God In Space: 1999

[Anonymous]

I wrote this a LONG time ago and while I don’t have a lot of the same POV now that I did then, I think it’s an interesting way of seeing the MUF in both seasons.

When Space: 1999 blazed across the screens of televisions, and soon after the
initial excitement died down, it became Criticism: 1999 from almost everyone and
for many reasons.
Isaac Asimov panned the show for being scientifically inaccurate. He had many
valid points. The explosion which sent the moon into space would have destroyed
the moon and most of the earth–a fact mentioned many times in the series. The
flight of an unplanned, accidentally driven body in space would bring it no
where near inhabited planets, if near any planets at all.
STAR TREK fans are quick to point out that this problem was handled with a warp
drive on that show. The only trouble with that was no one on the series itself
ever really explained what a warp drive was, even in its basic forms.
It is true that many explanations in 1999 were not given. This does not mean
these problems were totally ignored. 1999, being the most expensive show at the
time, did not want to hit viewers over the head with a dozen ready-made reasons
for everything they were seeing. In the end, each episode leaves it up to the
audience as to what actually happened. The meaning if often left open. This may
have been both its downfall and its uniqueness.
The ideas I am about to embark on are my own opinions, some of which I do not
believe were the reasons the writers had but which are just one more way of
looking at a misunderstood and open ended show. I present enough evidence to
back up the views and I feel sometimes the writers did inject these things
purposefully but not at other times. The unknowns are there. In addition, I
wrote the original of this a long time ago and my own views on the subject
matter have changed slightly. I do not think a lot of this at the current time
but again, it is just another interpretation of an excellent and mysterious
series.
To begin with BREAKAWAY, the pilot episode, seems appropriate. As the logical
Asimov stated, there should have been no survivors when the moon was blown out
of Earth’s orbit. In fact, there would be no moon. By man’s logic and reasoning,
everyone should have died. The moon is thrown into space for a purpose by some
stronger being who wanted this ti happen. God may have saved the moon for some
purpose. The Alphans, in many episodes of both seasons, should have died many
times (WAR GAMES, THE AB CHRYSALIS). Man constantly fails on his own merits in
1999. To many this showed a pessimistic view of space and the future. This may
or may not have been the case. On the surface, it looked awfully bleak for the
Alphans and a sad, lonely voyage. Some fans liked the show due to this. Yet,
maybe there is another way or several other ways to look at this.
Maybe God was helping the Alphans, who needed to know him better. Whenever man
failed on his own, God stepped in to help. Victor Bergman’s force field fails
inside the BLACK SUN. And the fleeing Eagle is light years on the other side of
the sun’s gateway with no way of getting back to the moon, which survived after
all. No apparent reason. Suddenly, the thought-lost Eagle is able to find the
moon and land. Bergman tells John, “I’m a scientist. I don’t know anything about
God. Ultimately, I suppose we all believe what we want to believe.” Although, to
God and religion, this attitude may be wrong, the Alphans seem to be learning
about God. Victor and John heard a voice as the moon passed into the deepest
part of the black sun opening. The voice is feminine and claims she is helping
them along and that she thinks a thought every thousand of our years. John and
Victor become invisible (spirit or spiritual), hear their own thoughts and the
thoughts of each other (the soul which is the mind of the individual) and age
rapidly (the body and the flesh). This voice may be the reason the Alphans have
survived and gone on through un-survivable encounters. This voice, being female,
may not have been God, but may have been a watcher angel in space or perhaps
God, coming to them in a feminine voice to see what their reaction to that would
be.
In WAR GAMES, Alpha is destroyed in what ultimately turns out to be an illusion.
The Earthlings are given an enactment of how easily they could be destroyed.
Helena realizes, as part of the aliens mind-world machine, “We are what we
are—with all our faults and fears.” Although they lose the beauty of what
seemed a cold, unemotional alien world, the Alphans still survive. God gave them
a look at what could happen if he did not help Alpha—even guiding the moon to
habitable worlds. Perhaps he doesn’t want the Alphans to get too prideful on
their own merits and their own sciences, forgetting their is a God and a
spiritual realm.
