Space: 1999: Alien Attack

THE STORY: This is another episode or episodes of Space: 1999 that was put on video. Space 1999 was a TV series in the seventies about a base on the moon called Alpha. In the series a nuclear accident sent the moon flying through space, stranding the crew of  Moonbase Alpha on it. The pilot for the series was also put on video as a "movie". You can read that review by clicking here.

In this show, err, movie, Commander John Koenig, the head honcho of Alpha goes berserk while flying a routine mission over the nuclear waste sites near the base. He's acting like a madman and crashes. Tony, the second in command orders a rescue mission. Koenig is taken to the medical bay and Doctor Helena Russell treats him with an experimental brainwave device.

While Koenig is unconscious a "super-swift" lands on Alpha. A super-swift was an experimental faster than light spacecraft that was still on the drawing boards when the moon was blasted out of orbit. Tony and the others are suprised to learn that the crew of the ship is made up of all of their old friends and lovers. Its a rescue mission! Tony's brother Guido is the captain!

The super-swift crew explains that when the faster than light drive was created they immediately set out an expedition to rescue the denizens of Moonbase Alpha. This ship was just the scout party. bigger transports are on the way to get everyone. Meanwhile three of the Alpha crew are chosen to ride back on the super-swift. They are Alan Carter, Ehrlik and Bartlett.

While all this jubilation is going on, Koenig regains consciousness. When he goes to greet the rescue party he doesn't see humans. He sees monsters! The brain wave treatment has rendered him immune to the alien's control and he sees what they really are. No one believes him, of course and he is confined to the medical bay and restrained. The only one who believes him is Maya, an alien member of the Alpha crew. Maya is the last of her kind and she is a metamorph...Meaning she can change shape into any other kind of creature, kind of like Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. (only the FX in the 70's don't allow any cool morphing scenes) for some reason the aliens cause the records officer to go nutso and destroy the records lab. Maya transforms into a creature of some kind and stops him. The aliens then learn that she is a metamorph. We never learn exactly why the aliens made the records officer go berserk.

Koenig convinces Maya and Helena that he is probably telling the truth. Maya seems convinced. She too finds it strange that the entire rescue party is made of people that someone knows. She surmises that this is because the aliens are drawing on the memories of the crew of Alpha to create their illusion. They tried to get Koenig out of the way by making him go loopy while piloting the Eagle spacecraft, and crash. It didn't kill him as the aliens had hoped. Maya undergoes the brainwave treatment so that she can see the aliens for what they are. Koenig gets Maya to transform into one of the aliens so she can find out what they want. She does so but is almost caught. She informs Koenig and Helena of the alien plan.

The aliens live on radiation. They are starving and need a large infusion of it to survive. They are feeding Bartlett, Ehrlik and Carter the illusion of being back on Earth. In reality, they didn't leave on the super-swift, they flew one of Alpha's Eagle spacecraft to the nuclear waste area. The aliens plan to ignite the waste and cause a large explosion that will give off enough radioactivity to sustain them. The explosion will unfortunately kill every human on Moonbase Alpha. The reason the aliens need to manipulate the denizens of the base is because they don't have any arms of their own and very little strength. They can't trigger the waste themselves and they need to fool the humans into doing it for them.

Helena uses a white noise device to block the alien's control of everyone on the base. The crew of Alpha suddenly see the aliens for what they are, and once exposed they disappear. The white noise didn't effect Bartlett, Ehrlik and Carter though. They are on the surface of the moon preparing to detonate the waste.

Tony, Maya and Koenig go to stop them. the aliens are running out of power and are concentrating all of their efforts on the three astronauts. Koenig and Maya attempt to stop them on the moon's surface but only manage to capture Ehrlik. Koenig chases Bartlett and Carter into the waste disposal dump. The aliens try to stop him by making Bartlett and Carter fight him. They are almost ready to insert the atomic fuel trigger into the dump and blow Moonbase Alpha to bits. Bartlett is momentarily freed of the aliens command, but they neutralize him. Koenig is forced to fight his friend Carter before Carter can destroy the base. The aliens try to convince Koenig that its better to let them blow up the base. Yes, everyone will die, but the aliens will give everyone a blissful hallucinatory life in the matter of minutes which they say is better than their hopeless plight of being marooned in space. Koenig resists and knocks Alan out with a forceful blow. The aliens are out of energy and disappear.

