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Space: 1999
"Guardian of Piri"
TV episode
Story by David Weir
Screenplay by Christopher
Penfold
Directed by Charles Crichton
Original air date: November 13,
1975 |
The Alphans are lured to a blissful
paradise.
Read the episode summary at the Moonbase Alpha wiki
NOTES FROM THE
SPACE: 1999
CHRONOLOGY
This story takes place almost immediately after the events of
"Force of Life", as Nuclear
Generating Area Three, destroyed at the end of
"Force of Life", is in the
process of being rebuilt at the beginning of the Powys
novelization of our current story.
DIDJA KNOW?
There is no story credit given in the titles of this episode.
Christopher Penfold is given only his usual "story consultant"
credit and David Weir is not credited at all.
The actress who plays the character called, simply, "Pirian
girl" in the closing credits, is Catherine Schell. Schell will go
on to also play Maya in the second season of
Space: 1999.
CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Commander Koenig
Professor Bergman
David Kano
Sandra Benes
Paul Morrow
Pete Irving
Ed Davis
Alan Carter
Operative June Bolton
Tanya Aleksandre
Dr. Russell
Dr. Matthias
nurses
Sarah Graham (dies in this episode)
Ken Johnson
Lee Oswald
Guardian
Pirian girl
Alan Harris
Avril Sinto
Eagle pilots
DIDJA NOTICE?
When pilots Irving and Davis fly their Eagle recklessly over
the surface of Piri, the personnel of Moonbase Alpha are somehow able to view
a planetside sight of the Eagle's antics on the Big Screen of
Main Mission!
The Powys novelization states that the Eagle Alan takes to
investigate the loss of Eagle 6 over Piri is Eagle 3.
| At 8:39 on the
Blu-ray, Alan docks Eagle 3 with Eagle 6, suspended in the
skies of Piri. The docking tube seen here is different from
the type seen in "Earthbound",
without the corrugated seal at the mouth of the dock. The
tube also does not have the "octagonal" shape seen earlier. |
 |
Docking tube from
"Guardian of Piri" |
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|
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Alan refers to his copilot, Ken Johnson, as "Jonno".
After boarding the suspended Eagle and finding no personnel aboard,
he refers to it as a Marie Celeste. This is a reference to
the American merchant brigantine
Mary Celeste (often erroneously referred to as
Marie Celeste) found adrift in good condition off the Azore
Islands but without any of its crew in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872.
This episode reveals that Kano was one of the few people to take
part in an experimental program on Earth where he underwent an
operation to implant a complex of fibre sensors in the cortex of his
brain in order to link the enormous memory and calculating ability
of a computer to the unique thinking ability of the human brain. Of
these few individuals, Kano was the only one not turned into a
mindless vegetable. When he is hooked up to Computer in this
episode, he knows there is a danger of his mind not surviving the
experiment. But the connection does not do him in. The novelization
reveals the process is referred to as Direct Neural Interface (DNI).
Kano has a small metal port on the back of his head,
smooth and about the size of a dime. The computer cable attaches to
it magnetically to interface.
At 16:28 on the Blu-ray, a down-sloping railing is seen along the
exit of Koenig's Eagle, suggesting there are also stairs from the
door to the ground. The whole thing is never seen outright in any
Eagle planetside sets or miniatures throughout the series.
As Koenig explores on the surface of Piri, he calls back to Moonbase
Alpha on his commlock. But the image of Koenig seen by Main Mission
personnel on the Big Screen is not of Koenig's face alone as it
should be, it is as if a cameraman is filming him from a several foot
distance and showing him holding his commlock.
The novelization refers to the handheld, tricorder-like device
Koenig uses to scan the "sphere plants" as an "organitron".
As the Alpha personnel celebrate their discovery of Piri, Morrow
plays guitar at the party. He was previously seen to enjoy playing
the instrument in "Black Sun". The song
he and the other personnel are singing is the rugby song "Oh, Sir
Jasper, Do Not Touch Me", sang to the tune of "Glory Hallelujah".
The Powys novelization reveals that the woman Dr. Mathias is seen
dancing with at the party is a young nurse named Avril Sinto.
The Eagle in which Koenig and Carter return to Alpha has a laboratory
module attached, not matching the standard Eagle module they left
with!
