The Merchandise GuideVideo: US Laserdisc
Compiled by Martin Willey
The Merchandise Guide
A macabre monster in outer space... an eerie graveyard of lost space- ships. Real or imagined? Years of mental torment reach a terrifying climax.
Tony Cellini (Gianni Garko) is a man of contrasts. He is tall, strong, rugged and an all-round sportsman. But he is also a sensitive, imaginative poet. The two aspects of this Alpha astronaut are, perhaps, responsible for the plight in which he has found himself, and Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) and Dr. Helena Russell (Barbara Bain) disagree emphatically about him. Cellini and John Koenig are old friends and Koenig is staunchly loyal in trusting Cellini's integrity; but Helena has always had doubts about his mental stability believing him to be a suppressed hysteric.
The mystery surrounding Tony Cellini is revived when he appears to go berserk and tries to take off, entirely alone, in an Eagle Command Module. Koenig and Helena again argue about the drama which developed from a space probe undertaken to confirm the discovery made by Professor Bergman (Barry Morse) of a new planet given the name of Ultra. Accompanied by medical expert Dr. Monique Fauchere (Barbara Kellerman), astronaut Physicist Dr. Darwin King (Michael Sheard) and radiation expert Dr. Juliet Mackie (Susan Jameson), Cellini had set out in command of the hazardous probe many years ago.
Only Cellini survived, after a fantastic escape, with a story the experts refused to believe - the story of an unearthly area of stationary spaceships, a graveyard in space, with a terrifying monster guarding the entrance. Cellini's desperate lashings with an axe saved his life but the others fell victim to the gruesome, rampaging mass of writhing tentacles.
Cellini has lived with the nightmare ever since. Now, by a chance in a million, the moon has drifted into that area of space again, but only he realizes this. Can he now vindicate himself? Trying to do so involves his Moonbase colleagues in a crescendo of horror.
MARTIN LANDAU as John Koenig
BARBARA BAIN as Dr. Helena Russell
BARRY MORSE as Professor Bergman
Guest Stars: GIANNI GARKO as Tony Cellini
DOUGLAS WILMER as Commissioner Dixon
Prentis Hancock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Morrow
Clifton Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Kano
Zienia Merton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Benes
Anton Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Mathias
Nick Tate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alan Carter
Barbara Kellerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Monique Bouchere
Michael Sheard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Darwin King
Susan Jameson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Professor Juliet Mackie
Producer: Sylvia Anderson Executive Producer: Gerry Anderson Screenplay by: Christopher Penfold
Moon City Costumes Designed by: Rudi Gernreich Directed by: Charles Crichton
Series Created by: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Color/Approx. Running Time: 52 Minutes
A member of Koenig's crew becomes an instrument of destruction that feeds on energy and heat and freezes everything at a touch.
A strange ball of blue light appears in space - and on Moonbase Alpha, Technician Anton Zoref (Ian McShane) shivers with cold. In his presence, Commander Koenig (Martin Landau), Dr. Helena Russell (Barbara Bain) and other personnel are frozen as still as statues. Later, the medical monitoring system fails to diagnose Zoref's condition because of a massive discharge of energy it receives from the afflicted man.
Possessed with a consuming need for heat, Zoref withdraws it from any source, human or otherwise, on Moonbase Alpha. Two of his colleagues are frozen to death at his touch. A lamp turns to solid ice. Professor Bergman (Barry Morse) is unable to figure out a way to counteract the phenomenon, which threatens the safety of the entire base.
Koenig orders power supplies to be cut from the reactors in an attempt to deprive Zoref of any source of light and warmth, thus destroying him before he destroys Alpha. Zoref's wife Eva (Gay Hamilton) almost becomes his next victim, but is saved by astronaut Alan Carter (Nick Tate). Zoref, in his desperate need for heat, tries to reach the generating room, but is blocked by Koenig. Summoning his last reserves of energy, he hurls himself at the Commander. Koenig, too, is saved by Carter who fires his laser gun and chars Zoref to the bone!
They watch in amazement as Zoref's blackened, burned-out body begins to pulsate with light. The laser has regenerated him. With colossal strength, he forces open the doors to the generating area. As he moves into it, Koenig orders power restored and the white light intensifies. A massive fission explosion occurs and from the top of the blast a swirling comet of blue light bursts forth and flashes out into the space sky.
MARTIN LANDAU as John Koenig
BARBARA BAIN as Dr. Helena Russell
BARRY MORSE as Professor Bergman
Guest Stars: IAN McSHANE as Anton Zoref
GAY HAMILTON as Eva Zoref
Prentis Hancock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Morrow
Clifton Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Kano
Zienia Merton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Benes
Anton Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Mathias
Nick Tate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alan Carter
John Hamill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dominix
Eva Rueber-Staier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jane
Producer: Sylvia Anderson Executive Producer: Gerry Anderson Screenplay by: Johnny Byrne
Story Consultant: Christopher Penfold Moon City Costumes Designed by: Rudi Gernreich Directed by:
David Tomblin Series Created by: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Color/Approx. Running Time: 52 Minutes
Copyright Martin Willey. Thanks to James Poll.