How The Metamorph Reinvents Space: 1999

By - Fred McNamara
5 Min read
5 Min read
How The Metamorph Reinvents Space: 1999 - The Gerry Anderson Store

Despite its state-of-the-art special effects, appealing dual star leads, and spectacular cosmic adventure (along with its astronomical budget), Space: 1999's first series had failed to land with audiences and TV networks that Group Three Productions and Lew Grade had hoped. Syphoned off to local TV stations in America after failing to secure a lucrative network broadcaster and facing a hostile reception from UK audiences for being seen as little more than unsubstantial American import (despite its UK-based production), Space: 1999 only secured its second series through hard-earned victories.

While the first series' mixture of philosophical musings and metaphysical adventure met with success from audiences and critics, the powers that be demanded that these precise qualities be toned down in favour of more approachable elements such as comedy and romance. After much reinvention thanks to Gerry Anderson's hiring of former Star Trek producer, Fred Freiberger, Year 2 debuted in September 1976 with The Metamorph. Rather than pick up where the intelligently-charged The Testament of Arkadia left off, The Metamorph propelled Moonbase Alpha into a renewed direction for the series. Let's investigate how the episode reinvents Space: 1999!

For all of the drastic reinventions presented by The Metamorph, it's an episode that at least boasts familiar faces in front of and behind the camera. Year 1 guest stars Brian Blessed and Catherine Schell return as new characters, and the episode was written by Year 1 script editor Johnny Byrne, a reassuring advocate of Space: 1999's cosmic philosophising. Director Charles Crichton helms the episode, having directed such Year 1 classics as War Games, Dragon's Domain and Guardian of Piri. Byrne's original script, entitled The Biological Soul, was one of three scripts composed at the tail end of the Year 1 era, ostensibly preparing for the supposed new series of Space: 1999, but prior to Freiberger's arrival and his drastic reinventions.

As such, the original outline for The Biological Soul is rooted much deeper in the traditionally morose Year 1 moods, even though the broad premise of the alien Mentor ensnaring the passing Alphans to drain them of their mental qualities to revitalise his dying home world would remain the same. Byrne's other two scripts would undergo different fates. The Immunity Syndrome would emerge mostly unscathed and sit within Year 2 as a darkly violent example of how this second series still owed a debt to Year 1. Children of the Gods would be abandoned in favour of the middling The Dorcons.

Byrne's original outline of The Biological Soul would have placed Metor's demented experiments in rebirthing his dying world front and centre, blurring the lines between where a soul ends the physical world and meets the metaphysical. So far, so very Year 1. Mentor doesn't appear to have any offspring here, commanding a solitary presence. Later entitled The Biological Computer, the script was overhauled between late 1975 and early 1976 into becoming The Metamorph, the change in title encapsulating what the episode would now focus on.

The Metamorph would now be hardwired to accommodate a newly written character - Maya, the shapeshifting daughter of Mentor. Maya's transformative ability to change into any creature and comically romantic on-off relationship with new Alphan head of security, Tony Verdeschi, are defining aspects of Year 2. Rather than be written in as another episode-exclusive guest character, Maya would go onto become a series regular. In a telling sign of the drastic surgery needed to Byrne's script, Maya's presence in the script amounts to little substantive character-driven impact. Remove her and the story plays out much the same. However, she undeniably injects a sense of fun and warmth to the episode, starting as sharing in her father's disdain of their Alphan captives, but gradually revealing a sympathetic side when helping the Alphans make their escape from Mentor's captivity. 

Her presence also provokes welcome characterisation from Mentor, who demands that the Alphans save Maya when the planet begins to disintegrate. In a final act of fatherly love, it's his daughter who is saved rather than his beloved and macabre mechanical instruments. Maya's lingering trauma at believing she's the last living Psychon would prove to be a tantalising narrative thread interspersed throughout several Year 2 episodes, puncturing the surface-level reputation Year 2 has come to endure.

The episode's production values signify other changes and more traditional aspects. Derek Wadsworth impatient orchestral surges are a world away from the graceful audio soundscapes of Barry Gray. They're faster that matches the episode's swift pacing, another tangible difference between the two series. Production designer Keith Wilson and special effects director Brian Johnson were two behind-the-scenes individuals who worked across both of Space: 1999's divisive years. For all of the tonal separation crowbarred between the two series, the sustained presence of both Wilson and Johnson ensures that The Metamorph still at least looks like it belongs to Space: 1999. The planet Psychon is a thrillingly colourful design, the inclusion of several other decaying spaceships as a visual indicator of Mentor's capturing of other lifeforms is a devilishly handsome touch. Wilsons design of Psyche, Mentor's vast biological computer, is equally vibrant and eye-catchingly unusual in its implied functionality.

