"Dorzak"

From:  South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date:  Mon, 2 Nov 1998 09:34:20 -0800 (PST)
Subj:  Space1999: ExE

This week's episode is Dorzak....

"You will convey to me the knowledge of molecular transformation...and you will discuss this episode from Monday, November 2 to Sunday, November 8...."

Mateo (or is it?)

From:  David Acheson (dkach@hot44mail.com)
Date:  Tue, 03 Nov 1998 16:25:36 EST
Subj:  Space1999: DORZAK

I believe this is DORZAK week. Its nice that Christopher Penfold was enticed to write a script for the second season, after his departure at the end of year one, but it was unfortunate that the Freiberger regime reworked Penfold's story (so he claims) to the point of it being unrecognizable. What actually sounds like a great premise (good turned evil) ended up even more as a CHARLIE'S ANGELS in space than Bob Kellett's THE LAST ENEMY. Female security dressed in evening gowns and stilettos? Housed in luxurious quarters? Catfights over the prisoner? I don't think so. Penfold must have cringed when he saw the final result.

This was another one of those double-up episodes so Koenig was not around for the action. So instead we get he-man Alan in love with beautiful space girl Sahala and Maya and Tony hissing and spitting in the corner at them. Yesta and Clea were nothing more than window dressing and a temporary vehicle to make it appear that Sahala was the bad one. Helena did have her moments but where did Ben Vincent go? Now we have Doctor Ed Spencer in his place. Of course, in the end, we find that Maya is wrong (for a change thankfully)and that it is the prisoner Dorzak that is the evil in their presence.

In what can be the only good thing to be said about the episode, Lee Montague does a reasonably good job as the Psychon poet-turned-killer but unfortunately he did not have a lot of meat to work with - scriptwise. A potential Balor-type ended up rather average. Jill Townsend was not bad either but her character was mainly a love interest for Alan and cannot be put down as one of the more memorable 1999 aliens.

It would be terrific to see how Christopher Penfold originally envisioned DORZAK to see if it was really all that much better.

David Acheson

From:  Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date:  Wed, 4 Nov 1998 11:30:24 +0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: DORZAK

CHARLIE'S ANGLES indeed.

It was nice that Penfold was commisioned for another go, but format changes from Year One to Year Two sadly makes this one of the less successful episodes in my opinion.

On the other hand, the essence of the story, that fight for survival makes us into monsters, is nice and pure Penfold, not unlike THE LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES and SPACE BRAIN I would say.

Unlike Johnny Byrne, however, whose scripts fitted almost equally fine with both seasons, some of them at least, Christopher Penfold philosophy of life and style of writing seems much more fit with Year One the way I see it.

The banalities of Alan in love beautiful space girl Sahala and Maya and Tony hissing and spitting in the corner at them does not seem to help to the image of Penfold as the brain behind the wonderful Year One of SPACE:1999. In fact, far from being the peak of performance for Year Two, some of the less successful ingrediants of this episode almost makes it fall down to the Pip and Jane Baker level, I feel. it is not a very satisfiable episode from my point of view.

Perhaps in some ways it is comparable with Johnny Byrne's THE DORCONS, the episode when Byrne finally gave in and just wrote the sort of trash that Freiberger expected him to make instead of the usual socially and philosophically interesting comments he used to make.

Just like Byrne, Penfold is still good, I feel, even when he has the odds against him, and just like THE DORCONS cannot hide the contempt Byrne had for Maya and his general dissatisfaction with how Year Two ignored everything that was nice about SPACE:1999, DORZAK is also an episode with an attitude.

While Penfold seemed to use most of his writing time during Year One to make halfbaked scripts work, he at least accomplished three episodes that were completely his, based on his own premises. As far as I can see this Penfold trilogy consists of THE LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES and SPACE BRAIN.

While LAST SUNSET and WAR GAMES were written quite early on, in fact I believe they were two of the original eight scripts made before production commenced, SPACE BRAIN is perhaps Penfold's goodbye to the series, a collage of previous episodes such as BLACK SUN and RING AROUND THE MOON in particular.

In THE LAST SUNSET the human race is perceived as a potential danger, and is tricked by the Ariels not to colonize their world. STINGRAY and THUNDERBIRDS have been analysed to have been popular in Britain because they delt with the trauma of the decline of the British Empire by still making the dream be carried over to the next generation.

I don't know if something similar can be used for explaining Penfold's pessimistic world views, even more clear in WAR GAMES than in LAST SUNSET by declaring the human race as a virus and saying that perhaps our final struggle is hour finest hour of existence.

While the humans were prevented from destroying worlds in WAR GAMES, in SPACE BRAIN the dilemma is carried on even further as in the fight for survival and total lack of understanding and control of situation we are destroying not only hostile or dead unknown planets but, in fact, sources of intelligence representing a galaxy of worlds.

I wonder if what Penfold was describing here was similar to Nietzsche's "God is dead" doctrine, because as Nietzsche continues in his metaphorical writings, God, or perhaps the civilised world as other would put it, was killed by the masses as he perhaps was contemplating the change of face in Europe during the most intense period of industrialisation during the second half of the previous century.

It is interesting then, I think, that Chris Penfold in his SPACE:1999 swansong DORZAK puts the poet and philosopher into such a central position. Very nice indeed, and were this done in a Year One context I believe DORZAK could have been a very interesting episode indeed.

While everybody knows that Fred Freiberger was a very nice man that everybody admired and loved to work with and so on, his main contribution as I see it in terms of SPACE:1999 was to turn a highly intelligent television series, made by some of the finest writers, actors, technicians and crew of its time into complete rubbish.

DORZAK illustrates very clearly, I think, how Freiberger, no doubt only doing his job, and doing it very well too, willingly and gleefully danced on the grave of original SPACE:1999, making high art into pure crap. Nowhere is this as visible as in the Byrne and Penfold episodes, I think, the most obvious links with the previous season.

It would be terrific to see how Christopher Penfold originally envisioned DORZAK to see if it was really all that much better.

Personally I think Johnny Byrne's total rework of THE BIOLOGICAL SOUL more than says it all. After THE BIOLOGICAL SOUL was turned into THE METAMORPH SPACE:1999 was metamorphed into trash as well, and it would be close to impossible for someone being so closely connected with Year One as Penfold to make much of contribution, Freiberger more or less stating explicitly with his rework of the series that he had no understanding of Penfold's previous work.

Nevertheless, I'm happy he tried however, and just like Johnny Byrne's THE METAMORPH he does not give up completely, trying to pass some of the philosophy and dignity of Year One over to Year Two.

Petter

From:  "Simon Morris" (simes01@global44net.co.uk)
Date:  Thu, 5 Nov 1998 12:57:49 -0000
Subj:  Space1999: DORZAK

I'll have to be brief about this one as I'm really pressed for time. Basically,I liked this episode. Its not one of Y2's best(at least,not for me)but at least there is a certain amount of continuity with previous episodes and its not just an "actionfest" like BETA CLOUD/SPACE WARP et al. Its nice to see that another Psychon other than Maya survived,but not so nice to find out that he has degenerated into a bastard. I liked Lee Montague's performance(Montague was seen on British TV a lot in the seventies but less so now..). He was both icily polite to everyone("Mr Carter" etc)and yet totally evil. From what Maya tells us,we know that he was once an honourable man:a poet,philosopher and man of peace. And yet because I myself see no evidence of his previously uncorrupted life I cannot sympathise with him as I did with Sanderson for example. OK,so Dorzak says that its the struggle for survival that makes monsters of everyone(as if this is a half hearted attempt by Christopher Penfold to justify Dorzaks actions)but that theory is basically smashed by Maya herself who points out that the Alphans aren't warped(generally..)and that they saved her life! Incidentally,much as I enjoyed Montague's performance I couldn't help but wonder what an actor like Peter Bowles(END OF ETERNITY)would have made of this role. Oh yes...and I would like to have seen a bit more detail as to *why* his struggle for survival turned him into a proper bastard. This was totally glossed over. Maybe Penfold's original script was more complete in terms of the motivation of Dorzak?

