Category: Space: 1999

An asteroid is plummeting toward the moon, and a last-ditch effort is underway to plant nuclear explosives on the rock to destroy it before it collides with Moonbase Alpha. During the flight to deposit one of the last bombs, Alan Carter’s Eagle runs into technical problems, delaying the all-important timed blast. Commander Koenig is forced to detonate the asteroid before Carter is clear of the blast radius. Despite Bergman’s warnings about debris and residual radiation, Koenig insists on leading a recovery mission to find Carter – dead or alive. Aboard the rescue ship, Koenig begins hearing a female voice he doesn’t recognize, but the voice gives him the precise coordinates of Carter’s ship. Alan, still alive, hears the voice as well – and thinks he sees a veiled figure in the cockpit of his Eagle. But a new danger presents itself when a massive planet appears in the path of the moon – and this time, there’s no getting around it or going through it. Bergman and Paul Morrow concoct a plan to recreate the cataclysmic blast that originally threw the moon out of Earth’s orbit to divert its course, but Koenig continues to hear the mysterious voice, and this time it’s telling him not to change the moon’s course. The voice was right once before, so how far will Koenig trust it this time?

written by Anthony Terpiloff
directed by Ray Austin
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Margaret Leighton (Queen Arra), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

As the moon swings close to a habitable planet, it is greeted by that world’s warships – not the friendly greeting Koenig hoped for. Eagles are launched to intercept them, loaded for bear…and the attacking ships are destroyed far too easily for Alan Carter’s tastes. Another attack wave is launched, and this time Moonbase Alpha takes heavy damage and suffers heavy casualties. Three additional Eagles are destroyed before they can even lift off, and now Alan Carter’s fleet of three armed ships are the moon’s only defense. One of them is taken out by the still-unknown assailants, and Koenig’s crew scrambles to keep up with the damage on Moonbase Alpha. Carter succeeds in eliminating the new attack wave, but his own ship is disabled in the process…and another wave arrives, this time targeting Alpha’s main mission control center and medical bay directly. Koenig orders the entire crew to move as deep underground as possible, and Carter musters just enough power from his Eagle to fend off the attackers. With a momentary reprieve in the action, Koenig and his team assess the damage – and there’s no way Moonbase Alpha will survive without outside assistance. And the only nearby civilization lies on the planet from which the hostile ships have been launched…an unlikely candidate for humanitarian aid.

written by Christopher Penfold
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Anthony Valentine (Male alien), Isla Blair (Female alien), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Passing close to the icy world of Ultima Thule, the moon receives a signal from a lost Earth expedition claiming to have created a paradise – one in which human beings can live forever. When Koenig, Dr. Russell, Alan Carter and Professor Bergman take an Eagle down to the surface, however, they find the most forbidding icy landscape imaginable – one in which they almost don’t survive. The humans on Ultima Thule find them just in time, except for Carter, who stumbles back to the Eagle and manages to get back inside. Dr. Cabot Rowland and the seemingly insane Colonel Tanner lead two discrete factions of survivors from a failed mission to Uranus, but they’re not exactly locked in a struggle for survival. Beneath the surface of Ultima Thule, coniditions are tolerable – and all indications are that the “Thulians” are indeed impervious to disease or old age. What’s more, Rowland is eager for the Alphans to join them, promising the entire crew immortality of their own. Tanner, himself a former command office despite his disheveled appearance and behavior, takes Koenig into his confidence and reveals that the immortality promised by Rowland has come at a tragic price in wasted lives, and the process is by no means guaranteed to succeed. But even with this information, will Koenig’s crew opt for eternal life on Ultima Thule, or their uncertain existence on Moonbase Alpha?

written by Anthony Terpiloff & Elizabeth Barrows
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Brian Blessed (Dr. Cabot Rowland), John Shrapnel (Colonel Jack Tanner), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Mary Miller (Freda)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Two Eagles are sent to intercept an unknown artificial object on a direct course for the moon. The object emits an unusual energy which cripples both Eagles. Alan Carter is able to pull his ship away and return to Moonbase Alpha, while the second Eagle is destroyed. Then a remarkable signal is received: the object is none other than the Earth-launched Voyager 1 unmanned probe. Powered by the Queller atomic drive, Voyager 1 overpowers everything that comes in close contact with it – leaving Koenig with mere hours before the probe destroys Moonbase Alpha. Bergman is unable to find any way to shut down the Queller drive from a distance. But Koenig is stunned when an Alpha scientist, Dr. Linden, comes forward and quietly admits that he is actually Queller, the inventor of the overpowered drive. Queller thinks he can find the means to shut down Voyager 1’s engine without destroying the probe or its wealth of information gathered in deep space. But some members of Alpha’s crew, including Paul Morrow, would have a grudge to settle with Queller is Koenig released the man’s identity: Queller’s Voyager 2 probe exploded after liftoff, killing many innocent civilians, including Morrow’s father and the parents of “Linden”‘s own lab assistant. Even if Queller can figure out how to disable his nuclear engine, will he live to put his idea into practice when his assistant learns his identity?

