Moonbase 3
Encyclopedia
Moonbase 3 is a British science fiction
television
programme that ran for six episodes in 1973. It was a co-production between the BBC
, 20th Century Fox
and the American ABC network
. Created by Doctor Who
producer Barry Letts
and script editor
Terrance Dicks
as a realistic alternative strand of TV science-fiction, it was not a commercial or critical success (Dicks himself has stated in a foreword to a collection of Tom Baker
-era Doctor Who scripts that they "overdid the grimness and forgot about the sense of wonder that science fiction is all about").
It starred Donald Houston
as Director David Caulder, who is appointed to the position after the previous director was killed while returning to Earth. Ralph Bates
was Michel Lebrun, the Deputy Director, who was concerned about keeping to the rules. Fiona Gaunt
played Doctor Helen Smith, the base's psychiatrist
, and Barry Lowe played Tom Hill, the head of the base technical section.
The programme was notable for its combination of realistic spaceflight
procedures, ensured by hiring BBC technical adviser James Burke
, and its strong character-based writing. Although very dated in terms of its looks and assumptions about the future, it remains well regarded in retrospect.
. Five world powers have colonised the Moon
: America (Moonbase 1, commanded by Bill Jackson), Russia (Moonbase 2), Europe (Moonbase 3), China (Moonbase 4, commanded by General Cheng) and Brazil
(Moonbase 5). The European Moonbase 3 has been in existence for 8 years at the time the series starts. With oversight provided by the European Space Assembly and the European Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moonbase 3 is a shoestring operation when compared with the Russian and American efforts and much of base director David Caulder's job is to stave off budget cuts or a complete shutdown in the face of sceptical bureaucrats.
Alongside technical problems such as stranded astronauts, explosive decompressions and failed experiments, the inhabitants of the moonbase must also deal with psychological problems arising from the cramped, dangerous environment they live in. In "Departure and Arrival", a mental breakdown suffered by a shuttle pilot has tragic consequences. "Achilles Heel" and "Outsiders" deal with the fallout from crew members' difficulty with living up to the standards they have set for themselves. "Behemoth" and "View of a Dead Planet" deal with forms of mass hysteria.
Dr David Caulder (Donald Houston
)
Dr Michel Lebrun (Ralph Bates
)
Dr Helen Smith (Fiona Gaunt
)
Tom Hill (Barry Lowe)
and Crossroads before joining Doctor Who as its script editor in 1968. Former actor Barry Letts had changed career into television direction in 1967 and had worked on series such as Z-Cars
and The Newcomers before being asked to take over as producer of Doctor Who in 1970, where he first met Dicks. In 1972, looking to move on from Doctor Who, the pair started considering a number of ideas for other shows they could collaborate on. Their first idea arose from the successful collaboration they had with the Royal Navy
on the Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils
which led to them considering pitching a serial set on a frigate
only to find they were too late – the BBC had just commissioned a series, Warship
, with that very premise. In late 1972, they developed the concept of Moonbase 3, as an anthology series set on a lunar colony that would "provide intelligent, realistic drama rather than Science Fantasy", and submitted a pilot script, titled "Departure and Arrival", to Shaun Sutton
, the Head of Drama at the BBC. The series was formally commissioned in December 1972 and would be made, as a co-production between the BBC and 20th Century Fox and the ABC network in America, during the break in production between Seasons 10 and 11 of Doctor Who.
. Two scripts, "Behemoth" and "Outsiders", were commissioned from John Brason
, who had written for Colditz
and Special Branch
. The final two scripts, "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Gentle Rain" (later renamed "Castor and Pollux" and "Achilles Heel" respectively), were commissioned from John Lucarotti
, a prolific writer whose credits included The Avengers, Doctor Who and The Troubleshooters. Lastly, Letts and Dicks retrospectively commissioned themselves in late May 1973 for their pilot script "Departure and Arrival".
In order to achieve a high level of realism, Letts and Dicks hired a technical advisor, James Burke, a science correspondent who was well known to television viewers thanks to his work as anchorman on the television coverage of the Apollo moon landings
and for presenting science series such as Tomorrow's World
and The Burke Special. Burke decided that 2003 would be a realistic date for bases to have been established on the Moon, telling the Radio Times
that "Men won't go back to the Moon until the 1990s. Neither the Russians nor the Americans have any plans at present and no-one else can afford it. [...] As for the base itself – it should look exactly as it would if they built one tomorrow. [...] They'd be small, supporting 30 or 40 men and running on a shoestring. [...] It'll be like life on a nuclear submarine".