I also liked Jill Townsend as Sahala. Nice looking gal...I wasn't always convinced by her acting but I still think that she came over as a combination of hard experience and yet of a certain amount of innocence. I was less comfortable with the way Carter is apparently smitten by her but I suppose there was a lot of conflict generated by way of the fact he was-to start with-the only one to believe her and doubt Dorzak's story. Interesting really that the Alphans loyalty to Maya means they are more likely to believe her than an alien with a reasonably convincing story(quite rightly I suppose...just as their caution in releasing Dorzak despite their trust of Maya's judgement is also realistic). So how do we explain Alan Carter's fairly blind trust in an alien who he's only just met? It seems to me that he is reacting on a fairly basic male response to an attractive girl. What a shallow chap eh? (Not that I'd be any different heh heh....).

I can't decide whether Verdeschi's reaction to Sahala's gunning down("staser-izing"??)of Maya in the teaser is realistic or not. OK so his sweetheart is lying inert on a bed(*presumably* he's not used to seeing that....!)and he is angry. But he is second in command of Alpha and seems to lose control of his emotions totally! If it was thought to be so wrong that Sandra Benes fainted at the slightest sign of trouble,then surely the same logic must apply to Verdeschi? Personally I was disappointed that DORZAK did not feature Martin Landau,though to be completely impartial I was also disappointed that DEVILS PLANET did not have the usual regulars either.

Anyway, a generally enjoyable episode with less Y2-type humour than usual(as with many latter episodes of the season). A little of the witty dialogue of the sort that Feely wrote for NEW ADAM NEW EVE wouldnt have gone amiss. Penfold has stated he was unhappy with the finished product but never went into details as to what actually changed. Certainly I was more impressed with his Y1 stories(that goes for Johnny Byrnes Y2 scripts as well of course)but then we know that both Penfold and Byrne were uncomfortable to say the least with the Freiberger style!

Simon

From:  Simon Morris (simes01@global44net.co.uk)
Date:  Thu, 5 Nov 1998 13:50:09 -0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: DORZAK

Petter recently wrote:

It was nice that Penfold was commisioned for another go, but format changes from Year One to Year Two sadly makes this one of the less successful episodes in my opinion.

Well not so much that,as a disappointment compared to some of the scripts that Penfold provided for Year 1

On the other hand, the essence of the story, that fight for survival makes us into monsters, is nice and pure Penfold, not unlike THE LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES and SPACE BRAIN I would say.

Indeed...I'd agree with that. The only unsatisfactory element in the script is that there is nothing that clearly states what happened to Dorzak that turned him into a bastard. Saying that the "struggle for survival" made him into a monster is a get-out,because its a generalisation. (Maya points out that the Alphans haven't been warped by their struggles,after all......)

Unlike Johnny Byrne, however, whose scripts fitted almost equally fine with both seasons, some of them at least, Christopher Penfold philosophy of life and style of writing seems much more fit with Year One the way I see it.

Agreed again Petter. Though I don't think Johnny fitted in particularly well either. I thought THE METAMORPH and IMMUNITY SYNDROME were great(funnily enough when it was screened 20 years ago I didn't care for IMMUNITY SYNDROME at all,but I like it now...)wheras I was extremely disappointed with THE DORCONS in just about every aspect.

The banalities of Alan in love beautiful space girl Sahala and Maya and Tony hissing and spitting in the corner at them does not seem to help to the image of Penfold as the brain behind the wonderful Year One of SPACE:1999. In fact, far from being the peak of performance for Year Two, some of the less successful ingrediants of this episode almost makes it fall down to the Pip and Jane Baker level, I feel. it is not a very satisfiable episode from my point of view.

I wasn't really convinced by the Sahala/Carter aspect either,I have to say. And I too had trouble visualising Penfold writing this sort of thing. Verdeschi seemed totally unprofessional and his barely disguised anger at Sahala(in front of her,Carter and(horrors)a security guard :"SHE GETS NOTHING!" etc I found faintly embarrassing. And before you all say:"well,its understandable..he's in love with Maya!" let me say that he is supposed to be Koenig's number 2. Let's have a modicum of good judgement and deliberation.....

Perhaps in some ways it is comparable with Johnny Byrne's THE DORCONS, the episode when Byrne finally gave in and just wrote the sort of trash that Freiberger expected him to make instead of the usual socially and philosophically interesting comments he used to make.

I must be feeling ill as I tend to go along with you Petter. I didn't care for THE DORCONS at all and it does seem to have been dashed off in a day or so. What a pity given Johnny's fantastic Y1 scripts......

Just like Byrne, Penfold is still good, I feel, even when he has the odds against him, and just like THE DORCONS cannot hide the contempt Byrne had for Maya and his general dissatisfaction with how Year Two ignored everything that was nice about SPACE:1999, DORZAK is also an episode with an attitude.

I'd be interested to know what you mean by "an episode with attitude"?

In THE LAST SUNSET the human race is perceived as a potential danger, and is tricked by the Ariels not to colonize their world. STINGRAY and THUNDERBIRDS have been analysed to have been popular in Britain because they delt with the trauma of the decline of the British Empire by still making the dream be carried over to the next generation.

Ah! I thought it was too good to be true......! Petter,where *have* you got your ideas about STINGRAY and THUNDERBIRDS?!! I don't claim to be an expert on either of these programmes,but any suggestion that they were popular over here beacuse they dealt with the trauma of the decline of the British Empire is utter tosh. Mind you,I'm not saying that a lot of people weren't traumatised by the breakup of the Empire...merely that those sort of people didn't tend to watch STINGRAY and THUNDERBIRDS...:-). Next time I see the aquaphibians fighting Troy Tempest I shall look at them in a totally new light...heh heh.

While the humans were prevented from destroying worlds in WAR GAMES, in SPACE BRAIN the dilemma is carried on even further as in the fight for survival and total lack of understanding and control of situation we are destroying not only hostile or dead unknown planets but, in fact, sources of intelligence representing a galaxy of worlds.

Yes indeed, I'd agree...but we're looking at DORZAK,not WAR GAMES and SPACE BRAIN,Petter!

It is interesting then, I think, that Chris Penfold in his SPACE:1999 swansong DORZAK puts the poet and philosopher into such a central position. Very nice indeed, and were this done in a Year One context I believe DORZAK could have been a very interesting episode indeed.

In my post on DORZAK,I do say that I couldn't help but see Peter Bowles in the central role. Actually I suppose there are some similarities between Dorzak and Balor...the fact they're both psychos for one thing. I too believe that DORZAK would have fitted nicely into the Y1 scenario though presumably along the lines of Penfold's original script rather than that televised(Of course I am guessing here as we don't know how different Penfold's original draft differed from what was on the screen).

While everybody knows that Fred Freiberger was a very nice man that everybody admired and loved to work with and so on, his main contribution as I see it in terms of SPACE:1999 was to turn a highly intelligent television series, made by some of the finest writers, actors, technicians and crew of its time into complete rubbish.

Hey! Hang on a minute Petter! I don't remember any Y2 fans universally trashing Y1 so don't do it to Y2. I hate this high-handed attitude(very brave of you though...<grin>). The series were different in approach. There were good episodes and excellent episodes in each season(IMO of course)and there were some crap ones in each season as well (RING AROUND THE MOON springs readily to mind in Y1....) SPACE 1999 in either year was never Dostoevski(or even Ray Bradbury for that matter...how ever much some like to think it was).It was meant as entertainment. The fact that certain Y1 episodes had a lot of subtext and resonance is down to the individual efforts of writers like Johnny Byrne and the fact he invested body and soul in the series. I have always said that his loss on Y2 was tangible and that its a pity that the many good ideas of Freiberger could not have married with the philosophies of Johnny Byrne(and his great writing). But lets not have this intellectually superior "Year 2 is rubbish" stuff,eh?? Because it leaves a bad taste in my mouth....we're all supposed to be on the same side.

DORZAK illustrates very clearly, I think, how Freiberger, no doubt only doing his job, and doing it very well too, willingly and gleefully danced on the grave of original SPACE:1999, making high art into pure crap. Nowhere is this as visible as in the Byrne and Penfold episodes, I think, the most obvious links with the previous season.

"High art into pure crap....". A dangerous phrase Petter. I suggest you rephrase it. I'm glad I'm not as seemingly intolerant as you appear to be! People can find shit absolutely *anywhere* if they look long and hard enough for it. Its a fact of life sadly :-(

It would be terrific to see how Christopher Penfold originally envisioned DORZAK to see if it was really all that much better.

Phew! Well I agree with that. It would be a pity if the original draft wasn't any better though wouldn't it? And we will never know for sure that it wasn't either!

