Episode Guide: Year One
Title: "Collision Course"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
The Moon's wayward trajectory sends it on a collision course with the planet Astheria. And as the time approaches to alter the Moon's trajectory, Koenig is influenced by Arra, a being from Astheria, to let the collision occur...
Production Number: 013 (Season One)
- filmed Tuesday, August 27 - Tuesday, September 10, 1974
Original U.K. airing week: 18 September 1975 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 31 October 1975 (syndication)
Written by Anthony Terpiloff
Directed by Ray Austin
Backplot
- In the year 1999, lunar nuclear waste storage dumps have exploded, due to magnetic radiation, sending Earth's moon into interstellar space. The inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, unable to escape, are seeking a new home.
- Moonbase Alpha has just dealt with the threat of the destructive propulsion unit from deep space probe Voyager One (from Earth), plus the pursuing, vengeance-addled Sidons.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
Who is Arra? She is old - older than Earth itself - with a beauty that only age can bring. Commander Koenig's encounter with her is also an encounter with destiny. It all happens when the Moon is on a collision course with a planet many times it's size...
Alan Carter (NICK TATE) is the first to see her. She appears when he is flying an Eagle during a mission on which action has to be taken to blast an asteroid which would otherwise hit the Moon. When his mechanism jams, he is aware, though in an unconscious state, that he has been saved by the strange, aged figure of the woman, known later to be Arra (MARGARET LEIGHTON), Queen of the planet Astheria.
But, one danger averted, an even more menacing threat appears. The Moon is on another collision course, this time with a massive planet many times the size of the Moon. Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) suggests a chain of nuclear charges, like mines moored in space, which would create a shockwave and change the planet's trajectory; a plan which is postponed when Sandra Benes (ZIENIA MERTON) comes up with the startling readings that some kind of life could exist there.
Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) dare not waste time. A reconnaissance Eagle is prepared and he sets out to investigate, despite objections from Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN). Speeding towards the menacing planet, he finds himself drawn into the vast spaceship which is preceding it and comes face to face with Arra.
She tells him: "I have been waiting a long time to meet you, John Koenig. We have expected you for many millions of years... your destiny has always been our destiny... our separate planets have met in the body of Time for the great purpose of mutation... the change shall reverberate through the galaxies and universes of eternity."
But back on the Moon, the collision now seems inevitable unless Operation Shockwave is put into operation. If it is, then Koenig must return to Moonbase and persuade them to change the plan.
Can he exert his authority to do so? Or is Helena right in diagnosing radiation sickness, with hallucination and disorientation.
Meanwhile, the planet Astheria is getting closer and closer...
SCREENPLAY BY ANTHONY TERPILOFF
DIRECTED BY RAY AUSTIN
Special Guest Star
MARGARET LEIGHTON
with
PRENTIS HANCOCK as PAUL MORROW
CLIFTON JONES as DAVID KANO
ZIENIA MERTON as SANDRA BENES
ANTON PHILLIPS as DR. MATHIAS
NICK TATE as ALAN CARTER
ALEX SCOTT as AARCHON
LAWRENCE TRIMBLE as PILOT ABRAMS
Unanswered Questions
- Did the planet Astheria shift into another vibrational frequency, plane/dimension of existence, or ??
- Were the Asterians non-corporeal beings whom assumed physicality to interact with the Alphans?
- It is scientifically impossible that the Alphan nuclear mines (for "Operation Shockwave") could not have created the necessary force to change the lunar body's trajectory.
- Nuclear materials are prominent on the Moon/use by Moonbase Alpha. Is it possible that nuclear weaponry was transported to the Moon for storage and/or disassembly, given the nuclear mines which are featured in this episode? (See also: Space Brain, where nuclear weapons are used on the robotic Eagle.)
- Space: 1999 fan Eric Bernard premiered his re-edited/enhanced version of "Collision Course" at the MainMission:2000 convention event during September 1-3, 2000.
- The Asterian spacecraft model would reappear in the episodes "Dragon's Domain" (the Ultra space graveyard) and "The Metamorph" (the Psychon spacecraft graveyard).
- In 2003, Space1999Eagle.com rendered an incredible faux scene from "Collision Course", using their CG-based Eagle model.
Analyses/Observations
Comments
Memorable Lines
Copyright 1999-2003 www.Space1999.org. All Rights Reserved. Legal
notice.
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons License, in conjunction with our Open
Source Content Model. This site uses XHTML and CSS and looks best with
a standards compliant
browser.
