The Best Of...Space: 1999 - Dragon's Domain

^{Review: Daniel Tessier}

Space: 1999 was a strange and unsettling show, particularly in its first series. Star Trek by way of Quatermass, it emphasised the unknowable danger of outer space, vast tracts of nothingness interspersed with never-before-seen phenomena. As the crew of Moonbase Alpha are dragged through the universe with no control over their journey, they encounter all manner of alien beings and cosmic events.

The series was often as much a horror story as it was science fiction, with the Alphans frequently threatened or changed by chilling alien forces. Such terrors included the energy-draining entity of “Force of Life,” the possessing aliens of “Ring Around the Moon,” the insane immortal of “End of Eternity” and “The Troubled Spirit,” a science-fictional phantom.

Perhaps the best and most chilling episode was “Dragon’s Domain,” an encounter with a nightmarish entity in the depths of space. It was written by Christopher Penfold (The Brack Report, The Tripods), who, along with Johnny Byrne, was one of the two main writers of the first series (Penfold only wrote a single script for the second). Direction was by the acclaimed Charles Chrichton (Dead of Night, The Lavender Hill Mob, A Fish Called Wanda).

While much of the focus was on the two stars, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain as Commander John Koenig and Dr. Helena Russell, the driver of the story was guest star Gianni Garko, a Dalmati-Italian actor who’d shot to fame in the 1960s starring in Spaghetti Westerns. Star of the Sartana series and Blood at Sundown (aka 1000 Dollars on Black), Garko had moved into sci-fi and horror as the Western genre’s popularity waned in the 1970s, with starring roles in the gothic horror Night of the Devils and eerie mystery Seven Notes in Black (aka The Psychic).

Garko was cast as Captain Tony Cellini, a disgraced astronaut who was grounded following the deaths of his crew during the “Ultra Probe Mission” of 1996. Only fate had spared Koenig from commanding that mission – they decided who would fly on the toss of a coin. Koenig’s association with and defence of Cellini also saw him grounded, until he was made last-minute replacement commander of Moonbase Alpha shortly before it was blasted into interstellar space.

Penfold’s original script had an established character, Captain John Carter, in Garko’s place. As Koenig’s friend and number two, it would have made more sense to have Carter in this role, but Landau apparently took exception at his co-star Nick Tate getting this much limelight. The script was rewritten (some say by Landau himself, others by producer Gerry Anderson) to feature a new character, Jim Calder. Italian production company RAI, which co-funded the series’ production along with ITC, decided to cash-in on promised benefits and insisted an Italian actor was cast. Garko was given the role, the character was rewritten again to become Tony Cellini, and production was able to start. There was one small issue, though: Garko barely spoke English. Nick Tate, clearly a good sport, coached him with his dialogue.

In spite of his limited English skill, Garko gives a strong performance as the tortured Cellini. On that fateful mission, Cellini captained the first ship to survey the newly discovered tenth planet of the Solar System, Ultra. (In the real world, we still only had nine planets in 1996 and now we only have eight!) A large chunk of the episode is devoted to a flashback to these events. In the space at the edge of the solar system, Cellini and his three crew find a graveyard of alien spacecraft. His colleague Dr. Darwin King (Michael Sheard) insist they investigate the ships, in the hope they hold usable advanced technology.

Cellini docks with one of the abandoned ships, but when the crew open the airlock, they are greeted by an inexplicable and terrifying force: a powerful alien, with a mass of tentacles and a single, burning eye, above a huge steaming maw. Worst of all is the noise: the creature constantly emits a deafening, screaming roar. The first series didn’t use monsters that often – it was series two when they became ubiquitous – so this creature stands out even more. While the puppetry used to realise it is limited, its bizarre appearance, that awful noise, and above all the sheer intensity and commitment of the cast as they fight with it sell the monster as a petrifying, unknowable threat.

The creature uses its eye to hypnotise the crew, one-by-one, drawing them in so it can grab and devour them. They are stripped of flesh, their charred remains regurgitated, and then it moves onto the next. Darwin and the two remaining scientists (played by Barbara Kellerman and Susan Jameson) are killed, with Cellini barely able to escape: the creature is impervious to laser fire, but he is able to injure it with a fire axe, long enough to free his ship’s command module and use it as an escape pod. When he eventually reaches Earth, few believe his story, and he is found psychologically unsound.

Koenig brought Cellini with him to Alpha (not that we’ve ever seen him before this episode), and still trusts him, but Dr. Russell is concerned with his sudden return to erratic behaviour. Tensions rise as she admits to Koenig that she was one of those who found Cellini unfit for duty. Unknown to the both of them, he is being haunted by visions of flickering swirls of light and that horrific sound. Believing Alpha has drifted into a region of space claimed by the creature, he tried to steal one of the Eagles, the base’s shuttles, and find the beast. He does this while wearing his pyjamas, which does not help his case with Dr. Russell.

Once Cellini has seemingly regained his composure, Koenig is convinced to go looking for the monster – to hopefully prove or disprove its existence, one way or the other. Russell is still convinced that he is either delusional or telling an unfalsifiable story so that his own incompetence will not be proven, unable to accept responsibility for his crewmates’ deaths. Taking an Eagle along with some other Alphans, they find the same spaceship graveyard, in spite of being light years from Earth, or indeed, anywhere. Professor Bergman (Barry Morse), the reliable voice of reason, likens it to “a spider’s web,” presumably dragged around space by the creature to entice other space travellers.

Cellini once succeeds in stealing the command module of the Eagle, beating up Captain Carter for the second time in the episode (is there no end to the indignities that Nick Tate must endure?), leaving Koenig and the rest waiting for rescue by Alpha. Eventually, of course, they reach Cellini as he docks with the alien ship as before, determined to face “his enemy,” and are drawn into a final showdown with the creature. Cellini is vindicated, but at a great cost.

The story has similarities with that of “George and the Dragon,” which Dr. Russell helpfully points out in the epilogue (a standard of the series’ format). Perhaps a better comparison would be Moby Dick or the opening quest of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, or even more recent sci-fi updates like Star Trek’s “Obsession,” which saw Captain Kirk similarly devoted to destroying an alien life form that killed his crewmates years ago. Regardless of its inspiration, “Dragon’s Domain” is one of Space: 1999’s darkest and most powerful episodes. With great writing, direction, music and acting, it rises above the limitations of 1970’s special effects to present us with a genuinely frightening vision of what might be hiding in the unknown depths of space.