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Now we go back to Gerry Anderson, seeing an episode from "Space: 1999", first season. I want to point the difference, because the two season of the show were very different: the first was produced together with italian network RAI and had quite good scripts, being even too much serious; the second, supervised by american producer Fred Freiberger, took a too light direction, and the results were more similar to a sit-com. This episode is one of the most memorable and also most frightening: the title's "dragon" gives an horrible death to all people who meet it. Maybe not everybody could agree: I knew people who laughed a lot watching this episode, making ironic comments about the make-up effects quality. But we have to remember that it was shot in year 1974: if we think about those years'technology, we could say the creature was very well done and quite unusual for its kind. I personally recall that when I saw it first I was really astonished, and as I still had a B&W TV set, the effect was even more impressive. Anyway, the whole thing was quite "politically uncorrect", despite all the critics who still consider Gerry Anderson's productions only as children's shows (we could say that "Space: 1999" DVD's still have the yellow/red signal for parental guidance...). Many watchers surely appreciated this episode as I did, because when the second season was made, producers recalled this episode monster's popularity and thought it was a good idea to fill the episodes with monsters... but with very different results. Some words about the guest stars. The most important here is italian actor Gianni Garko, who had appeared in many "spaghetti-western" movies. Being the show also backed by italian RAI, the first season had its share of italian stars, like Giancarlo Prete, Orso Maria Guerrini and Carla Romanelli. Michael Sheard appeared in many movies and TV shows (where he often died...): for exemple, some "Doctor Who" episodes, or he was Admiral Ozzel in "The Empire Strikes Back", and was even Hitler in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". Susan jameson is another TV actress, she appeared in the "U.F.O." episode "The Sound of Silence". Barbara Kellerman appeared in the TV-movie "Quatermass". Douglas Wilmer appeared in the "U.F.O." episode "ESP". Now let's see the story. Tony Cellini, a moonbase Alpha astronaut and Commander Koenig's friend, has a nightmare and tries to escape nowhere with an Eagle. Cellini had been a top-astronaut, who could be compared to Koenig. But the ill-fated Ultra mission, where he was the commander and then the sole survivor, had forever changed his life and no one had never believed to his story, Dr. Russell in the first place. Even faced to a so absurde behaviour, Koenig doesn't quit believing to his friend, and when the moon comes near to a spaceship graveyard similar to the one Cellini said he had seen during Ultra mission, Koenig has a chance to discover the truth about that mission, and Cellini can face his enemy and clear himself. There's only an enormous continuity failure... due to second season's writers. This story happens 887 days after moon left Earth's orbit (September 13, 1999), so it is February 6, 2002. But the "Medic Log"'s idea was repsised in the second season and became regular, so the second season's first episode happens on... August 20, 2000, which means 535 days (quite a year and a half) before!!! If regular cast had been absolutely the same, we could keep our eyes closed seeing different clothes and sets... but "Dragon's Domain" should happen after the first 7 episodes of the second season, where three main characters have disappeared and several new ones have come... and this can be an exemple of the lower quality of the second season, and sadly many people judge "Space: 1999" only by the disappointing results of the last season... Enjoy. WARNING: to read the comic you need Acrobat Reader. DRAGON'S DOMAIN |
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