The situation is further muddled by "Brian the Brain" which mentions the interstellar 'Mothership' and Swifts sent out in 1996....1996!
Meta as with most of the scientific concepts in Space:1999 doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. In fact, few shows do either. Many recent discussions of a future Mars mission focused on the dangers of high radiation in prolonged space flights. I've never seen any scifi show address that.
Geoff, your post addresses the problems of many sixties' shows. Their vision of a space faring future was a product of 60's Space Race. The 'Space Race' was more an expression of the rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union than an urgent need to be in space. The Space Program's budget cuts (and the end of the Apollo program) due to the war in Vietnam and other political realities signaled a downsizing and less ambitious future. Many have said that "2001:A Space Odessy's" vision of the future was already dated by the time it came out. Space:1999, like 2001, reflected a future that should have been. One thing unforgivable is the presentation of such a future well into the 70's. An even more short-sighted and implausible Space Mission was pictured in 1979's "Buck Rogers". A tiny shuttle(which are only orbital craft) is depicted as being on "America's last deep-space mission". 1987, a deep-space mission?
Lost in Space wasn't the only 60's program to predict a later moon landing than reality, so did Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
One area forgotten is the concepts of star gates and jump gates (though these were depicted later in 90's shows such as Babylon 5 and Space Rangers). 1979's Buck Rogers did feature "Star Gates" as a method for interstellar travel.
Trekkies shouldn't pat themselves on the back for the FTL ships in Trek. With FTL travel, the shows have moved beyond science fiction and into fantasy. Anti-matter is no longer science fiction, it's being produced already (anti-matter wouldn't even be able to propel a craft to light speed).
Gerry Anderson's own "Into Infinity"(aka "The Day After Tommorrow") depicted a more realistic near light ship; the Altares.
Geoff, your comments on the 'Apes' films are interesting. Space:1999 also featured some episodes depicting a contradiction (in terms of time and travel), namely "Death's Other Dominion".
I always found the concept of Meta to be implausible too. Any planet beyond Pluto would be too cold and dim for Earth-like conditions.
One more comment. Sophie asked in 2003, how the monster got from one ship to another. I always assumed it turned into that swirling ball of energy to travel in space (as a flesh and blood body would be subjected to radiation and extreme cold in space). The creature seemed determined to get at Cellini. Shouldn't it have converted into that ball of energy and latched on to the disengaging module if it was determined to get Cellini?
Why didn't Earth pick up any of the signals from any of the alien ships in the graveyard?
Meta was supposed to be too cold to harbor life as we know it, and as such shouldn't have had anyone capable of sending a signal from it... all the more reason the World Space Commission was eager to investigate in person. (The mention of it being cold, etc., appear in the novelization,, and presumably the original script, but failed to make the final cut of the filmed episode "Breakaway.")
Season 2, including its various probes and back stories/history of Earth, was made after Season 1 was "in the can," and contradicts a lot of what had already been established. Some of us have discussed this periodically on a couple of the other boards, and it's one reason I personally view each season as two completely separate series. That way, I can avoid trying to reconcile irreconcilable nits!
As for "Dragon's Domain," specifically Mark's question about why Earth didn't pick up any signals from the derelicts: the derelicts were behind Ultra, as viewed from Earth, completely hidden from view, and Ultra would have blocked any signals they could have sent. Also, none of them were actively sending signals... the Ultra Probe crew detected no life signs nor any signs of activity. Even if the ships had been on the proper side of Ultra to be in a direct "line of sight" with Earth, they were inert (and far too small to see).
As for why the creature didn't get Celini right away... hmm... I'll have to think about that one!
Here goes...
Perhaps it could only transfer directly, when ships were docked together. Over time, the docked ships separated due to gravitational stresses and so forth, and each time a new ship wandered into the graveyard, it would dock with a single ship, or at most, a pair of ships. This would could explain the ships' haphazard arrangement. Not every new ship would dock with the one that had the creature aboard, of course, but as a new crew would explore each derelict, eventually they would end up at the right one (or wrong one!) and unwittingly let the creature abord their vessel.
As for the spinning light in Cellini's quarters, perhaps that was only a weak mental projection (corollary to the hypnotic spinner, a strong mental projection when in the physical presence of the creature) that Celini, having already encountered the creature before, was "in tune" to.