Confronting the aliens in WAR GAMES, John Koenig says, “We have survived. How, I
don’t know. There’s no rational explanation for it. What I do have is an
absolute faith in the strength of the human spirit and the belief that someone
or something is looking after us, God, if you like. And we will survive!” And
they do. It is not the Alphan’s true destiny to be like the unemotional alien
world, so they must lose the beautiful planet—perhaps they are not ready for
it. Or perhaps a planet like that is without love, real love or a more perfect
love which is what Alpha may be guided toward. Maybe, they should rest easy
though, trusting that God has better worlds for them in the future.
Alas, Alphans, like many TV characters (DARK SHADOWS, DOCTOR WHO) do not have
mountain-moving faith but seem to be taught as this force, God, if you will,
teaches and shows them. When Helena yelled, ‘We are what we are with all our
faults and fears,” it is true that the Alphans have lots of faults and fears at
the present time.
In that same episode, Alan Carter is killed and John faces death in his
spacesuit, floating in the void of space as part of the illusion. John will
float endlessly. Since it is all an illusion they both survive—John, by
conquering his fear of death here, learns something. The alien tells Helena, “He
has faced his death and won.” This is what God wants them each to do. And in
Christian theology, this is what God has done Himself.
There appears to be a link between John and Alan in several episodes–a link of
unshaken faith. Alan tries to avert a COLLISION COARSE between the moon and
alien woman Arra’s massive planet and smaller but still just as dangerous moon.
When he is lost in an ill timed detonation to stop the alien moon, Arra saves
him and later sees John face to face. John is told by her not to avoid the
collision and by faith, he believes her that this is the right thing to do. Only
Alan stands behind John when all his other friends and co-workers dessert him
for the logical, cold reasoning of avoiding the collision. Arra claimed they
must do nothing and only John and Alan have seen and believed her.
An important part of John’s faith in Arra is that she knows Alpha’s future
somehow (who showed her? God? Is she from the future? Can she look into the
future? Or future time doorways?). She knows the Alphan’s past and future. She
has had a revelation of their meeting and represents a leader who seems to know
more—possibly God. There are many friendly aliens in 1999, countering a
criticism that all the aliens in the show are hostile. Arra’s words give the
Alphans a purpose to go on. “You shall go on. Your odyssey shall know no end.
You shall prosper and increase in new worlds, new galaxies. You will populate
the deepest reaches of space.”
Although John is confused, he has faith. Helena, at a table conference meeting
on Alpha, says, “Of all the factors since we left Earth’s orbit, two have been
constant—we survived them all and John Koenig has been at command.” While she
was tricking John Koenig, whom she and the others thought was suffering from
radiation sickness—what she said was true. A faithful leader has to be in the
head of the flock.
When Arra’s planet and the Earth Moon touch—that is all they do, touch. Arra’s
world vanishes into a higher realm of existence—which Arra, previously told
John could be a change that could be considered a spiritual one. Where did it
go? Heaven? Most of the answers are left up to the viewer. After the touch, not
only is Arra’s world gone, Alpha is kicked into new space.
ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE affords Alpha the chance to see their own future or
at least, a possible future. That they can start a new life on a new planet or
in this case an old one (since the planet was Earth) could give them renewed
hope. Even if this is an alternate Earth, they got to see it is
possible–somehow. All it was, was a look. Helena realizes this, “Our place and
our time is on Alpha.” God wants them there, too, for the time being, to
continue their journey, giving them reasons to do so. John and Alan discover
their counterparts have died in an Eagle crash (on the alternate Moon). While
this disturbs John and Alan it does not seem to cause them fear. They still fly
in an Eagle and even though knowing this might be a future for them, they are
not afraid. Their faith, perhaps, has overcome their fear of death.