Personally I think Johnny Byrne's total rework of THE BIOLOGICAL SOUL more than says it all. After THE BIOLOGICAL SOUL was turned into THE METAMORPH SPACE:1999 was metamorphed into trash as well, and it would be close to impossible for someone being so closely connected with Year One as Penfold to make much of contribution, Freiberger more or less stating explicitly with his rework of the series that he had no understanding of Penfold's previous work.

I can just visualise Petter indignantly hammering away at his computer keyboard while typing the above. Sorry Petter but I can't agree that Y2 was trash because.....well. Why bother? I've said all this before and yet still there are people like Petter who are so bitter that there was never another SPACE 1999 series that someone or something has to take the blame. And its always Freiberger and Y2 that are the fall guys.....Yes there were faults with Y2. But there were also faults with Y1 and everyone was aware of them. Its only now with hindsight that Gerry Anderson and all the rest say they were "happy" with Y1. Had the series been renewed for another year I doubt that it would have changed back to a Y1 version of it?. Everybody's always wise *after* the event...

Nevertheless, I'm happy he tried however, and just like Johnny Byrne's THE METAMORPH he does not give up completely, trying to pass some of the philosophy and dignity of Year One over to Year Two.

Well I suppose thats what they call "damning with faint praise".......

Simon

From:  Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date:  Thu, 5 Nov 1998 17:11:35 +0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: DORZAK

Indeed...I'd agree with that. The only unsatisfactory element in the script is that there is nothing that clearly states what happened to Dorzak that turned him into a bastard. Saying that the "struggle for survival" made him into a monster is a get-out,because its a generalisation.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: From here, much of the discussion digresses into a very tense yet redundant note on Y1 vs. Y2.]

From:  South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date:  Thu, 5 Nov 1998 10:04:31 -0800 (PST)
Subj:  Space1999: Dorzak

Well I won't repeat everything that's been said, so ONCE AGAIN the Alphans meet a friendly race of people with considerable intersteller capabilities and DON'T ASK FOR ASSISTENCE!! Come on! The Norvans could have easily assimilated 300 Alphans into their society (which spanned a number of star systems). They are OBVIOUSLY compatible with humans. This is just ridiculous. It is like a cruise ship docking at Gilligan's Island and the castaways (a movie star and the rest...) just playing host for 30 minutes and then saying, "Bon voyage!!!"

They could have included a few lines about how the Norvans COULDN'T accept the Psychon refugees because of their inherently xenophobic natures. THIS could caused the conflict. It would also have added an element of depth to the Carter/Sahala relationship as she--incredibly--begins to realize that perhaps outsiders are not anathema. In the end she could say, "Although I have begun to realize that our xenophobia is perhaps mistaken, Alphans would never be welcome on Norva and eventually the same conflict would arise as arose with the Psychons."

Mateo

From:  South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date:  Thu, 5 Nov 1998 11:03:39 -0800 (PST)
Subj:  Re: Space1999: Dorzak

Makes you want to scream HELLOOOOO! Maya says, "The Alphans aren't warped by their struggle.." WHAT STRUGGLE? The struggle to find a home, to get OFF of MBA. To find A HABITABLE PLANET!!

The Norvans, the Archanons (! who have been to Earth !!), who else did they ignore?

Where is the dilemma that Koenig faced in Mission of the Darians?

Mateo

From:  TERALISHA@aol4tag.com
Date:  Sat, 7 Nov 1998 15:55:51 EST
Subj:  Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

Hello everyone!

Finally worked up the nerve to subscribe to the list after reading everyone's wonderful & sometimes humerous insights into the Alphan galaxy.

I see the episode being discussed is Dorzak. The question that gets me is why and what happened to this man to change him into the power questing individual that he became?

Is there some kind of quirk about Psychon males or something that makes them evil?

It probably would have made a good two part episode if "someone" would have let a good writer tackle it. Complete with flashbacks from Dorzak after leaving Psychon up to meeting Sahala's people - can't remember their exact name - Norvians??

Oh well, we will leave that idea up to the fan fiction department and see what they come up with.

As for Yr 2 versus Year 1 arguments:

[EDITOR'S NOTE: These are moved to the Year One vs. Two thread referred to earlier. This is true of most of the notes that follow. I will only part this with a [first part] notation.]

From:  "Ariana" (ariana@ndirect4tag.co.uk)
Date:  Sun, 8 Nov 1998 14:42:54 -0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak [first part]

Finally worked up the nerve to subscribe to the list after reading everyone's wonderful & sometimes humerous insights into the Alphan galaxy.

From:  TERALISHA@aol4tag.com
Date:  Sun, 8 Nov 1998 21:26:16 EST
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak [first part]

From:  "Brian Dowling" (hellion@easy44net.co.uk)
Date:  Mon, 9 Nov 1998 22:14:32 -0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak [first part]

From:  Ariana (ariana@ndirect4tag.co.uk)
Date:  Tue, 10 Nov 1998 14:55:26 -0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak [first part]

From:  TERALISHA@aol4tag.com
Date:  Tue, 10 Nov 1998 19:56:28 EST
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak [first part]

From:  "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 10:26:40 +0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

It is been brought up on this list earlier, however, that the notoriusly romantically oriented husband-and-wife writers Pip and Jane Baker may have been involved in this episode as some stage. While most of us, I suppose, believed that this was due to a misunderstanding, the romantic relationships that prevail much of the episode, Alan and Sahala, Maya and Tony, and perhaps, more interestingly and certainly more subdued, a possible relationship between Maya and Dorzak seem much more Pip and Jane Baker than Christopher Penfold.

Dorzak's power over women is certainly a central aspect of the episode, his costume and make-up obviously being based on Bela Lugosi's title character in Tod Browner's DRACULA (1931). It is not unlikely that Penfold (or the Bakers) may have been influenced by this performance, many of the brain control sequences are almost completely remade after the original, just like Ray Austin obviously used F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1926) as a model for much of END OF ETERNITY, a similar psycho-on-the-loose story, although obviously less oriented towards investigating the darker sides of relationships between men and women than DORZAK.

Penfold using Dracula as a role model is perhaps even less surprising when thinking of the enormous success of the Hammer revivals of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930's and 40's beginning with CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and HORROR OF DRACULA (1958), making Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee into international superstars due to their extraoridinary performances, surpassing Lugosi and Karloff in some ways I suppose or at least adding psychological believability to the characters that would amaze audiences into watching each of the seven or eight films in each of the two series that were made until the collapse of Hammer in 1973 or there about.

Interestingly, the Hammer films were shot at Pinewood too, using Black forrest for location shots representing spooky central-European rural places. No doubt Christopher Penfold, growing up with these very popular films, may very likely have been influenced by them to such an extent as to wanting to use some of the major psychological elements of the Dracula myth into his similarily named DORZAK.

Even if Emma, Teralisha and perhaps Ellen too, have sensed that there was something in the air between Maya and Dorzak, very natural, of course, come to think about it, either I haven't paying too much attention while watching it or it director Val Guest wasn't paying too much attention. I suspect it was I who wasn't to receptive, but, nevertheless, making more out of Maya's fascination with Dorzak, Tony's jealousy and pairing it with the new-found love between Alan and Sahala could be emphasised more clearly and dramatically than was done in this episode, I feel, mostly by making Maya's invitation to Dorzak less ambigvious.

Perhaps more so, although it is possible to understand Maya being insecure and giving off a whole spectrum of signals shooting off in every direction, Dorzak himself should have been more congruent, I believe, having him holding her hard, stroking her over the thighs and her behind while dominating her totally by his mental capabilities. Maya should then, I suppose, behave as if close to reaching an orgasm, while, of course, Tony is watching it all with raging jealousy, sweating wildly and making suitable facial expressions.

If Val Guest had been more perceptive in the reading of the script, making necessary adaptions in order to focus on the central point of conflict and drama in the story, it would be much easier to understand what it was all about apart from the usual Penfold misanogy and concern for the future of human kind as so fully explored in previous masterpieces such as LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES and SPACE BRAIN.

Petter

From:  "Ellen C. Lindow" (sfdxb@scfn.thpl4tag.lib.fl.us)
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 08:16:14 -0500 (EST)
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

Petter,

Emma, Terralisha and I were all speculating on what we _didn't_ see in Dorzak. And we weren't talking about romance and relationships, we were talking about sex and procreation. I like your comparison of Dorzak to Dracula, but there really was no sexual undertones that I saw.

