“The Troubled Spirit”

A botanist’s experiment involving communication with plants unleashes a murdering doppelganger on Alpha. Writer: Johnny Byrne Director: Ray Austin Guest Cast Giancarlo Prete as Dan Mateo Hiliary Dwyer as Laura Adams Anthony Nicholls as Dr. James Warren

This is another of those gothic horror episodes Space: 1999 did so well, like “Force of Life” and “End of Eternity.” The episode uses powerful sound and visual devices such as an opening teaser totally devoid of dialogue, underscored by a haunting guitar solo as off-duty Alphans watch the guitarist perform in a recreation room. The camera tracks from the performance room to the botany lab where Mateo is experimenting in one long truck shot, seemingly without a single cut, all in one take. It gives a great idea of the sheer size of Moonbase Alpha. The story is an effective use of the myth of the doppelganger of Germanic legend: the soul of one yet to die come back to avenge his death in advance. A similar theme framed a favorite episode of one of Space: 1999’s American contemporaries, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Mateo, like many guest stars played by an Italian actor relatively unknown here, is a powerful figure, defiant of authority yet terrified of himself, especially the dark side of himself which his experiments inadvertently conjure into the real world.

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Alpha Chronicle Online ©2001 by Matt Butts. Space: 1999 ©1975 Carlton International Media, an ITC Production created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson