From: David Acheson (dkach@hot44mail.com)
Subject: Space1999: The Rules of Luton
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 03:17:49 EDT

A new episode for discussion this week - THE RULES OF LUTON. As having 
control over the year two direction and scripts filmed to this point of 
discussion were not enough, the great Fred Freiberger himself decided to 
try his hand at writing an episode of the series. This was the first of 
three he would  eventually contribute to the second season. Strangely 
enough he wrote them under a pseudonym, Charles Woodgrove. Was he 
embarrased by them? Not likely as our exhibitionist producer was one of 
the first to push this fact. So why the penname?

So what do I think of Freiberger's attempt at writing for SPACE: 1999? 
Despite the constant negative criticism from listmembers (too silly in 
most fans' opinions) I am actually more bored with it than anything. 
Yes, the story of talking plants and a prolonged chase by three 
stereotypical aliens (strong, transport, and invisible) is rather silly 
but is it really sillier than THE TAYBOR? That comical entry in the 
series was intentionally silly and I liked it on that merit but it just 
was not part of the usual 1999 universe. Our Alphans appear to be back 
to their normal universe despite a mainly one dimensional storyline 
(with the exception of one moment to be discussed below). It is exactly 
here where Freiberger failed as a screenwriter and ultimately as series 
producer as his handle on the series kept much of it one dimensional.  
This is not to say there were not some great moments in year two but 
these seem to be due to more experienced hands that battled Freiberger 
all the way or were just clever enough to run circles around him. Enough 
said though.

The idea of intelligent plant life is not a totally unbelievable concept 
but it could have been handled a lot more interestingly. The whole 
vegetable versus animal conflict was transformed into a remake of the 
STAR TREK episode, THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION (which itself was rather 
silly).

Sometimes even Freiberger himself did not have a clue as to his own set 
up for the series. We know that Maya could only hold her transformations 
for an hour but she did not necessarily have to transform back into 
herself before changing again. And yet this appears to be the case when 
she is captured and caged in the form of a bird. I remember reading once 
about Freiberger being asked about this point. He waved it off as 
writers' licence. Yes, but he was the fellow who created the character 
and concept in the first place. Did he think much through in producing 
the second year or made it up as they went along?

However, Freiberger did shine and partially redeems himself in one 
rather important moment of the episode and perhaps the whole second 
season. It is the sequence where Maya and Koenig take a rest and discuss 
some of their past history. For the first time since BREAKAWAY we know 
something about Koenig other than being a astronaut cadet who was a 
friend of Victor Bergman. His being a loner (as an orphan) tells a lot 
about Koenig's ability to easily separate work from friendship and 
indeed his inabilty to make quick friends. In fact, the death of his 
wife in a short-lived nuclear war would be the final nail in his overall 
pessimism towards mankind. Yet, because he survived all past tragedies, 
he has become a stronger person and right for a command position.
Magically, the Koenig of year one is explained.

As for Maya, we end all the speculating since THE METAMORPH and have a
real understanding of her sheltered but loving relationship with her
father and even Mentor's whole reason for not abandoning Psychon like
most of the race had. It must have created a strain on both Mentor and
Maya knowing that her brother obviously did not share the same
connection and left the dying world. This was the kind of moment that
should have been carried further into the series.

Now was the above moment a result of Freiberger humanizing the
characters or just a filler because THE RULES OF LUTON was the first of
the famous double-up episodes and Catherine Schell and Martin Landau
virtually had to carry the episode themselves? Anyone?

The director this time around was veteran Val Guest. He had worked on
many British series and feature films (including some classic sci-fi B
films) as both a director and writer. His works actually date back to
the 1930's. This was his first entry in the series (others would soon
follow) and despite the overall unconvincing storyline he does a rather
good job.

Thats my take on the plant episode. Lower than middle in quality but
there were still sillier and more repugnant episodes. ALL THAT GLISTERS
is just one of those.

David Acheson



From: jcg@vh4tag.net
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:03:28 -0400
Subject: Space1999: The Rules Of Luton

I've always thought the voice of the Luton Judges sounded like Ian Anderson
of Jethro Tull.  It would be nice to hear the trees  break out into a
chorus of Songs From The Wood.

The commlock image of the trees was actually a color slide (or photo)
inside a hollowed out prop.  I'm not too sure why they did this, unless
they wanted the image to be in color, or they didn't want to deal with
having to rig up the working commlock (considering the double up filming.)

Notice Landau is holding the commlock with his hand on the top of it, but
the closeup of it has the hand holding it from underneath.

Those of you who discuss characterization will probably go over the fact
that Koenig jumps instantly to the military view of kill the enemy, but
Maya argues for non-killing.

I said a few reviews back that I would eat my words, and here it is (pass
the salt): They included closeups of the monitor in the eagle, despite the
side angle where you could see the actor in the chair (in this case Anholt)
and the side mounted monitor.  This of course is to vary the shots, just as
you would do if there were two people physically in the scene.

All of the shots of the lion were stock footage (since of course we do not
see the lion in the same shot with Transport.)

Are we all asking why Maya doesn't change form so she can carry the heavy
lance instead of the injured Koenig?

I find Koenig a little too flip in those first couple of scenes.

The Act III discussion about Psychon and Koenig's wife is my favorite in
the entire series.  And it looks like he is crying at the end as he
remembers his late wife...nice to see that in a hero.

The final time Koenig talks to the Judges, the hand on the close up of the
commlock matches how Landau is holding it.

My girlfriend, who has watched some of the year twos asked me why Maya
doesn't just change into a bug and crawl out of the cage...since she
remembers Maya changing directly from one creature into another in a
previous episode.

Are there two different sets of trees in the finale?

Physics time:  the Judges can obscure all of the sensors, and yet the eagle
doesn't react to the physical presence of the planet when Tony is flying
through the atmosphere at space velocities?

Alpha is signaling Koenig, and Maya's commlock picks it up?

I don't despise this episode as many others seem to do.  Because of that
one dialog scene, I have a warm place for this one.  I still have bigger
problems with A Force Of Life, Ring Around The Moon and to a lesser extent
All That Glisters.

I of course haven't mentioned once again aliens that have complete control
over everything without a hint of technology.  Again why I liked The
Taybor.  But I like variety, so a run and jump here and there is all right
with me.



From: LKJ1999@aol4tag.com
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:16:54 EDT
Subject: Space1999: Rules Of Luton Bloppers.

There are sure alot of bloppers in this episode!

NO.1  When Alien Strong points across the river, and turns his head, you can
see
a mans neck under the all that hair!  You can also see his wrist!

NO.2   When Maya is a Hawk, and the vines try to get her, you can see fishing
line pulling the vines!

NO.3 When Alien Invisible goes thru the big bush, when the bush slaps back,
You can see fishing line that was used to pull the bush apart!!!

Chas P.             LKJ1999



From: LKJ1999@aol4tag.com
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 06:46:00 EDT
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules Of Luton Bloppers.

Sorry, i should have said Alien Transport!!!    NOT Alien Strong!  Also Alien
Transport is up in a tree, when You  can see his neck..

Chas P.             LKJ1999



Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:57:37 -0400
From: Tom Miller (tmiller@north44net.org)
Subject: Space1999: Rules does not rule

I saw so many Star Trek ties that I felt it was weak.  Kirk, battled the
gorn, Keonig battled some pre-chewabacca beasts.

No, I won't kill him, is the most overused storyline in sci fi history.

Rate this one, a D.

Ps, I am not totally against year two, but after reviewing the episodes
in the cyberary, I found only a few I truly liked.

Tom



From: LKJ1999@aol4tag.com
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 06:47:50 EDT
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules does not rule

I hope SpaceWarp was one You liked...

Chas P.                  LKJ1999




From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Space1999: Rules of Luton
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 02:48:09 EDT

I don't hate this one as much as some other Year 2 episodes (All That
Blisters, Space Warp, Beta Cloud, Catacrumbs of the Moon) but it is
definitely not a favorite.  It is basically that good old standby,
"Arena" by Frederic Brown trotted out again.  ("Arena" was also done on
the original "Outer Limits").

I also liked that scene with Maya and Koenig.  It did feel a little out
of focus with the universe presented in Year 1.  Don't ask me why but it
just felt like a World War III scenario seemed inconsistent.  But I still
like the scene.  So I'm schizophrenic.

The alien costumes are worse than laughable.  Even the gorn looked more
realistic and that was clearly a guy in a suit.

Overall grade:  D  (would be a D- except for Maya and Koenig's scene).

Off topic:  I think Catherine Ross would have done a great job as Dr.
Russell.  But I can't see anyone but Landau as Koenig.  It's a shame he
was blackisted so long in the States after "Mission: Impossible."  He
didn't really do much after 1999 until "Ed Wood" did he?  I mean except
for "Meteor", the "Deep Impact" of the 70's.

David J Lerda



From: LKJ1999@aol4tag.com
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 06:51:24 EDT
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules of Luton

I hope You don't hate any S-1999 episode!  And how could You hate SpaceWarp???

Chas P.              LKJ1999



Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 12:27:43 +0000
From: Ina Litera (ilitera@idt4tag.net)
Subject: Space1999: Triffid in Luton and OT heading down east

Hey all,

Coming out of lurking mode  to say I'm heading out of town for a week.
For anyone who happens to be in the beautiful state of Maine on Sat. Aug
1 , I will be playing with the Arcady Festival Orchestra at the Maine
Fair at 2 and 6pm. We'll be performing Saint-Saens Carnival of the
Animals which ties in well to this weeks discussion of "Luton"- (there
being no animals )

Personnally I think it would have been a far more interesting episode
with a few triffids walking around. (now there was an evil plant)

Later,
Ina



From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 13:26:24 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules of Luton

David Lerda wrote:

> I don't hate this one as much as some other Year 2 episodes (All That
> Blisters, Space Warp, Beta Cloud, Catacrumbs of the Moon) but it is
> definitely not a favorite.  It is basically that good old standby,
> "Arena" by Frederic Brown trotted out again.  ("Arena" was also done on
> the original "Outer Limits").

Interesting this.  According to my taste ALL THAT GLISTERS and CATACOMBS OF
THE MOON do not rate all that badly with the Year Two episodes actually.
ALL THAT GLISTERS is interesting in it's own wacky way, close to an Ed
Wood hommage SPACE:1999 style, but at with a decent ecological theme.  Its
message about the limited resources on this planet and how cowboy attitudes
is a direct threat to how we can demolish ourselves is not all that bad, I
feel.
In fact, in all its absurdness I think it is quite all right.

CATACOMBS OF THE MOON is a typical Anthony Terpiloff episode, I think.  As
I'm not a great fan of his contribution to the series, personally finding
his INFERNAL MACHINE and some of his other efforts a good way below average
in Year One, the seriousness of his content, a dying mans queries about
life and death, are certainly different from the usual Freiberger/Woodgrove
run-around.

What puzzles me, however, is that there seem to be intelligent people
who like DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION and THE INFERNAL MACHINE, perhaps even
EARTHBOUND and COLLISION COURSE too, but then have very little nice to
say about CATACOMBS OF THE MOON.  How can this be so?  From my point of
view CATACOMBS OF THE MOON seem to be more or less a carbon copy of his
previous works, right down to the literary refernces, Dante's inferno
this time, only spiced up a bit by Freiberger production values.  Is it
the Freiberger touch that people dislike?

It would be very interesting to have some comments on this, David.

Well, saying that I find ALL THAT GLISTERS and CATACOMBS OF THE MOON
better than RULES OF LUTON I would perhaps not say that it is completely
unedible.

The problem with the Woodgrove episodes, the way I see it, is that they
seem to be absolutely devoid of meaning.  At least from an initial point of
view there is difficult to see anything but plot and structure, that is
people running, fighting, solving problems and so on.  There seem to be no
deeper meaning about world economy, ecology, human alienation or other
things typical of a SPACE:1999 episode.

> I also liked that scene with Maya and Koenig.  It did feel a little out
> of focus with the universe presented in Year 1.  Don't ask me why but it
> just felt like a World War III scenario seemed inconsistent.  But I still
> like the scene.  So I'm schizophrenic.

Yes.  Martin Willey calls the world view expressed by Maya and Koenig in
this scene as "Nazi paradise".  Horribly banal and awful.

> The alien costumes are worse than laughable.  Even the gorn looked more
> realistic and that was clearly a guy in a suit.

Well I suppose one shouldn't blame Freiberger for location shots and
costumes, pulling plants by fishing lines etc.  I suppose Keith Wilson and
Val Guest are the ones responsible for this, but even the best costumes
and special effects would have little consequence for the episode, I feel,
certainly not making it any better.

The thing I question myself when watching this kind of material is what
kind of person would write anything like this?  Is there a philosophy
to the work of Freiberger?

