space: 1999 -- season 2 episode 01 -- the metamorph

Season 2, Episode 01: The Metamorph

This blog comes with the generalized warning that any post may contain spoilers. That is especially true of these Space: 1999 posts. So if you haven't seen this episode, intend to watch it, and therefore don't want spoilers, then don't read.

Plot Synopsis
A scientist on a volcanic planet has plans for restoring said planet to its former glory. But to carry out his plans he needs the crew of Alpha -- their mental energy to run his computer and their bodies to extract minerals from the planet's mines.

My Thoughts
As the second season starts there are obvious changes to the show. And we see that even before the first scene. This episode starts with a reworked theme and credits. In the first season, Landau and Bain were shown expressionlessly rotating for the camera. But no longer. Now we see Landau swiveling in his chair and getting up to fire his laser staple gun at an unseen adversary. Bain, for her part, walks with purpose toward some unrevealed medical emergency. These stars are now people of action!

As indicated by that, the big change is to the feel of the show. Whereas the first season had a sterile feel reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, this season's premiere is much more like Star Trek. There's more action, and the characters are written to have more emotion. Doctor Russell is no longer a block of wood. And, given the change in the theme sequence, there's reason to believe that this episode isn't just a fluke. The differences aren't always as successful as one might hope. At the end, when there are some humanizing moments, the soft music seems like what I would expect from Eight Is Enough. That doesn't feel right for a science fiction show, and I hope they figure out how to temper it.

The sprawling Main Mission of the first season has been replaced by a more compact command center, and the cast has been retooled -- mostly without explanation. Most notably, Victor Bergman is gone. My understanding is that the script had some dialogue that explained his death, but that part didn't make it into the show itself. Paul Morrow is also gone (a shame) and David Kano is too (not a shame). They've added some eye-candy in the form of Tony Verdeschi and the shapeshifting alien, Maya. Maybe there are some other changes I didn't catch, but these seem to be the big ones. And the addition of Maya is the  only explained cast change. There are some other subtle changes to such things as uniforms.

As to the story itself, this actually feels like a Star Trek storyline. And, while it's not done as well as Trek did (or is that just my bias as a Trekkie?), it's much better than almost anything they did in season one. It's not the most cerebral of episodes, but the fact is that when S99 tried to do cerebral in season one, they gave us crap like celestial bodies colliding and just disappearing into higher planes of existence (and they gave us that twice!). Give me a couple tabs of acid and I can write shit like that. So, after seeing this one episode I'm optimistic.

I should note another change in the show. Everything seems more military. Moonbase alpha has protective shields and some kind of big guns. And the dialogue seems more like they're part of a military (rather than scientific) endeavor. Hell, the "Directive Four" order that Koenig issues is clearly a military type of command. Actually, it all feels like they were self-consciously remodelling the show with Star Trek as a template. I remember when the show was first on, I thought of it as sort of a British attempt at Star Trek. While I've stuck by that characterization, the first season sometimes made me unsure of it. Well, this gives me renewed confidence.