I don't remember much about this episode except the bald dude who played Vindrus and his groovy yellow panties. Good God, you'd have to be desperate for rent money to appear on TV in that get-up...

Lynne Frederick, who played Shermeen in this episode, was soon to become Petter Sellar's wife at the ripe old age of 23. She died in 1994 of cancer. She was apparently a close friend of Alibe Parsons, who played Alpha communications officer Alibe in the last 3 episodes of the series.

Nicholas Campbell, who plays Eddie Collins in the episode, has had considerable success as an actor here in his native Canada. He is currently best know to Canadian tv viewers as the title character of Da Vinci's Inquest, a crime mystery series about a cop turned coroner.

At the start of this episode, Shirmeen runs out of Command Centre in tears, having just been shouted at by Verdeschi. Helena goes after her. Meanwhile, Shirmeen is crying in her quarters when the phantom image of Vindrus apperas to her. A minute later, Helena arrives at Shirmeen's quarters and asks if there's anything wrong. Shirmeen says that she's just had a bad dream, seeing a hand in her cabin (or is it a face? I can't remember!) Helena accepts this, despite it only being a minute since she last saw her!

When the landing party notice that Shirmeen is missing, they go looking for her using the same method as in "All That Glisters" - calling for her. Why not use their commlocks?

This is the WORST episode in the series. This even makes the Kreeno glitter monster and the nekkid chicks from AB Chrysalic look like high art.

No, "The Beta Cloud" is much worse.

Well at least the monster in Beta Cloud wasn't a bald guy running around in his Under-roos. Between the bikini panties and the cape he looked like something out of a very bad porn flick.

Beta Cloud also has the advantage of having some action to distract you from the thin plot. We also aren't treated to a villain whose name sounds like something you'd find in a curry restaurant. "I'd like my vindrus extra hot please."

I've thought the same thing about the fat trader guy, Tim..."I'll have a hotdog and a side of Taybor Tots."

Thinking about this episode last night brought up an obvious question I've never seen asked before. When the Alphans trick Vindrus into switching places with Shermeen why don't the antimatter world folks stop her in some fashion, or send over one of their own in her place? Presumably they have an antimatter universe equivalent of the transfer booth thats used in the matter universe for the exchange between the two. At the very least they must have some way of controlling who gets switched from the antimatter universe or instead of Vindrus they might have sent over Spudnap the janitor or someone equally unable of pulling off a fiendish plot.

In fact the more I think about this episode the more it comes apart like a bad cardboard box. I just realised another problem. How does Vindrus get to Alpha in the first place? Fly in an antimatter space ship in the antimatter world? Flap his arms really hard?

I think that's where that neat-o cape comes in Tim. Maybe he just takes a big leap and flies like Superman ;)

but the heart of the matter is, Shermeen rates not at all badly on the babe-o-meter.

Thanks for your time.

Near the start of the episode Maya reels off a bunch of data about the star and its "uncharted satellite." Where is this supposed to come from?

As an antinit for not using their commlocks to find Shermeen Koenig has just tried to contact Alpha, with no luck, so he presumably assumes they won't work locally either. Of course this brings up the obvious question of what the point of this is. Not being able to contact Alpha plays no real role in the episode.

Typical of many sci fi shows 1999 props are recycled, in this case Chris in the mining section using a device thats actually one of the probes from "The Last Sunset." Vindrus' raygun turned up in year one as well.

Neat how Helena can record the status report at the beginning while walking to Shermeen's room. :-) Barbara Bain is absent except for the opening scenes because she was busy filming "Space Warp," which was filmed concurrently with this episode

Vindrus sure seems easy to trick. After all why would Shermeen willingly help him after he betrayed her?

Shouldn't Koenig have waited to start the self destruct sequence until AFTER they opened the door?

Oops, forgot to mention the temple exterior is quite the thing. It must have cost some time and money to build if it was built specifically for that episode.

IIRC, parts of it were recycled (like a lot of Year 2 setpieces) into other sets for later episodes.

Stuart Wilson also played the villain (Jack Travis) in "Lethal Weapon 3".

About some of the animals Maya transforms into:

That fox close up in her eyes is obviously a stuffed animal (with yellow eyes).

As to spider monkey she tranforms into to get in the temple, it has to climb to the top of the temple opening. It then makes a jump of about 70 feet (to the sunken floor of the temple) to a cement floor. Sorry, but that monkey would have been killed or severely injured by such a fall.

