Just watched Guardians Of Piri the other day for the first time in years. As usual however everyone is overcome by the alien mental force.....except Koenig, even Professor Bergman is taken over very quickly. Why is Koenig always seemingly immune to everything that happens to almost every other Alphan?
shareLet's face it, would even alien viruses want to put up with Koenig's cranky personality?
shareLet's face it, would even alien viruses want to put up with Koenig's cranky personality?
I never considered the story to be very original (think Star Trek's "This Side of Paradise" - Kirk was immune).
shareJust watched Guardians Of Piri the other day for the first time in years. As usual however everyone is overcome...except Koenig?The story is an oft reused analogy to a popular passage of the Greek literature classic, Homer's Odyssey: the allegory of the Lotus Eaters...which is a morality tale about the dangers of narcotics usage. The hero of the Odyssey, Odysseus (or Ulysses), has trouble getting his crew off an island where they are reduced to unmotivated junkies having eaten the fruit of the lotus plant/flower.
Also when the power of the Guardian shone itself over him, he covered his eyes and retreated. Apparently none of the other Alphans tried to resist.
shareI don't think the bright white light of the Guardian was a factor. Most of the Alphans came under its influence while still up on the moon.
But, yeah, the will/desire to resist was, I guess, important. Everybody else wanted to believe Computer...and that they had found an end to their homeless wanderings. Just like in the Odyssey.
As a side note, it is an interesting coincidence that Space: 1999 was greatly influenced/inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey.
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
Unfortunately a great many sci-fi fans were stuck on Star Trek being the only way to do TV sci-fi and couldn't accept Space:1999's approach. I wasn't one of those people.
shareI don't think lack of appreciation from sci-fi fans hamstrung 1999. I mean, if it came down to viewership, it was probably more a failure to appeal in the cross-over audience market. Sci-Fi Fans would have watched just about anything. To use the popularity of Star Trek as example (which might not be apt, as it only had a 1 year longer run): it, Star Trek, could be billed as a "wagon train to the stars" where-in American audiences could see the parallels to cowboy/western tv shows. Space:1999 was a little less 'accessible'...as they say...in that sense.
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
I wasn't referring to Star Trek's original run. It was when it became syndicated in the fall of '72 that Star Trek mania had begun. Most Trek fans either despised Space:1999 because it took attention away from their beloved show (and also made Trek's special effects look silly) or they simply couldn't accept it because it had a different philosophy and approach than Star Trek.
When Starlog magazine first came on the scene it was less than favorable toward Space:1999. Small wonder - it was published by Star Trek fans.
...so yeah, if you narrow it down even further into "Trek Fans" then I would definitely say that that was not a large causal factor in 1999's relative unpopularity. I mean, EVERY StarLog subscriber (100,000's?) could have, in theory, boycotted watching Space:1999 and the impact of that would be less significantly felt then if the American cross-over viewing audiences had a 1% change (2 million)
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
Sci-Fi fans were used to Star Trek's optimism and some couldn't relate to Space:1999's season one approach, and accused the show of having a lack of character development. The show was modeled after 2001's minimalism.
shareOh...I think sci-fi fans, almost by definition, can more easily relate to strange and unusual things than the general population. And, I think it was that estrangement from general viewer tastes that hobbled S:1999...more so than any disapproval from sci-fi afficianodos.
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
Yah. At the time the masses didn't like science fiction.
shareI think the masses, in general, were hungry for a little Science Fiction in their lives. The problem is that a sci-fi show costs so much to produce that unless the show comes in somewhere at the top ten it just isn't economically feasible to keep going with it. Space: 1999 did respectable numbers, but at the time it was also the most expensive show EVER. They didn't need a lot of people watching. They didn't need most viewers tuned in.
They needed to be number 1 in their time slot EVERY week...given the costs associated with it. ...and that's a tough task for ANY genre of show.
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
The main problem with the show was that Fred Freiberger was brought in and allowed to completely retool the show and eliminate some actors, turning off a lot of fans of season one. Season two gained some new viewers, but didn't make up for the ones that they'd lost. The reason the show was cancelled was that not enough renewals were ordered from TV stations to warrant a third season.
sharePlease, not that old canard. If so many fans tuned out in the second season, why are they always here complaining how bad it was? You watched it, otherwise you wouldn't know much about it.
