Category: Space: 1999

Alan Carter and a Moonbase Alpha geologist are mining much-needed minerals from beneath the moon’s own surface, and his expedition makes an astonishing find – two humanoid figures, perfectly preserved in some sort of suspended animation chamber. Alan touches the device and receives a nearly fatal shock. Dr. Russell and Tony Verdeschi arrive to take charge, but before any progress can be made in reviving the two mystery men, a cave-in occurs, forcing Tony and Alan to break into the chamber and rescue the two men before they’re crushed. As they recover quickly, Maya recognizes the rescued father and son as natives of Archanon, a planet whose residents are renowned for spreading peace across the galaxy. But the crew finds out too late that Pasc, the elder alien, has a disease unique to the Archanons, a disorder which results in violent impulses and actions. Worse yet, there’s every indication that Pasc has passed the disease on to his son.

written by Lew Schwartz
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), John Standing (Pasc), Michael Gallagher (Etrec), Veronica Lang (Lyra / Maurna), John Alkin (Johnson), John Hug (Fraser), Anthony Forrest (Carson), Raul Newey (Dr. Raul Nunez), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Koenig, Tony Verdeschi and Maya are en route to explore an Earthlike world when their Eagle develops an oxygen leak. Koenig sends Verdeschi back to pick up a different Eagle, while he and Maya explore the planet. Maya spots edible vegetation, but when Maya picks and flower Koenig bites into a handful of berries, they hear screams – and a voice proclaims them guilty of murder. Cutting off the explorers’ contact with Moonbase Alpha, the voices claim to be the Judges of Luton, and force Koenig and Maya to fight a trio of previous transgressors. Koenig and Maya evade the three hulking aliens for as long as possible, and then Koenig tries to convince them not to fight – a potential truce to which the Judges take exception.

written by Charles Woodgrove
directed by Val Guest
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), David Jackson (Alien Strong), Godfrey James (Alien Transporter), Roy Marsden (Alien Invisible), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)

Notes: David Jackson went on to star, a year and a half later, as one of Blake’s 7; in later interviews, he likened the experience to “acting with a tent over your head.” Koenig reveals that he was married on Earth, but his wife was a casualty of a catastrophic global war; Dr. Russell reminds him of her.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A planet is detected with traces of minerals vital to Moonbase Alpha’s survival, and the command staff takes a survey Eagle down to explore the surface. What they don’t expect to find is a large, glowing mineral deposit. They cut off a sample and return to the Eagle with it, but during routine examination, it emits a bright life and Tony falls to the floor, dead. Commander Koenig’s first instinct is to leave the planet immediately, though Maya and Dr. Russell feel that the key to learning what happened to Tony, or perhaps reviving him, lies with further study of the rock sample. As Koenig leads the survey team back out to the surface, Dr. Russell is stunned when Tony rises and walks out of the Eagle, returning a short while later with another chunk of the glowing rock. The survey teams rushes back to the Eagle, where power has been drained and contact has been lost with Moonbase Alpha. When Koenig moves to remove the new sample, it seems to attack him too, though not fatally. With time running out, Koenig is now convinced that not only is the rock a life form, but it’s been subtly guiding the mission from the start.

written by Keith Miles
directed by Ray Austin
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Patrick Mower (Dave Reilly)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Small glowing objects appear all over the station, and the first two people to touch them are blinded. Not long afterward, a booming voice contacts the Moonbase, bellowing “Ahoy there, Moonbase Alpha!” Moments after requesting permission to land (and not really getting it), a large orange spacecraft appears on the moon’s surface, followed by the appearance of its rotund captain, identifying himself as a trader named the Taybor, in Alpha’s command center. It is clear that the Taybor has been monitoring Koenig and his crew for some time, as he seems to know quite a bit about them, and even invites himself to stay for dinner. During that meal, Tony Verdeschi finally finds an admirer of his home-brewed beer in the crew’s guest, and when his tongue is a bit loosened, the Taybor reveals that his craft is capable of making hyperspace jumps, a technology that intrigues Koenig. The commander tries to barter with the Taybor for passage to Earth for the entire crew, but the trader wants only one thing in exchange – Maya.

