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Collision Course (Space 1999)

"Collision Course"
Space: 1999 episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 13
Directed by Ray Austin
Written by Anthony Terpiloff
Original air date 18 September 1975
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List of Space: 1999 episodes

"Collision Course" is the thirteenth episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Anthony Terpiloff; the director was Ray Austin. The final shooting script is dated 13 August 1974. Live-action filming took place Tuesday 27 August 1974 through Tuesday 10 September 1974.

A large asteroid hurtles through space on a collision course with the Moon. As Moonbase Alpha is located within the impact area, the staff quickly formulates a plan to avert disaster. To guarantee the asteroid's destruction, twelve nuclear charges will be planted at strategic locations. The Eagle task force delivers eleven of the charges as planned. At minus two minutes to detonation, the twelfth, carried by Alan Carter's Eagle One, has yet to be deployed. The ship has developed a malfunction in its main booster and cannot achieve full thrust. To give Carter the time necessary to complete the operation, John Koenig orders the blast delayed.

Victor Bergman protests; the timeline must be preserved in order to avoid their being caught in radiation and debris from the explosion. Circumstances worsen when Carter finally arrives at his designated site. After lowering the charge, the release mechanism for the cargo grip jams—the explosive cannot be deployed. Agonising over this latest setback, Koenig informs the astronaut that the charge must remain on site...at any cost. Desperate, Carter shorts the grip mechanism, then manoeuvres his ship until the charge is dislodged. As Eagle One departs at a modest speed, Koenig delays the blast another ten seconds to give the astronaut a fighting chance.

The charges are detonated. First Carter's Eagle, then the Moon, are engulfed in a mammoth debris cloud billowing outwards from the now-volatised asteroid. Radiation interference blots out communications and scanners. The staff compiles damage reports and monitors the functioning of the protective radiation screens. Koenig repeatedly tries to contact Eagle One, irrationally refusing to believe Carter is most likely dead. When discovering that signals transmitted on the interstellar frequency are able penetrate the radiation field, he reckons that three-way contact could be established between Moonbase, a rescue Eagle equipped with a more powerful transmitter, and Carter.


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