I was trying to use a German term schick and the spelling was fatal. Substitute sharp for sheik. Once in a while German creeps into my sentences, if I don’t pay attention.
The monster in the derelict cluster of space craft floating in space scared the shit out of me as a kid. This whirly thing shows up and all of a sudden a monster is there, that sucks in people and spits out skeletal remains.
I always like when they ran across the space ship that had a nuclear accident. Only a few remained from the original crew, sealed off from the mutants in the rest of the ship. They drained the life out of the contaminated people to stay alive, and disintegrated the mutated ones.
It’s always fun to see famous people in the show from when they were young and a rising star.
Don’t forget the professor has a battery operated heart. At least all new people are not doomed to death on the show. They did seem to have an unlimited supply of Eagles too.
There is something in that show In the first season that is almost there and yet… It’s hard to put my finger on it.
I liked the sets and the attempts to make plausable Moon equipment (The Eagles of course). There are some interesting ideas hidden in the pulpy mush of each episode.
Still It doesn’t quite work for obvious reasons:
(Aside from a dated version of the future… Trek worked and it is loaded with pure 60’s cheese)
**The 70s 1 hour format ** which had the plot drag and points repeated so that viewers who were on another channel in the first half hour can get up to speed. Most 70s hour long shows suffered from the same padding and plot drag.
The aloofness of many the characters emotional detatchment at its best. These guys could watch a fellow Alphan fry before them and not even bat an eye. Make that person a loved one and they are even more stoic than Spock.
The silliness of the basic premise You really have to swallow a lot to make this work. A) the Moon is blasted, intact, from the Earth’s orbit by nuclear explosions B) The Base not only survives but remains completely viable… with only a few references peppered about the problems caused by loss of crew and shortness of supplies. C) The Moon travels planet to planet each episode. How fricken fast is that baby going?
It was more 2001 than Star Trek Most people have a certain view of how a S/F show should be on TV. This show was more about metaphysical questions rather than space stories with technobabble to back it up. Sometimes the episode’s plot was never explained or really finished in a satisfactory way. There were no answers just questions. The episodes were more like the ending of 2001 even the end of STTMP.
Season 2 tried to recajigger most of those problems but the show became even worse. It lost some of that odd sense of wonder that marked the first season (especially since they ditched Dr Victor Bergmen who seemed to be the only member of the crew who was excited by the things they encountered) and replaced it with a nonsensical action fest which didn’t quite work.
The aloofness of Bain and Landau worked really well in Mission: Impossible since they were always on missions, double crossing various bad guys. I can buy that only people who have lost touch with human feelings could pull that off. But in this show, it doesn’t work. There is so little romantic heat between them, that it’s amazing they were married in real life. That must have been a match made on Vulcan.
Or as Spider said: Explain the premise to someone who understands science. Wait for him to stop laughing. Bring a lunch.
My big problem with the premise is that there are two different types of sf series at the time (not counting anthology series.) The first and most prevalent is the plot of characters lost somewhere trying to get back - Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants. The second was the crew on a mission - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (too earthbound) and Star Trek, which did this better than any other series up to the time. I don’t recall Alpha actually doing anything to affect their destiny, and they certainly didn’t have a mission. They just wandered randomly through space, trying to keep breathing. It made for a very uninvolving series.
I Absolutely agree. The characters drifted, (figuratively and literally) and were more cyphers than people.
They never took an active part in what happened around them, they were either pawns or observers. Not exactly thrilling television but to me there is a certain appeal. Sometimes we are not the masters of our destiny. Still they could have done a better job at using the helpless hopless situation for some more compelling drama.
You forgot the
11. Advanced aliens that made the Moon’s surface inhabitable
12. The Monsters that arrive in human form of loved ones that only Konig can see as aliens
13. The Dark Star that the moon passes through unscathed except for the psychadelic trip man…
14. Swigen from Deadwood becomes a terrible alien which burns people and he must enter the Moonbases Nuclear power plant to go onto … I dunno…that episode made very little sense.
My favourite part of the whole thing is the fact that the explosion that knocked the moon out of orbit occured on the far side of the moon, yet the moon was driven away from earth.
This is what made the show different from say Trek. One had the feeling the people of Alpha were way out of their league and almost helpless against the mysterious universe and forces they were exposed to. The words gothic and surreal come to mind, watching 1999 gave me the strangest of feelings, ones I can’t put into words.
BTW if anyone still wants an Eagle they are available here.
I loved this show as a kid, until Maya turned into a caterpillar and got trapped in a jar. My 9 year old brain said; 'Cool, she’ll shape shif into something big enough to break out of the jar now.
No. This was a life threatening situation.
A **shapeshifting **alien trapped in a jar. :smack:
And I also wondered where the extra mass went. Not that I used the term mass, I just wondered where the rest of her *went *when she changed into a little thing.
Just rewatched the first Episode Breakaway… You can see the potential for a good show (of course the main premise needs work) and there were some really good moments in the episode.
I think a revamped version could be possible… except instead of the whole moon It would be a large Chunk containing Alpha. And the reason they can’t pop back home could be twofold.
A) Whatever tore them away (Say a wormhole created by a superintellegent species with mysterious designs for the Crew of Alpha) is speeding them elsewhere
and
B) The Earth is totally devistated by the Moon going KABLAMO while in orbit so there is nothing to go back to.
They don’t have to meet alien menaces each week. The very act of surviving could be dram enough form many episodes.
There can also be the underling subplot throughout of who or what orchestrated the disaster and what are their intentions.
Gee I wish I could make TV shows… Bet others are glad I can’t