Hey, no one posted before me! (Geez, I sure said "As for..." a lot in that post, didn't I?)
One piece I like about this episode is Helena typing up her report on Space Commission notepaper. When first I saw this episode, I assumed the part about 'Tony Cellini confronting his old enemy' was being reported as it happened and was being typed up as part of Helena's routine paperwork.
Now I see it differently. Helena was part of the team assigned by the Space Commission to investigate Cellini's report and his medical condition, this also later briefly causes a slight rift between herself and Koenig. I assume this is her closing the case so to speak and more or less admitting that she was wrong 'on the record'.
Oh, yeah! I'd always made the same "routine paperwork" assumption as you had. I like your new variation on the idea!
One thing in this ep looks really dated; the computers with reel to reel tapes on the Ultra Probe.
Those "computers" look as if they might have been left over from UFO.
Ah yes...the problems of near-future tech as depicted in science fiction. Technology exploded after World War II; the culture of our science mutated at phenomenal pace; virtually every basic assumption in our society changed at least once over the last 60 years. It was pretty hard for the designers of the sf tv series and movies to keep up!
There's also a somewhat common shared assumption in all of those shows and films that our space program and technology would constantly advance upward and outward. However, things would have had to have been dramatically different in order to have such a flourishing NASA (and other national space agencies).
The biggest change has actually been our computer tech and software programming. I believe that the Gateway 2000 computer with a Pentium processor that I'm using right now is actually more advanced than virtually everything shown in post-1958 sf, that didn't take place centuries in the future--yet clearly a modern Cray supercomputer or a Sun mainframe can outperform the computer running Kirk's Enterprise....which would indicate that the timeline has been altered (Voyager's Future Past two-parter, visiting 1996 Los Angeles would support this, as well as the fact that except for top speed, Jonathan Archer's Enterprise NX-01 can whup the pants off of Chris Pike's NCC-1701 100 years later!).
I have posited the existence of an Alter-NASA universe taking place on a very alternate timeline, which allows me to 'combine' the different SF late-20th century-NASA timelines into one 'super timeline' which is VERY well-funded and has lots of extra astronauts, launch programs, more advanced tech, etc. (One of my favorite sub-genres of science fiction is First Steps Into Space.) However, I eliminate the overly fantastic for a more coherent focus. For example, I eliminate the entire concept of lunar breakaway but pull in Moonbase Alpha, it's timeline, technology, and people; add 2001 (but, again, I leave out the monolith/aliens aspect); and add in from numerous other sf series and films (American, British, and others). So, I can crossover Col. Steve Austin (aka the Six Million Dollar Man, WITHOUT bionics) and have him go to a party with Harry Hamlin's astronaut character from James Michener's book and miniseries Space--as originally written, Austin was the backup LEM pilot on Apollo 17 and primary LEM pilot for Apollo 18 until a car crash broke 17's pilot's arm, and the Hamlin character flew to the moon as the Apollo 18 Command Module pilot. But alas I have too many projects and too little time...I really need Hermione's Time-Turner device from the Harry Potter books! LOL...
Some very interesting ideas Gorden!
Funny how many futuristic depictions are now dated in the past; UFO (1980s), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Space:1999, Escape from New York (1997), Lost in Space (1997, again), etc. They could all be considered "historical" dramas now. Very few pre-nineties shows depicted realistic computers. Many reflected fifties ideas ( giant boards with flashing transister? tubes). The original Star Trek's computers seem to be more rooted 1950's ideas than anything truly reflecting the future.
Remember "Forbidden Planet" with its depiction of miles of underground computer transister tubes,etc. They obviously didn't forsee miniaturization with microchips!
The computers on the Ultra craft with their "reel to reel" tapes do indeed look dated. Your PC is far more powerful than the computer on the Lunar lander in 1969. When man does return to the moon, it would be fascinating (technology-wise) to compare it then with the 1969 Apollo Mission.
As for how Space:1999 has dated. As its primary influence was 2001, it has 'aged' better than original Trek or the television version of Lost in Space. Both of those shows were primarily influenced by Forbidden Planet.
While Forbidden Planet is an entertaining classic, it sure wasn't very prophetic.
