Original subtitles

Moonbase Alpha status report.

2306 days after leaving Earth orbit,

Doctor Helena Russell recording.

Five days ago, we detected two planets in our East quadrant,

which may be capable of supporting life.

Commander John Koenig has lifted off in Eagle One

on a reconnaissance mission.

With him is Blake Maine, of the medical rescue team.

Sensor reads vegetation.

How are the life forms?

Through the clouds, commander.

That looks like a city down there.

Yeah, it is a city.

Buildings, streets, some form of transportation system.

And little colored dots which could be human beings.

- Check the atmosphere.

- Atmosphere, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen.

Breathable.

- Let's take a look.

- I'm picking up life form signals.

But it's in a clearing, some miles north

of what seems to be the city.

- That's all right, home in on that signal.

All right, let's set her down in that clearing.

- Commander.

Life form signal's cut out.

- Let's find out why.

What have we got here?

Dead?

- No life signs, no wounds.

No injuries, internal or external.

Body perfectly preserved, time of death indeterminate.

- Cause of death?

- That's a good question.

- Any theories Blake?

- Tough to diagnose, Ed.

Could have been a sonic beam, a high potency ray,

something that would have killed instantly.

- Can you give me a close-up of one of the victims?

Closer.

Whatever it was, it hit the central nervous system.

It must have caused tremendous pressure

to explode those blood vessels.

Form of nerve gas,

a lethal pathogen that invaded their bodies,

or bacteria released in the atmosphere.

No, don't touch him!

Don't go near him!

He could be contagious.

Get off, get off that planet.

- The city too, everybody on that planet is dead.

If it was a nerve killing pathogen,

our systems must have a built in immunity to it.

- Sensor readings show satellite of moon over planet

has same atmosphere, vegetation.

- Let's make a pass over that moon

and see what else we can pick up.

- We'll track you, Eagle One.

Over and out.

- Let's take a closer look at that surface.

- Malfunction, main drive!

- Go to auxiliary.

- Malfunction secondary drive!

- Emergency booster drive.

- It's not functioning.

- Koenig to Moonbase Alpha.

Eagle One to Moonbase Alpha!

We're out of control!

Koenig to Moonbase Alpha.

Repeat, out of-

- Alpha to Eagle One.

Come in Eagle One.

- I want the exact permutation of time, distance

and location of Eagle One's last transmission.

Call it in to me on Eagle Four.

- Bill!

I can do better if I was with you.

- Retro rockets?

- Malfunctioning.

- Retros functioning!

Vertical process, maximum drive!

Come on, let's get out of here!

This thing's liable to blow!

- And I must submit to you, Elizia,

that the only crime for which the prisoner

can justly be accused, is his use of the freedom of speech.

To strip a being of this right,

be he incarcerated here on the penal planet of Entra

or be he a free man on the mother planet of Ellna,

is to destroy one of the basic principles

for which civilizations of all galaxies have fought.

If you condemn the prisoner,

then you condemn all life, everywhere.

- I am touched by your eloquence, Crael.

And I too, as mistress of Entra, embrace one's right

to the freedom of speech.

I have made this clear to you

and to every prisoner who has ever been sentenced

to Entra from our mother planet.

But I have also heard testimony from others.

Of how the prisoner arranged secret meetings.

Tried to stir this colony to insurrection.

- No, not true!

- To overthrow the forces of authority.

And so long as I am the ruling force,

I will not tolerate any abuse of the freedom of speech.

Not by anyone.

- The alien's weapon.

- And the alien?

- In security ward, with the interrogator.

- You shall be rewarded

for your capture of the alien, Sares.

- Thank you.

- What of the hunt?

The prisoner?

- He almost made the sanctuary column.

- Almost.

Dead?

- Unconscious.

Stunned.

- The hunt for him.

- That's inhuman!

- Inhuman?

A chance for freedom to return to Ellna?

- One out of a hundred survive the hunt.

I call that inhuman.

- Offer any one of them the challenge and none will refuse.

They all want the chance to go home.

Well, who is he?

- Subject's named John Koenig,

commander of Moonbase Alpha.