This was pretty good if you know what you're watching. If you've never seen Space: 1999 I think you'll be a little confused. I was. I used to watch the show and I was pretty young then. I don't remember how Maya came to live on Moonbase Alpha or what happened to the scientist, Victor. I also don't remember where Tony came from. Or how he got to be the second in command rather than Alan Carter. Maya was actress Catherine Schell. Koenig was once again Martin Landau. Helena was again Barbara Bain and Nick Tate was Alan Carter. Tony Anholt was actor Tony Verdeshi.

Best Lines: "You know mama...she's making you a mound of pasta the size of Vesuvius!...and the sauce!"- Guido tells his brother Tony that their mother is awaiting their return to Earth.

"Its better to live as your own man than as a fool in someone else's dream!"-Koenig's answer to the aliens offer of a good life of illusion rather than the grinding desolation of being stranded on Alpha.

1.) Helena and Koenig's ex-girlfriend Diana use their cat claws on each other. its obvious that Diana wants Koenig back. That would set some bells off to me if I were Helena. Why would Diana be so concerned with petty rivalries in a situation like this? The others arrived to rescue the crew of Moonbase Alpha. You'd think that anything else would wait! Helena isn't thinking. If I were her I wouldn't care if Koenig dumped me and professed his undying love for Diana if someone came to take them all back to Earth.

2.) Koenig asks Tony, Helena and Ben why they don't think its strange that everyone on the rescue ship is a friend or relative. Tony says its not all that strange. Are they mad? That would have been the first thing I thought when they landed! I'm not marooned on a runaway moon and do you know how many friends I've miraculously ended up in the same spot as in 9 years of military service? TWO. If I was stranded somewhere with a group of people and a rescue party made of everyone someone else knew arrived I'd know something was wrong. At least Maya begins to see the light when Koenig asks her face to face if she thinks its strange.

3.) How does Koenig know that the aliens know that Maya is a metamorph? He was unconscious when Maya had to transform in front of the aliens and they didn't know she was a metamorph until she changed!

4.) Oh, I'm not buying this...Helena knocks everyone on Moonbase Alpha out with gas, as per Koenig's orders. But she wears this little teeny-weeny paper mask to protect herself. Oh,no,no,no. That dinky little mask ain't gonna cut it.

5.) Why doesn't Koenig just use his laser gun to knock Alan and Bartlett out? If he did that the aliens would lose immediately.

NUDITY AND SEX: None

HUH?: When Maya at first tells Koenig the aliens need the radiation from their nuclear waste to live he says that would be beneficial for Moonbase Alpha. But the aliens need the type of radiation from a large explosion and detonating the waste would destroy alpha. Why doesn't Koenig offer them the waste and a way to detonate it in space or on another planet away from Alpha? Well, that doesn't actually fit in with this show...err, movie. On any other Star Trek series except the original that's what would happen. (On the Original Star Trek series Captain Kirk would have most likely blew the aliens to hell after sleeping with one of them.)

When Maya changes into another creature she somehow changes the matter in whatever she's holding or dressed in. I guess that's obvious since her clothes change or disappear, too. But I didn't think of it until she changed into a monster on the moon's surface. I guess whatever kind of beast it was can live in a vacuum, because  her spacesuit disappears. She also turned some kind of instrument she was holding into a sword when she changed into a samurai earlier in the show...err, movie.

THE TALLY: The plot of this episode,...I mean, err, movie was pretty good. I liked it. There's not a lot of bare knuckled action, but despite the 70ish look of everything on this video I think it was a worthy little science fiction diversion. That is if you can buy the whole deal of the moon being blasted out of earth orbit and flying uncontrollably through space.