The discussion of Meta/Ultra earlier came to mind this week. Astronomers announced the discovery of of a planetiod, Sedna, beyond Pluto in orbit around our sun. The reddish Sedna at 1,100 miles wide is smaller than Pluto (1400 miles diameter). The planetiod has little or no atmosphere and has a high temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Sedna's orbit is so unusual that astronomers believe it must have been nudged by the gravity of a passing star or perhaps a massive planet so far away that no astonomer has ever seen it.
Scientists hope to gather images of it with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Cool!
(Or, being so far out, maybe I should say "cold!")
You could have said; "Far-out"!
Both Meta and Ultra appeared to be brightly illuminated for being so far from the sun.
True enough, but they'd be fairly boring in "realistic" light. Douglas and I mentioned a few points about lighting (tv versus reality) on the "Missing Link" board.
S99 (for the most part) did depict more realistic lighting of models in space scenes than other sci-fi shows. The stark illumination depicted was much closer to reality than the over-lit (for blue screen optical shots) models in Star Trek, Star Wars, or Battlestar:Galactica.
Backing up to the debate over Darwin King's line to "Cecilly"…
It would be in keeping with the show's sometimes sloppy continuity for that to have been a script typo, an odd misspelling of Cellini as Cecilli, delivered as written and not noticed until it was too late to redub the line in post. Maybe they meant to but forgot to fix the line in post.
Out-of-sequence scene shooting could have led to this as well, if the probeship scenes were shot early on while the character's name was written as Cecilli and later rewritten during shooting to Cellini. Remember, the name was rewritten at least once throughout the script from it's early incarnation as Calder, which itself was a minor change from Carter.
Why do you assume it was a mistake?
Perhaps Cellini was also a crossdresser whose 'female' name was Cecilly!
Wow, there's an angle I never thought of. (But I'll run with it!)
That outbound trip sure was long, and the crew had to do something to aleviate boredom! Of course, there'd be a slight drawback to cross-dressing with unisex uniforms...
So, if it wasn't "Sesame" (see my 17 Nov 2003 post), was it Cecile or Cecily? Or Cecilly? Or am I just being s-silly?
At the hospital, Cellini did question whether Dr. Russel was going to ask him about his sex life.
For kids at the time, this seemed like a very racy bit of dialogue.
That rather bluntness was indicative of a trend in the 1970s. Dialogue and subject matter were now addressed in a more frank and adult manner. Early seventies programs such as All in the Family and Maude discussed issues such as rape, abortion, etc. It would have been forbidden to discuss that on sixties (or fifties) programs. This attitude even extended down to 'family' programs. The Brady Bunch (made in '74 like Dragon's Domain) had an episode where cousin Oliver says to Mrs. Brady; "You know what your problem is?...you're afraid to talk about sex!" Such a line would have been unthinkable on Leave it to Beaver.
The 60s ep of Trek "The Apple" also shows the characters as be uncomfortable talking about sex. In S99, Cellini's casually including the mention of sex probably indicated a more sophisticated attitude toward sex, or I should say a more 'adult' one. This would be indicative of the more adult approach to the first year. It would be hard to imagine such a line being used in the more 'kid friendly' second season. Also, before all the frank discussions on sex on later (and today's) talk shows, Cellini probably appeared to be quite blunt to a 1975 audience. Although, those audiences were beginning to experience the change in television's attitude toward discussing such matters.
Well, the first season shows other 70's media influences...an "Exorcist" inspired exorcism was conducted in "The Troubled Spirit". "Silent Running" style modelwork is apparent in this ep.
Silent Running's miniature effects work was state of the art stuff at the time. So was 1999's. The so-called "firefly" effect of module separation observed in real life space missions was simulated in Silent Running and emulated in Dragon's Domain.
"The Exorcist" influencing "Troubled Spirit" seems more of a reach to me. The situations, actions taken and effects thereof in both stories aren't at all alike, other than Koenig calling Bergman's proposed traditional method of dealing with the spirit "bell, book and candle".
Based on an idea by Curious on the Sink 1999 2 board, here's my list of improved effects for "DD":
The commpost panel Cellini axes is unique to that one commpost; it should look like the correct panel (one with a clock in it).