However, speaking of visual appeal, there's the cosmic elephant in the room of why Moonbase Alpha's Main Mission set is no longer the Main Mission set. Redesigned and renamed as simply the Command Center, this second take goes unexplained in-universe - a firm example of how Year 2 wasn't entirely concerned with too much connection to Year 1.

As Year 2 would proceed, Space: 1999's increased comedic directions and rapid-fire pacing would be more explicitly felt across further episodes. The Metamorph would emerge as one of Year 2's most straight-forwardly enjoyable adventures. Untethered to any philosophical musings which so regularly end any given Year 1 adventure, The Metamorph stands as a bracingly direct and visually compelling second beginning for Space: 1999.

Celebrate Space: 1999's enduring legacy by exploring our Breakaway Collection of fantastic releases from the world of Moonbase Alpha! Stand by for the imminent release of the definitive series guidebook, All Sections Alpha: The Making of Space: 1999 (on course for release this summer), and be sure to stay tuned for the exciting announcement of further releases in our growing 4K collection of classic Gerry Anderson episodes restored in ultra high-definition!

5 comments

I actually did not see the 1st series of Space: 1999 until the late 80’s via a collector who had them all on VHS from various TV transmissions. I grew up with Year 2 of Space: 1999 which I excitedly viewed every Saturday night in the late 70s via WPIX out of NYC. Seeing Year 1 AFTER Year 2 was an amazing revelation, especially since I was/am a huge 2001: A Space Odyssey fan. To see a TV show emulating 2001 and having more open-ended/interpretive stories was very daring and ground breaking for TV; Year 1 is the crown jewel in Anderson’s oeuvre. With Year 2, I am very glad that I grew up with that series, viewing it through the eyes of a child, as Year 1 would probably have been a bit too ponderous and serious and over my head to really appreciate; Year 1 was more adult-oriented SF which was the vibe then in filmed, early 70s SF. Frieberger had come from working on US Filmation animated cartoons before coming on to 1999 and there is a very, very strong Filmation-like feel to Year 2; it’s simply a more colourful, fun, more commercial series but it is almost an entirely different show, in feel & tone. In fact, Year 2 could have been done as a 70’s Filmation cartoon series and the episodes would have probably worked just as good, especially for a younger audience. As a kid in the 70’s, in the midst of the SF film/TV explosion that took place after Star Wars, it was an absolutely wonderful time seeing a variety of new shows, new movies, and even old classics being brought back on air to tie-in to the interest; Series 2 will always be a special part of that for me. Like Maya, Space 1999 had turned into a “different creature” but Year 2 had it virtues as well, first of all in catering to a younger audience that really, really needed, at that time, some less serious, less adult, simply fun, new, imagination-stimulating SF TV, in the wake of Star Trek. George Lucas realized this as well, to great success). It’s a shame that the best elements of Series 1 and Series 2 could not have been melded together in a Series 3 (or for that matter, at least another, standalone series of Anderson’s excellent UFO), especially during that heady, post-Star Wars era . Frankly, going with “Raise the Titanic” and cancelling 1999 was the worst decision Lew Grade ever made.. and it cost him; disaster-type melodramas were out, SF was in-in- in. I look forwards to having some fun reviewing the Year 2 episodes this fall for it’s 50th, having not seen them in a long time, and never on bluray.

Nick Posengal

In response to the comments above, Main Mission was dismantled because the team needed a standing set complex for the main Alpha locales, due to Series Two’s shorter shooting schedule. Main Mission and the Commander’s office took up most of Stage L where most Alpha locales were set up in S2. With 4 months less time to shoot S2 than S1 took, they didn’t have nearly as much time to do episode specific set buildups on Stage M. Thus, sets for Command Center, Medical Center, the Nuclear Generating Area, living quarters, the Eagle interior and Alpha corridors all had to fit on Stage L. They were at least all inter-connected, unlike in S1 so it was more like being in a real Moonbase. Much as I missed the grand scale sets of Series One, I defend the S2 changes as necessary, given the much shorter shooting schedule forced by the long delay in getting S2 approved after ITC initially cancelled it

Jeffrey Hastings

On a lot of social media, I oftentimes hear nothing but groaning from some people about Season 2 – sometimes, even harsher comments attacking the show’s Season 2 or fans of it. That kind of behavior separates the real fans of the show from …other people. I love the show for both seasons. Each of them has their merits and (like with any other television show) lower moments.

