One thing I have always wondered about this episode was Helena & Maya's complacency in leaving Alpha in the re-entry glider with no guarantees that they were going to return. Koenig, Verdeschi, Carter and many more personnel that formed the backbone of Alpha were already stranded on the planet they were surveying. So, with the science & chief medical officer going off on a "one way trip for two people" Alpha was seriously depleted of it's senior operating staff. Not a very assiduous decision where the lives of 250 or so people depend to some degree on the skills of all of them collectively...

They're following the Star Trek model: This is the most dangerous planet in the universe, so the entire senior staff needs to beam down!

Also, this is a WIS1999RON title.

I wondered about that too...at the rate they were going, the janitor was going to be in command by the end of the episode. Still, this is one of my favs from Y2. The eagle crash is awesome, and for a change Barbara Bain looks positively foxy. Gotta love that black leather jumpsuit. Vrrrooom...

I loved this episode up until the end...I don't know if they ran out of money half-way through or what. The eagle crash was first rate, as was the glider crash. Obviously they spent some money on these special effects. Then why oh why was the alien nothing more than some guy shining a spotlight into the camera??? I'm serious, you can see it on video if you slow it down -- there's somebody behind a rock with a spotlight in his hands flashing it back and forth at the camera. You can see his hands moving the light. Unbelievably lame and cheap! Who knows, maybe they had to buy extra aluminum foil for Koenig's "protective suit."

Absolutely Barb! The operator of the light is bald too, or at least has receeding hairline. That was extremely poor quallity! Where was Emma Porteous, the "CONTINUITY" person??

I don't remember this one. Was there a giant killer space amoeba in this one too?

No no, you're thinking of three or four OTHER Year 2 episodes featuring giant, pulsating, low-cost space blobs. This is the schizo-Tony/glider trip/ goofy aluminum foil suit/bald guy shaking a spotlight back and forth/production values from Crapola City one. I know, it's tough to keep straight!

I know Barb. I was just punning on the title. "The Immunity Syndrome" was the Trek episode with the giant killer space amoeba.

I wonder, did Freddie clip the title from Trek, or did somebody throw darts at a list of all-purpose titles? This title doesn't really describe any of the happenings in the episode.

No, somebody pawned the dartboard to buy the light-shining guy a toupee. I think they chose Immunity Syndrome because the title "Pile of ••••" didn't make it past the censors.

The above idiot is obviously a complete *** HEAD and doesn't appreciate good sci-fi.....

MODERATOR: Easy, folks. Let's try to hold off on the cursing and name-calling. Whether you like or dislike this episode, I'm sure we can all defend our opinions more intelligently, as well as give another person a reasonable right to their own.

BTW Zantor, you're right, the title really doesn't describe anything that happens in this episode (apart from the possibility that discovering and learning to use the communications device makes the party "immune" from the creature). In all fairness, it didn't make much sense when applied to the original Trek episode, either.

When Koenig is in the protective suit and has the blindfold in place, I expect the other cast members in the scene to spin him around three times and send him to go "pin the tail on the donkey."

I read somewhere that God identified in a similar fashion to "I that am I." God's statement of His Divine existence to Moses at the Burning Bush in Exodus (3:14): "I AM WHO AM"

Yeah Anon...God and Neil Diamond....
"I am I said"...only I think God said it better (and He sings better too)...

I'm sorry, but I find it exceptionally unlikely that Ed Spencer (Doctor) is the only one not injured when the Eagle crashes.
Watch Alibe as she helps people from the crashed Eagle. She trips over and nearly falls.

There was one aspect of this episode that didn't come to me for a while, but then I realised - it's the only season two episode where we see a working commlock. By that, I mean with a small black-and-white TV screen inside. The commlock in "Rules of Luton" doesn't count, as that was a colour image superimposed onto a close-up of a commlock screen.

"...there's somebody behind a rock with a spotlight in his hands flashing it back and forth at the camera. You can see his hands moving the light. Unbelievably lame and cheap!"

Did they fix this on the DVD? I can't see the guy.

You can see enough of his skin colour to know there's a person behind the light if you look carefully.

As far as the title goes you could argue that it refers to the planet having an "immune reaction" to the Alphans. The trouble only begins when Lustig encounters the creature, just as a living organism only begins to counter a germ or virus when its immune system detects it.

Given the number of speaking parts and extras they must have run out of those thick heeled Alpha boots, as you can see that poor Lustig is wearing conventional hiking boots when Koenig and the doctor examine his corpse.

Helena and Maya's glider flight is of course wrong from a logical standpoint, but certainly is understandable emotionally. Its not hard to imagine Koenig half heartedly chewing them out at some point for doing something so foolish. Of course the real reason for inclusion of their presence on the planet may have been to ensure Barbara Bain got a requesit amount of screen time or something similar, especially given that in the previously filmed episode, "Devil's Planet," she only got to do a voice over and appeared briefly in previously filmed bits when Koenig is being mind probed.

I wonder just what that being was and where did it come from? Was in native to that planet? Why did it start turning everything poison if it wanted just to talk?

If you consider the actions of Helena and Maya coming to the planet, you have to ask yourself...why? What did they do? How did they resolve the situation? They did nothing and saved no one that wouldn't have learned what they needed to know if they hadn't shown up. Had Tony gone into cardiac arrest or needed field surgery or something it would have made sense. But not even Maya's intelligence saved the day this time, so the re-entry glider was wasted.
3 Alphans killed? And they didn't even have red shirts!
Obviously no actor wants to injure their hands with a special effects-loaded commlock that sparks and burns up in their hands, but I gotta point out that both Lustig and Koenig hold their commlocks from the bottom like they're holding a slice of pizza, instead of normally around the top portion like a microphone. Lustig is a new character, and it doesn't count for his style of holding the device, but Koenig has never held his commlock like that, so it's a semi-nit.
I loved Koenig's look of horror when he realizes Carter is holding a broken-off thruster control! He realizes that they're virtually inside a flying brick at that point!
I guess one of those cute blondes that's wanderiong around in the background back at Command Center is in charge until the main cast returns, because the alternative...YAAASSSKKKOOOO... is too horrific to consider!

Four Alphans died.

A. Lustig in the fight with Tony, when the laser accidentally went off.

B. The two guys that drank the water.

C. The guy that ate the berries.

Something I just noticed...Some of the women on the planet are wearing their uniform skirts instead of the slacks female "away team" members usually wear. I guess they didn't have enough of the women's costumes with slacks to go around.

Same name as a Star Trek episode.

Bad move, IMO.