The reason the show was cancelled was because Lew Grade, who financed Gerry Anderson's shows, always wanted to move on rather than continue shows. Pretty much none of Anderson's shows made it past one season because of that. It was lucky that Anderson was able to wheedle a second season out of him to begin with.
Of course I watched season two. Obsessively. I was (and am) a huge fan of the show.
The official reason season three didn't materialize was there wasn't enough return orders from the US stations airing season two (most of the better episodes hadn't even aired yet at the deadline).
You watched it and so did all the other people who complain how bad it was. So much for tons of fans tuning out.
All you have to do is look at the Anderson-created shows produced by ITC under Lew Grade's leadership.
Fireball XL-5 - 1 season
Thunderbirds - 2 seasons, but only 6 episodes in season 2
Captain Scarlet - 1 season
Stingray - 1 season
Joe 90 - 1 season
UFO - 1 season
The Protectors - 2 seasons
You can go on about "official reasons," but the writing was on the wall before the series even premiered. There was no way it would have gotten three or more seasons.
When I complain about season two, it's in relation to season one. If the show had started with the season two format, I can guarantee I never would've become as big fan of the show, if a fan at all. I may have watched it anyway, but I'll never know.
shareThe show that really changed Sci fi for ever was Blakes 7
Gone was the cosy rosy future of mankind replaced by the sadly more realistic Fascist galactic empire.
Great though 1999 is it's still based on Trek template.
Season Two was certainly modeled after Star Trek. Hiring Fred Freiberger was a political move, not a creative one, so it was a doomed venture from the start. Freiberger was given copies of eight season one episodes to have him familiarized with the show and he criticized every aspect of it except for the production values. You know you're in trouble when the guy you're hiring to helm the show doesn't even like it.
shareTo be honest, mostly because he's the hero. I always thought the doctor should have been the most resistant to alien mind stuff.
shareHelena's wish for a planet to colonize was too strong.
shareI don't know. Helena seemed just a skeptical as Koenig and after Kano disappeared she really seemed like she felt the sooner they got away the better. Yet, by the time he returned from Piri she was as hexed as the rest!
I can excuse Victor because his change started after he passed out, as if that might have been a part of his transition and, as others have said, everyone else just wanted a new planet to live on so they were open to it.
Victor did say he experienced a few "fantasies" after passing out. That must've been when they got him.
shareAlpha male. Or the IMF gave him an immunity drug.
if man is 5
then the devil is 6
if the devil is 6
then God is 7
and if God is 7...
Landau's the star.
He apparently resisted the Guardian's influence more strongly than the others ("Guardian of Piri"). It took control of Bergman at a weak moment - he was unconscious.
He certainly wasn't immune on "The Full Circle" - he almost died.
He fell to the sickness on "The Beta Cloud".
It's a mystery why he was superior on "The Lambda Factor".
We know what happened with "The Bringers of Wonder".
In the novel containing the stories of Missing Link and Guardian of Piri it is hinted at that Koenig's experiences on the planet Zenno gave him some resistance to the Guardian's powers (watch them out of order and that theory is ruined though)and Koenig isn't always immune to phenomena like in Full Circle where he became a prehistoric man and how Jarak's powers nearly killed him like the rest of the base and Koenig was the first member of Alpha to succumb to the Bringers of Wonder but his mind was then protected from them by the Ellendorff machine later on!
Shut the door, Mary...
Yah, I have all the novels.
Sad to say, though, I still haven't read "Collision Course".
What about base 3?
Koenig, although mostly unaffected by alien mental powers, was overcome by the Bringers of Wonder in their attempts to destroy the Moonbase primarily when they tried to get him to crash his Eagle into the Nuclear Waste Dumps! Afterwards they realised that it wouldn't trigger the nuclear blast they wanted and then Koenig was connected up to the Ellendorff mind analyser and protected from their influence they then went on to convince the Alphans that they had been located by Earth and sent a rescue mission crewed implausibly by family and friends from the beleaguered population!
JB
Shut the door, Mary