GERRY ANDERSON'S

SPACE Fffl
ANNUAL
 A

CONTENTS
PICTURE STRIPS AM) ST ORIES FEATURES
Adam And F,ve, Mark II 7 Breakaway! 4
The Great Brain Robbery .. 16
"
.. Martin Landau ",.
14
Curse Of The Bead 4K
Moon-beam 21

PUZZLES AND GAMES Sparest inStamps 26

I bp Message From Space

Moonprobe
1?
24
The Plate
Barbara Bain
The People . 32
16
Spot The Difference 25 Codename— Apollo 38
Exodus Game
Project 30 The Men The Machines . . . . 42
Know Your Moonbase 41 Moon Map 45
Spot T Tic Difference . 53 Barry Morse 46
Quick Crossword 61 Moon-bcams-2 52
Moon-bcams-3 60

Written and produced by Angus P. Allan.

Copyright © MCMLXXV by Associated Television Limited-
throughout
All rigfits reserved the world
by World Distributers (Manchester) Limi
-'-airshed in Great Britain
P.0- Box 111.12 Lever Street. Manchester M60 ITS
Printed in Great Britain by Jarrold and Sons Ltd., Norwich.
SBN 7235 0329 X
 Breakaway

The short-range multi-purpose

Eagle stands lightly on the
These men are used to their job.
They are familiar with the inher-
"The radiation count seems
normal. Victor .
.'"
Doctor
.

level rock of the lunar surface, ent dangers of handling 'hot" Helena Russell glances anxiously
stark in the glare of the banked material. But like all old hands at Professor Bergman, whose nar-
floodlights that Hank the perime- on Moonbase, they've done it a rowed eyes are fixed on the array
ter of Nuclear Waste Disposal hundred times before and control of oscilloscopes and bio-monitors
Area 2. From the cargo compart- the operation with careful, but him. "But something's
in front of
ment of the strange, almost bird- casual efficiency. happening out there Nordstrom's
!

beaked craft, a conveyor gently A routine job. One of the many brain-aetivity*8 showing varia-
unloads the huge drums of atomic responsibilities entrusted to tion!"
waste, sent up from Earth to this Moon-base Alpha, the giant com- Suddenly, it happens The oscil- !

safe burial ground, and Service plex that is man's first permanent loscope j urnps haywire, the needle
Technicians Nordstrom and outpost in the gradual reach to- registers sudden peaks, and out-
Steiner. each protected by his wards the stars. And yet, within side, Nordstrom seems to go mad
light-weight red space suit, super- the pulsing heart of Main Mission His voice gargling thickly, he
vise the loweringof the drums into —the central control area of leapsaway from his companion
the deep holes bored down into the Moonbase Alpha— the atmos- and stumbles towards the deadly
very innards of the moon. phere is abnormally tense! laser-field that seals off the area

i
from accidental entry! Too late, investigation of this asteroid, it only crouch and wail — perhaps
Sleiner jumps after his friend . . . could be that some intelligent life- for oblivion as the whole complex
too late, the order is barked for form on the wanderer is trying to goes up!
shut-down of the field! A violent stop them 1 Main Mission rocks and vi-
blast flings Nordstrom backwards, Beyond help, the sick astronauts brates as though seized by
and the crack of his helmet's visor die,but then comes the beginning some giant hand! Hands -their
against the bedrock is terrible and of a crisis terrifying in its danger knuckles white -grip for any pos-
final Instruments in Main Mission indi- sible hand-hold! Fear-filled eyes
The date- September 9. 1999. cate an ever-increasing build-up of stare -yet see nothing!
The moment -the first disaster heat within the packed burial But the fearful inferno bums
in a chain of events that will change holes of the Nuclear Waste Dis- itself out! Moonbase Alpha has
the entire destiny of every man and posal Areas ... a build-up of heat been granted a breathing-space . .

woman on Moonbase Alpha! that nevertheless produces no in- a breathing-space to contemplate

