I should clarify that when I was "young and hadn't seen gore on tv," gore on tv was not commonplace, at least in the United States, where I saw "Breakaway" (and the rest of the series) when it was first aired. Hard to believe it was over 25 years ago!

BTW Kinggodzillak, are you a Godzilla fan? There's a Godzilla 2000 board under Movies you may want to see. (Sorry, everyone else, for going off topic!)

Well I recently started using Lightwave, and if anyone is interested, here's a Space:1999 picture I knocked up myself.

Address is

http://mirafurlan.freeyellow.com/eagle%20pic%20final.jpg

Cool pic, Douglas. The viewing angle of the moon is not possible from Earth (a good portion of Mare Orientale shows up along the left limb); that really gives the picture a space-borne feel.
One question (or perhaps it's a nit): Who's Fabio Passaro, listed in the note at the picture's lower right? Was this a collaborative effort?

In Lightwave someone generally does the meshes (models), and you can put them together. It's not quite as simple as that since all the lighting, camera angles and composition is still down to the picture creator.

No Craig, I'm no Godzilla fan! Just wanted a unique name thingy.....

Thanks, Douglas. I'm one of those "old school" guys who builds physical models out of plastic and other materials, so I wasn't sure. If I had more free time and the proper software, I'd start experimenting with computer models, too. Good luck to you!

Kinggodzillak, I'd say you got the unique part nailed!

By the way, it's nice to see that there are still other posters out there...I was beginning to think the 1999 Season 1 board was becoming the "Douglas and Craig Space:1999 Board, brought to you by NitCentral!"
:-)

Oh I build physical models out of plastic as well Craig, but in the Sci Fi field unless you want Star Trek or Star Wars models there aren't a hell of a lot to choose from unless you are willing to go to the big expensive multimedia kits.

I did the reissued Eagle model and have a part built Hawk that I managed to pick up at a memorabilia fair.

Douglas, I have a few more things to say about models (computer and physical)...I'm going to continue the topic over on the Sink: 1999 board!

Area 2 is open to space but walled in by an 8-foot high "laser barrier". It's like having a chain-link fence on the far side of the moon. Is it there to keep out trespassers, or solely a convenient way for Nordstrom to accidentally kill himself?

Why didn't anyone (including myself) pick this nit before?

Perhaps it's a radiation containment field, but I don't think that's what they had in mind.

I would imagine its to keep out trespassers.
Remember people did go a little mad in Year 2, and since the Comlocks open the laser field, and each comlock seems keyed to a persons certain authorisation level, it's probably a safety feature.
If a worker there decides to take an unscheduled trip there they can cancel his commlock.
One more question though, the disposal area is on the dark side, and the workers all arrive by Moon Buggy. That's a hell of a distance to travel from Alpha.

They arrive via an Eagle, which uses Navigation Beacon Delta (the now closed Area One) as a turning point on the route from Moonbase Alpha. The Eagle lands at a small pad near the observation station; moon buggies are likely stored at either (or both) the pad and the observation station.

the disposal area is on the dark side

It's a long time since I say this. Did they really call it the dark side of the Moon? If so then it's a classic nit, as the Moon doesn't have a permanent darkside, but does have a permanent farside. (Plus I don't recall the storage area being dark when they went there!)

I wonder if an explosion on the Moon's farside would blast the Moon onto a collision coarse with Earth, leading to the disappointing 'short series syndrome'.

Can anybody recall whether the crew were forced against the wall or the floor during the acceleration sequency? It would give us some idea how far away from Alpha the explosion was.

While I agree with some of the absurdities of the show's premise, I don't really have a problem with a nuclear waste dump generating this amount of energy. IIRC, the explosion was the result of a previously unknown phenomenon.

A person in the 19th century might poo-poo the idea of nuclear reactors on the grounds that 'you don't get that amount of energy when you burn something'.

I'd pondered the "push into Earth" idea a bit on my own, and have since come across an old online discussion of the same topic (just a couple of months ago, though the discussion had been archived for a few years before I stumbled across it).