written by Thorn Keyes
directed by Bob Brooks
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Willoughby Goddard (The Taybor), Jeffrey Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), John Hug (Fraser), Yasuko Nagazumo (Yasko), Larraine Humphrys (Karen), Rita Webb (Slatternly Woman), Mel Taylor (Andrews)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A few asteroids of unknown composition appear near the moon, and even Moonbase Alpha’s scanners can’t determine what they’re made of or where they came from. Commander Koenig and Alan Carter pay a visit to one of the asteroids, but their Eagle develops a fault, leaving Koenig to explore a nearby cave on his own while Carter stays behind to conduct repairs. Koenig is exploring the mirrored halls of an artificial structure beneath the asteroid surface when he is attacked by a creature who is his own mirror image. Koenig’s doppelganger returns to the Eagle, which lifts off and returns to Alpha, where he orders the destruction of the asteroid. But when Maya questions how the commander came to this conclusion without extensive study, he orders her confined to quarters. Verdeschi and Dr. Russell begin to suspect that something has taken over the commander’s mind or replaced him, but by the time they can convince other key members of the crew to act, it’s too late.

written by John Goldsmith
directed by Derek Connor
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Martha Nairn (Female operative), Jack Klaff (Guard), James Leith (Guard), Albin Pahernik (Creature)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

As the moon drifts dangerously close to a planet, Moonbase Alpha’s sensors pick up a massive explosion near that world, sending a massive shockwave across the surface of the moon and doing widespread damage to the Moonbase. During a damage survey, Koenig, Carter and Maya discover that a small number of spherical space vessels landed on the moon in a circular pattern, using the explosion to cover their approach. Koenig boards one and is attacked by an auto-defense system. Carter helps him up and they are both scanned in a room full of spherical objects which bounce from platform to platform. After a brief introduction, the spheres provide the two humans with a breathable atmosphere and make voice contact for the first time. Koenig asks the spheres for help in avoiding the planet, but these objects are merely computer servants of a race which is in a transitional evolutionary stage – and can’t be contacted. Koenig, Carter and Maya resort to desperate measures…something which may curtail the evolutionary process and give birth to a new race before its development is complete.

written by Tony Barwick
directed by Val Guest
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Ina Skriver (A), Sarah Douglas (B), Robert Rietty (Sphere voice), John Hug (Bill Fraser), David Sebastian Bach (Guardian’s Brother), Sarah Bullen (Kate), Albin Pahernik (Creature), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A mining crew from Alpha searches for terraneum in tunnels dug before the Moonbase’s construction. The crew chief, Patrick Osgood, is preoccupied with his wife’s imminent need for a heart transplant – and a series of recurring visions of Moonbase Alpha, and his wife, being destroyed by fire. His seemingly irrational fears gain some credibility when the moon enters an area of space where the ambient temperature begins increasing exponentially. Osgood becomes even more irrational, berating Dr. Russell for her “failure” to repair his wife’s heart, and as the temperature outside and inside the base climbs, Osgood straps explosives to himself, storms the medical center and kidnaps his own wife. His next stop is the barely-pressurized “catacombs” of the moon, where he insists that faith, not science, will heal her.

written by Anthony Terpiloff
directed by Robert Lynn
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), James Laurenson (Patrick Osgood), Pamela Stephenson (Michelle Osgood), Jeffrey Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Lloyd McGuire (First Engineer), Brendan Price (Security Guard), Alan Hunter (Co-Pilot), Nova Llewellyn (1st Alphan Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Commander Koenig and Tony Verdeschi depart in an Eagle to board and investigate a derelict starship spotted near the moon’s path. At roughly the same time that ship was detected, Maya fell ill, suffering from a high fever and flashbacks of the destruction of her home planet of Psychon. But before Koenig and Verdeschi finish receiving the latest update on Maya’s condition, they’re horrified when they hear cries of panic from Moonbase Alpha – and watch helplessly as the moon disappears into a space warp. As the Alpha crew recovers from their rough trip, Maya loses control, morphs into a monster, attacks Dr. Russell and escapes from the sick bay. Five light years behind the moon, Koenig and Verdeschi try unsuccessfully to pilot the Eagle into the same wormhole that carried the moon away, unaware that the creature Maya has morphed into may kill the entire crew before they can find a way back.

