I wonder how much they paid Julian Glover to appear on camera in those aluminum foil shorts?

Not a great episode, but far from the worst I've ever seen.

Hi,

I was a bit disappointed with this episode. It starts off really cool with the first birth on Alpha..and then went downhill.

The episode isn't terrible, just could have been a heck of a lot better. I don't know - but perhaps the aliens needed something from Alpha (similar to Force of Life) and then go on their way with Koenig and crew not understanding they meant no harm.

Anthony

Thank god we see no more of young Jackie Crawford. If the show was made now, we would have an attack of 'Wesley Crusher Syndrome".

Towards the end of the episode, when Jarak has some hostages in the Medical Centre, and he's imitated Koenig's voice to tell the computer to lock the dorrs shut, why doesn't Koenig use a commlock to countermand that order immediately Kano tells him what's just happened? Why does he grab a laser and blast the door open? This kind of thing happened far too often in the second series!

Did anyone notice the re-use of the NGA3 set from Force of Life? When I was a kid, I thought this represented some time had passed and the Alphans had re-built the area. Of course, now I chalk it up to just being one of the other two generators. Nice to see the set used more than once, and this time with more personnel!

This episode makes me wonder: among the complement of Moonbase Alpha there must be people who have children. And if they were going to be stationed in space for a while it makes sense that some of them would bring their families with them. So how come we never see any other evidence of children on Alpha? The fact that the Alphans found clothes to fit Jackie Crawford suggests that someone at least prepared for the possibility of young children on the base. And in "A Matter Of Balance" we are introduced to Shermeen, who is a teenager. This means that she is either a prodigy or was originally the daughter of some other Alphan staffer living on the base at the time of the breakaway.

I read somewhere a suggestion by someone that Shermeen could have been a visiting schoolgirl who had some special assignment to work on at Moonbase Alpha; sort of like an exchange student, I guess.
At any rate, perhaps a requirement of being assigned to Alpha (pre-Breakaway) was that personnel be childless. It only stands to reason that post-Breakaway, some couples would start having kids, especially as time wore on and the Alphans settled into a routine of sorts. (Additionally, as people died, there were "openings" in the life support capability of the base, not to mention a growing surplus of empty living quarters.)

Nice little Oedipus Complex bit in this episode, with Jarak using Jackie Crawford's body, and his (presumably)lover Reina using Sue Crawford's body. Its also interesting that his outfit is more revealing than hers.

Jarak's statement about no one dying can be taken to imply the security officer accidently shot by Koenig didn't die. Perhaps in the process of trying to take over his body the aliens healed his wounds, assuming they were fatal.

Its kind of amusing that Koenig figures the only ones who can do the job of trying to shoot down the alien ships are him, Kano, Morrow, and Carter. You would think that some of the security guards would be a better choice, especially since Kano and Morrow are "desk jockeys." I kind of suspect this may have been to avoid having to pay the extras playing the guards a bigger salary for having speaking parts.

It would be interesting to know how long this is supposed to be taking place after "Breakaway." We know Jack Crawford died 7 months ago, but not much else. Its reasonable to assume its at least that long since leaving Earth orbit, as a pregnant women would presumably have been sent home once her pregnancy was detected. On the other hand one would think one of the first decisions made after breakaway would be to prohibit pregnancies until further notice, which would mean Sue Crawford became pregnant shortly before the events of Sept. 13. It seems unlikely that Jack Crawford died before then, or his death would have been chalked up after the fact to the magnetic radiation problem that started the whole mess in the first place.

I can't remember if it mentioned how Jack Crawford died, but isn't it possible that he was either a worker who died in one of the disposal areas or a pilot killed in the explosion.

Although its not mentioned specifically how he died, he was a worker in Alpha's nuclear power plants, and the lady tech Koenig talks to in the nuclear generating area after Jackie first ages mentions that the area was "torn apart" when Crawford died and no radiation leak was found.

Why is Dr Punching Bag in tears at the end of the ep?

The alien ship hovers over Main Mission when it zaps Jarak and his wife with that beam, but they're both in Medical Center. I thought that was located in it's own building, not directly below M.M.?
Jarak's ships were obviously unarmmed. With four of them there they would surely have fired on their attacker?

Maybe the ships aren't armed.

Probably not...if you have the ability to take over someone's body, who needs weapons?

Jackie Crawford was returned to normal at the end of the episode. What ever became of him? Perhaps, if the show would have had a third season, a writer might have considered a follow up on this...Yes, I know kids in sci-fi shows tend to be precocious brats, but the idea of Alpha seen through a child's eyes might be interesting (for one episode).
Shame about the show not reaching a third season. Other shows such as ST:TNG and Babylon 5 seemed to really hit their stride in their third season.

Curious pointed out Jackie Crawford was returned to normal at the end of the episode. What ever became of him?
The new series of novels being published by Powys Books answers that very question, in order to reconcile the first and second seasons into one cohesive whole. I haven't read the books, but I know what happens in them. Not sure I like some of what's being done, though, but that's because I personally prefer to view each season as a separate series. (Go to the S99 The Novels board for discussions about each book.)

