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Earth's runaway moon is passing another possibly inhabitable planet -
so Moonbase Alpha's commander Koenig (Martin Landau) has the command room
sealed off to discuss the planet only with his closest staff to avoid
encouraging and then crushing hope in the Alphans yet again. And as it
turns out his notion was right, as he almost doesn't return from a
scouting flight thanks to poisonous gases and is only saved by his
co-pilot, shapeshifter Maya (Catherine Schell), who turns into a jungle to
absorb the gases just in time. Thing is, while it's scientifically proven
that the planet uninhabitable, and at least for another 50 million years,
there is a miner, Sanderson (Ken Hutchison), who has a vision that the
planet can in fact support life, and he thinks Koenig is supressing that
fact because down on a planet he wouldn't have any power anymore and thus
does everything to keep everyone on Alpha. And he has gathered a very
small group (Carolyn Seymour, Nigel Pegram, James Snell) around him to
confront Koenig. And even if they are a mere foursome, they can be quite
bothersome - that is when they're not having another seance, during which
Sanderson has (or claims to have) more visions of the planet. But
there's a bigger problem facing Alpha: on its current course, the moon
would crash with the planet in question. The only solution would be to
blow up one of the nuclear waste dumps (a big no-no only last
episode) to alter the course of the moon. This would of course
mean everyone has to evacuate the moon temporarily, which mostly isn't a
problem, but of course, until the very end, Sanderson and company are a
nuisance every step along the way. Now the evacuation of the
moon serves as a brilliant excuse for extensive featuring of the show's
miniature work that still holds up today - but the rest of the episode
isn't nearly as interesting, it's basically lacking on the motivation
department: The audience never gets an idea why Sanderson thinks they're
approaching an inhabitable planet - and in that connection, the seances
seem particularly odd. Also, a group of no more than four shouldn't be a
problem for the base's security. Also because none of the rebels have ever
been seen before in the series (or will be seen again), their actions
invoke little emotional reaction in the audience (a problem this episode
shares with many others), thus the viewer, knowing the story will end
happily, will know whatever they do has little consequence. Also, that the
very thing that would have spelt doom just last episode, The
Bringers of Wonder, should save the moon now is kind of an odd
choice. That said, fans of the series or of 1970s sci-fi in general will
find plenty to enjoy, it's just not one of the better episodes of the
show.
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