better
of him. Instead of man using a machine, it was the machine using
man.
>In the respect of characterisation I feel we are a long, long way
>away from BREAKAWAY, MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK SUN and RING
>AROUND THE MOON.
Hmmm, I curiously agree with this statement, though for com-
pletely opposite reasons, namely that I never have cared much
for the way the characters were written and portrayed in these
early episodes (and "Ring Around the Moon," as it turns out, is
far and away my least favorite episode of Year 1, unfortunately).
Sorry, Petter, that is just my opinion, of course. Yet, now that
I am, for the first time, seeing the correct order of Y1 episodes,
I can better appreciate the *progression* of the characterizations
from the early episodes to the later episodes, and can see them more
as real people moving from distant working relationships and residual
shock from Breakaway to more of a building of community as the series
progressed. Previously, with the episodes in syndication and out of
order, there was no sense of progression and character building; what
I saw was frustratingly abrupt and continual sea-changes in character
-- and I'm not saying just mercurial emotional mood, but fundamental
aspects of the characters. Not that it solves all issues, from my
viewpoint, but they do make some more sense now.
>I've always felt that THE BETA CLOUD was a far superior
>episode to THE RULES OF LUTON.
Agreed. "Rules of Luton" may have been strengthened to some degree
had it been Maya and Tony on the planet, as I mentioned before, but it
would have likely remained a weaker episode than "Beta Cloud" even then.
>The three Charles Woodgrove scripts seems to illustrate the mind of
>Fred Freiberger to a great extent, and are quite fascinating in this
>respect, I think. The focus on Maya and Tony in THE BETA CLOUD
>probably illustrates what he ment with "a more youthful look" to the
>series, and there are many examples of what he ment by "humour",
>"emotions", "honoust adventure", "characterisation", "likeable
>characters" etc.
Well, I'm no fan of going for "a more youthful look" for the sake
of a "youthful look." Though I like Y2, I have never approved of
all the changes Freiberger made, especially the wholesale dumping
of so many characters, particularly my favorite Year 1 character,
Victor, who could have worked wonderfully well with Maya. Another
series that did this, even more radically, was seaQuest DSV, and
that was disastrous decision, IMO. Freiberger was at least con-
vinced (ordered?) to keep Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Nick
Tate in their roles, while Catherine Schell and Tony Anholt were
at least worthy (IMO) additions, acting-wise (her especially). I
know a lot of people would disagree, but those are my feelings.
As to the rest, while "honest adventure" is a somewhat silly-sounding
phrase to use for FF to use, I did appreciate many of the other things
you mentioned, though Y2 wavered between working them in a good way on
one hand and sometimes going overboard on other occasions.
It is really a complicated picture with a lot of players who influenced the
course of the series in various ways, some of which I appreciated, some of
which I disliked.
>In fact, I don't think Freiberger was especially fond of main characters
>John and Helena at all, and would have dumped them [as well]
That would have certainly been a mistake, particularly in the case of John,
who was a very strong
character who made an excellent commander, and was so central to the series
to start with. Even with all the changes, and even with Maya being my
favorite character, John was still the "anchor" of the show, so to speak.
>On the other hand, Johnny Byrne and other too, perhaps, were still fighting
>to keep some of the things that made the original series work within the
>concept of the new series. Well, more on this later, as we catch up
>with Year Two.
I'm thankful for that, because it likely kept the changes, which were
already significant, from becoming extreme, and, in the end, resulted in
the Year Two which we saw, which hooked me on the series as a whole. As
you can tell from this (and if you were to look at the "Apples and Oranges"
Thread Pages), you'd see I have rather mixed feelings about Freiberger
himself. It was a variety of factors that comprised Y2, just as it was a
variety of factors that comprised Y1.
>Anyway, as to your comments, David, about "essentially any
>episode could have character exchanges", this may be true
>to a certain extent,
Actually, that's all I really meant with my previous argument. "A
certain extent," as you said, was really my intent, because there
would definitely be cases that an attempt at exchanging characters
would have fatally weakened the episodes. I was kind of arguing
there possibly being a continuum in this regard. Near one end might
be "Rules of Luton," which might have been strengthened somewhat had
it put Maya with Tony instead of John; in the middle might be Victor
in "The Infernal Machine," where a change may have been neutral; and
one the other end would be an episode like "Breakaway," where it would
have been stupid to move characters around. That is more what I was
getting at: something of a measuring stick, where some episodes may
have been better off, the same as, or worse off with some changes in
which characters went where.
