Maya

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Space: 1999: The Characters: Maya
By Douglas Nicol on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 4:27 pm:

Maya was an interesting character addition. Unfortunately she too often was used as a convenient plot device. Sometimes however she did get the chance to flesh out, notably in The Metamorph, her first appearance, and in The Rules of Luton, her discussion with Koenig on war, and their respective home planets was the only high point of that episode.
Her appearing innocence seemed to hide a mischeivous side which did come out now and then, like the classic scene where she becomes a duplicate Helena.
It's interesting to note that the idea of a shapechanger was practically hailed as a 'new thing' in Star Trek:DS9, but it had been done some years before.
The idea of a limitation on the time that Maya could hold a form was good, but this limitation was rarely implemented.


By Anonymous on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 8:44 am:

I never got the point of Maya. The urgency and feeling that the Alphan's were surviving by their wits got blown out an airlock with the introduction of this character - if there was a problem, no problem! Maya would save the day. It would have been so much more interested if they had explored her assimilation into the Alpha society, how she got used to a new culture and how people accepted her. Instead it was cheap-ass monster outfit of the week.


By Douglas Nicol on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 11:12 am:

Well I've mentioned that elsewhere that there could have been more to her 'humanoid' side. For instance, why did she head straight for Tony. If Tony had been shown being kind to her, helping her settle in etc. More on her culture would have been good, and the episode Dorzak was one of her stronger moments.


By Craig Rohloff on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 2:15 pm:

I can't help but paraphrase Mystery Science Theater 3000 when Alphans reacted to Maya's latest rubber suit with surprise...
"What's that?!"
"It's a plot device. Be careful, it's flimsy!"
:O


By Dragon on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 4:21 pm:

One thing I did not like about Maya, was that why would an ALIEN turn into HUMAN animals?!?


By tim gueguen on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 12:09 pm:

Presumably Psychon had animals that looked like Earth creatures. Either that or Psychon had contact with Earth at some point and imported things like dogs and lions, both seen in "The Metamorph."


By BarbF on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 1:25 pm:

I always figured Maya spent alot of time in the Alpha library studying up on her new neighbors and hence knew something about the animals of Earth.


By CR on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 3:24 pm:

Didn't the production company have the ability to rent animals cheaply from a local organisation?


By BarbF on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 8:24 am:

I'm sure they had some sort of arrangement. Rent-a-Monkey or something along those lines. Too bad they called Rent-a-crappy-looking-monster-suit so often.


By Peter Stoller on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 9:28 am:

I can only imagine Keith Wilson's team cringing at the thought of the task of constructing monster suits on short notice. Whatever they came up with was going to look crappy in the context of the show.
The Bringers of Wonder aliens were the best they could do at the time, none of which were as effective as the Dragon's Domain monster from series one.


By Mark on Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - 2:18 pm:

The rubber-suited monsters of year two are embarrasing from the perspective of an adult in 2004. As a kid in 1977,however, they made the show more fun. To be fair, most of the rubber monsters in year two were no worse than anything seen in Star Trek,Doctor Who, or the Outer Limits.As a kid, I loved all the rubber monsters on "The Outer Limits",now (as with 1999), I find them to be rather silly and unconvincing.I still love the look of the chlorine-breathing monster from "A B Chrysallis". It just has a funky look to it...One thing that I love about Maya,now as well as back then; Catherine Schell. She's wonderful! Whatever the debatable qualities of the fictional character, Catherine was a delight to watch.


By Mark on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 1:57 pm:

The Maya transformations which are often remembered for being cheesy were the rubber-suited monsters worn by Albin Pahernik. I consider her cheesiest transformations to be other ones. My choices for her worst transformation are: #1.The gorilla suit from "The Lambda Factor" #2. The gorilla suit with a lizard head from "The Seance Spectre" #3. The horned thing from "The Bringer's of Wonder" and for the most humiliating use of her powers #4. The catapillar in "The Lambda Factor"


By Tim on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 3:51 pm:

As much as I liked Maya, I have to wonder. When dreaming her up, did Freiberger think: "A lone alien among a bunch of humans. It worked for Gene Roddenberry, it will work for me!"


By John A. Lang (Johnalang) on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 6:24 pm:

I felt Maya's transformation process was real cheesy. The camera would get real close to her eyes and then you'd see the animal that she would transform into...then you'd see the actual animal.


By Mark V Thomas (Frobisher) on Friday, January 25, 2008 - 9:32 pm:

Re: last post
Unfortunately, pre-CGI, this was effectively the best transformation effect possible at the time...
According to the Action TV Guide to Season 2 of Space:1999, the Lion Sequence in the Metamorph proved somewhat problematic...
The first lion used, bit into a live power cable, & was promptly electrocuted, the second was ill & would not cooperate, while the third proved to be somewhat "overfriendly"...
As a result, a special area had to be constructed on set, to protect the director & camera crew, in the future event that said "dangerous animal" got out of control...


By R W F Worsley (Notanit) on Monday, January 25, 2021 - 4:27 pm:

I liked the end of The Taybor, when she transformed into a female version of Taybor - played perfectly by Rita Webb - and claimed she had locked herself into that form! (Lucky for her that he was too repulsed to cakll her bluff!)


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