Cast as David Caulder was Donald Houston, an experienced character actor, who had appeared in 633 Squadron
, The Longest Day
and The Sea Wolves
, and was known for playing authority figures. Ralph Bates, who was cast as Michel Lebrun, had first made a name for himself playing the Emperor Caligula
in the Granada Television
series The Caesars
but was best known as a regular actor in the Hammer horror
stable. Fiona Gaunt, playing Helen Smith, had been in a television adaptation of War and Peace
while Barry Lowe, playing Tom Hill, had been a regular on the police drama Z-Cars
.
Two directors were assigned to the series – Ken Hannam
and Christopher Barry
. Hannam had previously directed such series as Colditz and Paul Temple
while Barry had worked extensively on Doctor Who, having directed some 31 episodes at the time, including the stories The Dæmons
and The Mutants
for Letts and Dicks, as well as episodes of Out of the Unknown
, Paul Temple and The Onedin Line
. Hannam and Barry alternated directing the episodes between them with filming on Moonbase 3 beginning on 24 April 1973 at the BBC film studios in Ealing
. The Ealing filming mainly centred around the scenes set on the lunar surface which proved a difficult experience for the actors. Star Donald Houston told the Radio Times that the spacesuits got "hot and claustrophobic. In the end they had to have oxygen standing by. [...] the dust rose in clouds and the cameramen all wore surgical masks. The actors just choked". Recalling his guest appearance on Moonbase 3, in the episode "Behemoth", Peter Miles
told TV Zone
in 1991 that he was "asked to be like a gazelle and leap as I came down the hillock in full astronaut gear. [...] The tech crew wondered why I was steaming up furiously in my astronaut's head. They'd forgotten to put air holes into the helmet. [...] I said, 'Help help! Help help! I'm not breathing folks!' They took the helmet off before drilling the holes or I wouldn't be here now". Filming continued at Ealing until 30 May 1973 before production moved to BBC Television Centre
for the remaining scenes, mostly those set inside the moonbase, which would be recorded on videotape
beginning on 18 June 1973. The episodes were recorded in a different order than that in which they were broadcast with "Departure and Arrival" recorded first followed by "Castor and Pollux", "Behemoth", "View of a Dead Planet", "Outsiders" and, lastly, "Achilles Heel" with recording wrapping on 15 August 1973. Music was provided by Dudley Simpson
who, at this time, was the regular composer on Doctor Who. Simpson composed the main title theme that accompanied the opening and closing credits as well as approximately 60 minutes of incidental music.
, audience reaction to the series was disappointing with the debut episode garnering under 6 million viewers and ratings slipping as low as 2 million in subsequent weeks before stabilising at 4 million. A BBC Audience Research report slated the series as "banal, predictable and slow". Reviewing "Departure and Arrival" in The Observer
, Clive James
described the plot as "the Yangtze Incident
plus liquid oxygen". Letter writers to the Radio Times were unimpressed with the lunar surface scenes: "Do the Moon rocks usually bounce back after the astronauts have stepped on them, or is this property only found in rocks made at Ealing studios?", wrote (Miss) Frances M. Toosey of Bournemouth
. Nevertheless Miss Toosey found it "pleasant to find a programme that caters for the more intelligent viewer and still provides high quality entertainment". Another letter writer, Glyn Walters of Herne Bay
, complained that the spacesuits' visors had no filters to block out the sunlight, prompting Barry Letts to respond, citing dramatic licence, that "to play a scene with a group of astronauts would not only be dull but quite incomprehensible if you could not see any of their faces".
master tapes of the series were wiped some time after broadcast and, for many years, Moonbase 3 was believed to be lost forever. However, in 1993, NTSC
copies of all six episodes were found in co-producer Fox's archives and returned to the BBC. The series was subsequently released on VHS
videotape over three volumes in 1994 by BBC Video and on DVD
in 2002 by Second Sight.
and Space Island One
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programme that ran for six episodes in 1973. It was a co-production between the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
and the American ABC network
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Created by Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
producer Barry Letts
Barry Letts
Barry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
and script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
as a realistic alternative strand of TV science-fiction, it was not a commercial or critical success (Dicks himself has stated in a foreword to a collection of Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
-era Doctor Who scripts that they "overdid the grimness and forgot about the sense of wonder that science fiction is all about").
