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Space 1999 - The Bringers of Wonder
episodes 2.18, 2.19
Destination Moonbase-Alpha
UK 1977
produced by Gerry Anderson, Fred Freiberger for ITC
directed by Tom Clegg
starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Catherine Schell, Tony Anholt, Nick Tate, Zienia Merton, Jeffery Kissoon, Toby Robins, Stuart Damon, Jeremy Young, Drewe Henley, Patrick Westwood, Cher Cameron, Al Lampert, Billy J. Mitchell, Earl Robinson, Robert Sheedy, Nicholas Young, Albin Pahernik
screenplay by Terence Feely, created by Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson, music by Derek Wadsworth, special effects by Brian Johnson
TV-series Space 1999
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Earth's runaway moon, Moonbase Alpha: Commander Koenig (Martin Landau)
has in all probability just lost his mind, has snatched an Eagle and tries
to fly it into the nuclear waste depot - but fortunately does only very
little damage to him or the Eagle and none to the depot. But Koenig is put
in constraints and given a "brain massage" with some
experimental device the base's doctor Russell (Barbara Blain) administers.
While he's out of action though, a space ship approaches the moon, her
speed exceeding the speed of light, and oh wonder, it's not only a rescue
mission from earth, also all of the ship's crew are actually friends or
relatives of the moonbase's crew, including security chief Tony's (Tony
Anholt) brother Guido (Stuart Damon) and Dr. Russell's mentor Dr. Shaw
(Patrick Westwood). Everybody's so happy about this that they don't notice
that a few of the new arrivals steal away and try to kill Koenig - without
success though. Koenig ultimately comes out of his brain massage machine,
seems to be perfectly alright, and is given the good news. However, when
he meets the new arrivals, he's shocked as he sees them to be only
decaying mounts of flesh and guts. All is of course attributed to his
present state and he's sedated again, while three of Alpha's crew are
selected to be the first to return to earth in a return pod, Alan (Nick
Tate), Bartlett (Jeremy Young) and Ehrlich (Drewe Henley) - and they
couldn't be happier, and furthermore their trip home goes without a hitch,
and they're celebrated as heroes before they can do what they always
wanted to do - which is apparently a camping trip with girls in bikinis.
Meanwhile on Alpha, Koenig finally manages to convince those closest to
him - Doc Russell, Tony, and resident shapeshifter Maya (Catherine Schell)
that there might be something to his claims and that everybody on the
station has been brainwashed, safe for him thanks to the brain massage
machine, and when Maya gets a brain massage as well, she sees things
Koenig's way. She then turns into one of the aliens, mingles with them and
finds out they need to blow up the base's nuclear waste depot to feed on
the fall-out. And while Alan, Bartlett and Ehrlich think they're on earth
partying, they're actually at the nuclear waste depot placing detonators.
And now it's up to our heroes to stop them ... This two-parter
sure is one of the livelier and more fun episodes of the series as it
manages to combine all that made the series so good and that made it so
campy in one story that's actually pretty well-structured (not a given
with the series) and doesn't end with some cop-out. So you've got some
great miniature effects that stand the test of time next to some really
ugly space monsters that though lose much of their effect once the camera
lingers too long, some cheesy space creatures Maya turns into when need
arises, and plot elements that are hilariously far-fetched all over the
course of the story. In all, it's not really great science fiction - but
good somewhat mindless genre entertainment.
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