Moonbase 3

I watched this series on the sci-fi channel and it was quite a pleasant surprise. I'd never heard of this 70s sci-fi series before but it was british and done by some of the same people who also worked on Doctor Who. This series was most definitely influenced by Doctor Who and other films and tv series but it was unique in it's own vision of the future and man's future of the colonization of space. The series ended on a wonderful episode and should have been brought back for at least another. This is definitely a massively underestimated classic.

Moonbase 3 was an ambitious attempt by the BBC in 1973 to create a technically accurate science fiction program. It also followed the "New Wave" of science fiction writing then popular.

In traditional science fiction, larger-than-life heroes zoom across the galaxy, fight swashbuckling space battles with evil interplanetary despots, and woo beautiful alien women. On Moonbase 3, scientists and administrators attempt to conduct experiments while beset with budget cutbacks, equipment failures, work stress, personal isolation, and a heartless Earth bureaucracy.

The stories are often grim and depressing. The base is small and understaffed, the technology is unreliable, and everyone is under constant pressure to produce breakthroughs. Outer space is deadly and unforgiving; a tiny error in piloting your rocket can kill everyone aboard.

Small teams of researchers on a European moonbase are isolated for weeks at a time, leading to psychological stress and conflict. Many times in the series the researchers can only stand helplessly watching their experiments fail and their friends die. It's easy to see why the program was never an audience-pleaser.

However, the program has some extremely innovative themes which are never explored in other television or movie dramas. It shows how difficult, yet personally rewarding, scientific research is. It shows what a difference having a good manager makes. It shows how following the rules really can work, and how rule-bending seat-of-your-pants rocket jockeys can get everyone killed.

In 2003, the crew of Europe's chronically under-funded Moonbase struggle to stay sane and survive on the inhospitable satellite while demonstrating their relevance and value to the bean-counters back on Earth. This 6-episode BBC program continued the 'realistic' feel of '2001 A Space Odyssey' and Gerry Anderson's 'UFO' (1970) with mixed results. Generally the show looks good but in trying to be 'realistic' the stories are not that interesting: Dr Helen Smith (Fiona Gaunt), the base psychologist, plays a prominent role in several episodes that focus on the 'pressures' of success, isolation, etc - valid concerns but not particularly gripping. There is also a lot of discussion of budgets and financial concerns - again realistic but pretty mundane for a 'space opera'. The best episodes are the final 2: #5 involving a deep-space rescue ('Castor and Pollux') and #6 considering the possibility of an Earthly apocalypse that would leave the base crew to slowly starve to death ('View of a Dead Planet' - good story marred by a weak ending). The 'politics' of space colonisation is an common theme: there is a lot of wingeing about how much better the Soviet and American bases are equipped and funded, especially by Dr David Caulder (Donald Houston), the newly appointed Base Director and head bureaucrat (introduced in episode 1). The cast is generally good (given the fairly simplistic scripts and plots) as are the special effects (although there is a fair amount of reused footage). Moonbase 3 was not a success, possibly due to the limited action and lack of tension in most of the episodes. Like a lot of BBC shows, the tapes were wiped for short-sighted budgetary reasons but fortunately a complete 6-episode set was found in the 1990s - the show wasn't great but it is worth watching for sci-fi fans and it would have been a shame if it had been lost forever. Perhaps the failure of a 'realistic' series set on the moon to catch the public's attention contributed to ITV's decision to launch a completely unrealistic series set on the moon two years later: the preposterous but memorable 'Space 1999'.

Very nearly lost forever as a result of the BBC's mass clear out of tapes in the 1970's, this gritty and claustrophobic sci fi series was only recently rediscovered in the vaults of a Canadian TV station.

This is a long forgotten example of how much more interesting sci fi used to be be pre George Lucas. The BBC never had the budget for whiz bang special effects and so concentrated on characters, story lines and heavyweight theatrical actors. Check out Blakes'7 or Star Cops for other more popular examples of this.

Moonbase 3 also contains that other classic BBC sci fi trait, realism, both in characters and settings.

The characters here are not Star Trek goody two shoes types who all get along and can be guaranteed to do whatever is morally right, their team includes a manic depressive, an egotist and many other fascinatingly real characters. Some are manipulative and many are suspicious and distrustful of each others motives.

The base itself is understaffed and under pressure to deliver value for money,as the base commander says "I can't produce the results without the funding but they won't give me the funding because I can't produce the results!"

This sort of bureaucratic nonsense is in stark contrast with the very real dangers and practical hardships faced with living on the moon.

In an enclosed society (of sometimes unstable personalities) living under the constant threats of a hostile environment, moonbase 3 is a powerfully written and tension filled sci fi series. Perhaps the most depressingly accurate glimpse into the future of space exploration

When I write this review I try to take into account that the original Star Trek was produced 7 years earlier than this. In light of that fact and the studio awareness of what the then 'modern' viewer expected in their 'future' it falls VERY short in production values. The acting is, as well, quite dreadful and the writing is no better. The scenarios are childish and fit for audiences in the 50's. All in all, it is what Britain was capable of producing at that time...given a few more years they went on to make some absolutely splendid shows but sadly, this is a poor throwback to the paper rockets of years ago. Don't waste your time unless you want to see how they were UNABLE to reach the heights Star Trek met.