A man returns from the dead and the promise of a new civilisation on a
planet resembling Earth opens for those stranded on the runaway moon. But there is drama ahead ...
Dr Helena Russell has believed herself to be a widow since the disappearance of her husband, Lee,
on a space mission that went wrong. Locked in orbit around Jupiter, the ship burned up. All the crew must have
died. Now, sensationally, she comes face to face with Lee when he arrives on the moon in a spacecraft that has been
probing a planet, Terra Nova, which is apparently capable of sustaining human life.
But how did Lee get into the spacecraft? His condition is anything but normal and Professor
Bergman theorises that Lee must somehow have found himself on Terra Nova and that some aspect of that planet's environment
caused him to change in some way. Commander Koenig is puzzled but preoccupied with the possibilities of evacuating Moonbase
Alpha personnel to the planet that has all the promise of a normal future akin to that on Earth.
Alarmingly, when Helena touches her husband she is gripped by an enormous vibration which hurls her
across the room, and further examination of Lee produces even more puzzling factors. He records no life, no body heat,
yet his heart is beating and he is breathing. When he at last regains sufficient consciousness to talk, his plea is:
"You are in danger. You must not go near the planet. You face power beyond your imagination. It will destroy
you," and he dies.
This time there is no doubt. He is dead, but after his death his skin shows changing atomic
structure - signs of reverted polarity and apparent confirmation of a theory that is the first stage towards anti-matter.
As soon as the process is complete, it means annihilation. A little later, his body disappears.
Nevertheless, Koenig decides to go ahead with the landing, taking an advance party which includes
himself and Helena. Terra Nova proves to be so like earth that he is sure it can be colonised. But from Moonbase
Alpha comes an ominous warning, Bergman reports trouble. There is trouble too aboard the spaceship. And then things
begin to happen to the landing party. Koenig and Helena watch as a violent explosion rocks the moon, which disintegrates,
the debris hurtling towards Terra Nova. Shock waves hit the planet. Koenig and Helena dive into a cove, but Koenig
is hit by falling debris .... and dies.
Helena then hears the voice of her dead husband, turns, and finds Lee standing beside her to tell
her how he and his companions had been affected by a form of radiation, atomised and scattered into deep space. What
Lee became, what he is now, ended on Terra Nova. Just as there are many forms of life in space, so there are many forms
of death. Lee is now anti-matter. He could never survive on earth.
Now Helena must leave. Lee can give her the strength she needs. Lee vanishes and Koenig,
alive again, comes towards her. Everything is as it was before and from Bergman comes an announcement that everything
is ready for Operation Exodus .... if Koenig gives the go-ahead.
Episode synopsis from Guide Book provided with the Digitally
Restored Network/Granada Ventures Series One Box Set
Copyright Granada Ventures