Petter



From: "Atomic Possum" (atomicpossum@toast4tag.net)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules of Luton
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 11:00:58 -0500

>Its message about the limited resources on this planet and how cowboy attitudes
>is a direct threat to how we can demolish ourselves is not all that bad,

At least it MIGHT be, IF it were in there.

>view CATACOMBS OF THE MOON seem to be more or less a carbon copy of his
>previous works, right down to the literary refernces, Dante's inferno
>this time, only spiced up a bit by Freiberger production values.  Is it
>the Freiberger touch that people dislike?

     Personally, I don't actively dislike CATACOMBS.  It's not the greatest
ep, but it has some interesting notions--and is, perhaps, the most
metaphysical episode of the second season...

>The problem with the Woodgrove episodes, the way I see it, is that they
>seem to be absolutely devoid of meaning.  At least from an initial point of
>view there is difficult to see anything but plot and structure, that is
>people running, fighting, solving problems and so on.  There seem to be no
>deeper meaning about world economy, ecology, human alienation or other
>things typical of a SPACE:1999 episode.


     That's not the main problem with them, Petter.  THe main problem is
that the plot is always so simplistic--run around, fight.  Your disliked
INFERNAL MACHINE, even if you want to avoid what it's really about, at least
is interesting as a plot:  Koenig et al trying to face a greater power that
is petulant, abusive, and completely uncoerned with their point of view.
Their only method to avoid the being's captivity is to try to argue their
way out--or, ultimately, killing it through an act of desperation, which
they would have preferred not to do.

     The Woodgrove plots, however, usually operate on a very superficial
level:

     Koenig and Maya fight for their lives--that's all there is to it.
There's no differing ideas to deal with,  no more concepts other than that.

    Some creature wants the Alphan life support system--that's all (and we
don't even know WHY!).

    Maya is sick and delirious, while Tony and John are lost in space.
That's it.

    You can pretty much understand each of these episodes in their totality
with a single line to sum them up--and that's what makes them less
satisfying to watch.  Give a more interesting plot, and the episode will
work.  The problem is that these are completely devoid of any nuance
whatsoever.

>The thing I question myself when watching this kind of material is what
>kind of person would write anything like this?  Is there a philosophy
>to the work of Freiberger?

    "Get it out on time," I think.

Jon "Mr. Wonderful" Stadter



Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 12:08:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Ellen C. Lindow" (sfdxb@scfn.thpl4tag.lib.fl.us)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules of Luton

> Yes.  Martin Willey calls the world view expressed by Maya and Koenig in
> this scene as "Nazi paradise".  Horribly banal and awful.

I 'm kind of confused by the above statement about a Nazi paradise.  The
prediction of a racially based WWIII is not something that seems
particularly far fetched to me, although I do have some reservations about
the human race being able to come out the other side of a war like this
and still have the resources to build a space program.  Perhaps I'm
misunderstanding the reference.  Which side of the war would have been a
Nazi paradise?

Racism is an insidious problem that many of us deal with on a day to day
basis.  I teach in a racially diverse school in a rural setting, and an
undercurrent of tension is always there.  Although there are exceptions in
all situations, I watch students from different cultures and economic
groups shun, insult, fight with and be rude to each other on a daily
basis.  And frequently, when they talk to me on a personal level, the
children are confused and hurt by what they do to each other (and I have
a reptuation for being one of the adults here that all the kids can talk
to, without regards to color.)  I have frequently been asked by students
why another student won't cooperate, or work with them.  It breaks my
heart when they ask "Is it because I'm _________(fill in color of your
choice)"

Since facism breeds on racism, it seems to me the scenario Koenig
describes is quite likely to occur, and still may.



From: David Acheson (dkach@hot44mail.com)
Subject: Space1999: Catacombs and stuff
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 12:39:38 EDT

Actually I liked CATACOMBS OF THE MOON. An interesting episode indeed
but I am not going into it right now. That episode is still way off.

As for Petter thinking ALL THAT GLISTERS is a fun sort of episode in a
ED WOOD sort of way? First Petter, Ed Wood would have produced something
even more trashy than Fred Freiberger's "Hanna-Barbera" approach as you
are used to calling it. Can you imagine Ed Wood's DORZAK. Cross-dressing
transvetites hauling Dorzak to a prison world. Scary!

 Why people defend ALL THAT GLISTERS and trash CATACOMBS is beyond me. I
can see people not liking the latter but GLISTERS was just plain bad. If
there was an ecological message to that rock episode I fail to see it.
If Keith Miles didn't write it badly then it was Freiberger that reduced
it to a lifeless pathetic dud. Shermeen Williams should have been on
this episode so they could leave both her and the rock behind.

LUTON suffers from Freiberger's comic book approach but the discussion
scene between Landau and Schell (two of the best actors in the series)
gave it one good moment that again was one of season two's better
points.

As for the recent talk about why season one fans dislike season two I
think I summed that all up very nicely in my THE RULES OF LUTON review
on Monday. Freiberger kept much of the show one dimensional so it did
not have the same pyschological approach as year one. But lets remember
season two had its own fans who liked the action adventure formula.
While a lot of year two was just flash in my opinion I do admit there
were some good highlights. 1999 at its worst back in 1976-1977 was still
better than much of the sci-fi stuff out to that date. However, today it
suffers badly. But lets not forget that season two had changes only
because of problems with season one. Year two fans love to remind
everyone of that fact and they are right to do so.

I feel its going to be an interesting weekly episode discussion during
the remainder of the series.

David Acheson



From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 16:49:40 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules of Luton

> he wrote them under a pseudonym, Charles Woodgrove. Was he
> embarrased by them? Not likely as our exhibitionist producer was one of
> the first to push this fact. So why the penname?

Interesting question.  When Anderson wanted to make the original SPACE:1999
he was being told by Abe Mandell that all of the stories should be in
outer space and there should be no "tea in the Midlands".

I wonder if Charles Woodgrove was an inside joke, Freiberger trying to
sound as much "tea in the Midlands" as possible when making his
contributions.

> So what do I think of Freiberger's attempt at writing for SPACE: 1999?
> Despite the constant negative criticism from listmembers (too silly in
> most fans' opinions) I am actually more bored with it than anything.

I totally agree.  I feel that ALL THAT GLISTERS is about as silly as this,
but it is far more enjoyable.  In that episode you can at least watch
the actors trying to do something, and even when being at its most absurd, it
comes much closer to absurd theatre than something like this.

> Yes, the story of talking plants and a prolonged chase by three
> stereotypical aliens (strong, transport, and invisible) is rather silly
> but is it really sillier than THE TAYBOR? That comical entry in the
> series was intentionally silly and I liked it on that merit but it just
> was not part of the usual 1999 universe.

There have been many complaints about THE TAYBOR, not everybodys cup of
tea, I suppose, going light comedy.  Nevertheless, the underpinnings about
trading societies, world economy and alienation inherit in the capitalistic
society were serious enough and made the episode an interesting entry in the
bizarre universe of Year Two, I think.

> Our Alphans appear to be back
> to their normal universe despite a mainly one dimensional storyline
> (with the exception of one moment to be discussed below).

Well, this is one way to see it, I suppose.  Personally I feel that
this episode shows the Alphans in a different universe almost with
a similar consequence as with the leap from THE TESTAMENT OF ARKADIA to
THE METAMORPH.  No matter how silly the journey of Year Two is, there
is almost all the time some type of meta-narrative about the human
condition.  THE RULES OF LUTON is the first departure from this, I think,
feeling the story seem more likely to have been written by Freibergers
four year old daughter than himself.  Well, at least initially it feels
so.

> The idea of intelligent plant life is not a totally unbelievable concept
> but it could have been handled a lot more interestingly. The whole
> vegetable versus animal conflict was transformed into a remake of the
> STAR TREK episode, THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION (which itself was rather
> silly).

Yes, and if one would like to watch something intelligent about plant life
one could of course always return to THE TROUBLED SPIRIT.



> However, Freiberger did shine and partially redeems himself in one
> rather important moment of the episode and perhaps the whole second
> season. It is the sequence where Maya and Koenig take a rest and discuss
> some of their past history.

This would obviously be the place to look for clues about what Freiberger
was actually thinking when he wasn't writing the run-around bits.


MAYA: "The memories aren't sad. Except at the end. Psychon was a happy place.
That's why most of us wouldn't leave it even when we knew we faced disaster."
KOENIG: "Your brother left?"
MAYA: "My brother, like Mentor my father, was on Psychon's High Scientific
Council. He knew there was no hope when our planet began to boil. So my brother
and a thousand others went off into uncharted space...preferring to take their
chances than face sure death."
KOENIG: "Did they find another planet?"
MAYA: "We never heard from him again. Or any of the others who built spaceships
after that and left. As Psychon's temperature kept rising."
KOENIG: "If the break up of the planet was inevitable, why didn't Mentor
leave?"
MAYA: "My father's dream was to restore Psychon. To make it the beautiful
planet
it once was.  But nobody shared his dream. They all left. Preferring to take
their chances in the unknown."
KOENIG: "But if every...every scientist on Psychon knew what was coming...why
did Mentor remain so stubborn?"
MAYA: "He wasn't only stubborn. He was in love. My mother's tomb was on
Psychon,
and he wouldn't leave her."
KOENIG: "What about you?"
MAYA: "Oh, he tried to make me go. But I wouldn't. I couldn't let him stay
alone."
KOENIG: "He should have made you go."
MAYA: "You don't understand. He really believed he could perform the miracle of
restoring Psychon. And I got caught up in that dream. Mentor was a great
scientist. And he was my father. I knew he could do anything."

This could be about Freiberger's childhood memories from the Brooklyn
Ghettos, himself being the brother Maya speaks about, Maya being his
sister who stayed at home trying to take care of the family while Freiberger
tried to make a life for himself as a writer.

When he talks about Psychon on the edge of exploding it could indicate
perhaps that his father was an alchoholic with bad temper.  Anyway it
seems reasonable to think that Freiberger senior was not a person who
would assimilate to American values, perhaps being a Jew immigrated from
Germany or Poland running his family like Hjalmar Ekdahl in Ibsen's
THE WILD DUCKLING.

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  These comments touch off another thread: Psychoanalyzing Freiberger?]

MAYA: "I don't see anything."
KOENIG: "Yeah."
He winces & they return to their places. Invisible reappears & resumes
climbing. Koenig returns to scraping the belt.
MAYA: "Must you keep at it?"
KOENIG: "Firepower, Maya. In a combat situation there's nothing as persuasive
as firepower."

Here we have a peak into Freiberger's philosophy of life, I believe.  Firepower
was obviously his method when attacking Year One, using firepower terms like
"honest adventure", "plastic relationships" and "humour" in order to
describe what was good and bad with the original show.

Using this type of firepower tactics it didn't matter that he only saw
eight of the original episodes, in fact, I don't think it would have
mattered if he had seen them all or none, demanding more humour, more
honest adventure and less plastic relationships is something one could
say about anything apparently having explosive meanings on something one
doesn't really care all that much about.

That's my impressions of the retoric school of Freiberger, anyway.  Thank
heavens I don't know too many firepower people personally, although one
happens to meet the kind every now and then.


MAYA: "What about you, Commander? Did you have any brothers?" ((he shakes his
head))
"Sisters? Mother, father? You had nobody?"
KOENIG: "I had a wife."
MAYA: "Had?"
KOENIG: "Weren't there any wars on Psychon?"
MAYA: "No. Unlike your planet we were all of one race, one religion, one
government. Our planet was so rich in resources that there was no separation
of classes."

This is the part that Martin Willey referred to as "Nazi paradise". Perhaps
orthodox Jewish fundamentalism would be better fitting with Freiberger's
background.  It could be the catch phrase of old Freiberger snr. speaking
of King David and a united Israel.

KOENIG: "In nineteen eighty seven all the hatreds on Earth between races,
classes and religions,
all came to a head. The war was global and awful. It was finally the war to end
all wars because the
survivors realised that..if there was another one it would be the..the end of
humanity."
MAYA: "You mean people killed people just because they were different from each
other?" ((he nods)) "That's disgusting."
Meanwhile Invisible climbs the slope.
KOENIG: "The one virtue of that war, if war can have a virtue, is that
prejudice was wiped out.
People realised if..they were going to survive they would have to...work
together, accept each other for what they were. So we began to create a brand
new, wonderful civilization."

Freiberger is probably speaking of World War II here, I suppose.

> Yet, because he survived all past tragedies,
> he has become a stronger person and right for a command position.
> Magically, the Koenig of year one is explained.

I'm not as enthusiastic as you about this, David, but, nevertheless, by
Freiberger fantasising about his Brooklyn ghetto background there may be
some matches with Landau's Brooklyn ghetto background, and, magically if
you prefer, we have some synergetic insight to the John Koenig character.

