Granted there are some series where episode endings drag on, but then there are those where a "tasteful" amount of time is given after the end of the main story line. Star Trek episodes seem to do this very well. It's not a need to explain anything, it's getting character perspective on what took place. An ease down of tempo. Even Dr. Who had plenty of episodes that didn't end so abruptly.
Well, I think he had his moments, but frankly, if he gave such astoundingly high quality performances, then why did his career fizzle out after that? He was never in the same level of spotlight role ever again. I'm not saying he needed to be of Shakespearean heritage, but his characterization of Straker could have used more dimension. Don't get me wrong--I think he showed some great talent in a few episodes; maybe it was a side effect of the directing.
It was just the first season. I saw a pretty logical progression to the alien invasion. There was plenty more material to explore, had more imaginative writers been brought on board. It's true that we could have only taken so many more of the same plots: UFO's attack moonbase; Aliens employ UFO decoys while main attack fleet gets through to Earth; Skydiver crew overwhelmed with UFO targets; Mobiles on the hunt for escaped UFO's; Aliens secretly start a base on Earth; SHADO enlists the help of NASA; Aliens possess human beings to do their dirty work for them; and so on. You could only pull off these kinds of plots so many times. There were a few terribly botched episodes that could have been revisited too, like the probe that follows a UFO back to the home planet (seriously stupid, as the UFO's have far faster speeds--better to have a homing device attached to a UFO that is allowed to escape).
I take it you meant "second season" of UFO. I do know that it was intended to have a change as you've outlined. I think a lot of this all rested on Lew Grade, the main financier of Anderson's productions, which partly contributed to the gap in time. I do agree that the original UFO moonbase was seriously limited and frankly the "one shot" interceptors was a weak idea (giving UFO's a chance to get away). But an expanded moonbase would likely mean more episodes dealing with outer space encounters with UFO crafts, which doesn't have a good deal of potential. It's no wonder why it was eventually decided on the breakaway idea, to have the moon travel through space so that the possibilities for stories would be wide open.
Well, I think that if there was supposed to be some "other worldly" force influencing things, it should have been given much greater acknowledgement. It wasn't. Maybe one or two observations from Victor, but that was it. No, it wouldn't be necessary to iron out every detail. It is after all science fiction and some things must be left up to the imagination. But in the face of just outright impossibility, it's not given very much consideration. Even an ambiguous message or sign of some kind would have helped.
Well, you're certainly welcome to your opinion. I don't see any need to debate further on the quality of the programme, although I will heartily agree with you that most of the second season was trash. Losing Victor was a big blow. He was the man of wisdom and insight. When he left, much of that left with the show as well.
Back when I first saw Space: 1999, I had an alternative in mind that might have worked. The idea is that when the nuclear waste piles reach a critical level of intense radiation, an explosion takes place that is unaccounted for. Certainly the nuclear material wouldn't explode of its own accord. What Moonbase Alpha discovers later on, after things settle down, is that the explosion was a start of massive engines inside the moon. The high radiation penetrated deep into the moon, affecting a submerged ancient alien construction. At some point way before human beings roamed the Earth, there was a civilization living on the moon. The aliens excavated strategic portions of it and installed massive engines. The idea they had was to use the moon as a large scale space vehicle. But somewhere down the line the aliens abandoned the moon, leaving behind all of their handiwork. The electrical system was put into a hibernation mode, never completely shut down. When the high degree of radiation was passively detected, the system awakened and the engines kicked in to try clearing the proximity of the radiation source. The nuclear waste dumps were built right in front of an exhaust cluster. So, when the engines ignited, it was all blown into space, sending the moon out of orbit. From there, a pre-programmed course appeared to activate.
Now, of course the Alphans would want to figure out more of what was going on, but initial exploration attempts would turn up nothing. The constructed engines were heavily shielded, with no apparent way to get at them. But, in time, the Alphans would find an access hatch to some of the underground chambers and see if they could figure out what was there and if a way to control the moon's course might be possible. This would be the underlying sub-plot, which would serve as a useful filler in between encounters with other life, planets, and cosmological phenomenon along their journey. So, not only do you have alien intelligence to deal with during the journey, you've also got a mystery to solve right beneath the lunar soil.
If Space: 1999 had done something like this, I'd have been far more interested.
Last edited:
