Alpha Child

Sue Crawford is the first woman on Moonbase Alpha to become a mother, but terror is soon to follow the birth of the baby, Jackie. Within hours, he grows into a five year old boy, alert and intelligent but a deaf mute. Sue Crawford is reduced to a state of shock and Commander Koenig and Doctor Russell wonder if the fantastic growth is a form of mutation caused by the artificial environment of Alpha.

They are puzzled and intrigued by the skill with which the boy draws an amazingly detailed picture of an advanced spaceship and then, alarmingly, a green light in the space sky materialises into a craft identical to the one Jackie has drawn, a little later to be joined by three other ships.

The alien ships hover menacingly just above the moon's surface. Computer records some form of life inside, but it is not human. Attempts to bombard one of the craft with laser fire are in vain - the rays are deflected.

Koenig takes quick action, putting into operation a four-pronged attack, but as he does so another startling transformation takes place in Jackie Crawford. In minutes he grows into a man. His name, he says, is Jarak, and he forces Helena to contact Koenig with the warning that, unless he calls off the new attack , Alpha will be destroyed.

Jarak demands to be taken to Sue Crawford. She dies as she sees him but is immediately revitalised into a ravishingly beautiful creature who greets Jarak passionately. He addresses her as Rena and explains that they are involuntary travellers through space, seeking a physical form with which to conceal their own identities. On their planet they faced extermination because they were different and now 120 of them are running away from the ruthlessly imposed genetic conformity.

Their plan is to take over bodies of those on Moonbase Alpha. The moments of birth and death are ideally suited to the purpose and the birth of Jackie Crawford gave Jarak his chance. Now there will be more deaths as Jarak's companions in the hovering spaceships transfer themselves to dying Moonbase Alpha bodies that have been selected.

But a blinding flash is a warning to Jarak that his people's enemies have caught up with them. Six more spaceships have arrived and the war of the spaceships is now raging. The outcome will decide the fate of Moonbase Alpha and its people ... and of Jarak and Rena.

Episode synopsis taken from Guide Book provided with the Digitally Restored Network/Granada Ventures Series One Box Set