Basically, if the disposal area were not on the exact farside, but closer to one of the limbs (edge of the moon as viewed from Earth), the explosion would have pushed the moon in such a way that it would sort of slingshot around Earth; it would get close, but not collide, all the while speeding up as it passed (like the various NASA probes use "gravity assist" to accelerate to the outer solar system by zipping around a planet, using that planet's gravity to speed it up).
Of course, this would add to the incredible damage our planet would suffer, thus explaining the vast wasteland the Alphans find when they return to a future Earth in "Another Time, Another Place."
The only way the explosion could have pushed the moon into the Earth would have been to be precisely on the left limb, thereby countering the moon's direction of travel (its orbit around Earth) and stopping it cold; Earth's gravity would then pull the moon toward it. HOWEVER, there may still not have been a collision. There's a point around large bodies (i.e. planets) at which other large bodies get torn apart due to gravitational stress. It's called Roche's Limit, named for the mathmetician who proposed the idea. It's likely the moon would have been torn asunder, eventually forming a vast debris ring around Earth. I'm sure parts of that would rain down on the planet over the centuries, so either way, Earth would be doomed.

By the way, the episode DOES call it the dark side instead of the far side. OOPS!

Oh, Sophie, the crew was indeed pinned to the floor during the moon's breakaway, though I should think proximity to NDA2 had little to do with it; any force sufficient enough to move the moon out of orbit would knock people down ANYWHERE on the moon.

And I know, the ultimate problem with the series as a whole is that any force sufficient to move the moon would likely tear it apart, but then once again we'd have "short series syndrome."

And I know nuclear waste is not explosive, but as Sophie pointed out, there were unknown forces at work. The episode points out the discovery of magnetic radiation, but who's to say something else wasn't also going on? Here's an interesting thought: maybe the Meta Signal triggered the reaction!

(OK, I know the short convention film, "Message From Moonbase Alpha" negates that possibilty, but it would be interesting to speculate...)

Sorry, I thought of a couple more points after I logged off...

NDA2 must have been located closer to the moon's right limb (as seen from Earth), since then it would be on the side best suited to accelerate, rather than stop, the moon's motion. Add that to the gravitic slingshot I mentioned before, and the moon would be travelling at a pretty fast clip!

As I recall, the lunar phase viewed from Earth on 9 September 1999 was "new." In other words, from Earth, there was no illuminated face of the moon visible. By the time 13 September came around, the moon was entering the "waxing crescent" phase; it's right limb was just getting illuminated as seen from Earth. At least that explains the non-dark moonscape where NDA2 was.

By the way, "new" moon, new Alpha commander, new adventure for humankind...mere coincedence? Hmm...

This discussion reminds me so much of Isaac Asimov's first review of the show when it was brand new. He was willing to let a lot of errors pass for reasons of dramatic necessity. Heres's two excerpts:

"The show opens with a caption reading "Dark Side of the Moon" and it is on the "dark side" that the nuclear wastes are stored and where they explode.

Yet there is no dark side of the moon. A dark side of any world is the side that faces permanently away from the sun. One side of the moon does indeed face permanently away from the earth, but not from the sun, and every part of the moon gets both day and night in two-week alternations. The side of the moon that is permanently turned away from the earth is the FAR SIDE, not the dark side.

Even if this misuse of a phrase makes no difference, why not be right just for the fun of it? But there is a difference. Why should a popular TV show mislead youngsters into thinking that half the moon is a land of perennial night --which it isn't?"

"...nuclear wastes apparently stored on the moon somehow heat up and explode. The reasons for this are not made luminously clear. (Although nuclear wastes can heat up and melt, they can't possibly be involved in a nuclear explosion.) Still, there is enough talk of magnetic field to give the explosion a certain surface plausibility. But having exploded, the show's nuclear waste canisters act as rockets, blowing off exhausts in one direction, and driving the moon in the other.

The problem here is that the mass of the moon is being underestimated. If all the nuclear waste the earth were to produce in the next 24 years were placed in one spot, and if it were all to explode (assuming it could explode) it would not budge the moon much or alter its orbit very noticeably -- let alone accelerate it to such a degree that the people of the lunar base would be pinned immovably to the ground. But that's an error out of dramatic necessity, too, and I'm willing to let it go. The moon has to be gotten out of orbit somehow, and at least a scientific principle was correctly, if exaggeratedly, used for the purpose.

Incidentally, of the big nuclear explosions took place on the far side of the moon, the rocket action would serve to drive the moon toward the earth, something the program doesn't mention. The moon's original orbital motion would keep it from hitting the earth, but it would skim by at an abnormally close distance (how close would depend on the force of the explosion) and would create disastrous tidal effects."

