While Tony Cellini is sleeping, swirling lights appear in his room which disturb his sleep. He wakes up in an extremely agitated state and and tries to attack the lights with a tomahawk. After a few attempts, he embeds the tomahawk into the commpost and the lights
	vanish. An alarm is sounded in Medical Centre due to his elevated pulse and metabolic rate. Helena contacts him to see if he is alright. He tells her it was just a bad dream, and that he is fine. He leaves his quarters for the launch pad embarkation area. Main
Mission in alerted to his presence in a restricted area while off duty. Unable to contact him, Koenig restricts his commlock's access to that launch pad until he can find out what is going on. Tony realizes this, knocks Alan out, takes his commlock, and boards an Eagle.
	Koenig Finds Alan, aborts the launch and is forced to stun Tony at point blank range. Cellini is taken to Medical Centre to recover. Helena thinks that Tony has been unstable since the the disaster aboard the Ultra Probe killing three of his crewmates, which he blamed
on a monster that was undetectable to their life scans. The Ultra Probe was launched June 6, 1996 from the Interplanetary Space Station to invetsigate the newest planet discovered in Earth's solar system. When they reached Ultra, eight months later, sensors picked up a
	group of spaceships just after passing behind the planet, and out of communications range. They detected no signs of life on any of the alien craft, and couldn't figure out why. They guessed it might be some kind of "car park" for an intergalacic conference. After
finding a ship with a suitable atmosphere they docked with it. When everything appeared safe, Tony opened the hatch from the command module. A wind blew through the open hatch, and strange lights and sounds came from within. Darwin King told Tony
	to close the hatch.Tony did, but too late. A horrific creature materialized aboard the Ultra Probe. By the time he fixed the doors (which had shorted out) from the Command Module, it had consumed Darwin King, Juliet Mackie, and expelled their smoldering corpses. He tried to
save Dr. Monique Fauchere, but the creature had it's tentacles around her throat, and his laser had no effect. Ultimately she, too, was consumed. Tony tried to kill the monster. He failed, and barely escaped with his life. He separated the Command Module from the
	probe ship and used a low orbit around Ultra to slingshot his craft back towards Earth. His module was found over six months later, with Tony on the brink of death. He recovered, but his story was met with incredulity. Comissioner Dixon believed that he bungled the
docking procedure, killing his crew, and made up the story to cover for his mistake. Dr. Russell was on the medical team assigned to evaluate Cellini. He begged her to believe his story, but ultimately, her report supported the case against him, and he was grounded for more
	psychiatric treatment. John brings Helena flowers to apologise for snapping at her earlier. Koenig is contacted by Main Missio to let him know that sensore picked up new contacts. When he arrives at Main Mission he has Kano check the computer to match the new contacts
against the ones detected by the Ultra Probe, but Sandra locates the Ultra Probe amongst the alien ships before Kano has a channce. Koenig decides to investigate the derelict ships, and asks Tony to come along.They board the Eagle and Tony says he wants to apologise to
	Alan in the cockpit. He knocks Alan out, again, drags his body itno the passenger module, separates the Eagle's superstructure from the pod, and leaves the others on the launch pad. Koenig has another Eagle pick them up and follows Cellini to the Ultra Probe. When Tony gets there,
he separates the Command Module from the Eagle and docks with the Ultra Probe. When Koenig's Eagle arrives, they dock with the probe ship and enter in time to see Tony fighting a losing battle with the Dragon. He is consumed by the creature, to the Alphans horror.
	Koenig and two Security personnel try their lasers on the creature to no effect. Koenig grabs a hatchet and faces off against the Dragon. In a move of either pure luck or divine inspiration, he strikes the creature in the eye with the hatchet, killing it. The Alphans return to Alpha before
it moves out of range of their Eagle, leaving behind the many unanswered questions about the aliens who piloted those ships. The only thing they do know, is their fates, the fate of Tony Cellini. When they get back to the base, Helena suggests that if they do find a new
	home, they will need a whole new mythology. Koenig asks if she means "Tony Cellini and the Monster". He tell's her that it is not mythology, but part of their history now. But he does think that Tony would have been happy to have put new life into an old myth.

This Epsiode

Random Thoughts

One of the first things to strike me about this episode (one of my favorites) was how quickly they set the mood. In the very first scene we see Tony Cellini in bed. In subdued lighting we are looking at him through the shelving in his quarters. We see the shadowy figure of a lion statuette looking ready to pounce on the sleeping figure. Then his nightmare begins and it seems that he is aware of this (or another) predator stalking him. Amongst his collection of tribal weaponry, he looks less like a hunter, and more like the prey. And as the swirling lights appear over his bed, that effect is reinforced.

The mood is further enhanced, in this episode, by the use of Tomaso Albinoni's "Adagio in G Minor". It is a hauntingly beautiful piece of music, and really helps set the tone. An MP3 of this piece of music can be found in the Media Centre on the MP3 page, under the title "The Ultra Probe".

It is great to see a little of the history of the main characters in this episode: Koeing as an astronaut working on the Ultra Probe, and Helena as a doctor for the Space Commission Medical Centre, complete with costume changes, and for Helena, a new (or is that old?) hairdo.

This episode also sported some terrific models and miniature effects. The Ultraprobe was a thoroughly believable design, with a nice reference to the Eagle's design. We see the Interplanetary Space Station (a redress of the Deep Space Launch Platform we saw in Breakaway, with the minor addititon of a landing platform added)

And, of course, the great sequences of the Ultra Probe and Eagle Command Modules separating from their respective craft. Both beautifully done, and an effective display of the practicality of their modular design.

There is one major flaw in this episode. There is a "Space News" report dated
September 3, 1996 that poses the question "Who will pilot the Ultra probe?". The launch date, presumably after that question had been answered, as stated by Helena Russell, was June 6, 1996! There are also a few minor flaws. One, the way Koenig's Eagle docks with the Ultra Probe, they should be exiting the passenger module to the left, but exit to the right. In another, we can see the wires controling the tentacles in one of the close up scenes as Tony fights the Dragon. Also, in the end credits, they spell Monique Fauchere... Monique Bouchere.

The acting was excellent in this episode. Gianni Garko was terrific as Tony Cellini. He was utterly convincing throughout. I especially liked the scenes where John and Helena argue and make up. I got a kick out of the way Helena side-stepped the potential breakdown of their reconcilliation. I think this is the first time we actually get to see the two of them kiss.

And I cannot neglect to mention the Dragon. This was a surprisingly scary monster, especially for it's time. I can't help but wonder if this episode had been an influence on the creation of the movie Alien. There are enough similarites to suggest it might have. A deep space ship discovers an alien vessel. A creature from that vessel gets aboard their ship, killing the entire crew save one. After battling the seemingly indestructable creature, the sole survivor is forced to abandon ship. The similarities extend beyond the story, as well. Brian Johnson was special effects supervisor for Alien, and Martin Bower worked as modelmaker supervisor. As always, any replies to anything here, or any comments in general, are welcome. You can contact me by using the commlock in the Communcation Centre.

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