Red Wine and RATM Anonymous
Editor's Notes:
Originated from one note
in the ExE Afterword thread.
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 16:51:22 +0000
Subj: Re: Space1999: ExE: Absolute WORST episode
Ariana (Emma) wrote:
>Absolute worst episode is easy to pick out for me:
>
>- Missing Link
How strange! This is one of my absolute favourites, not as enjoyable as
RING AROUND THE MOON, I admit, but still a highly thought provocative
and emotionally exceptionally satisfiable episode. One of my major
reasons for liking it has, I assume, the very similar style of
direction that Ray Austin used on both this and on RING AROUND THE MOON.
MISSING LINK seems to me to be one of the more experimental episodes
both in lines of writing and direction, resulting a an absolutely
magnificent amalgam of different sorts of high art, literature and
visuals in this case. I always think of the work of the Flemish masters
such as Rembrandt and Vermeer when watching this. Frank Watts in top
form, collaborating with Austin in order to achive a close to renaissance
style of lightning that is excellently matched by Keith Wilson's choice
in renaissance inspired clothing for Vana and Raan.
MISSING LINK is SPACE:1999 at its very finest, I must say, at least this
is how it works for me. On the music front, however, I think the
producers were luckier with the Elms/Willis score RING AROUND THE MOON
than the basically Barry Gray recycling on this one, the musical score
for RING AROUND THE MOON focusing more on the mysteries aspects of
the story and less on the sadness that prevail in the works of Gray.
Some of the most incidental musical, in my opinion, is the parts where
they use moog synthesizers, or is it organ, apprently from the same
musical source as was applied during the sun studio sequence in
FORCE OF LIFE. This is extremely fitting in capturing the logic vs.
emotions subtext of the story. Remarkably good.
Just like in RING AROUND THE MOON, Ray Austin creates an enormous
contrast between the life lead by the mind and life lead by emotions. In
this case, contrasting RING AROUND THE MOON in a quite remarkable and
interesting manner, both Landau and Bain are performing on emotions,
especially interesting in the case of Barbara Bain, I must say, while
Peter Cushing, one of the most expressive and sensitive actors ever
to have appeared on the silver screen or even the TV screen, plays his
role as highly complex clockwork, wonderfully underscored by Keith
Wilson's painting of the Zenos in gold so they appear more machine-like.
>Composing a bottom 10 list isn't all that difficult, but I have a feeling
>I'll have some difficulty getting a top 10, as I do like a lot of the
>episodes... but more on that later. Here's my bottom 10:
>
>48. Missing Link
Well, one mans poison and so on as Simon often says. While not the
ultimate SPACE:1999 episode, it definitely ranges among the ten best
in my book. Barry Morse performance as the evil mirror of Victor
Bergman, or perhaps a side of Victor that is not all that apparent in
other episodes, although very, very convincing, makes this episode a
must-view, I must say. Top entertainment, excellent.
> 47. Ring Around The Moon
> Victor becomes psychic and Helena talks to Christmas lights in her
> nightie -- plus that trademark alien-influenced person typing very
> fast on those unmarked keys on the computer, a theme reprised in
> "Space Brain" (which narrowly missed this list despite the fact
> the Moonbase Alpha cleaners obviously put too much Persil in their
> washing machines...)
Aah, RING AROUND THE MOON, the single best episode of the lot if you
ask me. This is where SPACE:1999 meets the highly complex world of
Claude Sautet and alike the way I see it, a magnificent episode that
can be watched regularily, preferably with red wine.
As you point out, Emma, the plot must have put such a remark on Christopher
Penfold, the main intellect behind SPACE:1999 who did such a remarkable
job of keeping it close to 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY not only by use of
music and visuals, but, foremost, in highly intelligent writing, using,
as you say, RING AROUND THE MOON as a vital influence on his SPACE
BRAIN episode that interestingly enought sums up what appears to be
his philosophical input to the series.
Magnificent episode, RING AROUND THE MOON. I could go on and on and on
describing how this particular installment reflects the heart and
soul of SPACE:1999 at its peak level. In fact, as I write this I feel
a wonderful need for watching it again. In my opinion this episode
cannot be talked about too much. I look forward to many more discussions.
> 46. Matter of Life and Death
> Just click your heels three times and you'll be back in Kansas...
> Helena the robot fails to register any emotion whatsoever at meeting
> her dead husband again, and the technobabble is excruciatingly awful.
Another classic, in my opinion, an episode that to me represents the
essence of Johnny Byrne's contributions to the series. This is,
interestingly enough, the only episode, disregarding VOYAGER'S RETURN,
another magnificent episode, where Byrne is reworking the script of
somebody else. It worked miraculously, I would say.
