Episode Guide: Year Two
Title: "The Mark Of Archanon"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
A humanoid man and boy are discovered beneath the moon's surface (in the lunar catacombs), placed in stasis eons before "Breakaway" took place.
Production Number: 008 (Season Two)
Original U.K. airing week: 16 October 1976 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 15 October 1976 (syndication)
Written by Lew Schwartz
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 Alphans have escaped from the planet Luton, where sentient plant life held John Koenig and Maya responsible for accidental deaths.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
A sensational find below the Moon's surface... an imprisoned man and his son. Who are they? How did they get there? How long have they been there? And why?
A geological survey below the Moon's surface reveals the existence of a metallic cabinet. Inside are two figures, a man and a boy. They must have been there for centuries, yet they are still alive?
The prisoners prove to have come from Archanon, the Planet of Peace. The man introduces himself as Pasc (JOHN STANDING) and the boy as his son Etrec (MICHAEL GALLAGHER), claiming that when Good replaced Evil amongst his people, emissaries were sent throughout the Universe. He says he was Commander of such a mission to Earth, but such hatred and violence were found that he and Etrec were the only ones to escape contagion. On returning to their base on the Moon, he and his son were overpowered by those who had caught the Earth's sickness. Because the Archanons could never kill, they were placed in a Statis Cabinet - and it was Pasc's wife Lyra who led the mutineers.
But there are soon hints that he is lying. The first of these is when Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) examines them and finds the presence of a strange, living virus in Pasc's blood cells, though the same virus is dead, or dormant, in those of his son.
When a power unit is taken from the Statis chamber, Pasc realizes to his alarm that the monitor is set to the Archanon frequency and that it will now be known that the captives are free. Already, in fact, the Archanons are sending a lovely representative, Maurna (VERONICA LANG), to the Moon.
Pasc makes a bid to escape and reaches an Eagle spacecraft, forcing Helena to accompany him as a hostage. He has had to leave Etrec behind, and he offers Helena's freedom in exchange for his son and permission for the eagle to go. A grim decision has to be taken. When Maurna arrives, she proves to be a descendant of Pasc's wife Lyra and when Lyra (VERONICA LANG) herself materializes from a memory bank in another part of the power unit, it is revealed that Pasc and Etrec were the ones who caught the Earth's sickness and had to be placed in captivity in the hope that one day a cure would be found.
Pasc is beyond cure; the only hope for Etrec is for a blood transfusion from another Archanon, which is against their laws. It is Pasc himself who makes the ultimate sacrifice...
"SPACE 1999" - SERIES II
CAST LIST
EPISODE NO. 6 - "THE MARK OF ARCHANON"
DIRECTOR: CHARLES CRICHTON
KOENIG - MARTIN LANDAU
HELENA - BARBARA BAIN
MAYA - CATHERINE SCHELL
TONY VERDESCHI - TONY ANHOLT
ALAN CARTER - NICK TATE
YASKO - YASUKO NAGAZUMI
DR. RAUL NUNEZ - RAUL NEWNEY
1ST OPERATIVE - ANNIE LAMBERT
ANDY JOHNSON - JOHN ALKIN
PASC - JOHN STANDING
ETREC - MICHAEL GALLAGHER
CARSON - ANTHONY FORREST
LYRA/MAURNA - VERONICA LANG
FRASER - JOHN HUG
Unanswered Questions
Analyses/Observations
Comments
Memorable Lines
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