It starred Donald Houston
Donald Houston
Donald Daniel Houston was a Welsh actor whose first two films – The Blue Lagoon with Jean Simmons, and A Run for Your Money with Sir Alec Guinness – were highly successful...
as Director David Caulder, who is appointed to the position after the previous director was killed while returning to Earth. Ralph Bates
Ralph Bates
Ralph Bates was an English film and television actor, known for his role in the British sitcom Dear John and for being one of Hammer Horror's best-known actors from the latter period of the company....
was Michel Lebrun, the Deputy Director, who was concerned about keeping to the rules. Fiona Gaunt
Fiona Gaunt
Fiona Gaunt is an English actress, and the mother of child actress Genevieve Gaunt. -Personal life:...
played Doctor Helen Smith, the base's psychiatrist
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, and Barry Lowe played Tom Hill, the head of the base technical section.
The programme was notable for its combination of realistic spaceflight
Spaceflight
Spaceflight is the act of travelling into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft which may, or may not, have humans on board. Examples of human spaceflight include the Russian Soyuz program, the U.S. Space shuttle program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station...
procedures, ensured by hiring BBC technical adviser James Burke
James Burke (science historian)
James Burke is a British broadcaster, science historian, author and television producer known amongst other things for his documentary television series Connections and its more philosophical oriented companion production, The Day the Universe Changed , focusing on the history of science and...
, and its strong character-based writing. Although very dated in terms of its looks and assumptions about the future, it remains well regarded in retrospect.
Concept and setting
Moonbase 3 was set in the year 2003 – some 30 years into the future at time of broadcast – and dramatised life in the enclosed environment of the titular moonbaseColonization of the Moon
The colonization of the Moon is the proposed establishment of permanent human communities on the Moon. Advocates of space exploration have seen settlement of the Moon as a logical step in the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth. Recent indication that water might be present in noteworthy...
. Five world powers have colonised the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
: America (Moonbase 1, commanded by Bill Jackson), Russia (Moonbase 2), Europe (Moonbase 3), China (Moonbase 4, commanded by General Cheng) and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(Moonbase 5). The European Moonbase 3 has been in existence for 8 years at the time the series starts. With oversight provided by the European Space Assembly and the European Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moonbase 3 is a shoestring operation when compared with the Russian and American efforts and much of base director David Caulder's job is to stave off budget cuts or a complete shutdown in the face of sceptical bureaucrats.
Alongside technical problems such as stranded astronauts, explosive decompressions and failed experiments, the inhabitants of the moonbase must also deal with psychological problems arising from the cramped, dangerous environment they live in. In "Departure and Arrival", a mental breakdown suffered by a shuttle pilot has tragic consequences. "Achilles Heel" and "Outsiders" deal with the fallout from crew members' difficulty with living up to the standards they have set for themselves. "Behemoth" and "View of a Dead Planet" deal with forms of mass hysteria.
Principal characters
Donald Houston
Donald Daniel Houston was a Welsh actor whose first two films – The Blue Lagoon with Jean Simmons, and A Run for Your Money with Sir Alec Guinness – were highly successful...
)
- Appointed Director of Moonbase 3 following the death of his predecessor, David Caulder is a scientist, academic and administrator. A lecturer at the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, he rose to prominence when he was appointed ChancellorChancellor (education)A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of the University during a period of student unrest and managed to calm the situation down, earning him a reputation as a "WelshWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
wizard". The Director-General of the European space effort describes Caulder as a "militant liberal, passionately committed to the middle of the road". Caulder sees himself as a buffer, who deals with the political aspects of running the moonbase, giving the others the room to perform the vital tasks of keeping Moonbase 3 operations going.
Dr Michel Lebrun (Ralph Bates
Ralph Bates
Ralph Bates was an English film and television actor, known for his role in the British sitcom Dear John and for being one of Hammer Horror's best-known actors from the latter period of the company....
)
- Deputy Director Michel Lebrun is noted for his rigid adherence to the rules and procedures, making him a somewhat inflexible individual who has difficulty understanding the human dimension involved when dealing with other base personnel. The FrenchmanFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
is slightly resentful of Caulder's appointment to the position of Director, feeling that he has been overlooked for the job though Helen Smith reminds him that he is, perhaps, too young to take up the position at this time. However, when he is ordered to relieve Caulder of command during the attempted rescue of Tom Hill in the episode "Castor and Pollux", he remains loyal to Caulder and carries out the rescue as planned despite his misgivings about the risks.
