Moonbase Alpha Status Report: 342 days after leaving Earth
orbit
Following an encounter with a space warp one of Moonbase Alpha's life support
systems is damaged. Astronauts Ray Torens and Bill Fraser are aboard a survey Eagle reconnoitering a nearby planet
trying to locate titanium, a rare metal, needed to repair the life support system.
Instruments on Alpha pick up signs of titanium but no life forms on
the planet below. Suddenly a strange green light emanates from the planet and envelopes the survey Eagle.
Mentor, of the planet Psychon, appears on the Command Centre big screen to inform John Koenig that his two Eagle pilots are
alive and well but that their Eagle is beyond repair.
Koenig suggests they rendezvous
in space in order to pick up Torens and Fraser. Mentor informs Koenig that one of their pilots suffered minor injuries
and suggests he sends a medical officer. He offers to provide them with titanium if they also send a scientific expert
to discuss their requirements.
John Koenig, Helena Russell,
Alan Carter and scientific expert Lew Picard board Eagle 4 and reach the rendezvous point in space. Back
on Alpha, Chief Security Officer Tony Verdeschi discovers that Mentor's spaceship is un-manned, that Torens and Fraser
are not on board the ship.
In his laboratory on the
planet Psychon, Mentor feeds Torren's mind to Psyche, a biological computer he believes will restore the planet Psychon to
its former glory.
Suddenly a bright green light engulfs Eagle 4 and takes the Eagle in a vice like grip
to the planet surface, where it lands amongst a graveyard of alien ships. The Alphans make their way into some caves
where they find diverse life forms mining minerals, but they all appear totally mindless, as if they are brain damaged.
Mentor appears as a holographic image and warns the Alphans that to resist is futile. As Koenig,
Carter and Doctor Russell run to escape they are engulfed by a green light.
John Koenig awakens in a cell surrounded by a force field. There he meets Maya, Mentor's daughter
who tells Koenig that her father wants to see him. She takes him to Mentor's laboratory where, unknown to Maya
and Koenig, he is holding Helena, Picard and Carter hostage ready to feed their minds to Psyche.
Mentor explains that Psyche needs energy in order to transform the barren planet back to the
beautiful world it once was. This energy is only found in the minds of intelligent life forms, in other words Psyche
needs the minds of the Alphans on Moonbase Alpha.
Mentor threatens to destroy Moonbase Alpha if Koenig does not agree. Koenig tells him to
go ahead, destroy the moon and he defeats himself. Mentor reveals Carter, Helena and Fraser to Koenig and begins to
drain their minds. Unable to watch his friends suffer, John agrees to Mentor's terms.
John Koenig contacts Command Centre and tells Tony Verdeschi that
the planet is ideal for their people and they have been given permission to settle on Psychon. He tells Tony that
he wants to evacuate Moonbase Alpha immediately. Tony as Security Officer is unsure and Koenig quotes Directive Four,
an order that empowers a commander to act in a situation like this.
Helena and Alan Carter watch as John Koenig appears to sell out to Mentor.
John tells Helena that he does not want to end up like those creatures in the caves.
Meanwhile, on Moonbase Alpha Tony Verdeschi tells Sandra Benes that Directive
Four is a mandatory order to destroy the place from which the order originated. He tells Sandra that John Koenig
would not have issued that command unless Alpha and all the people on it faced extinction.
Tony Verdeschi launches a robot Eagle packed with explosives to destroy the planet Psychon.
On Psychon, Mentor asks Maya to scan the approaching Eagle. When she does so it reveals that there are no Alphans on
board, it is a robot device sent to destroy Psychon. Maya is angry and goes to face Koenig.
Mentor appears as a holographic image in the cell where Helena, Carter,
Fraser and Koenig are being held, and tells Koenig that he has discovered that he has sent a robot Eagle to destroy this planet.
Alan, Helena and Fraser realise that John was not selling out, and John explains that he couldn't risk telling them.
Suddenly Maya appears at the cell and begins to berate Koenig. John tells her to go to the caves
where she will find mindless creatures whose minds have been fed to Psyche, and tells her that Mentor planned to feed
the minds of the Alphans to Psyche.
Maya goes down to the caves and see's for herself what is down there. She returns to the cell
and lets John, Helena, Carter and Fraser out.
John goes to Mentor's laboratory and begins to destroy Psyche.
As the planet explodes Mentor begs Koenig to save Maya. The Alphans escape but Maya is distraught. John and
Helena assure her that there is a place for her on Alpha.
Episode synopsis copyright Jeannine Hochet
