Episode Guide: Year Two
Title: "Devil's Planet"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
Production Number: 022 (Season Two)
Original U.K. airing week: 1 September 1977 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 1 September 1977 (syndication)
Written by Michael Winder
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.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
Answering a distress signal, Commander Koenig is forced to crash-land his Eagle on Entra - moon of the planet Ellna - which turns out to be the planet's penal colony, and Koenig finds himself a prisoner of the beautiful Elizia and her equally beautiful prison guards.
When Moonbase Alpha picks up a distress signal from the nearby planet Ellna, Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) and Blake Maine (MICHAEL DICKINSON) of the Medical Rescue Team go to investigate. Flying their Eagle low over the planet they see a large city, with a breathable atmosphere and vegetation similar to that on earth but, curiously, there is no sign of life. On landing they find a number of dead bodies dressed in similar uniform. Then a man - very much alive - appears from a large, transparent box, a Transbeam station. As he moves towards them in greeting, he crumples to the ground and dies.
Baffled, Koenig and Maine leave the planet and decide to take a look at its moon. As they approach it their instruments pick up signs of life, but suddenly the Eagle goes out of control an crashes. The two men are shaken but unharmed and crawl from the wreckage just in time to see a man - in the same type of uniform they have seen on Ellna - running for his life towards a large column marked 'Sanctuary' chased by three beautiful girls dressed in skin-tight catsuits and carrying long, electric whips! Koenig and Maine move in to help, but Maine runs into a force-field and is killed, and a horrified Koenig is knocked out by one of the girls.
He comes to in a cell, surrounded by prisoners who suspect him of being a spy, planted by Elizia (HILDEGARD NEIL), Overseer of Entra which is a penal colony for Ellna. They are infuriated when Koenig tells them that everyone on Ellna is dead and that any prisoner sent home will die as soon as he arrives. So angry are they that Elizia arrives just in time to prevent Koenig from being lynched! She manages to calm the prisoners, assuring them that they all have a chance of returning home - safe and sound.
Another arrival is even more welcome to Koenig - that of Eagle Two, with Bill Frazer (JOHN HUG) and Alibe (ALIBE PARSONS) searching for the crashed Eagle. They request permission to land but Elizia refuses them, saying that both Koenig and Maine are dead. By threatening violence from Moonbase Alpha Fraser changes her mind and when they land Elizia shows them over Koenig's Eagle and the spot at the force-field where they both died. Shattered by this 'proof'. Fraser and Alibe return to their craft where they both died. Shattered by this 'proof' Fraser and Alibe return to their craft, unaware that a very-much-alive Koenig is watching helplessly from his prison cell as they lift-off.
Elizia has taken a strong fancy to the Commander but when she tries to seduce him he throws her off and escapes. Reaching his Eagle he searches for weapons, but all are gone. Then, a sudden thought strikes him and, pocketing a small Distress Homing Transmitter he walks determinedly back to the prison complex an the Transbeamer, to the amazement of Elizia an her guards. He then challenges Elizia: if she is telling the truth and there is no death on Ellna, she can go with him and bring him back. Caught in her own trap, Elizia cannot meet the challenge and Koenig transbeams himself to the planet, where he switches on the homing device which can now be picked up by Eagle Two.
Back on Entra, Elizia faces another challenge - from her guards who demand that she proes that Koenig was lying. Now she has no option but to step into the transbeamer herself. As she appears on Ellna she comes face to face with Koenig again and although she has only seconds to live, she is armed and he is not...
"SPACE 1999" - SERIES II
CAST LIST
EPISODE NO. 22 - "DEVIL'S PLANET"
DIRECTOR: TOM CLEGG
KOENIG - MARTIN LANDAU
VERDESCHI - TONY ANHOLT
ELIZIA - HILDEGARD NEIL
CRAEL - ROY MARSDEN
INTERROGATOR - DORA REISSER
SERIES/CONTROLLER - CASSANDRA HARRIS
JELTO - ANGUS MacINNES
KINANO - AUTHUR WHITE
BLAKE MAINE - MICHAEL DICKINSON
FRASER - JOHN HUG
ALIBE - ALIBE PARSONS
DR. ED SPENCER - SAM DASTOR
Unanswered Questions
Analyses/Observations
Comments
Memorable Lines
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