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Season 2 Space: 1999

Seed Of Destruction

Space: 1999A few asteroids of unknown composition appear near the moon, and even Moonbase Alpha’s scanners can’t determine what they’re made of or where they came from. Commander Koenig and Alan Carter pay a visit to one of the asteroids, but their Eagle develops a fault, leaving Koenig to explore a nearby cave on his own while Carter stays behind to conduct repairs. Koenig is exploring the mirrored halls of an artificial structure beneath the asteroid surface when he is attacked by a creature who is his own mirror image. Koenig’s doppelganger returns to the Eagle, which lifts off and returns to Alpha, where he orders the destruction of the asteroid. But when Maya questions how the commander came to this conclusion without extensive study, he orders her confined to quarters. Verdeschi and Dr. Russell begin to suspect that something has taken over the commander’s mind or replaced him, but by the time they can convince other key members of the crew to act, it’s too late.

Order the DVDswritten by John Goldsmith
directed by Derek Connor
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Martha Nairn (Female operative), Jack Klaff (Guard), James Leith (Guard), Albin Pahernik (Creature)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Maidens

The Hideout

Star MaidensAdam and Shem continue their flight from both Earth and Medusan authorities, breaking into an apartment to hide. When police surround the building, Adam makes a run for it and is captured; a young man who tipped off police to the alien men’s whereabouts after seeing their pictures on TV is also captured, with the police assuming that he is Shem. Shem accidentally discovers that alcohol on an empty stomach is not an Earth delicacy, and passes out in the apartment hallway. He is taken in by a woman named Rose, who takes care of him (much to his horror, as a Medusan man would normally be taking care of his mistress’ needs). As they spend time together, Rose and Shem begin to fall for each other, and Shem discovers why love can be a weakness.

written by Otto Strang
directed by Freddie Francis
music by Berry Lipmann

Star MaidensCast: Judy Geeson (Fulvia), Gareth Thomas (Shem), Pierre Brice (Adam), Graham Crowden (Minister), Corny Collins (Rose), Don McKillop (Sergeant), Adrian Shergold (Youth), George Hilsdon (Desk Sergeant), David Ellison (Policeman), John Pennington (Announcer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

AB Chrysalis

Space: 1999As the moon drifts dangerously close to a planet, Moonbase Alpha’s sensors pick up a massive explosion near that world, sending a massive shockwave across the surface of the moon and doing widespread damage to the Moonbase. During a damage survey, Koenig, Carter and Maya discover that a small number of spherical space vessels landed on the moon in a circular pattern, using the explosion to cover their approach. Koenig boards one and is attacked by an auto-defense system. Carter helps him up and they are both scanned in a room full of spherical objects which bounce from platform to platform. After a brief introduction, the spheres provide the two humans with a breathable atmosphere and make voice contact for the first time. Koenig asks the spheres for help in avoiding the planet, but these objects are merely computer servants of a race which is in a transitional evolutionary stage – and can’t be contacted. Koenig, Carter and Maya resort to desperate measures…something which may curtail the evolutionary process and give birth to a new race before its development is complete.

Order the DVDswritten by Tony Barwick
directed by Val Guest
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Ina Skriver (A), Sarah Douglas (B), Robert Rietty (Sphere voice), John Hug (Bill Fraser), David Sebastian Bach (Guardian’s Brother), Sarah Bullen (Kate), Albin Pahernik (Creature), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Maidens

Creatures Of The Mind

Star MaidensOn Medusa, Liz and Rudi are assigned to the archives of the Medusan people, unaware that the last official archivist lies in a coma, driven mad by unseen voices in the archive facility. Rudi discovers than a space vehicle is held in the archives, and immediately senses an opportunity to escape Medusa. But what Octavia hasn’t revealed is that the vehicle was built by Medusan technology, a failed attempt to replace a ship’s crew with artificial intelligence. That technology became a little bit too intelligent, and now seeks to merge with organic life – and Liz is now set to become the victim of its next attempt to do so.

written by Ian Stuart Black
directed by James Gatward
music by Berry Lipmann

Star MaidensCast: Lisa Harrow (Liz), Christian Quadflieg (Rudi), Christiane Kruger (Octavia), Ina Skriver (Officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

Catacombs Of The Moon

Space: 1999A mining crew from Alpha searches for terraneum in tunnels dug before the Moonbase’s construction. The crew chief, Patrick Osgood, is preoccupied with his wife’s imminent need for a heart transplant – and a series of recurring visions of Moonbase Alpha, and his wife, being destroyed by fire. His seemingly irrational fears gain some credibility when the moon enters an area of space where the ambient temperature begins increasing exponentially. Osgood becomes even more irrational, berating Dr. Russell for her “failure” to repair his wife’s heart, and as the temperature outside and inside the base climbs, Osgood straps explosives to himself, storms the medical center and kidnaps his own wife. His next stop is the barely-pressurized “catacombs” of the moon, where he insists that faith, not science, will heal her.