written by Johnny Byrne
directed by Bob Kellett
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Jeremy Kemp (Dr. Linden), Barry Stokes (Jim Haynes), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Alex Scott (Aarchon), Lawrence Trimble (Pilot Abrams)

Notes: This episode features a Voyager 1 unmanned probe, but it’s not the real thing. This episode’s Voyager 1 probe is a bulky craft (resembling, more than anything, the Viking Mars-landing probes of the 1970s) launched in 1985, powered by atomic engines. The real Voyager 1 (seen at right) was launched in 1977 alongside its sister ship, Voyager 2. It had small maneuvering engines, but it did, in fact, draw its operating power from three radioisotope thermonuclear generators which passively generated power from the decay of radioactive material (since the Voyager probes’ distance from the sun makes solar power generation impractical). So, while the shape and specifics of Space: 1999’s Voyager probes are off, this episode anticipated the NASA/JPL Voyager probes with a fair degree of accuracy. (It’s also worth noting, however, that the Voyager probes had been in planning since the late 1960s.) This episode is also notable for featuring Jeremy Kemp, who played Captain Picard’s brother Robert in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The first child since the moon left Earth’s orbit is born, and Dr. Russell happily reports that the delivery took place with no complications. But within an hour of the birth, something remarkable and inexplicable happens: the child seems to age several years in the blink of an eye. All of his motor skills suddenly seem to be on a par with those of a five-year-old, until Dr. Russell discovers he’s deaf and mute – sparking fears that the radiation and other effects experienced by the moon since it left the solar system may mean that normal childbirth isn’t possible on Moonbase Alpha. Despite this, Koenig and the entire crew take great delight in helping to raise little Jackie (named after his late father, a deceased crew member), and Bergman discovers that the boy has an aptitude for artwork …and perhaps more than just artwork, as he sketches a detailed drawing of an enormous spacecraft just as that very ship approaches Moonbase Alpha.

written by Christopher Penfold
directed by Ray Austin
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Julian Glover (Jarak), Cyd Hayman (Sue Crawford), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Wayne Brooks (Jackie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Tony Cellini, a member of the Moonbase Alpha crew, suffers from recurring visions that he is under attack. But on this occasion, he finds an axe imbedded in one of the walls of his quarters, convincing him that the attack was real. Cellini is soon detected breaking into one of the Eagle launch pads, and when Carter tries to stop him from stealing an Eagle, Cellini attacks him. Koenig has to stun Cellini to stop the hijack attempt, and Dr. Russell criticizes Cellini’s very presence on Moonbase Alpha. Prior to taking command of the moonbase, Koenig and Cellini were fellow astronauts competing for command of the Ultra Probe, which was the furthest-ranging manned mission of its day. Cellini won the captain’s seat on that mission, but returned over a year later having lost his crew to what he says was a hideous alien creature that boarded the probe – but the black box recorder never confirmed his story, and Cellini was cast aside, saved from discharge by Koenig’s insistence alone. But now Cellini says that the creature that attacked the Ultra Probe and killed his crew is still pursuing him – and when a graveyard of spacecraft is detected, including the jettisoned service module of the Ultra Probe (light years from where that module was actually left behind), it seems like Cellini’s discounted monster story may be terrifyingly real.

written by Christopher Penfold
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Gianni Garko (Tony Cellini), Douglas Wilmer (Commissioner Dixon), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Barbara Kellerman (Dr. Monique Bouchere), Michael Sheard (Dr. Darwin King), Susan Jameson (Professor Juliet Mackie)

Notes: This is the first instance of Helena Russell doing a log entry in the series; it would become a staple feature of the second season. As of this episode, the Moon left Earth’s orbit 877 days ago.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

