Episode Guide

Year 1 - Episode 16

• Shooting script 2nd October 1974. Amendments on 4th, 7th and 8th October.
• Filmed 9th October- 23 October 1974

Cast

Sets

Int. Main Mission
Int. Command Office
Int. Medical
Int. Intensive Care Unit
Int. Baxter's Quarters
Int. Alpha Corridor
Int. Airlock
Int. Eagle Pilot Section
Int. Eagle Passenger Section

Ext. Asteroid Surface
Int. Asteroid Tunnel
Int. Asteroid Chamber
Ext. Space

Uniquely, Main Mission is illuminated with yellow panels.The Command Office also changes from white panels (as it had been for all previous episodes) to yellow. It will remain this way until the end of the series.

• Why is there an antimatter bombarder in Koenig's office?
• After Balor is ejected from the airlock, he appears to be floating in space. Even vertically, standard atmosphere pressure would not propel a human body beyond the escape velocity of the Moon (2.4 km/second) and into space. The airlock is horizontal, level with the lunar surface. Balor might be projected for some distance over the surface (charitably we could say the episode is showing this), but he would soon crash into the lunar soil. Would the vacuum kill him, or merely incapacitate him like the door explosion (if returned to an atmosphere would he recover)?
• "We're three light years away from the nearest star system. If the asteroid's come from there, to get this far at its present velocity, it's been travelling in space for at least a thousand years." Balor's asteroid and the Moon must share a common motion through space (the asteroid appears motionless in the Alphan sky and its position changes little during the course of the episode). Paul's comment also suggests this trajectory traces back to the vicinity of the nearest star system, three light years away. Three light years in over 1000 years translates to a velocity of ~900km/s, i.e. ~0.5 lunar radii per second. Obviously, the Moon must have encountered a "space warp" or black hole to get there before the episode begins, and another before the next episode. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos.
• If the Moon and asteroid are in deep interstellar space "three light years away from the nearest star system", they should be in total darkness! A supernova or bright star cluster 5-10 light years away might perhaps do the trick, though. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos.

Alpha Personnel:

2 fatalities, Mike Baxter, Orderly.

• The nurse attacked by Balor (actress Judith Hepburn) reappears in later episodes. Helena's dialogue suggests she is killed ("One of our orderlies... Balor a cold blooded killer!") but perhaps she is not.

Props:

Note the Apollo 9 mission posters in Baxter's room

• Balor is named after Balor of the Evil Eye, a vengeful Celtic king with one eye. Byrne also attributes the name's origin to Baal, an ancient near Eastern fertility deity and king of the gods. Baal was god of life and fertility, locked in mortal combat with Mot, god of death and sterility, over 7 year cycles. From Canaan (Palestine) his worship spread to Carthage and Egypt, being popular from the 14th century BC on. The Greeks in the 6th century BC called him Belos, identifying him with Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. The Jews were strongly hostile to his worship (see Kings 18) especially from the 9th century BC when Jezebel, wife of Ahab, king of Israel, attempted to introduce worship of Baal, prompting Elijah to violent opposition. Hence the modern association of Baal with the devil.
• Note the camera focuses on faces. The action is stylised; no punching, instead Balor lifts and tosses his opponents away, or uses his electric touch. Many elements from gothic horror: Balor's black robes; the image of his glove dashed with blood stirring in the cave rubble, approaching the woman and touching her neck, like a vampire.
• Victor says "He could have given us immortality". But he wants them mortal so they will fear death (he failed on Progron because they were immortal). In the ITC synopses and EC Tubb's novelisation, he will give them immortality, which does not make sense.
• A number of unused scenes appear in the This Episode sequence.

• Not an error as such, but when Mathias removes Baxter's body from his quarters, they do not leave through the door that Koenig and Balor used. Instead they head off left of camera- in this episode we never see that wall. There may be another door, but in other episodes the standard living quarters do not have a door there.

• When one guard is lifted up by Balor, his hand knocks the ceiling panel, which bounces up. Not strictly an error, as the ceiling panels would hardly be bolted and immovable. Thanks to Martin Daoust.