With two astronauts already in crease in radiation! Neither the the further peril of Disposal Area
the base hospital with unaccount- brilliant minds of Moonbase Al- Two, already well on the way to
able brain-damage that looks pha's key personnel nor even the the critical level of destructive
radiation-induced, but can't be. incredible calculating knowledge heat. And Disposal Area Two is
Doctor Helena .Russell and her of the giant computer can suggest larger, much larger than its
assistants have their hands full. any sort of explanation! burned-out brother!
The general opinion on Moon- As the heat-registration needles "All available Eagles will make
base, and one held by the supreme swing right off their dials, the ready to open the tubes and with-
chief of operations there, Com- whole of Moonbase begins to draw the waste!" The order goes
mander Koenig. is that some shudder One by one. the caps and
! out from Commander Koenig.
unknown influence is being exer- plugs blast from the tubes of w ho well knows the awl'ul risk he's
ted by the approach ofa wandering Disposal Area 1and roaring
, asking his men to take!
asteroid, blundering its way across columns of white-hot flame belch Desperately, the craft, rigged
the Solar System. With the major skywards! There is nothing that with trailing grapples, hover in
mission on Moonbase being to can be done to stop it. Comman- the intense heat above the Dis-
prepare long-range Ragle craft for der Koenig and his colleagues can posal Area and begin their night-
mare task In unbearable tension,
!
gigantic upheaval that literally ever have dreamed of. The peril of
blows one huge portion of the the unknown!
pilots panic. Craft crash and burn
among the white-hot caps of the moon itself to atoms No more are they concerned
waste shafts Only a miracle prevents Moon- with the vagaries of an asteroid
And then . . .
base Alpha from being wiped out, within their Solar System ... for
"Abort! Abort mission! Return together with its entire personnel. at one stroke, with the Moon

to docking base at once!" And only a miracle prevents the thrown clean out of Earth's orbit,
remaining part of the moon, upon they have become wanderers
All hell breaks loose as the
which it stands, from disintegrat-
themselves hurtlingon an
tubes erupt! The violence of the
. . .

continuous. concussive
• blasts ing. And yet that same miracle unstoppable course through the
turns Main Mission into a sham- throws Koenig and the other void of space— condemned, per-
bles! Buildings on the perimeter survivors of the frightful disaster haps, to remain prisoners on their
of the Moonbase complex topple into the possibility of peril more errant base until eternity
and explode, and then comes the chilling than anything they could
9
 •iO <3TATE
ANYTHING, JOHN
<M AFPAID 1HeA/El
GOT US WMECE
agffltTMEV
1
WANT LfS^
J

10
11
message from Space i
Fast approaching an alien
planet, Moonbase Alpha picks up
strange signals from another
civilisation! The computer
registers the message in a
sequence of coloured symbols
which it has to decode! Using the
key at the foot of the page, can
you unscramble this vital
communication from the unknown ?
Check your answer on page 62

X+ AAX X A =AX 9k X •+ ++
= AX «T+ +TAA «A X+ «AA+ =AX.
AXT BA X»X+ +A+ BY II M II

ALII N COLOUR SYMBOL CODE:

A B C D E FG H I KLMNOPQRST
••• +++ A * A TTT
U V WX Y Z 1 2 3 4 5
XXX = = = II II II
 martin Landau
0. Commander
JOHN KOENIG
Landau: It's a pleasure to be
portraying you in this series of
Space 1999 films. How about
telling me something about your-
self.

Koenig: Well, I'm an American,

like you. I'm an astrophysicist,
and I've been a pilot and an astro-
naut in my time. For the record, I
was born in 1959, so 1 can remem-
ber the first flights to the moon
from my schoolboy days.

Landau You're a New Yorker by

:

your accent. I'm pretty good at

accents. I've got the feel for them,
if you know what I mean. Matter

of fact, I'm from Brooklyn myself.

( guess accents are kind of impor-

tant for an all-round actor . . .

Koenig: The way I heard it, you

didn't start out in life with the
stage in mind. Me, I was into
aeronautics even before I was at
college

Landau : I 've always been creative.

