Original subtitles

Moonbase Alpha status report.

16 hundred and eight days since leaving Earth's orbit.

Dr. Helena Russell recording.

We've encountered a bizarre jewel like asteroid.

Our center computer is unable

to give even a preliminary analysis.

Commander John Koenig and chief Eagle pilot,

Alan Carter, are carrying out a close reconnaissance.

- Eagle one to Alpha.

Eagle one to Alpha.

Anything to report?

- Commander, we're now being affected

by an energy field of great magnitude.

Our instruments are behaving erratically.

- Source?

- The asteroid you're reconnoitering.

- Can we set down?

- Scanners show a localized atmosphere.

Breathable, area zero D.

- Like some sort of invitation.

- Let's accept it.

All right, let's go.

Looks like ice.

- Yeah, but the surface temperature's warm.

- There's the malfunction alarm.

It's in the stabilizers.

- That's strange.

You handle it, I'm gonna have a look around.

- Koenig to Eagle one.

Alan, I've found some sort of cave entrance.

- Well do you wanna wait 'til I catch up with you?

- No, I'm going in.

I'll report back every three minutes.

- Okay.

- Alan.

- What's it like in there, John?

- You can't believe this place, it's like a...

Like a vast, vast hole of mirrors.

The composition appears to be some sort of dense crystal.

It could be the energy source Maya mentioned.

Have you located the malfunction?

- I'm still working on it.

- All right, keep trying.

I'm gonna do some more exploring.

Alan.

Yes, John?

- I have a sample of the rock.

I wanna take off immediately.

Well, I haven't quite finished

adjusting the stabilizers yet.

- Five minutes.

- Alan, I'm getting some peculiar readings

from your sensors, can you delay lift off?

- The Commander says he wants out of here now.

- But a few minutes aren't gonna make any difference.

- One minute could make a whole world of difference.

Ready?

- Commander, I'm getting some strange readings.

- So are we.

This whole asteroid is one strange reading.

Ready for lift off?

- Well, I still haven't managed

to correct the malfunction on the stabilizers, that...

Hey.

Okay.

- I can't make anything of these, they're incomplete.

- Why was the commander in such a hurry?

- We'll know in a moment, he's in the travel tube now.

- Take this to the observation room,

don't let it out of your sight.

- John.

- Attention all Alphans, this is the commander speaking.

I've just returned from an

exploratory trip to the asteroid...

And I must tell you,

it poses a very serious threat to Alpha.

We are presently surrounded by a very strong energy screen,

which, if we do not neutralize,

will render all of our instruments totally useless.

In order to escape from this force,

we will create an energy beam.

We will direct this beam at the asteroid,

which is like a gigantic crystal.

It will reflect the beam back,

cutting through the energy screen,

and breaking its hold on us.

Time is our enemy.

We have an enormous task to achieve,

but I know I can count on the full

cooperation and support...

of all Alphans on Moonbase to complete this task

and complete it successfully.

I want all construction crews to report immediately

to Main Technical Section to await further instructions

as to the beginning of exterior work.

That is all.

Any questions, anyone?

- John, creating this energy beam,

it's gonna take too much power

from our life support systems.

It could be very serious.

- We'll be in far more serious trouble if we don't.

- I haven't had a chance to complete

these sensor read outs...

- It's not necessary now.

- Well then, I'd like an opportunity

to analyze the sample you took.

There might be another way of breaking through

the screen without draining...

- I've already completed that analysis.

- Without instruments?

- I had enough portable equipment with me.

- But surely that's...

- Any other questions?

- Yes...

- Your methods, commander, your data is totally...

- I'm sorry, I don't want to argue with you.

- I'm not arguing, I'm being scientific.

We lack vital information.

- Are you questioning mine?

- How could I question what I haven't got?

As science officer, I insist...

- You are confined to your quarters until further notice.

- John.

- You may leave now.

- She was only doing her job.

- And my job is to protect the safety of this base.

It is my responsibility, and mine alone.

And none of us will survive without discipline.

Remember that...

All of you.

- Alan.

What happened on that asteroid?

- I don't know.

