Incompatibility in SURVIVAL

Hi!

I was just looking into SURViVAL and found something, let's say
incompatible.

In the scene where Mark Bradley took over the command of Moonbase
(about 35 minutes into the episode) one can watch him walking into
the Command sphere right to the command chair, greeting Joan
Harrington. Then he gives order to the Moonmobiles when Straker moves
into the picture from the left side, speaking to Bradley.

Now I was wondering: where was Straker in the first place? Where did
he come from? He was obviously not in the Command sphere when Bradley
entered it because Bradley wished only Harrington a good morning (and
it would be a blunder not to greet your superior!). And Straker
couldn't enter the sphere because we never hear the sound of the
opening and closing door (which we've heard when Bradley entered
- and we saw the door closing after this).

Strange that I've seen this episode a dozen of times and never
had realised this :-)

Christian

Not about the plot, but about the filming.

In a couple of occasions during Straker's hallucinations, we see the SHADO
operations as studio sets. One is a Moonbase set and the other is a set of
Straker's office in SHADO. My question: Are those the REAL sets from the
series, or were those specially created sets only for this episode?
I would assume those are the real sets and they simply pulled the cameras
back to show you them in the context of the studio.

My other question is, is it possible this storyline was in some way a simple
way of dealing with the reality that UFO had just changed studios? That
maybe the UFO sets hadn't been completely reassembled and the Andersons
simply took advantage of that by coming up with a script that was able to
make use of a set that was not "all there," so to speak?

I'm not crazy about that episode. I think the Mexican bandits sequence is
silly and the end of the show is kind of abrupt, a la the ending of
"Close-Up." But I do have to say that the radical piercing of the "fourth
wall" through Straker's hallucinations is pretty bold.
Wait... Is it correct to say Straker was hallucinating when he thought his
life was part of a teleplay, when in fact his life IS part of a teleplay?
I'm confusing myself.

Those were indeed the real sets, which did not have four walls,
ceilings, etc. That's due to the need to fit in the lights, camera
gear, crew, etc.

Bill

--- In [hidden email], "D Persica" <dennispersica@b...> wrote:
> Not about the plot, but about the filming.
>
> In a couple of occasions during Straker's hallucinations, we see
the SHADO
> operations as studio sets. One is a Moonbase set and the other is
a set of
> Straker's office in SHADO. My question: Are those the REAL sets
from the
> series, or were those specially created sets only for this episode?
> I would assume those are the real sets and they simply pulled the
cameras
> back to show you them in the context of the studio.
>
> My other question is, is it possible this storyline was in some
way a simple
> way of dealing with the reality that UFO had just changed studios?
That
> maybe the UFO sets hadn't been completely reassembled and the
Andersons
> simply took advantage of that by coming up with a script that was
able to
> make use of a set that was not "all there," so to speak?
>

Right. I realize TV/movie sets don't have four walls or a ceiling, I just
wasnt sure if those were the actual sets or something made up to look like a
set (which, of course, wouldn't have made sense financially if you already
had sets there).


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Cotter" <[hidden email]>
>
> Those were indeed the real sets, which did not have four walls,
> ceilings, etc. That's due to the need to fit in the lights, camera
> gear, crew, etc.
>
> Bill
>

Don't you mean "Mindbender"?  
 
A while ago, I had a notion for a twist in the tale - that about a few hours or so into the hallucination that the alien rock induces, another, more potent, hallucination kicks in. Said second hallucination convinces the victim that he's come out of it, but in reality he hasn't.
 
So Straker thinks he's beaten the alien's little gambit, but instead he's trapped in a delusion within a delusion.

D Persica <[hidden email]> wrote:

Not about the plot, but about the filming.

In a couple of occasions during Straker's hallucinations, we see the SHADO
operations as studio sets. One is a Moonbase set and the other is a set of
Straker's office in SHADO. My question: Are those the REAL sets from the
series, or were those specially created sets only for this episode?
I would assume those are the real sets and they simply pulled the cameras
back to show you them in the context of the studio.

My other question is, is it possible this storyline was in some way a simple
way of dealing with the reality that UFO had just changed studios? That
maybe the UFO sets hadn't been completely reassembled and the Andersons
simply took advantage of that by coming up with a script that was able to
make use of a set that was not "all there," so to speak?

I'm not crazy about that episode. I think the Mexican bandits sequence is
silly and the end of the show is kind of abrupt, a la the ending of
"Close-Up." But I do have to say that the radical piercing of the "fourth
wall" through Straker's hallucinations is pretty bold.
Wait... Is it correct to say Straker was hallucinating when he thought his
life was part of a teleplay, when in fact his life IS part of a teleplay?
I'm confusing myself.
               
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> My other question is, is it possible this storyline was in some way a simple
> way of dealing with the reality that UFO had just changed studios? That
> maybe the UFO sets hadn't been completely reassembled and the Andersons
> simply took advantage of that by coming up with a script that was able to
> make use of a set that was not "all there," so to speak?


Actually, "Mindbender" was written to save money. Like those all-to-common
episodes of TV series where they primarily show clips from previous
episodes. The directive was that no new sets could be built for this
episode. So that was pretty creative that they could take the old sets
and look at them in a new way.

And this episode was not filmed early in the production run in Pinewood.
It was the 3rd to last episode filmed, followed only by "Timelash" and
"The Long Sleep". So the sets were already put back together months
before.

Marc

--- In [hidden email], "D Persica" <dennispersica@b...> wrote:
> Not about the plot, but about the filming.
But I do have to say that the radical piercing of the "fourth
> wall" through Straker's hallucinations is pretty bold.
> Wait... Is it correct to say Straker was hallucinating when he
thought his
> life was part of a teleplay, when in fact his life IS part of a
teleplay?
> I'm confusing myself.

It was an extremely bold episode, and I cannot imagine Roddenberry,
Berman et al doing it on Star Trek. What I found to be very cheeky
was the cast calling each other by their real names in the episode!