The Troubled Spirit
| Screenplay |
Johnny Byrne |
| Director |
Ray Austin |
|
| Final shooting script 11th November 1974 |
Titles
| Martin Landau |
John Koenig |
| Barbara Bain |
Helena Russell |
| Barry Morse |
Victor Bergman |
In Show Credits
| guest artist |
Giancarlo Prete |
Dan Mateo |
|
Hilary Dwyer |
Laura Adams |
|
Anthony Nicholls |
Dr. James Warren |
End Credits
| Prentis Hancock |
paul morrow |
| Clifton Jones |
david kano |
| Zienia Merton |
sandra benes |
| Anton Phillips |
dr mathias |
| Nick Tate |
alan carter |
Uncredited
| Suzanne Roquette |
Tanya Aleksandr |
| Judith Hepburn |
Nurse |
| Jeannie Galston |
Nurse |
| Jan Rennison |
Nurse |
| Christopher Williams |
Orderly |
| Tony Allyn |
Security Guard (Tony Allan) |
| Quentin Pierre |
Security Guard (Pierce Quinton) |
| Maxwell Craig |
Security Guard in concert |
| Richard Shore,
Eddy Nedari |
Alphans |
| Robert Atiko |
Alphan |
| Binu Balini |
Main Mission operative |
| Andy Dempsey |
Main Mission Operative |
| Loftus Burton |
Main Mission Operative (Lee Oswald) |
| Sarah Bullen |
Operative Kate |
| Val Musetti |
Spirit Mateo |
| Vernon Morris |
Male botanist |
| Xanthi Gardner |
Female botanist |
| Jim Sullivan |
Musician |
Int. Main Mission
Int. Alpha Corridor
Int. Travel Tube
Int. Hyrdoponic Unit 2/ Unit Laboratory
Int. Medical
Int. Music Room
1. EXT. MOONBASE ALPHA (SFX)
2.INT. MUSIC ROOM
Pull out from close up of guitarist to include Alphan audience, then track along audience (includes Sandra, David, Alan, Kate, & in the back row, Helena & Koenig). Continuous track out of open rear door, closing on wall panels...
5.INT. CORRIDOR
Continuous segue as track past wall panels & door ("Isolation Area"), down corridor (comms post screen shows guitarist) into Hydroponics Unit 2...
6.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Continuation of sc 5 as track through vegetation & up to laboratory window. Within we see Mateo, Laura, & a man & woman around a table. Close on handcuffs linking them, & up to Mateo, absorbed in concentration. ((Music increases in pace))
7.INT. MUSIC ROOM
Musician strums, the Alphans nod, engrossed in the rhythm.
8.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Hydroponics, including insets: Close of plants shaking; Close of needles waver on dials. Patterns form on screens.
9.INT. MUSIC ROOM
Pace accelerates.
10.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Laura looks uneasily at Mateo.
11.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Warren enters & strides to the window. Laura looks round at him, startled. Camera remains looking in as Warren strides in & starts disconnecting the apparatus.
12.INT. MUSIC ROOM
Approaching climax.
14.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Camera looking in lab window as Mateo is being disconnected by warren. Camera tracks out rapidly with a rushing wind, passing through leaves, out the door & up the corridor.
15.INT. CORRIDOR
Camera tracking along corridor with wind. Passes two startled Alphans & enters open Travel unit door.
16.INT. MAIN MISSION
Command Office doors open & wind rushes in. Paul & Tanya look back, but there is nothing to be seen.
17.INT. MUSIC ROOM
Music all but reaches end of finale when the wind rushes in. All stand & look back to door.
18.INT. UNIT LABORATORY
Mateo lies unconscious.
FADE OUT
THE TROUBLED SPIRIT
guest artist Giancarlo Prete, Hilary Dwyer, Anthony Nicholls
screenplay by Johnny Byrne
moon city costumes designed by Rudi Gernreich
directed by Ray Austin
19.EXT. SPACE (SFX)
Moon travelling in space. Titles over.
19.EXT. MOONBASE ALPHA (SFX)
Titles over.
20.INT. UNIT LABORATORY
Mateo is lain on a stretcher by Helena.