And I always had an interest in the
theatre. But my first career was lessons, picked up some work but as we got to know one another
in art. After studies, I became a with "little-theatre' groups and better . . . Say, are you married,
staff cartoonist and illustrator on off-Broadway plays, and finally Commander?
the New York Daily News. I still landed a small part in a live show.
draw a lot. Sometimes in the That was my television debut. Koenig: It broke up. Reckon I was
blank spaces during rehearsal. too devoted to my work. I can tell
Koenig: And then? Fame and you, it left a scar and it makes. . .

Koenig: Well, I've done some fortune ? me nervous and cautious when
drawing myself. Technical stuff. I'm with women.
I had a hand in the design of Moon- Landau Are you kidding? I joined
:

base Alpha itself which may be

. . . Lee Strasberg's world-famous Landau: But I've been told you
the reason I got so tied up with the Actors" Studio — I'm still a lifelong have a computer-like mind— so
project that they finally persuaded member— and put in some real almost ruthless.
efficient that it's
me to become the Commander. hard study. got plenty of ex-
I Surely you can block out emotion ?
Tell me —
how did you first come perience, playing all sorts of roies
to swap your pencils for a stick of from a psychopathic killer in a Koenig: Landau— I'm still only
grease-paint? tour of "Detective Story" to a human!
millionaire playboy in"Staiag 17".
Landau: Restlessness. I figured Soon enough, I began to do some Landau change the subject
: Let's
that if I stayed an artist, I'd be drama teaching, and it was around Want to my movie
hear about
doing the same job until I retired. then that 1 met my wife, Barbara debut? It was in Hitchcock's
So one day, right on the spur of Bain. It was anything but love at "North by Northwest", and it
the moment, I decided to pack it first sight! Matter of fact, we establishedme on the screen. One
all in and act! I took drama disliked each other intensely . . . movie followed another after that

14
—"Pork Chop Hill"'. "The Gaz- Impossible" series. It was a great
ebo" ... oh, many others. And I success, and Barbara and I made
got plenty of television work. eighty episodes. I"ve been doing
more pictures since, but "Space
Koenig : It was television that 1999" is my first series for a few
really put your name on the map, years.
wasn't it?
Koenig Let's hope
: it's just as big
Landau: Yeah. The "Mission- "Mission"
a hit as
 THE GREAT BRAIN

had appeared suddenly. As though it had materi- suspended animation. You know— like they're on
Italised from the very blackness of space. An alien some long-range journey across the universe .
.?"
.

ship of majestic proportions, lying right in the path Alan Carter smiled. "I'll do it. Commander. I'm
of the Moon. fearless, remember? Besides - it doesn't seem there's
Now astronaut Alan Carter, close enough to see any hostile intent."
the vast, silent mass in full detail, cut the motors of And then happened As though Carter's words
il !

his Eagle and spoke softly, ealmiy into the com- had deliberately tempted providence, a port on the
munications link that bound him to the tense group strange ship opened, and a lancing, searing ray of
of watchers in Main Mission of Moonbase Alpha. flickering white light shot out to envelop the Eagle
"No markings of any kind. Commander," he from stem to stern
said. "And no activity. I can't make out what kind Carter's shout of surprise echoed briefly in the
of power-source it would use, and I'm getting no speakers at Main Mission as the astronaut's right
response to the audio signals I'm sending out. I hand shot out to hit the boost button of his engine
guess it could be space-junk— but it looks kind of systems . but in that same- instant, the whole
. .

well-kept to be a throwout." control panel in front of him blasted apart— torn

In Main Mission, Commander John Koenig, his asunder by some incalculable force! Wildly, his
eyes glued to the tele monitor screen that showed arms flung up to protect himself, he crashed back-
Carter's Eagle as an insignificant dot against the wards to the cabin floor and lay still!
broad hull of the alien, sensed the anxiety of those "Alan! Come in, Alan! What's happening?"
around him. Doctor Helena Russell -her teeth Koenig stood transfixed. Nothing but a violent
catching restlessly at her lower lip. Professor Victor buzz of static came over the communications link
Bergman, his long, supple hands twining and clench- "Look, John! LookV Helena Russell's fingers dug
ing. Paul Morrow. David Kano. Sandra Benes. deeply into his arm, and her wide, fear-filled eyes
"I wouldn't like to order you in for an even closer reflected the picture on the monitor ... a picture
look, Paul . It's entirely up to you, of course. But
. .
rapidly going blank! It was as though the alien ship
unless that thing moves away, we're going to collide. was dissolving like a ghost. Melting into the velvet
It could be that the occupants are in some kind of background as swiftly as it had appeared And Alan
!