An advanced spacecraft identifying itself as the Daria drifts close to the Moon, sending out a distress signal requesting medical and technical help. Commander Koenig leads a rescue mission to the Daria, but when the Eagle from Moonbase Alpha is in close proximity to the Daria, the smaller ship’s systems are overpowered and it is drawn inside and docked to the Daria. As the Alpha crew explore the devastated interior of the ship, they encounter several dwarf-like beings, but Koenig and Bergman are overcome by taller, spacesuited guards. And yet a third group seems to make itself frighteningly apparent when a large, burly man attacks the guard accompanying Dr. Russell. When Koenig regains consciousness after being stunned, a woman named Kara explains that the city-ship has been overrun by primitives. Dr. Russell witnesses the primitives’ society first-hand when she is forced to watch as first one of the dwarves, and then her own security guard, are executed for being declared mutants by one of the larger beings. Her relief is short-lived when she learns that the primitives have been seeking a perfect victim for sacrifice to their god, Neman. Neman is also the name of Daria’s captain, who proposes an alliance with Koenig. Daria is a generational ship, launched hundreds of years ago, which is now closing in on its destination – a world that the Alphans could share with the Darians. But are the humans, whether from Moonbase Alpha or from the lower decks of Daria itself, being invited to be the Darians’ neighbors…or their food source?

written by Johnny Byrne
directed by Ray Austin
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Joan Collins (Kara), Dennis Burgess (Neman), Aubrey Morris (Darian), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Paul Antrim (Lowry), Robert Russell (Hadin), Gerald Stadden (Male Mute), Jackie Horton (Female Mute)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A large but harmless asteroid is detected, but its course won’t even bring it close to the moon – until it suddenly changes direction and heads straight for the moon, coming close enough to extert tidal gravity on Moonbase Alpha itself before diverting again and exploding. The cause of the unusual gravity influence is discovered: a black hole close enough to divert even the moon from its path. With only three days left until the moon is swallowed, Professor Bergman devises a force field that could theoretically repel the immense gravitational stresses…but as a backup plan, Koenig has one Eagle stocked up with supplies and ready to ferry six people to safety as a lifeboat. And as the moon draws closer to the black hole, it begins to look as though the lifeboat plan offers the only chance of survival for anyone.

written by David Weir
directed by Lee H. Katzin
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Paul Jones (Mike Ryan), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Jon Laurimore (Smitty)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The moon nears a colorful planet, but Moonbase Alpha’s scanners can’t indicate whether or not the planet sustains life. An Eagle is dispatched to investigate, and the two pilots aboard make a remarkable find – a “forest” of spherical shapes. When they begin flying recklessly among the spheres, exhibitng almost intoxicated behavior, Carter furiously orders the pilots to return to the moon – and then contact is lost. Carter blames the incident – and presumably the death of two pilots – on a rapid-fire series of computer failures on Moonbase Alpha. As the head of the moonbase’s computer division, Kano is at a loss to explain, and the failures continue: a patient dies during a routine (but computer-supervised) blood transfusion, and computer-maintained life support drops the oxygen level within the moonbase (causing Bergman’s artificial heart to fail momentarily). A second excursion, in an Eagle with no computer control, reveals that the first Eagle didn’t crash – it’s suspended in mid-air above the planet’s surface. To find the source of the computer glitches, Kano interfaces himself with the moonbase’s mainframe via an implanted connection, but he vanishes before Dr. Russell’s eyes. Koenig and Alan Carter visit the planet for themselves, where Koenig finds Kano and the missing pilots. They can’t tell him what’s happened – until a beautiful woman appears, offering Koenig and the other humans eternal happiness. All they need to do is pledge their loyalty to the Guardian of the planet Piri. Koenig refuses, and when he returns to the Eagle, finds that Alan has received a visit from the woman as well – and he seems to have accepted her offer. It also seems that the rest of Koenig’s crew has accepted the invitation from Piri, as he discovers when he returns.

writer not credited
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Catherine Schell (The Woman), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Michael Culver (Pete Irving)

