An interview with Willam Latham

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Breadcrumbs You are here: Home Space:1999 Books Space: 1999 Eternity Unbound

Space: 1999 Eternity Unbound Space:1999 Eternity Unbound  

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Details Category: Space:1999 Books Published on Sunday, 20 December 2009 01:07 Written by Bill Latham Hits: 6342 SOLD OUT!

SPACE:1999 ETERNITY UNBOUND

by William Latham Afterwordy by the author Cover art by Keith Wilson

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He saw a future without pain, without suffering, without end He unlocked the mysteries of life and death, And united a world, launching a new age.

Only to find that death was sacred.

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And that life without death led to damnation.

And salvation would be found...in pain and suffering.

From the depths of madness, he will change a world, Forging a new path leading ultimately to exile in the far reaches of space.

Where he will face eternity...alone.

Until a chance meeting offers him the possibility to rule once more.

But his new subjects will not come from his world, but from ours.

Released February 2005 Interview with William Latham on Eternity Unbound

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Interview with William Latham on Eternity Unbound

Space:1999 Books Interview with William Latham on Eternity Unbound

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  Details Category: Space:1999 Books Published on Sunday, 20 December 2009 01:55 Written by Bill Latham Hits: 1509 Interview with William Latham on Eternity Unbound Conducted by Simon Morris Q: What exactly is The Balor Saga?

A: It’s kind of a self-contained trilogy, almost like the Godfather Series for Balor from “End of Eternity.” It’s got a new novelization of “End of Eternity” in the middle. It has an altered version of “Resurrection” at the end. And it’s got a brand new novella at the beginning that tells you all about Balor’s rise and fall on Progron.

Q: Why continue the story of Balor?

A: He’s a fun character to play with, first of all. The big thing is when I was putting together the flashback sections in “Resurrection” I really waited until fairly late in the game to write them, even though I had a sense of what they were going to be. Finally, I convinced Mateo that it made sense to at least try looking into Balor’s past a little, and those flashbacks were just way more intense than I think we’d been expecting them to be. There was more of a story there than just the little glimpses we got in “Resurrection”. Back-story, I mean. So, add that to the fact that the E. C. Tubb novelization of “End of Eternity” was very short, and could stand to be lengthened, one thing led to another and we realized that a new book was shaping itself. Since it was going to have all of the details of Balor’s back-story, the flashbacks in “Resurrection” didn’t make sense to still have in “Resurrection” so even that book started to change.

Q: Would you say that “Resurrection” is very different or just a little bit different?

A: Nothing’s been removed from “Resurrection” really. Things have just been moved, and changed from a remembered version of an event to a portrayal of the actual event more in real time. If anybody really likes the wording of the flashbacks in “Resurrection” they should hold onto their copy. There are things that have been added to “Resurrection” however.

Q: Was this something you wanted to do or something Mateo wanted to do?

A: I don’t know if I even remember. I do remember one really nice thing he said to me on the phone. He was interested in seeing the novella from me because I’d never really written any

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science fiction about a whole new culture or anything like that, and he was curious to see what I might do with it.

Q: What should readers expect from The Balor Saga?

A: If I were looking at this book as a film, I’d say the “Resurrection” portion is like a director’s cut, the novelization of “End of Eternity” is kind of like me going back to make “Red Dragon” and the prequel part, that’s where the most interesting stuff really awaits. But if I’ve done my job right, the three stories link together into one cohesive whole. The first story has elements of “Frankenstein” in it, I suppose, but not really as many as you’d think. There’s something of a love story in there, believe it or not. I think by the end of The Balor Saga, we’ll know why Balor acts the way he acts, or at least we’ll see the evolution of his particular brand of evil. I think that, without giving too much away, you’ll see that Balor and Helena Russell are mirror images of each other over the course of the book. The formula for immortality is both created and neutralized for the same basic reason.

Q: How did you go about putting together the novella?