As stated before, God wants John in command and his place is on Alpha. In one of
the weirdest episodes, MISSING LINK, John must decide to either remain with his
alien love Vana or return to his command on Alpha. To those on Alpha, Koenig
appears to be in a deep coma. Vana’s father, alien scientist Raan (Peter
Cushing) has brought Koenig’s life force (spirit) to Zenno, his planet, in an
attempt to bridge their two worlds. Raan’s people think too much without
feeling. Koenig’s Alphans feel too much as evidenced by their building
frustration back on the moon without John in command and lying dying. They are
all on edge as John nears death. Paul scolds Kano who yelled at a woman serving
him coffee which she dropped.
John teaches Vana, Raan’s daughter, to feel. And though he tells Raan, “I still
think it is more important to feel than to think,” what he tells Vana disproves
this. He has learned the fine line between thinking and feeling.
John calms Vana when she finds he intends to go back to Alpha. “Cross the bridge
between your world and mine. With your mind and your heart. As long as you think
of me, feel for me, I’ll be with you.” He chooses both mind (knowledge, wisdom)
and heart (emotion, feelings). This is how it is believed we can know God–with
both wisdom and emotions. Neither the raw feelings or raw logic will get them
close to God or a communion with love. As Raan corrects John, “It is the perfect
balance between the two that must be achieved. Both our worlds have yet to learn
how.” Raan has added another dimension–humility and humbleness. All
three—Raan, John, and Vana have learned they must grow further and change.
Once again, Alan comes to John’s rescue. Helena is about to disconnect John’s
life support system. Alan’s interference gives Raan enough time to return John.
Alan had enough faith to believe John could return to full activity. “He’s still
breathing and while he is–he’s still the commander!”
Raan’s people were very like humans. In fact, most of the aliens in 1999 are
very Earth-like. The friendly but very tall Kaldorians in EARTHBOUND are similar
to Earthlings but they have learned to use their emotions wisely. They think
before acting and face the truth instead of denying the inevitable. When the
Alphans accidentally cause the death of one of the Kaldorians, whom they tried
to reawaken from their suspended animation states, the other Kaldorians realize
it was just a mistake and do not act against Alpha. Commissioner Simmonds, an
annoying man and bureaucrat (this show’s LOST IN SPACE’s Dr. Smith), acts
irrationally and stows away with them, the aliens do not act against the other
Alphans. Simmonds fulfills the role of villain, forcing himself on the aliens,
holding Alpha hostage until they agree to let him go in place of the person
chosen by the computer. He (along with the aliens and Alphans) did not realize
he, being human and not Kaldorian, would not be put into a suspended state, thus
he has made himself a prisoner in the chamber. Their ship, headed for earth, has
him in a coffin like cubicle. The irony in all of that is the computer, after
Simmonds pulled his demands, selected Simmonds as the Alphan to go. Does he die?
Or does the Kaldorian device have some mechanism that will let him out?
The Sidonians in VOYAGER’S RETURN are too proud to accept the fact that they act
on emotion, not logic. They will not accept the term “revenge”, yet will punish
the innocent, using revenge without acknowledging what it truly is. Most of the
other aliens are all too human in their desires and fears. Why? Perhaps they are
examples for Alpha to learn from. Be like the Caldorians and other friendly
aliens and do not be like the Sidonians and other unfriendly, cold aliens.
Perhaps these aliens are, as suggested by MISSING LINK, are our brothers and God
is sending Alpha back out to them to interact. Isn’t it possible that some of
these aliens have forgotten God and that through contact with the relatively
inferior and more primitive struggles of Alpha, they can recall how God wants
them to be? In a sense Moonbase Alpha is the ark carrying the Israelites through
space for the purpose of spreading his memory and at times, the Alphans do not
know they are doing this.
The last episode of Season One—TESTAMENT OF ARKADIA, had Alpha stuck in orbit
over a dead world. Two of the Alphans—Anna and Luke Farrel–are given a vision
that they must restart life on this world–where the Alphans find a form of
Sanskrit–an ancient Earth language. They discover the Arkadians left to
colonize other worlds–one of these worlds was Earth. Even though Luke and Anna
threaten Alpha’s survival, stealing supplies to rebuild the planet, they still
want the moon to remain in orbit. When it does not and leaves them alone on the
planet (through no act of its own–for the moon moves and stops at supposedly
random forces), we can tell from the look of loneliness on their faces that they
did not have a choice because it was ordained (as Luke himself stated). They are
a new Adam and Eve, remaining because they had a higher purpose than their own.