LAURA: "Doctor."
HELENA: "He'll be alright." ((medics leave with Mateo))
KOENIG: "Alright. Now tell me what happened here."
LAURA: "We were helping Mateo with his experiment."
KOENIG: "What equipment were you using?"
LAURA: "The transmitter."
KOENIG: "Victor, check it out."
WARREN: "I warned him, I-I-I-I warned him repeatedly."
LAURA: "You had no right to interfere. You could have killed him with what you did."
WARREN: "I will not tolerate these experiments, not in my department."
KOENIG: "Just calm down. I want to know exactly what happened here."
WARREN: "Commander. I told Mateo his experiments were dangerous."
KOENIG: "Dangerous...how?"
WARREN: "Well, look what's happened to him."
LAURA: "Something did happen. He went into some sort of trance."
WARREN: "See what I mean, Commander? Now I did warn him."
KOENIG: "Warren, please. What kind of trance?"
LAURA: "It was all quite scientific."
Comms post bleeps.
KOENIG: "Yes, Paul."
PAUL (on screen): "Momentary drop in temperature recorded in all Alpha sections."
KOENIG: "Have you traced the source?"
PAUL: "We've no idea what caused it. All we know is it originated in the section you're in." ((screen blanks))
VICTOR (standing just outside lab): "Ah, John."
KOENIG (to others after going to Victor): "I want the four of you to fill out full reports right away."
LAURA: "Yes, Commander."
21.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
VICTOR: "Nothing wrong with that equipment. In fact there's no equipment here that could have caused that drop in temperature."
KOENIG: "Something caused it, Victor. And it started here."
22.INT. MEDICAL
Mateo wakes in bed with a start.
HELENA: "It's okay."
MATEO: "How long have I been out?"
HELENA: "Not long. Do you remember what happened?"
23.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
KOENIG: "Let's say Mateo believes we have an innate affinity with plants." ((Victor grunts)) "Even the possibility of communicating with them."
VICTOR: "Oh yes, his work's based on sound scientific principles. Of course, both human beings and plants have nervous systems. We both respond to, ah, pain, hunger. Even happiness."
KOENIG: "So let's say he's convinced that certain wave patterns in the human brain correspond precisely with wave patterns plants send out."
VICTOR: "Yep. And what Mateo was trying to do in tonight's experiment was to tap those human wave patterns at source, boost them by using the combined mental powers of his friends, project them, and then measure the results. All leading to the ultimate goal of communication between human beings and plants."
KOENIG: "So what went wrong? Could that experiment have caused what happened on Alpha?"
VICTOR: "Oh, I can't see how."
KOENIG: "Victor. That computer didn't imagine that drop in temperature."
24.INT. MEDICAL
MATEO: "This was the first time I used the mental resources of other people. And I felt the difference immediately. A feeling that, ah, something unusual would happen. Our concentration deepened. I was aware of a new feeling. A coldness seemed to grow inside my mind, my body. With it came fear. A part of my mind struggled, wanted, tried to resist. Then pain, burning intense pain, and -nothing."
HELENA: "You're probing into areas of the mind we know very little about. Of course that's what makes it so fascinating."
MATEO: "We need a new way, doctor, a new direction. And I'm convinced we are on the right track."
HELENA: "You should be careful then. You seem to be particularly susceptible to psychic phenomenon and sometim- " ((startled by Laura appearing behind her)) "Laura. I'm sorry."
LAURA: "How is he?"
HELENA: "Oh, he'll be fine. I will keep him in the Medical Centre tonight. He needs a good nights sleep." ((she leaves))
MATEO: "Hi."
LAURA: "Hi yourself." ((they kiss)) "Mateo. Warren's going to stop your experiments."
MATEO: "Warren! He doesn't even understand what I'm trying to do."
LAURA: "He thinks it's too dangerous to continue."
MATEO: "It is. To him. If it succeeds he'll be as much use around here as a gardener."
LAURA: "I think you should stop them too- "
MATEO: "That's ridiculous."
LAURA: "I'm serious, I was there, I saw, I felt what happened."
MATEO: "I thought you at least understood."
