The discovery of a planet, given the name Retha, has a bewildering outcome
when a seven-man landing party fails to return. The Eagle in which they were travelling is brought back to the moon
by remote control, and found to be empty except for the body of a Stone Age man.
Commander Koenig immediately orders a fullscale rescue, led by himself
with Doctor Helena Russell, Sandra Benes and Alan Carter. A successful landing is made on the strangely beautiful planet,
and Koenig and Helena set off through a misty atmosphere.
Worried because contact is lost with Koenig and Doctor Russell, Alan Carter follows, leaving
Sandra behind in the Eagle. He falls into a camouflaged pit, where he is trapped by cavemen, until managing to escape
when they are distracted by hearing Sandra's voice and seeing her face on his comlock.
But there is even greater danger for Sandra as she is carried off by a caveman, taking her to a vast
cave where the Cave Chief has his lair, with his Cave Wife and other cave people.
To the obvious jealousy of the Cave Wife, the Chief takes an immediate interest in Sandra who looks
at him first in fear then astonishment. Under the thick hair covering his head and face, the Cave Chief looks like
John Koenig, but there is no sign of recognition from him as she pleads for help.
But help does come from him when her captor, offering her a beautiful jaguar skin, tears at her tunic.
In the fight that follows Sandra's captor is defeated and Sandra, grabbing a stone, crashes it on to the Cave Chief's face.
Sandra escapes, only to be recaptured and taken back to the cave. The Cave Wife is tending
her husband's blood-stained face but it is clear he is going to die.
Meanwhile, Professor Bergman and Kano have followed in another Eagle
and have found Carter. Searching for the others, they come across Commander Koenig lying unconscious in a
clearing, a large bruise on his skull. He is taken back to Moonbase Alpha, where the results of the test on the dead
caveman found in the Eagle are coming through.
He undoubtedly belongs to the Cro Magnon period of 40,000 years ago - yet his teeth are capped.
As the significance of this sinks in, finger prints and blood group tests prove him to be the pilot of the Eagle from the
first recce to Retha.
It is the now conscious Koenig who realises that he has been through a time warp back to the Stone
Age, becoming the Cave Chief of that era. The Cave Wife must be Helena, the cave people the other members of Alpha who
have landed on Retha.
All are facing death. Carter has set out to find Sandra, ready to kill with his deadly
ray gun and, if he succeeds, the people he will kill will be Helena and his own comrades ...
Episode synopsis taken from Guide Book provided with the Digitally Restored Network/Granada
Ventures Series One Box Set
Copyright Granada Ventures