As the Alpha personnel celebrate their discovery of Piri, Dr.
Russell raises a toast to the new world and to Commander Koenig,
"...our very own Christopher Columbus who discovered it."
Christopher Columbus (~1450-1506) was an Italian explorer who is
credited with opening up, if not exactly "discovering", the New
World (the Americas) for Spain in 1492.
The party-goers sing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" when Koenig
arrives at the party.
At 27:41 on the Blu-ray, notice the name of the newly-discovered
planet, Piri, has been scrawled on the wall of Medical Center.
At 28:19 on the Blu-ray, notice in the background that the shoulder
strap of a cannister being carried by a woman in the corridor
suddenly breaks loose and the cannister falls to the floor. The
sound of the falling cannister is even heard!
When Koenig raises his Eagle on the launchpad in preparation for the
final confrontation with the Guardian, the docking tube is on the
port side of the Eagle. But when the Eagle is shown launching, the
docking tube is on the starboard.
The headband brain analyser Koenig puts on Dr. Russell at 43:37 on
the Blu-ray has "SPACEMATIC" printed on it.
At 49:21 on the Blu-ray, an obvious wire is seen lifting the Eagle
model from the surface of Piri.
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Notes from the novelization of
"Guardian of Piri" by
Brian Ball
as it appears in the Space: 1999 Year One
omnibus published by Powys Media.
The page numbers presented here come from the full
Space: 1999 Year One
omnibus. "Guardian of Piri" begins on page 260 of
the book.
There will also be
notes (as appropriate) from the original adaptation of
"Guardian of Piri" by
Ball as it
appeared in Space: 1999 - The Space Guardians, a merged
novelization of the episodes "Missing Link", "Force of
Life", and
"Guardian of Piri",
first published by Pocket Books in 1975. (Chapters
12-18 cover the events of
"Guardian of Piri"). |
CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS
NOVELIZATION, NOT IN THE EPISODE
Joan Conway
Eva Zoref
Anton Zoref (mentioned only, deceased)
Sally Martin
Ed Barker
Bill Fraser
DIDJA NOTICE?
As the story begins, the novelization states that the Moon
has entered a vast dust cloud, masking out all the stars. It
is only after exiting the cloud over a week later that the
Alphans discover the planet Piri. The dust cloud is not
seen or mentioned in the televised episode.
Medical orderly Sally Martin appears on page 261. She will
be
seen again in The Forsaken, "The Taybor", and "The
Lambda Factor".
On page 261, Professor Bergman refers to the recent Alphan
incidences of dizziness, headaches, and sleeplessness as
"classic Green Sickness symptoms". This term was also used
by Commander Koenig to explain the incidences of rage in
"Operation Deliverance".
As I explained in that earlier study, Green sickness doesn't
seem to have much to do with the Alphans' situation, as
Green sickness was, long ago, thought to have been caused by
a state of virginity (!), especially in women. It is
interesting to note that the original Pocket Books
novelization of this episode does not use the term, Bergman
instead calling it "classic disorientation symptoms." It
seems that someone on the editorial team of Powys Media is
fond of the term and insisted on using it in their
novelizations.
Page 261 seems to indicate that Dr. Russell does not believe
in God, as she says, "If I thought there was a God, I'd say
He's lost us."
On page 263, Commander Koenig makes a base-wide announcement
about the newly discovered planet and that they will be
investigating it. The Alphans are cheered at the possibility
of a new world they might move to, but Koenig warns them against
undue optimism, as, "We've been fooled before." He is
referring to other planets they'd hoped could become their
salvation in "Operation
Deliverance",
"Matter of Life and Death",
"Missing Link", and possibly
"Another Time,
Another Place".
On page 265, as the survey Eagle descends into the planet's
atmosphere, "...mists as thick as any San Franciscan summer
morning shrouded the details..." The city of
San Francisco
is known for its dense fogs.
In the original Pocket Books version of the novelization,
instead of Davis as the co-pilot of the survey Eagle as in
the televised episode, it is a man named Barker (this is
also the case in the Zack comic strip adaptation). Also, the
pilot is called Bud Irving instead of Pete Irving ("Bud" is
often a male nickname, so the pilot may be Pete "Bud"
Irving).