LAURA: "I'm scared, Mateo."
25.INT. MAIN MISSION
KOENIG (entering): "Well?"
PAUL (under Big Scren): "We've checked. There's been no reoccurrance anywhere on Alpha. Whatever happened was sudden and swift."
KOENIG: "Kano."
DAVID: "Computer cannot trace the source of the disturbance. It tells us everything else, except that."
26.INT. MEDICAL
MATEO: "I will not give up my work. Not now. Not for anybody."
LAURA: "Not for anybody, for yourself. Why are you so stubborn?"
MATEO: "If you won't help me, I'll do it alone."
Laura leaves & Helena comes up.
HELENA: "Time for your nightcap."
MATEO: "We could all do with a good night's sleep."
HELENA: "Relax." ((Mateo stares by her at a shadowy corner: a figure appears. Helena looks round, but there is nothing)) "Okay, now. Sleep well."
MATEO: "Goodnight." ((he continues to stare, then lies back))
Dark Medical area. Helena walks out of the isolation room, turning off the lights & sitting at her table. She looks up at the window, then continues writing. A figure appears through the window. Helena stands & takes her comlock.
HELENA: "Mateo. Is that you?"
She aims her comlock at the door & opens it. The figure moves to the door & raises it's right hand.
HELENA: "Mateo?"
The scarred right hand & one side of the face are seen.
HELENA: "No..no.."
The figure retreats & the door closes.
FADE OUT:
27.INT. MEDICAL
BOB: "Mateo's still under sedation."
GUARD (coming out of isolation): "We searched the whole section, Commander. There's noone in here."
KOENIG: "Alright, stand down. Bob, give me a few minutes."
BOB: "Sure. Nurse." ((nurse & Bob leave))
KOENIG: "Helena. There are only two people in the area. You and Mateo. And he was in a drugged sleep. You're sure about what you saw?"
HELENA: "I don't know, I'm not sure about anything anymore. Wait a minute, I... I-I am sure about what I.. felt and what I think I saw. Mateo was telling me certain things that happened to him during his experience. Feelings of.. coldness and, and dread. And that's precisely what happened to me just before I saw that..."
KOENIG: "Helena, what are you saying? That it was some kind of psychic experience?"
HELENA: "All I know is what I felt and what I saw."
Comms post bleeps: David appears on screen.
KOENIG: "Well. Did you check on it?"
DAVID (on screen): "Yes, Commander."
28.INT. MAIN MISSION
DAVID: "Computer recorded a definite temperature drop in the Medical Area. Identical to the first. And still no reason why."
VICTOR (goes to screen): "Something else, John. The scan equipment picked up a strong wave pattern in the Medical Area."
29.INT. MEDICAL
VICTOR (on screen): "The same wave pattern our friend Mateo uses. And very strong." ((screen changes to testcard. Koenig brings up Warren's face))
KOENIG: "Warren. I'm putting a temporary stop to Doctor Mateo's work."
30.INT. UNIT LABORATORY
WARREN: "A very wise decision, Commander."
Warren leaves the computer screen & starts dissembling apparatus.
LAURA (Watches him): "What are you doing?" (sc 31)
WARREN: "This experiment is now finished. There is more important work for Mateo to do. For all of you to do."
LAURA: "Leave it, I'll do it."
WARREN: "What?"
LAURA: "Don't worry. I said I'll do it."
WARREN: "Alright."
She takes over dismantling the equipment.
32.INT. MAIN MISSION
KOENIG (entering): "Kano, I want a round the clock check on temperature levels. Any sign of a drop, inform me immediately."
ALAN: "Commander. What are we looking for?"
KOENIG: "I wish I knew." ((goes to office))
33.INT. MEDICAL
MATEO (dressing): "I'm not going to let them do this."
HELENA: "It's just for the time being."
MATEO: "I've heard that one before too. Look, doctor. We are living out here in space, living on borrowed time. If only one of our essential support systems fail...maybe we'll survive. But if our food chain goes- we are finished." ((Removes screen, now dressed)) "My work is important because I know it can increase the margin of survival."
HELENA (she gives him his comlock): "Mateo. It was Commander Koenig's decision."
