I liked certain parts of this episode (the last few scenes where Cantor turns into an old man are creepy), but the premises keeps this from being a good episode. They think that there are missiles in orbit around the moon. So do they take out the big guns and shoot them down? No, Koenig (who has to be the stupidest excuse for a commander in TV history) decides to BRING ONE DOWN. Then they try to open it. And when it explodes, he acts surprised. DUH?????

'The Exiles' isn't a bad episode, although I would have thought with previous experiences with people like Commissioner Simmonds, the vulnerable areas of Alpha would be better guarded. Koenig doesn't assign nearly enough protection to stop Cantar and Zova.

Helena: (repeatedly) You're getting old, Cantor!
Cantor: No! No! Stop that voice! Let me die!

I would have thought that a civilisation as peace loving as Cantors and Zovas would have sent along a pre-recorded warning message.

Perhaps their civilization figure putting them into what looked like missiles would be excuse enough for anyone they came across to engage in a little target shooting. But not the intrepid Alphans. Let's bring 'em down and open 'em up.

I like the scene in the Command Center when Koenig gets done with the space investigation of the capsules and tells Tony he's bringing one down. And Tony says "bringing one DOWN???" The unspoken line being, "What, are you a freaking IDIOT?"

What I can't figure out is the ineffectiveness of the Alphan stun guns on Tony! Doctor Mathias says to Zova that it takes at least an hour to recover from a stun. Then we're shown--gasp!!-- that it has no effect on Cantar. Then Zova shoots Tony just before they matter-transmit to Golos--and when they arrive, Tony wakes up! Either Tony is just as resistant as the Golosians or that's an awful long transmat ride!

I'd credit it to Tony's beer, except I don't think they'd introduced that idea yet.

Maya defends alpha from Cantor and Zova by
transforming herself into a panther, but
proceeds to do nothing in that form except
pace around until she's shot with a stungun.
Gee, maybe she intended to rip Zova to
shreds but her cat-brain got distracted from
the task?

Maybe somebody left some catnip in the power section...

I can't remember, and there isn't a space for comments on the characters. But is this the episode where Barbara Bain takes a sip of coffee at the end, and makes the noisiest swallow sound I have ever heard - either on or off tv!

Yep, this is the one Alice. That swallow sounds like a Hoover Wetvac sucking up an oil spill.

Now that's some image to think up..

Chances are thats the fault of the Foley(sound effects)guys, as I would assume that kind of thing wouldn't be recorded directly off the set but added in later.

But Tim, why would they do that? After all these years, it does remain a seminal memory - to the extent I never remembered the episode, but that swallow stuck in my brain.

I'm afraid Peter Duncan's voice kind of has the same effect on me as Kate Mulgrew in Voyager when it comes to trying to come across as authoritive or assertive.

Firstly, regarding the above posting, is it actually Peter Duncan's voice? If you look carefully it isn't quite synchronised sometimes. Did they dub an American accent as the second season was aimed more at the US market? Secondly, when the explosion happens and the technician gets trapped under the beam Maya transforms into a creature and lifts the beam. Then two security guards arrive on the scene and show absolutely no reaction to the creature whatsoever.

I don't know. I would imagine it is Peter Duncan's voice, but you are still talking about an era where there were seperate reels for the visual and audio parts of a film, so it's possible there is just a bit out of synch.

There may also have been some reason for redubbing his voice during that scene, and they didn't get the synch right.

Zova claimed that she was linked to Alpha's life support and could destroy it with a thought. Why didn't she when Koening tossed her ass out of the Eagle? Did the space helmet insulate her telepathic powers? Was she out of range up there?

That doesn't seem likely when she and Cantor both demonstrated that their mental powers were effective even at the distance from Alpha to their home planet (equal to 300 years travel at whatever speed their capsules were moving.)

I can accept scienctific inaccuracy in Space: 1999 because, as many have already proven, modern science doesn't have all the answers, and the ones it does have are always waiting to be proven wrong. However, inconsistency within the fictional universe of the show is just sloppy and insulting.

