A series of mysterious illnesses and deaths on Moonbase Alpha prompts a new Commander, John Koenig to be posted there, to oversee determining what the "virus" is. Radiation in one of the nuclear disposal areas is suspected, but none is being found, even while preparations continue for the Meta Probe. However, more astronauts are dying, and a new kind of radiation is suspected. Area One suddenly goes up in a moderate firestorm, prompting Koenig to declare an emergency. They attempt to break up and disperse Area Two, which is 140x more massive, but it is futile. A far more massive explosion ensues, which propels the Moon out of orbit and into interstellar space (an event called Breakaway). Koenig decides a direct return to Earth is riskier than trying to survive on the Moon with an essentially intact base, and into deep space they fly, already with hopes of finding a planet.

Timeframe

Starts on 1999/09/09.
Ends on 1999/09/13.

Plot

Radiation check of Nuclear Waste Disposal Area Two finds no signs of radiation, but Nordstrom goes mad, and gets himself killed.
Meanwhile, John Koenig is being ferried to Alpha on Eagle 2. In flight, he receives a call from Commissioner Simmonds, final approval for his posting as Commander. Spacefarer 9 has gotten the first good photos of Meta.
Eagle 2 arrives at Alpha, greeted by Prof. Victor Bergman, who informs John the illness situation is much worse than John has been led to believe, and that it is not a virus. It looks like radiation, but none has been found so far. The problem could affect the launch of the Meta Probe, which has no margin for error given Meta is only going to be in range for a short time. Cmdr. Gorski has been refusing to allow Dr. Helena Russell to report her findings. Victor advises John to meet Helena.

She too believes it is not a virus, and reports it is a form of brain damage and they're not going to recover. She reports the ninth man died that morning, out of eleven cases. All of the nine worked at Area Two, but two Meta Probe astronauts are sick. She cannot guarantee the backup crew will remain fit, since they may have been exposed to the unknown factor. The two currently dying are Eric and Frank.
John meets with Capt. Alan Carter, regarding the possibility of using the backup crew ready for the Meta Probe.
Koenig calls Simmonds, and succeeds at getting a temporary halt in nuclear shipments, and speaks bluntly about the pilots, wondering why Simmonds lied to him, and finds out it is because of an upcoming International Lunar Finance Committee meeting regarding the Meta Signal and Meta Probe, and that the true news would rattle the ILFC.
John and Victor visit Area Two for more direct radiation checks, but they are negative, casting doubt on Helena. Their pilot, Collins, goes crazy with the same illness, and they scuffle with him and eventually prevail.
Koenig orders Ouma to search for correlations between flight patterns and those who have suffered problems. Meanwhile, Frank Warren has died at 13:28. Eric Sparkman is brain dead (as reported by computer); Dr. Russell removes him from life support. Koenig breaks the news to Carter, and tells him to forget the Meta Probe, until conclusions can be made.
Ouma discovers there were blank-outs in the automated records of Eagle flights as Collins (and others?) pass over Navigation Beacon Delta on the farside, near or at Area One. Various astronauts passed by that way in flight/training patterns. Controller Paul Morrow has Data Analyst Sandra Benes run some checks, and she reports a steep rise in heat at Area One, still without other radiation. Their cameras are quickly burned out.
John checks Area One for readings, in an Eagle, which suffers disruption from an expanding magnetic field, and crashes not far away. Area One goes up in what Victor soon calls a magnetic subsurface firestorm, a new phenomenon.
Paul remotely controls an Eagle to check out Area Two. It displays no magnetic disturbances initially, then a violent surge which disrupts the Eagle, crashing it. Realizing Area Two amounts to "the biggest bomb man's ever made", Koenig issues Emergency Code Alpha One to Simmonds, which prompts the latter to come to Alpha in Eagle 1 (VIP pod) after Koenig did not respond to further queries.
Heat is starting to rise in Area Two now, which is 140x larger than Area One. Simmonds asks whether it would burn itself out like Area One, but question is moot, because it is so large the entire Moon is in effect sitting on top of it. Victor suggests breaking the pile to disperse it, but warns time is limited.
Soon, all of Alpha's Eagles are committed. Carter is ordered to take Eagle 1 up into orbit to observe. Magnetic levels, fluctuating earlier, are starting to hold steady, and an optimistic Simmonds is going to send a communiqué. Koenig is not so optimistic.
Just then, Area Two starts exploding, leading a series of blasts culminating in a critical reaction and a massive explosion which in a minutes-long burn, acts as a giant engine, pushing the Moon out of orbit, causing damage, throwing people about, and pinning them to the floor. Carter is in pursuit, calling out to an initially-unresponsive Alpha, though Main Mission can hear his description of the event. See Breakaway Event for detail.
Carter makes it to the base, while damage reports start coming in, and a check of Master Computer over Contingency Plan Exodus results in information on too many indefinite variables to plot a return course. "Human Decision Required." John makes the decision to remain on Alpha, where they can sustain themselves, rather than a highly unlikely return to Earth.
Alpha picks up a signal, with an image, from the Mars Satellite, then later a news report from GTV, which mentions earthquake damage there. Earth doubts the 311 on MBA survived. Space Dock was also hurled out of orbit. Alpha loses that transmission, only to pick up the Meta Signal, which gives them some hope of settlement.

