By the way, Season 2 completely eliminated the access corridor, mating the command module dierectly to the passenger/recon module! Major nit!

Got it! Thanks for explaning the corridor nit, Craig.

You're welcome, Sophie. By the way, it occurs in "Missing Link" as well, when the damaged command module is lifted by the cargo eagle. (I believe that one got pointed out already on the "ML" board.)

someone also brought up that when Cellini comes back into the probeship to fight the alien, the husks of his former crewmates on the floor are covered with cobwebs. Where would the spiders tht made these cobwebs have come from? Maybe little offspring of the tentacled-one? ;)

That's a neat new idea! I'd just chalked the webs up to the "let's make it look like time has passed" mode of set decorating, and rationalized it as some kind of mold that developed on the corpses.
Offspring would serve as another explanation as to why the Alphans didn't try to salvage the ships. (Besides the "How could we be sure it's really dead?" line.)

And it also explains why the Beast has those fishing-line wires controlling its tentacles! We foolishly thought it was evidence of poor/sloppy SFX, when actually it was spinning a web!

When Cellini first attacks Carter, he leaves his Commlock right by Carter's side. When Keonig finds Carter, he rolls Carter onto his back, and lo! the Commlock is right by Carter's side. While Carter was lying unconscious, someone moved the Commlock 2ft closer to the airlock.

Why didn't I spot this before? External shots show the Ultra probe docking hatch on the bottom of the ship, but the hatch they open to admit the monster is on the side of the ship.

Darwin tells Cecilly to open the hatch. Who exactly is Cecilly.

The computer, maybe, like "HAL", "Mother", etc ;)

You know, I'd wondered about the Cecilly thing, too, but read one interperetation that the name was Sesame, as in "Open, Sesame." (Sure sounds like Cecilly to me, though.)
I have some responses to a post by Will on the wrong board (Death's Other Dominion)... How did Cellini survive for six months on survival rations? I'm guessing that he rationed them out (no pun intended), eating just what he needed to stay alive. He would have known (or would have been able to calculate) his estimated arrival time back at Earth/Luna, and could have divided his rations accordingly. Furthermore, I imagine there were survival rations for a crew of four, which would have added to his personal supply.
As for bathroom facilities aboard the command module/lilfeboat, I suspect that there was a rudimentary waste system such as on the old Apollo capsules (or maybe even as "advanced" as on the shuttles)... since the command module seems to have been designed to be used as a lifeboat, this was probably a design consideration. I doubt, though, that a shower was present.

By the way, I have to agree with Will's point on that wrongly located post about liking how "Dragon's Domain" focused on secondary/guest characters... One of my favorite things about Season 1 was that Alpha seemed populated by many people, from many nations, and we often got to focus on them, rather than the main characters. S99 was the first show I recall seeing that did this, and that's part of its appeal for me today.

You might be interested to know that this episode was first written to feature regular character Alan Carter, then rewritten to feature guest character Jim Calder, then that was changed to Tony Cellini.

It is unusual that the Cellini character was brought in because of the Italian backing that the show received considering the actor playing Cellini was born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. However, I suppose he might have become a naturalised Italian.

In any case , Cellini was a more convincing "Italian" than Tony Verdeshi. If this were a year two story, we would be treated to Cellini spouting idiotic "Italian" jokes (whew,that monster looked like a pot of overcooked spaghetti!)...I always thought that the worst part of this episode were the hospital scenes. Instead of 1996, I thought the scenes looked as if they came out of a 1961 science fiction film (especially Helena's hair and outfit).

The spaceship graveyard has an interstellar flight path almost as impressive as the moon.

This is a dreadful story. The female crewmembers of the Ultra probe are brutally murdered. This is little more than a slasher film in sci-fi clothing.

You raise an interesting point. There is a close link between sex and violence. Some males masturbate while watching snuff films of women being murdered.

The phallic shape of the Ultra probe hammers home the oppressive message "Space Exploration is for men, women prepare to be brutalised if you intrude upon this male realm". The burning orange belly of the beast spewing out smoldering corpses reminds me of the ovens of Auschwitz. This is entertainment?

