Brogan takes his son on a joy ride through an asteroid belt, but the father-and-son outing is cut short with the discovery of a crashed, but largely intact, derelict spacecraft. Its hull still holds a pressurized atmosphere, so Brogan lands to investigate, though he’s worried about his son’s safety. They find a badly decomposed body, but no other signs of life; the ship is intact enough for Brogan to launch it again. It’s identified as a 20 year old prototype vehicle built by the giant Humes Interspace corporation, whose representatives are a little less than helpful because of the potential bad publicity. But before the derelict can be brought back to the precinct, a self-destruct system activates, and Brogan and his son barely have time to escape in their own ship. The ship – with evidence of a murder aboard – is vaporized, and Haldane can’t help but notice that this only happened after Humes Interspace was notified that the prototype ship was still in one piece. Brogan has to plow through layers of bureaucracy – and Humes’ unhelpful assistant – to finally get an audience with the reclusive Humes himself, but after that first brief meeting yields little information, new evidence surfaces. DNA from the body abaord the prototype ship was left under the fingernails of Brogan’s son, and the DNA reveals the identity of the murder victim: spacecraft magnate Alden Humes. So who did Brogan and Haldane meet at Humes’ corporate headquarters… and who’s really in charge of Humes Interspace?
teleplay by Marc Scott Zicree
story by Mark Harris
directed by Sidney Hayers
music by Crispin MerrellGuest Cast: Bob Sherman (Alden Humes), Nic Klein (Matt Brogan), Megan Olive (Liz Brogan), Jerome Willis (Podly), Richard James (Orrin), David Quilter (Fredo), Lou Hirsch (Romek), Mary Woodvine (Took), Leigh Tinkler (Forensic), Rob Thirtle (Jomore), Will Barton (Underling), Gary Martin (voice of Slomo)
Notes: With his reclusive nature, his obsessive avoidance of human contact, his aerospace company and, of course, his name, the character of Humes is obviously based on Howard Hughes (1905-1976). This episode of Space Precinct was the one distributed via VHS videotape to U.S. television stations as a “taster”; the tape was intended to impress program directors of independent stations enough to pick the show up from North American distributor Grove Television. Guest star Will Barton appeared in Survival, the final adventure of the original Doctor Who series’ last season, as a troubled youth exploited by the evil Master.