As to Victor in "Infernal Machine," I guess I feel the episode would
have been weakened somewhat -- maybe not a lot -- had Victor not been
in Gwent with John and Helena; but again, that may be more because of
what I read into the encounter, which could represent lost opportun-
ities rather than what made it to film.
>Episodes like THE INFERNAL MACHINE and DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION makes
>rather marginal impact on the series as a whole, I feel, and could
>in principal have been left out of the series without lessening our
>understanding of Alpha and its inhabitants.
Now that is an interestingly reductionalist means of measurement! :-)
I obviously never considered approaching a series' episodes in that
way, and just go with a typical rating system. Instead of A/B/C/D/F
or 0-4 types of ratings type ratings, yours sounds more like pass/fail
in one way, though I'm pretty sure you're not arguing "Infernal Machine"
shouldn't have been filmed. On the other hand,there are a few episodes,
from both seasons, that could have been left out IMO too; but for me,
that was because the episodes in question were just plain awful.
>The focus in these episodes were not on the Alphans, but rather on
>external characters and situations.
I'll leave external characters alone for a moment, but I don't have
a problem with external situations, because together with internal
situations, they can reveal many facets of what a character is all
about, providing the character acts in a convincing way. Episodes
that work build both the plot and the characters work the best, and
both aspects, in general, can build on each other, if well-written.
What I mean is that if the characters are convincing, the plot can
become more powerful for we become more "involved" through the
characters, while a strong plot can reveal much about the characters.
I'm not picky about whether the plot derives from external situations
or begins with an internal situation.
It is very interesting for you to have pointed this out Petter, because I
evidently am not very picky in that regard, so I never really thought about
the full impact of "internal" vs. "external" for itself. Interesting.
Of my stories, "The Law of Indirection" is about external situations, while
"The Transfer" takes place totally on Alpha, though it isn't always the
Alpha we know. My next two stories split as well.
Some episodes of series -- or even whole series -- try to build plot while
largely ignoring characterisation, or conversely focus almost entirely on
character and don't bother building much of a plot. Those are what I'd
call "average" episodes, for they are typically enjoyable in some ways, but
fall flat in others. Some episodes flop in both categories, by providing a
weak plot and weak characterization. Some episodes do well with both, and
those are the superlative ones, because this is where I get the feeling of
being pulled along with an excellent storyline.
There is, in some senses, another, third dimension with series such
as Space: 1999, and that could loosely be called "philosophical" or
"thematic." Namely, why kind of underpinnings are there on an epi-
sode, that provide more depth than just plot or characterization
alone? What does it say about humanity, the universe, or technology?
It's an "extra" ingredient that sparks the imagination further.
It is also harder to recognize, taking more experience or analysis
to see or find. S19 episodes such as "Guardian of Piri" and "The
Metamorph" not only have powerful plots, excellent characterization,
but the most startling *ideas*. But just as plot could be pursued
to the exclusion of good characterization, or characterization could
be overstressed to the point of having a pathetic plot, philosophy
could be stressed to the point of blasting holes in the plot or
ending up with characterizations so bad that it spoils the episode.
An example for me might be "One Moment of Humanity." It could be
seen as studying several themes, such as Petter and I mentioned,
yet the *execution* of the episode is sometimes so bad that it
really ruined the episode for me. Several Y1 episodes pursued
interesting philosophical areas to the exclusion of, for example,
sensible behavior from Helena, making some of her actions look so
stupid that it really made the progression of the episode hard to
believe, rendering the episodes in question merely "average" in-
stead of great or excellent.
"Force of Life" might be one example of the latter. It's plot
clicked along very nicely for the most part, and the themes were
interesting, but some of the things Helena and Hilary did, and
some of the things John and Victor said, just looked so silly --
or at times outright contradictory -- that it really lowered my
opinion of the episode. I still enjoyed it for the most part,
but it remained an "average" episode.