Order the DVDswritten by Anthony Terpiloff
directed by Robert Lynn
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), James Laurenson (Patrick Osgood), Pamela Stephenson (Michelle Osgood), Jeffrey Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Lloyd McGuire (First Engineer), Brendan Price (Security Guard), Alan Hunter (Co-Pilot), Nova Llewellyn (1st Alphan Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Maidens

The Enemy

Star MaidensWith Adam and Shem captured, Earth and Medusa prepare to exchange prisoners. As arrangements are made, another signal is found in deep space, originating from somewhere other than Medusa; the Medusans suddenly accelerate the timetable for the prisoner exchange. When the signal is played back on Earth, it makes Shem violently ill, and Professor Evans is only able to get Fulvia to tell him that this is a matter between Medusa and its ancient enemy from another galaxy.

written by Otto Strang
directed by Freddie Francis
music by Berry Lipmann

Star MaidensCast: Judy Geeson (Fulvia), Lisa Harrow (Liz), Gareth Thomas (Shem), Pierre Brice (Adam), Christian Quadflieg (Rudi), Christiane Kruger (Octavia), Derek Farr (Evans), Dawn Addams (Clara), Uschi Mellin (Andrea)

Notes: This is the final episode of Star Maidens; the unnamed (and mostly unseen) enemy hails from Proxima Centauri, just like the planet Medusa, and they are said to have fed upon the Medusans during past clashes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

Space Warp

Space: 1999Commander Koenig and Tony Verdeschi depart in an Eagle to board and investigate a derelict starship spotted near the moon’s path. At roughly the same time that ship was detected, Maya fell ill, suffering from a high fever and flashbacks of the destruction of her home planet of Psychon. But before Koenig and Verdeschi finish receiving the latest update on Maya’s condition, they’re horrified when they hear cries of panic from Moonbase Alpha – and watch helplessly as the moon disappears into a space warp. As the Alpha crew recovers from their rough trip, Maya loses control, morphs into a monster, attacks Dr. Russell and escapes from the sick bay. Five light years behind the moon, Koenig and Verdeschi try unsuccessfully to pilot the Eagle into the same wormhole that carried the moon away, unaware that the creature Maya has morphed into may kill the entire crew before they can find a way back.

Order the DVDswritten by Charles Woodgrove
directed by Peter Medak
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Peter Porteous (Petrov), Tony Osoba (1st Security Guard), John Judd (2nd Security Guard), Trevor Thomas (Refuel Eagle Pilot), Andrew Lodge (Grasshopper)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

A Matter Of Balance

Space: 1999Upset when Tony Verdeschi blames her for the failure of his latest beer-brewing experiment, lovestruck young crewmember Shermeen Williams runs off to her quarters, where she sees a vision of a seemingly human face. She reports it to Dr. Russell, who initially dismisses it as a nightmare and puts Shermeen back on duty. But when Shermeen sees the face again, it introduces itself as Vindrus, a man trapped in a universe of antimatter, and it promises her a way to bring her closer to Verdeschi. She follows the instructions given to her by Vindrus, even to the point of disabling a crewmate to take his place on a survey of a nearby planet. This is the world where Vindrus and others like him were banished to the universe of antimatter, and where he intends to return. But for someone in the antimatter universe to cross over to the matter universe, someone from the matter unverse must do the opposite – and Shermeen has allowed herself to be lured into that deadly trap.

Order the DVDswritten by Pip and Jane Baker
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Lynne Frederick (Shermeen Williams), Stuart Wilson (Vindrus), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Nicholas Campbell (Eddie Collins), Brian Osborne (Mr. Potter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

The Beta Cloud

Space: 1999An expanding luminescent cloud appears in the moon’s vicinity, and a mysterious illness sweeps the crew of Moonbase Alpha. The affliction strikes most of the male crewmembers, but not all of them. Commander Koenig is among those rendered helpless, and Tony Verdeschi takes command. Eagle 6, which was on a routine reconaissance mission, returns to the moon without fuel and without a trace of life aboard. But when Verdeschi and a security team board the Eagle, they find a vicious creature that kills everyone it can get its hands on. A mysterious voice contacts Moonbase Alpha and demands that the crew turn off the base’s life support. While this ultimatum is delivered, the creature is rampaging through Alpha’s corridors. As Tony and a surviving security guard try to lead their unwanted visitor into a trap in the base’s vacuum chamber, Dr. Russell falls victim to the debilitating disease. The beast is cutting a deadly path toward Alpha’s life support center to do what the crew is unwilling to do. But can they stop it?