Well, this is quite a good point, actually, as the behavoural patterns of
Freiberger and Koenig do seem quite coincidal.  Both seem to be driven by
primal means of survival in the urban jungle, not very much sophistication
there, and both making equally stupid decisions along the way, being loved
and hated by their closest collaborators.

> The director this time around was veteran Val Guest. He had worked on
> many British series and feature films (including some classic sci-fi B
> films) as both a director and writer. His works actually date back to
> the 1930's. This was his first entry in the series (others would soon
> follow) and despite the overall unconvincing storyline he does a rather
> good job.

In Tim Heald's book among other places there are pictures of Val Guest
puffing his pipe and giving directions to Schell and Landau.  He doesn't
look to enthusiastic about the episode, but as Helena doesn't play much of
a part in this one, his infamous exclamations of the difficulties about
working with Barbara Bain does probably stem from DORZAK.

> Thats my take on the plant episode. Lower than middle in quality but
> there were still sillier and more repugnant episodes. ALL THAT GLISTERS
> is just one of those.

Personally I rate ALL THAT GLISTERS far above RULES OF LUTON, ALL THAT
GLISTERS being an episode that deals with ideas.  RULES OF LUTON may be
one of Freiberger's more personal episodes, however, and is interesting
int this respect.  The dialogue in the sequence with the wounded Koenig
may give some insight to Freiberger as a person and a thinker, although
I don't feel this is not sufficient for categorising the episode as great.

To me Freiberger as a writer seem to represent a very different culture
than the likes of Byrne, Feely, Miles, James, Keyes etc., which is no less
apparent than in this episode.  On the other hand he does not strike very
much worse than Anthony Terpiloff, Art Wallace (MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
before it was saved by Johnny Byrne) or that Art Wallace-like writer who
wrote the original draft for DRAGON'S DOMAIN, which makes him below average
but still watchable if one is in the right mood and interesting as the
man most easily identifiable with the Year Two style.

Petter



From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 17:03:40 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: Triffid in Luton and OT heading down east

> Personnally I think it would have been a far more interesting episode
> with a few triffids walking around. (now there was an evil plant)

I agree.  In my opinion THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is an example showing that
it is, in fact, possible to write intelligently about living plants.  If
you look at INVATION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS (1956) it is evident that it is
possible to make an intelligent run-around too!

Petter



From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 17:55:28 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: Catacombs and stuff

> As for Petter thinking ALL THAT GLISTERS is a fun sort of episode in a
> ED WOOD sort of way? First Petter, Ed Wood would have produced something
> even more trashy than Fred Freiberger's "Hanna-Barbera" approach as you
> are used to calling it. Can you imagine Ed Wood's DORZAK. Cross-dressing
> transvetites hauling Dorzak to a prison world. Scary!

Heh heh.

I've seen two or three of the Ed Wood classics.  Although I believe I've
seen far worse contenders for the golden turkey awards, he has a remarkable
odd style, charmingly recreated by Tim Burton in 1994, that fits with
his bizarre happenings on the set.

I think ALL THAT GLISTERS has some of this wacky style to it, and Brian
Johnsons mix-up of Eagle models and so on just adds to the surrealistic
output.  What makes the episode more than Salvador Dali on the silver screen,
is a rather persistent ecology theme of Keith Miles about the worlds limited
resources and how cowboy attitudes are drying out the world that is
supposed to water us, I think.

You may argue that either Keith Miles wrote badly or the final product was
Freiberger's heavily altered version.  Whatever it may be, I think it
deserves it's place in the series, and is even quite enjoyable in it's
own peculiar way.

> As for the recent talk about why season one fans dislike season two I
> think I summed that all up very nicely in my THE RULES OF LUTON review
> on Monday. Freiberger kept much of the show one dimensional so it did
> not have the same pyschological approach as year one.

I wonder if Freiberger was a one dimentional person too or if he just
believed that his audience was.

> But lets not forget that season two had changes only
> because of problems with season one. Year two fans love to remind
> everyone of that fact and they are right to do so.

Yes, and I respect them for that.  I see, for instance, that Chas P.
is very fond of SPACE WARP, which is perfectly fine although I prefer WAR
GAMES myself.

When you speak of problems with season one, you, of course, think in terms
of ITC's problems with the North American market, which admittingly was
the most interesting market I suppose, although the first season was an
enormous success over the rest of the world.

I find it interesting that the RAI in Italy have been airing reruns of
Year One more or less constantly since 1976, from what I've understood,
rerunning Year Two for the first time now in 1998.  In France Year Two was
first run in 1988, and in Norway/Sweden Year Two has never been aired
although Year One has been rerun several times.  As Pierre Fageolle says in
his magnificent little book: "Changes were made in order to suit the US and
Montreal, although the rest of the world was left in bewilderment".

Well, anyway, although my taste is mostly in good wine, classical music and
Year One, as we go about with our analysis I find there are in fact quite a
few interesting bits in Year Two as well.

> I feel its going to be an interesting weekly episode discussion during
> the remainder of the series.

Indeed.  I enjoy the present RULES OF LUTON very much and there are lots
of episodes down the list that a long to put my teeth into.

Petter



From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Re: Space1999: Rules of Luton
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 14:06:52 EDT

>Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the reference.
>Which side of the war would have been a Nazi paradise?

I'm also a little confused.  Any war in the 1999 universe would probably
have begun with a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe and quickly
escalated to some type of nuclear exchange.  The human race would have
had its work cut out for it just pulling the pieces together, let alone
building Alpha in 12 years.  (If I remember correctly, I think Koenig
said that the war started in1987).  Actually, less than 12 years since
Alpha looked fully operational for DRAGON'S DOMAIN.  But that was in Year
1 which didn't seem to have any influence on the Year 2 universe.

>Since facism breeds on racism, it seems to me the scenario Koenig
>describes is quite likely to occur, and still may.

I agree that intense, extreme nationalism is a characteristic of fascism.
 But remember that it was the intense economic upheaval in Germany and
Italy that permitted fascist governments to come to power.  And we
certainly didn't get  any indication of a major economic cause behind any
WWIII other than the conventional East / West Cold War conflict which was
still very much alive in the late '70's.

David J Lerda



From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Space1999: Rules of Luton
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 14:19:26 EDT

>It would be very interesting to have some comments on this, David.

OK, you asked for it.  ALL THAT BLISTERS was just a cheap hack story
rip-off of "Devil in the Dark."  As I've said before, the SFX Magazine
Episode Guide claims that this episode was re-written no less than 5
times during production.  It looks it.  As for CATACRUMBS, I'll reserve
comment until we get to that episode.  The other Terpiloff episodes
(COLLISION COURSE, DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, INFERNAL MACHINE) had
interesting, complex characters persuing higher causes than just "my
faith will conquer your science."  The above mentioned episodes involve
our lead characters and conflict between them (Koenig vs. Helena in
COLLISION COURSE AND DEATH) in addition to the primary conflict of the
story.

>The problem with the Woodgrove episodes, the way I see it, is that they
>seem to be absolutely devoid of meaning.  At least from an initial point of
>view there is difficult to see anything but plot and structure, that is
>people running, fighting, solving problems and so on.

And the problems that they solve are so trivial.  Koenig must freeze the
mud monster to win his reward - escape from danger.   It's just a big
yawn.

>Yes.  Martin Willey calls the world view expressed by Maya and Koenig in
>this scene as "Nazi paradise".  Horribly banal and awful.

Well, I wouldn't go that far.  I would just say that even a limited
nuclear war would have left such a mess that it wouldn't fit in with the
hints of Earth that we saw in BREAKAWAY.  And Alpha supposedly
represented an international community.  If the human race can't make
friends with itself, it surely isn't going to be able to build a
structure like Alpha.

>Well I suppose one shouldn't blame Freiberger for location shots and
>costumes, pulling plants by fishing lines etc.  I suppose Keith Wilson and
>Val Guest are the ones responsible for this, but even the best costumes
>and special effects would have little consequence for the episode, I feel,
>certainly not making it any better.

The location shots were a plus.  Just it's hard enough to suspend
disbelief  with this episode to begin with.  The bad costumes make it
even more difficult.

>The thing I question myself when watching this kind of material is what
>kind of person would write anything like this?  Is there a philosophy
>to the work of Freiberger?

Yes.  We need the script Tuesday.  That's when shooting starts.

David J Lerda



From: South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 23:09:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Space1999: The Bloopers of Luton

Take this bus to Luton!

Anyway, the title for this post is actually misleading.  If I am not
mistaken, in the dialogue it is mentioned that there is no longer any
animal OR INSECT LIFE on the planet!!

This is bold beyond belief (or stupid)--especially as they filmed most
of the episode OUTSIDE!  Did anybody notice any birds (other than Maya)
or insects flying by in the background, foreground, etc?  I have watched
this episode a few times (not recently though) and look each time.   I
have never seen anything!

Then again, I have a 13" screen!

Mateo



From: LKJ1999@aol4tag.com
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 06:43:53 EDT
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Bloopers of Luton

Yes! You can see bugs flying around!!!   I've never seen any other birds
except Maya...

Chas P.                  LKJ1999



From: "Willey, Martin J" (martin.willey@eds4tag.com)
Subject: Space1999: RE: Rules of Luton & Nazis
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 06:52:36 -0400

> Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the reference.
> Which side of the war would have been a Nazi paradise?

My comment was related to the rather fascist description of Psychon-

MAYA: "No. Unlike your planet we were all of one race, one religion, one
government. Our planet was so rich in resources that there was no
separation of classes."

This is an homogenous society with no differences. Fine, but why is
there only one race? They all embrace one monolithic religion-
apparently with no debate let alone any argument. A single government
with no dissidents- very fascist. No social stratification- so who does
the menial jobs? In Metamorph we saw it was alien slaves. The line is
not intended to be sinister, but to a cynic like me it implies something
nasty.

KOENIG: "In nineteen eighty seven all the hatreds on Earth between
races, classes and religions, all came to a head. The war was global and
awful. It was finally the war to end all wars because the survivors
realised that..if there was another one it would be the..the end of
humanity."

This doesn't necessarily mean a nuclear war. Note it is between "races,
classes and religions"
not between countries as most 20th century wars have been. It sounds
more like a global version of Yugoslavia- local religious and cultural
conflicts exploding into violence. The sort of race riots and social
unrest that occur from time to time in depressed inner cities. I think
Freiberger was thinking more of the terrorism that marked the 1970s than
the cold war. He's not making any profound political comment here
("prejudice is bad" is as deep as it gets).

KOENIG: "The one virtue of that war, if war can have a virtue, is that
prejudice was wiped out. People realised if..they were going to survive
they would have to...work together, accept each other for what they
were. So we began to create a brand new, wonderful civilization."

We saw no sign of the wonderful civilization in other episodes.
According to Dragon's Domain and Breakaway, there was the exactly the
same sort of international politics we see today. Can people ever wipe
out their prejudices? Maybe I'm too cynical.

Abe Mandell ordered the producers to include monsters (monsters were all
the rage in America, he told them). They urgently had to produce stories
featuring alien monsters, and try to produce monster costumes. Rules Of
Luton is the first episode to obey that- hence the sorry costumes in
this episode. All three Freiberger scripts were written quickly to keep
the rubber monster quota up and to allow double up shooting. By Bringers
Of Wonder, the monsters looked much better. But Abe Mandell returned and
ordered no more monsters, as the American market was no longer
interested in monsters. Gerry Anderson explains the story in his
biography.

Onto some rumours from earlier in the week... (sorry, still catching
up!)

> This was not a happy cast/crew.  Nobody liked Freiberger, Tony Anholt
(among
> others) thought Barbara Bain was a "pain in the a**"  and Landau was
difficult
According to almost everyone it was a happy crew with very little
conflict. Everyone thinks Freiberger was a very nice man (Johnny Byrne
always stresses how friendly he was). They didn't like the stories he
was producing.

Several people though Bain was difficult, although others liked her.
I've never heard she was ill.

I haven't heard any cast or crew comments that Landau was difficult,
with the exception of the fight over All That Glisters, which he hated
so much he almost walked off the production (but then everyone except
Freiberger hated it as well). Landau did have a strong influence on
production....

djlerda@juno.com wrote:

> According to John Muir's "Exploring Space: 1999", Landau's contract had a
> large percentage of on-screen time

There was no written clause in Landau's contract for on screen time, but
it was an "understanding" by the writers. Landau also sat in on script
meetings to influence how stories developed. Noone on the crew seemed to
think this was a particular problem, although the writers weren't able
to use the supporting cast (Carter, Morrow, Sandra, Kano) as much as
they would have liked.

> They originally approached Catherine Ross and Robert Culp (of I Spy) to
> play Helena Russell and John Koenig.

Gerry Anderson denies that Katherine Ross was considered.

