An Interview With David A. McIntee, Author of Space:1999 – Born For Adversity
and Mateo Latosa, Space: 1999 Year Three Editor
by Simon Morris
Q: So what’s the overall approach for Year Three? What’s different from Years One and Two, what’s the same? David — how does your book in particular reflect the new series approach?
DM: I can’t speak for the arc as a whole, but… From my viewpoint it’s still the same series, but the characters really have to deal with the fact that Moonbase Alpha is no longer a place for Earth-related work, but is essentially a new colony, a generation starship whose mission profile is utterly different from that intended for the base. At the same time, I think they have to use more of the Moon — it’s not just a setting, it’s their ship and world.
I don’t think a straightforward pastiche would work in this day and age, but at the same time, it’s not quite the place for a full-scale Battlestar style remake. It’s definitely the same series with the same cast, but, to coin a phrase, too broad and too deep for the small screen…
ML: Anyone familiar with Space: 1999 knows there is a tremendous difference in style between Year One and Year Two. Without going into detail–and the Y1/Y2 divergence is a major topic in S99 fandom–the Year Three books will be written in a Y1 style while, at the same time, featuring characters introduced in Year Two. We have established that both seasons are part of the same ongoing continuity.
Q: What sort of story are you aiming to tell in Born For Adversity? Dramatic? Playful? Personal or epic? Is it still basically a pastiche of the TV show, or a complete widescreen re-imagining sort of thing?
DM: It’s a modern thing, but as I said not a total revamp. It’s mostly personal and dramatic, but it’s a personal story set against an epic backdrop. Hopefully it won’t be totally humourless either. If it was on screen it’d still have the same cast, but a bigger budget and more depth, with less silliness.
I guess in a way I want to mix the science and wonder of Year 1 with the adventure of Year 2.
Q: David, when you were working out Born For Adversity, how much were you conscious of setting things up for future authors, and how much were you just doing your own thing? How much of a free hand have you had so far?
DM: Mateo had a basic plot, which I’ve added to and changed with a pretty free hand. I’m very aware that other people will be following – and indeed that I have to set up for a Year 2 book that will be published after mine! – so I’m just spinning off as many potential hooks as I can, as well as layering in the arc elements that Mateo already provided, and one or two that I’d like to follow up on myself in another book.
Q: How far down the line is Year Three going to pick up the story? Given how long “Year Two” actually took in calendar terms, should it be called Space: 2005?
DM: I haven’t thought about that, actually – but it follows on directly from the end of Year 2.
ML: Funny you should ask that question. I considered, but rejected, the idea of changing the year on the book covers depending on what year the story took place. I must admit now, it was a moment of madness. SPACE: 1999 is the series title, for one. And internally, the series takes place so far from Earth that Earth-related dating has no real relevance.
Year One and Year Two refer only to the first and second seasons of episodes, though each YEAR actually encompasses multiple calendar years.
Q: Will there be continuing storylines through the books, or will they be pretty much independent “episodes” like the previous Powys novels?
DM: I’m not Mateo, but there are story arcs…
ML: Even in the previous novels, there are small parts of the meta-story–the ARC–revealed. All the books are written to dovetail with the episodes of the original series while, collectively, gradually contributing to a larger story which can really only be understood by reading all the books. In addition, the arc comprises elements from the original episodes, eventually tying disparate threads into a coherent whole.
Q: Would new readers need to have read any of the previous Powys books to follow Born For Adversity, or the Year Three ones in general?
DM: No. Perversely, it ties in most closely to a Year Two book that as I understand it will be published later – so I have to be very careful to follow on from that without giving away the end of that book. The idea is that you should actually get two different payoffs from my book, depending on whether you read the series in publication or chronological order.
ML: I think a good comparison would the Darkover novels of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Each can be read independently of the rest, but as David said, there are different payoffs depending on how they are read.
Q: Is there stuff in the earlier books that foreshadows Year Three, or otherwise sets it up? Any hints you want to drop?
DM: Yes…
ML: There is a poetic and beautifully written scene in Resurrection in which Koenig hears a voice in his mind while out on the surface of the Moon. The Forsaken further explores what this mysterious presence might be. Survival by Brian Ball, provides a few more pieces of the puzzle. It’s up to the readers to put the pieces together.
Q: How far down the line is Year Three mapped out? Are the plans nailed down, or is there still room for things to change?
ML: Year Three is a loose term. Presently it means stories after Year Two. But we have plans for novels up to Message from Moonbase Alpha and beyond. The specifics may change, but the overall blueprint is there.
Q: The previous novels have got a lot of mileage out of the changes between Year One and Year Two — introducing and writing out cast members, explaining all the changes in theme and approach. Will there be a similar amount of change as the Year Three books go along?
DM: Well, I certainly have things in mind!
ML: The novels that “bridge” Year One and Year Two are limited by the events and continuity of the respective seasons. Year Three is interesting because, though we will respect established continuity, all bets are off as to what kind of stories we can tell and what can happen to the characters.
Q: Any plans for new recurring characters?
DM: There will be some recurring guests, as far as I know.
ML: Certainly a second generation of Alphans will begin to provide us with new characters, and we are laying the foundation for that in the novels. Interestingly, in the series itself, despite losses, Alpha’s population actually increases from the beginning of Year Two to the end. This suggests that children, though unseen, are being born.
Q: Where can Year Three go that Years One and Two didn’t (or couldn’t)?
DM: It can find a more unique voice, not constrained with fitting in with the TV episodes, much like the (Doctor Who) NAs/EDAs as opposed to the MAs/PDAs.
ML: David hit the nail on the head. The Virgin Doctor Who novels were certainly our inspiration for the launch of Powys’s Space: 1999 line.
Q: Will we be seeing more of the first season’s “Mysterious Unknown Force” approach, or more of the “Alphans as masters of their own destiny” approach of Year Two?
DM: In Born For Adversity, definitely the latter.
ML: If Survival marks the point at which the first approach ends and the second begins, then Year Three will eventually bring things full circle.
Q: Where do you see this journey leading the Alphans? Do you have an endpoint you’d like them to get to?
DM: Sometimes the journey is its own destination — I certainly couldn’t imagine them getting back home or anything like that.
ML: The novels, and the Alphans, will eventually reach Terra Alpha (Message from Moonbase Alpha), but we agree with Johnny Byrne–that will not be the end of the Alphan odyssey, but rather the point at which it will see a new beginning.