James Nicoll Reviews

“Breakaway” was the debut episode of the first season of the science fiction television show, Space 1999. Directed by Lee H. Katzin and written by George Bellak, ​“Breakaway” aired 4 September 1975.

John Koenig (played by Martin Landau) is dispatched by the World Space Commission to Moonbase Alpha to ensure that the upcoming Meta probe is launched on schedule. The rogue planet Meta will not be in reach of terrestrial spacecraft for long, and certain telemetry signals demand investigation.

The impediment Koenig has sent to resolve is a viral outbreak. As he will soon discover, the problems plaguing the Meta program are far more serious than a simple disease outbreak.

In addition to what has been interpreted as a mysterious and quite lethal viral outbreak among the crew of the Meta probe, the staff of Moonbase Alpha is beset by a rash of manic episodes, during which afflicted crew can be a menace to themselves and to others. Space is an unforgiving environment.

The common element in the incidents turns out to be Navigation Beacon Delta, located at an obsolete nuclear waste repository, Disposal Area One. Navigation Beacon One is used as a way point for trips to the lunar far side. Could the ​“virus” and manic episodes both be symptoms of radiation-induced cerebral cancer?

Except there’s no leaking radiation to be found at Disposal Area One. The common element appears to be a coincidence.

Except it’s not. It’s just that the staff of Moonbase Alpha — Professor Victor Bergman (Barry Morse) and Doctor Helena Russell (Barbara Bain), Captain Alan Carter (Nick Tate) — have been looking for the wrong phenomenon. An entirely novel process is underway at Disposal Area One, a process whose detectable byproducts are intense magnetic fields and rapidly increasing heat, a heat escalating towards explosion.

Bad enough that Disposal Area One might explode. The more pressing concern is the newer and much larger Disposal Area Two. Why, if Disposal Area Two exploded, the force could drive the Moon from orbit!

Which it does.

~oOo~

Space 1999 was another Gerry and Sylvia Anderson production¹. In fact, it was their final coproduction, as Gerry reportedly announced his intention to separate from Sylvia at the Space 1999 wrap party. Another entry for ​“British husbands who weren’t great but were still better than Henry VIII.”

The surprisingly-diverse-for-the-mid-1970s cast was for the most part experienced, so their muted performances might be down to directorial decisions. I don’t think the performances were due to problems with in this particular script, because the odd, almost puppet-like deliveries were consistent throughout the series.

The science in this is, of course, crap. An explosion large enough to blow the Moon away from Earth would have side-effects far more lethal than a few minutes of high acceleration, and a few leaks in the Moonbase. At least the writer(s) did their best to structure the big reveal as a semi-competent mystery in which the solution is obfuscated by the investigators search for the wrong clues.

Moonbase Alpha has many odd design features, not least of which is the extraordinarily frail windows with which the base is lavishly provided. A determined human, perhaps in the throes of space madness, can easily break an exterior window². Did the World Space Authority cheap out on the construction materials?

On the plus side, the model work in Space 1999 is exemplary, although I don’t know if it would be as impressive to people raised on cheap CGI. The woefully prone-to-crash Eagles are especially eye-catching.

So, the acting was meh, the mystery was a bit silly, and the grand finale was ludicrous. Nevertheless, I watched the whole series, both seasons and all forty-eight episodes³. Why? Because there just wasn’t that much science fiction on TV in the mid-1970s and we took what we could get. At least Space 1999 was better than The Starlost.

“Breakaway” is available as part of Space 1999: The Complete Series, here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), and here (Barnes & Noble). I did not find Space 1999 at Apple Books, Chapters-Indigo, and Words Worth Books.

1: The UK had a rich tradition of SF television shows; UFO, Blake’s Seven, and The Survivors are but three examples. Apparently, there was another well-known television show, but whenever I ask about the title character’s name, increasingly frustrated Britons reply ​“Who?” Another mystery that will never be solved.

2: As I recall, a later episode revealed that the exterior windows can be opened with a press of a button. I may misremember.

3: I also read a terrible E. C. Tubb novelization of the series, a novel whose title I mercifully forget.