Just got my Columbia House video of this episode today . . . one thing that strikes me is aren't the Sidons going to send more ships out in search of the moon or Earth after the three we see here are destroyed? It seems to me that they're going to be even madder and hopped up for vengeance now.

BORG PARAPHRASING ALERT: Archon tells the Alphans at different parts in the episode that "Resistance is useless" and "Resistance will only alter the manner of your destruction, not the fact."

The Sidons might know where Earth originates, but since the Moon is moving, the three pursuit ships were just following its course. So they wouldn't necessarily find Alpha again.

In the opening credits, the tops of the heads of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain are cut off by the top of the TV screen as is the title "Space:1999" (or at least the "s"). In other episodes, there is space between all of them and the top of the picture. Also, the first note of music accompanying the "This Episode" shots is cut short (the one with the close-up of Martin Landau).
And this is the only episode of the J2 Communications 4-tape set recorded in the SP speed. The other three are in SLP/EP mode. (At least in my set. I have the tapes with the newer ITC logo.)

I should correct my previous statement. The Sidons were trailing Voyager, and since that no longer exists, they might have lost their 'trail'. Mind you, considering the signals from Voyager gave out details of the human race, I'm surprised they never managed to find Earth.

Hmm, maybe they did find Earth and that explains the way it looks in "Another Time, Another Place."

I must admit though, that I like this episode. You can't help but feel sorry for Linden/Queller. He has made a terrible mistake and had to live with the consequences for the rest of his life.

Queller seems to get to the Voyager ship VERY, VERY easily when he decides to go on his "suicide run" at the end of the episode to atone for all the damage his ship's done. When he's at the travel tube, and Barry Stokes (I forget his character's name, but he seems to be Queller/Linden's "apprentice") tries to stop him, there's a girl sat at a desk - kind of like a receptionist. Why is she there? Is she there for some purpose, like to keep track of incoming/outgoing travel tube traffic? If so, surely she could have noticed that something was wrong and alerted security!

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the dripping water from Voyager's exhaust nozzle. Then again, I never noticed it until a friend pointed it out to me.

I found the Queller Drive a bit confusing, as the shots of the exhaust nozzle implied that the exhaust did the damage, but during the entire approach sequence, the nozzle was facing AWAY from Alpha...

When Queller first appears in Main Mission, he comes down the stairs. Is there an entrance to Main Mission up there? Though I could be wrong, I thought the stairs just led to a viewing gallery.

It's just a gallery, no doors. Maybe he was waiting up there for Koenig to have a moment to see him?

Anyone notice that Voyager One's main hatch frame later re-appeared in the derelict to which the Ultra Probe Ship docks in "Dragon's Domain?" The frame appears once again in the Season 2 ep "Chrysalis A B" on the chrysalis planet.

I knew I'd get that wrong... I meant "The A B Chrysalis."

A nice touch: in the instant before one of the Eagles explodes, decompression hurls the pilot forward as if he is being blown out the forward window. Very effective.

A "blink and you'll miss it" nit is when the Eagles are being raised to the launch pads for liftoff. One of them has the extended side doors aka booster pods as its rising up, but these disappear during the takeoff sequence and subsequent shots.

The interior of Voyager One is probably too big for the model, but not agregiously so like the Croton ship in "Dorzak." Its interesting how little the basic designs of things like computer panels, flight controls etc. have changed in the 1999 universe over 15 years as some of Voyager's controls are identical to those used on Alpha, in Eagles etc.

If the episode were filmed today we'd probably be treated to a sequence of Linden/Queller and Jim Haines trying to hack into the Voyager computer instead of building a device to override it. The whole sequence does bring up the question of why Linden didn't know the command codes for Voyager, or for that matter why no one at Earth command thought to include such potentially useful data in Alpha's databanks.

The key question, is who programmed The Voyager probe's computer's & was "he" blamed in the inquiry. Given what happened to Qualler/Linden, I guess not. I agree with the last point, though, but I could argue that the Voyager Programme could have had different subcontractors, working on various parts of the Voyager Probe's & their manafacture. As Qualler/Linden was working on the interstellar drive system, NOT the computer system, he may have not known any "Backdoor" codes to bypass the computer's "Lockout" on it's system access !

Did Voyager's creators know how destructive the ship's propulsion system was? If not, how was that possible? If so, then how could the thing have been built? Think of all the people involved in building and maintaining the Space Shuttles. Should a technician notice a weak heat shield panel on it he or she would be obligated to report the problem, so a destructive engine system would surely have brought about more attention?
Still like the episode and the way that Moonbase Alpha saves Earth, even though they're so far from it.