A: One aspect of it was certainly going through “End of Eternity” and “Resurrection” and identifying the plot strands that could be pulled together and given their beginnings in a new story. And Balor implied that the character of Talian had been along for the ride for much of his rise and fall on Progron, so obviously, Talian’s got a pivotal role in the prequel. What was a challenge here is that I really needed to get into Balor’s head this time around. In “End of Eternity” Johnny Byrne presented him in a certain way, and I wasn’t going to change any of that, and Balor in “Resurrection” is just an extrapolation of Johnny’s version of him. Stepping back, I had to take Balor in “End of Eternity”, subtract the influence of a thousand years of isolation from him, and then figure out who he was. So he needed flavors of who he is in the later stories, but he obviously couldn’t be the same guy. Then, I needed to map out a beginning, a middle, and an end for the novella, that basically shows Balor coming to power and then losing it so he can be exiled. There’s a little bit of Napoleon in Balor’s story, I suppose. A little bit of Hitler. But I think if you look at “End of Eternity” that Balor’s adversary is Koenig, and in “Resurrection” it’s Helena Russell. “Resurrection” already hinted that Balor was reenacting elements of his relationship with Talian in his battles with Koenig. In the novella, we’re going to see the relationship that Balor is reenacting when he’s facing Helena Russell.

Q: Was it fun going back into the Space:1999 universe?

A: Yeah. The novella was the most fun, and that’s really got nothing much at all to do with Space:1999. Playing with the fabric of “Resurrection” was fun, too. I had to be careful not to upset the balance of a carefully constructed book.

Q: What’s next for you in Space:1999?

A: Let’s just say that Mr. Latosa and yours truly have been mapping out what I’ll call the mother of all Space:1999 stories. It’s got elements from multiple Space:1999 stories, including Powys Media’s stories. I think the best way to describe it is with “Resurrection” I was very

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cautious. The next book, it’s not cautious at all. The Balor Saga was really just to get my juices flowing for the next project.

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You are here: Home Space:1999 Books Interview with William Latham on Space:1999 Omega

Space:1999 Books Interview with William Latham on Space:1999 Omega   Details Category: Space:1999 Books Published on Sunday, 20 December 2009 04:04 Written by Bill Latham Hits: 2331 An Interview with William Latham on Space:1999 Omega conducted by Simon Morris Q: You kept a running blog of sorts during the writing of Omega. Any particular reason?

A: I thought it might be interesting to some people how complex a project this was, and how we went about putting this one together. Normally, you sit down and plot out a novel with a beginning and a middle and an end. This time, we first had to plot out an entire mythology and then figure out how to tell a story that would best explain that mythology but still work as a story. The mythology part literally took years. The plot had to wait until the mythology was fairly concrete. Or, should I say, synthecrete. This is Space:1999 after all.

Q: What can you tell us about the mythology?

A: Only that the pieces of the mythology all come from the episodes, primarily Year One. I’ve corresponded with some folks who are adamant that there’s a mythology in Year Two as well.

The mythology we focused on was the Year One mythology. The Year One mythology is very mystical, very kind of Arthur C. Clarke. Which is all well and good. I think that’s what attracted people to Space:1999 in the first place. This is not a mystical book. This is where the mythology starts hitting home and you finally start getting some answers, which is the antithesis of mysticism.

Q: But it’s a Year Three book, correct?

A: Yes, Year Three. It takes place well before “Message From Moonbase Alpha” and at least a couple of years after “Born for Adversity.” That means Maya and Tony Verdeschi and the rest of the folks have had plenty of time to absorb what happened in “Born for Adversity.”

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Q: How would you compare “Omega” to your earlier novel, “Resurrection”?

A: “Resurrection” was gothic and creepy and largely about the characters interacting. “Omega” is a lot of action. You’re going to see battles in “Omega” like nothing you’ve ever seen in the Space: 1999 universe before. Everybody’s going to be in danger in “Omega”, bar none. What was a challenge with “Omega” was the sheer amount of detail we had to convey about the mythology without bogging the book down. “Resurrection” was more of a horror thriller than “Omega” is, and "Omega" is on a much bigger canvas. So there’s a lot of time spent outside of Moonbase Alpha.

Q: What’s the significance of the title?

A: Well, the obvious thing is the position of the letter in the Greek alphabet. This book series is rapidly approaching its ending. All the threads we’ve been trailing through the other books are coming together in this story. The Space:1999 universe will never be the same after this book.

Q: You saying that is bound to get people concerned.

A: Whenever you demystify anything, you run the risk of alienating people who preferred their mystical perspective. That comes with the territory. It was never our intent to just trash this franchise. Nor are we taking unnecessary risks. We kicked this mythology until it was solid.

We’re just dealing with what we inherited from Byrne and Penfold and the others. Based on what they gave us, this is our unified field theory of Space:1999. And when you put the bits together, like anything else that gets demystified, things don’t always end up being what you projected onto them. At the same time, this story, the scale of it, is going to be the movie the Space:1999 fans never got. I can promise people it’s not going to be a boring story. We’re gonna twist you all over the place, but you’re going to be rewarded for your patience.