Men become enraged at the prospect of an empowered woman. Witness all the male hostility towards Xena. Men also don't want to admit to an undeniable truth, a lesbian with a strap-on can outperform ANY male.

I thought Dr.Russell was a powerful female character.

Dr. Russell was no doctor. She was merely a glorified nurse (a tired old cliched role, also a common sexual fantasy for men). Helena was merely there to serve the men. The same thing with Maya. Although a superior being, she was subservient to the males of Alpha. No progress here!

JT raises a valid point about sexual steorotypes in the show. In 48 episodes, a female pilot was never shown.

It was also very much a product of its times.

Men died, too. In fact, the first victim of the monster in this ep was male. And it wasn't murder, as murder implies willful, premeditated action; the creature in this story was simply eating. Is a hungry tiger a murderer if it eats a human?

To follow up on ScottN's point, in another episode, Russell led an away mission (even though she didn't pilot)... I don't recall seeing too many women leaders in other tv shows of the early to mid 1970's; sure, S99 may not have been as advanced as the real world was in 1999, but I sure don't recall many other 1970's shows being any better.

No disrespect intended, but what's with all the sexual analyses? As a male, I never viewed this show as some hidden agenda for sexual fantasies, male or otherwise. And though I resent being stereotyped as some dumb man who thinks women only exist to serve men, I'm not going to start a flame war on this (or any) board about it.
To end on a lighter point, the comment above about the probe ship being a phallic symbol reminds me of a joke I heard years ago: If women ran the Pentagon instead of men, would missiles be a different shape?

I think "Rose" is simply trolling us, as I suspect JT is to some extent. After all, we've had an influx of silly season posts in here the last couple of weeks.

Typical. Dismiss a woman's opinion as silly or irrational. Why don't you just call me a hysterical female?

Gender has nothing to do with it. If someone disgrees with a point you've made, it's about the point, not the gender of the poster. You have made some interesting points, including the ones I personally disagree with; they get us to think of things in new ways.
However, NitCentral has had its share of flame wars and trolls (male, for the most part) in the past, and any good points made by such people were lost by their desire to get posters to attack each other. Such behavior is not tolerated here and will get dumped, and then no one will be exposed to your insights. This advice isn't intended as a threat, but as a cautionary word. Read the rules of this site for clarification and stop trying to incite inflammatory responses to your inflamatory remarks; please be a little more civil, and try not to take any response to your posts as a personal attack.

Sorry, but we've seen it too often. Males who surf the net and attack every feminist viewpoint they come across.

I understand that, but not every male does so, just as not every feminist is a so-called radical who attacks men to get revenge for millenia of injustice. I'm simply trying to point out the rules of the site to avoid anyone's posts (not just Rose's in this case) from getting dumped, and to remind all of us not to take things too personally.
Sarcasm is frequently used by most posters, and it is usually recognized as such, but in some cases where it isn't, all one needs to do is request clarification. If offended by a specific remark, say so; most posters around here will think the situation over explain what was really meant, and apologize for the affront, if one was made.

Wasn't Helena's typing Cellini's story on a typewriter a bit old fashioned? She should have narrated the story on her Commlock and downloaded it later.

A personal computer was one bit of tech the show's creators didn't foresee, one which we've all taken for granted. I like Anon.'s idea of dictating into a commlock for future downloading; it makes the narration have more of a point, too.

This episode was the one that stuck with me more than any others that I saw (and I've seen that comment from dozens of people on various 1999 boards, forums, and websites). The Dragon was very scary for a 9 year old. Reinforcing that, I had the 1999 lunch box, with ol' ugly prominently displayed absorbing the blasts from Koenig's gun.

I wonder...the idea of the derelict ships and the unconventionally unstoppable monster are reminiscent of Classic Trek's "Doomsday Machine", with one lone survivor who gives his life to defeat the thing he is obsessed with that destroyed his crew, and the hero is able to use that to destroy the monster with something technologically primitive (Cellini's ax, and something 'like the old H-bomb was supposed to be' back in the 20th century...)
Both shows are my favorites from their respective series...and both were followed by the last seasons of their shows produced by Fred Freiberger. (Maybe he is related to the Dragon?)