The Ultra Probe ship is docked with its starboard (right) side to the space station, but the crew enters from the port (left) side. The simplest fix here would be to flop all exterior shots of the station, so that it appears that the probe ship had its port side docked to the station.
The reel-to-reel computers in the probe ship don't completely bother me, but they are very dated to anyone who actually knows what they are. Perhaps they could be replaced with monitors instead.
In order to keep continuity with the space station scenes, all exterior shots of the probe ship's outbound journey could also be flopped, including the ones of its approach to Ultra. Once Cellini executes the course change behind Ultra, all the exterior shots can remain as filmed. (A subtle bonus here is that the return trip of the command module would be in the opposite direction as the outbound trip.)
Eliminate the probe ship already docked to the dragon ship in the shots where the probe ship hasn't even gotten there yet!
Fix the docking sequence of the Ultra Probe ship & the dragon ship so it looks like the probe ship's starboard hatch (rather than the bottom) attaches to the derelict. (Basically, cut & paste the probe ship to pass in front of the dragon ship, rather than over it.)
The initial appearance of the spinning light effect (as it leaves the derelict & enters the probe ship) is inconsistent with all the other shots of the same effect; I'd make it consistent.
Although the discussion some of us had about the dragon spinning webs (scroll up to January 2003) was interesting, I think I'd remove the "fishing wires" that show up pretty obviously in one shot of the dragon.
I'd also clean up the tentacles that look animated... they're in the top of the shot where Cellini is next to Monique (Fauchere, Bauchere, whatever her last name is) and tries to shoot the dragon with his gun.
When Cellini approaches the Ultra Probe ship in his stolen Eagle command module, have the probe ship docked starboard side to the derelict (as fixed earlier).
When the persuit Eagle docks to the Ultra Probe ship, have it dock starboard side to the probe ship's portside; this will gel with the fact that Koenig & crew exit the Eagle's starboard hatch & enter the probe ship's port hatch.
Fix the shrill screeching noise the dragon makes so that it dies down after Koenig axes to glowing "eye."
Now for a potentially controversial one, and I'm not wholly decided on which way I'd go, so I'll pose it as a question... should Helena's typewriter be made to look like a computer? She can still hand Koenig the hard copy print-off at the end, but might not a laptop-style computer seem better than the big old typewriter?
I forgot to mention one...
The close-up of the Ultra Probe ship docking with the derelict shows it docking bottom-side to the derelict. It's a nice shot, and one I wouldn't want to lose. The shot could be rotated 90 degrees and the probe ship crest removed, so that it appears that the probe ship is lining its starboard hatch up with the derelict.
Come to think of it, rotating that shot wouldn't work. Aside from having to enlarge & crop the frame to fit standard size tv screens, there's the problem of the positions of the probe ship's radar antenna and external tanks. It would be easier to keep the probe ship as is, and edit the derelict's position, possibly inserting an all new CGI one in the correct position, though this is the only shot where I would use a full CGI ship! (I'd rather lose the mostly-obscured derelict model in this one shot than the model of the Ultra probe ship.)
It's interesting that you mentioned Helena's typewriter. I've always thought it looked very outdated. I too have thought that a 'digital' screen could be added to make it look like a laptop!
Speaking of digitally enhanced tv shows, I noticed on the DVD box for Doctor Who's "The Five Doctors" the mention that it was improved with new "state of the art" digital effects in 1995. I only have the original version on tape. I was wondering for those who have seen the enhanced version if it greatly added to the show. It would probably be a good example of what could be done to enhance a show.
Helena's typewriter: Electric typewriters were not entirely obsolete in the '90s or even today. Many paper documents still require their use. In fact some people still use manual typewriters when needed because they learned to type on them and are accustomed to striking the keys hard enough to actuate the levers. Besides, would you want to do away wth that shot of Helena's neat stationery?
Well, how about a more streamlined electric typewriter, then? (I also like the stationery, and about the only way to keep it would be to keep the typewriter. That's why I'm not wholly decided as I mentioned above!)
Mark, I haven't seen "The Five Doctors" since it first aired in the US a looong time ago, but I recall that the effects were pretty good, especially for Doctor Who. I wonder what was enhanced...