Thanks for the answers.

My point about the distance from NDA2 was that if they were pinned to the floor, then NDA2 must have been on the other side of the Moon. If they were pinned to the wall then it would only have been 90 degrees around the Moon. If NDA2 were in the same hemisphere they would have been pinned to the ceiling!

Thanks for confirming the darkside nit. As Kryten said in Red Dwarf:
It's a common mistake, made by all truly stu_pid people.
(He was talking about the belief that Frankenstein is the name of the monster, rather its creator.)

Sophie, I completely missed your point about how the crewmembers would have been pinned down...it's a good one! Just how would a "same hemisphere" location have been filmed back then? Would they have built the sets upside down?

As a pilot this is a good episode doing a good job of establishing the characters. Compare this to the pilot episodes of other shows that usually seem quite weak. TNG's Encounter at Farpoint springs to mind as an example.

Honourable mention must go to Barry Gray's excellent music score. Although used to great effect in all of season one, the building up of tension in Breakaway was enhanced by his music.

Note: The Region 2 DVD (disc 1)special features explains why the explosion of Area 2 was so violent. Reason: It gives the writer's background/orientiation guide to Space:1999 Apprently, A limited nuclear war happened in 1987, and as a result, a total disarmament treaty was agreed between all nuclear powers. A problem, was where to store all the existing nuclear warheads. Moonbase Alpha was created as a custodial site, for these weapons, as potential terrorists could NOT get ready access to the storage sites, unlike Earth!

Thats an after the fact rationalisation based on a few lines in the year 2 episode "The Rules of Luton," which discuss a world war happening in 1987. There's no indication of such a war happening in any year one script, or any indication of nuclear weapons parts being stored on the Moon. I have no idea if a third world war was part of the backstory cooked up for the year 2 writers guide or if it was something Fred Freiberger came up with on the fly while writing "Luton."

Sorry,but it turns up in the Season 1 Writers/Story Guide as part of Alpha's back story, to introduce new writers to Space:1999 which is on my Region 2 (U.K/Pal) DVD copy !. (I think a discussion on canonicity, is perhaps in order!). Maybe you should take it (This Discussion) up with Carlton Video/ITC in the U.K....

Happy 3rd anniversary, Alphans.

Well the moon is still there, unless it's a government plot to make us think that.

The moon isn't there, and Buzz Aldrin punched me when I called him on it.

Some months ago, I stumbled across a bit of fan fiction that picked up where "Breakaway" left off. Its rather pedestrian title was "Breakaway Part II," but it's a great piece that really captures the feel of the first season and nails the characters in their early episode "getting to know you" mode, while hinting at what they (and the series) would become. It also fills in some gaps (where's Ouma?) and sets up future episodes (Jack Crawford in "Alpha Child").
If you can find this, it's worth reading. I'm not kidding; I liked it enough that I started to storyboard it just for fun (only finished the opening hook), and I wish there was a way this could be filmed.
I know it was written by a Matt Butts, whom I don't know, although I see an old post by him on the "Space Brain" board. I don't know where the story (written in script form, by the way) resides on the web, as I had linked to it from some other site and haven't been able to find it again. I include mention of it here because it really fits into the "Breakaway" continuity.
Since this is NitCentral, I have a couple minor nits (with all due respect to the author)...
First, the title. I think "The Void Ahead" may have been more effective, clearly showing that this was an immediate follow-up to the first episode, and referring to one of the orignal proposed titles to "Breakaway." Matt's 'script' even uses those words in Koenig's log book (the one we would see onscreen in "Testament of Arkadia").

SPOILER WARNING for the second nit!
After Ben Ouma's demise, Koenig "hands the reigns" to Kano, who somewhat hesitantly sits at what had been Ouma's Main Mission desk, and would now be his own. The nit is that the desk didn't appear for a few episodes! An easy fix would be to have Koenig hand Kano a reprogrammed commlock giving Kano full computer access, or perhaps even handing Kano Ouma's commlock; the scene would still work either way.

SPOILER ENDED.
Matt, if you're out there, you have my compliments. Everyone else, I return this board to the actual "Breakaway" episode, with thanks for putting up with my lengthy, slightly off-topic post.

If you want to see the "Breakaway Part II" script, go to space1999.net, and then click on the website called "Alpha Chronicle." You will find it there with some other interesting stuff.

