Five astronauts are launched on an international mission to visit five planets in a nuclear-powered spacecraft. Their vehicle, the Pegasus, is equipped with both manned and robotic landers and atmospheric probes, specially designed for every stop along the way. Together, they’ve trained for the hostile environments of Venus and Mars, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and a visit to Pluto, with close encounters with the sun and the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars along the way.
But the crew of the Pegasus is only human, as are the flight controllers back home on Earth. The further Pegasus gets from Earth, the longer the lag time in communications from Earth to the crew, or vice versa. The vast atmospheric pressure of Venus, the radiation of the sun, the sand storms of Mars and a breathtaking near-miss with an uncharted asteroid test the Pegasus crew to their limits. But a daring maneuver at Jupiter – plunging their vehicle through the outer layers of the huge planet’s roiling atmosphere – could end the mission early and fatally.
written by Joe Ahearne
directed by Joe Ahearne
music by Don Davis
Cast: Martin McDougall (Tom Kirby), Rad Lazar (Yvan Grigorev), Joanne McQuinn (Zoë Lassard), Mark Dexter (John Pearson), Michelle Joseph (Nina Sulman), Mark Tandy (Alex Lloyd), Helene Mahieu (Claire Grainer), Colin Stinton (Flight Director), John Schwab (CAPCOM), Lourdes Faberes (FIDO), David Suchet (Narrator)
Notes: Colin Stinton, playing the unnamed flight director, played ill-fated American President-Elect Winters in the Doctor Who episode The Sound Of Drums (2007); John Schwab appeared as one of the equally unlucky workers
trying to coerce a lone Dalek into revealing its secrets in 2005’s episode Dalek. American composer Don Davis provided music for Beauty And The Beast, Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Matrix trilogy of movies. Writer/director Joe Ahearne moved on almost immediately to his directing assignments in Christopher Eccleston’s single season of Doctor Who (including Dalek) after completing work on Space Odyssey.