The Catacombs The Merchandise Guide
Video: US Laserdisc
Compiled by Martin Willey

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MISSION OF THE DARIANS

Compare with ITC summary.

A call for help from the survivors of a dying world... an incredible world that has been flying through space for 900 years, with contrasting inhabitants. Some have never changed; others have reverted to barbarism. But can this offer new hope for the Alphans?

The spaceship is colossal. From Moonbase Alpha, it appears to be at least fifty miles long and two miles wide. From it comes signals which, when decoded, appeal repeatedly for help: "Emergency! Emergency! This is the Commander of the Spaceship Darian. A major catastrophe has occurred. Large areas of our ship are devastated. We who survive will perish without urgent medical and material aid..."

Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) immediately orders a mercy flight, taking with him Professor Bergman (Barry Morse), Dr. Helena Russell (Barbara Bain), Alan Carter (Nick Tate), Paul Morrow (Prentis Hancock) and Security Man Bill Lowry (Paul Antrim).

They enter a bewilderingly strange world of startling contrasts. In charge of one part is the agelessly beautiful Kara (Joan Collins) and the ship commanded by a man named Neman (Dennis Burgess). The vast spaceship set out 900 years ago from its own dying world in search of a virgin planet where the Darian civilization could begin again. But a nuclear disaster struck early on the voyage and the emergency signal appeal was automatically triggered off and has been broadcasting ever since.

There are now only 14 true Darians left; but in another part of the spaceship, in what has become a wilderness, are descendants of the original survivors who had been left to die and, when found, are degenerate creatures, mutant and savage, worshipping at a shrine dominated by a picture of their god, and led by one they call Hadin (Robert Russell).

To their horror, Koenig and Bergman discover from Kara the secret of the Darians who have survived in their original form. Their existence relies on a form of cannibalism, their lives preserved by transplant surgery, their food supplies from recycling plants using human fodder. They have tricked the barbarians into supplying that fodder.

And Koenig realizes that an offer to provide new hope for the Alphans by leaving the moon and joining the Darians on their flight to a new planet can mean only one thing - more human fodder is needed. He realizes, too, that Helena and the other Alphans with her are in acute danger.

MARTIN LANDAU as John Koenig
BARBARA BAIN as Dr. Helena Russell
BARRY MORSE as Professor Bergman
Guest Stars: AUBREY MORRIS as Petros High Priest DENNIS BURGESS as Neman
Special guest star: JOAN COLLlNS as Kara

Prentis Hancock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Morrow
Clifton Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Kano
Zienia Merton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Benes
Nick Tate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alan Carter
Paul Antrim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lowry
Robert Russell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hadin
Gerald Stradden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Male Mute
Jackie Horton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Female Mute

Producer: Sylvia Anderson Executive Producer: Gerry Anderson Screenplay by: Johnny Byrne
Moon City Costumes Designed by: Rudi Gernreich Directed by: Ray Austin
Series Created by: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson

Color/Approx. Running Time: 52 Minutes


END OF ETERNITY

Compare with ITC summary.

Koenig frees an immortal alien, doomed to spend eternity on a barren asteroid, and the creature goes on a rampage of death and destruction which no one can stop.

An asteroid appears three light years from the nearest star and Moonbase Alpha's computer determines that there is an atmosphere source somewhere inside it. Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) decides to investigate. Piloted by Mike Baxter (Jim Smilie) and accompanied by Professor Bergman (Barry Morse), he blasts his way into the rock and in the living chamber inside finds an unconscious, terribly injured humanoid alien (Peter Bowles). Yet, when Dr. Russell (Barbara Bain) examines him back on the moon, he appears to be completely unharmed.

He is Balor, a scientist who has achieved man's dream of immortality for his people, defeating death with the promise of eternal happiness. However, without death, life has no meaning for his people, who have banished Balor, imprisoning him for all eternity in living rock from the planet that cannot die.

Now hungry for pain and destruction, Balor is a psychopath whose immense strength and powers of regeneration drive him on to destroy everything and everyone within his reach. No one is safe from him, but there is no way to catch him or hold him. Professor Bergman and Dr. Russell cannot determine how to stop a man who cannot be killed.

Finally Koenig makes a grim decision. He will lure the monster into an airlock from which he can be released into space forever. There is only one catch. To trap him, Koenig must be with him.

MARTIN LANDAU as John Koenig
BARBARA BAIN as Dr. Helena Russell
BARRY MORSE as Professor Bergman
Guest Star:
PETER BOWLES as Balor

Prentis Hancock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Morrow
Clifton Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Kano
Zienia Merton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Benes
Anton Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Mathias
Nick Tate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alan Carter
Jim Smilie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baxter

Producer: Sylvia Anderson Executive Producer: Gerry Anderson Screenplay by: Johnny Byrne
Story Consultant: Christopher Penfold Moon City Costumes Designed by: Rudi Gernreich
Directed by: Ray Austin Series Created by: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson

Color/Approx. Running Time: 52 Minutes


Copyright Martin Willey. Thanks to James Poll.