On page 270, Alan refers to his copilot on Eagle 3 (Ken
Johnson) as Pete. I think the writer was confusing Ken
Johnson with the pilot of Eagle 6, Pete Irving.
On page 271, before performing the Direct Neural Interface
on Kano, Dr. Russell insists on giving him a full
examination, as the beating he had taken at the hands of
Beta's security guards could have dislodged key connections
in his skull. This beating occurred in
"Operation Deliverance".
In the original Pocket Books version of the novelization,
Koenig has his moments of enchantment with Piri, just as his
personnel do. In the televised episode, this is not evident.
The novelization ascribes this to the Zennites (in
"Missing Link") having given
him the ability to see into the nature of reality in a way
that was not shared by the other Alphans.
In the original Pocket Books version of the novelization,
Kano does not undergo the Direct Neural Interface. In fact,
it is Kano instead of Carter who accompanies Koenig to Piri
during Koenig's investigation of the world.
In the original Pocket Books version of the novelization,
the Guardian tower is black instead of white as in the
televised episode.
In the original Pocket Books version of the novelization,
the "Pirian girl" is acutally described as a girl, "a young
girl with the delicate skin and slender roundness of later
adolescence," instead of as a woman as she is described in
the Powys novelization and how she appears in the televised
episode.
On page 274, Koenig muses that he had thought that Bergman
had perhaps found the planet's name of Piri in the Kaldorian
star charts, but now he thinks it was given to him through
the Pirian mind control technology. In
"Earthbound", the Alphans
received a gift of information from the computer on the
Kaldorians' sleeper ship.
Page 277 names Alphan operative June as June Bolton. This is
the name of the actress who portrayed her on TV. Another Alphan is
also named here, Alan Harris, again named for the extra who
plays him in the episode.
In the original Pocket Books version of the novelization, it
is Morrow who toasts to Commadner Koenig as their own
Christopher Columbus instead of Dr. Russell as in the
televised episode.
On page 279, Computer mentions Eagle two-seven awaiting
instructions at Landing Bay Eight for the exodus to Piri,
implying there are at least 27 Eagles available to Moonbase
Alpha.
On page 283, the lure of Piri reminds Koenig of a hero of
antiquity who had discovered, and rejected, the lotus-life.
Koenig can't remember who the hero was. He is likely
thinking of the Ancient Greek mythological hero Odysseus,
whose ship was brought to a lost island of lotus-eaters, a
flowering narcotic plant that rendered the island's
inhabitants constantly sleepy and apathetic. Odysseus' crew
begins to succomb to the lure of a care-free life, but
Odysseus sees it as a living death and forces his men to reboard
the ship and depart, never to return.
On page 285, Koenig sees Eva Zoref among all the mesmerized
Alphans on Piri. Eva was the wife of the now-deceased Anton
Zoref in
"Force of Life".
Page 289 describes the "KILL" beam of Koenig's laser pistol
as a searing blue beam. In the TV series, the beams of the
Alphan laser pistols were always depicted as yellow, no
matter the power setting.
As the Guardian self-destructs on page 289, Eagle 6, held
aloft in the air by the Guardian's power ever since it's
arrival at the beginning of the story, suddenly falls and
plows into the surface of Piri. This was not seen in the
televised episode, but it's a nice touch to the
novelization. Since the Eagle was left behind as the Alphans
fled Piri, it was lost. It must be a rechristened Eagle 6
that appears later in "Voyager's Return".
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Notes from the "The Guardian of Piri"
Zack adaptation
German comic strip
Zack
#23
Koralle-Verlag GmbH
Text: Farinas
Art: Cardona
1977 |
Zack
was a German comic magazine, 17 issues of which featured a
Space:
1999
strip. Many of the strips were original stories, others
adaptations of the televised episodes. All were written by
Farinas and drawn by
Cardona (Spanish artist José Maria
Cardona Blasi).
DIDJA NOTICE?
This comic strip is a fairly close adaptation of the episode
as televised.
MEMORABLE DIALOG
in neither case.mp3
I am sent to calm your fears.mp3
welcome to Piri.mp3
absolute perfection lasts forever.mp3
many forms of life.mp3
jolly good fellow.mp3
cabbages.mp3
you threaten the safety of Alpha.mp3
leave me with my pain.mp3
total apathy.mp3
maybe we should have stayed.mp3
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