Not only is this one of the profoundly most interesting episodes in the
series, in the way it handles human relations and one of the main issues
of the series, namely the search for a new and better world, but it is
also a remarkable feat in the way it makes such a wonderful use of Barry
Gray, this episode being one of the four episodes that he scored and
as such containing much of the material that was recycled for the rest of
the series.
Magnificent visuals also pinpoints this episode, Keith Wilson and Frank
Watt perhaps being inspired by Paul Gauguin here with the sumptious Tahiti
like paradise that prevails in the final act but which is already
presented by use of local colour tone in Medical Centre, the appartment
of Helena and during the torture scene.
A highly emotional episode that works on every level on me. The only
thing that makes it slightly less successful than, say, RING AROUND THE
MOON, is the apparent stiff-upper-lip military type of direction given
by Charles Crichton which obviously does not make the actors relax
enough to do their very best like they did with RING AROUND THE MOON and
MISSING LINK. A very interesting episode if one would like to compare
the style of direction given by Crichton and Austin, I suppose.
> 45. Space Warp
> You want cartoonish Y2? Here you go. The production schedule splits
> the cast, forcing both halves into pointless run-arounds which even
> *I* get tired of! (you all know what *will* be in my top 10 ;)
The third and final part of the infamous Woodgrove trilogy. This is
cartoon and porno-disco from beginning to end, I have no problem agreeing
on that, but, nevertheless, an interestinging episode, no regard of how
bad it is, in that it gives fascinating insight to what must have been
going on in the mind of Freiberger when on the loose, and, as such, a
vital key to the understanding of Y2, I believe.
I'm not quite sure how I would range the Woodgrove trilogy. SPACE WARP
is, no doubt, one of the most meaningless of the three, running around
without any intellectual compensation from first to last frame, but,
then again, it does not commit the cardinal sin of RULES OF LUTON in
that it is exceedingly boring at the same time. Perhaps this has
something to do with the younger and more dynamic direction by Peter
Medak rather than the older Val Guest whose main interest in RULES
OF LUTON, perhaps, was to depict elements of the nice flora surrounding
the Pinewood studios.
> 44. The Full Circle
> De-evolving cavemen with metamorphic clothes. Nice one. No wonder so
> many people hated Space:1999 with rubbish like this around.
This was the one of his three contributions as a director that Bob Kellet
liked the most, I believe, at least in the SPACE documentary he says
it was one of his most pleasant jobs as a director while THE LAST
ENEMY was a nightmare from beginning to end.
While probably one of the least successful episodes of Y1, I agree on
that, I don't think it is significantly worse than the average Y2
output. At least we have Victor whistling Grieg, certainly a point that
is well appreciated by the Norwegians on the list.
On the whole, however, this is one of the first dissapointments during
Y1, Kellett's adaption of an original script by the Laskey's that was
made long before BREAKAWAY and had not very much to do with SPACE:1999
the way I see it. Perhaps Johnny Byrne could have made more sense
out of it, but the cave-people genre is extremely difficult to make
very sublte, I suppose, the best thing is often to add a Rachel Welsh
as Hammer did in the 1960s. Zienia Merton is no Rachel Welsh, but
she'll do, her running through the woods is close to the only watchable
part of the episode. The basic theme of the episode, however, is in
the spirit of 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY in that it answers the question
about how much man has evolved during the last some 100,000 years in a
not too optimistic way.
> 43. A Matter of Balance
> Shermeen is cute as a bug on a rug, and there's a little interplay
> between my favourite characters -- and that's just about all I can
> think of to save this episode from the absolute bottom. Aside from
> that, this episode is like a broken pencil... pointless.
This is the episode I have been considering for ultimate low point in
the string of episodes from both series. Perhaps I would have
appreciated it more if I had seen what the Bakers had previously
written for DOCTOR WHO. I thought one needed a Freiberger in order to
write something as bad as this, but, on the other hand, more than
the writing, the episodes is perhaps marred mostly by the ultra-cheap
sequences on the planet which seems like they or on location between
the apple trees on the local Pinewood farm. Even more embarrasing than
the location shots for RULES OF LUTON.
> 42. All That Glisters
> Tony the Zombie vs the Space Cowboy. No wonder Martin Landau nearly
> had a nervous breakdown. Still, like Petter, I'll give it points for
> camp value and I rather liked the rock.
I like this episode for its trying. Everybody involved in it seem to
think it is so embarrisingly poor that they have to be forcefully
convinced not to leave the set. As Catherine Schell says in an interview
with John Kenneth Muir, she was constantly on the point of breaking out
in giggles and causing frustration for Ray Austin who tries to hide
the hopelessness of the script in extravagant direction.
