Collision Course (Space: 1999) - Production Notes

Production Notes

• Along with 'Black Sun' and 'War Games', 'Collision Course' is considered to be one of the programme's most successful instalments by actors, crew and fans alike, exemplifying its metaphysical approach to science fiction. Penned by American-born British television writer Anthony Terpiloff, this story would showcase the author's pet theme of the perseverance of faith and trust over logic and reason. This approach would be seen in his subsequent contributions to the series ('Death's Other Dominion' and 'Catacombs of the Moon').

• The casting of Margaret Leighton as Arra was a coup for the series. The accomplished and prolific British actress had appeared in stage, film and television productions on both sides of the Atlantic, winning numerous awards. Suffering from multiple sclerosis, the role of Arra was her penultimate performance (she died 13 January 1976 at the age of 53, four months after the episode was broadcast by ATV). Production designer Keith Wilson recalls while she had no difficulty with her craft, she required direction from Ray Austin to understand her abstract and complicated dialogue. Austin recalls her being transported to and from the set via wheelchair. She would tell him ‘You'd better get this shot, because I'm not going to last long,’ and they ploughed through her fifteen pages of work in an unprecedented two days.

• The final shooting script contains unaired dialogue between Arra and Koenig. Cut for time, it had Arra explaining to the Alphan that if he were to consider the Universe as a microscopic cell, his galaxy could be thought of as a single chromosome, the solar system as one gene and himself as a minuscule fragment of that gene. This missing sequence made sense of Arra's later line that the gene of which she and her people were part of would mutate. Also lost was the end of the epilogue, where Koenig would leave Helena alone at the window. Gazing out into space, she was to suddenly assume an enraptured expression and utter ‘Arra...’

• Martin Bower constructed the Atherian spaceship and nuclear charge miniatures. Both would reappear in later spaceship graveyard sequences in 'Dragon's Domain' and 'The Metamorph'.