Moonbase Alpha finds itself at war with an unnamed planet. The outcome is disastrous. Everything is wrecked. But can there be a future for the survivors on the aggressor planet? ITC summary
Hawk on screen - and in original colours (picture thanks to Eric).
The Hawks were built by Martin Bower in three sizes: 79cm (31"), 41cm (16") and (for the scenes accompanying the bomber) 13cm (5"). They were originally painted white, but test shots showed they looked too similar to the Eagles and orange stripes were added just before filming (crudely hand painted on by Cyril Forster at the studio). The viewport notches were originally black, but for filming they were painted white. After filming, the black was restored.
Stock footage of a real nuclear explosion is used. The original black and white film is tinted red- the explosion is the Baker test of Project Crossroads, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 24 July 1946. It is a 21 kiloton bomb, seen displacing two million tons of water and sinking 9 ships (one ship can be briefly seen in the third shot). The footage is seen in many film and TV programmes, including Dr Strangelove.
The landscape was filmed on 28 November 1974. The buildings on the planet surface are fairly crude models.
Photo cut-outs are used extensively. The Eagle raised on a launch pad is very obviously a cut-out. An Eagle that explodes over the launch pad, and a Hawk that explodes, are less obvious.
Shots of many Eagles rising from Alpha, and many Eagles flying to the planet, are reused from Guardian Of Piri
Shots of 3 Eagles peeling off, and Eagles firing laser beams, are from Alpha Child
0 fatalities (128 dead in the alternative timeline plus Koenig and Carter).
Alpha Technology:
Why did the Earth have fast war spaceships like the Hawk? Was there a space war in Earth's history? Why doesn't Moonbase Alpha have any Hawks now? It may tie in with the 1987 war mentioned in Rules Of Luton.
The stairs to the underground shelters are obviously the stairs to the balcony in Main Mission (or there were an extraordinary number of people up on the balcony during the proceedings).
Unnamed planet. Note that one shot shows two suns in the sky.
Aliens:
Unnamed aliens (male and female). Humanoid with large heads.
Props:
The laser barriers from Breakaway can be seen in the wreckage of the alien control room
The alien glass columns are seen again as booths in Hydroponics in The Troubled Spirit
Footage:
A shot of four astronauts running to the travel tube is from Voyager's Return
The alien bomber was seen in Alpha Child. It is possible the aliens used a frightening image from the Alphans' past, in the same way as they picked the Hawks from their memory.
Cast:
Isla Blair also appears as Carla in Journey To Where. She is married to actor Julian Glover, who was in Alpha Child.
Julian Glover says (Starlog 52 p40): My wife, Isla Blair, did one where she had a most extraordinary make-up that was ridiculous. She and Anthony Valentine both had these appliances on. They couldn't look at themselves without laughing, which is why they did all of their scenes facing away from each other. That's the glamour of the theatre for you!
On the background radio messages in Main Mission, the word "CAPCOM" can be heard. Are these NASA mission recordings?
The two-tone Red Alert is a sound effect that also appears in the film Fahrenheit 451 (1966), which Barry Gray created some electronic sound effects for. Thanks to Monica Eriksson, sound effect on Ken Scott's Moonbase Alpha site.
George Lucas is known to have been impressed by the special effects in Space 1999 and visited the studios during filming. The shot of the alien bomber flying overhead would be echoed in the opening of Star Wars two years later.
Due to the strong visual appeal of this episode, it was heavily marketed.
Novelised in Lunar Attack by John Rankine published by Orbit (UK paperback), Dobson (UK hardback), Pocket Books (US), re-edited in Year One (Powys, 2020).
Episode Guide
Year 1 - Episode 17 
