At the beginning of this episode, Helena Russell states in her medical report on Cellini that the moon has been on its voyage for 877 days. But in the second season, when dating the episodes became more common, several episodes are given dates earlier than "Dragon's Domain", even though the first and second season aren't compatible with each other.

This is a lot like the stardate problems in Star Trek, TNG, DS9, VGR, (Show after VRG),...See Phil's TOS book for the details.

The monster on this episode gave me the creeping horrors when I saw it. Just goes to show that you don't need super special effects to scare someone. There was just something horrible about that thing dragging people to their deaths and then spitting the remains back out. Yuuuuch!

Did the layout of the ships in the graveyard remind anyone of TAS:"The Time Trap"?

Look when Cellini undows his Eagle nosecone, he takes the whole Eagle access corridor to the passenger module with him.
Koenig and Co. dock their Eagle on the starboard side of the Ultra Probe, and enter through the port airlock. Great spacewalking without suits, guys.

Another Classic Star Trek similarity: The chess game between Koenig and Kano seen at the beginning of the episode brings to mind all those classic confrontations between Kirk and Spock.

This (believe it or not!) is the one episode where I absolutely can't find anything to nitpick. A cohesive story that kept my interest from start to finish, danger, romance, flashbacks, fantasic model work, and a really groovy monster that reminded me of my Aunt Eunice on a bad hair day. What more can you ask for? (well, that's legal anyway?)

Well, if you watch what I said about the Eagles, it's true, they don't dock correctly. I do agree with BarbF on this one though, great episode. The sequence with the Ultra Probe flying through space, with the voiceover from Dr Russell was just so cool. An interesting point, in the novelisation, the characters name isn't Tony Cellini it was Jim Calder. Apparently they had to get in what was called a 'token' foreign character. Despite that his performance as Cellini was good, you weren't sure, is this guy crazy or not?

Year One had partial Italian backing, hence the appearance of Italian actors in several episodes as "guest stars." It should be noted that these folks apparently had their voices dubbed over by English speaking actors.

The date inconsistancy between this episode and the Year Two dates is easy to reconcile. Just assume that the two years took place in alternate universes! This solves all those other nasty little continuity problems, like where Verdeshi came from and where Bergman went.

Yeah, the Year 1 Universe is the good universe and the Year 2 Universe is the evil universe, heehee.
(Hey, who threw that tomato?)

So everyone in Year 2 is an evil twin? Does Ccabe (and his evil twin) know about this?

The first time I saw this one, the monster scared the bejezus out of me. Watching the episode some 20 years later, however, all I could think was "okay, let me get this straight: here's an alien beastie which has captured and devoured dozens of highly advanced star-faring beings--yet Koenig is able to dispatch it rather quickly...with a hand axe."

Guess they don't make BEM's the way they used to.

Why is a guy from security removing the black box from Cellini's module? Might there be a bomb in it?

Good point wiseguy. I did wonder that myself. I thought that would fall under the technical section. One more point, when Cellini undocks his Eagle's nosecone, the main body of the ship goes spinning away into space. Why??????/

I would imagine the black box is being removed by the security officer as part of standard accident investigation proceedures, with the unit immediately being taken in by security to prevent any possible tampering by those involved with the Ultra Probe program.

Now I know where Dan O'Bannon got his idea for
ALIEN from. Nevertheless, Dragon's Domain is
another good example of fine writing and solid
storylines in Space:1999. This was another
successful fusion of science fiction and horror.
I think Comissioner Dixon was an idiot! Then again
most politicians and liberals are. Surely he
would have known that there are other forms of
life in this galaxy besides man. I would have
believed Tony Cellini's story without question.
Considering how he looked when he came back to
Alpha, I'd believe just about anything. Good
acting from everyone, as always. The alien was
a real ugly looking spud! Not to mention, very
scary. Any comments or criticsms?

I think that 'Dragon's Domain is one of the finest episodes of 'Space:1999'. Unfortunately, Sandman, whenver people think about Space:1999 the image of the foam in Space Brain comes to mind. This doesn't seem to happen with the original series of Star Trek, and there were many dodgy episodes of that like the one with the Yangs (Yanks and Kohms (Communists).

