Editor's Notes: This thread originated in the middle of the Episode by Episode (ExE) "Afterword" thread.
From: Hywel Davies (hyweld@ceredigion44.gov.uk) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 18:02:33 -0000 Subj: RE: Space1999: Re: 1999 ... Best & Worst Hi, > THE INFERNAL MACHINE-- This one seems to be a popular episode, yet I don't > think it's been shown on many 'best' lists. Why one of my favorites? Good > character conflict, wonderful performances, menace, excitement, and an > emotionally-based ending. I have to say, The Infernal Machine is probably the weakest episode I've yet seen in Y1 (the BBC here in the UK is showing Y1, one episode per week, allegedly, and has just shown the Infernal Machine). Perhaps I'm put off by machines showing emotion, always a bit iffy I think. Particularly where they self-destruct in the end. Also Leo Mckern, although an excellent actor, always reminds me of his role as a crotchety lawyer in "Rumpole of the Bailey." Somehow his long monologues do nothing for me. Indeed, the whole episode seems rather static, with long periods of Helena, Victor and Koenig pacing round Gwent's ship with very little happening. Gwent! What a strange name. It's full name seems to bePowys Gwent, which to Welsh ears sounds laughable. Powys and Gwent are names of local counties here in Wales, strangely enough counties only created in 1974 upon local government reorganisation here. Perhaps the names were current at the time and so the writers borrowed them. They are *not* personal names. The bit where Victor blunders into a forcefield also seems a bit "forced." Here he is, wandering around, suddenly walks into a forcefield (for which there is no explanation) and suffers a heart attack. Then we come to the part about Gwent being blind etc, which also doesn't work. It's clever enough to take over Computer, shoot down eagles, identify that Alan is carrying a gun when he arrives etc etc, but is apparently unaware that Keonig gives the attack command by writing it in view of his commlock which is transmitting to Alpha. What's going on with Paul in this episode? Koenig explains to Sandra that he's having treatment (for a dodgy ankle????!!!!) and will be OK. His replacement seems a very shifty character, but in the end plays absolutely no part in the plot! He doesn't even die, unlike what usually happens where new characters pop up [my advice: go out on an eagle with Alan - he always seems to survive!] All in all, not a very satisfying episode. Hywel
From: Atomic Possum (atomicpossum@planetstl44.com) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 13:35:57 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Re: 1999 ... Best & Worst -----Original Message----- From: Hywel Davies (hyweld@ceredigion44.gov.uk) >I have to say, The Infernal Machine is probably the weakest episode I've yet >seen in Y1 (the BBC here in the UK is showing Y1, one episode per week, >allegedly, and has just shown the Infernal Machine). > >Perhaps I'm put off by machines showing emotion, always a bit iffy I think. >Particularly where they self-destruct in the end. Well, it's not as if Gwent is merely a machine. He was constructed as a continuation of his creator's psyche, as is resolved in the whole end of the episode. I don't know if this would mean that Gwent was a mere copy, or if he housed the actual essence...or would there be a difference? Probably not to Gwent. GWENT (VO): "I am Delmer Powys Plebus Gwent of the planet Zemo. A man of considerable importance on that planet, perhaps not fully recognised as the scientific genius I am. I created this entity, an extension of myself; my entire personality is here, and combined with it, is the superior ability of a computer's brain, and all the might and power known to our planet. I am impervious to destruction and powerful enough to destroy an entire universe. That is who I am, Delmer Powys Plebus Gwent." (Was Companion the creator? I've never been sure on that....Or did Gwent adopt Companion's voice, not realizing how much he was being effected?) >Also Leo Mckern, although >an excellent actor, always reminds me of his role as a crotchety lawyer in >"Rumpole of the Bailey." Somehow his long monologues do nothing for me. >Indeed, the whole episode seems rather static, with long periods of Helena, >Victor and Koenig pacing round Gwent's ship with very little happening. It's basically a chess game. Koenig, et al, are faced with something they cannot overpower, as Gwent quite ably shows. The only chance to save themselves is to outsmart it or get it to leave them willingly--which it ultimately does. >Gwent! What a strange name. It's full name seems to bePowys > Gwent, which to Welsh ears sounds laughable. Powys and Gwent are >names of local counties here in Wales, strangely enough counties only >created in 1974 upon local government reorganisation here. Perhaps the names >were current at the time and so the writers borrowed them. They are *not* >personal names. Delmer Powys Plebus Gwent. I believe that's been pointed out. Whether it was meant as an 'in-joke,' or simply an inspiration, I dunno, but I'm sure someone else here does. I'm sure they were used since to most people outside of Wales they would sound somewhat 'alien.' >The bit where Victor blunders into a forcefield also seems a bit "forced." >Here he is, wandering around, suddenly walks into a forcefield (for which >there is no explanation) and suffers a heart attack. Actually, it drains his artificial heart of power. Less contrived than the bit in THE BLACK SUN where he gets