As I told Emma off the list the other day, Dorzak treats Maya as if she is a child, not an adult. This may be megalomania on his part, and he beleives no one is his equal. It may be other things, all of which would be speculation on my part. As far as I can tell, there wasn't any sexual tension or attraction between the two.

From:  "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 13:48:28 +0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

Okay, thanks for clearing things up, Ellen. In my experiece women sometimes have a greater ability of reading what's between the lines, so I was beginning to wonder if I had been completely asleep while watching this episode, completely missing the point. On the other hand, there are some scenes, I suppose, that could indicate a mutual attraction between the two, just as Dorzak is waking up, although the atmosphere is quickly broken by his parent-to-child type of conversation as you say.

Apparently then there wasn't all that much tension between Maya and Dorzak after all. It is an interesting speculation, nevertheless, I remember a similar insidence when analysing THE LAST ENEMY and END OF ETERNITY, people were having rather different opinions on what the between-the-lines communication between Helena and Dionne and Helena and Balor was all about. Always interesting to speculate about what people are actually meaning when they are saying something, isn't it?

Therapy group indeed, well said Ellen.

Petter

From:  David Welle (dwelle@itol4tag.com)
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 10:01:19 -0600
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - D!nt*43~ Space1999: Space:
       1999 Re: 1999 To: s19 Re[2]: FWD Re: [] [relevant parts only]

Okay, my apologies for now being *way* late on "Dorzak," even though I don't seem to be the only one continuing the thread; but I've had email problems for almost a week, and missed a lot of the discussion, so I'll pull in the comments I had already wrote for when my email would return, and adapt them to reply to this morning's note from Petter (plus replying to a bit of one from Mark, several days back).

(Simon, I'll get to your direct note over noon; I just wanted to get this out as early as I could.)

I'll get to "Devil's Planet" shortly, I hope.

I forget if we've discussed this or not, but meeting Dorzak might have been Maya's last chance to become pregnant anyway: who's to say that Psychons can breed with humans?

Well, that is an interesting question to consider, one I have been considering for fan fiction myself -- and which has been looked at in other stories. At least one story that I know of already directly addresses this (one of Philippa Sidle's, though which title escapes me at the moment). At least a couple others indirectly address this. All indicated that it is at least possible. Makes for more interesting stories, I would think, though her ultimately not being compatible could make for a story as well.

Magus believed it was possible to interbreed Psychon and Human, but we saw the results of his genetic experimentation, so who knows. I like that the series brought up this issue at least once, but didn't resolve it.

Quite interesting, I think, ideas currently discussed about the relationship between Maya and Dorzak. Personally I've never seen anything that might indicate romantic or seductive undertones in the conversation between Dorzak and Maya. To me this relationship seemed to be much like the relationship between Victor and Helena during Y1, lots of between-the-lines conversation, but not really much to support of a romantic relationship.

Romantic relationship? I agree there weren't any signs of a romantic relationship. The way she reacted for the first part of the episode, it was more in awe and surprise at even finding another Psychon, and of outrage that he was imprisoned. Her reaction to Dorzak himself was a mixture of respect and mutual sadness about the winds of fate that had destroyed their planet and scattered its few remaining people. The fact of "respect" is important, for on a personal level, Maya reacted to Dorzak as something of a hero, or at least a sort of leader. This was indicated by both the phrases she kept describing him in to the Alphans, and her own personal reactions, I think.

To put it bluntly, I don't think perpetuating the species was the first thing on Maya's mind, nor did their seem to be any love at first sight thing for Maya. Maybe they'd have drawn together romatically, given more time; but Dorzak's behavior soon dashed that chance.

Dorzak, OTOH, seemed to have repopulation on his mind. The things he said indicated that, like he wanted to spirit Maya away and refound the Psychon people (or at least a new branch, since we simply don't know whether or not there are any other Psychon survivors in ships elsewhere). She was soon starting to be horrified by him, and in that sad moment she talked about Psychon nature, she suddenly sounded about forty years wiser than Dorzak and his Mind Games. For those few seconds, speculating on Psychon nature and commenting on Alphan response to severe struggle, she had outdone the poet philosopher himself in words and perhaps even wisdom. The way she reacts, in sadly sickening but calm horror, is an incredible moment, again driven through by Catherine Schell's heartfelt acting.

At this moment, Maya probably had doubts about her people. Dorzak, for his part, would have had to use more of his mental influence to have any hope of actually procreating with her, which amounts to rape. Given his coldness, and his ability to convincingly make people act the way he wants, I have little doubt he was deluded enough to do that, with hardly another thought.

The great question is how he got so distorted. Psychon seemed to pick leaders in an interesting manner, with a scientist and a poet philosopher. This was probably a good thing for much of Psychon, given Maya's hints about Psychon throughout the season; but it didn't prevent flaws from turning into major cracks when the blows started coming. So Maya's question leaves one wondering about flaws in personal nature. On Earth, power can and often does corrupt; the implication for Psychon is that power alone doesn't necessarily corrupt, but chaos can. Yes, it can seem just a bit to "pat" to blame it all on the tragic situation, but Maya's statement keeps pointing back to the people themselves. She's willing to consider the possibility, which I find interesting, while Dorzak blindly plunges along his path to damnation, not only for himself, but at least a good chunk of the Psychon people, considering his dark ideas lead to disaster on Norva.

Oh, though it seems tragedy brings out the worst in Psychon men, we see only two Psychon men, which is hardly statistic evidence. Maya is so completely different from both of them, in regard to that, and we heard of Maya's mother, who sounded like a great woman too. It's one of those curious places that seems to be making statements about the sexes, but only in a teasing manner, like in "The Last Enemy," where one planet seems to be of (or at least run by) women, and one by men, but where we only see a few individuals.

It is been brought up on this list earlier, however, that the notoriusly romantically oriented husband-and-wife writers Pip and Jane Baker may

Aren't they writers for "Doctor Who?" Not much romance there, at least in terms of the central characters (The Doctor and the companions).

have been involved in this episode as some stage. While most of us, I suppose, believed that this was due to a misunderstanding, the romantic relationships that prevail much of the episode, Alan and Sahala, Maya and Tony,

Alan and Sahala struck things up pretty quickly, but that isn't unbelievable. He is willing to believe her reasons for her attack on Maya -- perhaps partially because he is offended by Tony's strong reaction and decides to give her chances because Tony isn't. Then he grows to believe and like her. The relationship is cut off before much of a chance for anything really happened, and there is a sad but not overplayed parting.

Maya and Tony having a relationship had implications in regard to the sudden appearance of Dorzak. Though Dorzak was older than Maya, the fact they were the only two Psychons in evidence certainly lead to fretting in Tony, on top of his concern over Maya's being attacked by Sahala.

As far as Tony blowing his top in regard to Sahala, he was being very harsh, indeed, but I don't find this unbelievable. He's sometimes been hot-headed, and we have had debates in previous episodes as to his fitness to command. Still, he seems a bit more restrained than Alan, curiously enough. Alan had a tendency of trying to shoot-to-kill first, and asking questions later, that nearly got Helena killed in Y1 and Maya in Y2.

Plus, it's not like Alphans have a pool of thousands of officers to call on from Earth if a commander isn't quite fitting the bill anymore. I'd say Tony, Paul, and Alan -- as well as a couple others who occasionally filled in on command -- have been, despite flaws, good in command, if not necessarily great. Not bad, considering the situation the moonbase is in.

and perhaps, more interestingly and certainly more subdued, a possible relationship between Maya and Dorzak seem much more Pip and Jane Baker than Christopher Penfold.

That's the thing, though: it never progresses beyond "possible," and even if Dorzak had managed to take Maya from Tony, romance -- as opposed to just procreation -- would have never entered the picture, unless he forced her to act in ways he considered romantic.

Dorzak's power over women is certainly a central aspect of the episode,

Well, yes and no. His mental power didn't seem confined to women, for he seemed to expect Tony to comply with his force, and was surprised and defeated when he wasn't.

his costume and make-up obviously being based on Bela Lugosi's title character in Tod Browner's DRACULA (1931).

Sorry, Petter, I think his costume and make-up were both based on a closer source, namely "The Metamorph." Do we know if the actor had "widow's peak" type hair?