Season one offered a more dry, old-school sci-fi approach to the series. I felt that Dr. Russell’s character wasn’t fully developed yet. Seeing Victor was a treat – as a child in the late 70’s, I often saw Victor as a “good version” of what Moff Tarkin was for Darth Vader. Both of them being British was probabaly the connection. I felt that Commander Koenig was more “restrained” in the first season. There were great scripts, including of course “Dragon’s Domain” which probably scared the psychological crap out of other kids my age as well. The down side of Season 1, for me, was that a lot of the shows were more “dry.” They were slower moving stories. Thought provoking in some cases, which is fine – but just slow moving. It sometimes felt like "Here comes a mysterious ball of light… it came.. and now it left.. " and Dr. Russell would be sitting by the window saying “wow…” watching it fade out into space – no explanation.

Season 2 seemed more colorful, and flowed more like a river. There was more action. The scripts were more plot drien than “philosohpy” driven. My introduction to Space : 1999 was mostly the second season episodes. WGN TV Chicago showed them in random order at times – so there were many episodes where I said “where’s Maya? Why is this story so slow moving?” Suspension of disbelief took care of “How does she morphy into a creature without a human brain and have memory enough to know how and when to change back again?” I thought about that as a kid. But if you could be “The Force” in Star Wars, you could easily accept any science explanation behind Maya’s abilities. Maybe some of the creature costumes in Season 2 borderlined something out of an Irwin Allen creation – but at least they weren’t people wearing prosthetics or Speedos. They were more interesting. The addition of Tony and making the main characters a foursome also gave the show a more “Big Valley”or “family” familiarity. Koenig also seemed more developed in Season 2 as he was more emotional. Dr. Russell was totally different in Season 2, far more developed and not so plastic, in respectful opinion. And Maya? She literally was the Wonder Woman of the show. The Seven Of Nine before there was one… the fishout of water, combined witha Spock-like intelligence – made her a very intersting character, wraped up in a very nicely played pixie sense of humor. Bringers Of Wonder was also a little horrific and well done – playing on almost any zombie dream a child could have ever had. The Dorcons were the Borg before there was Borg – even the key Borg line “Resistance Is Futile” makes you wonder where Trek got it from.

Space: 1999 has been a very special part of my childhood… and I respect everyone’s opinions of the show, as long as they are respectful. That’s what it deserves from everyone, regardless of where your favorites episodes or season is. I treasure it. My nieces once came over and watched a few episodes with me once. My younger niece was like “That Maya can change into ANYTHING!” and she thought it was so cool… Then she said “How come they never show her actually changing? And you only see the thingin her eye?” I explained to her we didn’t ahve CGI back then. She then said “You mean AI???” and I said “I rest my case!” LOL. :)
=Mathew=

Mathew

Year 2 was an almost completely different show in many respects for me.
The bridge from season 1 to season 2 was totally ignored.
The usual questions
What happened to Victor, Paul, Sandra and others missing from season 2 was never explained.
Main mission control room having been scaled down was never explained.
Where did Tony arrive from.
It almost seemed like a completely different tv show.
At least Mya was introduced and explained, but apart from that every other change is just left open.
It would have been good for continuity if these changes were written into the scripts.
I enjoyed some episodes, but season 1 is much stronger overall for me.

James Logie

As a child who regularly watched Space 1999 it was very upsetting that Barry Morse as Victor Bergman disappeared in season 2 with no explanation. He brought was a much loved character and brought warmth to the show. The loss of the main mission set was extremely confusing to me. I thought I had missed an episode that explained what happened. It was a beautiful set that just made sense with the overall look of moonbase alpha. I thought that it got blown up or something drastic which was why everyone seemed to be hiding out in the basement looking set that was season 2’s command centre. The change in music also confused me. I did like the addition of maya as she brought some warmth with her and I honestjy didn’t notice the change in writing. Too bad the American was brought on but I understand why. Just wish someone would have stopped the loss of the beautiful main mission set and Barry Morse.

Jeff W

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