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The crew of moonbase Alpha, the base on earth's runaway moon, is
understandably excited when the first child is born on the base ... &
everything, birth & all, goes surprisingly well - until the child
grows to a 5-year-old in mere seconds. Dumb like sheep, the Alphans have
litle problems to accept the newborn 5-year-old (soon dubbed Jackie &
played by Wayne Brooks) & show him all of the moonbase's little
secrets. His sudden growsspurt they just blame on his father having worked
(& ultimately died) in the atomic generator. Only Alpha's commander
Koenig (Martin Landau) shows some concern, even distrust, towards the
child ... & right he is too, as little Jackie soon turns out to be
something like a herald for an alien invasion fleet, & since he is
also able to mindcontrol people, he makes sure that Alpha's ace-pilot Alan
Carter (Nick Tate) & his pals fail to shoot the invaders down. Being
confronted with this, Koenig cooks up a desperate plan to fight the
invaders: He & 3 others have to step out of the base ontothe moon's
surface with rayguns to shoot the invading spaceships down ... now I know
what you think, "how will this help them to escape mindcontrol
?", & quite frankly, I have not the slightest idea, nor is it
explained either, but it gets even better (worse ?): Jackie has meanwhile
grown to adulthood, & now calls himself Jorek (Julian Glover), wearing
a silvery outfit that is so brief it's plain silly, & he manages to
bring Alpha's chief physician Helena Russell (Barbara Bain) under his
(mind-)control, & she orders Koenig & his pals back top base, only
seconds before they can shoot down the alien ships - & for some
reason, they really give up their plan that might even have been
successful, no questions asked. Back on Alpha, Jorek tells the crew
(& us) what this is all about: He & his space invader-pals are
bodyless aliens who are persecuted by the law through the universe, &
to properly hide themselves, they have figured they might need bodies,
& have chosen Alpha's crew to be taken over ... but before they can do
so, the space police arrives, shoots the invading ships down & somehow
suck Jorek from Alpha too. In the end, little Jackie is restored as a
newborn baby, cradled in the arms of his mother (Cyd Hayman). As
you might have guessed from my plot synopsis, this is Space 1999 at
its silliest: The premise to the story is just plain stupid & the plot
development is directionless & based on anything but logic ... and
yet, it's fun (if for all the wrong reasons) - and (as usual) the
miniature models are great.
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