Order the DVDswritten by Charles Woodgrove
directed by Robert Lynn
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Dave Prowse (The Creature), John Hug (Bill Fraser), Albin Pahernik (Space/Kreno Animal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

The Lambda Factor

Space: 1999A member of the medical staff is killed in a mysterious phenomenon that also lays waste to the storage section of Moonbase Alpha’s sick bay. Commander Koenig irritably orders Verdeschi to begin an investigation, and continues to snap at his crew when an unusual object is spotted ahead of the moon’s position in space. And Koenig isn’t the only one exhibiting unusual behavior – other crew members are experiencing it, and even equipment – ranging from most of the Eagles, and a power generator in a room that Alan mysteriously becomes trapped in. Now Verdeschi feels he’s investigating a murder and systematic sabotage. But when various crew members begin exhibiting apparent signs of telekinesis, the scope of Tony’s investigation widens considerably. And while all of this is taking place, the unknown orb of energy draws closer until it engulfs the moon itself.

Order the DVDswritten by Terrance Dicks
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Deborah Fallender (Carolyn Powell), Jess Conrad (Mark Sanders), Anthomy Stamboulieh (George Crato), Michael Walker (Carl Renton), Gregory de Polnay (Peter Garforth), Lydia Lisle (Sally Martin), Lucinda Curtis (Tessa), Dallas Adams (Sam)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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TV Movies

Science Report: Alternative 3

Science Report: Alternative 3It’s just another episode of Anglia TV’s Science Report series, albeit one in which a trail of disappearances of bright, healthy young scientists, engineers, and other thinkers, and a series of unexplained mysteries about the American space program going dormant following the seemingly promising start of the international Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, and a videotape handed over to a member of the press for safe keeping by a radio astronomer who died in a mysterious car crash shortly afterward, and troubling reports of climate change lead to an astonishing conclusion: Earth is doomed, and the human race is secretly sending its best and brightest to a colony on Mars to preserve itself.

Science Report: Alternative 3written by David Ambrose
directed by Christopher Miles
music by Brian Eno

Cast: Tim Brinton (himself), Gregory Munroe (Colin Benson), Carol Hazell (Katherine White), Shane Rimmer (Bob Grodin), Richard Marner (Dr. Carl Gerstein), David Baxt (Harry), Alec Linstead (Professor Broadbent), Norman Chancer (Charles Welbourne), Anthony Roye (Robert Hendry), Patsy Trench (Dr. Ann Clarke), Phoebe Nicholls (Harry’s Girlfriend), Ivor Roberts (George Pendlebury), Linda Cunnungham (Annie), Nancy Adams (Doreen Patterson), Jonathan Hieatt-Smith (Young man in laboratory), Alice Wade (Mrs. Pendlebury)

Science Report: Alternative 3Notes: Originally intended to air on April Fools’ Day (hence the date given at the beginning of the show’s end credits) but delayed by broadcast industry strikes in 1977, Science Report: Alternative 3 was a hoax from beginning to end, devised jointly by its writer (David Ambrose, with credits aplenty on previous Anglia TV series such as Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries) and its director. It’s another entry in that rareified category of “faux newscast” dramas that includes such greats as Special Bulletin, Countdown To Looking Glass, Without Warning, and, of course, Orson Welles’ greatest broadcast hoodwink of them all, the 1938 War Of The Worlds radio broadcast. Still, despite literally everyone aside from veteran TV news anchor Tim Brinton being portrayed by actors (whose names then clearly appear in the show’s end credits), Anglia TV was flooded with phone calls demanding more information for days afterward. Adding to the confusion was a Sphere Books paperback adaptation published in 1978, written by Leslie Watkins (but also crediting Ambrose on the cover), which took the liberty of replacing fictitious “Apollo astronaut Bob Grodin” from the TV script with Buzz Aldrin, which remained in print on and off for 20 years.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

The Bringers Of Wonder – Part 1

Space: 1999During a routine Eagle mission, Koenig – flying solo – seems to lose all control over his emotions. Giggling and yelling, Koenig flies his Eagle right into a nuclear waste dump, critically damaging both himself and his craft. Dr. Russell is left with no choice but to connect him to an experimental device to keep his brain alive – and while the commander is out of commission, a spacecraft is detected on approach to the moon at a speed faster than light. Amazingly, it appears to be a Super-Swift – an upgraded Eagle-style craft that only existed on the drawing board before the moon was blasted out of Earth’s orbit. When contact is made with the Super-Swift, Tony Verdeschi is stunned to see that his older brother Guido is apparently commanding a mission to rescue the Alpha crew. The loved ones of many of Alpha’s crew are aboard as well. Commander Koenig finally awakens from his treatment, and Dr. Russell tells him the good news…but when he meets the Super-Swift crew, he sees not humans, but amorphous creatures. And he can’t understand why his crew is going along with them willingly.