16
Carter's Eagle was disappearing with it! Alan to those tests without my authority!"
"Gone! They've gone\" Victor Bergman mouthed "You'd stifle my initiative?" Bergman snorted
the words in scarcely more than a whisper. angrily. "Look, John — I was conducting experi-
"Kano." Koenig turned abruptly to the Moon- ments in E.S.P. Extra Sensory Perception. I believe
base computer chief- "Everything that happened has that people on Carter's level can communicate by
been fed into your box of tricks. Get a read-out." thought waves. Proof of that will be invaluable. In
Now the Commander switched to Sandra Benes. the event of normal transmission breakdown— and
"Open communications channels, all wavelengths! remember, anything can happen in the unknown of
Wherever Alan is, 1 want to hear from him !" space— a mind-link between him and us would be
The silence in Main Mission— so brittle that it of the utmost value."
could almost be felt, broke abruptly as the voice of "Anything can happen," snapped Koenig. "And
the computer made its chillingcomment. "Insuffi- it has! All right, Victor- normal communication
cient data! Insufficient data!" Then Sandra turned, has broken down. So why isn't Alan sending us his
ashen-faced, to confront Koenig. "Nothing, sir. thought-waves? Eh? Answer me that!"
Just— nothing! Alan's gone. As though he'd never Now Helena Russell, her voice cracking in high-
existed! * -
pitched fury, stepped between the two men. "Stop
it!Stop it, both of you! Of what possible use is this
We should never have let him go." Professor
Bergman restlessly paced the floor of the
crazy argument when we ought to be doing something
about poor Alan?"
Moonbase hospital unit and ran a hand through his Koenig and Bergman turned away from each
grey, thinning hair. "You did this, John. You. 1 had other. "You're right. Helena," said Koenig, "But
Carter in here for experimental observation, and only half right.You tell me— what can we do?"
you h&d to pull him out for duty! Why, man -I'd got The Moonbase doctor opened her mouth as if to
him under drugs! His reactions couldn't have been reply. But there was nothing to say. Whatever had
expected to be fast enough in an emergency!" happened to their astronaut, there was nothing,
John Koenig slammed his closed fists down on a absolutely nothing they could do. Not without the
diagnosis table. "Talk sense, Victor! It had to be information that they just didn't have!
Alan Who else is equipped to man an investigation
!

Eagle?" Alan Carter biinked his eyes. He remembered

"You are," said Bergman, soberly. - the blindingflash of hisexploding control panel.
Koenig bit his lip. "But it looked almost routine! He remembered, vaguely, falling to the deck.
An apparently dead ship. Alright, so it wasn't, but Cautiously, he lay still and examined his sensa-
it lookedW. And anyway, you had no right to subject tions. Around him there was perfect silence. A sense

The strange alien ship lay within range of Moonbase Alpha ... but to Koenig and his staff it

17
of peace, almost. Was he dead?
Gingerly, he felt himself'. Moved. Bergman could
hardly believe
No, he was still flesh and blood it!

real blood, for his glove brought

A telepathic mes-
sage was coming
some of it from a cut across his through from the
forehead. He sat up and looked vanished astronaut
at the damage to his Eagle, message of
marvelling that the console, apart
from the master fusing elements,
was all in one piece. "Got— got to
fixit. New fuses. Get back to

Mootibase." His voice sounded

thick and slurred in his ears.
Then, as he clambered ponder-
ously to his feet, he saw that the
blackness through the frontal
screens was not the blackness of
space. It was featureless. No
None of the
distant stars gleamed.
phosphorescent effect of far-off
galaxies broke the curtain. Even
as his mind struggled to make a
logical assessment, he heard the
hiss of the airlock door behind
him, and as he whirled, reach!
for his helmet, he knew that his
Eagle was no longer suspended in
space. Both doors were open, and
had the craft been in anything other than some kind an eternal coffin for him. He'd been captured, yes . .

of docking bay, the vacuum of space would have but why?

exploded him in a billionth of a second! It was a question that soon produced an answer.