JAMES CONNOLLY WORMHOLT SHEPHERDSBUSH LONDON W12
WITHIN DRAGONS DOMAIN IS A HIDDEN DREAM MESSAGE
WATCHING IT AS A CHILD AND MAN I STILL SEE INTO ITS MESSAGE CONFRONTING YOUR INNER MOST DEMONS EVEN IF NO ONE BELIEVES YOU TURNING THE DRAGON FORCE FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT
TRUTH KNOWLEDGE AND LIGHT RIGHT

The other contender for best episode ever. No
significant plot flaws. Exciting and well-paced.
Better-than-their-usually-excellent model work
and on-set FX for that monster--positively not a
man in a rubber suit! And it spat out those
wonderfully horrific smoldering skeletons!

--The plot foreshadows the well-done motion
picture Aliens, where Ripley is the sole
survivor whose story is in question.

--The only genuine nitpick I have is seeing the
derelict Ultra Probe already docked to the big
hulk in one shot as they're first approaching
the collection of drifts.

One of my all time favorites. A minor nit is that the chessboard is set up incorrectly! A chessboard is always oriented with the white corner to the players right, but they have it to the players left. Additionally, the setup of the pieces is rather suspect and Koenig's penultimate move is extremely poor. I do give them credit for getting the moves and checkmate right though.

Why doesn't the dragon spit out Cellini's remains? Maybe it was so long since its last meal it ate all of him?? ("I can't believe I ate the whole thing...")

In the flashback sequence voiced over by Helena, we see Koenig, Bergman and Cellini in the laboratory as a TV reporter says "Dateline September 3, 1996 - who will man the Ultra probe?" A minute later, over scenes of Cellini and crew boarding the probe, Helena's voice over says that the probe's launch date was June 6, 1996!

Thats generally believed to be the result of confusion between US and European dating formats ie the actor thought that 9/3/1996 meant September 3rd and not March 9th as intended by the writer.

About the comment about Italian actors, it mentions in the Space:1999 calender, that the cator playing Tony Cellini isn't Italian, but was born in Zagreb, in the former Yugoslavia.

Why did the monster spit him out? Probably the same reason you don't eat chicken bones. Who wants to choke on the crunchy bits?

Watching it today a few things come to mind.

An obvious nit is the access corridor between the Eagle command module and the rest of the Eagle coming along when Cellini docks up with the Ultra Probe. This also happens in "Missing Link" when the module is detached to transport Koenig to Alpha.

Interesting how the curly haired security guard seen in the 1996 scenes is still on Alpha 5 years later and goes along to investigate the Ultra Probe. Makes you wonder how long certain people have been on Alpha. Doctor Mathias is also a holdover, but its reasonable to assume he hasn't spent the entire 5 years on Alpha.

Koenig says he was the one who got Cellini back on Alpha. Given the contents of his room its reasonable to assume he was on Alpha for at least a while before Breakaway, so it would seem that Koenig had some clout for a while before being assigned Commander. On the other hand it must have taken some arm twisting to allow a person some folks thought mentally unstable to have his edged weapons collection along with him.

There's no indication of exactly how the ship would be able to achieve a manned landing on Ultra. Perhaps the command module was designed to land on Ultra, or maybe even a larger hunk of the ship was, with the main drive unit left in orbit. The interior of the command module is neat, not merely being an Eagle cockpit redressed.

Since they mentioned Gorski, one wonders what his thoughts must have been on being replaced by a former subordinate, Koenig, especially one that had been associated with a screwup. On the other hand it does bring to mind the idea once more that Koenig may have been assigned to Alpha as a fall guy if the Meta Probe project collapsed. Certainly one doesn't get the impression in his interactions with Commissioner Simmonds that he's "Simmonds man."

Koenig's request for Celini to be on Alpha may have been one of his first acts as Commander...watching Breakaway's teaser again, one can hear Koenig's eagle is piloted by Kelly from Space Brain. OK, I know it's just Shane Rimmer doing a voice over, but hindsight is 20/20. Anyway, maybe the eagle copilot was Celini. I'm certain Celini wasn't aboard Simmond's eagle when it arrived on Alpha a few days later!
The dragon was--still is--a creepy creature, clearly not a guy in a suit. I didn't have nightmares about it, but it's one of my strongest memories of this series.
A few years ago, I showed this episode to a young friend who'd never heard of Space: 1999. (at the time I didn't have a copy of Breakaway, but I explained the premise to him; he thought it sounded "cool.") He was impressed all around with Dragon's Domain, even though the episode was 20 years old at that point. (I wonder if he actually believed it was that old...)