MATEO: "Yes. With a big push from Warren. Well, we'll see." ((leaves))
34.INT. CORRIDOR
Mateo walks, but feels strange. He stops, looks back, then continues a short distance before looking back again. He continues slowly on. He reaches a Travel Unit, pauses, then slowly enters. The doors freeze & strain momentarily as they try to close behind him.
35.INT. TRAVEL TUBE (SFX)
3 shots of Travel Unit in motion.
36.INT. TRAVEL UNIT
On the opposite wall from Mateo's seat a shadow appears. It passes over the doors & onto him. Close up of his frightened eyes.
35.INT. TRAVEL TUBE (SFX)
Stops.
37.INT. CORRIDOR
Mateo bursts out of the Unit in fear. He tries to compose himself.
38.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Mateo enters & passes Warren & Laura working in the garden.
LAURA: "Mateo?"
Mateo walks through Hydroponics & into the lab. Laura follows. Warren watches through the window, peering over his glasses. He sees Laura touch Mateo's shoulder, then Mateo reacting as he sees his apparatus is gone. Angrily Mateo walks out & grabs Warren by the lapels.
MATEO: "Warren!"
LAURA: "Mateo!"
WARREN: "Now look here, Mateo, I don't want to have you in my department."
MATEO: "I'll kill you if you say another word."
Mateo sees his hand gripping Warren's lapel: it is scarred. He runs off.
LAURA: "Mateo!"
WARREN: "You saw this, you were a witness."
LAURA: "Mateo."
41.INT. CORRIDOR
Mateo leaves Hydroponics & stand behind the comm post, his hand in his armpit. He uncovers it: normal.
42.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Warren sits at a desk. He looks round & stands to look at the rustling vegetation behind him.
43.INT. MAIN MISSION
DAVID: "Commander. Temperature drop registering, source unidentified. Hydroponic Unit."
KOENIG: "Alan." ((Koenig & Alan leave))
44.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
MATEO/SPIRIT (moan): "Warren. Warren."
WARREN: "Who's there? Who are you? Who is it?"
Spirit's hand grabs his neck.
Laura & a man hear & run up. The man uncovers plants to find Warren lying on the floor. Alan & Koenig enter to see it.
FADE OUT:
47.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
MATEO: "Commander. I wasn't even here when he died. It's true I couldn't stand the man, but kill him..."
KOENIG: "Mateo, noone is accusing you. But you did quarrel with the man and minutes later he was dead." ((to 2 botanists)) "Will you excuse us?" ((to Laura)) "Please." ((they go)) "Three times we experience temperature drops. Each time something strange happens. First you had some kind of mental attack. Then Doctor Russell is terrorised by an Alphan who doesn't exist. And now this. And damn it nothing like this ever happened on Alpha before your experience."
MATEO: "Yes, I know- "
VICTOR: "Mateo. Do you know we've recorded the wave pattern you used in your experiment?"
MATEO: "That's impossible. Your equipment cannot record that wave pattern. It's so slight it hardly exists."
KOENIG: "We did. It was recorded each time the temperature dropped. Including this time when Warren died."
VICTOR: "And how do you record psychic energy? A very rare and very powerful source of psychic energy."
MATEO (disdainfully): "Psychic energy.."
VICTOR: "Because that's what we've got, John. Right here on Alpha."
48.INT. MEDICAL
Helena, Bob & nurse in isolation, over the body of Warren.
HELENA: "Totally shattered spinal column."
BOB: "I've never seen anything like it."
HELENA: "Fear generated to an unimaginable intensity."
Nurse covers Warren with sheet. Koenig enters room.
KOENIG: "Helena. You're positive no person could have caused this? A blow of some kind?"
HELENA: "No blow could have caused this, John."
Koenig takes his comlock.
KOENIG: "Paul. Command Conference."
90.INT. COMMAND OFFICE
Principles are present, standing.
ALAN: "You want us to believe that Alpha is being terrorised by some kind of psychic being...a spook?"
KOENIG: "Call it what you like, Alan. What it adds up to is a destructive power that has killed and may do so again."
