Moonbase Alpha is at war! The attack comes from an unnamed
planet, launched by a fleet of fighters which strafes the moon with laser fire, causing enormous explosions. As windows
are smashed, men are sucked into space in clouds of loose articles and debris. Defending Eagles are destroyed in the
air. Main Mission is wrecked and the base is left shattered and burning before the attacking craft turn away.
Grimly, Commander John Koenig warns that they will now send their bombers. He is right, but
the one remaining laser-equipped Eagle averts further disaster. A gigantic nuclear explosion fills the space sky.
Moonbase Alpha is no longer habitable, with 129 dead and Doctor Helena Russell tending the many others who have been injured.
Only one hope remains and that is to come to terms with the enemy planet and seek a new life there.
John Koenig and Helena Russell make the journey in an unarmed Eagle and come face to face with eerie figures silhouetted in
strange columns.
The appeals to allow Alpha personnel to come to the planet are rejected by the male alien, who tells
them that they have no place in space at all. They are a contaminating organism - a plague of fear. The female
alien tells them: "Your presence on this planet would destroy a civilisation that has survived for billions of years."
When Koenig moves in to attack them, both fire laser beams at him. He drops dead, but Helena,
taken into one of the columns, finds herself with the power to bring him back to life. Allowed to go, Koenig reaches
the Eagle and calls Moonbase Alpha, issuing orders for the last of the laser Eagles to be launched and for Alpha to be evacuated
to the planet.
But the plan fails, and at the same time Helena is being told about the harmonious world of the planet
on which there is no fear. Earthman's own enemy is his own fear.
Back on Alpha everything is normal - except that an attack appears imminent. They are back to
where they were before the attack that destroyed the moon. This time, Koenig tells the defending Eagles to hold their
fire. His instructions are greeted with blank astonishment and horror, and then the fighters blink out of existence.
Professor Bergman asks if this means they can go to the planet but before Koenig can reply, he hears
the voices of the aliens saying they hope they will stay away. "You are so primitive and unstable, so governed by emotions
like fear, that you would destroy our perfect world ... our only defence was to make your fears appear real ... in a moment
of time we have shown you the possible consequences of a decision we hope you will not take ..."
Episode synopsis taken from Guide Book provided with the Digitally Restored Network/Granada
Ventures Series One Box Set
Copyright Granada Ventures