I remained on board the Eagle,

we had a sudden problem with the stabilizers.

- Could something have invaded him, a virus?

A life form taken him over.

- No, I'm thinking he must have discovered something,

you know, some other danger inside those caves,

and he doesn't want us to know about it, not yet, anyway.

- That's a strong possibility.

- I've come to parley with the mutineer.

- Why did the Commander turn on me like that?

- Discipline, discipline, discipline.

A throwback to Captain Bligh.

- Captain Bligh?

- Oh forget it, how would you know?

You're a Psychon.

- Yeah, you're right.

I am a Psychon.

And I might not know anything about your Captain.

- Bligh.

- Bligh.

But I'm hypersensitive to all forms of living matter,

and when Helena tried to touch the Commander...

I sensed a coldness, he wouldn't let her touch him.

- Yeah, I noticed that.

He's unwilling to talk, as if he's

withholding information, facts.

- Why do you think I was so insistent?

He's keeping us in the dark.

Take that sample of crystal he brought back with him,

he said he analyzed it, but I don't know the results.

- All right, will you take it easy,

or you'll have a fit and turn into some

wild creature from outer space.

- Tony, I'm being serious.

The situation is serious.

We're not getting any right answers.

- Maya...

What say we grab us an Eagle,

go there, take a look for ourselves?

- Who's talking like a mutineer now?

- That's not mutiny, that's security, and that's me.

Now, if something is wrong, we have a right to find out.

- He's still our commander,

and if he is in control of his mind...

- And say for some reason he isn't.

If he's flipped out, if he's declared medically incompetent.

I talk like I've been drinking my own beer.

Is that possible, John Koenig, medically incompetent?

- Well, there's one way of finding out,

talk to Dr. Russell.

- Another drop in the oxygen recycling system, four degrees.

- We can't afford any more loss, Helena.

If we start running out of clean air,

we're gonna have a lot of sick people on our hands.

More trouble?

- Same trouble.

- Check out the rest of our life support systems, Ben.

See how much power loss there is in each.

- Yeah, okay.

- Go ahead, Tony.

- Okay, I'll lay it right on the line, Helena.

If John won't, or can't explain

the change that's come over him,

if he won't let us try to help him, if...

If there is something that he's not telling us,

or is helpless against, how do we stop him?

- Those words are pretty strong, Tony.

- Yeah, and Alpha's getting pretty weak.

My being head of security is a joke.

He's put a clamp on everything, everybody.

- Look, I know that, I'm a doctor,

I see what's happening to our life support...

- You don't like it, do you?

- If you had your way, what would you do?

- I'd grab an Eagle and try to find out

what happened on that asteroid.

Maya thinks that perhaps the crystal has the answer, that...

Maybe it has some control over John.

If we could prove that,

he could be declared medically incompetent.

- And if you...

Can't prove that, if John is perfectly rational,

doing what he's doing for the reasons that he says,

then it's conspiracy.

That word may be too strong for me.

Commander Koenig, this is the voice of Kalthon.

There is no escape for you.

You are shut off from your people.

- Why are you holding me here?

What do you want from me...

And my people?

You were a fortunate accident, Commander.

Coming into our path of space.

- I ask again, what do you want with me?

We need your stores of energy, sir.

At this very moment, your people are aiding us to that end.

- You said we.

My people.

A black sun once appeared in our galaxy.

It began to absorb all our energy.

Our technology was powerless against it,

but we managed to survive total extinction.

Our scientists created a seed,

endowed it with the remnants of our energy,

and launched it into limitless space.

- A seed?

The heart of Kalthon, Commander,

a whole civilization, everything is contained here.

Cities, people, animal and vegetable life,

all in microcosm, all in a state of suspended life,

about to be reborn.

- So you drain the energy, all the energy from our world,

and destroy us so yours can be reborn.

What kind of uncivilized beings are you

to commit such a crime?

The process is about to begin.

The seed about to be regenerated.

The seed is programmed only for survival and resurrection.

It cannot make moral choices, or decisions.

You are trapped.

There is no escape.

Energy reflector operational, Commander.

