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Episode Guide: Year One

Title: "End Of Eternity"

Overview

While investigating a nearby asteroid, the Alphans uncover a hidden series of chambers, housing a remarkable individual with the gift of eternal life... and a very dark past.

Production Number: 016 (Season One)
- filmed Wednesday, October 9 - Wednesday, October 23, 1974

Original U.K. airing week: 20 November 1975 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 9 January 1976 (syndication)
Written by Johnny Byrne
Directed by Ray Austin

Backplot

In the year 1999, lunar nuclear waste storage dumps have exploded, due to magnetic radiation, sending Earth's moon into interstellar space. The inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, unable to escape, are seeking a new home.
The Moon is back in interstellar space, following an encounter at planet Retha with time-warping properties, in the episode "The Full Circle."

Plot Synopsis

(From the original ITC Press Release.)

View additional images
from the episode,
"End of Eternity."

The Alphans unleash a terrifying power when they free a killer who can't be killed. How can you deal with a psychopath who is immortal?

The appearance of an asteroid is baffling. It is three light years from the nearest star and must have been traveling a thousand years in space. And Computer reports that there is an atmosphere source somewhere inside it.

It's proximity to the runaway moon gives Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) the opportunity to land on it, piloted by Mike Baxter (JIM SMILIE) and accompanied by Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE). They blast their way into it. Baxter is dazed by the explosion which later leads to the threat of blindness; and, in the living chamber inside, is an unconscious, terribly injured humanoid alien (PETER BOWLES). Yet when he is taken to Moonbase, there is not a scratch on him.

A terrifying power has been unleashed. The man they have rescued gives his name as Balor, citizen of the planet Progron, a scientist who has achieved man's dream of immortality for his people, defeating death with the promise of eternal happiness. But with nothing to strive for, civilisation has lost its purpose and with it the realization that only death can give meaning to life. Balor has been blamed and banished, imprisoned in a living rock from the planet and cast in to space.

But he is now, as Koenig soon comes to realise, a complete psychopath. He is hungry for pain and destruction. his immense strength and powers of re-generation and eternal life drive him on to destroy everything and everyone within his reach. No-one is safe from him, but there is no way of catching him and holding him. How can you kill a man who cannot be killed? The decision Koenig takes is a grim one. Somehow, he has to be lured into an airlock from which he can be released into space forever, but to trap him Koenig has to be with him...

SCREENPLAY BY JOHNNY BYRNE

DIRECTED BY RAY AUSTIN

Guest Artist
PETER BOWLES

with
PRENTIS HANCOCK as PAUL MORROW
CLIFTON JONES as DAVID KANO
ZIENIA MERTON as SANDRA BENES
ANTON PHILLIPS as DR. MATHIAS
NICK TATE as ALAN CARTER
JIM SMILIE as BAXTER

Unanswered Questions

What became of Balor after Koenig decompressed him into space? (Actually this was answered in the Powys Media book,"Space: 1999 - Resurrection" by William Latham.)

Analyses/Observations

Comments

The sequel to "End of Eternity" was fully (and brilliantly) realized within the Powys Media book, "Space: 1999 - Resurrection" by William Latham.

In an interview with John K. Muir, writer/story editor Johnny Byrne discussed some insights into "End of Eternity":

Muir: I was surprised when you expressed some dissatisfaction with "End of Eternity." I've always judged it to be a superior show.

Byrne: I felt it was one of those large concepts that was difficult to squeeze into fifty minutes. I knew it had greater potential than I was able to capture. There was a slight psychological flaw in "End of Eternity," in the sense that maybe it was one of those time when knowning more about Balor and his background would have enhanced the story. But that's the reason I'm dissatisfied. I would have liked to know more about him. I mean, the thing about Balor was that he believed he was doing the right thing. He was just constantly beset by "small-minded" people who didn't understand what he was doing. That was his view. Since he'd gone beyond human, mortality no longer meant anything to him. In the end, there was too much about the psychopath and not enough of what made him a psychopath. It is one of those stories with genuine feature film potential. It could have been opened up in a big way. The thought of Balor on Alpha is terrifying because it's a closed off, vulnerable place.

Muir: You're thinking of a sequel?

Byrne: Oh, I always intended to write another story about Balor. It was in my mind at the time. He was a great character, so beautifully portrayed by Peter Bowles, and the episode was shot so wonderfully. Even when I see it now, I'm still impressed. When you see that scene played with the toy airplane, you just know Koenig isn't going to get out of this one unscathed.

Memorable Lines

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