> > > Catherine Schell hated Bain's guts,
> >
> >I heard Bain hated Schell.

They were suspicious of each other- Maya could usurp Helena's role.
According to interviews they were friendly enough on a personal level.

> > > and the Landaus were on the verge of
> > > divorce by the start of Season 2

They seem to have had arguments at times during filming, but they stayed
together during and for some time after production.

> According to SFX magazine's "Episode Guide to the Galaxy", that
> masterpiece of television science fiction "The Beta Cloud" was written
> with the emphasis specifically on Maya and Verdeschi in order to allow
> Landau and Bain a vacation in the south of France.  Whether this was
> health related, I have no idea.

Yes, the Landaus were on holiday. It was not health related- they had
holiday written into their contract.  During Year 1 production shut down
when they went on holiday (between Force Of Life and Alpha Child)- the
tight schedule of year 2 meant production had to continue. Hence Beta
Cloud is a "double-up" episode (noted on the script title page) filmed
on it's own.

Martin



From: MCK067@aol4tag.com
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 08:41:25 EDT
Subject: Space1999: Rooolz of Looooton...

A piece of mindless Freiberger crapola...the whole premise of this show is
absurd.  You have a planet to explore, and you're going to do it with THREE
people?  That makes no sense (but what in this episode does?).  You'd take an
entire team down to explore, but I guess that didn't fit in with Freiberger's
"vision."  Anyhoo, IMHO the talking trees are just plain silly, the monster
suits were laughable (especially the hairy guy.  Looked like he had a bad case
of mange), the 1-hour transformation blunder is inexcusable (dramatic license
my foot -- that's just sloppy scripting).   But, as is often the case with the
Y2 "stinkers", there are hidden gems in the middle of the muck.  The
conversation between Koenig and Maya is just such a moment...but that's really
the only reason to watch this episode.  I especially like Koenig's expressions
when he talks about the loss of his wife.  I think the most touching is when
he struggles for words to describe his late wife, and then describes her as
being "like Helena."  A love lost and a new love gained, deep pain replaced by
even deeper joy.  In those few quiet moments, there was more of what
Space:1999 could be at its best than in all of Year 2's "action."  What a pity
Freiberger and Anderson didn't realize that the fans (well, at least this
one), watched the show because they cared about the PEOPLE in the situations,
not how many stunguns were fired or how many rubber monsters suits got paraded
by each week.   But then it was back to the schlock...from the sublime back to
the ridiculous.  I'd give this show a C-.  Without that one moment between
Maya and Koenig, I think this one deserves an F...



From: Tamazunchale@web44tv.net (South Central)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 14:26:04 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: OH MY GOD! Space1999: RE: Rules of Luton & Nazis

You are right! Nowhere does it say the global war of 1987 was a nuclear
war!!  This bit of apocrypha entered fandom (I think) through the
Technical Manual, which says (again, I think) that Geneva was wiped off
the map by a nuclear device.

Mateo



From: "Nimoy Pugh" (npugh@ro4tag.com)
Subject: Re: OH MY GOD! Space1999: RE: Rules of Luton & Nazis
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 16:47:16 -0500

Geneva was a lone terrorist act I believe.



From: South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 14:40:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules of Luton

Petter, you have once again alleged that Anthony Terpiloff was/is in a
bad way.  First you said, weeks ago, that he was DEAD--but couldn't
actually back up that claim with any hard proof (unless I missed a
post).  Now Terpiloff was ill with a fatal illness.

Is this true?  If you have proof, Petter, let us in on it!

In this case, Freiberger go off easy!

Oh, as to what The Rules of Luton was really all about....not much.  Get
isolated, run around and fight, run around and fight, run around some
more.

Though I think we all agree that the discussion between Maya and Koenig
is the bomb!

Mateo



From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules of Luton
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 01:37:17 EDT

In what way do you mean it is "the bomb?"  That it stinks or that it is
the bomb that saves the episode?

David J Lerda



Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 08:54:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Perry (indylibrary@yahoo4tag.com)
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules of Luton

Ummmmm. "The Bomb" or Da Bom or Da Bomb is slang current in the US.
It means the best.  (Remember "Bad" ment "Good"?)

Michael



From: "Simon Morris" (simes01@global44net.co.uk)
Subject: Space1999: The Rules Of Luton
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 01:26:49 +0100

Reading posts from various list members in relation to this episode makes me
ponder why people *always*have to analyze each episode,or find hidden meanings
or philosophies. I know there was a lot of this in Y1 and that many of the
episodes in the first year were all the better for it. I also have to say that
there was a certain amount of crap too: "Ring Around the Moon", "Missing Link"
and "Matter of Life and Death" spring to mind. I didn't find these episodes
particularly entertaining at all compare to say "Mission of the Darians",
"Dragons Domain",or "Testament of Arkadia".

As I have oft-repeated, I view Y1 and Y2 as two different shows. You may not
think this is valid and that they should be regarded as two parts of a greater
whole. Fine-that's your privilege! For myself, I avoid Y1 versus Y2 ulcers by
seeing each season as pure entertainment and nothing more. With Y1 (a lot of
the episodes anyway) I could enjoy on these terms but with the added advantage
that I could engage my brain at the same time. By contrast,in a number of Y2
episodes I could switch my brain off......but crucially I still found every Y2
episode to be *entertaining*. And while I don't for example rate "The Taybor"
particularly highly,I always found it infinitely more enjoyable than "Ring" or
"Missing Link". Its "horses for courses",as we say in England. One man's meat
is another man's poison.

I actually liked "The Rules of Luton".  Its a totally undemanding 50 minutes
viewing and nothing more than a chase picture(as Martin Landau called it). As
has been said,the central idea is based on the classic Frederic Brown story
which has been featured in a lot of sci-fi stories. Once again,its the
*execution* of the episode in SPACE 1999 that lets the whole thing down. Stupid
aliens and plants-thats the basic fault of Freiberger's effort. Plus the fact
that Luton is known as a town to British people........

To me it was a refreshing change to see the series out on location. The scene
where Koenig and Maya discuss their past was IMHO well done and is as valid a
background to the Koenig character as any other that might have been painted in
Y1(and personally I don't think there was much of a character history created
in Y1....) .Schell and (especially) Landau are impressive in this scene which
probably single-handedly lifts the profile of the entire episode. The statement
by Koenig that everyone came together after the Global War etc etc is a
powerful one...an optimistic philosophy that,while not being very
original,gives the lie to the belief that Y2 was without any real substance or
philosophy. And I have never believed that this contradicts particularly the
portrayal of Earth given in Y1(probably because I look for entertainment rather
than deep meaning and I see them as separate shows anyhow).

To finish,I'll just say that I do not believe that there was any attempt by
Freiberger to draw on any personal or family experiences that he may have had
to provide material for this episode. Freiberger was never that sort of
writer(as I think he himself stated). For instance,an episode he wrote years
ago for STARSKY AND HUTCH, "Kill Huggy Bear",shows that he was just an old
fashioned story teller who emphasised character and humour and a
straightforward plot which never tended to philosophise or preach. I imagine
that all 3 of his scripts for Y2 were written fairly quickly and to fulfil
specific production needs,and when you write that fast(and for those specific
aims)then I'm afraid its going to show......

For me, "The Rules of Luton" was a fairly fast and entertaining episode,though
admittedly totally undemanding and downright ridiculous in its premise. Depends
what you want from it,I suppose...:-)

Simon Morris



From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Space1999: Re: Rules of Luton & Nazis
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 01:37:17 EDT

>My comment was related to the rather fascist description of Psychon-
>MAYA: "No. Unlike your planet we were all of one race, one religion, one
>government. Our planet was so rich in resources that there was no
>separation of classes."
[SNIP]

Ah, now I understand.  I remember when I first saw this episode that I
was annoyed by this line.  For some reason it just struck me the wrong
way that Psychon would be this perfect paradise.  Obviously the people
had a capacity for evil.  Just look at Mentor's actions.

>He's not making any profound political comment here
>("prejudice is bad" is as deep as it gets).

And this theme surfaced in the Gerry Anderson series UFO in the episode
"Survival."  In that show we are told that racial "predjudice burned
itself out."  Sorry, but I'm too much of a cynic to believe that human
nature has changed all that much.  To quote Koenig:  "I'll let you know
in 40,000 years."  And, sadly, I think that you're right Martin.  This
ethinic warfare is the (unfortunately) wave of the future.  Maybe there
was something to be said for the grinding heel of Marxist oppression.
:-)



Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 08:16:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Ellen C. Lindow" (sfdxb@scfn.thpl4tag.lib.fl.us)
Subject: Re: Space1999: RE: Rules of Luton & Nazis

Martin wrote:

>My comment was related to the rather fascist description of Psychon-
>MAYA: "No. Unlike your planet we were all of one race, one religion, one
>government. Our planet was so rich in resources that there was no
>separation of classes."

OK, I understand better now, but you might want to reevaluate.  This line
was delivered by a young lady whom we already know led a very sheltered
life.  She didn't even know her dad was keeping slave labor in the
basement!  It's possible that everything was not sweetness and light on
the planet Psychon.  I doubt she would have had her own memories of the
socio-political/economic structure of her world, although we're never told
exactly when Psychon went to hell in a handbasket.  What her father told
her would surely be suspect.  It could have been some kind of totalitarian
regime with facist overtones as you suggest, or, given their technology, a
pure democracy where _everyone_ had equal political rights.  I expect that
no matter what, there was an underclass doing the laundry and sweeping the
streets that were not considered part of "everyone".  Remember, the
writers of our Declaration of Independence had a different interpretation
of "all men were created equal"  than most of us would give it today.
They would have been shocked to learn that we would extend that to Blacks,
Native Americans, and (God forbid!)  Women.  Maya's family were
undoubtedly among the ruling class of the planet, and she was repeating
the idyllic rhetoric that she had been schooled on .



From: "Brian Dowling" (brian@hellion.prestel4tag.co.uk)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 19:28:30 +0100
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules Of Luton

Hi folks,

Simon wrote:

> Reading posts from various list members in relation to this episode makes
> me ponder why people *always* have to analyze each episode,or find hidden
> meanings or philosophies.

It doesn't happen just to tv series - after Kurt Cobain's death Nirvana
fans were often seen gathered together to analyse his lyrics as if they
were the word of God.  Same with Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne
lyrics - people drive themselves crazy looking for Satanic references,
while others grind their way through new Deep Purple lyrics looking
for Gillanesque references to Ritchie Blackmore.

There aren't always hidden meanings in works.  As I saw on a
newgroup recently, "Don't worry Barbara, sometimes a banana is just
a banana".

> I know there was a lot of this in Y1 and that
> many of the episodes in the first year were all the better for it. I also
> have to say that there was a certain amount of crap too: "Ring Around the
> Moon", "Missing Link" and "Matter of Life and Death" spring to mind. I
> didn't find these episodes particularly entertaining at all compare to say
> "Mission of the Darians", "Dragons Domain",or "Testament of Arkadia".

You mentioned *that* episode!!! :-)  Smiles and nods his head in
agreement with Simon's point.

> As I have oft-repeated, I view Y1 and Y2 as two different shows. You may
> not think this is valid and that they should be regarded as two parts of a
> greater whole. Fine-that's your privilege! For myself, I avoid Y1 versus
> Y2 ulcers by seeing each season as pure entertainment and nothing more.

A while back Amardeep suggested seeing Y2 as a parallel universe to
Y1, same sort of idea to looking at them as two different shows.  To
see them as two parts of a greater whole works better if you ignore
the Alpha Log at the start of every Y2 episode.

> With Y1 (a lot of the episodes anyway) I could enjoy on these terms but
> with the added advantage that I could engage my brain at the same time. By
> contrast,in a number of Y2 episodes I could switch my brain off......but
> crucially I still found every Y2 episode to be *entertaining*. And while I
> don't for example rate "The Taybor" particularly highly,I always found it
> infinitely more enjoyable than "Ring" or "Missing Link". Its "horses for
> courses",as we say in England. One man's meat is another man's poison.

Ah, there's nothing like "leave your mind outside" entertainment.  Y2's 
emphasis on more action and less cerebral content does make for 
pacier episodes, but it's down to each individual to decide their 
preference.

By The Taybor, I felt that Y2 was starting to head towards Bernard 
Matthews country.  We're talking turkey here folks, and lots of it - 
Bernard Matthews is known as a rotund chappie with a Norfolk accent 
who has a *huge* turkey farm.  The list of guests thus far had been 
good, though not as good as one might expect for a season aimed 
squarely at US audiences, and the writing had been moderate.

With The Taybor, we hit feathers and gobbling for the first time.  
Some cringeworthy scenes allied to Willoughby Goddard's (I'd never 
heard of him when I first saw the story 4 years ago, and still haven't)
very over the top acting, some un-Alphan like behaviour and a 
generally dodgy implementation of a mediocre plotline made for the 
first sage & onion award of the second season.  As Bernard would 
say, "Bootiful!".