Does anybody out there find it irritating that when Paul Morrow is flying an Eagle by remote control over the waste dumps (prior to a magnetic energy surge making the Eagle crash), Koenig is hovering over his shoulder giving him irections "Left a bit, easy now, hold it..." etc. And why isn't it Carter doing the flying?

Maybe Paul's title should have "remote" added to it. Remote Controller, see?
Sorry about that.

I just got the whole 1st series on DVD.
'Breakaway' is still impressive after all these years.

A few nits and observations.

I always assumed Koenig travelled to Alpha from Earth, but the start of the episode shows his Eagle approaching the Moon from the side opposite Earth. Where did he come from?

After breakaway, Koenig says that the Moon is decelerating. OK, the guy was stressed at the time, but it didn't decelerate; it eased its acceleration.

At the time of breakaway, all Eagles were committed to moving the waste. Alan even had to use the Commissioner's Eagle to get into orbit. Yet we never hear what happened to them, how many were destroyed, and whether any made it back to Alpha. Worst case, the entire Eagle fleet might was been destroyed or left behind.

"Decelarate" is a commonly used term, at least in the US. Although it's technically not accurate, most laypeople understand what is meant by it. (Don't worry, Sophie; you're not the only one who notices such things! )

We had a lengthy discussion about the number of Eagles used (during the futile break-up of NDA2) over on the Alpha Technical Section board a while ago... check it out!

By the way, to address your observation about Koenig's approach from Earth... Rather than taking off straight from Earth, perhaps the Eagle made a sub-orbital arc around the planet, sort of sling-shotting around the planet as it climbed up out of the gravity well.
That doesn't seem too efficient, though, even considering the Eagle's nuclear fusion power. Let me revise that...
Koenig's Eagle took off from the side of the planet that was facing away from the moon, and once out of Earth's gravity well, went around the planet and headed toward the moon.
How does that sound?

Actually, Sophie and CR, it's been ages (about 25 years ) since I've seen this ep, but given that the only acceleration on the moon was the initial impulse caused by the explosion, decelerating is probably correct.

Remember Newton's Laws.

I, too, hadn't seen the episode for over 25 years. Saw it when it first aired, and spent years trying to get a copy... I even bought all the Image Entertainment laser discs, save Volume One ("Breakaway" & "Wargames") which was of course out of production by that time. Of course, I could have paid $200 (US) or so on the secondary market, but I wasn't that desperate. Yet.
Finally, when the DVD came out, I had a copy of "Breakaway!" I enjoyed reliving that first episode, but I also reflected that it would have been better as a two-hour (or 1h 40m, minus commercial breaks) movie. In spite of its faults/nits, though, it still ranks as one of my favorite episodes of this--or nearly any--series.

Go rent the DVD, Scott! I know from previous posts that you weren't really a Space: 1999 fan, but maybe you'd have fun updating your nit list for the episode.

According to by dictionary, decelerate means to "reduce speed", not "stop accelerating".

Also, after the crew stop being pinned to the deck, after Keonig says they are decelerating, Bergman says that they are still accelerating, but the thrust has reduced enough for them to compensate.

(I assume he meant that the artificial gravity was adjusted to compensate. Bergman established earlier in the episode that they DO have artificial gravity.)

The point is, that with Newton, once the force (aka the blast) stops, the moon stops accelerating. It could very well be decelerating do to the gravitational effects of the Sun (and earth), but still be above solar escape velocity.

...Unless it was already far enough away to not be influenced by the Sun or Earth. Still, nice point, Scott.

It could be the "Space Warp Save" in action... whenever real science gets in the way of telling a sci-fi story, just chalk it up to a space warp (or several, in the case of this series).

I know the moon-torn-from-orbit thing just kills this series for most critics, but maybe they could see that some of the episodes were really good if they'd stop being hung up on that one point. (I'll concede it's a pretty BIG point, though!) Perhaps calling S99 science fantasy instead of science fiction would make the premise a little easier for critics to take. Then again, "a rose by any other name..."

My point: S99 had some very good stories to tell, both because of and in spite of it's format. Just like any other TV show. I'm going to stop now, since this is getting to be more of a Sink 1999 topic than a "Breakaway" one.

I assumed that the cataclysm was a long burn, or an extended series of explosions, so there was a prolonged period of acceleration, rather than an impulse.