zapped to provide some excitement for the commercial break. Besides, this was the way they establish that Gwent has no internal visual capabilities. >Then we come to the >part about Gwent being blind etc, which also doesn't work. It's clever >enough to take over Computer, shoot down eagles, identify that Alan is >carrying a gun when he arrives etc etc, but is apparently unaware that >Keonig gives the attack command by writing it in view of his commlock which >is transmitting to Alpha. Well, I suspect there's quite a few blind folks in the world who would maintain that they're quite clever regardless of their sight :-) . Would Gwent need eyes like ours? Especially inside himself? He's not literlly blind, in any case--he's obviously able to sense, detect, and act. With such capabilties as a machine like he could have, he might not need such limited senses as simple sight. All in all, I think it adds to the character's tragic nature. >What's going on with Paul in this episode? Koenig explains to Sandra that >he's having treatment (for a dodgy ankle????!!!!) and will be OK. His >replacement seems a very shifty character, but in the end plays absolutely >no part in the plot! He doesn't even die, unlike what usually happens where >new characters pop up [my advice: go out on an eagle with Alan - he always >seems to survive!] > >All in all, not a very satisfying episode. Eh. One man's meat... ----------------- Jon "Mr. Wonderful" Stadter
From: "Robert Gilbert" (bcpgd@shaw.wave44.ca) Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 14:26:59 -0600 Subj: Re: Space1999: Re: 1999 ... Best & Worst Hywel Davies wrote: > The bit where Victor blunders into a forcefield also seems a bit "forced." > Here he is, wandering around, suddenly walks into a forcefield (for which > there is no explanation) and suffers a heart attack. Then we come to the > part about Gwent being blind etc, which also doesn't work. It's clever > enough to take over Computer, shoot down eagles, identify that Alan is > carrying a gun when he arrives etc etc, but is apparently unaware that > Keonig gives the attack command by writing it in view of his commlock which > is transmitting to Alpha. Not to mention the yutz in Main Mission who 'spoils the element of Surprise by yelling "ATTACK!" when he sees Koenig's text! (instead of quietly dispatching the crews to the Eagles)! > What's going on with Paul in this episode? Koenig explains to Sandra that > he's having treatment (for a dodgy ankle????!!!!) and will be OK. His > replacement seems a very shifty character, but in the end plays absolutely > no part in the plot! He doesn't even die, unlike what usually happens where > new characters pop up [my advice: go out on an eagle with Alan - he always > seems to survive!] No kidding eh? -- Robert C. Gilbert
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 11:40:55 +0000 Subj: Space1999: The Infernal Machine Hywel Davies wrote: > I have to say, The Infernal Machine is probably the weakest episode I've yet > seen in Y1 (the BBC here in the UK is showing Y1, one episode per week, > allegedly, and has just shown the Infernal Machine). > > Perhaps I'm put off by machines showing emotion, always a bit iffy I think. > Particularly where they self-destruct in the end. Also Leo Mckern, although > an excellent actor, always reminds me of his role as a crotchety lawyer in > "Rumpole of the Bailey." Somehow his long monologues do nothing for me. > Indeed, the whole episode seems rather static, with long periods of Helena, > Victor and Koenig pacing round Gwent's ship with very little happening. Quite interesting, as I've always felt quite similarily about this episode too. It makes very little sense to me as well, but apparently we are in good company as SPACE:1999 connoisseur Pierre Fageolle in his magnificent "L'Epopee dans les blancheur" reveals his complete ignorance of this episode as well. Nevertheless, I'm happy that there are some who enjoy it, although I don't quite see what they are seeing that I obviously don't. Both the basic premise of the story, "scientific hubris is bad, humanity is good", which seems to be the basic philosophy in all of the five Terpiloff contributions to the series, and the style in which it is delivered puts me to sleep. As we discussed yesterday, however, it is possible to make some interesting comparison with RING AROUND THE MOON. Perhaps if we continue more narrowly along this line it may happen that THE INFERNAL MACHINE has something interesting to say about science and research. On face value it does however not appear to do so, I feel. By the way, has anybody read a novel by a world famous British writer apparently rather popular at the time when this episode was written called something like "The Infernal Machine of Dr. Hoffman"? > Gwent! What a strange name. It's full name seems to bePowys > Gwent, which to Welsh ears sounds laughable. Powys and Gwent are > names of local counties here in Wales, strangely enough counties only > created in 1974 upon local government reorganisation here. Perhaps the names > were current at the time and so the writers borrowed them. They are *not* > personal names. What kind of names are Gwent and Powy then, you couldn't give examples of English local counties with similar type of names? It doesn't mean things like field, meadow, hillside or things like that? > The bit where Victor blunders into a forcefield also seems a bit "forced." > Here he is, wandering around, suddenly walks into a forcefield (for which > there is no explanation) and suffers a heart