> I actually liked "The Rules of Luton".  Its a totally undemanding 50
> minutes viewing and nothing more than a chase picture(as Martin Landau
> called it). 

The turkey factor is lessened here somewhat, but when a British
made programme uses Luton in a story title, things have got to be
bad.  Around the time it was shown, an advertising campaign for
Campari (an alcoholic beverage of some kind) was based around
actress Lorraine Chase's accent in saying "Luton Airport".  The ads
may well have been successful (they spawned a single also called
"Luton Airport"), but they said "TURKEY!!!" to me.

{Before people start flaming me, I'm not saying that Y1 was a turkey
free zone by any means.}

And I've seen the road sign which allegedly influenced Fred Freiberger
to use Luton in the title.  I had to stop the minibus I was in, get out
and look at the roadsign for myself.  My colleagues thought I was 
mad...  I console myself with the thought that it could have been 
worse.  The Rules Of Chipping Sodbury come to mind as a title which 
would have been taken even less seriously.

> Once again,its the *execution* of the episode in SPACE 1999 that lets the
> whole thing down. Stupid aliens and plants-thats the basic fault of
> Freiberger's effort. Plus the fact that Luton is known as a town to
> British people........

Guys in rubber suits just don't make good aliens.  Take the Myrka from the 
Doctor Who story Warriors Of The Deep.  It didn't get the story 
nicknamed Warriors On The Cheap for nothing.  Roy Marsden is 
known throughout the country as one of the finest tv actors around, 
and David Jackson is best known as Oleg Gan from Blake's 7, and a 
serious classic British sci-fi fan.

A planet where the vegetation turned is reminiscent of Wyndhams' 
Day Of The Triffids.  The 1980 something BBC adaptation is a very 
chilling one which is far better executed than the awful Howard Keel 
film from 20 odd years before.  Sadly, ROL lacks the chill factor the 
BBC series had in such abundance.

The scene between Maya and Koenig has received deserved praise 
from pretty much everyone involved in this thread.  Maya's naivety is 
exposed when she asks Koenig about human prejudices, and Koenig's 
words about everyone coming together after the disaster are well 
delivered.  Y1 doesn't seem to show that too much, but if you go with 
the parallel universe idea...

More scenes like this would have benefitted the show as a whole.  We 
don't know half as much as we should about the main characters in 
the series, and it was good to see some flesh added to the skeletons 
of the characters.  One great scene does not a gem make, however.

Freiberger's work on shows like The Six Million Dollar Man tend to 
show that he was more of a straightforward story teller rather than a 
writer who liked to cerebralise his work.

Not the greatest episode in Y2, but by no means the worst of the lot.

And I'm sure we all know someone we would like to send to Luton to 
make a green salad... :-)

Brian Dowling - Online Alphan #144 - Birmingham, England



From: David Acheson (dkach@hot44mail.com)
Subject: Space1999: The Road to Luton
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 17:21:02 EDT

Was Freiberger naming a planet after a real-life British town really all 
that silly? We'd be surprised to learn where many writers get their 
names and/or ideas from - mainly everyday items or places or events. I 
am sure it is more common than we think.

I know myself and friends of mine did it when we made up our sci-fi 
stories during our playtime as kids. We did one 1999 plot that had 
characters named General Electric,Colonel Sanders, Bill Cosby (Alan 
Carter's best friend) and Charlie Brown in it. Thankfully, Freiberger 
wasn't that bad.

If he would have been driving in Canada we would have seen:
The Rules of Tuktoyutuk
The Rules of Moose Jaw
The Rules of Nanaimo
The Rules of Yarmouth
The Rules of Petawawa

etc, etc, etc.

The name of the planet (and the Koenig/Maya discussion) was one of the 
good things about the episode. Now thats a sad comment on Freiberger's 
work.

David Acheson



From: relax@video44tron.ca
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 17:53:29 -0400
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Road to Luton

I don't know if Luton is a silly town, but i can tell that it really exists
(North of London, along the M1 motorway).
Each time i drove by last April, i was laughing by thinking about what
Gerry Anderson said in the Space1999 documentary on that silly script idea
from Freiberger about speaking plants on a planet named Luton.

> The Rules of Tuktoyutuk

Geee!!!!  TUKTOYUTUK !

There's no road to Tuktoyutuk, i flew there in an helicopter from Inuvik NWT

back then in 1993.
Tought i was the only one who knew about this lost town on the Arctic
seashores.
There is a road to Inuvik David !
and you can see good pictures of it on my website :
http://pages.infinit.net/rel under the 'toundra and Yukon' section.

If you're driving in Canada, the only possible rules you could see could be
 THE RULES OF OTTAWA  :)

Andre Beauchamp



From: "Brian Dowling" (brian@hellion.prestel4tag.co.uk)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 23:56:19 +0100
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Road to Luton

Luton does exist in real life and apart from the airport, is probably 
best known for its soccer team, Luton Town and a very 1970s 
shopping centre.

I shudder to even think that it could have been called The Rules Of 
Milton Keynes...  I suppose it wouldn't necessarily be funny until you 
discover what gave Freddie the inspiration for the title.  A road sign on 
the A12.  Now I may be accused of being a sad individual, knowing 
things about buses, trains and sci fi programmes, but I don't get a 
thrill out of road signs.

This particular road sign has a green background with a white border 
around its edge, the road name in yellow, the word Luton and its 
distance from the sign in white.  Like several other road signs, really.

But again it could have been worse - the name could have come from 
a bottle of booze - the Rules Of Watney (beer brewers from the 
1970s), the rules of Bass, The Rules of Campari...

It could well have been worse.

Brian Dowling - Online Alphan #144 - Birmingham, England



From: "Simon Morris" (simes01@global44net.co.uk)
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules Of Luton
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 01:10:53 +0100

Brian Dowling wrote:

> There aren't always hidden meanings in works.  As I saw on a 
> newgroup recently, "Don't worry Barbara, sometimes a banana is just 
> a banana".

Yes....But *is* a banana JUST a banana???( Only kidding)

> You mentioned *that* episode!!! :-)  Smiles and nods his head in 
> agreement with Simon's point.

Yes Brian,I'm sorry. i've said it before and I'll say it again,the Y1 episode
directed by Ray Austin and featuring the character of Ted Clifford was grade
1,class 1 crap :-)

> A while back Amardeep suggested seeing Y2 as a parallel universe to 
> Y1, same sort of idea to looking at them as two different shows.  To 
> see them as two parts of a greater whole works better if you ignore 
> the Alpha Log at the start of every Y2 episode.

Well, I never liked the Helena Russell voiceovers in Y2. Not being a fan of
Star Trek,I just took them to be a rip off of Kirks voiceovers. And I couldn't
really see any point in Space 1999 doing that sort of thing.

> Ah, there's nothing like "leave your mind outside" entertainment.  Y2's 
> emphasis on more action and less cerebral content does make for 
> pacier episodes, but it's down to each individual to decide their 
> preference.

If I want to be educated,I generally read a good book! But as you say
Brian,that's each individual's preference. I found much of the philosophy of Y1
to be very engrossing but not too pacey. That's not to say that I found Y1
"highbrow" either though. Interestingly, I have 2 younger brothers and a
younger sister who think *both* series of Space 1999 were dumb. Being sci-fi,I
suspect for every 100 that love the series(either or both seasons)there at 3
times that many who think its total crud.........:-(

> The turkey factor is lessened here somewhat, but when a British 
> made programme uses Luton in a story title, things have got to be 
> bad.  Around the time it was shown, an advertising campaign for 
> Campari (an alcoholic beverage of some kind) was based around 
> actress Lorraine Chase's accent in saying "Luton Airport".  The ads 
> may well have been successful (they spawned a single also called 
> "Luton Airport"), but they said "TURKEY!!!" to me.

....And I think Gerry Anderson's failure to nip that story title in the bud was
one of the most unfathomable things I have ever seen.


>The Rules Of Chipping Sodbury come to mind as a title which 
> would have been taken even less seriously.

Ha Ha!!!

> Guys in rubber suits just don't make good aliens.  Take the Myrka from the 
> Doctor Who story Warriors Of The Deep.  It didn't get the story 
> nicknamed Warriors On The Cheap for nothing.  Roy Marsden is 
> known throughout the country as one of the finest tv actors around, 
> and David Jackson is best known as Oleg Gan from Blake's 7, and a 
> serious classic British sci-fi fan.

Well,David Jackson, Godfrey James and Roy Marsden are *all* known and respected
actors. How they got involved in "Rules" is anyones guess. Were things that bad
on the dole queue lads? (For the non-English among us, the "dole queue" is
slang for the unemployment line.....) And anyone who was in Blakes 7 I take my
hat off to. A great show. Mind you,some of the alien beings on that show were
crap too.

> More scenes like this would have benefitted the show as a whole.  We 
> don't know half as much as we should about the main characters in 
> the series, and it was good to see some flesh added to the skeletons 
> of the characters.  One great scene does not a gem make, however.

Yep,I agree with you on all the above.....

> Freiberger's work on shows like The Six Million Dollar Man tend to 
> show that he was more of a straightforward story teller rather than a 
> writer who liked to cerebralise his work.
> Not the greatest episode in Y2, but by no means the worst of the lot.

(Simon nods in agreement while slurping his glass of cider........)

> And I'm sure we all know someone we would like to send to Luton to 
> make a green salad... :-)

No comment![smile]

Simon



From: Tamazunchale@web44tv.net (South Central)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 18:44:53 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Space1999: The Rules Of Luton

I don't actually know where everyone is from.  However, as someone born
and raised in the U.S. I have to say the first time I heard the word
LUTON was on Space: 1999 and I agree with Freiberger (!!) that, to the
American ear, it is intriguing.  Now I understand that it is the
equivalent of saying here in the U.S. (hint hint):

The Rules of Hackensack
or 
The Rules of Brooklyn
or 
The Rules of Poughkeepsie
or
you get the idea!

Mateo



Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 02:01:55 -0500
From: Chris Hlady (chlady@escape4tag.ca)
Subject: Space1999: Subject: The Audit of Luton

Hello troupe, I see you've been playing with "speculation" again. Naughty,
naughty. You need a licence for such activity.

First off: to Petter, I'm very sorry I left you hanging with the Anthony
Terpiloff topic. It seems things have gone rather badly with it. It's a
very trying thing to disentangle your argument regarding Terpiloff and your
argument regarding Woodgrove/Freiberger. They are very different subjects,
and I think dear Paul Dorian can be excused for getting confused regarding
your accountability. That said, you sure don't make it easy for someone to
understand your point of view.

Next, again to Petter, I think it's best to resolve the Terpiloff question.
My fascination with Anthony relates in juxtaposition with Roger Water's
chilling The Wall by Pink Floyd, and my own Christian upbringing. Relating
to death is, in all cultures, the ultimate question. There's really no need
to look too deep into the motives of those who explore its theme. Helping
others come to "relative" peace of mind is its own reward. Sorrowful music,
film or t.v. prompts acceptance of that aspect of life.

Third, again to Petter, regarding Woodgrove/Freiberger speculation: you
blew it, big time. It's one thing for a writer to draw from their cultural
heritage, but it's quite damaging to infer personal angst as the reason.
Whereas the Hollywood cowboys and indians myth was derived from the
personal experience of having Jewish villages pillaged by Russian cossacks,
the fear for security against outside threats is a more general human theme
to which anyone can relate. The use of these "universal" themes implies
nothing of one's personal experience. It merely relays the current cultural
myths in circulation.

Fourth, to Ellen and David J Lerda, in regard to racism and fascism: what
have you been smoking?

>Ellen: Since facism (sic) breeds on racism, it seems to me the scenario
>Koenig describes is quite likely to occur, and still may.

Illogical and trite.

>DJL: ethnic warfare is the (unfortunately) wave of the future.

Utterly wrong.

>Ellen: (Fascism/One government) This line was delivered by a young lady
>(Maya) whom we already know led a very sheltered life....I doubt she would
>have had her own memories of the socio-political/economic structure of her
>world, although we're never told exactly when Psychon went to hell in a
>handbasket. What her father (Mentor) told her would surely be suspect.
[SNIP]

Babble, Ellen. More unfounded speculation that creates more problems than
solutions. The point of contrast in narrative is....drumroll.....contrast.
Ignoring the tale of Maya's brother [not Freiberger, Petter], the lost
tribe of Psychons is ignoring a good future story line. Remember, very few
psychons know the secret of molecular transformation; not all psychons
intrude on the minds of others. Why can't you just take the integrity of
Maya at face value?