Dr Helen Smith (Fiona Gaunt
Fiona Gaunt
Fiona Gaunt is an English actress, and the mother of child actress Genevieve Gaunt. -Personal life:...
)
- Helen Smith is the base psychologist responsible for preparing regular psychological record reports (or PSIs), assessing the mental state of all personnel. An expert in behavioural studies in an alien environment – her thesisThesisA dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
was titled "Human beings adjust" – she acts as a sounding board, enabling individual crew members to adapt to the situation of life on the Moon. However, she develops a trend of engaging in romantic relationships with her most troubled patients as seen in "Achilles Heel" and "Outsiders".
Tom Hill (Barry Lowe)
- 42 year old Tom Hill is director of operations on the moonbase responsible for flight control and base maintenance. An experienced astronaut, he became a minor celebrity six years before the events of the series take place when he rescued an escaped cat from a spacelab. A down-to-earth no-nonsense type, who dislikes having his worked interfered with by management, he generally tries to maintain an informal, casual air, calling all female staff as "love" and calling Lebrun "Mickey boy", a moniker Lebrun hates. However, unhappy about the way Caulder conducted the investigation of his predecessor's death in "Departure and Arrival", Hill initially maintains a strictly businesslike relationship with Caulder before their relationship thaws in later episodes.
Origins
Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts had been working together, as script editor and producer respectively, on Doctor Who since 1970. Dicks had begun his television writing career on The AvengersThe Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
and Crossroads before joining Doctor Who as its script editor in 1968. Former actor Barry Letts had changed career into television direction in 1967 and had worked on series such as Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
and The Newcomers before being asked to take over as producer of Doctor Who in 1970, where he first met Dicks. In 1972, looking to move on from Doctor Who, the pair started considering a number of ideas for other shows they could collaborate on. Their first idea arose from the successful collaboration they had with the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
on the Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
which led to them considering pitching a serial set on a frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
only to find they were too late – the BBC had just commissioned a series, Warship
Warship (TV series)
Warship was a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. It was also dubbed into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens...
, with that very premise. In late 1972, they developed the concept of Moonbase 3, as an anthology series set on a lunar colony that would "provide intelligent, realistic drama rather than Science Fantasy", and submitted a pilot script, titled "Departure and Arrival", to Shaun Sutton
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton OBE was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s...
, the Head of Drama at the BBC. The series was formally commissioned in December 1972 and would be made, as a co-production between the BBC and 20th Century Fox and the ABC network in America, during the break in production between Seasons 10 and 11 of Doctor Who.
Production
The first Moonbase 3 script to be formally commissioned was "View of a Dead Planet" on 15 December 1972. This was written by Arden Winch, a respected writer who had written for The Wednesday PlayThe Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
. Two scripts, "Behemoth" and "Outsiders", were commissioned from John Brason
John Brason
John Brason is a British script writer and script editor, best known for the series made in collaboration with television producer Gerard Glaister, Colditz and Secret Army, both set during World War II....
, who had written for Colditz
Colditz (TV series)
Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974.The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to...
and Special Branch
Special Branch (TV series)
Special Branch is a British television series made by Thames Television for ITV and shown between 1969 and 1974. A police drama series, the action was centred on members of the Special Branch anti-espionage and anti-terrorist department of the London Metropolitan Police.The first two series were...
. The final two scripts, "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Gentle Rain" (later renamed "Castor and Pollux" and "Achilles Heel" respectively), were commissioned from John Lucarotti
John Lucarotti
John Lucarotti was a British screenwriter.Lucarotti began his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, writing on over 200 various scripts for them as well as for Canadian television. He then moved back to England where he had a prolific career...
, a prolific writer whose credits included The Avengers, Doctor Who and The Troubleshooters. Lastly, Letts and Dicks retrospectively commissioned themselves in late May 1973 for their pilot script "Departure and Arrival".