The Alphans couldn’t survive on Arkadia due to the sheer number of Alphans that
would have needed food and farming on Arkadia wouldn’t support that many of
them. Even though the pull of the planet somehow made a power loss on Alpha,
Luke and Anna’s chances were better on Alpha than on the planet. The two still
went down to Arkadia to live, unaware that God would send the Moon on its way
once they were set on the planet. Once the Moon goes on, the Alphans no longer
needed the stolen supplies; Luke and Anna could survive and bring Arkadia to new
life.
Helena tells John, “They’re all along down there.”
“It was their choice.”
“Was it their choice, John?”
“And…” John logs, “So the circle of was complete. The seeds from Earth, so
carefully stored and nurtured by us have returned to their place of origin. I
believe it is futile to try to seek answers to the incredible things that
happened on Arkadia. All we know is that life has restarted there. Our immediate
struggle is over. For them, it has just begun. They have found their beginnings.
We still wander the emptiness of space, seeking ours. We must keep faith and
believe that for us, for all of mankind, there is a purpose.” John does call the
creation of Adam and Eve a myth which shows his unbelief in some of the Bible
but his thoughts clearly showed he did change during the first season. With all
of the spiritual events that happen on Alpha, none of the crew are seen reading
a Bible. Perhaps if they had–some of the answers would have been found.
While this is a basic Old Testament treatment, there are also New Testament
overtones as well. In DEATH’S OTHER DOMINION, the eternal humans, who have
become immortal, did not know they could not leave the planet, Ultima Thule.
One, supposedly insane (“It comes and goes, it comes and goes,”), named Jack,
did know something of it but couldn’t express it properly. When the sneaky,
manipulative leader, Cabot, leaves the snow ridden Ultima Thule with the
Alphans, on an Eagle, he turns into a skeleton. John, later, ponders whether or
not death on the flesh gives mankind a reason for continuing. He calls it an
“end” but one of the eternals, Jack, sends him a last message in the last scene,
“…if there really is an end…” Meaning? Perhaps even those that die, do not
experience an end. For continuing, maybe life after death is the reward as in A
MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
In A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, Helena’s husband, Lee Russell warns them away
from what appears to be a liveable planet. When the Alphans refuse to listen,
Lee dies and his body vanishes. The Alphans descend to the planet and are
killed. As the Moon itself explodes, once showing how easily the Alphans could
die, only Helena survives—which is her fear—being the only one left alive.
Earlier, John, said, “What’s going to stop us,” meaning, nothing could stop the
Alphans from going down to the planet and living there. This shows his pride and
yet, as he sat at his desk, his expression showed that he realized the folly of
his own pride. Then later, after the total destruction of the moon and everyone
but Helena, Lee comes to Helena to explain.
“Nobody dies. Matter never dies, Helena. It just changes its form. There are
many forms of life in space, and many forms of death, too.” He goes on to reveal
he is anti-matter, although he does not use that word (earlier Helena and Victor
did use that word). He also tells them they cannot survive in each other’s
worlds. He seems placid, almost angelic and content.
And after he normalizes the Alphans (or some goodly force returns things back to
the way they were before the almost total destruction), Helena realizes, “We
cannot stay here, John.” This once more shows her knowledge that something wants
them back on Alpha and even though she is unsure as to what and why—it may
only be for the time being. Helena even declares in THE LAST ENEMY, “I’d rather
take my chances wandering through space than to be involved in a permanent state
of war. Anyway, it’s too late now.” She knows they cannot stay but is none too
happy about it.