Where and what is Moonbase Alpha?

- Moonbase Alpha was a satellite of a planet called Earth.

It broke out of orbit and is floating in space.

There are 298 people aboard.

He was caught in our atmospheric force field.

He sent a message and his people will be searching for him.

- Well, they can have him.

- He knows, he has been to Ellna.

He knows that everybody there is dead.

That everybody sent there dies.

- Extract everything from his brain.

- That might kill him.

- Oh well, we'll give him a handsome funeral.

- We're approaching the quadrant

of the commander's last message.

- Try to pick up Eagle One on your sensors.

- You have been a model prisoner, Baron

and have earned the right to return to our home planet.

One year off for good behavior.

See Crael?

There is justice when one earns it.

Step into the transbeamer.

Goodbye.

- Goodbye, Baron.

- Whenever you are ready, you may activate.

- May I speak, Elizia?

- To deny you that would be

to deny you the freedom of speech, would it not?

- We have released many prisoners.

Not only have we never heard from them again,

but Ellna has stopped beaming up any new prisoners.

- The acts of crime

for being sent to Entra must have dropped.

- I'm not the only one to ask.

I speak for many others.

- Everyone listens to the weekly reports beamed here.

They have news from their home, their families.

What is there to wonder about?

- Hearing news is not seeing news.

There was a time when a man

could see his wife on the screen.

And his children.

Not anymore.

- You prisoners are political troublemakers.

It's your nature to be discontent, to cause trouble.

- We cause no more trouble.

You've beaten us down, siphoned the militancy out of us.

- It's not torture that has neutralized your militancy.

It's the yearning in all of you

to leave this sterile satellite

and return to our beautiful Ellna.

- The yearning very few of us have realized.

- There are two ways to realize it.

Complete the term of imprisonment on good behavior,

or to beat the hunt.

- I applaud you for your understanding of human rights.

- How fortunate that you never cease to amuse me, Crael.

- I put his thoughts on the screen for you.

- Spacecraft engineering.

Friends.

Let us observe his friends.

A metamorph.

He's very attractive.

This one, I find especially appealing.

Does this species know passion?

Yes, very interesting.

- Which, his spacecraft, his friends or his romances?

- Have you taped his brain for medical knowledge?

Does he know how to produce immunity

to the nerve bacteria on the home planet?

Why didn't he die?

- I don't know yet.

I can't tell how much he knows.

His brain resists certain questions.

He has a strong will.

- Weaken it.

- His brain composition differs from ours in certain areas.

- A leader treats people as equals.

Bends to their will on occasion.

- So should we all, on occasion.

- Meaning what?

- Unrest.

The prisoners are beginning to wonder

about things on their home planet.

- You're beginning to sound like Crael.

- Tell them the truth now about Ellna

and they might understand.

- They will become ungovernable.

- They will learn the truth someday.

- If they learn the truth, then we're all doomed.

I'm our barrier against disaster.

- He has seen our home planet.

He will tell them.

- They won't believe him.

Their minds have been programmed to think my way.

- If they break through that programming-

- I fear nothing.

My guards are loyal to me.

Cease interrogation.

Send him to Block B,

but do nothing to disfigure him.

- Where are you from, alien?

- I'm from Moonbase Alpha.

- Never heard of it.

- My Eagle, my spacecraft, crashed on your planet.

- Elizia never tires of sending spies.

- Now wait a minute, nobody sent me!

- Now you tell her we're not plotting an insurrection.

- All we plan is how to outwit the hunters.

That kind of plotting is permitted.

- The hunt.

You mean, you want to be hunted?

- Well, that's right, spy, alien, whatever you are.

We volunteer for the hunt.

If we reach the sanctuary column,

without being killed first, we get to go free.

To go home!

- You mean, down there?

- To Ellna, home planet.

- Everybody's dead down there.

- You liar!

- Now wait a minute, I was there.

I saw all the people.

All of them are dead.

- But my family's down there!

- She sent you to lie!

- Now hold it!

Now hold it, stop!

Listen to me, I was on that planet.

I saw a man transported there.