Based on an idea by Curious on the Sink 1999 2 board, here's my list of improved effects for "AC"...
FX-wise, there really isn't much in this one. When I first saw this ep as a child, the SBOL approaching Alpha confused me, though; I thought it was the SBOL from "Force of Life" coming back. The re-use of the NGA3 set also led me to believe that the Alphans had rebuilt NGA3, which made me think this was a sequel episode. SO...
I'd change the initially seen SBOL representing Jarak's ship into four smaller blinking dots, representing Jarak's whole fleet. Some hint that these are spacecraft (without giving away their actual shape) would be nice, too.
Enhance the NGA set slightly to seem just a little different than NGA3, by changing the numerals on the floor ("7A" could become "17A") and adding a few more white stripes or something.

Some of the explosions are a bit sloppy. The the folds of the black backdrop are briefly seen behind the explosions. It's not really bothersome. The sound effects for the Eagle lasers were nifty, sort of a whooshing sound. Wouldn't have minded seeing more shots of the Discovery style 'mothership'. It was one of the most impressive model ships on the show.

I'd heard Martin Bower had actually built that cruiser prior to the series being made... pretty nifty for an independent project!

Not the best episode I've seen so far. On the DVD, some of the editing in the episode is a little sloppy and jarring.

One question - how did Jarak morph his clothes into the silver suit?

The same way Maya morphed into creatures dressed in different garb!

Will and Tim believed Jarak's ships were unarmed. They seemed to only have some kind of energy draining/stunning beam. They fired on Alan, and he was knocked out, and his Eagle seemed to lose power.
Considering there were four of them hovering over Alpha and only one battleship, it makes sense that they knew they couldn't succeed in damaging the battleship, or else it would have been hit by them all at once.

There are four gigantic alien spaceships hovering directly over Alpha.
Okay, let's shoot them down!
Bad idea, Koenig! What's to stop any of them (or chunks of debris) to come crashing down on the base? How can he be sure that once blown up, they won't ignite into four thermonuclear balls of fire, taking Alpha with it?
Bad idea.

The battleship also looks alot like the warship from 'War Games'. I know that was an illusion, but I think they're the exact same model.

Why didn't they try to communicate with the alien ships? We never saw them try. Then Koenig goes and orders to shoot them..

Because two of the aliens took over the bodies of two Alphans.

Wasn't the battleship another one of those in the "Dragon's Domain" junkyard? Looks familiar.

Interesting episode concept, but could have been fleshed out a bit more. Bergman plays with the child but is apparently not called upon to theorize or otherwise investigate his bizarre circumstances.

I thought Bain did a good job emoting in this episode, and was not the 'ice queen' often remarked upon by reviewers.

One would certainly have thought, given the circumstances, that there would be more children born on Alpha during the series. I suppose that was an avenue down which the producers (I guess we'd call them 'showrunners' today) did not wish to travel.

One would certainly have thought, given the circumstances, that there would be more children born on Alpha during the series.

On the contrary, with their severely limited resources, the Alphans would have adopted a strict regime of birth control until they found a planet to settle on. This child was born because the mother was already pregnant when the Moon left Earth's orbit.

The problem is that Alpha's journey could last years, decades even (Helena's narration at the start of Dragon's Domain states that 877 days have passed since the Moon left Earth orbit, a span of nearly three years).

And, unlike other "humans lost in space" shows, they have no control over where they're going.

Koenig and Co. could spend the rest of their lives on Alpha. Sooner or later, they would have to start having kids, so they would have replacement personnel.

I remember an episode, not sure which, where Helena has to explain to somebody that they can't even have children born on Alpha, due to limited resources.
Of course, sex probably wasn't outlawed, but there had better be some contraceptives involved there!

I understand your point, Francois, but I incline more to Tim's view in the long term.

At some point, Alpha would need a 'replacement personnel policy' to account for critical-skills personnel lost/killed during the journey. For example, those highly-skilled "Nuclear Area Technicians" (Hi, Zoref!) dont grow on trees - their replacements must be trained over decades. Eagle pilots. Computer techs. Who is Dr Russell's or Dr Mathias' potential successor?

Alpha needs a robust vo-tech school!

And who doesn't want to doom a generation of children to a life of uncontrolled travel through space subject to attacks from various aliens and other bizarre phenomena?

;-)

If Kirk lost personnel, it was just a matter of going to the nearest Starbase and getting replacements.

Koenig didn't have that option. When Alpha lost people, that was it.

RE: Kmorgan

Well, the alternative is always available. Dr Russell can just lay out the drugs and Alpha can do a lunar Jonestown and be done w it ;)

Yep.

Although given they've lasted two years without killing themselves that seems more and more unlikely as time goes by.

Not having kids immediately doesn't seem psychologically right because of all the uncertainty about their situation.

However if they last long enough, maybe build up their defenses, they might change their mind about raising a new generation.

They're gonna have no choice.