I've seen a good piece of fanfic rewriting this episode as per the original script, with Alan the lone survivor, and being romantically involved (with someone who was part of the other stories in that cycle of fan fiction) with an Alphan scientist...and Sandra got a good bit, with one of the doomed Ultra ladies being a good friend of hers in 1996...and as Alpha closed in on the graveyard, she too began being visited by the memories of her friend and the Dragon's spinner--so she volunteered to go with Alan to fight the creature and was not the quiet meek person we normally saw.

If more episodes had been written and produced like this one, the show might have lasted longer. This is one of the shows to hook your friends on!

One thing that always puzzled me...why the Earth Space bozos didn't send a second mission. If Tony was right about those ships, why didn't they go and salvage them? Obviously, they came from beyond our solar system, somebody's probably got an FTL drive...the black box showed a blip with an atmosphere, and other blips too... With the high rate of mission failures (Ultra, Meta, the Swifts, the trip from Death's Other Dominion, etc.), I suspect they whitewashed everything they could to create some other mission. Koenig's leadership on this project probably led to a ground job for a year, and a demotion from command rank to regular crewman/officer. Simmonds probably decided to use Koenig to either pull off a miracle and launch the Meta Probe mission; or more likely get killed by whatever is going on (we know how much he likes to personally investigate everything, he wanted to visit Ultra to find what happened to the Probe, he flies and crashes all of the Eagles...LOL...so, Simmonds could try to count on Koenig getting his nose in too deep...) or simply bungle the mission, thereby leading to his being fired from the whole space business...

Gordon, if you look at some of my old points, you'll see that I've brought up a lot of what you say. The only point that Commissioner Gordon brings up that strikes me as 'valid' is the expense of deep space travel meaning that opportunities are few.

One thing that always puzzled me...why the Earth Space bozos didn't send a second mission. --Gordon Long

The episode covered that, though I realize you may not have seen it for a looong time... During the hearing/inquiry Commissioner Dixon held to determine "what really happened out there," he dismissed the contacts as nothing more than contacts (ignoring Koenig's pointing out the breathable atmosphre and so on), and after this failure, was more concerned about keeping the existing space programme (i.e. Moonbase Alpha) solvent. Plus, perhaps the Uranus and Jupiter (Astro) missions were already underway, and he didn't want those being jeopardized by the Ultra Probe failure as well. (Of course, both of those missions would go wrong, too.)

I also read that fanfic you mentioned, and liked some of the extras the writers added, though I think their characterization of Carter has him quite a bit harsher than the character we all know from the tv show. (Their version of "Wargames" started out interestingly, too: nifty extra details were added, like shutting down the reactors just prior to the attack, to prevent radiation leakage in the event of a hit. But I digress...)

Commissioner Gordon? I didn't realize we were on a Batman board!

God...it shows that I haven't seen this in a while.

Actually, I thought you were just thinking of the poster you were responding to and sort of melded the two together.

Well, that's better than being called Flash Gordon or Flesh Gordon...LOL... Thanks for correcting me...

The only shows I've seen in the last couple of years were episodes 1-6 on video; the rest I'm going on memory from, or from seeing the scripts over at Martin Willey's excellent site, The Catacombs.

I have really enjoyed Ellen Lindow's 'Florida Universe' fanfic cycle, although I tended to skim through the adult sections of the stories. I felt she really got into the characters as a few of the Trek professional novelists have done...characters that 'sound' and 'act' right.

I realized we all missed something regarding male & female stereotypes in this episode. I'd noticed this years ago, but forgot about it until last night (and no, I haven't seen the entire episode for over a year)...
After the persuit eagle has docked with the Ultra Probe Ship in an attempt to retrieve Cellini, Koenig and crew prepare to transfer to the Probe Ship. Koenig warns Russell: "You'd better stay here." A bit lame, to say the least.
Russell's reaction is what I like: she looks really ticked off at the very idea of staying behind, and/or that Koenig of all people has told her to do so, and follows the rest of the crew anyway!
I don't know if the writer, director or Barbara Bain came up with that idea; I suspect it could have been a combined effort, but I'm sure Bain would have wanted it in there for sure if no one else had thought of it. In any case, I'm glad the scene ended with Russell doing what she wanted.

