Episode GuideITC Press Release: The Beta Cloud
Episode GuideSYNOPSIS
A mystery illness strikes the Moon. An eerie cloud utters a sentence of death. And a frightening space creature runs amok.
Only a handful of Moonbase Alpha personnel escape the mystery illness which hits the moon when it moves through a cloud of space dust. The victims are incapacitated through lassitude, depression and loss of will. Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) is one of them. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) is stricken later on.
An Eagle, sent to track the storm, has disappeared. When it returns, a week later, its only occupant is a terrifying, huge space creature. It is completely immune to laser gun fire.
On the Command Centre screen comes a peculiar cloud which seems to be obscuring some kind of celestial body, and from the cloud a voice which explains the reason for the eerie happenings. The mysterious beings are seeking the Moon's life support system.
Handing it over would mean death to everyone on the Moon. In a desperate effort to keep the space creature at bay, Security Chief Tony Verdeschi (TONY ANHOLT) orders all doors to be locked, but the creature soon shows that it can crash through them.
An effort is made to trap the creature by decoying it into the Vacuum Chamber. As Tony offers himself as the bait, Maya (CATHERINE SCHELL) transforms herself into a mouse to that she can make her way through the air ventilation system. at first, it looks as though the plan has succeeded, but the creature succeeds in escaping and launching itself at Tony.
His life is saved by Maya changing herself into a space animal. Even so, she is unable to overcome the creature. It is Tony's turn to save her by grabbing a high pressure carbon dioxide hose, but when the creature fights its way through the jet stream and rips the hose off the wall, Maya and Tony have to flee through the deadly vapour to the Medical Centre.
The creature continues its search for the life support system. Another plan is tried. It must be lured into a chlorine-filled Hydroponic Experimental Section, and to do this Maya transforms herself into a chlorine-resistant creature she remembers from another planet. But the invading creature still cannot be overcome.
It seems to be foiled, though, by a defensive barrier thrown around the life support system. It is hurled back in a fantastic display of sparks...but survives. The situation appears hopeless. Facing almost certain death, Tony and Maya allow themselves for the first time to express how deeply they are really in love with each other, despite their usual light-hearted bantering.
They have faced the truth. Now another truth his Maya. The creature is not a life form. It is a robot. Just one chance is offered. The creature's control centre must be reached.
Maya transforms herself into an insect which might be able to penetrate the mechanism through the creature's ear......
"SPACE 1999" - SERIES II
CAST LIST
EPISODE NO. 16 - "THE BETA CLOUD"
DIRECTOR: ROBERT LYNN
KOENIG - MARTIN LANDAU
HELENA - BARBARA BAIN
MAYA - CATHERINE SCHELL
VERDESCHI - TONY ANHOLT
CARTER - NICK TATE
SAHN - ZIENIA MERTON
FRASER - JOHN HUG
CREATURE - DAVE PROWSE
SPACE ANIMAL/KRENO ANIMAL - ALBIN PAHERNIK
Thanks to Allen Barnella