In order to achieve a high level of realism, Letts and Dicks hired a technical advisor, James Burke, a science correspondent who was well known to television viewers thanks to his work as anchorman on the television coverage of the Apollo moon landings
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
and for presenting science series such as Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.- Content :...
and The Burke Special. Burke decided that 2003 would be a realistic date for bases to have been established on the Moon, telling the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
that "Men won't go back to the Moon until the 1990s. Neither the Russians nor the Americans have any plans at present and no-one else can afford it. [...] As for the base itself – it should look exactly as it would if they built one tomorrow. [...] They'd be small, supporting 30 or 40 men and running on a shoestring. [...] It'll be like life on a nuclear submarine".
Cast as David Caulder was Donald Houston, an experienced character actor, who had appeared in 633 Squadron
633 Squadron
633 Squadron is a 1964 British film which depicts the exploits of a fictional Second World War British fighter-bomber squadron. It was based on a novel of the same name by Frederick E. Smith, published in 1956, which itself drew on several real Royal Air Force missions. The film was directed by...
, The Longest Day
The Longest Day (film)
The Longest Day is a 1962 war film based on the 1959 history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about "D-Day", the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II....
and The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves is a 1980 war film starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. The film is based on the book Boarding Party by James Leasor, which itself is based on a real incident which took place in World War II...
, and was known for playing authority figures. Ralph Bates, who was cast as Michel Lebrun, had first made a name for himself playing the Emperor Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
in the Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
series The Caesars
The Caesars (TV series)
The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered similar dramatic territory to the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the emperors of...
but was best known as a regular actor in the Hammer horror
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
stable. Fiona Gaunt, playing Helen Smith, had been in a television adaptation of War and Peace
War and Peace (TV series)
War and Peace is a television dramatization of the Leo Tolstoy novel of War and Peace. This 20 episode series began on September 28, 1972.The BBC dramatisation of Tolstoy's epic story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars...
while Barry Lowe, playing Tom Hill, had been a regular on the police drama Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
.
Two directors were assigned to the series – Ken Hannam
Ken Hannam
Ken Hannam was an Australian film and television director.-Career:Born in Melbourne, the eldest of three boys, Hannam lived in his youth in Sydney and was educated at Wollaroi College in New South Wales. He worked in Australian radio and television, then moved in 1968 to England...
and Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry is a British television director who was well known for his work on the science fiction series Doctor Who...
. Hannam had previously directed such series as Colditz and Paul Temple
Paul Temple
Paul Temple is a fictional character created by British writer Francis Durbridge for the BBC radio serial Send for Paul Temple in 1938. Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction...
while Barry had worked extensively on Doctor Who, having directed some 31 episodes at the time, including the stories The Dæmons
The Dæmons
The Dæmons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from May 22 to June 19, 1971.-Plot:...
and The Mutants
The Mutants
The Mutants is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1972....
for Letts and Dicks, as well as episodes of Out of the Unknown
Out of the Unknown
Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was an independent dramatisation of a separate science fiction short story...
, Paul Temple and The Onedin Line
The Onedin Line
The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham.The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin...
. Hannam and Barry alternated directing the episodes between them with filming on Moonbase 3 beginning on 24 April 1973 at the BBC film studios in Ealing
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
. The Ealing filming mainly centred around the scenes set on the lunar surface which proved a difficult experience for the actors. Star Donald Houston told the Radio Times that the spacesuits got "hot and claustrophobic. In the end they had to have oxygen standing by. [...] the dust rose in clouds and the cameramen all wore surgical masks. The actors just choked". Recalling his guest appearance on Moonbase 3, in the episode "Behemoth", Peter Miles
Peter Miles
Peter Miles is a British actor. He has played many television roles including several different characters in Z-Cars and Doctor Who. His other television work has included Survivors, The Sweeney, Dixon of Dock Green, Moonbase 3, Poldark and Bergerac.In the science fiction series Blake's 7 he played...
told TV Zone
TV Zone
TV Zone was a British magazine published every four weeks by Visual Imagination that covered cult television. Initially, it mostly covered science fiction, but branched out to cover other drama and comedy series.-History:...
