Day of The Dove is a piece of fantastic work! Anything with Michael Ansara always has been!
JB
JB
fred freiberger : hack or hapless?
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So that means the episodes that were commissioned under Freiberger/Singer's supervision would be:
"Is There In Truth No Beauty?"
"The Empath"
"The Tholian Web"
"For the World is Hollow..."
"Plato's Stepchildren"
"Whom Gods Destroy"
"The Mark of Gideon"
"The Lights of Zetar"
"The Cloud Minders"
"The Way to Eden"
"Requiem for Methuselah"
"All Our Yesterdays"
Which includes a bunch of more or less mediocre episodes, a few pretty good ones, and surprisingly few of the season's worst episodes. Further evidence that maybe laying all the blame for the season at Freiberger's feet is an oversimplification. Maybe he and Singer did a better job handling scripts they shepherded from the start than with finishing episodes conceived by others.
"Is There In Truth No Beauty?"
"The Empath"
"The Tholian Web"
"For the World is Hollow..."
"Plato's Stepchildren"
"Whom Gods Destroy"
"The Mark of Gideon"
"The Lights of Zetar"
"The Cloud Minders"
"The Way to Eden"
"Requiem for Methuselah"
"All Our Yesterdays"
Which includes a bunch of more or less mediocre episodes, a few pretty good ones, and surprisingly few of the season's worst episodes. Further evidence that maybe laying all the blame for the season at Freiberger's feet is an oversimplification. Maybe he and Singer did a better job handling scripts they shepherded from the start than with finishing episodes conceived by others.
I really thought Michael Ansara as Kang was awesome. Even at the end of the episode when he accepted peace, he still showed hostility when he slapped Kirk on the back.
But it showed there was a chance of co-operation in the air didn't it! One of my favourite shows anyways!
JB
JB
Actually I believe Roddenberry was involved with the early stages of those two episodes, for this reason: In July 1985, I drove a car bought at auction in Minneapolis (where I was living at the time) to Newport Beach, then stayed in an empty dorm room at USC for $14/night, and eventually flew back. While at USC, I spent a few hours studying the George Duning archives there, which he'd told me about in response to a fan letter I'd written 5 years earlier. Among the material for those two episodes were memos from Roddenberry about early versions of those scripts, as well as call sheets, music manuscript, etc. (I was only allowed to take notes in pencil, which I have somewhere.) I don't recall the dates on those memos - i.e., whether or not they were written after Freiberger was hired - but I do recall, for example, that one memo discussed the teaser of "Is There...," which initially had someone standing by in the transporter room with a phaser rifle, ready to blast anyone who inadvertently glimpsed the Medusan.
The third season was the lightest one, with the little humorous segments added into the epilogues. These have been often attributed to the influence of Freiberger and you can see some of these "ha ha" codas in the 2nd season of Space: 1999 as well (which had been a VERY dour show in its first season). Depending on your point of view this could be a good or bad thing. Remember that Trek devoid of humor becomes more of a grim procedural ala The Cage or ST: TMP. Some of those character moments, as corny and formulaic as they may be, are some of the warmest between the trio.
I'd say it's the other way around. As I think we've discussed in the thread, the show was lightest under Coon's producership, while Freiberger was quoted as saying that ST shouldn't be a comedy. Indeed, some of the more absurd season 3 episodes might've been better-received if they hadn't taken their absurdities quite so seriously.
Wow! I've never heard anything like this before!
Just remember that Space:1999 season one changes to Space:1999 season two is like the changes from Star Trek:TMP to Star Trek:WOK. The tone, the look are different. Treat it like a continuation that feels like a reboot.
This link will give you an analysis of all season two 24 episodes. So, if you want to read about them before you watch them:
http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/epguide/ty2.html
Some of it is mildly entertaining schlock, but as for "All That Glisters"... Be afraid. Be very afraid. By the end of that episode, I was unable to stop making a sound that was either laughing or sobbing -- I couldn't tell which.
Four years ago I revisited Space: 1999, a series I didn't much care for at all back when it was intially broadcast.
It was a revealing revisit as I came away with a better overall impression of the series than I once had.
You can follow that here: http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/revisiting-space-1999.169891/
It was a revealing revisit as I came away with a better overall impression of the series than I once had.
You can follow that here: http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/revisiting-space-1999.169891/
That's my take. I saw a few grainy eps on Windsor TV which came in, in Detroit, but depended on where you lived. And they had sweet metal Eagles at Federal's department store, though I never had one. So I was aware it existed and had a sweet 70s molded-plastic look. Am really enjoying it. It's trippy and has lots of quiet moments so far like early S1 TOS. I'm nowhere near season two, though the intro posted above is clearly more action oriented.
And I've read FF really scaled back on the sets. Why would he do that? They were already built, and the openness of main mission and medical really look good. An article said NBC was pretty interested, though a lot of 1999 seems "too cerebral" for US. (In spite of many explosions.)
And I've read FF really scaled back on the sets. Why would he do that? They were already built, and the openness of main mission and medical really look good. An article said NBC was pretty interested, though a lot of 1999 seems "too cerebral" for US. (In spite of many explosions.)
Well, I'm making a semi-educated guess here, but building a large set isn't the only thing that costs money. A larger set would probably be costlier to light, would have more video monitors and blinky lights to operate, would take more time and labor to decorate and redress, would require more extras in it to make it seem fully occupied, etc. Putting Koenig's command desk in the same room instead of a separate office meant there was less need to change camera setups for different sets, and they no longer needed the elaborate sliding wall between Main Mission and Koenig's office. Also, Main Mission had windows looking out on the Moonscape and occasionally having interactive lighting effects when things were going on outside. The Command Center was belowground, so there was no need for such effects.
Also, a lot of the Command Center set was made of leftover pieces from Main Mission or other sets, so it wasn't as expensive as building a whole new set from scratch.
Also, making the main standing set smaller would open up more room on the soundstage for building swing (temporary) sets, and that could save on the expense of having to rent another soundstage, or something.
Fred Freiberger tried to effectively dismiss the twenty three episodes of the first series of Space 1999 when he became producer in 1976! He'd have ignored the first episode, Breakaway, too if he could but that would have been silly!
JB
JB
The reasoning behind the Command Centre being situated beneath the moon's surface was that Main Mission had been attacked many times in the first series by alien aggressors and they wanted to protect the people who worked in the command unit!
JB
Season two Alpha Moonbase & Eagle Transporter standing sets in one sound stage:
http://catacombs.space1999.net/cybermuseum/cmshow.html?pic=Making/36.jpg
http://catacombs.space1999.net/cybermuseum/cmshow.html?pic=Making/36.jpg
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