Even in the much changed second season, these elements were present. In JOURNEY
TO WHERE, Yasko decides, “I’d rather stay on Alpha than end up somewhere in
space.” Other Alphans show they agree with her. God, perhaps, is showing them
that Alpha is not so bad as compared to other places and other times but if they
remain in his will and try to trust Him, he will deliver them, perhaps as a
people, or perhaps sooner. At the very end of the episode, Helena tells John,
“Who wants to go back to Earth anyway.” They also find out that Earth did
survive and made contact with the people on it, even though it was further in
the future–another supposedly dead planet, still alive despite reason, science,
and logic.
The Alphans are tricked much too easily and in too many ways. The unseen Ariels
give the moon air and food. To the earthlings, it is a gift. Only at the end of
THE LAST SUNSET, the aliens tell them they did this because they hoped the
Alphans would not come to their planet. They do not want human kind on their own
home planet–they have been watching humankind. The Ariel people (if they are
people—they are never seen and never shown, only heard via a male voice) could
have destroyed Alpha but did not or would not. Perhaps God was dealing with the
Ariel beings as well as Alphans. When Paul becomes a religious fanatic centering
on “sacred bread” and saying, “Another gift from the “gods”, he is taking his
eyes off God and making up his own religion–a man made one–and taking his eyes
off the truth. Paul calls Ariel’s second coming of devices a blessing. In
reality, this new gift is that of the air being taken off the Moon—perhaps
because Paul was concentrating on the gifts and what he wanted–and not God.
Perhaps the Ariel beings did not even know why they were doing what they
were–certainly, they did not seem like fully realized spiritual beings, nor
were they benevolent, nor malevolent. While the food or something in the bread
was affecting Paul, his inner feelings may have come out. He did not have the
ability to use reason at that point and only emotional fanaticism came out. This
had to be seen to be dealt with. And the other Alphans must have similar buried
emotions, which Paul’s example may have helped them deal with.
In FULL CIRCLE, a planet bound time warp fog changed the Alphans into cave men
and cave women, mocking the idea of evolution and showing the Alphans that
mankind has always been caveman-like and never truly evolved. Victor wonders,
“Have we changed that much, I wonder?”
John said, more optimistically, “Maybe.”
Earlier, when Sandra attacked the caveman chief, she did not realize it was John
Koenig. Is God telling us when we strike out at others, we only hurt ourselves
and our own kind and those we love? What are the Alphan’s beliefs? Do we ever
find out?
In the second season’s NEW ADAM, NEW EVE, Helena is taken in, at first, by alien
Megus, who looks like a New Testament version of God but who is in reality only
an alien experimenting with power and devices that resemble esp powers. False
prophets can do magical works to deceive and Megus, they discover is a first
rate villain. Helena calls him, “A fraud and a cheat.” All he wants is to
perfect himself, sacrificing other’s lives to do so.
THE GUARDIAN OF PIRI sucks the Alphans onto an ideal life where they lay around
all day and do nothing. Only John can see that when the struggle is removed from
life, there is only a fate worse than death. Here, the evil is keeping the
Alphans tranquil–away from their true destiny and course. This could be a test
or a trial to raise the Alphans up to understand what they really should be
doing and that the struggle, though tempting to give up, is needed and pointing
them in some direction. Where they do not know.
In some predicaments, Alpha must save themselves. In THE INFERNAL MACHINE, they
learn to turn the other cheek and to forgive the dangerous living spaceship who
had its only caretaker, Guardian, die. The machine learns of its own selfishness
and evil ways but cannot accept loneliness or forgiveness graciously–it cannot
also forgive what it has done— and destroys itself.
On the other side of the coin is ALPHA CHILD. The first Alphan birth, first a
baby, then rapidly a small child, then a man, has been taken over by Jarek.
Jarek, his mate (who possessed the child’s mother Sue by having Sue die first)
and about 300 others are criminals running from their planet’s justice. They
take over Alpha and again, Alpha is helpless before the attackers. The alien
police ships arrive–somehow finding Alpha. When the alien “police” arrive,
Jarek and his mate just vanish. The “police” made it clear they would destroy
Alpha to get the pair (or destroy the pair as well) but they would not come down
to the base themselves. And the Alphans couldn’t force Jarek and mate to go. Yet
somehow Jarek and mate do vanish and are back on one of the “police” ships
(presumably–we do not see them on an alien ship). The mother, Sue, and the
child, Jackie, are back to normal—and the baby is growing normally.