in 1991 that he was "asked to be like a gazelle and leap as I came down the hillock in full astronaut gear. [...] The tech crew wondered why I was steaming up furiously in my astronaut's head. They'd forgotten to put air holes into the helmet. [...] I said, 'Help help! Help help! I'm not breathing folks!' They took the helmet off before drilling the holes or I wouldn't be here now". Filming continued at Ealing until 30 May 1973 before production moved to BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
for the remaining scenes, mostly those set inside the moonbase, which would be recorded on videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
beginning on 18 June 1973. The episodes were recorded in a different order than that in which they were broadcast with "Departure and Arrival" recorded first followed by "Castor and Pollux", "Behemoth", "View of a Dead Planet", "Outsiders" and, lastly, "Achilles Heel" with recording wrapping on 15 August 1973. Music was provided by Dudley Simpson
Dudley Simpson
Dudley Simpson is an Australian television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who.Prior to leaving Australia, Simpson composed for the Borovansky Ballet Company, forerunner to the Australian Ballet. Among his early television work was the music for Moonstrike...
who, at this time, was the regular composer on Doctor Who. Simpson composed the main title theme that accompanied the opening and closing credits as well as approximately 60 minutes of incidental music.
Transmission and audience reaction
Moonbase 3 was promoted by the Radio Times on the week of broadcast with a two-page article by Mike Bygrave, titled "The Facts of Life on the Moon", that interviewed James Burke about his ideas of life on the moon and also spoke to star Donald Houston, dresser Leslie Hallam and costume designer Dee Kelly about their experiences making the show. Broadcast on Sunday nights at 7:25pm on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, audience reaction to the series was disappointing with the debut episode garnering under 6 million viewers and ratings slipping as low as 2 million in subsequent weeks before stabilising at 4 million. A BBC Audience Research report slated the series as "banal, predictable and slow". Reviewing "Departure and Arrival" in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
described the plot as "the Yangtze Incident
HMS Amethyst (U16)
HMS Amethyst was a Modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Alexander Stephens and Sons of Linthouse, Govan Scotland on 25 March 1942, launched on 7 May 1943 and commissioned on 2 November 1943, with the pennant number U16...
plus liquid oxygen". Letter writers to the Radio Times were unimpressed with the lunar surface scenes: "Do the Moon rocks usually bounce back after the astronauts have stepped on them, or is this property only found in rocks made at Ealing studios?", wrote (Miss) Frances M. Toosey of Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
. Nevertheless Miss Toosey found it "pleasant to find a programme that caters for the more intelligent viewer and still provides high quality entertainment". Another letter writer, Glyn Walters of Herne Bay
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
, complained that the spacesuits' visors had no filters to block out the sunlight, prompting Barry Letts to respond, citing dramatic licence, that "to play a scene with a group of astronauts would not only be dull but quite incomprehensible if you could not see any of their faces".
Archive status
As was normal procedure at the BBC at the time, the original PALPAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
master tapes of the series were wiped some time after broadcast and, for many years, Moonbase 3 was believed to be lost forever. However, in 1993, NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
copies of all six episodes were found in co-producer Fox's archives and returned to the BBC. The series was subsequently released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
videotape over three volumes in 1994 by BBC Video and on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2002 by Second Sight.
Legacy
Terrance Dicks has felt that Moonbase 3 was ultimately a failure: "The trouble was we built a too restrictive format for ourselves" and that the series "lacked a sense of wonder and outrageousness". Academic Peter Wright has said about Moonbase 3 that its "appeal to realism resulted in a disquieting sense of claustrophobia and isolation that undermined the optimism of its premise and captured the general mood of insularity felt (and often desired) in Britain in the early 1970s". Moonbase 3, although not directly influential, can be seen as an antecedent of similar realistic, near-future, British space series such as Star CopsStar Cops
Star Cops is a British science fiction television series first broadcast on BBC Two in 1987. It was devised by Chris Boucher, a writer who had previously worked on the science fiction television series Doctor Who and Blake's 7 as well as crime dramas such as Juliet Bravo and Bergerac...
and Space Island One
Space Island One
Space Island One is a British/German science fiction television series that ran for 26 episodes beginning in 1998. A co-production between the UK's Sky One channel and the German Vox channel, it starred Judy Loe as Kathryn McTiernan, the commander of the multinational crew of the space station...
.
