'The Lambda Factor' was the eighteenth episode of the last 'Space 1999' series. The Moon is toodling along through an empty, quiet region of space. Everything seems okay but, in actual fact, they are being bombarded with 'Lamda Waves', which enhance crew member Carolyn Powell's latent extrasensory powers to deadly levels. Crazed with mind power she kills off a love rival, blows up her fiancee (Jess Conrad - good riddance) and then threatens to take over the Moonbase. Can anyone stop her? Actually, no. But, at a crucial moment, they drift out of the range of the Lamda Waves and everything is okay again. Except for the two dead people.
Maya turns into a chimp, a tiger and a man in a gorilla suit in this episode, and gets turned into a caterpillar by the power of Powell's Lamda saturated will. Martin Landau's 'frightened' expression in the bottom screen grab is, I think, one of the best things I've ever posted. Ridiculous.
On the strength of that last pic. Maybe the many faces of Matin Landau????? Its a classic.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I loved the first series of Space 1999 - then came series 2 and my regional TV station decided not to broadcast it... at the time I was gutted... in the intervening years between then and now I've only seen 2 episodes of season 2 and I'm now damn glad HTV made that decision!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw Supergrass I thought that Gaz Coombes looked like the lovechild of Maya and Tony Verdeschi. I've still got my Commander Koenig and Paul Morrow figures somewhere...
ReplyDeleteThe Yanks parachuted in Fred Freiburger as producer for series 2 IIRC, the man allegedly responsible for making 'Star Trek' over-reliant on Spock's character. Seems he wanted to pull the same stunt by introducing Maya, another super-powered alien as a handy plot crutch.
ReplyDeleteSeries 2 popped up unannounced, unlike the big big trail for S1 as part of the Autumn schedule in the Granada region - I just happened to put the telly on one Friday evening and there it was, like happening upon a secondary Stonehenge for me at that age. Due to the changed tone of the show (much more like US TV SciFi fodder IMO) and the unexplained material changes in cast, base, costumes I hated it and I expect it's still shit.
There was a really good documentary about Gerry Anderson on Bravo around 1995/6 which touched on those very issues you mention Reimer. It also mentioned the drug references in UFO which poor Gerry looked horrified about!
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