Episode Guide: Year Two
Title: "The Catacombs Of The Moon"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
A critically-ill Alphan faces death without a new heart... And a cosmic firestorm approaches the Moon, posing a grave threat to the entire base.
Production Number: 013 (Season Two)
Original U.K. airing week: 25 October 1976 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 26 October 1976 (syndication)
Written by Anthony Terpiloff
Directed by Robert Lynn
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.)
Dr. Helena Russell wages a desperate fight for the life of a girl whose husband has visions of Alpha being destroyed by fire... visions made all the more ominous when a fire storm sweeps towards the Moon.
Down in the catacombs of the moon, engineer Patrick Osgood (JAMES LAURENSON) is reaching a state of frenzy as he leads a party in search of vitally needed titanium, the scarce metal required for Moonbase Alpha's life support system - and even more urgently needed to coat the valves of the artificial heart that Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) is working on in a desperate effort to save the life of Osgood's wife Michelle (PAMELA STEPHENSON).
One artificial heart after another fails to function. It is now a race against time and Commander John Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) has a grim decision to make. The release of any of the fast-dwindling store of titanium that Helena is asking for could threaten the whole of Alpha. He delays his decision in the hope that Osgood will be successful in his search.
Osgood is already showing signs of an unbalanced mind, claiming that he is seeing visions of the Moon being destroyed by fire - visions which have an ominous ring of truth as the temperature on the Moon rises rapidly and there is evidence of a fire storm heading towards them.
While Helena and Dr. Vincent (JEFFERY KISSOON) meet increasing disappointments in their efforts, Koenig is in an Eagle to trace the course of the fire storm.
Osgood is cynical about the medical efforts to save his wife, ranting about faith being her only hope. He is determined to take her into the catacombs, wires himself into a human bomb and forces Helena to release her. An immediate search for the missing pair is ordered, but there is even greater drama as the fire storm strikes. The Moon shudders under the impact. There are casualties, but Alpha still functions. The danger recedes, and Koenig decides to risk the release of the titanium which could save Michelle... if she and her husband can be found in the catacombs...
"SPACE 1999" - SERIES II
CAST LIST
EPISODE NO. 7 - "THE CATACOMBS OF THE MOON"
DIRECTOR: ROBERT LYNN
KOENIG - MARTIN LANDAU
HELENA - BARBARA BAIN
MAYA - CATHERINE SCHELL
VERDESCHI - TONY ANHOLT
DR. BEN VINCENT - JEFFERY KISSOON
SAHN - ZIENIA MERTON
OSGOOD - JAMES LAURENSON
MICHELLE - PAMELA STEPHENSON
FIRST ENGINEER - LLOYD McGUIRE
SECOND ENGINEER - SAUL REICHLIN
NURSE - KAREN FORD
1ST ALPHAN WOMAN - NOVA LLEWELLYN
2ND ALPHAN WOMAN - FELICITY YORK
CO-PILOT - ALAN HUNTER
SECURITY GUARD - BRENDAN PRICE
ALPHAN - JAMES LEITH
Unanswered Questions
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.
