Commander John Koenig is hand-picked to take over at the manned lunar colony Moonbase Alpha, the site of the impending launch of an interstellar probe to the planet Meta, and also the site of a slowly spreading epicdemic that endangers that mission. When Koenig arrives, he finds a supportive old friend in Professor Victor Bergman, and a somewhat perturbed chief surgeon, Dr. Helena Russell. Dr. Russell has been diagnosing the victims of the outbreak as they progress from mental aberrations to a comatose state and finally to death, and she has made a few discoveries – but all of her recommendations have gone unheeded (and worse yet, have been considered unfounded) by space program commissioner Simmonds. Koenig soon finds that Simmonds has been ignoring any reports that don’t indicate a perfectly normal situation, and decides to force the commissioner’s hand by bringing him to Moonbase Alpha in person.
Following Dr. Russell’s leads, Koenig postpones the launch of the Meta probe and leads an investigation into strange happenings at the station’s nuclear waste facility, where unwanted material from Earth is being stockpiled until scientists can figure out what to do with it. Koenig finds out only too late that far too much nuclear waste has been shipped in from Earth, setting up an unanticipated electromagnetic effect that accounts for the strange behavior of both equipment and crewmen. An emergency operation is set up to disperse the material, but the procedure goes horribly wrong – a colossal nuclear explosion generates enough force to push the moon out of Earth’s orbit, destroying the Meta probe’s launch facility and inflicting massive damage on Moonbase Alpha in the process. With the base’s communications down, and the moon plummeting through deep space too fast for any rescue ship from Earth to catch up with it, Earth presumes all hands have been lost – and Commander Koenig and his crew have a new permanent assignment…whether they want it or not.
Season 1 Regular Cast: Martin Landau (Commander John Koenig), Barbara Bain (Dr. Helena Russell), Barry Morse (Professor Victor Bergman)
written by George Bellak
directed by Lee H. Katzin
music by Barry Gray / additional music by Vic ElmsGuest Cast: Roy Dotrice (Commissioner Symonds), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Philip Madoc (Commander Gorski), Lon Satton (Ouma), Eric Carte (Collins)
LogBook entry by Earl Green