Destination: Moonbase Alpha Read Free

interesting. Lew Grade might be interested in a new series.” Gerry took it and said, “Yes, very good. Very good.” Months went by and I said to this friend, “No word from Gerry? Has he said anything? Has he read it?” He said, “I don’t know.” So, we went to see him. We said, “Gerry, can we have the format back for the show?” He looked at us like we were stupid. “What? Oh, I don’t know where it is. It’s in a drawer somewhere.” A couple years later, guess what comes along? So, you could say the original idea for Space: 1999 was mine.’
    The original Space: 1999 Writer’s Guide was compiled by George Bellak and Christopher Penfold and was dated 3 September 1973. The Guide laid out the essential tenets of the series. It established the basic physical layout of Moonbase Alpha, the approximate size of its crew (300 – although ‘Breakaway’ would state the exact number as 311), and the various sections that comprise the base (Main Mission, Medical and Psychological, Technical and Engineering, Reconnaissance, Security, and the Service Unit). Aspects of life on Alpha such as relaxation and feeding were considered carefully and, after detailing how people could bring a certain amount of their own personal possessions to Alpha from Earth for their tour of duty, the Guide stated, “A weird collection of idiosyncrasies would be reflected … This is one way in which we hope to populate Moonbase Alpha with credible human beings with whom we can readily identify.”
    In October of 1973, Lew Grade officially announced that Space: 1999 was about to enter production. The first season of Space: 1999 was billed as ‘A Group Three Production’. Group Three was a company formed by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, in partnership with Reg Hill (who served as Production Executive for Space: 1999 ). The first series produced by Group Three was The Protectors . Following its success, Group Three then produced Year One of Space: 1999 . At the end of Year One, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson would separate, with Sylvia removing herself from her business arrangements with Gerry. Thus, Group Three was dissolved.
    Gerry and Sylvia Anderson initially contributed the first script, a half-hour entry entitled Zero G . The plot concerned a civilisation of aliens who reduce lunar gravity to zero, thus hurling the Moon and Moon City (which would later become Moonbase Alpha) into deep space. American writer George Bellak rewrote this first script as a 60-minute episode entitled ‘The Void Ahead’. Bellak was instrumental in the development of the characters and premise of the evolving series, but his time with the project was short. Bellak found himself at odds with Gerry Anderson and left the writing team to return to the United States. Bellak had no particular experience with science fiction television, but he had been a contributing writer to many popular American programmes, such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour , East Side/West Side , Cannon , and The Streets of San Francisco .
    Script consultant Christopher Penfold recalls how Bellak joined the production, and the impact he made on Space: 1999 : ‘Someone who was principally responsible for the philosophy of Space: 1999 was George Bellak. In the run up of preparation for the series, as a story consultant my name didn’t carry very much weight for people on the US side of the Atlantic. It was thought that it would be prudent to hire an American writer of note to front the series. Gerry and Sylvia went off in search of this person and came back saying to me that they had found somebody they thought I would like. I did. They were absolutely right. And George Bellak has been a lifelong friend from that point onwards for me. He wrote the first episode, [which eventually became retitled] “Breakaway”. Not many of George’s actual words survived, but in that first episode I think the basic lines were drawn up. They were philosophically derived, I think, from that immense humanism that