Episode Guide: Year One
Title: "The Last Enemy"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
The Moon becomes the middleground for a war between two planets -- with Moonbase Alpha trapped in-between!
Production Number: 018 (Season One)
- filmed Friday, November 8 - Tuesday, November 19, 1974; Tuesday, February 25 - Thursday, February 27, 1975
Original U.K. airing week: 19 February 1975 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 2 April 1976 (syndication)
Written by Bob Kellett
Directed by Bob Kellett
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.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
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Moonbase Alpha finds itself caught up in war between two planets -- and the wiles of a beautiful women.
Two planets come into view, and then an approaching spaceship. On Moonbase Alpha, Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) orders a Red Alert. Defensive Eagles are instructed to be ready for take-off, but not one is able to move. One by one, their engines fade and die and at the same time Alpha's power fails.
Emergency power is switched on as the spaceship lands. A deafening, blinding bombardment begins -- but the firing is not at Alpha itself. The objective becomes apparent: the fire is directed at one of the two planets.
Realization dawns on Koenig: "We are involved in a war between two planets."
It is Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) who provides the explanation. The two planets are on opposite sides of the sun. They can't see each other and they can't fire at each other directly because any kind of missile would be drawn in by the sun's gravity. So the arrival of the runaway Moon has provided a ready-made gun platform in space, and Moonbase Alpha is in the middle of a shooting match.
The spaceship is caught in an enormous explosion and at the same time Alpha's power returns and the Eagles are mobile again. An aerial inspection indicates no sign of life from the spaceship and then, from under it, an escape capsule appears and makes its way towards Alpha.
A young and beautiful girl steps from it. Her name is Dione (CAROLINE MORTIMER). She is a Commander from the planet Betha and she warns that enemies on planet Delta, with which Betha has always been at war, will launch a retaliatory attack. She offers asylum on her planet for the Moonbase personnel if Alpha is attacked, but is is already too late for action. Delta, copying Betha, has landed a space-ship on the moon. The counter-attack on Betha has begun, but the Delta gunship is destroyed, and Koenig offers to negotiate a cease-fire between the two planets. Talos (KEVIN STONEY), Supreme Commander of the Delta Armed Forces and Theia (MAXINE AUDLEY), Chief Commissioner of Betha Defence, are contacted. The cease-fire is agreed.
But Koenig has reckoned without the feminine wiles of Dione...
SCREENPLAY BY BOB KELLETT
DIRECTED BY BOB KELLETT
Guest Artist
CAROLINE MORTIMER
with
PRENTIS HANCOCK as PAUL MORROW
CLIFTON JONES as DAVID KANO
ZIENIA MERTON as SANDRA BENES
NICK TATE as ALAN CARTER
MAXINE AUDLEY as THEIA
KEVIN STONEY as TALOS
CAROLYN as FIRST GIRL
Unanswered Questions
- Did the war between planets Betha and Delta ever cease?
Analyses/Observations
Comments
- Actress Carolyn Mortimer (Dione) appeared in U.K. movies and television series between the 1960s to the 1980s, including notable TV guest roles on "Casualty" (1989; playing "Joan Sedgeley" in "Taking Stock"); "Rumpole of the Bailey" (1988; playing "Connie Coughlin" in "Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation"); "Shelley" (1982; playing "His Lawyer" in "Shelley Vs. Shelley"); and "The Saint" (1968; playing "Kate Barnaby" in "The Organisation Man").
- Barbara Bain was purported to have participated with writer/director Bob Kellett on this script to push for it's inclusion in the show.
Memorable Lines
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