PAUL: "Commander. Most of us here are scientists. Rational human beings. Now we believe in the laws of cause and effect. Now what happened to Warren was an effect. But can we really accept that the cause was supernatural?"
VICTOR: "Yes, but Paul- We all know that human beings use no more than about eighteen per cent of their actual brain potential. Now what happens in that other eighty two per cent is anybody's guess."
DAVID: "So you reject the idea that these events have a supernatural origin?"
VICTOR: "Ah. Supernatural, yes. Paranormal, no."
HELENA: "What we're talking about is a wave pattern that's created by electrical activity and originates in the most primitive, least understood area of the human brain. Now we do know that people that have psychic powers possess this wave pattern in greater strength than others. And that something happened in Mateo's experiment which boosted this wave pattern to a previously unknown intensity."
SANDRA: "Does it matter what it is or where it came from? The important thing is that it is here. Amongst us."
50.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Laura enters. She sees Mateo working in the lab & walks in angrily.
51.INT. UNIT LABORATORY
LAURA: "Mateo. You're deliberately disobeying orders."
MATEO: "I know what I'm doing."
LAURA: "I'll tell you what you're doing, you're destroying everything you've ever worked for."
MATEO: "You don't understand."
LAURA: "Warren was right. Your experiment is too dangerous and you have got to stop it right now!"
MATEO (grabs her): "Listen to me!"
LAURA: "No!"
MATEO: "Listen to me!" ((Calms)) "Carefully, Laura. It's possible something did happen in here. If Bergman did record that wave pattern then we're on the verge of some tremendous breakthrough. How..How it happened I don't know. But don't you see I must pursue it?"
LAURA: "All I see is that I'm frightened."
MATEO: "But then don't be frightened. I must try to recreate what's happened, to locate and identify it..this force if it exists. Don't you see?" ((as she picks up a circuit behind her back))
LAURA: "No."
MATEO: "But it's the only way we can understand what's happening here."
He goes to the equipment & sees the circuit is missing. He looks round, then at her.
MATEO: "Give it to me."
LAURA (backs): "No."
MATEO: "Give it to me."
LAURA: "No. No!" ((they struggle; he prises it from her hand)) "Okay, then I shall have to tell Commander Koenig."
She goes to the lab door, but Mateo throws her back, so she collides with his apparatus. Alarmed at this, he throws her back out the door.
MATEO: "Get out of here!"
Crying, she leaves.
52.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Laura runs through the foliage, around the garden & up to the door. In the door is the spirit, it's hand extended. Laura screams.
52A.INT. COMMAND OFFICE
Continuation of sc 49, Command Conference in heated debate.
PAUL: "But it's a totally esoteric supposition."
KOENIG: "Hold it. Hold it." ((Babble subsides)) "We're not getting anywhere. Now the simple fact is- "
MAN (on comms post screen): "Commander. Hydroponic Unit. Temperature drop."
53.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
Bob & orderlies lift Laura onto the stretcher. Koenig & Helena stand over her as Mateo approaches.
HELENA: "She died the same way as Warren."
MATEO (watching as she is wheeled off, disconsolate): "It's my fault. It's my fault. I wouldn't listen. Now she's dead - and I did it. Do you hear?"
KOENIG: "Mateo."
MATEO: "This thing on Alpha- is my fault. It is my fault, I raised it."
VICTOR: "It's not a question of who's- "
MATEO: "It's - it's here now. In this place. It's waiting to kill again. To kill us all."
HELENA: "Mateo. Mateo. Come with me. Come on. Come on."
EXT. SPACE (SFX)
Moon revolving.
54.INT. MEDICAL
Helena is with a black guard. Mateo is drugged.
MATEO: "Ever since the experiment I've known, I've sensed this thing- a presence. I tried to convince myself I was mistaken, that I imagined it. But no. It is with me everywhere I go. Watching. Waiting for something. You know I threatened to kill Warren?"
HELENA: "You are not responsible for Warren's death."
MATEO: "But - but he died only minutes after I threatened him. And Laura- "
HELENA: "Just take it easy. It's alright. Just take it easy."
MATEO: "She was going to tell the Commander I was trying to recreate the experiment. I tried to stop her. She wouldn't listen. A few minutes later she was dead."
