Episode Guide: Year Two
Title: "The Bringers Of Wonder, Part One"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
A rescue party from Earth arrives at Moonbase Alpha... and Commander Koenig sees them as monsterous aliens, not humans, as everyone else does.
Production Number: 018 (Season Two)
Original U.K. airing week: 4 August 1977 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 4 August 1977 (syndication)
Written by Terence Feely
Directed by Tom Clegg
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 Alphans have just dealt with Carolyn Powell and her psionically-powered mind control/subjucation of the base.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
Everyone on Moonbase is electrified by the arrival of a spaceship from Earth. Everyone, that is, except Commander Koenig. Where the others see long-lost friends and relatives, he sees hideous aliens, bent on taking over the Moonbase...
When Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) crashes his Eagle after throwing his craft about the sky like a drunken driver, Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) is at a loss to explain his extraordinary behaviour. After being dragged unconscious from the blazing wreckage, Koenig is hooked up to the Brain Impulse machine in the Medical Centre, in spite of Maya's (CATHERINE SCHELL) worry that the machine is still experimental.
No sooner has the excitement of the crash subsided than there is a gasp of disbelief from Sahn (ZIENIA MERTON) as she watches a radar monitor. Approaching Moonbase Alpha is a spaceship travelling faster than the speed of light. Moments later she picks it up on the TV screen and no-one in Mission Control is able to believe his eyes. There on the screen is a Superswift, a spacecraft that was still on the drawing board when Moonbase was blasted out of Earth's orbit. But how can people on Earth have built a craft to exceed the speed of light?
All such questions are forgotten when the Superswift lands and out steps Tony Verdeschi's (TONY ANHOLT) brother Guido (STUART DAMON)! He is followed by the rest of the Superswift's crew, all of whom are known to someone on Moonbase Alpha. During the instant reunion party that follows, Guido announces that soon transporters will arrive to take them all back to Earth. But while everyone wallows in the euphoria brought about by the thought of going home, two of the newcomers exert a strange and evil influence over Sandstrom (EARL ROBINSON) a Medical Orderly. He goes to the Medical Centre and starts switching off all the instruments attached to the still unconscious Koenig, but luckily he is seen by Dr. Ben Vincent (JEFFREY KISSOON) and Helena, who rush to Koenig's aid.
None the worse for his attempted murder, the Commander comes too shortly after and is told of the arrival of the Superswift. Overjoyed by the prospect of going home, he goes to the Command Centre to join the party, but stops in horror when he sees the new arrival - in his eyes there are no friends from Earth, as he has been led to believe, but a group of hideous aliens. And the monitor screen shows him not the Superswift, but an alien spaceship! Horrified, he orders the Weapons Section to destroy the ship and when this is countermanded by Tony, Koenig grabs a laser gun and tries to shoot Guido. But, under the influence of one of the visitors, Dr. Shaw (PATRICK WESTWOOD), Helena shoots him first...
Clive Kandor (NICK HOBBS) of the Records Unit has been filming the party but when he returns to his lab to check the film he comes under the influence of Guido and Shaw who, realising that it will show them as aliens, not earthmen, make him lock the lab and start destroying his equipment. When Maya hears about this she transforms herself into a ladybird and gets into the lab through the air-conditioning vent. In order to subdue Kandor, she then becomes a space monster and, having knocked him out, breaks down the door. But this causes an explosion and Kandor is killed.
Still unaware of the true identities of their 'friends' the Alphans are happy to draw lots to see who should be the first three to return to Earth - in the Superswift's pilot ship. When Koenig regains consciousness, he is horrified to learn that the chosen three are Moonbase Alpha's radioactive monitoring team. But before he can explain his concern, a worried Helena injects him with a sedative. Later, as he lies in the Medical Centre, an alien enters the room and begins to smother him.
"SPACE 1999" - SERIES II
CAST LIST
EPISODE NO. 18 - "THE BRINGERS OF WONDER" (Part 1)
DIRECTOR: TOM CLEGG
KOENIG - MARTIN LANDAU
HELENA - BARBARA BAIN
MAYA - CATHERINE SCHELL
VERDESCHI - TONY ANHOLT
CARTER - NICK TATE
SAHN - ZIENIA MERTON
DR. BEN VINCENT - JEFFERY KISSOON
DIANA - TOBY ROBINS
GUIDO - STUART DAMON
JACK BARTLETT - JEREMY YOUNG
JOE EHRLICH - DREWE HENLEY
LOUISA - CHER CAMERON
SANDSTORM - EARL ROBINSON
DR. SHAW - PATRICK WESTWOOD
PETER ROCKWELL - NICHOLAS YOUNG
HENRY - ROBERT SHEEDY
LIZARD ANIMAL - ALBIN PAHERNIK
KEN BURDETT - AL LAMPERT
PROFESSOR HUNTER - BILLY J. MITCHELL
Unanswered Questions
Analyses/Observations
Comments
Memorable Lines
"Why won't you listen to me? You're all blind!" - John Koenig
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