attack. Then we come to the > part about Gwent being blind etc, which also doesn't work. It's clever > enough to take over Computer, shoot down eagles, identify that Alan is > carrying a gun when he arrives etc etc, but is apparently unaware that > Keonig gives the attack command by writing it in view of his commlock which > is transmitting to Alpha. Yes, the story seems pretty pointless, doesn't it? There are a few nice things about it, however, the excellent camera work by Tomblin and his crew as they enter Gwent it rather nice, I think, and the Gwent interior design by Keith Wilson is quite stunning. Somehow it reminds me of Nazi-art of the 1930's, the type of aesthetics we see in Mel Brook's remake of Ernst Lubitsch' TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1983). The funeral scene is also quite well made, also stunning camera work by Tomblin and Watts here, quite reminicent of James Whale's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), I would say, one of the most classic anti-science films of all time. While Byrne and Penfold also question science and progress, they never get as banal as Terpiloff, do they? In fact, the more I think of it the more I like Johnny Byrne's trilogy on the moral aspects of science; VOYAGER'S RETURN, END OF ETERNITY and THE TROUBLED SPIRIT. Neither of these, of course, make such simplistic statements as "scientific hubris is bad, humanity is good", to misquote George Orwell, but rahter puts up interesting scenarios and investigate what happens as he observes his fictional scientists battle moral issues obsessively. Now, if we only could read something more worthwhile into the Terpiloff scripts, I would be very happy. When Jon pointed out in his very nice tribute to Robert and the Cybrary that he personally hated research, I understand that it isn't the research scientist aspects of THE INFERNAL MACHINE that makes it tick for him. If it should work for me, I feel I would have to read it more like some of the earlier SPACE:1999 episodes that were about the psychology of science and research. Petter
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 12:30:52 +0000 Subj: Space1999: The Infernal Machine It is quite possible, of course, that Johnny Byrne had this particular episode in mind when he sat down to write THE BIOLOGICAL SOUL which eventually turned out to THE METAMORPH. As Byrne describes it, the issue in THE METAMORPH was originally ment to be a sort of Adonis and Psyche situation about science being in love with itself, Mentor being a symbol of this, and then show catastrophical consequences on society that follow. Well, he used other words, but I feel this was the content of what he was saying. What makes THE METAMORPH a better episode than THE INFERNAL MACHINE in my mind is that in THE METAMORPH we take a look into the mind of science, it is a sort of social critisism that does not argue in black and white, whence in THE INFERNAL MACHINE science is portrayed more like an egotistical child; we may have some sympathy for Gwent, but we understand all too well that "self-preservation is the ultimate form of vanity" as Victor puts it, and that's that, not much more to dwell on. Rather typical of Terpiloff's Gwent, like the two other major villains that he contributed to the series, Simmonds in EARTHBOUND and Dr. Rowland in DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, rather than having a scientist that is obsessed with science and research, we have a person who is obsessed with himself, just like Dr. Rowland's "We shall be like gods!" in DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION, which I do not are very interesting motivating factors in science, at least much less interesting that for instance the obsession for research attributed to Mateo by Byrne in THE TROUBLED SPIRIT, or the moral conflicts that drive both Queller and Balor to extreme action. While the Byrne scientists are all quite interesting characters, Gwent ends up rather pathetic, I think. > (Was Companion the creator? I've never been sure on that....Or did Gwent > adopt Companion's voice, not realizing how much he was being effected?) Doesn't Gwent say somewhere that while companions die and are replaced, he himself lives on forever and forever. Nevertheless, I also got the impression that Companion and Gwent were the same. Dramatically I think this works better, and the death-of-companion scene makes more sense in this way, I feel. > It's basically a chess game. Koenig, et al, are faced with something > they cannot overpower, as Gwent quite ably shows. The only chance to save > themselves is to outsmart it or get it to leave them willingly--which it > ultimately does. I can't understand why some people can say that RING AROUND THE MOON is boring while THE INFERNAL MACHINE is like a game of chess. I was not thinking of you in particular, Jon, but this is something that struck me quite early on, perhaps it was Robert Ruiz who was the first one I heard say something that amounted to this. I've had many interesting discussions with him. Not only is THE INFERNAL MACHINE totally pointless, in my opinion, it is also extremely boring. If it is like watching a game of chess it is then watching a game that is being played by novices would barely know the rules, even jumping the rules when they feel like it, moving the pieces more or less at random. I hope there is more content to THE INFERNAL MACHINE than just the suspense aspect. In that case it would be not much better than THE RULES OF LUTON, another episode that is constructed