Helena asks, “Do you think they gave themselves up?”
John answers, “Nice thought, Helena, but I don’t think they had any choice.”
Why? Did some other force return the two criminals? Was it perhaps, God? If it
was the aliens, why would the aliens bother to return the mother and child to
normal–even if they had the power to do this. And if they did have the power,
why not intercede right away? Why did they wait and threaten? Some other power
must have interceded—perhaps God did this.
Oddly enough, strange camera angles also suggest an outside force watching
Alpha—also a inside force—one and the same as evidence by John-Alan link to
each other and in Helena’s Alpha fetish. Camera angles show something watching
the Alphans from behind support beams, from above, and from out of the room,
sometimes moving from outside the room to into it! In RING AROUND THE MOON as
Victor and John talk, the camera pulls back to show the entire room. This is
usually a camera move, done the opposite way in other shows, to reveal a setting
or location–an establishing shot and then the camera is supposed to zoom in on
the conversation. Here, in RING, the watcher was listening to the conversation
from outside, then seemed to fill the room. There are also other incidents of
this. One, TROUBLED SPIRIT, is as Victor and John talk (again) as well as when
Mateo, the possessed Alphan, talk. The latter conversation is when we see a
whole other room and the force—the camera (God?) moves up to Helena’s back and
then into the conversation. VOYAGER’S RETURN has the camera outside the room
where two scientists talk. The camera dollies straight onto a computer pillar,
then moves around it, into the room and onto the talk—while all the time we
hear what the characters are saying anyway. The show, technically superior, even
by today’s standards, did not have an incompetent camera team. This was
purposefully done. One can argue it was done this way to make it different from
STAR TREK but there seems to be more to it than that.
Anyone doing God’s work is bound to have trouble from temptation and opposition
from the devil. Clearly, Alpha was no exception. In BREAKAWAY, the radiation
sickness was not radiation sickness. No one knew what it was. We never find out.
It makes men turn into zombie faced vegetables, at first, making them fear being
enclosed.
In TROUBLED SPIRIT, a demonic burned ghost haunts a technician botanist until he
causes his own death…the ghost was his own from the future. END OF ETERNITY
showed a mass murderer who could not die—and his disregard for humanity and
lack of caring shows the Alphans how unhappy they would be if they could live
forever in their present form and state–as did DEATH’S OTHER DOMINION where
their pride (except for John, who had his suspicions of Cabot’s plan to have an
ever ending space journey with an immortal crew) and the pride of some of the
immortals was put in its place when they learned that if any of the immortals
left the planet Ultima Thule—they would die, turning to gory skeletons. This
is similar to LOST HORIZON, the older version. The most horrifying monster
actually ate an entire crew of the Uranus probe in DRAGON’S DOMAIN, spitting out
charred, chewed bodies and remains, literally obsessing one survivor, who later
found himself on Alpha when the Moon blasted out of orbit. This man was Tony
Cellini and this was a retelling of Moby Dick and St. George and the Dragon. The
monster was like a giant spider but differently built—it did not show up on
any instruments, had one glowing eye to hypnotize prey, and seemed to burn
victims once imbibing them. A demon? The before mentioned Magus of NEW ADAM, NEW
EVE, tried to match Helena up with the second season Tony Verdeschi while
teaming Maya up to John for a mate. While all were friends, John was in love
with Helena while Tony was in love with Maya, the alien Psychon and new science
officer on Alpha. Magus just wanted to use them toward some kind of evil or sin,
not caring about love. To make a new race of humans here. Clearly evil.
The second season, much more straight forward, showed its villains more clearly
as evil. THE EXILES were young, beautiful and seemingly innocent children who
were really 300 years old due to the cryogenic chambers their people put them
in. They were, in reality, cold blooded murderers who were put into exile in
shut up rockets in pairs or in trios. The devils can sometimes come as angels of
light.
