Tony's character was ok at times. Other times he was annoying. If there had been less of the 'beer' jokes it wouldn't have been as bad.
I think they tried to make him a "hot-headed Italian" and instead he came across as a smart-ass. I didn't care for the character and he didn't bring anything to the series. My favorite episodes of his are All that Glisters and Immunity Syndrome - he's comatose for most of these episodes.
Is he? I didn't notice any real difference.
Unseen Scene:
From any episode where Koenig makes a guest appearance (in his own show?), usually when he and Maya are in an Eagle investigating a planet.
KOENIG: It'll take us a day or so to get there, and maybe another day or so to get back!
TONY: Okay, don't worry, John! I'll look after the place till you get back!
KOENIG: (Bursts into tears) Waaahhhh.
MAYA: Now you've done it - you've gone and upset him now!
TONY: What do you mean?
KOENIG: If he's in charge, there won't BE a Moonbase Alpha to return to!
TONY: You make one or two mistakes...
Another Unseen Scene:
In Tony's quarters. Koenig walks in with the intention of giving Tony a rocket after the latest security fiasco (which narrows the episode to one of twenty four). Tony looks haggard.
KOENIG: What happened to you?
TONY: I tried some of my home brew. I might give this batch to Alan.
KOENIG: What's he done to you to deserve THAT?
TONY: He said the Eagles needed some new fuel.
KOENIG: (About to yell at Tony, sees a photo on the wall) Who are they?
TONY: They taught me everything there is to know about security. They're my mentors, I got my secirity diploma off them.
KOENIG: Oh, my God! Heaven help us all!
(It is a photo of Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara from Gotham City.)
What a meanie you are! :-)
I know - it's fun, isn't it? Heh heh heh...
I would like to make it clear that I'm not in any way having a go at the late Tony Anholt but at the character Tony Verdeschi. I had already had these ideas in mind to post here, but when he died I felt it would be extremely inappropriate to have a go at his character under the circumstances. It just seemed to me that Verdeschi could be a pillock at times, which, given that he was supposed to be in charge of security, was extremely worrying.
In the episode checklist, somebody lists a line of dialogue from "All That Glisters" that I liked:
Helena: Tony's brain is still functioning.
John: That's one of life's mysteries!
Another unseen scene:
In the medical section. Tony walks in.
Tony: I've come for my intelligence evaluation.
Helana: Hold on while I get the tape measure and two short planks!
Not to stereotype Italians, but wouldn't it have made more sense for Tony to be trying to perfect his wine-making skills rather than beer? Then again, maybe Tony was an American with Italian roots, because I never detected an accent, either.
Coming Soon ?
The Space:1999 MST Thread...?
Mind you, it might have been easier for Tony, to make "home brew" beer,than wine, given the state of Alpha's (Scarce) resources.
"...maybe Tony was an American with Italian roots, because I never detected an accent..."
I detected a very noticable British accent myself.
Dear Tony, your witty argument with the 'Beta Cloud' was priceless!
I guess it's amusing to all the male viewers to watch Tony try to get Maya drunk on his beer. Typical male method of trying to get a woman in bed, or distract her from the fact of not being pleasured (to orgasm) by the man.
Anyone want to place bets that posting on all the S99 boards is going to be disabled if jokes about gender and sexuality keep up?
Settle down, everyone. These boards are about a tv show, and have no place for insults and attacks.
As regards Chris's comments. Tony sounds European to me. It is hard to tell just what country he was living in. Though Italian, he doesn't speak with an Italian accent. I always assumed that he was an Italian who moved to Britain as a child.
Tony Anholt himself I think was British, and if you think his Italian accent was unconvincing, you haven't seen the part he played once in Citizen Smith as a Spanish Basque seperatist.
Sort of like Dick van Dyke's Cockney accent in Mary Poppins?
I think it was a LOT worse.
Nothing could be worse than Dick Van Dyke. Freddie Jones' Texas accent (Journey to Where) is awful. Then again, so many people from all over the world live in Texas. My parents were from New York and moved down to Texas. I never developed a Texan accent (fortunately, since I moved back North).
Well, Tony's dad probably moved to Britain to find work. So, his son grew up with a British accent. It's harder to figure out how a born-and-bred Frenchman (Jean-Luc Picard) speaks with a natural British accent.
Please see my latest comments on the Characters: John Koenig board, before things get out of hand again.
As to Gordon's comments on Capt. Picard, much of Picard's "Britishness" was due to the influence and input of Patrick Stuart. He has pointed out in interviews that his influence led to the inclusion of "The British Tar" sing-along in "Star Trek: Insurrection" (a 'sing-along' even more annoying than the Shatner suggested "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" ditty in Star Trek 5. Someone should have told Stuart to reign in his ego. His self-indulgent bits weren't entertaining to anyone but himself.
Since American and British characters are so overrepresented, it would have been nice to see a positive "French" character... and not an episode such as ST:NG's "Family" where all the French family is British. It was nice to see a real French accent in 1999's "Metamorph" with Lou Picard played by Gerad Paquis (but, he was killed off in the episode).
Does Dr. Monique Fauchere (or Bauchere, depending upon which source) from "Dragon's Domain" count?
Sure.
Maybe I'm just overreacting because I'm half French (that would account for my dislike of Stuart's effort to totally ignore the 'French' aspect of the Picard character).
I wonder how much effort was Stuart's, and how much was the ST: TNG writers'... I guess this thread could continue on one of the Star Trek boards. (Sorry to have gotten away from the S99 topic.)
Hey, wait a minute.
Both Lou and Monique were killed.
Do the writers have something against the French?
...just kidding.
I believe its actually Lew Picard if the novelisation is anything to go by.
The apparatus Tony uses for brewing is beer is ludicrous- one of those oil "wave" machines so popular back in the seventies!
Does anyone find his beer machine believable?
Bearing in mind that Alpha supposedly had limited resources, it was faesible that some equipment looked a bit Heath Robinson.
Heath Robinson?
That isn't an expression too familiar to American fans.
I think its basically a term for something that would be made up of parts 'on hand', not like a regular production item, just 'junked' together to make an item that will work, if not perfectly.
I suppose an example of 'Heath Robinson' would be some of the makeshift traps, weapons and other stuff made by the Viet Cong because they didn't have access to large regular supplies.
Heath Robinson was an illustrator famed for drawing intricate machinery in his work, stuff that looked over-elaborate and cobbled together.
Tony Verdeschi was a completely useless addition to the series - he added nothing. He was as Italian as curry. (How come Stuart Damon played his brother with a Yank accent ? Doh!) Verdeschi was the voice of Freiberger's 'shoot first' mentality, always ready to get the lasers out at the first sign of an alien. He shouted and ranted like a teenager and seemed somewhat immature. Not the sort you'd put in charge of anything. As if a clever girl like Maya would be interested in him! Poor old Anholt had nothing to work with - it wasn;t his fault -and to think Nick Tate's character fell down the pecking order behind this one dimensional chump. FF apparently wanted to call him Simon Hayes originally, the first person with an artificial heart - shows what old FF knew about Space1999 and artificial hearts . . .
I think the name of Simon Hayes is used in early scripts and in some of the novelisations. Observe that Sandra got called San for short, yet in novelisations, Sahn IIRC, was an African male. Books sometimes worked off early scripts, plus it's only in the books that the fate of Professor Bergman is known.
Re:"Heath Robinson"
As Chris the Slob mentioned, he was a illustrator that drew fantastically improbable, baroque & unreliable machinery verging on sculpture....
Some of his machine "sculptures" were manafactured for the 1951 Festival of Britain...
Think of him as a British Rube Goldberg...