Details

The voice of the Eagle 2 pilot is that of the actor Shane Rimmer, who also played Kelly in "Space Brain." It is not clear if it is intended as the same character (the Editor would have to review Kelly's Alpha role).
On Eagle 2, a woman walks into the passenger pod with coffee for the commander, seemingly echoing a similar scene from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." One interesting contrast is that the woman in S19 can walk comfortably in artificial gravity, while the one in "2001" needed Velcro-style(?) slippers in zero-G.
Victor hands John a commlock on the latter's arrival on Alpha (scheduled 2335 Lunar Time). It seems commlocks are specific (or specifically programmed) to Alpha.
There are implications Victor had not planned on being on Alpha up through 09/09, but got "caught up" (apparently with investigating the "virus infection").
John obviously knows Victor very well, as well as Benjamin Ouma, Paul Morrow, a Main Mission operative (?) named Michael, but not Tanya Aleksandr, who introduces herself.
The first meeting of John and Helena is somewhat fractious, her probably not trusting him much after the prior commander didn't listen to her, and though he tries to break the ice, isn't entirely successful.
The illness causes tissue disruptions (seen often in the face) and often clouding of at least one eye, like a sudden cataract. The isolation ward is bathed in blue light (reason unknown?).
When John talks to Alan for the first time in this episode, a hangar is visible behind them. Visible to the right are 4 Eagles with their side facing and 3 Eagles facing forward even further back, with 1 facing forward in the middle, 1 being ferried in the foreground, at least 4 side facing on the left, and at least 2 facing forward in the left back. That totals at least 15, though more might be obscured or have been missed by the Editor.
Area Two had a newer Centigrade(?) containment system than Area One.
To break up the pile, Eagles are being converted to the Winch pod and sent out, with six of them arriving in the area initially. They set to work, uncovering individual containment units and pulling out canisters, with a magnetic device hanging from the winch, lifting out containers and flying them at some distance, where they are released. Detailed directions are coming from Paul. Some Eagles have to return due to disruptions to their equipment.

Notes

An earlier version of the script had several early names: "Zero G", "The Void Ahead", and "Turning Point".
Used with other episode(s) into two compilation movies in 1976 and 1982.
In 2010, audio tapes of some cut scenes of this episode surfaced, and were posted to YouTube, with transcripts and commentary at the Catacombs. See Links.
"The Void Ahead" also became the name of the Space: 2099 version of the episode in 2008.

Threads

Dec. 1997: Episode by Episode discussion

Breakaway (episode)

Intro

Summary

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Plot

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Notes

See Also

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