What's in a name?
Tony Cellini is named Tony Bellini in the Power Records adaptation (LP 8179). As Douglas Nichol mentioned in his Aug '99 posting, Cellini was called Jim Calder in the novel. And Monique Fauchere is listed in the episode credits as Monique Bouchere...the novel calls her Olga Vishenskya (Russian, perhaps?), as does the Power Records lp.
A side note about the novel: Calder and Vishenskya were attracted to each other. As a youngster reading the novel, I assumed Calder was "scripted" as an American and Vishenskya as a Russian, and surmised the name and nationality changes filmed were because such a pairing may not have been perceived as "politically correct" (or whatever term was used back then) in the mid 1970's.
Of course, I've long since found out about the Italian backing of the series requiring Italian guest stars, but at the time I thought I was the only person left for 100's of miles around who'd even HEARD of Space: 1999, and my access to such info was limited.

I would imagine Olga became Monique because an actress able to do a good Russian accent wasn't available.

My copy is pretty poor picture quality, but during the scene where Koenig and Cellini flip to decide who takes the Ultra Probe......is that a commlock stuck on the ceiling?

No, it just appears to be a box. WHY it's there is beyond me, and I've figured for years it was a piece of studio equipment such as a microphone cleverly disguised as a box. (Not as bad as the boom mic that comes into view in Force of Life!) At any rate, it's easy to dismiss it as part of the tech lab; it's not as easy to dismiss the wires one can see manipulating the dragon's tentacles in a couple shots. (I dismiss it anyway, since I love this episode, but that's beside the point!)

By the way, here's another "holdover" character for tim gueguen (regarding his 04 Jan 2002 post): as the Ultra Probe crew leaves Alpha, Main Mission operative Ann is part of the crowd bidding farewell. She appeared in Mission of the Darians as a person to monitor communications with Sandra.
Obviously, some staff rotated Earthside for a time before starting another tour of duty on Alpha a few years later.

The design of the Ultra Probe is excellent and throughout the series there is a sort of uniformity to Earth ship designs. The Eagles, the Hawks, the Swift, Superswift, the Meta Probe and the Ultra Probe. It's really good that they tried to keep a similiar look to the designs.

I guess from the sounds of other episodes that the orbital space station must be starting to feel a little unlucky what with all the failed missions.

Another interesting point. In the episdode, the Ultra Probes main body is left where it is, though you would have thought that a technical team would have checked out its computers. In the novelisation, the Eagle flight destroys the Probe.

Explosions were Gerry Anderson's bread and butter, so it's surprising that in the end the Alphans do not destroy the Ultra Probe or the drifts, but instead leave this trap behind for the next unwary space travelers.

...Especially since they couldn't be certain the monster was truly dead.

I originally brought this up on the "Testament of Arkadia" board in January 2002, but I think it bears repeating here:
I wonder if any of the derelicts in the spaceship graveyard had markings written in Sanskrit.

I did manage to get the music used during the Ultra Probe flyby. The full score is about 12 minutes long and is Albinonis Adagio, not to be confused with Barbers Adagio that was used in Platoon. The Probe music was also apparently used in the film Rollerball.

Adagio in G Minor, to be precise, and it was indeed used in Rollerball (the 1970's film). That film also used actor Shane Rimmer, who appeared in "Space Brain."

NANJAO: Remember those cool swivel chairs in the Ultra Probeship's main wardroom? The black ones with the chrome handles and frames? They appear near the aft doorway by the desks, and can be seen prominently in the famous still photo of the monster that appeared in the US 1977 calendar, among other places. (OK, so I had a thing for swivel chairs as a kid; it was thanks to this episode.)
The point?
I have a book about architectural rendering techniques ('Drawing in Color,' by Albert Lorenz & Stanley Salzman, 1991) that has a pen-and-ink drawing of a vice president's office on pages 100-101. Next to a table in that office is one of those Ultra Probeship chairs. It's colored brown in this book, but the style is unmistakable.

This might be more of a sink response, but remember the big 'Egg' chair that Koenig relaxed in in his office in Breakaway?
I remember seeing it in Blake's 7, the firs tepisode with Servalan.

I remember a big Teacup chair when he sat in his quarters, during the "stumble in the dark" voice-over.