Some parallel's between Dracula and Dorzak can still be drawn, perhaps, given his power over the women, but even there, I think it's somewhat different. In Dracula, there seemed to be a sort of sexual tension involved, but with Dorzak, his taking over women seemed nothing more than a means to ends. The women felt much the same sort of fascination, but it still seemed different. I don't think I've seen the version of "Dracula" you mentioned, so perhaps my comments are off base, or perhaps I am missing something "in the air" between Maya and Dorzak, or more specifically from Maya. I don't have the keenest eye for that anyway, so it's entirely possible I'm missing something that you mention Ellen, Emma, and Teralisha see.

as a model for much of END OF ETERNITY, a similar psycho-on-the-loose story, although obviously less oriented towards investigating the darker sides of relationships between men and women than DORZAK.

Interesting that you say that, Petter, because I think that is why I like "Dorzak" more than "End of Eternity." Balor was an out and out psycho, and never seemed to have been anything but that. Pure evil. Dorzak was more interesting, for having started out admired and ending up twisted. Sure, the reasons weren't described, but that's part of what makes it so much more interesting.

"Dorzak" wasn't a perfect episode by any means. There were some awkward points, and the dialogue mixed it up from excellent to sometimes only fair, and it's still beaten by episodes like "The Metamorph" and "New Adam New Eve"; but the characterizations were good to very good, the plot was good, and the themes were very interesting. "Dorzak"s central points regarding Psychons -- and Alphans -- made this a very good episode as well, and added to the reasons I prefer Y2, for the most part.

One nit already mentioned was the Alphan's recognizing a "universal plague signal," in the same sort of way they recognized the symbol in "Mark of Archanon." I can assume Maya explained or was asked, drawing some symbols and describing others that she knew about, to help them communicate in space; or I can assume it was the same thing that allowed them and most aliens to speak more or less easily. I've addressed the latter subject a couple times in the past, so I won't now.

Penfold using Dracula as a role model is perhaps even less surprising when thinking of the enormous success of the Hammer revivals of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930's and 40's [....]

Speaking of Hammer, Catherine Schell, as well as several of the guest starring women in Space: 1999, also appeared in at least one Hammer film. On one search, though I wasn't looking for Hammer, I stumbled on a website called, of all things, Hammer Glamour. If you're interested, it's at:

http://www.hammer.gotoinfo.ch/

Perhaps more so, although it is possible to understand Maya being insecure and giving off a whole spectrum of signals shooting off in every direction, Dorzak himself should have been more congruent, I believe, having him holding her hard, stroking her over the thighs and her behind while dominating her totally by his mental capabilities. Maya should then, I suppose, behave as if close to reaching an orgasm, while, of course, Tony is watching it all with raging jealousy, sweating wildly and making suitable facial expressions.

Huh? Petter, for as long as I have seen you commenting on Y2, you keep talking as if Y2 is too emotionally exaggerated (whereas I think it's closer to the mark than Y1), but really! The fact you vividly describe how much more explicit it could have been implies it was more subtle than you often give it credit for!

It's moments like those in "Dorzak" -- the way they were shown -- that provide one of the reasons I still prefer Y2. I like much of Y1 too, but there were often just too many little or big problems with episodes or characters that really started to overshadow and cripple the interesting themes Y1 presented.

Petter said:

If Val Guest had been more perceptive in the reading of the script, making necessary adaptions in order to focus on the central point of conflict and drama in the story, it would be much easier to understand what it was all about apart from the usual Penfold misanogy and

Misanogy? I can't find that word in my unabridged dictionary. Are you refering to "misogyny," the hatred of women, or "Misogamy," the hatred of marriage? There's also a word for the hatred of men, but can't seem to remember or find it now. Any way, though, I really can't see any of these on first thought, given the fair variety of portrayals of men and women.

concern for the future of human kind as so fully explored in previous masterpieces such as LAST SUNSET, WAR GAMES and SPACE BRAIN.

Well, that is one of the major points of the series -- both seasons -- as it is explored from the viewpoint of the Alphans, with mentions of possible Earth futures, and implications from seeing how aliens have dealt -- or failed to deal -- with the same sorts of issues. "Dorzak" fits this pattern well, even though...

I am disappointed that the Alphans don't at least ask for help from the Norvans, just to see if it is possible, which also lessens the episode somewhat. But it's still a good episode, IMO.

My 1.999 cents,

----David

P.S. Thanks Petter and Mateo, for the compliments on MetaForms. I'm working on updates that will complete the Y1 part of the ExE archive, and get part way into the Y2. Just been working overtime at work and such, and haven't had much chance to keep updating the website, or even participating in the ExE discussion lately.

From:  TERALISHA@aol4tag.com
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 13:10:29 EST
Subj:  Space1999: Re:  Dorzak

Oops! Confusion on the Dorzak episode. No, it's not that there is a romantic thing between Dorzak and Maya. It's the fact that Dorzak is probably thinking that - Ah! Here is a female Psychon..........and as far as we know there's just her & me...

I doubt that Maya would ever respond to Dorzak in "that" way, unless of course something tragic had happened to her Tony and all of Alpha.

The more I think of this man Dorzak, it frightens me. I wonder exactly how the other Psychons who were with him died, if Sahala's people aren't capable of killing?

As for him having powers that Maya doesn't, perhaps the Psychons are capable of this and Maya and Mentor simply didn't discover this ability while on Psychon. Or, perhaps Dorzak and a few other Psychons experimented on something along the way, leading to his insidious ability? Tis a pity that they didn't expand on this a little.

The use of Sahala's flashback was very effective for what happened on her ship and the same could have been done for Dorzak. It would have ended up being a 2-part episode, but heck, why not? BOW was.

All in all I do think there is some good acting going on here and I don't mean in terms of verbal.

Barbara Bain does some wonderful things with just the human touch, the way she places her hand on one of her costars - instances in the Command Center with Tony in the very beginning scene, then later with Maya. Very real and very emotional things. I have never found her to a cold or wooden character in either Yr1 or Yr 2. It's just a shame Koenig wasn't in this episode too.

And yes, I like Verdeschi's part in this episode. Very believable, when you consider the fact that it's his girl who just got blasted by this unknown alien. And they just happen to be transporting another Psychon across the galaxy. With out any prior knowledge of the situation, Tony's hostility towards Sahala is very real and very convincing on Anholt's part.

But all along you can see that he is questioning - he wants Maya to be right because it would make her happy and that is, of course, what he wants for her but you can see the wheels spinning in his head - something doesn't sit right from the very beginning for him so he keeps his eyes open.

I do think, excellent and appropriate behavior, not only for a security officer but for our 2nd in command. Think first, shoot later - if needed. Now, one question - Does anyone know of any scenes being chopped out of Devil's planet by the sci-fi channel - because that's where I got my episode from?

If so, please let me know so that I can get the full impact of this episode.

All right then, I will go where I haven't gone before - and I'm supposed to look out for that grey outfit? hmm...

Everyone have a great day!

Tera Alisha

From:  David Welle (dwelle@itol4tag.com)
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 14:33:48 -0600
Subj:  Space1999: Dorzak, Psychon Future in General, SFC Editing

Ah! Here is a female Psychon..........and as far as we know there's just her & me...

I would imagine he was thinking something along those lines.

I doubt that Maya would ever respond to Dorzak in "that" way, unless of course something tragic had happened to her Tony and all of Alpha.

Given Dorzak's nature, no, I too doubt she would. However, what if the situation were totally different, that he wasn't such a criminal, and ended up staying on Alpha, with the only other Psychon being Maya? He'd almost certainly go after her, as opposed to any Alphan woman, and who knows. Maya wasn't married to Tony, and may have eventually went for Dorzak, whether out of love (again, if he wasn't the creep we saw here) or some sort of sense of duty to her people.

On the other hand, Tony wouldn't let go that easily, and there is still the question of whether there are any other Psychons left. If there were, Maya might resist Dorzak's advances on the grounds there were others left to keep their people going and she loved Tony; if there weren't, she could argue two Psychons alone couldn't refound the species anyway, given -- if they are like most of the species on Earth -- the immediate inbreeding problem their children would face.

In the end, it may not have mattered much if Maya went with Tony or this hypothetical version of Dorzak, because unless more Psychons turned up in the Alphan next generation, Psychons would have had to mix with humans anyway.

The more I think of this man Dorzak, it frightens me. I wonder exactly how the other Psychons who were with him died, if Sahala's people aren't capable of killing?

