Catacombs Reference Library
Space 1999 - ATV PRESS RELEASE

Principle Characters

John Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) Commander of Moon Base Alpha, is American - an astrophysicist of high repute who has been a pilot and an astronaut in his time. His interests have always been in science and he has been responsible for the planning and control of many out standing space missions. Asked to help on Alpha's design, he has been gradually drawn into the project and finally persuaded to become its Commander.

Koenig has a flair for leadership, both in regard to the scientific aspects of the job and consideration for those working for him. He is used to sorting out problems but none so complex as those now facing him on the runaway moon.'

As a man, it might be said, there are two streaks in him. One is his computer-like mind, highly efficient and tending to be ruthless. The other is an introspective strain which is apt to make him moody. He has been married but devotion to his work has led to the break-up of his marriage, a scar that still has searing moments for him and affects his cautious relationship with women.

One point of interest is that though viewers meet him in the future year of 1999, his impressionable years go back to the present day. He can remember man's first flights to the moon. He was then, of course, a schoolboy born in 1959.

He has grown up in the space age, but one has the impression that he is not too happy with the state of humanity towards the end of the century. He is therefore a man with one foot in the past and one foot somewhere in the future.

Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) is in her early thirties. She was born when the first explorations of the Moon were taking place. American, she is the daughter of a West Coast physician and she has followed in her father's medical footsteps, gradually expanding into the challenges of space medicine, rising in her profession to become Moon Base Alpha's Chief of Medical Section.

She has been married but her husband, whom she met at medical school and who also became involved in space medicine, has disappeared on a space mission. Nothing has been heard of him again and she is, to all intents and purposes, a widow. Emotionally, she has retired into the womb of her job but is still nevertheless very feminine and there is little doubt that a strong attachment is soon formed with John Koenig, with the question mark of whether this growing affection will lead to love.

Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) is to some degree the father- figure of the key personnel on Moon Base Alpha. He is older than the others and was a young man when space exploration began. He can remember when a visit to the moon was the figment of Jules Verne-type imaginations.

To some extent, he is very much the proverbial professor. He has a brilliant mind which has been responsible for a number of developments in space science, but he is unworldly in many practical matters. In some ways, he reminds one of a 19th century scientist rather than a man of the late 20th century, though physically he is more a part of the new era than he appears. He is something of a philosopher and very much of a humanist.

Bergman is unusual in one respect. An early illness led to his having a mechanical heart-replacement. This, because it responds more slowly to nervous stimuli than does a normal human heart, reduces his reactions to most emotional stresses. Whatever the situation, he is almost entirely physically immune from panic. The chief danger he faces is that a ruthless or desperate person might be able to interfere with his mechanical heart and so upset his finely-tuned metabolism. For the same reason, he also faces dangers in unexpected outer space situations which do not affect others.