Year: 1975

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