Peter, of course Helena's neat stationary would be a paper download. After all, we all like to have information on paper sometimes!
I always thought the "spinning" effect superimposed over the victims' faces looked a bit cheesy. It looks rather like a crumpled plastic bag (illuminated from the side) superimposed over the live action. It was a quick and cheap solution back then, but it is a rather unconvincing effect today. That same "effect" was used in Y2's "New Adam, New Eve" to show the materialization of Magus in Command Center.
I've read complaints in some retrospectives of Space:1999 that Dragon's Domain was aired as the second episode in many US markets. Actually, isn't that the way it should have been (if we could eliminate the stated date in the episode)? It would make more sense if Ultra and the spaceship graveyard was one of the first things Alpha encountered. That would have eliminated the unbelievable possibility that the spaceship graveyard would have drifted light years in distance. Also, wasn't the spaceship graveyard supposed to be locked in orbit around Ultra?
Many fans think "The Black Sun" should be the second episode. That's not really very satisfying either, considering how many light years from us the nearest black hole is.
Way back on 22 January 2002, I mentioned in a post that I'd shown a young friend this episode. I didn't mention in that post that I told him it could have been aired as the second ep, even though it wasn't produced that way, as a way of eliminating the "moving graveyard" nit. I now suspect that many people may have reached a similar conclusion.
"Victor, this moon has moved. So could they."
Koenig's simple and elegant accounting for how unlikely it is to encounter the collection of drifts so far off in space. Works for me.
...and the Enterprise is faster than light, the 1997 Jupitor II has visited how many solar systems, a sub-light Galactica and a "rag tag" fleet have visited numerous systems, ST:TMP's Voyager has been how many light years in a bit over 200 years?, and don't forget Doctor Who. Wait, he's an exception. That show doesn't have to adhere to science: it's "fantasy". In Star Trek III, Uhura tells "Mr Adventure" he's in a "fantasy". She's right.
Excellent episode that holds up well. Everyone else has noticed the nits. With the exception of the monster (which is a little cheesy looking) the FX people did a great job. I loved the Eagle nose jettison and docking with the Ultra Probe. And the flashback sequences were well done also.
One other thing - do we get a glimpse anywhere as to the political situation on Earth and who was in charge of the Moon in any other episodes? Based on the episodes I've seen (and from a 30 year vantage point from originally watching them) it appears that the Moon was governed by a Board of Directors (for lack of a better term) from all nations in a UN type of set up. Is there any other mention of this or any type of one-world government?
A new NANJAO about an old point... WAAY back on 04 April 2002 I made this post regarding the swivel chairs in the Ultra Probeship wardroom:
NANJAO: Remember those cool swivel chairs in the Ultra Probeship's main wardroom? The black ones with the chrome handles and frames? They appear near the aft doorway by the desks, and can be seen prominently in the famous still photo of the monster that appeared in the US 1977 calendar, among other places. (OK, so I had a thing for swivel chairs as a kid; it was thanks to this episode.)
The point?
I have a book about architectural rendering techniques ('Drawing in Color,' by Albert Lorenz & Stanley Salzman, 1991) that has a pen-and-ink drawing of a vice president's office on pages 100-101. Next to a table in that office is one of those Ultra Probeship chairs. It's colored brown in this book, but the style is unmistakable.
I just found out that the style of chair was designed in 1958 by Eames Aluminum Group and was called "Chair," or more specifically, "Eames Aluminum Group Chair."
Um... well, I thought it was kind of neat. Closure, if you will. Hey, really, I DO have a life!
There was a lot of commercially available furniture used in the show . I had one of those molded white plastic chairs (usually seen in corriders) in my own room as a kid. It made me feel like a owned a piece of the future! I know there is one website which extensively documents many of the commercial furniture used in the show (most of it Italian). I always wondered about the pilot seats in the Eagle and Ultra Probe; were they actually dentist chairs, or something similar?
I haven't been able to look up any info yet, but to me the Eagle seats always looked like dentist chairs. (I believe the exam seats in Medical Center were, too.)
As for the Ultra Probe seats in the command module, the pilot's seat looked like an Eagle seat with a yellow cover, but the other two seats look to me like airline seats of some kind.
thing for swivel chairs?
TMI..... ;)
Har, har, har.