Alan Carter's mouth fell open, and just for an A reddish glow lit the high room into which he was
instant, his hand hovered over the handle of his taken. A room whose walls were covered with con-
stun-gun. But the movement stopped short, for there soles of electronic machinery. A room in which,

was no mistaking the clear menace of the weapon centrally, stood a glass-like dome, lifted clear of
what looked like some kind of operating table.
that pointed unwaveringly at his stomach, even
though there was no possible identification of the Carter struggled as they lifted him onto the table.
strange and horrifying being who held it clasped in He struggled in vain. Electrodes were clamped to his
long, sinuous feelers! The thin, skeletal body head, and then the dome was lowered over him.
balanced on three sucker-tipped legs, and a beaked Grotesque as they were, the aliens, seen through the
head like a football, the one eye centrally placed glass of his prison, were doubly so! Carter felt his

beneath the hairless, round dome regarded him un- will-power ebbing as flashes of power ran through
winkingly. the wires attached to him— flashes that seemed to
all effort from him! And then he realised that
A thin, hollow twittering came from the beak. drain
Itwas repeated by two other aliens who appeared he could hear. Could hear and understand these
behind the first. And then, like a man in the grip of aliens who peered at him so closely, so cautiously.

some nightmare, Alan Carter found himself seized "His intelligence level is high!"
in the supple grasp of feelers, and hauled bodily out "The race he represents could indeed be a threat
of his Eagle! to us!"
His mind reeling, the Moonbase astronaut was Carter gritted his teeth. He tried to say "We are
." but no words would come.
aware of a vast, vaulted cavern of a place. Yes, it was peaceful . .

dark, but now his eyes became accustomed to the "It was well that Morgax sent us to investigate the

gloom, and he picked out the shapes of smaller approach of their strange sphere. It must be de-

craft near to his own. Ferry vehicles in the belly of stroyed before it enters the orbit of our planet."
their mother ship. "Who— who are you? Where are "We can suffer no beings like these to invade us!
."
you taking me .?" But there only came the un-
. .
The very shape of them is disgusting. . .

intelligible twittering, and the soft but strong urging Carter writhed. "Who are you? Listen! I can tell

of the feelers that thrust him oo. . . .

you where we come from— what's happened to us!
."
Suddenly, Carter realised that he was not afraid, We seek no conquest. . .

[f they'd wanted to kill him, these aliens would

The solitary eye of one of the aliens bored down
surely have wrecked his Eagle, and left it to drift. at him, and he saw the beak-mouth open. "We care

18
 Shock-waves from the missiles that blew
Lj_ the alien ship apart rocked Moonbase
nothing lor you. Our ship material- Alpha to its very foundations!
ised before you to decoy you on
board. Now we have you, and we
intend to plunder your brain Yes !

—to extract your entire know-

ledge so that we can know exactly
how to destroy your friends—
conclusively. It is our custom
when we are confronted with
outsiders."
Carter felt chill spread over his
body. So this was it! race of A
aliens who could not would not
tolerate the approach of beings
differentfrom themselves. And
they were going to use his know-
ledge—the entire contents of his
mind and memory— to work out
some way of attacking Moonbase
and destroying it forever! He had
to think ! To think ! But these
electrodes . . . their power . burning into
. . his very
soul. ... Within seconds, Commander Koenig was by
Bergman's side. "E.S.P., Victor? I don't believe it!"
On Moonbase. Professor Victor Bergman awoke
from his induced sleep period with a shout of
"But it's true, John I knew it was possible He-
!

he's held captive! They're doing some kind of brain-

!

mingled alarm, surprise and excitement. No it — drain operation on him. ." Bergman's lingers
. .

wasn't a dream! It was there. Still there! Buzzing in clawed at his temples as he concentrated. "I'm in
!"
his head as clearly as though the man was right touch, John Aliens
! . they mean to destroy us
. .

