"Matter of Life and Death" was the second episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The episode was written by Johnny Byrne (based on the script "Siren Planet" by Art Wallace) and directed by Charles Crichton.
"Matter Of Life and Death" strongly echos Stanisￅﾂaw Lem's 1961 book Solaris (English translation 1970, filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972; the 1997 film Event Horizon also borrows elements).
Terra Nova is like Solaris, a remote plane...
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"Matter of Life and Death" was the second episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The episode was written by Johnny Byrne (based on the script "Siren Planet" by Art Wallace) and directed by Charles Crichton.
"Matter Of Life and Death" strongly echos Stanisￅﾂaw Lem's 1961 book Solaris (English translation 1970, filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972; the 1997 film Event Horizon also borrows elements).
Terra Nova is like Solaris, a remote planet able to recreate spirits from the past. In both, a facsimile of the main character's dead spouse is created (in the filmed episode he is the real husband of Helena, but in the Siren Planet script, like Solaris, he is merely an image). Like the Siren Planet script, the book's end includes a reunion with an estranged father (here Koenig's father). The themes are similar; the difficulty of communication with a truly alien form, the limits of human comprehension. "We're a long way from home. And we're going to have to start thinking differently...
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