Episode Guide: Year One
Title: "Earthbound"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
An alien spacecraft lands on the Moon, with beings whom are journeying to Earth. One Alphan may make the journey with them -- who will it be?
Production Number: 005 (Season One)
- filmed Friday, March 15 - Monday, April 1, 1974
Original U.K. airing week: 4 December 1975 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 23 January 1976 (syndication)
Written by Anthony Terpiloff
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.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
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Representatives from a dying planet land on the moon. Their spacecraft has been programmed to take them to Earth. Is this an opportunity for key Moonbase personnel to return to Earth? Commander Koenig is faced with unexpected drama.
A Spaceship makes a crash-landing on the moon. It appears to be unmanned until Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU), Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) and Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) investigate and find six figures laid out like mummies in perspex caskets. There is every indication that life no longer exists, but to their horror, when forcing open one of the caskets, the body of the very beautiful woman inside is immediately reduced to ashes. Almost at once, lights flash, and tops (sic) of the other caskets slide open and the five figures slowly awaken. All are extremely tall and striking, their leader a dignified figure who gives his name as Captain Zantor (CHRISTOPHER LEE).
The Aliens have been in a state of suspended animation for three-and-a-half centuries in Earth time, and Zantor explains that his planet, Kaldor, was dying. Spaceships have been sent to every planet which might sustain Kaldor's kind of life. His ship was planned to orbit the Moon so that it's personnel could be re-animated for the final stage of the journey to Earth.
The news excites Commissioner Simmonds (ROY DOTRICE), who has always refused to believe Koenig's explanation that it is scientifically impossible for Moonbase Alpha to locate and return to Earth. He is determined to accompany the Kaldorians in the remainder of their journey in the now fully repaired spaceship. He even suggests that the ship should be commandeered so that six members of Moonbase Alpha could go.
Koenig angrily rejects any such idea and declares that the computer will select the best possible choice for the space left vacant by the dead Kaldorian girl. The name will not be revealed until the last moment, but Simmonds is determined that he shall be the choice although Captain Zandor would like it to be Helena, who undergoes tests to ensure that the human system would be suited to the state of suspended animation.
Simmonds eventually takes matters into his own hands by breaking into the Power Station and threatening to destroy the whole of Moonbase Alpha unless Koenig agrees to let him go.
Koenig has a heart-searching decision to take...
SCREENPLAY BY ANTHONY TERPILOFF
DIRECTED BY CHARLES CRICHTON
Guest Artist:
ROY DOTRICE
Special Guest Star
CHRISTOPHER LEE
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
Unanswered Questions
Analyses/Observations
Comments
- "Earthbound" should have been Space: 1999's second episode. (It was... when aired in Japan!) Fortunately, Powys Media has re-ordered "Earthbound" as the second episode within their adaptation book of Year One episodes.
Memorable Lines
"Hello, Earth. Hello, Earth. This is Commissioner Simmonds returning home after 75 years." - Commissioner Gerald Simmonds
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