beside him! Shaking with agitation. Koenig forced the story

Bergman's hand shot for the Comlock beside his out of his colleague even as Alan Carter's thought-
bunk. "John! Here— quickly I've got him! I've ! waves came through across the void of space.
got Alan Carter! He's coming through so strongly I "But where is he, Victor? Where is he?"
-'
can hardly believe it! Bergman gulped."The same place, John. Just the
same place. 1 can hear the aliens,
Desperately the rescue teams bounded across the lunar surface Could Paul Carter
have survived the crash of his Eagle . . ? .
!

too. A sort of twittering, but it

seems to make sense. All coming
through Alan Their— their ship's !

invisible to us, but it's close. So

close !"
Koenig sat down. He had to.
This was beyond even his compre-
hension. "He's got to escape,
Victor. Tell him. Get through to
!"
him He's got to get out of there
!

To Alan Carter, it was as

though unknown forces were play-
ing havoc inside his mind On the !

one hand, the insidious urging of

his captors. On the other, the
strong messages from Bergman
and, yes, even Koenig A battle of !

wills— and his own head was the

battlefield!
Some inner reserve of strength
welled up within him. Con-
vulsively, he sat up, and the
electrodes ripped from his flesh!
His hand found the stun-gun at
his waist— hadn't the fools taken
it from hfm? No— how could

19
they? They'd no idea what he was or what he carried! teeth, his eyes locked on the video screen in Main
The glass of the dome dissolved in fragments as he Mission. Again there was the atmosphere of taut
fired . . and he had a lightning impression of the
.
tension as. as suddenly as it had appeared, Alan
wide, single eyes— the swiftly working beaks, twitter- Carter's Eagle knifed its way down towards the
ing their alarm! The barrel of a weapon swung Moon's surface!
towards him ... he fired first! Chaos broke loose in "Rescue units to area six-seventy!" Koenig's
the alien laboratory! InstincLively, almost, Alan voice, strangely calm, cut through the air like a
knife. "Activate emergency missiles. Co-ordinates
Carter loosed off shots at the big, wall-mounted
consoles, and ruptured wires and contacts burst seven-two-seven, green. Eive- five-zero red!"
asunder cascades of flaring discharge!
in In a blast of dirt and moonrock. Carter's craft

Now he was running— back through the vast slammed its way to a slithering halt on the pocked
room, through the swirling smoke of electrical fire, surface of home and medics rushed from the
. . .

past the flailing figures of the aliens who tottered screaming ambulance vehicles that had left the
backwards on their tripods of legs as his stun-gun Moonbase airlocks only seconds before. And -in
cut through them! He didn't care whether he lived the emptiness of space, where there was the invisible
or died! There was only the probing, prompting alien ship, a flight of missiles found their target and

voice of Bergman, urging him on -on . on!

. . . - blew itapart The shock-waves rocked
!
Main Mission
Feverishly, Carter reached his Eagle. As feverishly, to its very foundations!
he slammed home the emergency lever that by-passed But it was over. Carter, alive, shaken, suffering no
the Rising circuits for initial and once-only boost! more than any astronaut unlucky enough to make
As feverishly, he triggered the laser-beam projector- uncontrollable landfall and get away with it, was in
system that opened the wall of the hangar chamber the base hospital. And the Moon— its personnel

in front of him as easily as though it were a banana. watchful and wary, cruised on through space. In and
His back thrust against his seat as his Eagle sped out out of the sector laid claim to by a mysterious alien
towards the welcome, oh-so-welcome backdrop of race who watched and wondered, and knew fear.
starred velvet that was space! Alarmed by the closeness of this space-borne
wanderer whose people had bested them, but which,
even now. was passing on. On beyond to new and
burning! He's coming in perhaps even more dangerous conflicts in the end-
Hisfast!engines
Too
aren't
fast!" Paul Morrow gritted his less odyssey through the unknown. . . .