Q: I guess it’s safe to say you’re finished after this book?

A: I don’t know that Omega will be the last word from Powys. I’ll say this, though. When I agreed to do “Resurrection” way back when, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I still wouldn’t call myself an expert on Space:1999 – I’m not Martin Willey! But I can tell you I’ve been into the DNA of this show, both seasons, and I’ve gotten to know these characters like members of my family. I can see their flaws. I’ve been a Star Trek fan for decades, but I don’t really have the same grasp of the characters in Star Trek because I’ve never had to be them in my head! I’m gonna miss these folks. For fans of this series, I’m not going to say I’ve delivered what you wanted, which is probably just another run around the block with these folks you know so well. I tried to deliver what you needed. Fresh air, a change from the regular format of how you tell a Space:1999 story. I aimed for the fences with this story. If people don’t like it, that’s fine, that comes with writing for an established franchise. You’re never going to please everyone. But for some folks out there, I can’t wait to hear your reactions. If this were one of my favorite shows from childhood, or even early adulthood, this is what I would want, something that makes it all vibrant again.

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Q: In your Omega Diary, you talked a little about the process you and Mateo went through in coming up with the mythology. What did that entail?

A: There are some things I can’t really talk about, not until the book’s out, because it will spoil some things. But I guess the simplest way to describe it is we first had to identify the footsteps of the gods. We mapped out everything from the show that looked like it could have been some sort of MUF-related event. We strung those events out and started analyzing it for the answer to the most important question – what would motivate a god? What was the intent of the MUF? That doesn’t give you a story, really. It gives you a sequence of a larger story. Then you have to go back and come up with events that happened prior to the episodes of the show and somehow tie it all together into one overriding chronology. And considering the fact that Mateo and I are never in the same room, not even on the same coast, we’re talking about emails and phone calls and some lightbulb moments where suddenly something new falls into place. Once that’s in place, coming up with a story that will use that mythology is the hard part. This is where making a comparison to Tolkien is handy. Tolkien’s mythology, if you’ve ever read “The Silmarillion”, was barely scratched in “Lord of the Rings”. I’ll give you a perfect example. Shelob, the big spider that Frodo and Sam end up fighting. Shelob is an offshoot of the mythology that goes back well before the events of “Lord of the Rings”. So was the Balrog. Sauron isn’t the first nasty spirit in Middle Earth, he’s a former lieutenant of Morgoth, who was really the first nasty spirit, or god if you want to use that word. What you end up with in “Lord of the Rings” is a big spider, a big fire monster, some mentioning of Morgoth, some action scenes, end of story. The mythology isn’t revealed in “Lord of the Rings” – it just gets tapped into from time to time.

With “Omega”, we don’t tell you everything we could have. We could write “The Silmarillion” for “Space:1999” at this point. But if you’ve ever read “The Silmarillion”, you realize it’s kind of interesting but it isn’t nearly as compelling as “Lord of the Rings”. The mythology is the part of the iceberg that’s under the surface of the water. It holds up the point you see above the surface, where all the action is.

Q: What do you think readers will be most surprised by?

A: That’s a tough one. We know this is going to be a controversial book. We know there are people who will hate us for doing this book. It’s a very respectful sort of heresy we’re committing with “Omega”. I’ll tell you, I remember the first time I saw “The Shawshank Redemption” and you can never see that movie again the way you saw it the first time. The first time it’s a bleak and even difficult film to watch, that is until the last half hour or so. Every time you watch it after that, it’s hopeful right from the get go. After working on this book, there are episodes of the show that you won’t be able to watch anymore without seeing things in a different light. It’ll almost make you want to go watch some of the episodes again just for that experience. One of our test readers told me something fascinating. There’s a particular performance in one episode that to him didn’t seem to make sense. After reading “Omega” he said that performance suddenly made sense, because now you understood what was really going on for that character. I mean, how cool is that?

Q: What do you hope readers will experience?

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A: It’s a book that’s designed to be read more than once. For the first read, I’m hoping people will kind of hunker down and get concerned because they won’t be able to anticipate what’s going to happen next. Nobody’s safe now, folks, it’s Year Three. I can guarantee you this, though. We’re gonna leave you wanting more. 

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