Maya, THE METAMORPH, had a father, Mentor, who tried to restore Psychon by
draining the life force of others into his renewing psychic machine. He wanted
to do good but slipped into evil in the process.
MARK OF ARCHANON became a killing sickness which inexplicable affected the blood
of a peaceful, kind race–a race which cannot give blood. This turned men of
peace and calm into horrid killers bent only on murder.
There are many examples of outright evil in year 2 but the most devilish is the
cloud in LAMBDA FACTOR. Mixed with human mind and emotions, it caused John to
create his own ghosts which haunted him about the deaths of his two former
friends that he had to leave behind on a plagued base; and he later rebuked
these ghosts. Off topic, one must note Landau’s acting here as he gave John a
sensitivity, a tearful guilt or command and conscience not seen in ANY outer
space commander before or after with possibly THE NEXT GENERATION taking this
up—20 years later. The cloud also made Caroline Powell’s hate a reality for
murder, a tool, for her ESP was pronounced by it. Truly a first rate villainess,
spurned, she made viewers hate her while John knew any hate toward her, made her
powers and link to the cloud, stronger. John could not hate her. Hate did not
good. John told her he nor the others hated her. After the cloud was “exorcized”
from Caroline, she was like a new born baby who had to learn things all over.
Somewhat Biblical, wouldn’t you say?
THE BETA CLOUD shows up, nearly destroys Alpha and then vanishes. Remaining true
to Alpha, God made them survive and showed them they could survive on—but with
Him. Without Him, and totally on their own, they were lost. Alpha faced total
annihilation in AB CHRYSALIS but for some reason, the aliens decided to show
loyalty, compassion, and creation and they saved the Moon and the Alphans from
the power shock waves their own planet and race needed to survive and evolve.
They also saved John’s Eagle which was in the direct path of one of the shock
waves. This, despite Alan, in a crazed state, earlier, almost having
accidentally killed one of the aliens. John’s speech to the aliens about hope,
loyalty, and compassion taught these advanced aliens something God wanted them
to know.
The second season, much more clear and straight forward also had its share of
mysterious unknown forces—and one episode THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME was actually
written for the first season. Other unexplained things happened in the second
season—AB CHRYSALIS, BETA CLOUD, SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION, SPACE WARP, A MATTER OF
BALANCE, CATACOMBS OF THE MOON (very first season like), SEANCE SPECTRE, DORZAK,
and a few others had a first season feel to them.
In THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME which was shown last in New York, Alpha seemed to find
a home planet. It was clear they could not stay but maybe the alien force could
have made the Moon remain in orbit. On this world John had to be veiled just
like Moses was when he stood before God. While it is clear the light being was
not God, John had to be veiled in order to see the light. And Helena says, “We
had help from a friend.” This was the powerful and kind alien force—which
learned of others’ existences for the first time. Its power accidentally could
kill humans if too strongly introduced to it. John told it that if they learn
about others, in time, they could learn about themselves. Other examples do
exist—for instance, Victor in SPACE BRAIN telling John that, “It’s a miracle
we’re alive, John.” He knew that the Moon passing through a complex organic mass
in space–which had other planetary systems depending on it for survival, should
have destroyed Alpha. It didn’t.
Also Kano relating that it would be hundreds of years before they pass into a
system with an Earth type planet in A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, yet we see that
this does not take that long. In second season episodes such as THE TAYBOR and
others, more logical explanations are given for such a trajectory—-space
warps, black suns, time warps, gravity pulls, and others. But as SPACE:1999 is
only a TV series and not a science manual can we not assume that it took poetic
license to skip the explanation in Season One? Perhaps God was controlling the
Moon’s flight.
All in all, I do not profess to fully understand the show but these variables
are worth thinking about and do exist. Maybe more was being said than was picked
up by the viewers.
In closing, I will leave you with a quote from DRAGON’S DOMAIN made by Commander
John Koenig:
“If we think we know everything that goes on out there in space then we’re
making a terrible mistake!”

[Author]

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