I think that's the chair Douglas was referring to, Peter. There was an "egg-like" chair in the foreground during the same panning shot of Koenig's quarters, but the "teacup-ish" one is the one he sat in.
I was surprised to see the same style of chair in a Star Trek TOS episode ("The Enterprise Incident") aboard a Romulan vessel. The chair was black there.
It also appeared in the S:99 Season 2 ep Dorzak, on an alien vessel instead of in Alpha.
FYI, the "teacup" chair is an Elda 1005, first manufactured in 1964 in Italy. The "egg" chair is a Rodica, made in 1968 in Italy.

Sorry, it WAS the 'shell' chair I meant. I'll take any further talk of furnishing to the Technical section.

If anyone's interested, I've posted an Idea I came up with (regarding the monster's origins) on the Sink:1999 board.

..A side note: The original script called for Alan Carter to be the commander of the Ultra Probe mission. The script went basically the same, with the ending having Koenig & the others arriving just as Alan puts the axe into the monster's eye, killing it. However, Martin Landau's contract had all these "*I* am the leading man here, *period!*" clauses through it, so the script was rewritten with an expendable character in the role who'd die, allowing Koenig to save the day.

Still, a •••• fine episode...

I don't think the episode would have worked with Carter in the Cellini role. There's no way someone who at best was seen as mentally unstable, and at worst as a possible murderer, would be allowed to have such a position of responsibility as heading Alpha's flight operations. Chances are Cellini's heroic return from Ultra in a tiny capsule against all odds was one of the few things that kept him from being canned outright.

Peter Stoller said

"Explosions were Gerry Anderson's bread and butter, so it's surprising that in the end the Alphans do not destroy the Ultra Probe or the drifts, but instead leave this trap behind for the next unwary space travelers. "

Well it's funny you should say that, as in the novelisation they did destroy the remains of the Ultra Probe. I would have thought to be careful they would also have destroyed the ship it was docked to.

I've just enjoyed rewatching this. Still very good, though of course not as creepy at when I watched it as a kid.

I don't get the nit about the Eagle nose cone taking the access corridor with it. I rewatched the end, and couldn't see the access corridor.

When Cellini axes the comm post, the panel he destroys is not one of the usual panels. In fact, in closeup it looks like a cheap bit of wood painted black, with drawing pins (thumb tacks) stuck in it to look like buttons...

On the other hand, the creators redeem themselves with the gorgeous shot of the docking tube attached to the Eagle, when Cellini first tries to leave.

Helena says the Moon is between galaxies. She later says that the nearest system is 3 months away by Eagle. Either they found stars in between the galaxies, or Eagles can now perform intergalactic travel...

Great line from Helena: "He didn't even take his toothbrush".

I wondered about the Ultra probe taking 8 months to get there, but Cellini only taking 6 months to get back in a tiny module.

In my memory, all the graveyard ships were docked to each other. On rewatching, I was surprised that they all floated freely. I wonder how the monster got from one ship to another.

I wondered why they didn't retrieve the Eagle nose cone (and then the Eagle body) at the end. Scratch one more Eagle.

One of the graveyard ships was the giant bomber from Alpha Child and War Games.

(This is only a nit if you believe that War Games established the bomber to be of Earth origin, which is debatable.)

An 8 month outbound journey was due to the Ultra Probe Ship fighting the Sun's gravity on the way out. On the way back toward Earth, Cellini's gravity-assist maneouver around Ultra, as well as travelling toward the Sun, constantly accelerated the Probe Ship Command Module, cutting the travel time to 6 months.

The Eagle nosecone nit is this: The back of the command module ends at the door. The access corridor (lighted shelves with the ropes, ax and other equipment) starts on the other side of the door and extends to the next set of doors, which lead to the passenger/recon module. Once Cellini had detached the command module, the access corridor shouldn't have been there. (Go to the Alpha Tech Section board and click on my link to Roberto Baldassari's Eagle Pages to see a nice cutaway illustration of the Eagle to see what I'm talking about. )

That "between galaxies" thing makes me cringe every time.

Still, this is one of my favorite eps.

Here's a nit for you. Koenig tries to persuade Dixon to send out a second probe, stating the fact that there were the 'blips' found on the Ultra Probes radar. Dixon then states that those are just that, 'blips', it doesn't mean that they are ships. Taking that statement, you would assume Dixon means they coulld be asteroids or something similiar. That is a fair argument, except for the fact that it is also stated that a breathable atmosphere was recorded by the Probes black box inside one of these blips. Now how many pieces of ordinary floating space junk would have breathable atmosphere. I'm sorry, but this just doesn't make sense. The atmosphere statement IMHO only reinforces Koenig's argument.