NOW — MEET THE MAN!

the unexpected is sure to happen to Eagle pilot
IfAlan Carter, scouting the unknown for his space-
wanderer colleagues on Moonbase Alpha, it's a
strange enough coincidence that the unexpected
also has a habit of happening for Nick Tate— the
actor who plays the part of the intrepid astronaut in
the Space 1999 series.
One of many actors who went along to audition
for the show, Nick didn't figure on being given a
starring role— for the original script had specified
that the Moonbase pilot would be a dark-haired
Italian! However, the blond Australian took the
fancy of producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and
so— presto! The character was re-vamped. Carlo
Catani became Alan Carter at the stroke of a pen!
Born in Sydney in 1942, Nick began acting as a
child. He came to England, picked up roles in
programmes like Sherlock Holmes and The Trouble-
shooters, played in the Film The Battle of Britain,
then returned to Australia for a stage production of
The Canterbury Tales. He expected to be there
eleven weeks— but stayed five years, working on TV
after 'Tales' had an unprecedented eighteen month
run.
And within days of returning to England again
'for a rest'— once more the unexpected! The role of
Alan Carter in Space 1999!
Who
on
saw elephants
the Moon?
can howl without getting
a licking for it. Which
Why, Sir Paul Neal did! dog-owner is going to

And when this 1 7th cen- get out of bed to wallop

tury astronomer told the his hound in the middle
world, it believed him! of the night?
There were learned dis- It has sinister connota-

cussions, arguments in tions, certainly. In Ire-

this and that journal, and land, a 'moon-lighter' is

heated words at meetings someone who goes out in
of the Royal Society. But the dead hours to do
Neal insisted. He'd wanton damage like —
looked through his tele- burning ricks, and de-
stroying farm-buildings.
scope, and there they
were— or rather, there it But that's only a throw-
was. One elephant. Big. back to the days when
Grey. Trotting around Ireland was under the
the craters as cool as you oppression of ruthless
please. An early artist's idea of weightlessness English landlords. In
Why didn't Neil Arm- illustrating a Jules Verne story Australia, a 'moon-
strong find this elephant's descen- soweth too soon." And many are lighter' isa sheep-rustler. Well, he
dants when he set foot on the the mothers who will draw the wouldn't do it in broad da> light,

Moon's surface? Not even a hoof- curtains on a full-moon night so would he?
print, or a cast-off tusk? Because that the light of it doesn't shine on One nice legend concerning the
famous Sir Paul Neal had seen their sleeping children. For cen- moon is that of the West Country

nothing more than a mouse. A turies, people have believed that moonrakers. These gentlemen
mouse which had eaten its way the full moon's hght induces were smugglers, and contraband
into the body of wooden-
his blindness— or madness. The very brought in from foreign ports
framed telescope to scutter around word 'lunatic' stems from the would be sunk, temporarily, in
in his fascinated vision one night Latin word for moon— and Julius handy lakes and ponds. Come
while he did his daily bit of star- Caesar and his pals must have midnight, the boyos would nip out
gazing! shivered when they woke up to see and use fishing nets to drag for
In 1975, we can look back on that shining, round orb in the their ill-gotten gains. And when
Neal and laugh at his honest— but sky.
undeniably stupid mistake. And It's unlucky to see the new Astronomer Sir Paul Neal
yet that Moon, the familiar old moon through glass. A pity for claimed he'd seen elephants
on the Moon
Moon that shows itself to us, anyone who wears spectacles But !

weather permitting, night after you can throw off the bad luck by
night, has about it a whole aura turning over all the coins in your
of magic, mystery and folk-lore— pocket!
a wealth of legend much of which The Moon has always been
is still believed today. thought to be evil. Perhaps be-
You'll still find, in farming cause it occasionally eclipses the
communities, some old stagers Sun. One can imagine the fear of
who plant their crops according our primitive ancestors when, so
to the phase of themoon. As they to speak, their heavenly light went
used to put it— "Sow peas and out at mid-day! Dogs howl at the
beans in the wane of the Moon. moon. Well, it's possibly because,
Who soweth them sooner, he in the depths of darkness, they

22
 —meaning practically never. The Madcap Moon schemes
moon has been blue. Thanks to
sulphur particles in the atmos- Now we know how to get
phere following violent natural to the Moon, we can look
volcanic eruptions like the Kra-
back and laugh at some of
the hair-raising ideas early
katoa Island explosion of 1883
sci-fi writers had for making
and the vast forest fire in British the long journey!
Columbia in 1950. It's amazing Jules Verne came closest
what the moon can do— but never to reality with a projectile
fear, if they tell you the light of our blasted into space from a
full friend is going to send you —
giant gun which he coin-
nutty, forget it. Who's saner than cidentally sited fairly close
Neil Armstrong? to Cape Kennedy/Canaveral.

