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I may have missed something someplace in the new novels but...in BORN TO...there are children on Alpha early on. Did I miss something? I thought in one of the shows THE EXILES possibly or END OF ETERNITY Helena specifically told aliens that no babies could be born on Alpha. And we certainly saw no children other than ALPHA CHILD.

I noticed this, although the presence of children wasn't mentioned further in the story. Either Alpha has increased it's ability to support new individuals or, as brought out in Born For Adversity, there had been 30 or so Alphans who had died since Breakaway, which allowed for new arrivals. This was given as a reason Koenig could consider taking on the Psychon survivors should they choose to live on the moonbase.

Children on Alpha would be fine, but I think the timeline for their presence was a little off. I believe in Born For Adversity Maya recalls a conversation she had with Dorzak (taken from the episode 'Dorzak') as having been "several months ago". But these children are older than a few months and 'Dorzak' probably took place several months before the end of Year 2 when there were still no children. If I'm correct about this, it would have been better to have Maya recall her conversation with Dorzak as "several years ago".

In YEAR TWO (the omnibus) we established that Helena had established a gene bank to ensure there is enough diversity to found a human colony--so that if someone dies, their genetic information would not be lost. As well, there were references to children having been born on Alpha. There is only a certain window for childbirth and if it passes, they will have no future at all.

Also in the omnibus is mention of Koenig's retraining program, where all Alphans are learning their fellow Alphans' jobs, so that they all become able to fill in for other people. This is referred to in Shepherd Moon as well. And in Omega, etc.

These things were not in the series, per se. But lots of things took place off screen, didn't they?

My plan has always been to create a "literary Space: 1999" in which all the books are mutually consistent (we do try). Sometimes this means making small changes to the episodes. For example, when Maya in Bringers of Wonder first turns into one of the alien creatures in front of Helena--who at this point HAS NOT SEEN THEM IN THEIR TRUE FORM, Helena has NO REACTION to their disgusting (and one would think SURPRISING) form.

We inserted a reaction. Not because we want to change the series for the sake of changing it--but because that change made logical sense and most likely an oversight on the part of the screenwriter (an understandable one).

I think the change that was made, made it a better book.

We are, I believe, the FIRST publishing company to do this.

The standout, in my opinion, is Catacombs of the Moon--which now "adds up" and has a much more powerful ending. We didn't change a lot, but what we DID change changed what is often listed as one of the worst episodes of Year Two into a rather Year One sort of story with a surprising logic to it (if I say so myself).

Koenig and Helena are discussing this as far back as Resurrection, right towards the beginning of the second chapter. Then, at the end, he makes a remark to her that would surely soften any girl's heart Sorry, but that last scene always brings to mind a cattle pen. Her response to him, though, actually makes it workable and rather dry humor.

-Pat.

Pat,

You know these books better than I do! It was way back in Resurrection?

Proves my point, to make this work--presenting the Alphan odyssey as an epic tale in book form--we need to remember the Virgin Doctor Who publishing tagline "Stories too broad and too deep for the television screen". I am paraphrasing. They meant--and we took it as our inspiration--that in novels we could have special effects sequences impossible on the screen without an AVATAR-sized budget, and with a depth of characterization impossible without hours of voiceovers telling the characters' thoughts.

It meant that the "classic 48" (to steal some terminology from The Honeymooners) would become the central core of an even larger story, one that extended from before Breakaway to beyond The Dorcons! After all, Omega takes place a few YEARS after Born for Adversity.

From the start, we've treated each novel as part of that larger epic. And built into each novel bits that let the reader know that more was going on than meets the eye. I love it in Resurrection, where Koenig hears a voice while dying out on the surface of the Moon--likely in his head--and wonders if it hasn't been there all along but he couldn't hear it. He mentions this to Balor, who doesn't know what Koenig's talking about.

In the Forsaken, now freed of Cryptodira control/influence, the Slath-Zar begin to explore the planet. The implications of this are tremendous (in our view) when you ask yourself, "Who were the intended beneficiaries of the destruction of the Pyxidean sun?"--whether it was intentional or not. And was it? We are so caught up in the Alphans' story that little things like this might get missed.

Adding things into the mix, creating linkages, patching plot holes, smoothing out continuity, retconning...are what make a project of this size hold together as a consistent unified whole. Sure, we could have published a series of unrelated pastiches, where life on Alpha remained the same, Tony and Maya continued to merely flirt with each other, and between each novel a reset button was pressed... But we realized that, although most of us became fans when we were young (generally between 10-14 years old), novels intended for people in their 30s (now 40s) in the 21st century would have to be presented somewhat differently.

Some may disagree, of course. I am simply saying that is the decision we made (from the start).

Actually, if you want to get freaky-geeky, pre-Powys, hair-splitting about it: In the scene in "The Exiles" where they explaining to Cantar why they can't bring down any more capsules, Helena says they can't permit any new births (had to check my horrible laser-disc to video copy to verify this). This is also the position in Michael Butterworth's original novelization (although in the Y2 Omnibus, the phrase is changed to any more new births...). Did the screen writer intend to imply there had been births? Don't know, but this is what happens with 35 years to analyze something ad infinitum.


-Pat.