Author: theLogBook.com

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