Order the DVDswritten by Terence Feely
directed by Tom Clegg
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Toby Robins (Diana Morris), Stuart Damon (Guido Verdeschi), Jeremy Young (Jack Bartlett), Drewe Henley (Joe Ehrlich), Patrick Westwood (Dr. Shaw), Cher Cameron (Louisa), Al Lampert (Ken Burdett), Billy J. Mitchell (Professor Hunter), Earl Robinson (Sandstrom), Robert Sheedy (Henry), Nichols Young (Peter Rockwell), Albin Pahernik (Lizard Animal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

The Bringers Of Wonder – Part 2

Space: 1999Restrained by his own crew, Commander Koenig fights to get Tony, Dr. Russell, Maya or anyone to believe him. He claims that the crew is being tricked by blob-like beings capable of telepathically projecting themselves as an image from someone’s memory – hence the rescue ship conveniently manned by people known to members of Alpha’s crew. Koenig convinces Helena to perform the same experimental brain treatment on her that he underwent, and she too can then see the Moonbase’s visitors as they really are. But this revelation is too late – the aliens have set a plan into motion to feed their need for highly-radioactive emissions by exploding the nuclear waste dumps on the moon’s far side. Even when Dr. Russell manages to administer a treatment to the entire Moonbase crew, Alan Carter and an alien-influenced team at the nuclear dump is left unaffected – and still doing the aliens’ bidding.

Order the DVDswritten by Terence Feely
directed by Tom Clegg
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Jeffery Kissoon (Dr. Ben Vincent), Toby Robins (Diana Morris), Stuart Damon (Guido Verdeschi), Jeremy Young (Jack Bartlett), Drewe Henley (Joe Ehrlich), Patrick Westwood (Dr. Shaw), Cher Cameron (Louisa), Al Lampert (Ken Burdett), Billy J. Mitchell (Professor Hunter), Earl Robinson (Sandstrom), Robert Sheedy (Henry), Nichols Young (Peter Rockwell), Albin Pahernik (Lizard Animal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

The Seance Spectre

Space: 1999The moon approaches a potentially habitable planet, but Commander Koenig, sensitive to having raised false hopes too many times in the past, keeps it a secret from most of Moonbase Alpha’s population. This turns out to be an even better decision in hindsight, as Koenig discovers that the planet is on a direct collision course with the wayward moon. But a crewman named Sanderson and his close circle of friends, suspicious of the information blackout, mutiny and take over Alpha’s command center. Koenig orders Sanderson and his cohorts confined to the sick bay, and then boards an Eagle with Maya to explore the planet ahead. They find not an Earthlike world, but a planet with a poisonous, turbulent atmosphere that forces a crash-landing. Carter is barely able to bring the Eagle back via remote control, and Koenig decides to deliberately replicate the nuclear blast that shot the moon out of Earth’s orbit, hoping it’ll divert the moon’s course enough to avoid the impending collision. But Sanderson is still convinced of a cover-up – and even when his friends refuse to go against Koenig again, Sanderson is willing to put his life, and everyone else’s, on the line to prove his point.

Order the DVDswritten by Donald James
directed by Peter Madek
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Ken Hutchinson (Greg Sanderson), Carolyn Seymour (Eva), Nigel Pegram (Cernik), James Snell (Stevens), Christopher Asante (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Space: 1999

Dorzak

Space: 1999Koenig investigates a belt of large asteroids, large enough that colonization may be possible. While the commander is gone, a spaceship requests permission to land at Moonbase Alpha, and a woman named Sahala begs for medical assistance. But when she arrives, she attacks Maya, leaving her in a coma. Sahala claims that she has the right of revenge for past atrocities committed against her people by a Psychon named Dorzak, not only a shapeshifter but capable of mind control. Maya insists that the Dorzak she knew was a peaceful philosopher, and not the dangerous prisoner that Sahala claims to have in custody.

Order the DVDswritten by Christopher Penfold
directed by Val Guest
music by Derek Wadsworth

Guest Cast: Tony Anholt (Tony Verdeschi), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Lee Montague (Dorzak), Jill Townsend (Sahala), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Yesta), Sam Dastor (Dr. Ed Spencer), Seretta Wilson (Clea), Richard La Parmentier (Ed Malcolm), Yasuko Nagazumi (Yasko), Paul Jerricho (1st security guard), John Judd (2nd security guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green