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Click here for bonus transformation animation

A survey Eagle is dispatched to
a seemingly lifeless planet to
search for the rare mineral
Titanium, needed to repair
Alpha's damaged life support
systems. When they locate a
deposit they are called back
to Alpha. As they leave orbit a
ball of light forms on the planet
and follows the Eagle into space.
Unable to outrun it, Eagle 1 is
engulfed by the light. Annette
Fraser faints as her husbands
Eagle disappears while she
watches from Command Center.
As the Alphans try to determine
just what happened, they
recieve a transmission from
Mentor of the Planet Psychon.
He tells them that it was a
defensive measure against the
armed ship of an unknown
intruder, but the pilots are safe,
and they can send another
Eagle to pick them up.
Koenig suggests a rendezvous
in space to avoid further
"misunderstandings", and has
an Eagle equipped with extra
boosters, just in case. When
they reach the designated meeting
place. Koenig tries to contact
Mentor's ship so that they can
dock. There is no answer because
the ship is empty. It begins to
pull the Eagle down to the
planet, but with the additional
thrust of the boosters they are
able to break free. A short lived
victory, as the ship turns into a
ball of light and drags the Eagle
down to the planet. They land in
what looks like a graveyard of
spaceships. Mentor contacts them
and asks that they wait in the ship
until he is ready for them, but they
decide to search on their own for
their missing people. They enter
a nearby cave and see the
mindless husks of the beings that
belonged to the ships outside.
They also find one of the pilots
from the firs Eagle, his mind
completely drained. Mentor
appears in holographic form
to tell them to give themselves
up. When Lou Picard tries to
overload the circuit with a laser,
it backfires and kills him. Mentor
captures the Alphans with a
green ball of light, and deposits
them into holding cells.
When Koenig wakes,
he sees a lioness outside of his
cell. The animal changes into
Mentor's daughter who introduces
herself as Maya. She cannot
understand why Koenig is so
unfriendly. She believes her father
has been nothing but kind to
them, as he has hidden
all his darker doings from her.
She brings Koenig to her father
so that he can see his the rest
of his party. When they arrive,
Mentor dismisses her, so he can
reveal his true intentions to Koenig.
He wants to feed the minds
of the Alphans to Psyche,
his biological computer, with
which he dreams of restoring
his planet, from the volcanic
wasteland it has become, to
the beautiful planet it once was.
To coerce Koenig, Mentor shows
him that with Psyche's power of
molecular transformation, he can
destroy the Moon. Koenig tells him
to go ahead, that would be better
than the living death of the aliens
in the pits. Mentor shows him the
rest of his party hooked up to
Psyche. He starts to drain
their minds while Koenig
watches. Unable to endure their
suffering, he tells Mentor to stop,
that he will arrange for his
people to come down to Psychon,
in exchange for their freedom.
He contacts Alpha, and tells Tony
to start a phased evacuation.
Tony questions the unorthodox
nature of his decision, and
Koenig quotes "Directive 4" as
giving him the right. Tony orders
a robot Eagle to be loaded
with explosives to destroy the
planet. He explains to Sandra
that "Directive 4" is a coded
signal to destroy the source of
it's origin. Mentor has Maya scan
the Eagle, and discovers the
plot. She decides to confront
Koenig in his cell. He explains
that Mentor has fed the minds
of aliens into Psyche and that
she'll find proof in the caves.
She looks and finds that what he
said was true. Shocked, she returns
to the cell only to find that Mentor
is now retaliating by blowing up
sections of Alpha! Now aware,
and unable to support her fathers
actions, she releases the Alphans
on Koenig's word that Mentor
would not be harmed. Koenig
sends the others to the Eagle,
while Maya takes him to help her
stop her father. Koenig begins
smashing Psyche. Mentor begs
him to stop, as Psyche's energy, if
released, could destroy the planet.
But his warning comes too late.
Psychon is already starting to
break up. Mentor is trapped in
the fire and wreckage of the
destruction. He tells Koenig to
take Maya away. Koenig struggles
to get her out as she changes from
animal to animal, until Mentor is
killed in a cave in. Koenig takes
her to the Eagle which is barely
able to lift off as Psychon violently
breaks apart. They manage to get
to a safe distance as the planet
explodes in a blinding flash of
light. Koenig consoles Helena who
is distraught at the loss of Lou
Picard and Ray Torens.
They thank Maya for saving their
lives, as she sobs uncontrolably.
She is devastated by the loss
of her father and her world, and
worries that anywhere but
Psychon she will be an "alien".
Koenig says "We're all aliens until
we get to know one another."


