Honoring Sydney Sturgess

[Mateo Latosa]

Just thought I’d start the SURVIVAL forum off with a little inside info into the history of this novel. When SURVIVAL was being kicked around as a candidate for the first Powys novel–that title went to RESURRECTION–we knew this would be the novel dealing with Victor Bergman’s departure from Alpha.As such we planned to honor Barry Morse’s wife, who at the time was struggling with the illness that eventually took her life (Parkinson’s).

Later, I approached Barry Morse in 2000 in NYC and told him of our plans and asked if we could name Bergman’s love interest in the novel after his wife (Yendys = Sydney). He said it would be an honor to reference her in this way.

As Victor Bergman is slipping into unconsciousness toward the end of the novel, he imagines he is at his home on Earth before the death of his wife. We gave this first wife the name Dorothy (Sydney Sturgess’s real name) to, in a sense, say that they are very much the same woman, the same sort of soul, his one true love re-encountered.

Between my conversation with Barry Morse and the publication of SURVIVAL, a lot of things happened:

We commissioned Brian Ball to write the book; Barry Morse agreed to write the foreword to it; later, in Portland just before recording the audiobook of RESURRECTION, he agreed to let us use his image on the book cover; Barry asked us, in lieu of his fee, to make a donation to Parkinson’s research (which we did). And sadly, Sydney Strurgess passed away.

Victor Bergman, adrift in space, was saved by Susurra and continued his personal odyssey with the Leira (and Yendys).

A very different tale than “One faulty spacesuit…why did he have to be in it?” (and offscreen, no less)

Thank you, Barry and Sydney! I like to believe that you are together again.

SURVIVAL, at least to me, is so much more than a Space: 1999 novel.

[Author]

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