As a contrast to the Woodgrove trilogy, which is not only bad but also
devoid of meaning, there is a halfbaked message of environmental concern
in this episode, no doubt fragments of what survived from Oxford educated
poet and writer Keith Miles in what must be a heavy rewrite by Freiberger.
In fact, as far as I've understood the episode was rewritten five times
during production.
When it comes to ranking, I think this episode, because of the enormous
effort made by Austin and the actors to compensate for some of the
worst raw material so far, the episode turns out rather enjoyable. It
is almost like the script went through the BLACK SUN experience, everybody
expecting to die as it was impossible to make sense out of it, by
miraculous means, the final product ends up as a tribute to how it pays
never to give up, just bite your teeth together and get on with it.
ALL THAT GLISTERS was the fourth script to be put into production, and
after having made the first four episodes, alternately by Y1 veteran
directors Crichton and Austin, Anderson, Freiberger and the rest obviously
decided that they had got the grips on Y2 and the new young directors
Clegg and Brooks were allowed to make their tries. Interestingly too,
Ray Austin obviously found out that enough was enough, and as he
understandably did not want to head more ALL THAT GLISTERS projects
left production.
> 41. Death's Other Dominion
> Pointless Shakespeare rip-off with scantily-clad cavewomen and the
> usual half-baked technobabble. Every time I see Jack, I'm reminded
> of Baldrick hopping around the cemetary in BlackAdder II -- and I
> wish someone would push Jack into a puddle too...
I agree. While not having all that much against Shakespeare and scantily
clad women, the episode is drowned in technobabble and total boredom. The
episode was made the week before FULL CIRCLE and is of similar quality,
shared by the equally boring INFERNAL MACHINE.
In the Terpiloff/Barrow episodes, it is not perhaps the intellectual
component that is the greatest problem, Terpiloff's focus on man,
science, emotions, humanity and so on are interesting enough, I think,
almost similar to Edward di Lorenzo at when they are at their best. It
is the style that ruins it all for me. While most of Y1 was set in
science fiction mode, the Terpiloff episodes are at best fantasy,
although I think fairytale or childrens stories for the pre-school
age would be a better term. Total waste of time.
> 40. The Troubled Spirit and Voyager's Return
> Frankly, I couldn't care less whether Mateo's ghost catches up with
> him or Linden is Queller or not. Give me stories about people I care
> about: the main characters! They're not bad episodes, just ones I
> won't watch again if I can help it.
THE TROUBLED SPIRIT is a fairly okay episod, I think, highly typical
of the latter Johnny Byrne scripts of Y1 where he gradually left
the original premises and ideas of SPACE:1999 in order, perhaps, to
find ways of evolving on it. THE TROUBLED SPIRIT was one such
episode that used elements of spiritism and eco-politics as was one
of the main issues of the day. MISSION OF THE DARIANS was the other
script that, not unlike Terpiloff's DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, moved
the Alphans to a different setting that could prove a mirror of the
Alphans society without the need of making changes on the locked
structure on Alpha.
In Y2 writers like Donald James managed to discuss many of the same
ideas in episodes like THE SEANCE SPECTRE where he could use internal
conflicts on Alpha rather than depending on encounter with aliens.
I think the two final Byrne script are okay, beliving that THE TESTAMENT
OF ARKADIA was written at an earlier stage although the last to be
produced, and, at least, much more filled with blood and guts than
other episodes that were being produced at the time, such as THE
INFERNAL MACHINE and DRAGONS' DOMAIN.
VOYAGER'S RETURN, on the other hand, is an episode that is typical of
the full maturity that SPACE:1999 reached during the middle of its
Y1 course. This, like its successor THE END OF ETERNITY, deals with
the concious of science, and the portrayals of the scientists in
both of these episodes are extremely interesting, I think, highlighted
by two of the finest guest artists that appeared in Y1 the way I see it.
In both of the episodes, the guest character is compared to Victor,
our scientist pr se, in some way or another, showing his confusion and
internal conflicts when dealing with other scientists. Highly
interesting and stunning episodes, I would say, two of my favourites.
Petter
From: Jim Small (Eagle1@mts44.net)
Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 16:01:37 -0600
Subj: Space1999: Re: Serious Addictions, or, RATM Anonymous
Petter Ogland wrote:
> Aah, RING AROUND THE MOON, ... a magnificent episode that
> can be watched regularily,...
I'm seriously curious, just how many times have you watched it?
> ...preferably with red wine.
With red wine??? I enjoy red wine with my wife and/or dinner, both of
which are more important to me than a television episode... Umm....
yes... erm.... This seems to prove a theory I have about some fans who
take the show FAR too seriously....