That is left very unclear, so unclear to me that I still think one (of several) possibilities is that when their leader (Dorzak) was taken prisoner, that the rest may have fled in their ship. Another possibility, if the rest weren't telepathic, they might have been taken prisoner and jailed on Norva instead of dragged to a higher security facility as Dorzak was. Of course, worse could have happened to the Psychons as well. Dorzak implied that; but he turned out to be deceptive in so many ways that we can't be sure.

As for him having powers that Maya doesn't, perhaps the Psychons are capable of this and Maya and Mentor simply didn't discover this ability while on Psychon. Or, perhaps Dorzak and a few other Psychons experimented on something along the way, leading to his insidious ability? Tis a pity that they didn't expand on this a little.

Ack, I knew I was forgetting to comment on something, and that's it. I was bothered by his abilities, because they seemed without precedent. Perhaps it was something he alone, among the Psychons, was blessed/cursed with from birth, or as Teralisha said, maybe it was something he and perhaps others gained over the journey. Perhaps, if he gained that after leaving Psychon, it was a contributing factor in twisting him: too much power, too quickly, corrupting him, or further cracking an existing flaw in his or Psychon personality.

Maya certainly never displayed the slightest hint of telepathic ability, though she obviously had some sort of "body sense" that allowed her to "scan" the biological/molecular makeup of other living beings.

Even with Dorzak's psychic talents, I still found it a little hard to believe he so quickly picked up on metamorphosis, however.

These are a few of the things which made it the "good, if not necessarily great" episode as I mentioned (IIRC) in my previous note -- I just forgot to comment on them!

The use of Sahala's flashback was very effective for what happened on her ship and the same could have been done for Dorzak. It would have ended up being a 2-part episode, but heck, why not? BOW was.

Could have. It would have been interesting, but too much use of flashbacks can annoy some people. A few short ones might have helped, though, even with a one-episode limit. Yet Dorzak is left as something of an enigma, and curiously enough, that is consistent with the points of view this story was written with. We get Sahala's flashbacks because she was talking to Alan about the very incidents being recalled. We never get that, in the sense of the truth, anyway, from Dorzak, and when he is taken away, Maya and the rest of the Alphans are really no wiser to Dorzak's viewpoint. Poor Maya is left wondering about the nature of her Psychon people.

All in all I do think there is some good acting going on here and I don't mean in terms of verbal.

Agreed.

Barbara Bain does some wonderful things with just the human touch, the way she places her hand on one of her costars - instances in the Command Center with Tony in the very beginning scene, then later with Maya. Very real and very emotional things. I have never found her to a cold or wooden character in either Yr1 or Yr 2. It's just a shame Koenig wasn't in this episode too.

Yes, these sorts of things helped improve her character in Y2, IMO, though I disagree about her in Y1.

And yes, I like Verdeschi's part in this episode. Very believable, when you consider the fact that it's his girl who just got blasted by this unknown alien. And they just happen to be transporting another Psychon across the galaxy. With out any prior knowledge of the situation, Tony's hostility towards Sahala is very real and very convincing on Anholt's part.

Agreed, as well as with the rest of your interpretation (snipped) of Tony's actions and probably thought process.

Now, one question - Does anyone know of any scenes being chopped out of Devil's planet by the sci-fi channel - because that's where I got my episode from?

In general, they tended to chop out up to four minutes of each episode, ranging from bits that could more easily be let go (I hate things being cut, but I'm talking comparatively) to more important scenes that made the episode cloudier when cut. Some of their edits were downright bad. I rediscovered S19 through the SFC, though, and can't complain too much because of that; but yes, the cuts they make sometimes hit hard.

As to specific scenes from "Devil's Planet," does anyone else know? Otherwise, I may end up mentioning scenes I haven't seen in SFC's that I see in uncut episodes, though it might be a few days before I get to do that, and it would be inside the rest of my commentary. Does anyone else know offhand?

----
David Welle

From:  actingman-jc@Worldnet.att4tag.net
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 17:05:57 -0500
Subj:  Space1999: Dorzak (sorry this is late)

It's a little silly to have Dr. Russell wearing her id badge on her silver contamination suit.

The alien computer's analysis of earth and "ruled by the laws of the ancient continent" is just silly. Sounds like whoever just did not know what to have the voice say.

The only thing missing from the inside of the alien ship was disco.

The actress (?) playing Clea...where did they find her? And her lines were completly dubbed. Reminds me of a line from the Making of Space:1999, where one of the editors is complaining about some actress in the shots that they had to completly redub because she was not very good.

An operation is underway, and Dr. Spencer has his nose sticking out of his mask??!!!

Dorzak looks like he is wearing a super hero costume.

Why didn't they plant a camera or a bug in the ship so they could hear the confrontation between Maya (as Sahala) and Dorzak? Opps...that must be the plot alarm going off again.

Tony does his corny stuff with who he thinks is Maya in front of his staff? Oh, I get it...he must have thought the episode was over then.

The former jcg@vh.net

From:  actingman-jc@Worldnet.att4tag.net
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 10:55:34 -0500
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

It is been brought up on this list earlier, however, that the notoriusly romantically oriented husband-and-wife writers Pip and Jane Baker may have been involved in this episode as some stage.

Funny Petter should mention that. On the American laser disc, they are listed as the writers, not Penfold. I've noted before that the discs sometimes have original titles on them.

From:  South Central (Tamazunchale@web44tv.net)
Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 11:28:41 -0800 (PST)
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

Clea, in a hypnotic stupor, falling into an embrace with Dorzak as if he were her forbidden love--that smacks of sexuality to me--and of Dracula.

Mateo

From:  "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date:  Thu, 12 Nov 1998 11:45:06 +0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - D!nt*43~ Space1999: Space: 1999 Re: 1999 To: s19 Re[2]: FWD Re: []

Romantic relationship? I agree there weren't any signs of a romantic relationship. The way she reacted for the first part of the episode, it was more in awe and surprise at even finding another Psychon, and of outrage that he was imprisoned. Her reaction to Dorzak himself was a mixture of respect and mutual sadness about the winds of fate that had destroyed their planet and scattered its few remaining people. The fact of "respect" is important, for on a personal level, Maya reacted to Dorzak as something of a hero, or at least a sort of leader. This was indicated by both the phrases she kept describing him in to the Alphans, and her own personal reactions, I think.

Nice to have your comments on this, David, this rings very much a bell with me, and is definitely in line with how I originally viewed the proceedings of the story in spite of the intruiging ideas put forward by Emma, Tera Lisha and Ellen.

For those few seconds, speculating on Psychon nature and commenting on Alphan response to severe struggle, she had outdone the poet philosopher himself in words and perhaps even wisdom. The way she reacts, in sadly sickening but calm horror, is an incredible moment, again driven through by Catherine Schell's heartfelt acting.

This makes me think of WAR GAMES again, perhaps the most personally felt of all the Penfold scripts that he made for Y1, at least according to how he speaks about it in the DOCUMENTARY. While in WAR GAMES the Alphans were the "villains", doing anything to survive and have their species prosper, this role is now assigned to the Psychon outsider, which, I suppose, is very similar to assigning it to the Alphans themselves, but, nevertheless, not entirly equivalent although perhaps as close as Ernst Queller in the similarily thoughtful VOYAGER'S RETURN.

The great question is how he got so distorted. Psychon seemed to pick leaders in an interesting manner, with a scientist and a poet philosopher. This was probably a good thing for much of Psychon, given Maya's hints about Psychon throughout the season; but it didn't prevent flaws from turning into major cracks when the blows started coming.

It is interesting that you mention this, David. My impression is that just like his VOYAGER'S RETURN, the Y2 pilot THE METAMORPH or at least the part of it that was based on Johnny Byrne's original idea THE BIOLOGICAL SOUL, was to a great extent a question about a society whose religion is that of science and progress, THE END OF ETERNITY being another fable about the very same thing.

Interestingly the picture we get of the Psychons is a two-fold one, partly the questionable Byrne and Penfold idea about a civilisation that is intellectually and hence scientifically driven, the reason for the name "Psychon" I suppose, and, on the other hand, the Hindu goddess of transformation, Maya, and Freiberger's views of adaption, flexibility and survival as explained in episodes like THE RULES OF LUTON.

In the case of DORZAK, however, it is the Penfold misanthropic, sorry about previous slips of the toungue when referring to characteristic of much of his writing, that seem to be the central point of view on perhaps both Alpha and Psychon, but definitely Psychon with Dorzak being the poet and philospher who perhaps embodies all the wisdom of contemporary 20th century civilized man ignoring the wisdom of the child as examplified by Maya.