Fifth (pass me one please), regarding "The Rules of Luton" :

Michael J. Willey:

>(Rules of Luton) Note it is between "races, classes and religions" not
>between countries as most 20th century wars have been. It sounds more like
>a global version of Yugoslavia- local religious and cultural conflicts
>exploding into violence. The sort of race riots and social unrest that
>occur from time to time in depressed inner cities. I think Freiberger was
>thinking more of the terrorism that marked the 1970s than the cold war...

Excellent analysis.

MJW [wrote:]
>
> Can people ever wipe out their prejudices? Maybe I'm too cynical.

I don't think that's the right question. I prefer, "what defines beneficial
prejudice?"

MJW [wrote re:](Monsters)

> Abe Mandell ordered the producers to include monsters
>(monsters were all the rage in America, he told them). They urgently had to
>produce stories featuring alien monsters, and try to produce monster
>costumes. Rules Of Luton is the first episode to obey that- hence the sorry
>costumes in this episode. All three Freiberger scripts were written quickly
>to keep the rubber monster quota up and to allow double up shooting.

Hmm. Interesting.

MJW [wrote:]

> By Bringers Of Wonder, the monsters looked much better.

I saw an early (1960s) episode of Dr. Who. What should be there, but the
monsters of Bringers of Wonder. Go figure.

Petter [wrote regarding Y2]:

> Sometimes its nice with the world of fine wines, good food,
>classical music, live theatre, travel and Year One, sometimes it's okay
>with homemade beer, junk food, pop music, puppet theatre and Year Two. Heh
>heh.

sigh

Finally, I have no doubt that Freddie Freiberger is a pro. He took a big
budget TV show, and delivered 24 acceptable episodes. Utilizing the talents
of a large staff of people is no mean feat. The real question is: do you
think you could do better?

Chris



From: Mark Meskin (plastic.gravity@new44rock.com)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Subject: The Audit of Luton
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 04:16:00 -0500

> That said, you sure don't make it easy for someone to
> understand your point of view.

Oh no, Petter makes his point of view very clear, unfortunately, its one
that a lot of us don't share...which is just fine.

> Sorrowful music, film or t.v. prompts acceptance of that aspect of life.

Forgive me for saying saying so, but this sounds like you a re trivalizing
death here.

> Third, again to Petter, regarding Woodgrove/Freiberger speculation: you
> blew it, big time. It's one thing for a writer to draw from their cultural
> heritage, but it's quite damaging to infer personal angst as the reason.

Petter was merely speculating...I say give him a little space, after all,
no one  else was trying to find meaning in FF's dribble......

> >Since facism (sic) breeds on racism, it seems to me the scenario
> >Koenig describes is quite likely to occur, and still may.
>
> Illogical and trite.

Logical and factual.  If you dispute this theory's validity,  I suggest you
 ask a Jew who survived the holocaust just how "trite" his or her
experience was.

> >ethnic warfare is the (unfortunately) wave of the future.
>
> Utterly wrong.

Really...do they not have news up the great white North?  With renewed
fighting in Yugoslav states how can you say this..  The mideast also
continues to be  a great place to kill your (insert favorite  disliked
ethnic group here)neighbors.

> Babble, Ellen. More unfounded speculation that creates more problems than
> solutions. The point of contrast in narrative is....drumroll.....contrast.

Rude...but I agree that sometimes a Banana is not a Kiwi.

> >with homemade beer, junk food, pop music, puppet theatre and Year Two.
>
> sigh

Face it, series  2 will  never be thought of as High Art.

> Finally, I have no doubt that Freddie Freiberger is a pro. He took a big
> budget TV show, and delivered 24 acceptable episodes. Utilizing the talents
> of a large staff of people is no mean feat. The real question is: do you
> think you could do better?

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!      At least I wouldn't have messed  with what worked
and turned the show into a cartoon...............



From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Re: Space1999: Subject: The Audit of Luton
Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 07:16:54 EDT

>Fourth, to Ellen and David J Lerda, in regard to racism and fascism:
>what have you been smoking?

I can only speak for myself:  nothing that would make me flunk a whiz
quiz.

>>DJL: ethnic warfare is the (unfortunately) wave of the future.
>
>Utterly wrong.

Please check the headlines.  Offhand I can think of the Bosnian civil
war, the war in Chechnya, the current mess in Kosovo, the war in Turkish
Kurdistan , the Rwandan genocide and other conflicts in Africa.  That's
off the top of my head.  That's not including religious based strife like
Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and India / Pakistan (with nukes
thrown in too boot - that one ought to make everyone sleep better at
night).  Perhaps I should have said that ethnic warfare will be the
driving force between the conflicts that will continue to break out in
the world.

>Finally, I have no doubt that Freddie Freiberger is a pro. He took a big
>budget TV show, and delivered 24 acceptable episodes. Utilizing the talents
>of a large staff of people is no mean feat. The real question is: do you
>think you could do better?

I don't know.  I've never been a film producer.  But we can judge
RESULTS:  there was no third season.

David J Lerda



From: South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 12:39:12 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Space1999: Motivation of the Judges

As the trees IIRC are referred to as "judges" who are they judging?
What is the heirarchy on this planet.

How do they enforce their laws?  And what are they?  DON'T CROWD OUT
OTHERS SUNSHINE!  DON'T EXTEND ROOTS INTO OTHERS TERRITORY?

What Koenig and the other three aliens are involved in seems more like
diversionary spectacle to keep the masses distracted.

With the power to nullify the gravitational forces of the planet (which
I speculated DID NOT occur--it seems more logical that they had the
means to shift the planet dimensionally) and bend light around it
(though when the eagle sees the planet reappear they are well within the
atmosphere--more proof for my idea), why couldn't they just have stopped
the alien ships from landing.  Or warned them away.

Koenig says as much.  So they were allowing the violence and then taking
advantage of it to provide spectacle.

Mateo



From: jcg@vh4tag.net
Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 19:31:28 -0400
Subject: Space1999: Such discussion I never saw

Not a bad bit of discussion for a run and jump plant show.

As to writer's psychology and subtext, I can't wait to see what comes up
for Devil's Planet.

Tight leotard clad women with whips...hum...someone wanna give me a match
for my cigar.



From: David Acheson (dkach@hot44mail.com)
Subject: Space1999: Time Out Please
Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 19:31:55 EDT

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  Some refers to the spin-off thread.]

I have no problem with Petter and Chris airing their differences but we
seem to be beating a dead horse here about Freiberger, his personal life
and World War III. Nothing new has been said lately and, as a digest
listmember, it fills up almost everyone email I get from the list. Thus,
I hate to be a spoil sport but maybe you two should consider continuing
your discussion off list. Both have some valid points and also some
points which we will end up disagreeing with. I don't mind the
conversations/battle of the wits but do find it neverending.

I noted Mark's comment about us Canucks not being in tuned with the news
up here! I know Mark meant it as a "What have you been on?"-type of
comment in reference to Chris disagreeing with David Lerda and Ellen's
comments about racial/ethnic warfare. So no bad thoughts from here.
However, I must agree with David, Ellen and Mark. One just has to watch
the news to see what strife is going on out there. In this day and age
religious and  racial tensions still are behind many of the world's
problems. The Bosnia situation could have easily led into a expand war
with Russia on one side and NATO on the other. Even the US and Canada
are not totally free of such problems. So Koenig's third world war was
not totally impossible. I find Maya's idyllic world too unrealistic but
have to agree with her comment about people killing people just because
they are different: "That's disgusting!". I speak from personal
experience about being considered/treated different - enough said there.

Wow. I just rambled on after saying to cut it out. So comment away
anyone else.

I think David Lerda hit the nail on the head about Freiberger. He was an
exec who lived in the land of business and ratings. Year Two followed
that philosophy due to the Americanization of the series. He definitely
was not thinking artistic value. I have no idea what Norwegian
television is like Petter. Perhaps you can tell us? But judging from the
British imports we get here I do see a definite difference between
British and US styles indeed.

I will stop rambling now.

David Acheson



From: David Acheson (dkach@hot44mail.com)
Subject: Space1999: Luton, Luton, Everywhere
Date: Sun, 02 Aug 1998 06:41:21 EDT

Last night I was watching an episode of the old classic MONTY PYTHON'S 
FLYING CIRCUS. One skit was about a hijacker on a plane bound for Cuba . 
He was trying to hijack it to Luton. It figures! What are the chances I 
see this during the week of our heated debate over the LUTON episode of 
1999.

How did it turn out? Well he jumped out of the plane when he couldn't 
change their direction and landed safely on the ground and boarded a bus 
bound for Luton. However, there was a hijacker on the bus who wanted to 
take it to Cuba. That's MONTY PYTHON for you.

I can just see the flood of Luton series on the horizon now! 

David Acheson



Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 00:09:50
From: David Welle (dwelle@online.dct4tag.com)
Subject: Space1999: Luton

My review of "The Rules of Luton," sans one scene....


There's been a 42 day space storm, but on the other side, the Alphans
discover a planet.  An Eagle is sent, but gets an oxygen leak, forcing Tony
to drop off John and Maya, and return for another Eagle.

They eat a berry and pick a flower, and all hell breaks loose.  I have no
idea why they start running away right afterward, instead of trying to
reason with the voice, although I suppose the voice sounded beyond reason,
and against the showing of lightning and other powers, flee to a slightly
more sheltered location, where they try contacting Alpha.  Instead, three
plants calling themselves the Judges of Luton appear on the screen, and
promptly make a judgement against the Alphans and, as punishment, set them
to battle, to the death, against three other aliens who commited the same
crime, forcing them -- this time for more obvious reasons -- to flee again.

Arrowheads.  Maya's puzzled by the word.  Good, someone's paid attention to
the fact she's not from Earth, and certainly not from North America.

In regard to the aliens...

Maya:  Must we kill them?
John:  Maya, yes, if we want to survive.

Maya argues they should try making contact.  John sees the reason in that,
but naturally makes sure there will be some distance (a canyon) between
them.  John finally starts erasing footprint evidence, and tells Maya to
stay on hard ground.  Has he had some training at evasion, or is this just
being intelligent?

The strong alien hurls rocks at John and Maya for their efforts at contact.
 The three aliens aren't interested in talking.  I actually liked the
appearance of the aliens.  Each was different, and I thought the prosthetic
and costuming work was good.

Maya and John swimming.  That scene was cut out by the Sci-Fi Channel,
making it seem like a discontinuity, in that a RIVER somehow ended up
between the two groups.  They had to have swum it, of course, but I still
appreciate seeing a complete version of the episode, at last.

The Alphans try communicating again, but the others are uninterested.

John tries to argue with the Judges, asking, "Why must we kill to save our
lives?"  The judges are unswayed (hmm, there's a pun in there, I just know
it :-)

John:  Obviously, animals are a lower form of life on this planet.

Then, there's this little bit:

Judge: We pride ourself on our justice, our fairness.

Pride.  The Judges have long since closed their minds.  In "fairness," the
Judges have given the three aliens additional powers.  Given the already
uneven 3-2 odds, this of course suggests that the Judges are aware of
Maya's powers.  The others' "gifts" aren't all revealed immediately, except
for one, who appears extraordinarily strength that John doesn't think even
Maya could duplicate.  The other two are even more unusual, totally beyond
any Alphan capacity:  psychic transportation, and invisbility, as we'll
later see (that's definitely gotta be a pun!).  Put together, these three
abilities seem far beyond Maya's capacities, except that she is so
flexible, such as being able to take to the air to spy on the aliens.

I don't know why it takes the alien so long, but the one finally uses its
teleportation "gift" to instantaneously cross the river, surprising Maya by
leaving her on the wrong side of the river know, away from John, who is
promptly attacked and nearly killed by the alien.  Maya finally arrives,
and after a couple useless dive-bombings, makes another metamorphosis to
scare the alien off, only she is -- not for the first (last?) time in the
series -- just too frightening, for the alien stumbles backwards into the
river, where it ends up drowning.

She feels regret at this result, not having wanted to kill, directly or
indirectly.  However uncivilized her father had been to others, he still
taught her a high degree of civilization, or she got most of it and her
empathy from her mother.

Then Maya tenderly sees to John's wound, which is a nice little scene.  In
fact, the two of them are getting along very well together.  The looks of
concern on Maya's face at these and later points are priceless as well.
Some actors come off as monotonic, too cool when it seems they shouldn't
be, and so on, but not Catherine Schell -- she handles a variety of
emotions very well, making Maya very expressive.

John tries to carry off the rock lance, which seems odd, considering its
weight, his injury, and her abilities.  OTOH, it seems he should have at
least some weapon, so maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.

Tony is trying to find the planet, which has vanished.

John and Maya find more evidence of dead animals.  Curiously, they all seem
to be dinosaur-like.  "Where the animals made their last stand."  ...  "Can
you imagine the battle that must have taken place...?"  Back to the plant
vs. animal theme.  It just seems silly again.

