“Ring around the Moon”

An alien probe from a long-dead world takes Alpha hostage, using Helena as its pawn to acquire information from Computer. In order to save Helena — and Alpha — Koenig must somehow convince the probe that its mission is obsolete.

Writer: Edward di Lorenzo

Director: Ray Austin

Guest Cast

Max Faulkner as Ted Clifford

This episode is generally considered one of the worst of the first season of Space: 1999, and I concur. While not a bad story in and of itself, it isn’t enough to fill out a full hour, and so there is a lot of padding with flight sequences longer than they need to be. But what always bothered me about this episode was its title, which just seemed, silly. “Hey, we need something to call this one.” “How about ‘Ring around the Moon’?” “Yeah, whatever.”

Still, it has its moments, and those moments shined through best when Eric Bernard re-edited this episode into “The Eyes of Triton” for the MainMission:2000 convention.

For me, the best moment in this episode comes in the opening teaser, with a spectacular, beautifully photographed leap over a desk in Main Mission by Paul Morrow (Prentis Hancock).