Ever more appropriate when one remembers that September 13, 1999 fell on a Monday. Garfield ain't got nothin' on Koenig!
One of those truly inexplicable things is how Ouma vanishes and Kano replaces him... An omitted thing was the original idea of Ouma/Kano having an implanted socket to let him link directly to Computer.
Missing Link Aliens abduct Koenig and learn the meaning of life. Okay, fine. On the plus side there's some interesting camera work and Peter Cushing. Like the subtle hints that Koenig is not really at Alpha early on - his name mis-spelled on the monitor in medical and the glimpse of Vaana in the mirror for example. Brings up an interesting question of who is next in line for command if Koenig buys it. Carter seems to question if it would be Paul or Victor. Of course at that point Alan is being a bit irrational, so there may not really be any question. The series so far has seemed to imply that Paul is the second in command on the base. While Victor is a very knowledgeable guy, he doesn't seem to be part of the hierarchy of Alpha - no division color on his uniform in the same way as Simmonds (who was a visitor to the base) had no sleeve color either.
An interesting situation could have been set up if Simmonds was still there, and if GorskI had still been on the Moon at Breakaway. A novel, Earthfall, rewrites Breakaway and addresses the succession issue; both who follows Koenig, and whether Alpha might become dynastic over the generations.
Yeah, noticed that. I figured that there may have been some folks that decided they couldn't handle their new situation and ended it all, maybe. Or maybe things were reorganized after Breakaway. Ultimately less of an issue that the mass disappearance of crew between seasons. A direct link could be interesting, but so is Kano's basic level of empathy for his beloved computer. "Two (sets) of brainwaves" would have definitely been better in A Ring Around the Moon. Not sure I see Alpha going the dynastic route, interesting idea it may be. They could have made more use of the Simmonds/Koenig friction between Breakaway and Earthbound though. Throwing Gorski in as well would have been too much, though.
Behind the scenes it seems the actor who played Ouma irritated some leads and producers and was let go. Aside from the Landaus few of the cast were on contract, most were hired week-by-week, yet did the full season (Paul misses one episode as Prentis Hancock was rushed into hospital to have his appendix taken out. Landau visited him, reportedly, to say see you next week, we're missing you). Nowadays we could guess that Kano does have a direct link to Computer, via WiFi. Edit: on checking, it wasn't his appendix, a make-up artist spotted a lump that needed checking in case it was cancerous (it wasn't).
I recognize those uniforms as being the "New Adventures" collections by Uzilite at DAZ3D.com which means the figures wearing them are Michael 4 and Victoria 4 (now 4 "versions" old). With a lot of material zones, it's easy to change the colors and textures of selected regions, allowing one to depict a decently "in the spirit" interpretations of the "moon city" uniforms.
So, I got the Big Finish reboot audio and listened to it. Can't say I liked it very much. The actor playing Dr. Russell was too shouty and, frankly, obnoxious. I hope it was just how she was directed. The rest were OK, but there was a tendency to repeat stuff multiple times. At times I was, like, "OK, got it. That nuclear waste disposal area is bad news. Can we move on?" They tried to paper over some of the scientific nonsense that plagued the episode, which seemed like an exercise in futility. Calling it a wormhole instead of a space warp doesn't really solve the problems -- blasting the moon out of earth orbit is gonna probably blow the moon to rubble, and kill everyone on it. But if that happened, there'd be no show. I hope the next episode isn't just another episode retelling. If they have access to the Powys Media novels from a decade or so ago, there are some of those that might be adaptable.
yes it does because if you listen to it again, <spoiler]there was no boom. the moon wasn't blown out of orbit. The interaction between the unknown waste and the Meta signal lead to the creation of strange matter(iirc) which open the wormhole. Factor in the running Queller drive on the Meta probe and the moon is sucked into the wormhole and spat out at the other end. In the original the wormhole had nothing to do with the events of Sept 13th, 1999. They encountered wormholes/spacewarps later on. Black Sun was the first and then in the opening naration of The Metamorph Helena mentions they've just had another encounter with a space warp. There might have been one other.</spoiler> The 4 stories to come out next year are based on episdoes that were broadcast, Think A Matter of Life and Death is one. Using material from the original series would be much easier to use for the reason of rights. Jamie Anderson would be able to smooth things through (he might have control of a large chunk of the rights now his father has passed). Going to the books would involve extra work and cost to get the rights.
Actually this shows up in today's episode: Guardian of Piri Well, not bad, but not really great either. Another planet turns out to not be what it seemed to be. Koenig is assumed to be delusional by everyone else. On the plus side: Catherine Schell. Very attractive young lady, and even though she's playing a robot, shows a lot of personality. I can see why they brought her back as a regular in season two, but too bad they had to put so much stuff on that face. Gotta wonder at the end when everyone scrambles back to the Eagles to escape Piri, how much of their stuff got left behind? Hopefully the Guardian didn't let them get a lot of unpacking done before he put them into a trance.
But it did have the gorgeous Catherine Schell in an outfit that was mesmerizing before she became Maya
I did indeed notice and mention her above. Love that little half-smirk she gets from time to time. Very cute.
A bizarre thing in an episode you haven't seen yet (hence vaguing) is that Main Mission in an evacuated Alpha only has one desk left. It makes for a striking empty image, but did they really disconnect the other desks and shove them aboard the Eagles?
Ah so you did. Sorry didn't see that before. I wonder how the show would have gone had they had a couple more seasons.