In one sense, that's perhaps not very forgiving, but in other
senses, it is, because for me, it really takes "three strikes"
for an episode to be totally "out" in my opinion. It would have
to screw up the plot, the characterization, *and* the theme to be
a failure in my opinion.
Do all three *well*, and it's a great, if not superlative, episode.
Do all three, but not as well, or only get some right, and I will
still see a good episode, just not great.
Of course, a series of nothing but average episodes would never rise above
a mediocre rating for the series as a whole, but S19 had many fine
episodes, and several superlative, absolutely classic episodes, so the
series ranks high with me! :-)
Back to external characters.... Now they typically are part of the
external situations, and -- through interacting with the Alphans --
bring out aspects of the Alphans' characters. So that itself is
not a problem. However, if a series focuses *more* on its guest
characters than its regular characters, the regulars will be
weakened.
>Nevertheless, even an interesting early script such as DRAGON'S
>DOMAIN lost much of it's impetus because of the rewriting of Tony
>Cellini into a role that was originally designed to flesh out the
>Alan Carter character to a greater extent as I've understood.
Hmmm, I didn't know that. Substitute Alan for Tony, let Alan live
to kill the dragon instead of Tony's dying that left the hatchet
job to John... yeah, that's workable, and would have definitely
strengthened Alan's character. Tony Cellini's is one of those
many memorable guest characterizations, which is an oft-noted
strength of the series; but you do bring up an interesting con-
undrum of S19 possibly having had this strength by making sacri-
fices elsewhere.
What we ended up with, in both seasons, for better and worse, was
perhaps the "too many cooks" problem: ITC in the UK, ITC New York,
RAI, Anderson, Freiberger, etc. All of them and many others were
making a number of demands on the series. This has been remarked
on in the past, and I don't think I really have much to add.
>In the case of THE RULES OF LUTON, THE BETA CLOUD and SPACE WARP, these
>are episodes for the die hard Freiberger fans, I feel, contrasting other
>episodes, like the Byrne episodes, but, on the other hand, emphasising
>the Freiberger impact which is prevailent through out the second series.
>In order to understand Year Two, I feel watching these three are rather
>vital. These could not have been left out.
Hmmm, I said I have mixed feelings about Freiberger, and that was about him
as a producer; but I can see that I have equally mixed feelings about him
as a writer, for I'd give "The Rules of Luton" a rather low mark, "Space
Warp" and average mark, and "The Beta Cloud" a high mark. I really liked
Byrne's Y2 episodes (and especially loved "The Metamorph," which I know he
had to alter to include Maya, and "The Dorcons"). I liked several of
Byrne's Y1 episodes as well.
I agree, though, that looking at the Woodgrove episodes is, in many senses,
looking at Freiberger himself, so I'm not really surprised that my feelings
are consistent in that regard. He brought a number of changes I felt were
beneficial, as well as a number of changes that weren't; but he's not the
whole story of Y2, for there's the other writers, the actors, and so on.
For example, "Rules of Luton" could have been a total disaster (and I'm
sure some people think it *was* :-), but the acting of Martin Landau and
Catherine Schell salvaged something from this script. The characterization
at least came through, even if little else did, IMO.
>The visual highlights of THE INFERNAL MACHINE, as I experience it,
>is the scene when they enter Gwent and the scene with Companion's
>burial. Most of the rest is mostly three people on an empty stage
>talking to a voice from above, almost a sort of Samuel Becket con-
>cept.
Well, the "voice from above" approach is certainly not one I would
recommend using frequently, but in this episode, I thought it worked well,
in the sense of god-like demands raining down from above, and how the
Alphans reacted.
Again, not that "The Infernal Machine" is really that strong, because
it doesn't make my top five. I haven't tried listing a top ten, so I
actually am not entirely sure that "Infernal Machine" would make that
either. It has elements of all three things -- plot, character, and
ideas -- and is above average with all of them, but not really super-
lative with any one of those, much less all three like "Guardian of
Piri" was.
I call "The Infernal Machine" ~2.5 on a scale of 0-4, a B-.
----David