55.INT. COMMAND OFFICE
HELENA: "This force has some bizarre connection with Mateo. As he understands it, it's seizing on the destructive urges within him and carrying them out."
KOENIG: "What do you think?"
HELENA: "John, I've seen this being. I believe it. Mateo wants to recreate the experiment to try to bring it out into the open."
KOENIG: "Could be dangerous."
VICTOR: "Let him, John. Let him recreate the experiment."
KOENIG: "Victor, my concern is with the safety of Alpha."
VICTOR: "Yeh, but we can't fight this thing unless we know what it is. I say let him. And give him all the help we can."
FADE OUT:
56.INT. UNIT LABORATORY
Sandra, Victor, Koenig, David, Helena, Paul, Alan & Mateo sit round the table.
MATEO: "Everybody put it on their right wrist." ((they secure the links)) "I've told you what to do. Please, follow my instructions. And do not break the circle." ((They prepare)) "Now concentrate."
Mateo starts to tremble & plants quiver. The others are a mixture of sceptical & concerned. Mateo moans, then quietens. Needles flicker. A figure appears.
HELENA: "John. That's it. That's what I saw."
The shape solidifies and walks forward.
MATEO/SPIRIT (suddenly turning, to point accusing finger): "Bergman!"
Sandra jumps.
VICTOR: "Don't break the circle!"
KOENIG (whisper): "Mateo."
MATEO/SPIRIT: "I was once who you say."
KOENIG: "What do you want from us?"
VICTOR: "Mateo lives." ((firmly)) "He is one of us. You have no existence here."
MATEO/SPIRIT: "You took my existence from me." ((extends hand)) "Your legacy. Witness the result of your actions." ((passes hand before their faces))
KOENIG: "Your presence here is an accident."
MATEO/SPIRIT: "No accident. I have returned. My being cries out for vengeance. For the collective act which destroyed my existence."
The spirit's hand passes accusingly over them, to stop at Mateo. They stare at each other. The spirit extends its hand to touch Mateo's shoulder.
MATEO (recovering): "No...no.."
Spirit disappears.
60.INT. MEDICAL
Helena straps Mateo in a seat in isolation. Koenig knocks on the window & she emerges.
KOENIG: "Well?"
HELENA: "He's in deep shock. Of course, he's under heavy sedation. What I'm concerned about is what happens when it wears off. When full awareness returns."
58.INT. COMMAND OFFICE
VICTOR: "Whether we believe in the occult or not, there is a tradition in our culture of ghosts, spirits, some force which continues to work after death, coming back in search of revenge or justice or whatever. But this thing, that Mateo has summoned up, is coming back to avenge a terrible death. It's own death, which has not happened yet."
KOENIG (sat at desk): "Right now it draws it's existence from Mateo, and is capable of carrying out his aggressive urges."
VICTOR: "Yeah."
KOENIG: "The present danger is restricted to just that. But what if it gets stronger? Starts acting independently against us?"
VICTOR: "Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves? I mean surely the present problem is just to keep him quiet, keep him sedated until we find some way of dealing with it?"
KOENIG: "No, no, Victor. Sedation will not keep his unconscious from operating. Helena's experience occurred when he was already under sedation."
VICTOR: "Yeah."
KOENIG: "So how do we deal with it? How?"
VICTOR: "Of course, there is the traditional way of dealing with demons and spirits and such."
KOENIG: "You mean - bell, book and candle -exorcism?"
VICTOR: "Yes. That and the use of occult symbols like the pentagram is one way. But no, what I've got in mind is an extension of those techniques. Now this being has power, it has energy. And we know where that energy originates - it has a structure. So what we've got to do is to determine what that structure is, and then maybe, just maybe,..we can deal with it."
62.INT. COMMAND OFFICE
Helena & Koenig enter through a side door.
HELENA: "Mezadrine? That will bring out the most violent, aggressive responses."
KOENIG: "Exactly. And that's just why we have to try it. Helena, if we can summon this creature at a time and place of our own choosing, we might just be able to contain it."
HELENA: "It should work -but- it could destroy him."