I just came across this site, and I know a some posts I'm responding to are over a year old...
Tape Drive Computers - Actually they are AUDIO reel-to-reel machines posing as computers. (I still understand your point, though!)
Moving this episode to the second aired to explain an encounter with the ships - Maybe, but then: a) would have to change the comment in the story of five years since the Ultra Probe, or the moon would have been in the solar system for year and a half; b) Unless the ships did move from Ultra, but closser by, say Alpha Centauri? c) "Another Time, Another Place" - Which needs updated anyway, as when going back to our Solar System they say there are only nine planets.
CR said in April 2004 Helena had a "big old typewriter." I thought it was small for a typewriter!! A compact portable one!
One thing I forgot....Someone had an interesting idea that the Alphans never explored the other ships in case of 'offspring' of the monsters. I always thought that after they determined there were no life signs aboard, they could have had the other Eagles (and taken more than two as escort) tow as many ships as possible into either lunar orbit, or crash land them on the moon. If they could have gotten a few to go along for their ride, they could have examined the ships at their leisure. If there were other dragon's, they a) new how to kill it now; b) could have kept it isolated in orbit or on the lunar surface, and even destroyed the ship if it was a threat. BUT, that was never meant to be. Even in year 2's "Space Warp" they get the alien ship back to Alpha, and it is never mentioned again.
Brings up one thought I did like about the newer version of Star Treks I wished 1999 and older shows had done: Everything was episode contained, and there was never a reference to past episode events, other than the breakaway from Earth. The original Star Trek did this in only one instance.
Some interesting points, James. Always nice to get fresh perspectives on old ideas. (BTW, welcome to this part of NitCentral!)
Re:James Rowlings'es comment
They're still probably trying to "reverse engineer" it...
Either that or Tony Verdeschi ended up plundering it to use as parts for his beer still.
One thing I always notice is how Koenig's eye seems to linger on that "stacked" Med tech when Cellini winds up in Medical Center. "Not that there's anything wrong with that", per Jerry Seinfeld..!
Man, they really have had some bad luck with the space program in the 1999 universe:
-the mission that Helena's husband was on, lost in orbit around Jupiter.
-the Uranus Probe, lost in 1986.
-the Ultra Probe, all hands lost, except Tony Cellini.
-the ships in the expedition that Brian the Brain was part of.
-of course, the Moon being blown out of Earth's orbit.
Not a good track records.
What is it with Space Administrators? The guy is this episode is another stuck up beauocrat, like Simmonds.
Poor Tony, he finally gets vindicated. Too bad he has to die in the process. Also, too bad there is no way that Earth could know that he was right all along.
Re: Ship Retrieval
On a more whimiscal note, could you imagine the Alphans salvaging a certain starship called the U.S.S Enterprise or maybe the U.S.S Defiant...?
The SFX crew for this episode intended to play a sight gag, in that one of the long shots of the Probe entering the "Sargasso Sea", would have shown a Constitution-class starship, as well as Doctor Who's TARDIS, as 2 of the wrecks in the debris field...
They got as far as constructing the models for the sight gag, when the management, concerned about Paramount's & the BBC's reaction to the unauthorised use of their property, so to speak, "pulled the plug" on the gag...
The lack of evidence from Cellini's spaceship recorder never seemed plausible to me.Bergman states that while it detected contacts it wasn't specific as to them being alien vessels.Why not? Seems to me that their detection instruments should be sophisticated enough to make this clear.Why didn't the probe have cameras on the hull to record pictures of this mission,including the graveyard of ships? Cellini going after the creature without any high tech weaponry the second time comes off as foolish.If this creature is stranded on these ships for months or years at a time before encountering another alien crew & spaceship just how does it survive without nourishment? Where exactly did it come from,was one of those spaceships transporting it,if so for what purpose? If Cellini was discredited by the Space Agency after the disaster of his mission & loss of crew,does it seem logical that they would assign him on Moonbase Alpha? I realize that the moon was drifiting away from this collection of ships & they could not remain there to do an extensive examination of these fabulous crafts.But with several of their Eagles couldn't they have attempted to rig towlines to one of the alien spacecraft & brought it back with them to Moonbase Alpha?