The death of Cantor was also a stretch. I can't see how scratching open his 'thin plastic membrane' would have caused him to rapidly age...bleed a bit,perhaps.

Some clips from this episode showed up in a odd place the other week. More specifically, VH-1 showed a 80's video of Flock of Seagulls' "Wishing" that used effects shots from this episode ( and also "A B Crysallis").
The shots of transporting to Golos were used for their "spacey" feel (and also to presumably save money).

Scenes from S99, also showed up in the Wonder Woman ep "Time Bomb". Future Earth in that one is depicted by scenes of Texas City ("Journey to Where") and the Satazius flying over Alpha ("Last Enemy").

OK what is with the extremely juvenile Helena-John-Maya thing in the episode?

Maya seems to have assimilated a little quickly, don't you think? Maybe I'm spoiled by the character development of Babylon 5 and Farscape, but I can't believe that this wouldn't have been noted in the 1970's. At least Picard had to recover from his Locutus experience, and 7 of 9 took some time to assimilate into Voyager's crew.

Amazing what you see looking back 30 years later.

I think its fair to say that the expectations for plot continuity and character development have gone up in the last 25 some years.

Well thats true tim, although many claim Babylon 5 was the first to do proper plot continuity, it's not totally true. Speaking as a B5 fan, JMS took his inspiration partly from Terry Nation's Blake's 7, but in that era that was far from the norm. Other shows of that time like Galactica, Buck Rogers and so on were single story episodes.

Now with the era of B5, SG-1 and Farscape we expect more continuity and consistency between episodes which I think is part of the reason Enterprise gets a bit of a hard time from fans of the original Star Trek.

Amen Doug. After watching B5 and Farscape, I am now very spoiled as to what REAL plot and story development is like. And my main beef against Enterprise is the Killer B's frelling with established continuity.

SFX Comments:
The effects for this episode are average. Nothing special, but nothing terrible either. The shots of the capsules show a lack of continuity. Each shot seems to show them clustered in a different manner. One oncoming shot of them shows them flying off in all four directions. They wouldn't stay together very long if they traveled in such a manner.

One interesting effects scene features a pan along a travel tube from Alpha to a launch pad beyond a lunar hill. Unfortunately, the larger scale buildings don't correspond to anything on the smaller main model of Moonbase Alpha. The remote base looks as if it's a revamped volcano from "The Metamorph" with some buildings stuck on it.

The best effects in the episode are the blue "space warp" effects used to portray travel to and from Golos. The Golos city is a effectivley done miniature obscured by a blue light . The weightless effects simply look like live action played in slow motion (the line being thrown from the Eagle). The image of Zova falling from the Eagle (in Cantor's hand) is obviously a miniature, but it's better done than the miniature Koenig in "War Games". The aging make-up for Cantor is competently done.

The effects in this episode are accompanied by some delightful music from Derek Wadsworth. The epilogue is a bit cheesy. Maya's transformation to an old woman clearly involves an actress standing up from behind the desk (she's slightly visible as she stands).

This episode would benefit from some additional narration at the beginning. Some mention should be made of Maya's adjustment (she must have been in mourning for a while) and assignment as science officer. At the end, with no explanation Maya activates an anti-gravity device which causes the space coffins to break out of the moon's orbit. Where did that device come from?

Maybe Alpha should have put a warning on all those other missles before sending them on their way. What is some other suckers find them and open them. Cantor and Zova are dead, yes, but won't their followers be just as dangerous.

Or is Koenig the "it's someone else's problem now" kind of person.

This episode actually ranks as one of the worst. It all pivots around the fact that Kantor holds an Alphan weapon at the leaders of his home planet , even given they can transport light years via the Moonbase life support/power plant. Ubber trash, even alongside All that Glitters, Beta Cloud and Rules of Luton...

I liked this one.

Yeah, it had issues, but it was much better than what came later, IMO.