- Unit two, status.

Unit two on schedule, sir.

- Unit three status.

Unit three nearly completed, sir.

- Attention all construction crews,

I want the energy reflector completed

and operational by 1900 hours.

- Dr. Russell outside to see you, sir.

- Have her come in.

- There are guards all over the place, John.

- These are special circumstances.

There are a lot of guards on duty.

What is it, Helena?

Time keeps running away from me, I can't stop.

- Well, I could talk about what's happening to Alpha,

the jeopardy to our entire life support system.

But what is more important,

is what has happened to you, John.

- Nothing is happening to me, I've got a job to do,

and I'm trying to do it.

- What really happened on that asteroid, John?

What's wrong?

Why are you shutting me out?

- I'm not!

I told you all once, if we don't break

this force, we'll all perish!

- It may be too late for us by then.

I want you to have a medical checkup.

You have been exposed to an alien atmosphere, and...

- Helena!

I can't stop for anything!

Nothing!

- I could order you to have a medical examination.

The overall command of Alpha is your responsibility,

everyone knows that.

- But.

- As chief of the medical staff,

the health and well being of everyone

on Alpha is my responsibility.

If I suspect anything...

- Helena, do you think I would do anything

to jeopardize the health, or lives of our people?

Trust me.

I must check in with the construction crews.

- Don't you think it's time to release

Maya from her quarters?

They need her badly in Command Center.

- I am the one who will make that decision.

Dr. Russell.

When this is all over, I will have that medical examination.

- I touched him, his skin was like ice.

It was eerie, hardly...

- Say it, Helena.

Go ahead, say it.

Hardly human?

- Hardly human.

- What surprised me, is that he let you touch him.

- He tried to avoid it.

- Did he react?

Did he say anything?

- At the moment of contact, neither of us said anything.

I was too shocked.

- Do you think he suspects anything?

- He had to, I reacted to the iciness of his skin.

The thing is, that up until that moment,

I believed everything he said.

And now?

- I'm afraid.

- The answer's in the crystal.

- Yeah.

So our next move is, we get the crystal, right?

- Do we tell Alan?

- No, no not yet, not until we're absolutely sure.

Okay, Maya, first move is yours.

- Gonna call it quits for now?

- The way the Commander's riding us,

I'd like to call it quits forever.

- I know what you mean.

- I'm ready to go in now.

Tony will try to keep him

in Command Center as long as he can,

but you'll have to hurry.

Forgot something.

- I'll never tell.

- Cranston.

- Yes, Commander?

- Did you program Main Power Plant

for transfer to energy reflector units?

- Your orders have been carried out, sir.

- It's incredible.

I've never seen anything like it.

This is no crystal.

It's...

An unbelievable dense complex type

of living matter from which all energy's been drained,

but it's not dead, only dormant, like a seed.

It's impossible to imagine the effects

that such a substance could have on a human being.

- How can we help John combat it?

- We have to face the possibility

that Commander Koenig may...

No longer be...

Flesh and blood.

You are trapped, there is no escape.

You are trapped, there is no escape.

You are trapped, there is no escape!

You are trapped, there is no escape!

- It works.

The ultra-frequency sound seems to have

split the molecules into particles of atoms

that bombard the crystal.

- Alan, we've gotta get to the asteroid,

knock out the rest of that stuff.

- I'm trying to understand, but I still don't buy it.

You and Maya are coming up with a lot of theories,

you can't prove anything.

- How can you be such a dumb blind kangaroo?

Can't you see what's happening?

- Yeah, what is happening is a lot of crazy talk.

- Alan, we've just demonstrated

some very odd properties in this crystal.

- Yes, and we've come across a lot

of things odder than that.

- But?

- But it didn't cause us to make crazy accusations!

- Alan, please listen.

You will accept that the Commander is not

behaving in his usual manner.

- Okay, he's uptight.

- Helena managed to touch him,

and his skin was as cold as ice.

Its texture and temperature approximates that crystal.

- You said yourself, something happened

to him on that asteroid.

- Look, I said he found out something,

he's come across some terrible threat,

and he doesn't want us to know about it, not yet, anyway.

