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Episode Guide: Year One

Title: "War Games"

Overview

Familiar spacecraft from a nearby planet attack Moonbase Alpha -- and large casualties ensue as the Alphans seek to defend themselves.

Production Number: 017 (Season One)
- filmed Thursday, October 24 - Thursday, November 7, 1974

Original U.K. airing week: 25 September 1975 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 7 November 1975 (syndication)
Written by Christopher Penfold
Directed by Charles Crichton

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.
The immortal being Balor (from the previous episode, "End of Eternity") has been expulsed from Moonbase Alpha. Balor's psychotic ways have claimed the life of one person, Mike Baxter.
The Alphans are getting back into their "normal," daily routines.

Plot Synopsis

(From the original ITC Press Release.)

View additional images
from the episode,
"War Games."

Moonbase Alpha finds itself at war with an unnamed planet. The outcome is disastrous. Everything is wrecked. But can there be a future for the survivors on the aggressor planet?

Moonbase Alpha is at war! The attack come from an unnamed planet, launched by a fleet of fighters which strafe the moon with laser fire, causing enormous explosions. As windows are smashed, men are sucked into space in clouds of loose articles and debris. Defending Eagles are destroyed in the air. Main Mission is wrecked and the base is left shattered an burning before the attacking craft turn away.

Grimly, Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) warns that they will now send in bombers. He is right, but the one remaining laser-equipped Eagle averts this further disaster. A gigantic nuclear explosion fills the space sky.

Moonbase is no longer habitable, with 129 dead and Dr Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) tending the many others who have been injured. Only one hope remains and that is to come to terms with the enemy planet and seek a new life there. Koenig and Helena Russell make the journey in an unarmed Eagle and come face to face with eerie figures silhouetted in strange columns. The appeals to allow Alpha personnel to come to the planet are rejected by the Male Alien (ANTHONY VALENTINE), telling them they have no place in space at all. They are a contaminating organism - a plague of fear. The Female Alien (ISLA BLAIR) tells them: "Your presence on this planet would destroy a civilisation that has survived for billions of years."

When Koenig moves in to attack them, both fire laser beams at him. He drops dead, but Helena, taken into one of the columns, finds herself with the power to bring him back to life. Allowed to go, he reaches the Eagle and calls Moonbase, issuing orders for the last of the laser Eagles to be launched and for Alpha to be evacuated to the planet.

But the plan fails... and at the same time Helena is being told about the harmonious world of the planet on which there is no fear. Earthman's own enemy is his own fear.

Back again on Alpha, everything is normal again - except that an attack appears imminent. They are back to where they were before the attack that destroyed the moon. This time, Koenig tells the defending Eagles to hold their fire. His intructions are greeted with blank astonishment and horror, and the the fighters blink out of existence.

Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) asks if this means they can go to the planet, but before Koenig can reply, he hears the voices of the Aliens saying they hope he will stay away: "You are so primitive and unstable, so governed by emotions like fear, that you would destroy our perfect world... our only defence was to make your fears appear real... in a moment of time we have shown you the possible consequences of a decision we trust you will not take..."

SCREENPLAY BY CHRISTOPHER PENFOLD

DIRECTED BY CHARLES CRICHTON

Guest Star
ANTHONY VALENTINE

Guest Artist
ISLA BLAIR

with
PRENTIS HANCOCK as PAUL MORROW
CLIFTON JONES as DAVID KANO

Unanswered Questions

Why didn't the Alphans wonder why Hawk spacecraft (with a design originating from Earth) were being used against them by a distant alien civilization? Even pilot Alan Carter, who should be familiar with the design, doesn't question their origin when he sees them.

Were there any Hawk spacecraft residing in Moonbase Alpha's hangars? If so, did the Alphans ever utilize them? (This was never revealed within the series.)

Analyses/Observations

Comments

"War Games" was said to be the highest-budgeted single episode of any TV series in history when it aired.

Actress Isla Blair (female alien) is married to actor Julian Glover ("Jarak" from the episode "Alpha Child"). She also appeared in the Year Two episode, "Journey to Where."

The Hawk spacecraft design proved to be popular with Space: 1999 fans, spawning commercial model kits, replica toys and blueprint designs.

The ViewMaster^TM toy featured a Space: 1999 viewreel of "War Games."

Memorable Lines

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