He died, instantly.

- What killed him?

- What killed all of them and how come you didn't die?

- I don't know what killed them.

Maybe some sort of a plague.

And I don't know why I didn't die.

Maybe, maybe I have some sort of immunity.

Attention all prisoners.

Attention all prisoners.

This is your weekly news from home planet.

The wife of prisoner Braddock gave birth to a son

at midtime on solar day, both are doing well.

Congratulations Prisoner Braddock.

There was a large party given by family and friends

of Stronk Baron, celebrating his beam back

from the penal colony at Entra.

- So, everyone is dead on home planet.

- I don't understand, I know what I saw.

- And poor old Baron died

the minute he stepped out of the transbeamer.

But only you've got immunity, spy.

I wonder how immune you'll be to a noose around your neck.

- You've been brainwashed.

They're all dead down there!

Thanks.

- Well, it would have been such a waste.

- I agree.

- I'm Elizia, overseer of this penal colony.

- Elizia, they thought you sent me up here to spy on them.

- Which only goes to prove my contention,

that prisoners who try to think are dangerous.

- If you'll permit me, I'd like to try to contact my base.

Have someone come and pick me up.

- I cannot allow any aliens to land here.

- I don't understand.

We're no threat to you.

My name is John Koenig, I'm commander of Moonbase Alpha.

- Yes, I know about you.

We've probed your brain.

- ETA precisely three hours.

- You say you probed my brain.

Then you know of course you won't be able to keep me here.

- You overestimate yourself.

- My people know where I am, they'll come for me.

- Why should you wish to rush from my presence?

Stay with me.

You will experience undreamed of pleasure.

Well, until I tire of you.

- What's your boredom quotient?

- Well that would be determined by you.

- Alien spaceship is within our outer quadrant,

on a direct course for us.

- Put him behind the screening panel.

- Sensors pinpoint flight of wreckage

at left zero eight three degrees.

- Got it, zero eight three.

You are approaching the penal colony of Entra.

Stay clear, you are in danger, stay clear.

- Our scanner shows the wreckage of one of our spacecraft.

We request permission to land.

Permission refused,

no ship is permitted to land on this planet.

- Two of our pilots were in that.

- They died in the crash.

- Then we must land to return them to Moonbase Alpha.

Your ship will be unable

to penetrate our defense shield.

- We're coming in to land.

Shooting, if we have to.

- Do they have that capability?

- We're being scanned.

- They carry missiles,

but not powerful enough to penetrate our defense shield.

- If you try to come through our defensive screen,

you electronic systems will burn out.

- We've contacted our base, they know we intend to land.

If we don't make it, Alpha will send more powerful weapons

to blast your planet.

- Your philosophy will not permit you to do that.

- Try us, you have one minute to decide.

- You lied!

- No, I didn't!

- You said it was not in your character to commit violence.

- We're not like you, we do not commit mindless violence.

- You do deprive yourselves of pleasure.

- One minute.

- You okay?

You are cleared to land.

Go on automatic, our controller will see

that you touch down safely.

- Will they find out?

- They will only find evidence of two deaths.

The one who has already died,

and his.

- The boots are important

cause we need the footprints, right?

Now go straight ahead.

- Until the fence, that's it?

- To the fence, into the middle.

What's the matter?

- Not that I don't trust you, but I have my rights,

and one of them is to stay alive.

- But the fence is switched off.

Just go into the middle and take your clothes off.

- You first.

- Elizia?

Yes, Crael?

- You promised you wouldn't do this.

It's worse than the hunt.

- The choice between a promise and self-preservation, Crael.

What choice would you have made?

As you said, how could I risk all I have worked for?

- Fraser!

Fraser!

Alibe!

Can you hear-

- I am Elizia, keeper of the penal colony of Entra.

I trust you had a smooth landing.

- Very smooth, thanks to your controller.

I'm Fraser, of Moonbase Alpha.

- Alibe, communications officer, Moonbase Alpha.

- This is my head of security, we have refreshments waiting.

- Thanks, but we'd like to get

to the scene of the crash as quickly as possible.

