Breakaway

Episode aired Sep 21, 1975
TV-14
1h

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

711

YOUR RATING

Adventure Drama Sci-Fi

Commander John Koenig, the new commander of Moonbase Alpha, leads the investigation of a mysterious disease at the station and uncovers evidence of a far greater looming disaster.Commander John Koenig, the new commander of Moonbase Alpha, leads the investigation of a mysterious disease at the station and uncovers evidence of a far greater looming disaster.Commander John Koenig, the new commander of Moonbase Alpha, leads the investigation of a mysterious disease at the station and uncovers evidence of a far greater looming disaster.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

711

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Ouma was meant to be a regular character, but people disliked working with Lon Satton (allegedly hitting on female cast members), so he was fired from the series after this episode.

Goofs
When Commander Koenig first discusses the virus with Dr. Russell, Barbara Bain refers to Koenig as Commander Russell.

Quotes
John Koenig: The giant leap for Mankind... it's beginning to look like a stumble in the dark.

Connections
Edited into Alien Attack (1976)

User reviews12

Featured review

7/10

Breakaway

Gerry Anderson wanted to make his own version of Star Trek. In the opening episode you might even think he almost succeeded.

Although made in Britain and funded by ITV. This first episode had an American writer and director. Two main stars of the show were American as well. Then husband and wife team of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.

It is September 1999. Commander John Koenig has been sent to Moonbase Alpha as a troubleshooter. The moon is a dumping ground for nuclear waste.

Koeing needs to urgently find out why some form of madness has been affecting some of the astronauts as they prepare to launch a probe to the Planet Meta.

The crew finds out that magnetic radiation from the nuclear waste has caused the illness. The nuclear waste causes an explosion on the dark side of the moon that rips it away from Earth's orbit.

Moonbase Alpha is now drifting in space looking to find somewhere safe to go to.

This first episode clearly had a lot of money spend on it. The special effects are very good, there is use of miniaturised television screens. There are a lot of antiseptic white sets which is rather handy, as there are a lot of white men standing or failing about in the multinational crew.

Professor Victor Bergman (Barry Morse) provides calm and science. The science is definitely a bit hokey. Bain looks like she has been given an overdose of Valium. Philip Madoc's Russian commander character sounds like he grew up in the Rhonda Valley.