A highpoint of this episode for me was the separation of the Command module from the Ultra Probe. The feature film quality effects (reminiscent of "Silent Running") were a stunning climax to a magnificent sequence. The spinning live action shots were perfectly intercut with the shots of the spinning module.

Everyone involved gets an A+ for effort in this ep!

A couple of posts refer to the 'phallic' shape of the Ultra Probe ship. It's not the first time I've read that observation (the 1977 "Starlog Photoguide Book" on spaceships describes it as phallic looking).
The Catacombs' contains several items on Brian Johnson stating the inspiration for the Eagle spacecraft (and Earth craft) was insect shapes. I don't think a conscious effort was made to create something other than insectiod.
In addition to the module breaking away from the Probe, this episode is a great one for Eagle fans too; a couple of scenes also show the Eagle separating (the command module and main pod).

Yeah, the FX gang pulled out all the stops for this ep. In spite of a few nits (noted throughout this board), the FX rival that of most movies made around the same time.

I've noticed a couple of things in this episode.

Firstly, the Recon section changes sleeve colour in this episode onwards. Prior to that their colour was Yellow, though a slightly different shade than the Yellow that Sandra has on her uniform. The colour shown here that is seen is more orange, almost salmon pink coloured which I believe is commonly referred to as 'Flame'.

Also, the security guy retrieving the Black Box from the Ultra probe, in the background is a standard security guy with their distincive shoulder strap and the Rust coloured sleeve, but the guy removing the black box himself, while having the same belt and shoulder strap as a security man has a different coloured sleeve, I would say Royal Blue.

Colour reproduction on the last DVD (at least in Region 1) was pretty bad, most noticable in this episode and "Testament of Arkadia". (More on this later...)
I'd always viewed the Recon sleeves as a pale orange, which is usually only distiguished from the Service department's yellow when two people from each department stood next to each other.
Of course, I haven't seen the Season 2 dvds, so maybe the orange colour was indeed darker in that season.
Security sleeves were purple; Technical were rust. Typo, Douglas? On the other hand, regarding the blue-looking security sleeve, I think that, too, may be attributable to the DVD's poor quality. (Was that indeed a Region 1 problem only, or did other regions have the same thing? I still have my 12" laser discs, which had better colour reproduction in this ep and "ToA"... hopefully, I can review them this weekend to see if the color shift in the Security man's sleeve is so apparent.)

It might be a poor transfer as one or two shots in Testament of Arkadia were rather dark looking.

I agree that the sleeve colours between the recon and service sections aren't too apparent until they stand together, and on my DVD the security mans sleeve did look more blue than purple but you're right that Rust is the technical.

One problem with Ultra is that it seems to be part of our solar system, but it is further out than the cold gas giants. How can it be "similar to Earth" if it so far from the sun? Does Ultra have a special deal on light and heat? Or... is that trickery by the monster to lure people in... to think they're seeing something that's not there? Helena and others took as truthful Cellini's report of observing apparently Earthlike conditions as they drew closer to Ultra?

For all anyone knew, the real situation might have been that Ultra had an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere that was frozen on its surface.

Odd that Earth didn't send out unmanned probes first to have a look at Ultra before deciding on a manned mission. Odd that, in all the months since Victor Bergman, by himself, discovered the planet that it didn't get the Roman mythological name thst is standard for planets of our solar system.

Which makes me ask, where is Meta? Presumably, Meta _is_ extra-solar, so does Earth have early starflight capability by mid-1999? Or is the Metaprobe still experimental and anyone flying it going on a risk? I presume that the Meta astronauts might be gone for years, flying close to light speed and encountering relativistic effects. If Meta is 4.4 or 6 or 9 light years away, then it would be 9 or 13 or 19 years before the Metaprobe returns, with astronauts who've only aged maybe a year.