Maya looks for the two aliens.  Strangely, she lands, and nearly gets
caught (presumably to be strangled) by the plants.  It's a silly scene, for
she has no reason to land -- why not just keep flying?  She may have a
bird's brain at the moment, but why would even a bird land in this case?

One alien, on seeing the bird, vanishes, while the other uses the mesh he
wears to fashion it into a cage.  The latter may be a warrior's outfit, or
simply a means of catching and transporting food (not a pleasant thought in
regard to Maya, either).

Koenig seems to have an affinity for old weapons.  First he makes an
arrowhead comparison, then starts fashioning a rock-throwing bolo.  Maya
chides him for not resting, and that starts a whole other part of the
episode, namely that key scene with John and Maya, but that's really a
whole other post, and will make it such.

Continuing past that, they finally realize they are being approached by an
alien.  They can't see it, only the weapon, and Maya transforms again in
hopes of smelling it out.  She does, but again, she shows that her
intelligence seems to flee when she transforms into less intelligent
creatures, for she keeps barking so close to the very thing that's holding
a big enough rock to make a mess of her.

I've argued in the past that she really doesn't seem to "carry" much of her
mind with her when she transforms to less intelligent creatures, and these
sorts of things are the reason why.  Koenig (and in some episodes, others)
speak to her, in animal form, as if she understands, but I don't think she
does, but is simply carrying out whaterver instructions she "leaves" for
the animal form to carry out.  The real world reason is simpler, of course,
in that the directors only had the *animals* to work with.

Here, the alien loses its balance with the heavy rock, falls backwards, and
is crushed to death by the rock.

Shortly afterwards, Maya, now as a bird, carries a bit of cloth to wet to
clean John's wound.  When she alights, however, she is caught.  This last
part has a rather bad filming discontinuity, for first we see the bird on
what actually looks like dry ground, then the alien seems to swipe at
WATER, where we can't even see a bird (!), then he's holding and caging the
bird.  Of course, this is because it really wouldn't be good to film the
thing for real, considering the live bird would either flee or get hurt,
but the pantomime is poor, and the change of surface is awful.

Koenig contacts the Judges, and tries to give himself up, in place of Maya,
but they refuse.  Koenig, like Carter did on at least one occasion, tosses
the still useful commlock away.  Yes, people can be emotional, but you'd
think a resource strapped Alphan would temper his wasteful anger more.
Later, the Judges allow Koenig and the alien to communicate, and it becomes
apparent that the alien really doesn't want to kill either.

The "strong" alien has finally outsmarted one Alphan, and has a hold over
the other as well, which he uses, drawing Koenig off the high ground and
into a battle sort of reminiscent of the one in Star Trek's "Arena," though
fought with even more primitive weapons.

The climax is practically identical:  in front of the more powerful force
that has them *all* captive, the victor (be it John Koenig or Jim Kirk)
declares he refuses to kill the loser (unnamed alien or Gorn).

That brief moment of nearly identical plot diverges long enough for the
Judges to refuse to release Koenig, the alien, and Maya from their "Rules"
(as opposed to the powerful overseer in "Arena" -- the name escapes me --
who saw Kirk's way more quickly).  The Judges sound absolutely
bloodthirsty, while none of the three survivors -- all alien to each other
-- really want to kill in the first place.  Koenig finally confronts the
Judges on their thirst for death back at them, in front of all the other
citizens of Luton.  The Judges stand firm for a moment; it's only when the
rest of Luton's people -- the other plants -- rebel against the Judges'
decision, that the Judges finally relent, and let the world reappear in
front of a startled Tony (I liked those couple of seconds right then), and
Maya and John off the world, which will obviously be unsuitable for Alphan
colonization.

Oh, and yes, I think the Judges did change from a group of wide, deciduous
trees, to rather more thread-bare conifers, and back to deciduous form
again.  Jeez, someone must have grabbed the wrong slide at that point.

I like what Mateo said about the Judges' motivation.  Given the powers they
-- or most likely the whole plant world as run by the Judges (think Gaia,
or something along the line of what the being in "Immunity Syndrome" was
capable of) -- they likely could have prevented the Alphans' landing in the
first place.  At very least, when John and Maya had landed, the Judges
could have warned them away -- in that powerful voice of theirs -- from
eating anything.  I agree it's like Mateo said:  they wanted the spectacle.
 It was the Roman Colliseum all over again.  The citizens finally got the
Caesers to give a thumbs up to the survivors.

Tony, inappriately enough, on return to Alpha, gives Maya some plants.
Well, she doesn't seem to mind, but Koenig definitely does.

At 03:17 AM 07/27/98 EDT, David Acheson (dkach@hotmail.com) wrote:

>Fred Freiberger himself decided to 
>try his hand at writing an episode of the series.  [....]  Strangely 
>enough he wrote them under a pseudonym, Charles Woodgrove. Was he 
>embarrased by them? Not likely as our exhibitionist producer was one of 
>the first to push this fact. So why the penname?

Or was that the trend amongst producers who tried their hand at
screenwriting at the time?  I think someone commented that producing and
writing are almost like different worlds, and I wonder if this implies that
if/when producers did want to dabble in writing, that they, the other
writers, and the series as a whole would be best off doing it under a
pseudonym.

It's a somewhat different arena, but authors -- even good ones (e.g. Isaac
Asimov) -- take up pen names (e.g. Asimov as "Paul French") for some of
their works.  In at least some cases (I'm not sure about Asimov), I suspect
they do that because they want to try their hand at a different kind of
story or series of stories than they are known for, just for the "fun" of
it or for other reasons, and don't want to endanger the reputation of their
real name if the pseudonymic material flops.

Nowadays, the reverse seems to be true, such as with JMS with Babylon 5.  I
don't know, this is all just speculation on my part.

Again, this is all a lot of speculation.  In the case of "Luton," it was
probably a safe bet anyway, because this is a weak episode, the poorest,
IMO, of Freiberger's three "Charles Woodgrove" episodes.

>The idea of intelligent plant life is not a totally unbelievable concept

I agree:  not totally unbelievable, in science fiction; but the idea
generally doesn't appeal to me to start with.  I've seen the sentient
and/or hostile plant concept in several series and movies, and it rarely
comes off as anything better than cheesy.

Y2 wasn't the first to play with this in S19:  Y1's "Troubled Spirit"
started off with that plant seance scene that makes me cringe.  First off,
I'm not the least bit keen on the idea of seances to start with, but a
seance to communicate with plants?  I'd rather "believe" in the Judges of
Luton, than that (as far as the idea of intelligent plants go).  As far as
seances go, I liked "Troubled Spirit" and also Y2's "Seance Spectre" for
showing how dangerous or, even better, how simply misguided the idea could
be -- but I'm getting off the immediate topic now.

>but it could have been handled a lot more interestingly. The whole 
>vegetable versus animal conflict was transformed into a remake of the 
>STAR TREK episode, THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION (which itself was rather 
>silly).

Actually, it reminded me of both "Arena" and "Gamesters" -- those two words
apply very well to this episode.  Two or more combative parties set against
each other by an overseeing force, the crucible of battle to force out the
truth or simply to have offending parties eliminate each other.

Was there an intelligent plant episode in the original Star Trek?

>Sometimes even Freiberger himself did not have a clue as to his own set 
>up for the series. We know that Maya could only hold her transformations 
>for an hour but she did not necessarily have to transform back into 
>herself before changing again. And yet this appears to be the case when 
>she is captured and caged in the form of a bird. I remember reading once 
>about Freiberger being asked about this point. He waved it off as 
>writers' licence.

Well, this writer (i.e. me :-) managed to think up an idea awhile back:
she doesn't have enough "room" in which to transform.  Imagine that in
direct form-to-form jumps, she still has to expand halfway (or some amount)
back to full size, if even for a fraction of a second.  The cage in "The
Taybor" was big enough that she could comfortably transform into a smaller
form; but the cage in "Rules of Luton" was just too small.

Also imagine too that's its a shortcoming of the process that can be
reduced with practice.  At first, a Psychon might not be able to do direct
form-to-form transformation at all, but instead have to revert to humanoid
form first.  Maya did that once near the end of "The Metamorph," then
managed, shortly thereafter, to do a direct transform -- perhaps her first.

You could call it technobabble (metababble?) or simply some needed
background detail, but it feels rather eerie to have, over the years,
probably thought out the character of Maya and the metamorphic ability more
than the producer who introduced her ever did.

>Yes, but he was the fellow who created the character 
>and concept in the first place. Did he think much through in producing 
>the second year or made it up as they went along?

Seems to me that any series makes up a lot as it goes on.  New aspects of
characters are revealed over time, background comes to the foreground, etc.
 Yet some ground rules need to be figured out for any character beforehand,
and one has to look back as well, to make sure the new aspects add to, not
contradict, a characters' histories.  I'm not sure it outright contradicted
anything seen before, so I'm willing to call it new background detail.

>However, Freiberger did shine and partially redeems himself in one 
>rather important moment of the episode and perhaps the whole second 
>season. It is the sequence where Maya and Koenig take a rest and discuss 
>some of their past history.

I agree it's a fine scene in an otherwise mediocre episode.  Over half my
discussion about this episode will be about just that mere ten percent of
it.  That's in the other note.

>The director this time around was veteran Val Guest  [...]
>and despite the overall unconvincing storyline he does a rather 
>good job. 

Yeah, the directing was good.  Catherine's acting was great, as usual, as
was Martin's.  They all managed to pull it off well enough to take the rest
of the episode (outside of the one John and Maya scene) from dull running
around to actually being mildly entertaining, while that one scene was the
best.  Indeed, had it not been for the whole plant vs. animals theme, I
might have liked this one a little more than the comparable "Arena" from
Star Trek, because I liked the direction and acting in this S19 episode
more than that ST episode.

Altogether, call it a 2 out of 0-4, or more precisely, a C.  Without the
one scene, it would have probably been a 1.5 (D+).

That one excellent and interesting scene, in a second...



Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 00:32:52
From: David Welle (dwelle@online.dct4tag.com)
Subject: Space1999: Psychon and Earth

The key scene of "Rules of Luton," the one that escapes the bounds of this
single episode and has implications far beyond, is the five or so minutes
when John and Maya have the chance to pause in their weary flight across
the landscape of Luton, chased by three and then two aliens, when they get
to regroup, and end up discussing the pasts of their respective worlds, one
gone forever, and one lost to distance.

It starts out innocently enough, when Maya chides Koenig on not resting
after he's wounded.

John:  It only hurts when I laugh.
Maya:  Mmm?
John:  It's an old Earth joke.
Maya:  It's not funny.
John:  Well, it was on Earth.
Maya:  Fifty years ago.
John:  Okay, then tell me some old Psychon jokes.

He unintentionally reminds her of her tragedy, but after a moment of
wistful sadness, she explains that Psychon was a happy place, and how most
had not left.  Her brother and a thousand others left before the end (which
sets up "Dorzak").  Others also built spaceships and left as well.

The last partially answers a question that has dogged me for some time.
Were there other Psychon survivors, besides Maya and also Dorzak's group.
I had forgotten about this line in "Rules of Luton," which indicates that
there were other ships, likely heading in a variety of directions.

So there are chances that there are other Psychons surviving in space,
perhaps even having established colonies on new worlds, as the Alphans are
struggling to do.  Of course, Maya has no way of knowing this, so for all
she actually knows, she may be the last Psychon alive.

Maya:  Nobody shared his [Mentor's] dream.  They all left...
       prefering to take their chances in the unknown.

Maya was caught up in Mentor's dream.  Still likely a child, Mentor and
Maya's brother may have had an argument over what should become of Maya,
but it sounds like the decision was still hers, much as some kids can
sometimes, if they're old enough, to say which parent they'll stay with in
a divorce, if I'm not mistaken.  But Mentor was the father, and the brother
was just a brother, and I doubt Mentor, once Maya wanted to stay with her
father, would let her be taken away.  Who knows.  Maybe "teens" on Psychon
were of a different personality, and entrusted with more such personal
decisions than on Earth.

Regardless of who had finally say or if that was even a problem (that's all
speculation), she had wanted to stay with Mentor -- whom she still thought
the world of (there's her naivete again, something played on by several
other episodes as well) -- and did stay on Psychon.

John:  Weren't there any wars on Psychon?
Maya:  No.  Unlike your planet, we were all of one race,
       one religion, one government.  Our planet was so
       rich in resources that there was no separation of
       classes.

I see this bit sparked a lot of heavy debate.  I don't take it as there
having been races eliminated, religious warfare that one religion emerged
supreme from, or there having emerged one fascist government that prevented
any free thought or rebellion to found another government.  Those are Earth
concepts, which may be more common on other worlds, or less common on other
worlds.  I take it that Psychon was just different.  For whatever reason,
multiple races did not arise there (lack of geographical separation, or a
genetic code that resisted change and divergence more strongly than ours).
In a later episode, Maya states "we found our god."  That statement has a
lot of possible and contradictory interpretations, but perhaps indicated
they stumbled on something that was totally convincing to themselves that
spread to all, especially if there was relatively little racial,
geographical, or social diversity.

