Science-fiction drama Moonbase 3 has significant behind-thescenes links to early 1970s Doctor Who. But is this short-lived series worthy of greater recognition in its own right?

By OLIVER WAKE

A spacewalk in the fifth episode, Castor and Pollux by John Lucarotti.

The lead cast of Moonbase 3: Ralph Bates (as Dr Michel Lebrun), Fiona Gaunt (Dr Helen Smith), Donald Houston (Dr David Caulder) and Barry Lowe (Tom Hill).

Dr Michel Lebrun and Moonbase 3’s director, Tony Ransome (Michael Lees), in the first episode, Departure and Arrival by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks.

Ransome aboard the ill-fated shuttle in Departure and Arrival.

By 1973, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks had decisively reversed Doctor Who’s flagging fortunes, evidenced by the upward trajectory of its viewing figures. With this success under their belts, both men were looking for a new programme to move on to. Simultaneously, the BBC wanted a science-fiction series of a more serious and adult character than Doctor Who. Dicks and Letts were assigned to the project, which they brought to fruition in between Doctor Who’s tenth and eleventh seasons.

Broadcast over six consecutive Sunday evenings in September and October 1973, Moonbase 3 was an attempt to depict life in a near-future lunar station. It was a coproduction between the BBC, Twentieth Century-Fox and the US ABC network, although it doesn’t appear that the American financers had much creative involvement.

It’s unclear how far the concept of the series had been developed when Letts and Dicks joined the production. In a 2016 interview with Russell Cook (published by Doctor Who Magazine in 2019), Dicks recalled: “Barry being the producer had definite ideas as to how he saw the new show going. He said, ‘I don’t want to do an extravagant show like Star Trek. I want it to be realistic and what life would really be like on a moonbase.’ What we eventually discovered was that life would be rather boring. I can’t blame Barry for this as I went along with it, though somewhat reluctantly. You see, I wasn’t allowed to have any aliens.”