In this episode Barbara Bain really comes into her own, and in my
mind she plays the grieving widow/hopeful wife very well indeed. Look at the way her hands shake when she takes them
away from Lee's face when he has been discovered on the Eagle. John Koenig, of course, finds it difficult to believe
that Lee is her missing husband, and Helena isn't slow to correct him when he points out that Lee has been dead for five years. "He's
been presumed dead," she states.
When I watch the scene in the Command room where Koenig, Bergman,
et al. are having a command conference I am reminded of a piece I read recently on a Space 1999 website about the giant globe
in the Command room. Recalling the first day he
walked onto the Main Mission set, Martin Landau recalls seeing the globe on the set.
"There was one thing on that big set I contributed to - that
giant globe of the Earth, which was a real globe with real colours. I made the suggestion that they paint it the same
colour as the set, because I felt it looked out of place. So they painted the globe in various shades of that beige-gray,
and that was done the same day."
Helena is so desperate for the stranger to be her husband
Lee, you can see that by the way she looks at him. The scene on the bed after Helena has 'passed out' is very touching.
John starts out being cynical about the stranger being Helena's husband, then gradually realises how much of a shock this
is for her, and mellows, finally sitting down on the bed beside her and holding her hand.
Some question whether this episode should have been shown
later on in the series, mainly I think because of the state of the relationship between John and Helena, but I think that
although this episode shows an obvious concern and affection between the two, it seems to me it is a concern of
a commander towards a member of his crew.