Here's a curious thought:  what if Psychon, before its environmental
travails, comprised only a single inhabitable continent of a not largish
size, and that the religion spread fairly rapidly.  Think Roman Empire
sized as Christianity spread, or the Middle East and North Africa as Islam
spread, though I'm really oversimplifying on the Earth history here.

That's the point:  Earth, not Psychon.  Psychons were likely of a different
temperment.  Earth is made up of people with a huge variety of
personalities ranging from the kindliest to the most violent, with a lot of
people in between.  Psychon probably just didn't have that variety.  Not
that her world was entirely free of destructive behavior:  Mentor's
murderous obsessions and Dorzak's megalomania were signs of that.  It may
simply have not had as much of those sorts of problem than Earth.

Some people have complained that Maya just seemed too human in personality.
 Well, I say we've just found the more alien parts of her heritage.  It's a
change from other aliens in S19, who were either violent, or who were
arrogant in their supposedly utopian peace.  This is the second time she's
stated something to the effect of "Psychon was a happy place," and might
not be the last, and Maya seems a good example of what have been the RULE
(as opposed to Mentor and Dorzak being the exceptions -- and even Mentor
still had a jovial nature mixed in his personality).  If we take Maya's
statements -- and Maya herself -- essentially at face value, I think we
have much of Psychon personality in view.  They were generally a
non-divisive, satisfied people.

As to the world being resource-rich, that would only add to the idea that
there was little to fight over, which could have made a single government,
and it probably wasn't as massive as just about any government on Earth is,
considering there's less reason or nature for arbitration of resources,
judgement of individuals, law enforcement, and so on.  No, I don't think
that gets rid of every day-to-day difference, or of different people having
different jobs (e.g. world leading scientist vs. janitor), but don't forget
that it's Earth people who tend to look down on one person vs. another for
their job.  Maybe Psychons just didn't make as big of a deal over it.  With
plentiful resources, that suggests less reasons for jealousy in that regard
either.

Yes, Psychon sounds like a sort of utopia compared to Earth, but in the
end, wasn't perfect either.  On Earth, there is basically no utopia, and
for all intents and purposes, it's impossible anyway.  One group may come
up with its idea of Utopia, but even having the idea often leads to
violence gross physical or subtle mental violence as the originators try to
force it on others, leading to such problems as fascism, cults, world wars,
etc.

Individual humans vary widely, but human nature is extremely slow to
change, such that it could be millenia, eons even, before Earth's character
could become like Psychon's.

Yet this is human nature, not necessarily Psychon.

One additional idea was already mentioned:  that Maya, being naive, and
having so much trust in her father, might have been deceived by Mentor into
thinking their world was better than it really was.  Hard to say.  It seems
possible, but I would tend to think that she'd have pretty good access to
Psychon's history and other media records.  Maybe Mentor could have
restricted that as well.  Yet Maya was old enough that she saw her brother
and others leave, and it seems unlikely that Mentor had the ability, or
inclination, or time to hide everything from her.  He might not have told
her about some of her world's smaller problems, but I doubt he could have
hid the worst.

There's not a lot of Psychons that we see, so there's little that we can
say statistically, and can speculate it to death.  Over the years, I've
essentially taken Maya at face value, and see her as the rule rather than
the exception of Psychon.


Whew... that covers one side of the Alphan coin.  The other, shared by the
rest of the moonbase, is Earth's.  Psychon and Earth.  As much as some
individuals of the two worlds had in common character-wise, and as naive
but adaptable as Maya was, they came from two very different worlds, and
now that John has heard much more about the pleasant world of Psychon
before its disasters, Maya finds out about the ugliest facts of Earth history.

It's a shameful history, but he shares it willingly, if sadly, painting a
starkly grim picture of a war that killed his wife back in 1987.

Koenig describes a war between "races, classes, and religions" -- no nukes
mentioned -- that "was global and awful," apparently beyond even the
horrors our world has already had, and that to fight another would mean
"the end of humanity."

Maya:  You mean... people... killed people,
       just because they were different from each other.
       That's disgusting.

Absolutely, Maya.  It's ironic to get one of the best, strongest lines of
the series, IMO, from one of its weaker episodes.  On one hand, it almost
sounds a bit trite, but it is so true, and so well delivered in her voice,
that it really stands out as one of the best lines, in my mind.

Koenig then claims that the war wiped out prejudice -- that to survive,
people had "to work together... accept each other for what they were" --
and describes the beginning of a "brand new, wonderful civilization."
People can reinvent themselves, but can an entire world of people do so?
I've already argued Earth people could take many ages to do so.  Except I
have ignored the effects of a war beyond any war we've had.  Yet it is
still intensely arguable whether even this could jar people enough.  Yet we
haven't experienced the war Koenig described.  People can be pretty
thick-headed, and collectively, even thicker, but individuals can be jarred
by a major experience, so maybe a whole species could be jarred by a shock
of horrendously huge magnitude, like the possibility of going from mass
death, as in all wars, to extinction, or at least the utter end of
civilization.  There's no way of saying where such a threshold, if it
exists, is actually "located."

Eliminating prejudice doesn't necessarily eliminate other day to day
interpersonal tensions (we've seen them in the series, after all) between
any two individuals, just wiped out the more major stupidities.  Looking at
our past and present world, and imagining "hatreds... between races,
classes, and religions" all coming "to a head," at once, what would we have?

Just the conflict WITHIN nations would be immense.  Some countries would
have extensive internal strive between races, many would have religious
strife, most would have ethnic conflict, and all would have class
conflicts.  Even that's probably understating it, and that hasn't even
touched on conflicts between countries (which fortunately didn't seem to go
nuclear, as far as we know).  Yet even if not every single division
everywhere resulted in strife, the bloodbath would be horrendous, possibly
upwards of a billion or more deaths before it ended.  Such an occurance
could shock almost everyone into thinking twice.

The problem with the scene as set by Koenig is twofold:  its timing, and
totality.  I'm not talking about the come-and-gone 1987 (our world must be
a bit better after all, if only by a bit, since we avoided this
"prediction"), but rather in the speed of recovery.  If the war was that
bad (not necessarily my speculation but just John's words), it would have
taken at least a decade or two to recover from.  Surging into space would
be a good way to raise people's spirits and give hope of a truly new start
and new directions, but the recovery seems a little rapid.

On the other hand, if I recall correctly, we never do see Earth, outside of
a hospital room in "Dragon's Domain," until 2120, when everyone lives in
domes, and Earth is lifeless.  So maybe Earth never really did recover from
the damage inflicted, and going into space and embracing technological
solutions (i.e. the domes) were the only way they could survive.

This fact alone would be a daily reminder of how close they came to wiping
themselves out.  Come a prejudicial thought again, many might think, "No,
no, NO!  That's the kind of thing that got my wife killed, along with a
billion others, let loose plagues in its wake, ruined our world, and is
going to put us in those damn domes that are being built."

Problem is, of course, that Koenig didn't mention anything about the domes
in this episode.  Yet the rest of the statement could be a strong daily
reminder, and maybe the world was ruined to the point that domes had to
start being built after Breakaway, perhaps even more so after Breakaway
damage.

Most people would think twice after the horror of a magnitude that even our
world hasn't yet experienced, and to many, this shattering experience could
even make many people not even want to get to the point of even having to
think twice at all.

Yet that leads to the other problem:  the totality of the change.  Some
people would still have to think twice to sidestep any prejudice that
remains within themselves, and a few would outright not do that at all, but
continue their hating ways, perhaps even more so by blaming various
"others" for the war.  Most would realize this line of thought is what
nearly killed the whole of civilization, would realize that change -- real
change -- was necessary for humanity to survive.  Adapt or die.  Still,
again, a few would just not get it, and among those who do, it may still be
a conscious process for some.  The latter group, along with the rest who
weren't prejudiced, would, with all the memories still fresh, likely do
everything they could to avoid passing bad attitudes to their children.
Yet I'd think at least a few still would.  Maybe they'd become a new
minority, or maybe they'd be so vanishingly small in number that their
impact would be almost non-existent.

The whole paragraph indicates subtleties that Koenig didn't hint at.  His
view indicates a total change.  Yet maybe I'm being too picky, in the sense
that the change was so great, regardless the exceptions, that *that* is
what stuck in mind, an overwhelming positive, after millenia of war, with
only minor negatives that people would rather ignore.  Yet the last
paragraph also implies that there's still a timing issue, because the true
test would be the next generation, and seeing how it turns out.  That
point, though, is something that might not have really entired John's
consciousness at all.  Maybe *he* was over-optimistic and overlooked that
question, or the need to wait to truly see, wait until those who had
experienced the war raised their children, until those survivors eventually
passed on themselves, entrusting the planet to generations that had never
experienced it.

Is even all of this speculation being too over-optimistic?  Perhaps, but
it's not something I'd want to find out by "experimenting" with a war of
that nature.

What seems to be the trouble with even this war's "silver linings"
(rebuilding, working together, going further into space, annihilating the
very prejudices that caused the war in the first place) was perhaps, oddly
enough, more about its still slightly too optimstic in its timing and
totality, as I have argued.  From a war in 1987 to a moonbase before 1999,
seems just a bit too rapid of a recovery, even if space was made a priority
for hope in pointing out a fresh new direction.  This strikes me though as
being little more than an extension of the same over optimism that gave use
the year 1999 in the first place.  Dates in science fiction are often too
soon; we may be advancing quickly, but not *that* quickly.  I even remember
reading that some 1930s stories were speculating that by 1980, we'd be
living in a Jetson's-like world of hovercraft, jetpacks on everyone's
backs, regular spaceflights to the moon and Mars, etc.

Yet now, I'm just wandering myself.  The point is that while the timing
that Koenig's story sets up is perhaps suspect, the fact of the change
*might* not be as unbelievable as it seems.  Yet maybe if I adopt the
optimism as shown by Koenig, maybe if almost almost every single survivor
left on Earth was shocked out of old attitudes, and threw themselves
wholeheartedly into such changes, knowing it was either change or go
extinct, maybe it could come to pass in the time indicated, and set the
stage that would allow Earth, even with its still far greater diversity, to
begin enjoying the peace Psychon had.

Maybe.

It's speculation, all speculation.  "Can humanity change?"  It's the
eternal question, and one that frequently arises in SF as well, including
being touched on by several episodes of both seasons of S19.  Maybe with a
great enough horrifying shock, or maybe with a vast enough amount of time.
Or perhaps not.  I don't have the answers, only a heap more of speculation.

Speaking of heaps, I think I've reached the end of my voluminous discussion
of this episode.


My 1.999 cents,

David Welle



From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 13:00:23 +0000
Subject: Re: Space1999: Time Out Please

David Acheson wrote:

> I think David Lerda hit the nail on the head about Freiberger. He was an
> exec who lived in the land of business and ratings. Year Two followed
> that philosophy due to the Americanization of the series. He definitely
> was not thinking artistic value.

Yes, but although I basically agree with David Lerda, I still think that
a professional writer cannot sit down and write something completely out
of personal or cultural context.  Spendig much of my time planning and
writing computer programs all day, I know that even in this very technical
and formal way of  writing there is nevertheless a touch of personal style
that will discriminate one writer from another.

Even if Freiberger was not thinking in artistic value, although I do
believe he had some sense of artistic value although different from mine
I believe, I think his fingerprints must be all over the script although
difficult to understand.

> I have no idea what Norwegian
> television is like Petter. Perhaps you can tell us? But judging from the
> British imports we get here I do see a definite difference between
> British and US styles indeed.

Norwegian television is more similar to British style than US style I
believe.  Norwegian taste and style in film is not unlike the one of
Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, I suppose, although less international
in scope and seldom exported.  Woody Allen is perhaps being the closest
US equivalent of the style except for Norwegian style being less neurotic
and having no humour.

Like most of the world we import a large amount of US TV, Seinfeld, Friends,
X-files, Baywatch etc.  We also import greatly from the rest of the world,
Europe in particular.

Petter



From: Atomic Possum (atomicpossum@toast4tag.net)
Subject: Re: Space1999: Time Out Please
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 10:23:55 -0500

     Petter, I would be absolutely fascinated (although in a completely
morbid way) to hear your analysis of any episode of 'Baywatch.'

     Is the whole show simply a play about the dangers of skin cancer?



From: djlerda@juno4tag.com
Subject: Re: Space1999: Luton
Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 12:02:47 EDT

>(as opposed to the powerful overseer in "Arena" -- the name escapes me

The Metrons.

David J Lerda