2.13 Moonbase 3

An A to Z of UK Television Drama

The year is 2003 and Earth's intrepid humans have managed to set-up several bases on the moon. There they face the implacable enemy that is the silence and darkness of space - a serious and apparently underestimated threat to the mental wellbeing of moonbase personnel... Created by Doctor Who’s Barry Letts and Terrance DIcks this 6-part series from 1973 starred Donald Houston, Ralph Bates and Fiona Gaunt and had scripts from John Brason, John Lucarotti and Arden Winch. Moonbase 3 lacks Doctor Who's monsters and excitement and instead delights in technical details and psychological concerns. As such it is something of a hard SF curio which is widely regarded to be a misfire, even by Letts and Dicks themselves. The big question is what will Andy & Martin make of it from the vantage point of 2023, some 20 years after its characters, with their very 70's attitudes, were meant to be surviving on the moon? N.B. Having completed the first half of our second A to Z series, we are taking a mid-season break but will return in a few months with a drama beginning with the letter N...