Screenplay.......................................................................Johnny Byrne

Director......................................................................Charles Crichton

Guest Stars

Mentor...........................................................................Brian Blessed

Annette Fraser...........................................................Anouska Hempel

Ray Torens......................................................................Nick Brimble

Lou Picard.....................................................................Gerard Paquis

Petrov............................................................................Peter Porteous


This happens to be one of my favorite second season episodes. Despite such problems as the the sudden change from Main Mission to Command Center (don't get me started!), and the unexplained disappearance of Victor, Paul, Kano, Tanya etc., this episode introduces Maya. Catherine Schell breathes a humanity and life into this character, which, if handled by a less talented actress, could have been a joke. She handles the naiveté with grace, and is believably incensed by Koenig's accusations against her father. Her performance is wonderfully playful and tragic as called for. She won me over immediately, no mean feat for someone stepping into a beloved series revamped as drastically as Space: 1999 was. Thankfully someone must have recalled this talented actress in her part as the Servant of the Guardian, in the first season episode
Guardian of Piri.

Brian Blessed was, of course, wonderful as Mentor. He has a "bigger than life" presence that works very well for madmen, but does not lose the subtleties of his performance. He, also, is a veteran of the first season. He played Dr. Cabot Rowland in Death's Other Dominion.

One amusing point that I found, after trying so hard to "Americanize" the show, you obviously cannot take the "British" out of the staff... in one of the first shots of Annette Fraser (Anouska Hempel) in Command Center (American spelling) behind her we see a label over one of the panels declaring Command Centre!

I cannot understand why they felt the need to remove the now infamous "orange tree sequence" from the episode for most releases but thanks to David Bobzien, I have a short video clip of that sequence to share with the curious. Click on the orange to be view the clip.

Click here for video clip of the "orange tree sequence"

I really like the look of Psychon. The grove of Psyche especially. I love the trees(?) that look like roots intertwined, and the tubes of colored bubbling liquids. With a little more air moving through them, they really suggested the increase in Psyche's power in a new and visually interesting way. And I am always a sucker for a Graveyard of Spaceships, which brings me to this month's....

Many of the ships seen in the "Graveyard of Spaceships" sequence were from other episodes, and even a similar scene in Dragon's Domain.

You'll notice the ship that the Ultra Probe docked with in Dragon's Domain in the background, between that and the Eagle there is one of the Sidon ships from Voyager's Return lying in the mist, as well as some of the mines used in "Operation Shockwave" from Collision Course.

From the opposite side of the valley you can see Arra's ship, and another ship from Dragon's Domain.


Click for downloadable version

 

 

Click here to play sound Mentor and Maya discuss the the Alphans.
Click here to play sound Mentor and Koenig make plans
to rendezvous over Psychon.
Click here to play sound Mentor welcomes the Alphans to Psychon.
Click here to play sound Koenig meets Maya.
Click here to play sound Mentor introduces Koenig to Psyche
and reveals his plans for the Alphans.
Click here to play sound Mentor threatens to destroy the Moon
if Koenig does not agree to his plan.
Click here to play sound Koenig tells Tony to evacuate Alpha,
and invokes Directive 4.
Click here to play sound Tony explains Directive 4.
Click here to play sound Annette Fraser discovers
Koenig's plan for Psychon.
Click here to play sound Mentor discovers
Koenig's plan for Psychon.
Click here to play sound Maya confronts Koenig,
while he tries to gain her help.
Click here to play sound Maya consents to help,
with one condition.
Click here to play sound Mentor tries to prevent
Koenig from destroying Psychon
Click here to play sound Koenig and Helena
try to comfort Maya.
Click here to play sound Background sound.

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