written by Charles Woodgrove
directed by Peter Medak
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Peter Porteous (Petrov), Tony Osoba (1st Security Guard), John Judd (2nd Security Guard), Trevor Thomas (Refuel Eagle Pilot), Andrew Lodge (Grasshopper)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Upset when Tony Verdeschi blames her for the failure of his latest beer-brewing experiment, lovestruck young crewmember Shermeen Williams runs off to her quarters, where she sees a vision of a seemingly human face. She reports it to Dr. Russell, who initially dismisses it as a nightmare and puts Shermeen back on duty. But when Shermeen sees the face again, it introduces itself as Vindrus, a man trapped in a universe of antimatter, and it promises her a way to bring her closer to Verdeschi. She follows the instructions given to her by Vindrus, even to the point of disabling a crewmate to take his place on a survey of a nearby planet. This is the world where Vindrus and others like him were banished to the universe of antimatter, and where he intends to return. But for someone in the antimatter universe to cross over to the matter universe, someone from the matter unverse must do the opposite – and Shermeen has allowed herself to be lured into that deadly trap.

written by Pip and Jane Baker
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Lynne Frederick (Shermeen Williams), Stuart Wilson (Vindrus), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Nicholas Campbell (Eddie Collins), Brian Osborne (Mr. Potter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

An expanding luminescent cloud appears in the moon’s vicinity, and a mysterious illness sweeps the crew of Moonbase Alpha. The affliction strikes most of the male crewmembers, but not all of them. Commander Koenig is among those rendered helpless, and Tony Verdeschi takes command. Eagle 6, which was on a routine reconaissance mission, returns to the moon without fuel and without a trace of life aboard. But when Verdeschi and a security team board the Eagle, they find a vicious creature that kills everyone it can get its hands on. A mysterious voice contacts Moonbase Alpha and demands that the crew turn off the base’s life support. While this ultimatum is delivered, the creature is rampaging through Alpha’s corridors. As Tony and a surviving security guard try to lead their unwanted visitor into a trap in the base’s vacuum chamber, Dr. Russell falls victim to the debilitating disease. The beast is cutting a deadly path toward Alpha’s life support center to do what the crew is unwilling to do. But can they stop it?

written by Charles Woodgrove
directed by Robert Lynn
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Dave Prowse (The Creature), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Albin Pahernik (Space/Kreno Animal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A member of the medical staff is killed in a mysterious phenomenon that also lays waste to the storage section of Moonbase Alpha’s sick bay. Commander Koenig irritably orders Verdeschi to begin an investigation, and continues to snap at his crew when an unusual object is spotted ahead of the moon’s position in space. And Koenig isn’t the only one exhibiting unusual behavior – other crew members are experiencing it, and even equipment – ranging from most of the Eagles, and a power generator in a room that Alan mysteriously becomes trapped in. Now Verdeschi feels he’s investigating a murder and systematic sabotage. But when various crew members begin exhibiting apparent signs of telekinesis, the scope of Tony’s investigation widens considerably. And while all of this is taking place, the unknown orb of energy draws closer until it engulfs the moon itself.

written by Terrance Dicks
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Deborah Fallender (Carolyn Powell), Jess Conrad (Mark Sanders), Anthomy Stamboulieh (George Crato), Michael Walker (Carl Renton), Gregory de Polnay (Peter Garforth), Lydia Lisle (Sally Martin), Lucinda Curtis (Tessa), Dallas Adams (Sam)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

During a routine Eagle mission, Koenig – flying solo – seems to lose all control over his emotions. Giggling and yelling, Koenig flies his Eagle right into a nuclear waste dump, critically damaging both himself and his craft. Dr. Russell is left with no choice but to connect him to an experimental device to keep his brain alive – and while the commander is out of commission, a spacecraft is detected on approach to the moon at a speed faster than light. Amazingly, it appears to be a Super-Swift – an upgraded Eagle-style craft that only existed on the drawing board before the moon was blasted out of Earth’s orbit. When contact is made with the Super-Swift, Tony Verdeschi is stunned to see that his older brother Guido is apparently commanding a mission to rescue the Alpha crew. The loved ones of many of Alpha’s crew are aboard as well. Commander Koenig finally awakens from his treatment, and Dr. Russell tells him the good news…but when he meets the Super-Swift crew, he sees not humans, but amorphous creatures. And he can’t understand why his crew is going along with them willingly.