- Under the circumstances,

refreshments are not our top priority.

- Oh no, of course not, I do understand.

- The planet section isn't totaled.

They survived!

- Yes they did survive the crash.

But unfortunately, after your spaceship crashed,

and before we could reach them,

they stumbled into one of our boundary defenses.

- And walked into it here.

As you can see, Commander Koenig's footprints go to here.

- The transbeamer.

The magic door to the home planet.

Taming it is the dream of every prisoner on Entra.

- A magic door to certain death.

- A failing of your race is your inability

to see the positive in the negative.

- Doublethink.

- Doublethink?

- Your game with words.

On my planet we call it doublethink.

- Oh, but you're on my planet,

and I call it hope.

- Hope?

What kind of hope ends in extinction?

- Philosophical hope.

Psychological hope.

The hope without which there would be nothing but despair.

The hope that makes them eager to be the quarry in the hunt.

The hope that they will reach the sanctuary column

before they are taken.

- And what is the prize?

To enter the transbeamer?

So you can send them home?

- They send themselves.

- Another example of doublethink.

- Similar to your situation.

You're alive but your people

are convinced that you are dead.

And remaining alive is dependent

on your entertainment quotient.

You have a half-life until you irritate or bore me.

- This promises to be more enjoyable than I had anticipated.

- In front of an audience?

- Of course.

No.

Let him get a good start.

After all, we always give the hunted a fair chance.

And when he is cornered, he must not die quickly.

He must suffer more than an entrant.

He's an alien who's shown contempt for our culture

and our authority.

After him then, for the glory of Entra

and rewards beyond your dreams.

- Koenig to Moonbase Alpha.

Eagle One to Moonbase Alpha.

Eagle One to Moonbase Alpha, are you receiving me?

- No communication can penetrate the defense shield

surrounding this satellite.

It has been made harmless.

- There's no use trying to contact your people.

Your signal cannot get through our defense shield.

- He is walking in the direction of the main complex.

- Interrogator?

The alien is returning to our custody.

Permit no one to interfere with his progress.

- We will wait, until Elizia arrives.

- Agreed.

Mind if I wait over here?

- No, you may not.

Remain where you are.

- I'm just making it more convenient

for Elizia to transport me.

- Transportation is for those who outwit the hunters.

- And you have not.

- What's more important Elizia, is I've outwitted you.

- If you attempt to activate the transbeamer,

you will be disintegrated.

- Yes, I will be.

But if she fires, she'll also disintegrate this transbeamer

and none of you will ever see home again.

- Wait, Elizia.

If there's no hope for the prisoners,

we will be unable to control them.

- We will find another way.

- But what about us?

Some of us are competing our tour of duty.

We wait to go home.

- The alien is full of surprises.

- Yes, Crael.

He's treacherous and devious.

Drag him out of the transbeamer.

- Hear me first.

There is talk amongst the prisoners

that the alien claimed all are dead on Ellna.

Is that so, alien?

- Yes, that's true.

Everybody on Ellna is dead.

- No!

Elizia knows it, but she's lied to you.

- He lies.

If everyone were dead on Ellna,

why would he want to go there?

Take him.

- Wait.

Wouldn't you prefer death to torture?

To Elizia's brand of torture.

- Sares, order your guards to do their duty

or you'll end up in a cell.

- Elizia's lies are your only prison.

Make her tell you the truth!

- There is no death on Ellna!

- If there's no death on Ellna,

Elizia can follow and bring me back.

- Well, let him go.

He has a criminal mind.

Ellna will send him back.

- Unless he's telling the truth.

- Code numbered Eagle One!

- But it's impossible!

- Let's find out.

- You doubt me and believe an alien?

He lies, I tell you!

Tell them he lies.

- I'm not political.

- Tell them, Crael.

- I know you relish challenge.

Prove to them that Ellna is what you say it is,

otherwise they'll flay you alive.

- And when I come back, they will worship me again.

- And if they don't come back,

they'll curse you as a tyrant.

- Which do you desire it to be, Crael?

- Whichever gives us most hope.

- At least I'll take you with me.