- Or something's got control of him,

and won't let him tell us.

- Oh, listen, we're talking about John Koenig.

You remember him?

John Koenig?

- Alan, we're just as loyal to John as you are.

- Well, you've got one hell of a way to showing it.

- Oh, arguing amongst ourselves isn't gonna help anything.

- No, or convince him, apparently.

- Maybe we can.

- Yeah, how?

- Alan, you've got to help us get an Eagle.

- All the Eagles are grounded,

all the launchpads are sealed off.

- We know.

- By help, you mean steal.

Well I can't do that.

- Oh come on, Alan!

- It goes against all instinct, all training!

- Instinct, training, you're hiding behind words!

- Words, huh?

Well they may be just words to you,

but to me they add up to something else, loyalty and duty,

and my duty is to John Koenig.

- If your duty was to John Koenig, you would help him.

- Exactly.

- Well in my book, cobber, your kind of help is mutiny.

- This is the Commander.

All Alpha personnel will remain at their posts,

or in their quarters during the transfer

of power to the energy beam.

Deactivate main circuits.

- Helena, Support System three is cutting out.

- Effect the transfer.

- Now Support System six is fading out.

- Commander Koenig, Medical Center.

- Dr. Russell, I have no time for conversation.

- Wait a minute, I'm losing Life Support Systems

three and six, if you take any more power

away from me, some people...

- Some people may die.

But some people are not all the people, Doctor.

- Mr. Verdeschi, you shouldn't be in this section.

Orders are to let no one enter

Eagles without direct orders from the Commander.

And I have orders to disarm all personnel.

- I'm not armed.

- I'm sorry, but I have orders to inform

the Commander of any unauthorized personnel in this.

- Alpha to Eagle one, return to base immediately,

do you read me?

Return to base.

- John, there is one question that I've got to ask you,

and it's absolutely vital that you give me an honest answer.

- Yes, what is it?

- Eagle one is space borne, sir.

- Where is it headed?

- For the asteroid.

- Shoot it down.

- You cannot mean that.

- Are you asking to be relieved of duty?

- No, sir.

- John.

- John?

- Activate laser gun.

- The laser?

- You heard me.

- John, that is one of our Eagles.

- I gave you an order, obey it!

Weapon Section.

- Prepare the laser gun.

Laser gun on target, John.

- Shoot it down.

- Now, would you mind repeating that, John?

- Shoot it down!

- Tony, when we touch down, what's our plan of action?

- Gonna have to play it by ear when we get there, Maya.

One thing's for sure, we stay together.

- Carter.

I gave orders to shoot that craft down.

What sort of insubordination is this?

- Commander, I can't do it.

I know who's up there.

- Tony and Maya.

- I ordered you to fire!

- Well I won't do it!

Oh come on, Commander, I can't.

- Commander, you can't.

- John, if you fire those lazers,

power will be diverted from your energy beam.

That'll throw everything off schedule.

Put everything behind time, and you said,

time keeps running away from you.

That's what you said, isn't it?

- Retract laser gun.

- Weapon Section, retract the laser gun.

- I owe you all an apology.

I have been withholding information from you.

I realize now, it was a mistake.

That asteroid is not only draining our power, it's...

- Don't listen to him, this is not John Koenig.

- Helena, what are you talking about?

If I'm not John Koenig, who am I?

- Touch him.

Go ahead, Alan, touch him.

He's like ice.

- She's right.

I am like ice.

Something did affect me on that asteroid,

I don't know what it was.

But I do know that, we'll never be free again

unless we break that asteroid's hold on us, on me.

He's not telling the truth.

- That's why I gave strict instructions

that no one leave Alpha.

I would rather have had them shot down

than go there and face dangers beyond the ones I faced.

I only hope it's not too late to save them.

- Please, believe me.

Something's wrong, it isn't the way he says.

- Helena, please try to get ahold of yourself.

Now don't force me to use my authority as commander.

I'd hate to have to confine you to your quarters.

Nor do I want to order you

to Medical Center for observation.