written by Terence Feely
directed by Tom Clegg
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Toby Robins (Diana Morris), Stuart Damon (Guido Verdeschi), Jeremy Young (Jack Bartlett), Drewe Henley (Joe Ehrlich), Patrick Westwood (Dr. Shaw), Cher Cameron (Louisa), Al Lampert (Ken Burdett), Billy J. Mitchell (Professor Hunter), Earl Robinson (Sandstrom), Robert Sheedy (Henry), Nichols Young (Peter Rockwell), Albin Pahernik (Lizard Animal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Restrained by his own crew, Commander Koenig fights to get Tony, Dr. Russell, Maya or anyone to believe him. He claims that the crew is being tricked by blob-like beings capable of telepathically projecting themselves as an image from someone’s memory – hence the rescue ship conveniently manned by people known to members of Alpha’s crew. Koenig convinces Helena to perform the same experimental brain treatment on her that he underwent, and she too can then see the Moonbase’s visitors as they really are. But this revelation is too late – the aliens have set a plan into motion to feed their need for highly-radioactive emissions by exploding the nuclear waste dumps on the moon’s far side. Even when Dr. Russell manages to administer a treatment to the entire Moonbase crew, Alan Carter and an alien-influenced team at the nuclear dump is left unaffected – and still doing the aliens’ bidding.

written by Terence Feely
directed by Tom Clegg
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Toby Robins (Diana Morris), Stuart Damon (Guido Verdeschi), Jeremy Young (Jack Bartlett), Drewe Henley (Joe Ehrlich), Patrick Westwood (Dr. Shaw), Cher Cameron (Louisa), Al Lampert (Ken Burdett), Billy J. Mitchell (Professor Hunter), Earl Robinson (Sandstrom), Robert Sheedy (Henry), Nichols Young (Peter Rockwell), Albin Pahernik (Lizard Animal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The moon approaches a potentially habitable planet, but Commander Koenig, sensitive to having raised false hopes too many times in the past, keeps it a secret from most of Moonbase Alpha’s population. This turns out to be an even better decision in hindsight, as Koenig discovers that the planet is on a direct collision course with the wayward moon. But a crewman named Sanderson and his close circle of friends, suspicious of the information blackout, mutiny and take over Alpha’s command center. Koenig orders Sanderson and his cohorts confined to the sick bay, and then boards an Eagle with Maya to explore the planet ahead. They find not an Earthlike world, but a planet with a poisonous, turbulent atmosphere that forces a crash-landing. Carter is barely able to bring the Eagle back via remote control, and Koenig decides to deliberately replicate the nuclear blast that shot the moon out of Earth’s orbit, hoping it’ll divert the moon’s course enough to avoid the impending collision. But Sanderson is still convinced of a cover-up – and even when his friends refuse to go against Koenig again, Sanderson is willing to put his life, and everyone else’s, on the line to prove his point.

written by Donald James
directed by Peter Madek
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Ken Hutchinson (Greg Sanderson), Carolyn Seymour (Eva), Nigel Pegram (Cernik), James Snell (Stevens), Christopher Asante (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Koenig investigates a belt of large asteroids, large enough that colonization may be possible. While the commander is gone, a spaceship requests permission to land at Moonbase Alpha, and a woman named Sahala begs for medical assistance. But when she arrives, she attacks Maya, leaving her in a coma. Sahala claims that she has the right of revenge for past atrocities committed against her people by a Psychon named Dorzak, not only a shapeshifter but capable of mind control. Maya insists that the Dorzak she knew was a peaceful philosopher, and not the dangerous prisoner that Sahala claims to have in custody.

written by Christopher Penfold
directed by Val Guest
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Lee Montague (Dorzak), Jill Townsend (Sahala), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Yesta), Sam Dastor (Dr. Ed Spencer), Seretta Wilson (Clea), Richard La Parmentier (Ed Malcolm), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko), Paul Jerricho (1st security guard), John Judd (2nd security guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green