Space: 1999 isn't the first series/genre to postulate near/beyond light speed capability in the later part of the 20th Century:

Lost In Space, produced 1964-68, provided us with the Jupiter II, which would take 5.5 years (fall 1997 to early 2003) to travel a distance that light covers in 4.4 (or as it was perceived then, 4.2) light years, some 75-80% of light speed. At that speed, mass would normally become a problem, perhaps not an acute one yet to no longer have enough power to propel. Jupiter II had artificial gravity, so it makes sense that American technology has solved, partially, the use of gravity as a propulsive force. While stranded on that desert planet, John and Don evidently come up with FTL and adapt Jupiter II to use it, since they effortlessly cross stellar distances in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.

Planet of the Apes - 1968: I have been to a website that very logically deduces that, by the late 1960s, American technology has harnessed gravity and the ship that Taylor, Dodge, Stewart and Landon fly out on, circa 1969 or 1970, uses gravity to propel them to just a bit under light speed, as well as generate an on-board gravity field so that Dodge can drop to the deck while the ship is floating, at an angle, in the Atlantic Ocean of 3954 or whenever.

(A year or two later than Taylor's flight, it is 1971, and Zira and Cornelius are being guided around Los Angeles, definitely in early 70s.)

Star Trek never made that assumption, even in the old series, with the DY-100 sleeper ships required into the early 21st Century, and even after faster ships were developed, according to Lt. McGivers, it looks as though FTL wasn't developed for another 50-80 years. This was borne out when Zefram Cochrane is found in about 2268, and supposedly died 150 years earlier, pegging FTL to about 180-210 years earlier than 2268 - or about 2048-2078. The novel Federation pegs FTL to the year 2060-2061, and the movie "First Contact" pegs FTL to 2063.

Space: 1999 (1975) would simply be continuing the pattern of assuming FTL is developed as part of a continuing space program that didn't stop going to the moon after Apollo 17. In real life, after Apollo 17, we crashed down to what was inevitable... nothing really new was pursued after 1969, and the Apollo 13 to 17 missions were on borrowed time.

From Lost In Space, Space: 1999 and Star Trek (not Planet of the Apes, since a 1968 interstellar flight implies far earlier moon landings), we could infer the following:

circa 1969-70 - first moon landing (John Robinson said the first landing was in 1970... what a pessimist!)

circa 1973-75 - first lunar base, as a follow-up to the Apollo program; manned on an occasional basis at first, then continuously

circa 1980 - interplanetary flights begin to Mars and Venus using spacecraft built in orbit instead of on the ground

circa 1990-1995 - (not in Star Trek, though) gravity as a propulsive force becomes available, though the capability is limited at first

circa 1997-99 - now more practical to use gravity as a propulsive force - Jupiter II and the Meta Probe (in different genre) are possible.

Interesting points, Geoff.
I'd wondered about the "Earth-like" conditions of Ultra, as well, though my solution wasn't as interesting as yours... I figured Ultra itself was a gaseous planet, but one of its moons may have had enough atmosphere & geologic activity to make it moderately similar to a primitive Earth. Yeah, I know, nothing onscreen bears out my solution; I can't believe your idea never occurred to me.

I believe the novelisation for this ep mentions that Ultra was indeed a tenth planet, way out beyond the "normal" boundary of the Sol system. I figure it must have had a highly elliptical orbit, and/or one inclined at a steep angle to the ecliptic. (Meta, by the way, was a rogue planet passing near our system.)

The space program of S99's Earth has artificial gravity on board its spacecraft (including the space docks) and Moonbase Alpha at least as early as the mid-1990's, though its use as a propulsion system is not mentioned onscreen... another neat idea, though!

I believe the wording of the episodes mention Ultra being beyond 'the normal bounds of our solar system' as well.

Yeah, but that could mean pretty much the rest of the universe, if you think about it.

Well the Ultra Probe was a six month journey either way if I remember right, but that doesn't really help a hell of a lot.

Sophie and I discussed travel time on 9 & 10 January 2003. (Scroll up on this very board!)

man this ep scared me as a kid. Nightmares for weeks.

Yeah, it is a scary one.