Episode Guide: Year One
Title: "Missing Link"
Within this page: Overview | Backplot | Plot Synopsis | Unanswered Questions | Analyses/Observations | Comments | Memorable Lines
Overview
Commander Koenig is whisked away to another planet, following an Eagle accident. As he learns about the link between humanity and the inhabitants of the alien world, he must decide whther to stay or return to Moonbase Alpha?
Production Number: 007 (Season One)
- filmed Monday, April 22 - Thursday, May 9, 1974; Monday, July 22, 1974 (2nd Unit)
Original U.K. airing week: 22 January 1976 (ATV Midlands)
Original U.S. airing week: 27 February 1976 (syndication)
Written by Edward Di Lorenzo
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.
Plot Synopsis
(From the original ITC Press Release.)
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Commander Koenig finds himself in another world and another time. It is a world of light and beauty. He has to choose between life back again among his companions on the moon and the love of a beautiful girl. Love is the only weapon he can use...
Commander Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) is dying, severely injured when the Eagle craft in which he has been carrying out explorations goes out of control and crashes on the moon's surface. But he seems to be alive and well, without any sign of his injuries, as he makes off on his own, but finds Main Mission completely deserted except for the sudden, unexpected appearance of an incredibly lovely girl. She smiles and then vanishes. Puzzled, he goes to the Main Console and presses the big screen button and finds himself looking at an unbelievably beautiful, futuristic world, the strange and elegant buildings in the shapes of different bright colours.
The room spins round. He finds himself in the midst of a purple void. He is on the planet Zenno - a planet consisting entirely of light. Koenig has been brought there by the man now addressing him. His name is Raan (PETER CUSHING), a strikingly dressed but gentle figure who tells him that he has brought him there. He is an image of his own self, as is the Main Mission to which he had made his way after the crash.
Koenig is now five million light years away from Earth. Zenno's existence will not be discovered by Earthmen for many years, perhaps never. But the breakaway moon has come close.
Back on the moon, Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) is fighting to save Koenig's life. Two of his traveling companions, Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) and Sandra (ZIENIA MERTON), who have also been injured in the Eagle crash, are in a serious condition.
The beautiful girl Koenig had seen so fleetingly reappears. She is Raan's daughter Vana (JOANNA DUNHAM). She looks incredibly young, but tells him she is 218 years old; her father is 508. The life span on Zenno is ten times that on Earth. It is Vana who explains that her father is a foremost anthropologist and that his reason for bringing Koenig to Zenno is to learn about the past, and Earth, from him first hand.
Vana is clearly attracted to him. It is a new emotion for her. Her father is the first to realise that she is experiencing the emotion of love. Koenig sees that his only chance of ever getting back to his own people is to trade on that love. Only she can influence her father. It becomes a battle between him and Raan.
On the moon, there seems to be little hope of saving Koenig. Helena is relying on the life support system, but she cannot save Sandra. Raan is using her to try to influence Koenig, who by now is struggling against his own feelings of love for Vana. It would be easy to spend his future with her. But his real life, he knows, is back on the moon. His only hope now is to exert the forces of another type of love - the love of a father for his daughter. But time is running short. Raan has warned him. Only one can survive, the Earth Koenig or his image...
SCREENPLAY BY EDWARD DI LORENZO
DIRECTED BY RAY AUSTIN
Guest Artist
JOANNA DUNHAM
Special Guest Star
PETER CUSHING
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
Unanswered Questions
Analyses/Observations
Comments
Memorable Lines
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