more or less like a game. > Delmer Powys Plebus Gwent. I believe that's been pointed out. Whether > it was meant as an 'in-joke,' or simply an inspiration, I dunno, but I'm > sure someone else here does. I'm sure they were used since to most people > outside of Wales they would sound somewhat 'alien.' At least it must have felt as alien to Terpiloff as Luton was alien to Freiberger. Personally I like the titles that seemed to mean something, like Byrne's Progron in THE END OF ETERNITY which was supposed to make us think of 'progress' or the names his chose from "Njaal's Saga" in MISSION OF THE DARIANS as he wanted his characters to reflect some of the character attributes of the Norse tales. Does anyone know why the name Piri was chosen for the planet in GUARDIAN OF PIRI? Perhaps it has something to do with 'peace', although I would not be surprised if it had something to do with Weir's studies of Japanese culture. > Would Gwent need eyes like ours? Especially inside himself? He's not > literlly blind, in any case--he's obviously able to sense, detect, and act. > With such capabilties as a machine like he could have, he might not need > such limited senses as simple sight. All in all, I think it adds to the > character's tragic nature. I always felt that Terpiloff was trying to make a "science is blind" statement here, although I feel like Hywel that it was not very convincing, and I don't feel it is pariculary true either. In the case of Gwent, it does make some sense, however, as the only thing he sees is himself. By being totally obsessed with himself and his own ideas he finally looses in the end, of course, just like Simmonds in EARTHBOUND and Dr. Rowland in DEATH'S OTHER DOMINION. > Eh. One man's meat... This is becoming a standard phrase on this list, isn't it? Very good. Nothing better than a good debate, I think. Some like this, and some like that. It really makes one wonder, doesn't it, how SPACE:1999 managed to grap the interest of so many differently thinking people. Quite a shame that the ExE is drawing to an end. I hope this stimulating discussion of episodes continues nevertheless, ExE or not. There are so many excellent contributions that really makes one think about episodes in a different light. I certainly have changed my mind more than a few times during this year. Petter
From: Ariana (ariana@ndirect44.co.uk) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 15:01:38 -0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Re: 1999 ... Best & Worst Hywel Davies wrote: >I have to say, The Infernal Machine is probably the weakest episode I've yet >seen in Y1 (the BBC here in the UK is showing Y1, one episode per week, >allegedly, and has just shown the Infernal Machine). I have to agree. I was so uninterested in it that I got up and did the washing up... pausing halfway through as it suddenly occurred to me that no one had said anything at all on the TV since I turned my back on it. I guess it's an episode that's full of blanks, and you can see, I was, um, rivetted. My boyfriend didn't see it, so I may give it another chance when he does. I can see the stuff about it being a chess game (um, probably somewhat given away by having a large construction that looked like a pawn), but I have to say that computers that laugh maniacally and then weep before blowing themselves up -- aside from being singularly unoriginal -- do very little for me. At least Brian the Brain had a sense of humour. :) Emma
From: Petter Ogland (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 18:05:02 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Re: 1999 ... Best & Worst Ariana wrote: > I have to agree. I was so uninterested in it that I got up and did the washing > up... pausing halfway through as it suddenly occurred to me that no one had > said anything at all on the TV since I turned my back on it. I guess it's an > episode that's full of blanks, and you can see, I was, um, rivetted. My > boyfriend didn't see it, so I may give it another chance when he does. At last we get some balance on this episode. When I joined the list I seem to remember having great difficulty trying to see why everybody thought this episode was so wonderful, while the obvious high quality stuff like RING AROUND THE MOON, MISSING LINK and so on was completely misunderstood. Well, nice development. Now it appears that we have a new group of people on the list with opinions that correspond at least much better with how I've always fancied the show. At least that's something, although it is, of course, only benefitial to the group that we have different opinions. > I can see the stuff about it being a chess game (um, probably somewhat given > away by having a large construction that looked like a pawn), but I have to > say that computers that laugh maniacally and then weep before blowing > themselves up -- aside from being singularly unoriginal -- do very little for > me. At least Brian the Brain had a sense of humour. :) I thought the chess comparison was rather good too. Wasn't there an opera in the the seventies that was based on chess characters. Something prior to and more serious than the CHESS musical, I seem to remember. Of course, chess being a game of the mind, the analogy fits perfectly with Wilson's visual design and perhaps with certain elements of Terpiloff's story too, but, in accordance with Emma, and many others apparently, this is nothing more than a long yawn the way I see it too. Pointless from beginning to end, and probably only suitable as background noise for washing up. Petter