Cellini was on Alpha because Koenig asked for him to be assigned there. Koenig must have had friends in high places (some that could overrule that prick, Simmonds).
I agree that Cellini confronting the creature alone was foolish, it got himself killed. If he had stayed with the others, he would have still be vindicated, but also would have lived to enjoy said vindication.
Cellini's command module did not appear like it would have had enough rations or water for a six month journey back to Earth.The Ultra Probe spaceship model & interior sets were impressive looking. The monster suit does not hold up well at all.
This is a post for what seems to be a long dead subject, but I recently got the Network Blu-Rays, and I noticed something. When Cellini ejects the Ultra Probe command module you briefly see a close up of the ejection lever as he works it. It's black with silver writing, and I there are two or three other levers. Freeze framing it, I notice a very faint line of text, which when examined closely read "Arresting Hook". Others were things like "Throttle", markers like "RPM" and so on. Could this be from a carrier fighter or maybe even something like a dragster?
The space agency doesn't deliver there are any ships because the mission recorder only shows contacts. Except they have clear evidence that the ship docked with something that had an oxygen atmosphere. So they must know they couldn't just have been meteorites.
Probably some black ops people got to the data recorder to keep the discovery of alien life secret.
When Cellini is recovered at Moonbase Alpha, why isn't it Gorsky who is in charge? Why is Koenig there? Had he been there at the time?
Koenig was the original commander of the base. He was replaced by Gorsky precisely because the authorities on Earth didn't like how he handled the disastrous outcome of Cellini's mission. He had just been reinstated as Alpha's commander in the first episode of the series.
Actually, in the newscast we see at the start of the flashback, Gorsky is referred to as Commander of Alpha.
Koenig was there, but he wasn't Commander. He then left for a few years, until the start of the series, when he replaces Gorsky as Commander.
I know, I had a look at the episode AFTER I posted my comment. I broke my own Prime Directive, "Never trust your memory, ALWAYS check your facts BEFORE posting."
Alan should not have been allowed to fly the pursuit eagle. Here's a man who has been knocked out twice in a 24 hours period. In all likelihood, he is suffering from a solid concussion. He should not be allowed near an eagle cockpit until examined and given a clean bill of health.
It has been suggested that Alpha should have made efforts to recover some of the derelict ships. It's assumed that the ships have interstellar travel capabilities that would have been very useful to the alphans, but that is in no way a sure thing. Those ships might have been captured like the Ultra probe was, with the dragon moving them from system to system instead of the ships traveling out to them.
Was the dragon stalking Cellini? Why else would the derelicts and the Moon meet so far away from Earth, against all reasonable probabilities?
Alan should not have been allowed to fly the pursuit eagle. Here's a man who has been knocked out twice in a 24 hours period. In all likelihood, he is suffering from a solid concussion. He should not be allowed near an eagle cockpit until examined and given a clean bill of health.
Helena was right there the second time, she obviously cleared him. Mr. Carter clearly has a very hard head 
It has been suggested that Alpha should have made efforts to recover some of the derelict ships. It's assumed that the ships have interstellar travel capabilities that would have been very useful to the alphans, but that is in no way a sure thing. Those ships might have been captured like the Ultra probe was, with the dragon moving them from system to system instead of the ships traveling out to them.
A few reasons come to mind here:
1. It would probably take a while to learn how the ships worked. The Moon would only be in range for a short time. The Alphans simply didn't have the time needed to study the ships.
2. The creature seemed to be dead, but remember what Helena said in her narration: "According to what we know, it was never alive, so how could we be sure it was dead." They barely beat it, clearly they didn't want to give it a chance to have a second go at them.
3. Maybe the Alphans didn't want to take a chance that there was more than one creature.
Was the dragon stalking Cellini? Why else would the derelicts and the Moon meet so far away from Earth, against all reasonable probabilities?
It's likely the creature (or creatures)have the power to move those ships about. They wouldn't get many victims staying in one place.
Part of this could almost be a proto-ALIEN.
You have a crew in deep space, that encounters a hostile alien, all but one of said crew is wiped out by said alien, and the lone survivor is not believed when they get back to Earth.
The only difference between Tony Cellini and Ellen Ripley is that there was no evil Company involved (that knew all along about the alien).