Episode Guide

Year 2 - Episode 14

• Shooting script dated 11th June 1976. Filmed 26th July- 6th August 1976. Additional sequences filmed 21st Sept-22nd Sept 1976
• A "Double Up Helena" script, filmed while Landau and Bain were on holiday in the South of France.
• In Starlog 40 (November 1980) Freiberger described the script: What I did was try to get into the situation. How do you defeat the undefeatable? What intrigued me is that the Alphans could not seem to defeat this creature. Finally Maya becomes a bee and enters the creatures ear, discovering it to be a machine
• Bob Lynn met Dave Prowse at the Harrods department store when he asked for advice on exercise equipment. Immediately after the role in this episode he was cast as Darth Vader in Star Wars.

Cast

Sets

Int. Command Centre
Int. Medical Centre
Int. Weapons Section
Int. Life Support Centre
Int. Techlab 5
Int. Corridor by Hyrdoponics
Int. Alpha Corridor & Electrical Unit
Int. Alpha Corridor
Int. Travel Tube
Int. Eagle Pilot Section
Int. Eagle Passenger Section

• The cloud was made by injecting condensed milk into a water tank and filming from underneath. The milk was swirled to simulate laser hits.

• The nebula that first appears is the remnants of the supernova in Into Infinity. It is also seen in the Year 2 opening titles and in The Metamorph. Thanks to Marcus Lindroos.

• The Creature's molecular structure eludes Maya. How does she normally find something's molecular structure?
• How does a formless cloud construct a mechanical robot? What does it want with Alpha's life support core?
• Alpha's temperature meter is very crude (with 5 C intervals) and drops immediately.
• The robot is intelligent enough to fly an Eagle but stupid enough to chase television screens.
• Smashing the windows to escape, the Creature releases chlorine into Alpha's air circulation system.
• Why do the Alphans have Ionethermyecin, a drug "too powerful for humans"? Was it developed to attack aliens?

Maya transformations:

Kreno animal (as in The AB Chrysalis), bee, lizard animal (as in Seed Of Destruction), mouse

• The Kreno animal from A B Chrysalis is seen again. Unlike that episode, it is fine in normal air.
  

Aliens:

The "Peculiar Cloud". The Creature is a robot, not a life-form.

Props:

• The Weapons section has a propogatoscope from A Matter Of Balance
• The vacuum chamber door in Int. Techlab 5 is the nuclear reactor door from Force Of Life.

• It is asserted nothing can live in a vacuum. In Space Warp and Bringers Of Wonder Maya changes into space animals that can live in a vacuum.

• One shot of Eagle 6 returning to Alpha actually shows an Eagle leaving the base.
• When the travel tube doors close on the Creature, its hair is trapped

• The original script ran short and is padded with additional scenes of Fraser setting up the laser barrier and Tony and Maya firing the laser battery at the cloud.
• The script ended with Tony reading a magazine showing Catherine Schell as a model. Maya transforms into Catherine Schell and asks if he likes the look- he says yes. "Well, nobody ever accused you of having good taste." she says, and rips up the picture.

One of the Command Center operatives in the episode hook appears as a nurse in Medical Center immediately after the episode titles, changing sleeve from red to white. The same operative also appears in Space Warp. Another Command Center operative also appears tending the sick, but she didn't change her uniform. Thanks to Craig Rohloff.