- Perhaps I have been upset.

We've all been under strain.

- San, increase the energy flow to the beam,

we've got to break free.

- Wow.

- That energy refractor is beginning to cook this place.

- Yeah, there's the cave, just like Alan said.

- Tony.

Commander.

- We just left him on Alpha.

Wait a second, look at the lettering

on his jacket, it's backwards.

- It's like a reflection.

- Reflection?

- From where?

What is it, Maya, what are you doing?

- I think this could be the Commander.

- What are you saying?

That he was able to transport himself down here.

- I don't think he ever left.

- John.

John!

- He can't respond, not as long as he's

frozen in that state.

- If that really is John,

then who the hell is that on Alpha?

- His reflection.

Or an intelligent life form

that can take form from a reflection.

- Stand back.

Okay, so how do we break him free?

- Laser.

- I mean without killing him.

- Tony, we've found out what we've come here to find out.

If we don't move quickly it won't matter.

- John, I don't know if you can hear me,

but if you can, I'm gonna use my laser.

Now break away fast so I can

cut the beam as soon as possible.

- Am I glad to see you.

- John, are you all right?

- Yeah, I'm fine.

- Your image is up on Alpha.

- I know.

- We don't know what he's trying to do.

- He's trying to regenerate an entire new civilization.

This place is about to explode into life any second now.

- That's why he needs our energy.

- How is he draining off the power?

- A reflector, he's beaming the energy.

- To the seed.

It's the heart of Kalthon, it's like an embryo.

It's the crux of everything here, I've seen it.

It's here somewhere in this complex.

- If we find it we can destroy it.

- With sound, high frequency sound.

- Maya split open a sample of the crystal with sonar.

I've programmed our comlocks to the exact same pitch.

- Good, now I'll take your Eagle back to Alpha.

- It won't be easy when you get back, John.

He's in command.

Helena is the only one who suspects there's something wrong.

- Even Alan believes he's you.

Yeah.

- You two, find the heard of Kalthon and destroy it.

We'll pick you up later.

- Well, time to play our song.

It's on the other side.

You are trapped, trapped forever.

There is no escape.

You will stay frozen forever.

- Increase power flow to maximum plus five.

- Commander, our temperature is dropping rapidly.

This will eliminate half our instruments.

- Do it.

- Water in the recycling plant is frozen.

Hydroponics, frozen.

Protein production unit, inoperative.

- Maintain power level as is.

- The oxygen units have failed.

We're on emergency, we must have more power.

- We need all available power for the beam.

- Alpha is dying, can't you realize that.

- I will not have my orders questioned!

Now back to your posts, both of you!

- We can't go along with this anymore.

- Dr. Russell, you're relieved of duty.

- Alan, you've got to stop him, now.

- Alan get back to your post!

- John!

- Increase power flow to maximum plus 15.

- We can't do it, John, we'll destroy Alpha!

- Carter, I gave you an order!

- That order is countermanded.

You're at my desk, alien.

- That is an image creature projected by the asteroid.

Don't listen to it.

Destroy it.

Destroy it!

- One of us is real, one a reflection.

- I was on that asteroid, I know what its force

is trying to do to us.

It's running out of time now,

it's the last chance it'll have.

- That's the truth.

If it can't drain the last of our power, it'll die.

- that's why it sent my reflection down here to confuse us,

to steal the last few moments

so it can complete the transfer.

- Helena.

You can tell us apart.

The things we've shared he can't know.

- I need no further proof than his actions, John.

- How clever they are, how very clever.

Under pressure of emergency they've got me

acting totally contrary to my own character,

so that even Dr. Russell doubts me.

- Not only Dr. Russell.

- Alan.

Alan.

Alan.

Look at the jacket, the lettering on the jacket.

It's the exact opposite of mine, it's reversed.

I ask you, which one of us is a reflection.

- Yes, the letting is backwards because he switched jackets,

but he overlooked one little thing, the hair.

Alan, Helena, the part in my hair.

- You're too late!

Nothing can stop us now, we will regenerate.

Kalthon lives.

- Kalthon dies.

- Kalthon lives!