Petter

From:  "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi4tag.no)
Date:  Thu, 12 Nov 1998 12:28:51 +0000
Subj:  Space1999: Dorzak vs. Dracula

Sorry, Petter, I think his costume and make-up were both based on a closer source, namely "The Metamorph." Do we know if the actor had "widow's peak" type hair?

Obviously you are right here, David, but, nevertheless, cape and hairdo, facial expressions, lack of humour, mental or rather hynotical control over women etc. does make him seem fairly similar to Lugosi's Dracula from my point of view, and very different from Brian Blessed even if their outfits are, of course, identical.

Some parallel's between Dracula and Dorzak can still be drawn, perhaps, given his power over the women, but even there, I think it's somewhat different. In Dracula, there seemed to be a sort of sexual tension involved, but with Dorzak, his taking over women seemed nothing more than a means to ends. The women felt much the same sort of fascination, but it still seemed different. I don't think I've seen the version of "Dracula" you mentioned, so perhaps my comments are off base

It was the 1930's version of Dracula I was thinking of. Christopher Lee's character in the late 1950's, 60's and early 70's was a sometimes somewhat disturbing combination of erotisism and sadism, at least in some of the latter films that from my point of view seemed more to have been made as an exorcism for emotionally disturbed script writers than containing much of suspence. The first one, however, HORROR OF DRACULA (1957), shows an extremely potent and suade prince of darkness whose control over women is an exercise of an understanding of how the human psyche works. Absolutely recommended as a companion piece to DORZAK, I would say.

Interesting that you say that, Petter, because I think that is why I like "Dorzak" more than "End of Eternity." Balor was an out and out psycho, and never seemed to have been anything but that. Pure evil. Dorzak was more interesting, for having started out admired and ending up twisted. Sure, the reasons weren't described, but that's part of what makes it so much more interesting.

I'm happy you feel that way, David. For me, however, it is quite the oposite, feeling there is much more flesh and bones to Balor than Dorzak, although this may have more to do with my fascination on the behalf of Peter Bowles interestingly complex and realisitic portrayal, I think, of a psychotic may dominate a whole community by pulling emotional strings and with very few words cause surmountable disaster. In fact, this episode comes very close to RICHARD III, I think, well written, but perhaps mostly successful because of the extreme talents of actor Peter Bowles and master director Ray Austin who in partnership make the episode sparkle.

Nevertheless, you may be right, David, that Dorzak may potentially be a more interesting character. Johnny Byrne is reported not to be all that happy with END OF ETERNITY for similar reasons as you mention above, in other words, a lack of some deeper motivation for Balor to cause havoc, and I must admit that END OF ETERNITY looses some of its original impetus in the final real when it just boils down to "getting rid of a killer that can't be killed". Not much to explore with such a context, I feel, although, of course, ALIEN (1979) and perhaps to a lesser extent its sequals where huge successes with a similar simplistic plot.

"Dorzak" wasn't a perfect episode by any means. There were some awkward points, and the dialogue mixed it up from excellent to sometimes only fair, and it's still beaten by episodes like "The Metamorph" and "New Adam New Eve"; but the characterizations were good to very good, the plot was good, and the themes were very interesting. "Dorzak"s central points regarding Psychons -- and Alphans -- made this a very good episode as well, and added to the reasons I prefer Y2, for the most part.

To me DORZAK was about the same level as THE METAMORPH, a very similar episode I would say, and perhaps a very natural episode to compare it with. NEW ADAM/NEW EVE is a very different sort of thing, the way I see it, although the educated sort of writing that prevail in that episode could make some links with Penfold's Oxford background, I suppose, or was it Cambridge?

Petter

From:  Ariana (ariana@ndirect4tag.co.uk)
Date:  Fri, 13 Nov 1998 08:57:28 -0000
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

Yes, it's yet another Dorzak post! If the number of individual posts is a problem, then perhaps compiling things as I have done will help. OTOH, the result is that you get a *long* post of my opinions...

From: Petter Ogland

I would like to hold my arms around you when you too see the similarities between Sautet and Austin/di Lorenzo!! Superb! (Oops, I hope Emma's boyfriend is not reading this...)

Er, let's not get carried away here -- yes, my boyfriend does read this list, and no, I don't like Ring Around The Moon!

From: Ellen C. Lindow

As I told Emma off the list the other day, Dorzak treats Maya as if she is a child, not an adult.

This is an interesting point which Ellen raised in our conversation: what if, by Psychon standards, Maya was still a child? Both Mentor and Dorzak treat her like one, and her impish humour is sometimes childish. Who knows how fast Psychons mature? Of course, the consequences for our friend Tony would be interesting to study if it did turn out that Maya was immature... (poor fellow: everyone hates him and now we're making out to be a child molester!? :)

OTOH, Dorzak's treatment of her could simply be because he's her father's contemporary; the last time he met Maya, she probably *was* a child so he considers her the same when he meets her as an adult. Plus, Helena said she was "a big girl" in All That Glisters (otoh, what does she know?).

From: David Welle

Psychon/human interbreeding:

>Well, that is an interesting question to consider, one I have been >considering for fan fiction myself -- and which has been looked at in other >stories.

Hey, me too (as Ellen can attest). I guess it makes sense that people from different species wouldn't be able to interbreed, like, say, lions and tigers... OTOH, lions and tigers can be *made* to interbreed with some genetic engineering. Maybe all Maya and Tony need to produce offspring is for Helena to spend a lot of time in her lab... (OTOH, I doubt Helena or any of her staff have much of a background in reproductive genetic engineering)

At least one story that I know of already directly addresses this (one of Philippa Sidle's, though which title escapes me at the moment).

I'm looking forward to reading some of these ellusive stories I keep hearing about (thanks to Lynn!).

Magus believed it was possible to interbreed Psychon and Human, but we saw the results of his genetic experimentation, so who knows. I like that the series brought up this issue at least once, but didn't resolve it.

It makes more sense than the plethora of hybrids hopping around the Star Trek universe, I should say (although there *have* been numerous attempts to explain that in TNG and DS9).

To put it bluntly, I don't think perpetuating the species was the first thing on Maya's mind,

Hardly! I just brought this up as something which might have occurred to her later. I totally agree that there was no time and no opportunity for this question to arise in the actual show. Maya's delight at finding another Psychon was simply delight at not being alone in the universe (though I notice Tony had a firm hold on her during that whole scene <g>)

At this moment, Maya probably had doubts about her people.

I can imagine Maya feeling very betrayed and disillusioned by her father's actions in "The Metamorph", and not having met any more of her people after that, she was probably left with a bitter impression of her own species. This is further reinforced by Dorzak who is yet another Psychon nut intent on destroying the Alphans. The poor girl must be suffering from a serious identity crisis at this point! She might also start worrying about her own mental health...

only two Psychon men, which is hardly statistic evidence. Maya is so completely different from both of them, in regard to that, and we heard of Maya's mother, who sounded like a great woman too.

Well, Maya thought Mentor and Dorzak were great men too, until proven otherwise. We can't take her word for it that her mother wasn't helping Mentor build Psyche in the first place...

Alan and Sahala struck things up pretty quickly, but that isn't unbelievable.

Another instance of him being even more hot-headed than Tony, perhaps?

He is willing to believe her reasons for her attack on Maya -- perhaps partially because he is offended by Tony's strong reaction and decides to give her chances because Tony isn't.

This is exactly how it struck me, too. I think we've already mentioned that there is some level of competition between Alan and Tony in several episodes, and although I don't think this amounts to animosity between them, I do think this dynamic is at play here. Koenig is away and a crisis situation arises which directly involves Tony's girlfriend; Alan will naturally have doubts about the second-in-command's objectivity. Of course, the fact that Sahala is a rather cute lady further encourages his actions: I doubt he would have been so quick to take her side if she had been some ugly guy.

Maya and Tony having a relationship had implications in regard to the sudden appearance of Dorzak.

The nature of their relationship was played up a lot more in this episode than in previous ones, no doubt to emphasize the contrast between Alan/Sahala and Tony/Maya -- aside from the crummy chat up speech (more on that later), Tony has his hands all over Maya when they're in the Norvan ship (figure of speech -- he only touches her shoulders! crickey, I have to watch what I say here ;)

Though Dorzak was older than Maya, the fact they were the only two Psychons in evidence certainly lead to fretting in Tony, on top of his concern over Maya's being attacked by Sahala.