Actually I don't look to this series for complete scientific accuracy, even if I still nitpick. (I even heard somewhere that they deliberately got in writers who weren't sci-fi writers (or was that UFO?).)

I rewatched Matter of Life and Death yesterday. Of course, the antimatter references were silly, but I really enjoyed it. Sometimes things don't need to be explained. A mystery is much more fun than nit-filled technobabble.

>I know the moon-torn-from-orbit thing just kills >this series for most critics, but maybe they >could see that some of the episodes were really >good if they'd stop being hung up on that one >point. (I'll concede it's a pretty BIG point, >though!) Perhaps calling S99 science fantasy >instead of science fiction would make the >premise a little easier for critics to take. >Then again, "a rose by any other name..."

>My point: S99 had some very good stories to >tell, both because of and in spite of it's >format. Just like any other TV show.

The space-travel premise of Space:1999 is no less implausible than the warp drive of Star Trek.
Many of science fictions greatest works have premises that are scientifically absurd. Consider the premise, for example of Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, that human beings discover that they can teleport just by willing themselves to do. Yet this is considered one of the finest sci-fi novels ever written.

It's so good, I've never heard of it!

I was deliberately avoiding direct mention of Star Trek, since I wouldn't want anyone to construe the reference as a slam of some kind, but I was thinking of it when I made my post.

I know S99 has faults, of course, but I still like it. Especially Season 1. This series inspired my interest in finding out about real astronomy. It also was directly responsible for starting my interest in classical music, thanks to "Mars, The Bringer of War" being used in "Space Brain."

I really should be discussing this on the Sink board; sorry, Todd & everyone else.

Trying to get this back to "Breakaway"... I've heard of hysterical strength during a crisis, but wow, Koenig was Herculean in his effort to reach the comm panel during the breakaway! Of course, if the moon had been accellerating at a rate fast enough to keep him totally immobile, he (and the others) would most likely have blacked out. That would have been more realistic, but maybe a bit boring to watch. (The novelization had them all black out, though, which reads nicely.)

>>By MD, Hpool on Tuesday, November 05, 2002 - 07:37 am:

>>And why isn't it Carter doing the flying?

Alan 'CrashemSmashem' Carter?

I saw someone refer to him as Alan Crater, though usually his crashes left long skid marks.
In the lunar regolith.

I thought Koenig was Alphas crash specialist.

He certainly seems to have written off or generally damaged more Eagles than anyone else.

I've come across another fan fiction story that acts as a sequel to "Breakaway." This one is by a William R. Swanson, and has no connection with the "Breakaway Part II" script I mentioned in my October 18th 2002 post above. It's even called "The Void Ahead," although its author gives each part its own title as well.
This story would also make a good episode, and does a nifty job of explaining just how the moon gets around the galaxy so fast. It also ties up a big losse end: the planet Meta. One thing it lacks is any mention of both Ouma and Kano.
Here's a link.
Interestingly enough, I think both the script I'd posted about before and this story could exist as a part two and part three of the Breakaway story, provided a couple of things were tweaked to avoid any contradictions with each other. ("Breakaway," the episode would be followed by "Breakaway, Part II" and concluded with "The Void Ahead." Yes, I know they were never written with that intent, but I had fun with the idea.)

Just watched it again and noticed a few things.

There's a potential nit in regards to "Dragon's Domain." When they fly over Area One Koenig asks if its been used since he left Alpha. Bergman says no, noting it hasn't been used in five years. This of course can be taken to imply Koenig last served on Alpha more than five years ago, and not in 1996-97 as in the latter episode. On the other hand they could have reopened Area One after he left.

If you listen carefully you can hear the voice of Shane Rimmer as one of the Eagle pilots when Koenig and Simmonds confront each other just before Area Two explodes. He of course does the voice of the Eagle pilot who flies Koenig to the Moon at the start of the episode, but its cool that even in a scene like the latter one they went to the trouble of recording appropriate background dialog and not just using old US space program audio or whatever.

When Carter comes into Main Mission just after getting back to Alpha he's armed.

Were Steiner and Nordstrom also armed during their check of NDA2? I don't have time to check it out right now.

Happy 4th anniversary, everybody.

Interesting that Sept. 13 1999 is not the date that in real life will be remembered in infamy but the eerily similar Sept. 11 2001 is.