> Magnificent episode, RING AROUND THE MOON. I could go on and on and on...
Yes. We all know this rather well.
> In fact, as I write this I feel
> a wonderful need for watching it again.
A "need"? Petter, (and I say this with deep sincerity and compassion)
you really need to go out more...
> In my opinion this episode
> cannot be talked about too much.
Oh yes it can!!!!!!!!!
> I look forward to many more discussions.
I think I'll post three messages a day on the virtues of building
replicas of 1999 models. Let's see how long I live.
--
It's not the time it takes to take the takes,
it's the time it takes between the takes
that take the time to take!
__| _ \
| | / |
__| _` | _ | | _ \ | | _ \ _ \
| ( | ( | | __/ | | | | __/
___| \__,_|\__ | _|\___| ____/ _| _|\___|
|__/
E. James Small
Eagle1@mts.net (or) eagle1@mb.sympatico.ca
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 11:34:23 +0000
Subj: Re: Space1999: Re: Serious Addictions, or, RATM Anonymous
Jim Small wrote:
> With red wine??? I enjoy red wine with my wife and/or dinner, both of
> which are more important to me than a television episode... Umm....
> yes... erm.... This seems to prove a theory I have about some fans who
> take the show FAR too seriously....
I think I've lost the count on how many times I've watched RING AROUND
THE MOON. Interestingly, though, it always seems as fresh as new
whenever I decide to watch it again. I suppose this is part of the
high quality of that particular episode, just like a violin concerto
by Mozart or any other work of great quality, it does not seem to
become less interesting over time. Quite to the contrary, actually,
whenever I watch it I see new aspects, new subtleties.
Thanks for wanting to discuss RING AROUND THE MOON, Jim. I too feel
that there has been far too little said about the episode recently.
You see, to me RING AROUND THE MOON is not only a singular happening
along the course of SPACE:1999, for me it is the episode that really
helps define what the show was all about, the best part of it anyway.
As there have been many interesting suggestions for further discussion
in the aftermath of the ExE thread, I should add that if there are
people who would like to discuss this particular episode in more
depth than what is usually done with an episode on this list, I will
certainly participate in such a list, contributing my views and
opinions on it.
It is nice to see the episode ranging on Mateo's list of top mark
episodes, although in this case it was I that was responsible for
putting it there. Anyway, RING AROUND THE MOON seem to be a perfect
vehicle for creating discussion, no doubt one of the episodes that
is the most frequently referred on this list.
Petter
From: Atomic Possum (atomicpossum@planetstl44.com)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 06:48:10 -0600
Subj: Re: Space1999: Re: Serious Addictions, or, RATM Anonymous
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Small (Eagle1@mts44.net)
Date: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 11:26 PM
Subj: Space1999: Re: Serious Addictions, or, RATM Anonymous
So exactly how MUCH red wine does it take before it becomes a
magnificent episode? Perhaps THAT's why I don't get it........ :-)
-----------------
Jon "Mr. Wonderful" Stadter
[Editor's Note: The following two emails discuss two threads;
and each is thus split between this thread and
ExE: Afterword.]
From: "Monica M. C. Pereira" (nick@msm44.com.br)
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 13:42:06 -0200
Subj: Space1999: RATM - again and Always;-)
Dear Alphans.
Well, sorry, guys (all of you who are sick and tired of discussing RATM);
but, again, I'll join Petter. It is a wonderful ep, especially if you have
in the same tape EARTHBOUND, as I do. To agree with Jim...to watch these 2
eps, I would add red wine and my hubby alongside...well, maybe not... he
doesn't care much for the show...I think he's not that happy about my
'almost-3-decade-teenager crush' on Martin 'Koenig' Landau.
And, hey, PETTER, I think I'll watch Earthb./RATM once again TODAY!!!
THANX FOR REMINDING ME.
[rest of note in other thread]
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 10:35:52 +0000
Subj: Re: Space1999: RATM - again and Always;-)
Although I expect there to be many more who enjoy RING AROUND THE MOON than
what can be read from the surface value on this list. Nevertheless, I'm happy
that there are people who share my enthusiasm for this particular episode.
For the record I might add, however, that although I find RING AROUND
THE MOON to symbolise the best in SPACE:1999, there are many other
fine episodes, and, quite interestingly, I notice that my personal
ranging of favourite episodes, apart from placing RING AROUND THE MOON
on top rank where some others place DRAGON'S DOMAIN, for instance, the
rest of my top ten list is fairly similar to those of Paulo, Mark, Jim
and so on.
[Rest of note is in other thread.]