Yes, although we agree that perpetuation of the Psychon species wasn't top of *Maya's* mind when meeting Dorzak, Tony, being less innocent, and jealous to boot, may have thought about that sort of thing straight away. (I've known certain people to get somewhat worried whenever I spoke to a Frenchman ;)

As far as Tony blowing his top in regard to Sahala, he was being very harsh, indeed, but I don't find this unbelievable.

I agree with this and your following comments about Tony. Unlike Alan, he doesn't panic and throw up his hands exclaiming "Oh, boy, what do we do now?" (from Space Warp). If these are the only two Koenig had to choose from as second-in-command, I guess he made the best choice. As David said, it's not like Alpha is some starship crawling with military-trained officer material. Koenig had to take what he got, and what he got could have been a lot worse (who knows, maybe there was a Will Riker on board -- ack! <g>)

Alan had a tendency of trying to shoot-to-kill first, and asking questions later, that nearly got Helena killed in Y1 and Maya in Y2.

Leading ladies beware!

Well, yes and no. His mental power didn't seem confined to women, for he seemed to expect Tony to comply with his force, and was surprised and defeated when he wasn't.

I'll spare you the silly comment that came to mind reading this paragraph. ;)

I don't have the keenest eye for that anyway, so it's entirely possible I'm missing something that you mention Ellen, Emma, and Teralisha see.

Please, let's not extrapolate on Petter's extrapolation on our comments about my extrapolation on the show... I think we've cleared things up now. <g>

Interesting that you say that, Petter, because I think that is why I like "Dorzak" more than "End of Eternity."

Ed (my other half) and I were discussing End of Eternity and agreed that it was stylish, but ultimately rather empty. The usual cardboard cutout problem; Balor kills someone right in front of Helena and all she does is wince. I didn't dislike it as much as Ed did, but I do prefer Dorzak, because at least this ep doesn't involve a complete baddie who talks in slow motion.

"Dorzak" wasn't a perfect episode by any means.

Agreed -- the flashback scene verged on the embarrassing, for one -- but it still raised some interesting issues about the nature of Psychons and featured some very interesting character dynamics.

characterization. Hey, Y2 is far from perfect and could have used improvements itself, and there are a lot of great moments in Y1; but I just enjoyed more of Y2.

Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that! :)

There's also a word for the hatred of men, but can't seem to remember or find it now.

The word that came to mind was misandry, but it doesn't appear to exist? Maybe it never occurred to the men who invented these philosophical concepts that anyone might hate males as opposed to females? Of course, there's also the term misanthropy, for the hatred of mankind.

P.S. Thanks Petter and Mateo, for the compliments on MetaForms.

They're definitely deserved. Now, if you had more of your stories up and finished there... <g>

From: TERALISHA@aol4tag.com

Ah! Here is a female Psychon..........and as far as we know there's just her & me...

The sort of situation I think many human males wouldn't mind being in (provided the last female was Catherine Schell ;).

All in all I do think there is some good acting going on here and I don't mean in terms of verbal.

I agree. I liked Jill Townsend and I thought the regulars did a good job, too.

emotional things. I have never found her to a cold or wooden character in either Yr1 or Yr 2.

We-ell... I'm with David on this one. I think one of the unseen events in the interseason hiatus was the visitation of the Blue Fairy who un-woodened her.

With out any prior knowledge of the situation, Tony's hostility towards Sahala is very real and very convincing on Anholt's part.

He's certainly at his best when he has something else to do than wisecrack (though as I may have mentioned before, I appreciate the wisecracking too). It's rather a pity the actor buried himself in theatre: he certainly had the advantage over a lot of people you see on TV in that he could actually act (something I think everyone agrees with, their opinions on the *character* notwithstanding).

But all along you can see that he is questioning - he wants Maya to be right because it would make her happy and that is, of course, what he wants for her

Yes indeed...

but you can see the wheels spinning in his head - something doesn't sit right from the very beginning for him so he keeps his eyes open.

This was an advantage he also displayed in Seed of Destruction. Although the prompting from Maya actually spurred him into action, it was clear he'd been doing some thinking beforehand. In Dorzak, it took some concrete evidence to convince him, but I think we've already mentioned Maya's ability to addle his brain -- maybe Dorzak's abilities weren't so out of the blue, Maya may have been exercising telepathic influence on Tony for ages... um, just before anyone takes me seriously: no, I don't really mean that, just an idea that came to mind...

All right then, I will go where I haven't gone before - and I'm supposed to look out for that grey outfit? hmm...

Hmm indeed. I suppose I should really pluck up my courage and watch Devil's Planet too -- though I'm going to find it difficult to cast from my mind the disturbing alternate version Petter suggested!

From: David Welle

Given Dorzak's nature, no, I too doubt she would. However, what if the situation were totally different, that he wasn't such a criminal, and ended up staying on Alpha, with the only other Psychon being Maya?

Tony would probably have given him the Balor treatment and chucked him out of an airlock. OTOH, he might have stepped aside if it looked as if this was what Maya wanted. OK, who's going to write this? :)

question of whether there are any other Psychons left. If there were, Maya might resist Dorzak's advances on the grounds there were others left to keep their people going and she loved Tony;

There's also the possibility that some reproductive imperative might come into play (pheromones, for instance), but that's another topic for fanfiction. ;)

Even with Dorzak's psychic talents, I still found it a little hard to believe he so quickly picked up on metamorphosis, however.

Yes, that was just plain silly; why not have Dorzak a metamorph from the start, imprisoned in the stasis field to stop him from morphing as well as exercising his insidious mind control? I don't think it would have taken that many changes in the script to accomodate this idea -- even though it would perhaps have made Tony more suspicious more quickly when "Maya" suddenly developed such enthusiasm for his beer.

The bit where Tony chats up Maya was a scene with some measure of a cringe factor, btw, not least because we've never seen Tony so smarmily overt in his advances -- "we can have a nice relaxing time floating around in outer space"... huh? I think the real Maya would have zapped him.

While we're on the subject of Little Things That Annoy... why did they all insist on pronouncing that word "stah-sis" instead of "stay-sis"? I don't know which, if either, is the British as opposed to American pronunciation, but most of the cast were behaving as if they had never come across the word before.

To conclude, I like Dorzak; although I wouldn't place it top of my list of favourite episodes, it does have the character moments and "realistic" plot that make me like most of the Y2 episodes. It also raises some fascinating questions which I am sure have fuelled plenty of interesting fanfiction.

And while we're on the subject of fanfiction, you'll be glad to know I've updated my page to include the season information for each story + I've finally got around to adding synopses for Ellen's stories. So pop by for a visit at http://www.alpha.ndirect.co.uk/s1999/

Emma

From:  Robert Gilbert (bcpgd@shaw.wave4tag.ca)
Date:  Fri, 13 Nov 1998 15:07:48 -0600
Subj:  Re: Space1999: RE:  Space 1999 - Dorzak

Hey, me too (as Ellen can attest). I guess it makes sense that people from different species wouldn't be able to interbreed, like, say, lions and tigers... OTOH, lions and tigers can be *made* to interbreed with some genetic engineering. Maybe all Maya and Tony need to produce offspring is for Helena to spend a lot of time in her lab... (OTOH, I doubt Helena or any of her staff have much of a background in reproductive genetic engineering)

Oh come on --- I'm sure there must've been a course in Genetic Engineering at --- (GenEng 1O1?)! <grin>.

Maya and Tony having a relationship had implications in regard to the sudden appearance of Dorzak.

Not to mention that whenever they got into "Lovers' Quarrels" Maya would turn into an Italian Purple People Eater (just to scare the CRAP out of poor Antonio)!

Yes, although we agree that perpetuation of the Psychon species wasn't top of *Maya's* mind when meeting Dorzak, Tony, being less innocent, and jealous to boot, may have thought about that sort of thing straight away. (I've known certain people to get somewhat worried whenever I spoke to a Frenchman

Are you French?

enough. Alan had a tendency of trying to shoot-to-kill first, and asking questions later, that nearly got Helena killed in Y1 and Maya in Y2.

No kidding eh? Still, he probably hadn't been left in Command as many times as TV --- so he wouldn't have had the experience to act like that!

--
Robert C. Gilbert

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