Notes: Technically, Christopher Penfold is credited only as the story consultant, and no writer is actually credited for this episode. However, it’s worth noting that Kano’s human-computer interface is very similar conceptually – right down to the plug-in jack implanted into the back of his head – to Crewman Maddox’s computer connection in the 1984 Doctor Who story Warriors Of The Deep, which was written by Space: 1999 veteran Johnny Byrne. Actress Catherine Schell would join the show’s regular cast in season two, although in a very different role.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The moon passes an asteroid which shows signs of something unusual beneath its surface. Using explosive charges, an expedition led by Koenig and Professor Bergman unearths a door of artificial origins. An attempt to open a door further inside the underground installation results in a huge explosion, and while the second door opens, someone who was standing behind it is critically injured. Koenig and his landing party return the humanoid to Moonbase Alpha, where he dies on the operating table. And yet, when Dr. Russell prepares to conduct an autopsy, she finds that the humanoid is unharmed – in fact, his body is regenerating. Before long, the fully-restored alien visitor is on his own two feet again, exploring the Moonbase, despite security’s best efforts to restrain him. Though he expresses his gratitude to Koenig for freeing him from the asteroid, the entity known as Balor soon all but takes over Moonbase Alpha in a display of power and pure evil.

written by Johnny Byrne
directed by Ray Austin
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Peter Bowles (Balor), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Jim Smilie (Baxter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

An Eagle is launched to reconnoiter a promising planet which the Moonbase Alpha crew has dubbed “Terra Nova” – new Earth. The two men aboard the ship return with good news – they’ve found a planet with an Earthlike atmosphere and almost unlimited resources – but just as they make their final approach back to the moon, an electrical discharge envelops the Eagle, incapacitating the crew. The ship is still brought in for a safe landing, with the crew alive but unconscious – and carrying an extra passenger who Dr. Russell says is her husband, missing and presumed dead after his last space mission ended in disaster five years ago. Though he is breathing and seems to be alive, none of the medical instruments indicate life signs. Commander Koenig decides to postpone any further visits to Terra Nova, let alone any colonization operations, until the mystery of Russell’s husband. When the long-lost astronaut awakens, Helena tells him of Koenig’s plans to colonize Terra Nova – and then he lashes out at her with the same energy that almost brought the Eagle down.

written by Art Wallace & Johnny Byrne
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Richard Johnson (Lee Russell), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Stuart Damon (Parks)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

As Commissioner Symonds, stranded on Moonbase Alpha since the moon was thrown free of Earth’s orbit, chides Commander Koenig for not trying to find a way to reverse the moon’s course, an small alien spacecraft is detected hurtling toward the moon. The ship crash-lands, and Koenig leads an expedition to see if there are any survivors. What his team finds is a number of humanoids in suspended animation, though the first attempt to revive one of them proves disastrous – and an automatic security system awakens the others, who naturally want to know why one of their crew is dead. Koenig manages to convince the aliens to move their vehicle to Moonbase Alpha for repairs, but is annoyed when Symonds tries to pull rank upon meeting the alien visitors. As it happens, Captain Zantor and his crew happened to be mounting a peaceful exploration of Earth, and Helena’s examination reveals Zantor’s people to be perfectly compatible with humanity. Forgiving the death of his crew member, Zantor even offers the vacant stasis chamber to one member of Koenig’s crew, and Symonds jumps at the chance to go back to Earth, even though it’s a 75-year trip. Helena insists on testing the aliens’ equipment to ensure suitability for a human passenger, but she is put into a deeper state of suspended animation by accident – and with the open seat to Earth now filled by accident, Symonds wants to take Zantor’s entire ship by force.

written by Anthony Terpiloff
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Roy Dotrice (Commissioner Symonds), Christopher Lee (Captain Zantor), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter)

Notes: Some of the background atmosphere sounds heard as Koenig’s crew enters the alien spacecraft are well-known to viewers of other British SF staples – namely as part of the background sound loop of many a Dalek control center in Doctor Who.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Eagle 6 is launched to explore an Earthlike planet, but when the landing party doesn’t report back to Moonbase Alpha for hours, Koenig orders the ship returned by remote control…but Eagle 6 returns with no one aboard except for a dead caveman. A full-scale rescue operation is launched, with only three days to find the missing Eagle crew before the moon moves out of range. The rescue mission goes disastrously wrong, though – Commander Koenig and Dr. Russell go missing, along with the rest of their Eagle’s search party, while Carter is attacked by more cavemen when he lands a second Eagle and begins his own search for Koenig. Carter narrowly escapes being killed when the cavemen are too fascinated by his communicatior to deliver the fatal blow. Back at the Moonbase, the autopsy of the caveman turns up something very disturbing: he was originally a member of the first Eagle crew.

written by Jesse Lasky Jr. & Pat Silver
directed by Bob Kellett
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Oliver Cotton (Spear man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green