Episode guide
Six episodes of Moonbase 3 were made and broadcast on BBC One on Sunday nights at 7:25pm from 9 September 1973.| Ep. No. | Title | Writer(s) | Director | Airdate | Airtime | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Departure and Arrival" | Barry Letts and Terrence Dicks | Ken Hannam Ken Hannam Ken Hannam was an Australian film and television director.-Career:Born in Melbourne, the eldest of three boys, Hannam lived in his youth in Sydney and was educated at Wollaroi College in New South Wales. He worked in Australian radio and television, then moved in 1968 to England... |
9 September 1973 | 7:25pm | 51’42’’ |
| Astronaut Harry Saunders (Michael Wisher Michael Wisher Michael Wisher was a British actor.He is probably best remembered for having played Davros, the wheelchair-using scientific mastermind and creator of the Daleks, in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who... ) suffers a mental breakdown while piloting a shuttle from the Moon back to Earth, causing an accident that kills him and his passenger, Moonbase 3 director Tony Ransome (Michael Lees). Under political pressure to close the Moonbase following the deaths, the Director-General of the European space programme appoints David Caulder to take over as Director of Moonbase 3 and investigate the accident. |
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| 2 | "Behemoth" | John Brason John Brason John Brason is a British script writer and script editor, best known for the series made in collaboration with television producer Gerard Glaister, Colditz and Secret Army, both set during World War II.... |
Ken Hannam | 16 September 1973 | 7:26pm | 51’09’’ |
| When two seismologists mysteriously vanish in the Mare Frigoris Mare Frigoris Mare Frigoris is a lunar mare located just north of Mare Imbrium, and stretches east to north of Mare Serenitatis. The mare is in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin... region, Caulder bans all travel into the area, a decision that upsets Dr Heinz Laubenthal (Peter Miles) who is conducting research in the area but won't reveal what he is working on. Some time later, Laubenthal is killed in an explosion in his laboratory. Investigations reveal that the lab walls were breached from the outside and strange tracks are found leading from the lab in the direction of the Mare Frigoris. As rumours of space monsters begin to disrupt life on the moonbases, Caulder leads a team into Mare Frigoris in search of the truth. |
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| 3 | "Achilles Heel" | John Lucarotti John Lucarotti John Lucarotti was a British screenwriter.Lucarotti began his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, writing on over 200 various scripts for them as well as for Canadian television. He then moved back to England where he had a prolific career... |
Christopher Barry Christopher Barry Christopher Barry is a British television director who was well known for his work on the science fiction series Doctor Who... |
23 September 1973 | 7:25pm | 51’45’’ |
| While Caulder is pressured to deliver results from Moonbase 3's research programme under threat of budget cuts, the CORA radio astronomy Radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of... project is thrown into disarray by a series of accidents. As the situation develops it becomes apparent that one of the three CORA scientists – Adam Blaney (Edward Brayshaw Edward Brayshaw Edward Brayshaw was a British actor.His television roles include the part of Rochefort in the 1966 serial The Three Musketeers and 1967's The Further Adventures of the Three Musketeers... ), Bill Knight (Malcolm Reynolds) and Kate Weyman (Anne Ridler) – is suffering from a mental breakdown and is sabotaging the project. |
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| 4 | "Outsiders" | John Brason | Ken Hannam | 30 September 1973 | 7:24pm | 52’02’’ |
| Faced with an inspection ahead of potential budget cuts, Caulder's hopes of demonstrating that the Moonbase 3 research programme is worthwhile lie with two brilliant, but erratic, researchers, Stephen Partness (Tom Kempinkski) and Peter Conway (John Hallam John Hallam John William Francis Hallam was a Northern Irish character actor.- Career :He appeared in many film and television roles including Nicholas and Alexandra , Murphy's War , The Pallisers , The Mallens , Flash Gordon , Dragonslayer , the BBC television adaptations of Prince Caspian... ), both of whom are showing evidence of cracking under the strain. |
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| 5 | "Castor and Pollux" | John Lucarotti | Christopher Barry | 7 October 1973 | 7:24pm | 51’33’’ |
| While Caulder explores the possibility of participating in a joint expedition to Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,... with the Russians, an accident during a routine docking manoeuvre with a satellite leaves a shuttle with Tom Hill on board tumbling out into deep space. Caulder mounts a rescue mission but must convince the Russians to help him. |
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| 6 | "View of a Dead Planet" | Arden Winch | Christopher Barry | 14 October 1973 | 7:24pm | 51’44’’ |
| Controversy surrounds the Arctic Sun Project, a plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb above the Arctic Circle Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator.... to melt the icecaps and open up new land for development. When the project is initiated, all contact with Earth is lost as it becomes enveloped in a strange mist. The inhabitants of the Moon colonies struggle to come to terms with the possibility that Earth has been destroyed and they are all that's left of humanity. |
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External links
- Moonbase 3 at OldFutures