In addition to Vindrus using a ray gun from Mission of the Darians, it's also rather tiresome seeing set pieces constantly being reused in the second season. Those large arches from The Bringers of Wonder (interior of nuclear waste site) form the interior of the temple (they would be reused in Dorzak and Immunity Syndrome too). On the side is one of those smaller arches from Metamorph, One Moment of Humanity, and Devil's Planet. The anti-matter converter gets a paint job and shows up as the meson converter in The Dorcons. On a smaller note, those pillows with the zig-zag fabric from the Vegan garden in One Moment of Humanity show up in Tony's quarters at the end of this ep. Maybe, he liked them and kept them for himself?

In the original version of the script, Vindrus was described as " a handsome man in his late thirties attired in slacks and a simple tunic" wearing a hypnosis-inducing medallion on a silver chain around his neck. Sounds more dignified than the final result: a man in a yellow diaper and a bald cap!

Of course if they had gone with that costume design we'd probably be complaining about his "disco medallion."

The worst part is the whole concept of an "anti-matter" universe. Anti-matter isn't science fiction anymore, it's already being produced in small quantities. It has nothing to do with any sort of parallel universes. Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" also presented a parallel universe, but at least they didn't ascribe it to anti-matter. If anything, Lost in Space's "Anti-matter Man" seems to be more of an inspiration.

The idea of a planet's evolutionary development was interesting, but why did it have to mirror that of Earth's. The odds of another planet's evolutionary development being exactly like that of the Earth's must be a trillion to one. The reverse time of Sunim didn;t make logical sense either.

As for Shermeen, it was hard to tell where she's from. Lynn seemed to be affecting some sort of mid-Atlantic accent. At times, she almost sounded as if she was trying to sound American (which isn't uncommon in Gerry Anderson series). But, at least they didn't dubb in another voice.

If some critics feel this is one of the series worst eps, at least for Eddie Collins and Professor Bergman, they've seen worse. This ep is a masterpiece compared to the Canadian scifi flick they both appeared in; "The Shape of Things to Come" (1979)...what a stinker!

While Trek's "Mirror Mirror" didn't postulate anti-matter, "The Alternative Factor" did

It's apparent the writers of this story had no idea of what anti-matter is. Trek's "The Alternate Factor" is a confused mess too!

This ep is a masterpiece compared to the Canadian scifi flick they both appeared in; "The Shape of Things to Come" (1979)...what a stinker! Curious
I remember that film. Barry Morse was the best part of it! (By the way, the sfx were pretty substandard: a planet that looked like a beach ball, complete with a seam running along its middle; a collapsing "metal" girder that bounces off of the bad guy's head (how he didn't start laughing uncontrollably and why they didn't edit the shot are two mysteries); model spaceships that were clearly models (I could easily identify various kit parts used to construct them, but then again, I try to do that with any model...)

Shermeen - hot, yet dumb. Just the way I like them

On man, another stinker! Love those rubber suited BEM's!

How did Maya's bag morph into the fox with her?

Did I see a leash around the monkey's neck?

Is it just me, or was the monkey climbing the tmeple shot a bad miniature effect?

And I am REALLY over the sappy sweet episode endings.

What is a sixteen-year-old doing on Moonbase Alpha!? Shermeen did not come across as a Doogie Howser type to me.

Could she have been visting Alpha when the Moon was blown out of Earth's orbit?

That was my guess, as well. Victor seemed to imply in the pilot that he was stuck no the base and I believe he was merely a civilian scientist, and not an 'official' crewman.
Shermeen must have been brought up there as part of a school trip (along with Victor???) or perhaps as a contest winner or some such thing, and once she was there, given a job to do to make herself useful.

At one point as the alien stares down the crew, with its back to the camera, you can see the edge of the head mask pop up a couple inches at the collar.

Vindrus's 'costume' just seems incomkplete to me. I underastand that wardrobe probably wanted to try something new, but this was not the way to go. From behind I kept thinking, "Since when is Burt Ward, as Robin, bald?"

Shermeen must have been brought up there as part of a school trip (along with Victor???) or perhaps as a contest winner or some such thing, and once she was there, given a job to do to make herself useful.

The graphic novel, Aftershock And Awe, addresses the issue of Shermeen. Apparently, she was on a visit to Alpha, because her science teacher was a friend of Victor's, and he invited them. Shermeen's mother came along as well. Both the teacher and Shermeen's mother were killed when the Moon was blown out of Earth's orbit.

You were pretty close, Steve.

The producers weren't keeping track of Helena's captain's logs...uh, I mean, medical status logs, because this takes place 1,508 days after leaving Earth orbit.
The problem is that 'The Beta Cloud' took place 1,503 days later, and at the end of that Tony is in TRACTION in medical center after his fight with David Prowse! He sure heals fast!
(Must be a meta-human!)

Well, Maya likes him, maybe she used some Psychon shape shifting trick to speed up his recovery.

Didn't know she could do that!