Episode Guide

Year 1 - Episode 21

• Final draft script 11th December 1974
• Filmed 20th December 1974- 9th January 1975

Cast

Sets

Int. Main Mission
Int. Koenig's Quarters
Int. Alpha Corridor
Int. Eagle Pilot Section

Int. Gwent Antechamber
Int. Gwent Main Chamber

• Gwent was built in two scales (plus larger sections for the lift and Eagle docking). The big model was smashed by Nick Allder immediately after filming, in frustration after problems making the ship roll correctly.
• Three laser tanks were also built, to scale with the 44" Eagle. They were seen briefly in the This Episode clips of The Last Enemy and one appears in the Eagle hangar in Space Warp
• The 3 tanks and 2 Gwents were built by Martin Bower in 12 days.
• Stock footage of a manoeurving Eagle is from The Last Sunset (also seen in War Games).
• Stock footage of an Eagle being shot over the Moonbase is from War Games.

Alpha Personnel:

Alpha Technology:

• Bergman's artificial heart is used again (it was introduced in Black Sun and used in Guardian Of Piri and Force Of Life).
• The laser rifle is seen. It is also used in War Games, Dragon's Domain and The Metamorph and is often seen in other episodes.
• We see the laser tanks for the only time. There are three designs, and perhaps six in total (two are destroyed). They are also glimpsed in the THIS EPISODE titles of The Last Enemy

Aliens:

Props:

• Companion's bed was used as Arra's throne in Collision Course and as the Archon's throne in The Dorcons

When Companion falls from his chair, Bergman puts the chair up. In the reverse shot, the chair is still on its side as Companion is helped up, and Bergman lifts it a second time.

The supply Eagle exterior SFX shots show it docked to the portside. The interior set is docked to the starboard side.

When Koenig returns to Main Mission, the first view shows his spacesuit zipped further up than the second view through the windows (he also walks a long way round).

• Many high and distant shots emphasise the size of the sets, and the loneliness of the central character. Mirrors and paintings of receding corridors further increase the perceived size of the sets. An award-winning chair by Finnish designer Eero Aarnio, the Pastilli (1968), is used as set decoration: two are chairs, others are placed on top of two stacked Ditzel barstools to form columns. Both also appear (in black instead of red) in Mission Of The Darians.
• Gwent and Powys are counties in Wales created in 1974. Gwent means "The Place", Powys is an ancient kingdom whose name means "province".
• The title is from Jean Cocteau's 1934 play "The Infernal Machine" showing Oedipus crushed by a hostile world. "One of the most perfect machines constructed by the infernal gods for the mathematical annihilation of a mortal".
• "Said the spider to the fly". Bergman is quoting The Spider and the Fly, a poem by Mary Howitt, published in 1829. "Children's stories are brutal, Professor, but you have nothing to fear." "Except fear itself." Bergman's reference here is to Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address in 1933 ("the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", referring to economic pessimism in the Depression).
• During a make-up session, Prentis Hancock was discovered to have a small tumour on his neck. During the filming of this episode he was in hospital having it removed, so he was written out and Winters introduced.

• In the This Episode sequence, one shot shows the Moonbase through the rotating paddles of Gwent.