KOENIG: "Yeah, I know. That has to be my responsibility." ((goes to comms post)) "Paul. Withdraw all personnel from Alpha Section Five. And restrict access for everyone except Doctor Russell, Professor Bergman, Doctor Mathias and myself."
63.INT. CORRIDOR
Many Alphans walk one way, while Koenig & Victor walk against the flow.
64.INT. MEDICAL
Koenig & Victor enter.
VICTOR: "Is he ready?"
HELENA: "Bob."
Bob enters isolation. Victor & Koenig set up the force field with equipment from Victor's bag. Bob & the bearded guard bring in Mateo & sit him in the central chair. The guard positions himself outside the door as Bob & Koenig strap Mateo in. Bob leaves & Helena enters to give Mateo an injection. Koenig leaves last, closing the door with his comlock.
VICTOR: "The area between those four terminals is lethal. So whatever happens nobody go in there." ((switches on)) "Ready."
-Isolation. Mateo stirs.
-POV as Alphans watch.
-POV in at Mateo.
MATEO: "What is this?" ((angrily)) "What are you doing to me?!!" ((calmer)) "Let me go, Commander. Doctor. Do you hear? Do you hear me, let me go!"
HELENA: "If those straps don't hold him, he'll harm himself."
KOENIG: "Helena, we've got to go through with it."
MATEO: "Do you hear? Let me go!" ((struggles)) "You will pay for this!"
-In isolation.
MATEO: "All of you!! Let me out! I'll kill you, Koenig! Koenig!" ((he struggles, swaying from one side to other- & spirit image appears)) "Koenig... Koenig.."
MATEO/SPIRIT (surges forward): "Argh.. Koenig" ((hits forcefield)) "Koenig - let me out of here!" ((hits forcefield again))
MATEO: "No..no..leave him alone!" ((watches in horror as spirit hits forcefield))
MATEO/SPIRIT (turning to Mateo): "Kill Koenig!"
MATEO: "No!"
The spirit hits the forcefield again. Mateo breaks his straps & grabs the spirit, struggling with it. The spirit strangles Mateo, forcing him against his chair. They manoeuvre to the side & the spirit forces Mateo's face into the forcefield three times. The spirit screams & falls, as does Mateo.
Koenig enters. The spirit's body shimmers in orange & evaporates. Koenig kneels & turns over Mateo: the right side of his face is scarred & burned.
An open mouthed Helena turns away into Victor's arms.
FADE OUT
65.INT. HYDROPONIC UNIT 2
HELENA: "You mustn't blame yourself, John."
KOENIG: "Every death on this base is personal to me, Helena. But Mateo...I feel his just that little bit more."
HELENA: "Mateo was burned in precisely the same way as the spirit we saw. It was inevitable that he would die like that - it was preordained. He was beyond our kind of help."
KOENIG: "I just can't get it out of my mind. I mean life after death, maybe, maybe not. But to be haunted by your own ghost, even before you die... What's that all about?"
HELENA: "Life and death. Still the big questions. The greatest mysteries."
EXT. SPACE (SFX)
Moon.
FREEZE FRAME
series created by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
An ITC RAI co-production
produced by GROUP THREE for world-wide distribution
c ITC -Incorporated Television Company Ltd. MCMLXXIV
paul morrow Prentis Hancock
david kano Clifton Jones
sandra benes Zienia Merton
dr mathias Anton Phillips
alan carter Nick Tate
music by Barry Gray associate Vic Elms
special effects Brian Johnson production designer Keith Wilson
production manager Ron Fry
director of photography Frank Watts BSC
casting director Michael Barnes
supervising editor David Lane
camera operator Neil Binney
assistant director Ken Baker
sound recordist David Bowen
editor Alan Killick
sound editor Roy Lafberry
music editor Alan Willis
continuity Gladys Goldsmith
Processed at the Rank Film Laboratories
make-up Basil Newall
hair designer Helene Bevan
wardrobe Eileen Sullivan
Filmed at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, England
SPECIAL EFFECTS
director Nick Allder
lighting cameraman Harry Oakes
camera operator Frank Drake
electronics Michael S. E. Downing
Transcripts