They believed that the Qualler "interstellar" drive system was destructive, but figured that Voyager's on board computer system, would handle the "switch" from safe,but slow chemical "rocket's" to the Qualler "Fast Particle Drive", without any major problems.
Basically, the Voyager computer system, upon entering, a star system,"in theory", would shut down the Qualler drive, & switch to chemical rockets, while it was "in-system". When leaving, it would shut down the rockets, & activate the Qualler drive, to travel to the next "Target" system.
Also, Voyager 1 was going to be a manned starship, but due to unspecified reasons, was launched "Unmanned", possibly to test out the systems prior to a later manned flight.
If it had been launched as such, than the incedent of Voyager 2 activating its Qualler drive in atmosphere, would have never happened, as the crew would have "overriden" Voyager's computer.
As I mentioned before, Qualler was made the "Scapegoat", for something he was not responsible for I.E the programming of the Voyager's computer systems. (I suspect that the news media prevented a full examination of Voyager 2's systems, as it was regarded as "a unfortunate & regrettable freak accident". After all, Voyager 1 took off "Perfectly" safely...)

Barry Morse wanted more background information on his character expressed in the show. He specifically imagined Bergman as being a holocaust survivor. It would have been interesting in this episode to hear the strong reaction of a holocaust survivor to Aarchon's desire to commit genocide on Earth.

Based on an idea by Curious on the Sink 1999 2 board, here's my list of improved effects for "VR"... (Not too many in this ep, either.)
The "shaky" effect of Eagles 1 & 2 is a little hokey-looking. Some way of showing vibration without looking like the photo of the Eagles was just being rapidly zoomed into & pulled back from would tighten these shots up nicely. (The "shakey" effect wasn't as bad during the interior Alpha shots, perhaps because it wasn't as pronounced. I think those interior shots I'd leave alone.)
Make the "glowing" effect of the Queller drive around the Voyager 1 ship look a little more interesting (less like a double-exposed blue oval).
The drip. You all know what I mean.
Have the Eagle interceptor squadron spread out a little further.
The initial appearnce of Archon looks like a bad slide of a portrait of Jesus double exposed over the background set. I think re-using other footage of Archon and having it "materialize" via CG would be better.

By the way, Curious, I'd also heard about Morse's desire to give Bergman that background history about being a Holocaust survivor (I think I read it in a Starlog article about five years ago). I like your take on it, though, wondering about such a survivor's reactions to the Sidon's quest for revenge.

Aw, nuts, I misspelled "Aarchon" in my last post. Twice.

The "shakey" effect of the Eagles didn't look so special. It simply looked like distorted images in a fun-house mirror.
The drip...how could I not miss that. On the plus side, I love the look of Voyager. It looks like a genuine NASA probe almost.
Aarchon's initial appearance might seem hokey now, but as a kid it was very eerie to me. Maybe, it was the music and Helena's reaction.
As to Victor, the same thing could be said about all the regular characters. More background information would have been greatly appreciated.

This episode holds up pretty well. Good show.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that the launch date was off by 8 years. Do a search on Voyager 1 and you will see that it was launched in September 1977.

I noticed the dripping water too. Love the shaking effects as well.

One other note - the actor who player Queller also played Capt. Picard's brother.

(One news item that you might have missed but is interesting, given this episode's plot....).
The European Space Agency (ESA)Lunar Orbiter Smart 1 entered the point where Lunar gravity is greater than Earth's on Monday. (In short to return to Earth, Smart 1 would have to "loop" around the moon...).
Smart 1's propulsion system is a Ion Drive, using a stream of ionised particles to provide thrust....
(Note: Smart 1 has taken around 3 years to reach this point, due to the ion drive's very low thrust. However, it has used a very small amount of "fuel", & could point the way for future space exploration....).

The fifth season Buffy: The Vampire Slayer episode "Listening To Fear" revolves around a creature called a Queller demon that is menacing the mentally ill in Sunnydale and was apparently summoned by appealing to the Moon. A reference to this episode perhaps?

It just might be

It seems unbelievable that no one on Moonbase Alpha recognized Ernst Queller even with a name change. The resultant publicity from the human deaths caused by Voyager would have most certainly placed him in the public eye & scrutiny of the media.Also,would a space agency realistically then hide his identity & post him on Moonbase Alpha in the aftermath of such a disaster? I know he wasn't an evil man or a criminal but does that seem like a credible political move to anyone? Jeremy Kemp turns in a fine performance as Queller.The model work for the Voyager is phenomenal,so detailed!The interior set for Voyager is also teriffically done.

It's possible that Space Command also had some plastic surgery done on Queller when they gave him his new identity. It sounds like they didn't want to lose one of their scientists and thus arranged all this to keep him (I can easily see Comissioner Simmonds, or someone like him, doing this). We really don't know what happened, aside from a lot of people died. It's possible the Space Command had to pay out some heavy lawsuits.

I must be going nuts. I've recently watched a bunch of season two episodes, and then when I watched this one, I kinda missed Tony and Maya and the cheesy Freiberger version of 1999.

Of course, there was a real Voyager 1, launched a few years after this episode aired.