—
How to get there nineteenth
century style! Happily, the in-
ventor didn't test it

the revenue officers i

they often did. having lain in wait
in the dewy undergrowth, our
country stalwarts would pretend
to be imbeciles— "raking for the
moon, reflected in the waters".
Smart lads, those moonrakers
Lovers have praised the moon
for as long as time remembers. It
lights their way to their secret
meetings. It shines gently upon
them as they clasp and kiss. And
songwriters, ever since the birth
of recording around the early part
of this century, have struggled
with rhymes for it. Moon. June.
Spoon. Croon, Buffoon. Buffoon?
Now we're back to Sir Paul Neal
Baboon? Now we're on monkeys
—and they were the first animals Moonrakers claimed to be c But his astronauts would
to be sent into orbit! ing for the reflection in have been pulped by the
One last thing. You've heard water — but they weren't sudden acceleration of fir-
daft! ing!
of the term 'once in a blue moon'
One artist of Verne's time
dreamed up a coal-burning
train with a string of cylin-
drical —
coaches but he
never explained how he'd
get it off the ground
Another half-wit designed a
chariot to be harnessed to a
flock of swans. A whip, he
thought, would be suffi-
cient to persuade them to
keep climbing! But the
prize for idiocy surely goes
to the writer who thought
of making two giant mag-
nets, anchoring one on
Earth, and sitting on the
other while the repelling
force lifted him to his goal
The Moon was always popular with lovers. This was an idea
forgoing on a lunar honeymoon in 1800 !
23
MOONPROBE
Now you see it (when the weather's
right)now you don't! But what do
you know about our Moon ? Try
your wits on these lunar teasers,
and check out your answers
by a quick blast-off to
page 62

1. The mean distance, surface to surface, of

the moon from the earth is (a) 100.000
miles, (b) 157,000 miles, (c) 234,000 miles.

2. The diameter of the moon is (a) 1,567,9

miles, (b) 2,100.2 miles, (c) 2,159.9 miles.

3. The first 'hit' on the Moon's surface was

made by Soviet Probe Lunik II in
(a) August 1954. (b) October 1960.
(c) September 1959.

4. The book, 'From the Earth to the Moorf

was written by (a) H. G. Wells, (b) Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, (c) Jules Verne.

5. Mountains on the moon reach a height

of (a) 1 ,000 feet, (b) 1 5,000 feet, (c) 20,000
feet

6. In direct sunlight, temperatures on the

moon's surface reach (a) 100 degrees
fahrenheit. fbl 600 degrees fahrenheit.
(c) 200 degree ; fahrenheit.
1

7. A 'gibbous' moon means one that is

(a) Crescent shaped, (b) Half a circle,

(c) More than half a circle.

8. If youwere standing on the moon, would

your flat horizon be (a) Ten miles, (b)
Three Miles, (c) One mile and a half.

'9. The first landing by mac on the moon

took place on (a) October 1970. (b)
December 1968. (c) July 1969.

10. The orbital speed of the moon is on

average (a) 10 mph. (b) 200 mph.
(c) 2,000 mph.
 Technically speaking. Year One of the Space
From Sputnik to Saturn, through Surveyor, Age was 1957 when, on October 4th, the
Soyuz and Skylab, the race to space has in
one certain way involved practically every Russians launched Sputnik One, the tirst arti-

single state and country in the whole world; ficial satellite ever to go into earth's orbit. As for

Afghanistan and Ajman. Zaire and Zambia, the beginning of the 'space race' on stamps, that
everyone in between. They've all had a hand in was in 1%2, when Albania issued their Sputnik
h— through the simple medium of the postage commemorative. Since then, the release of
stamp' stamps dealing with all aspects of man's journey

26
in STAMPS
beyond his natural environment has snowballed been fair game for issuing authorities.
to literallythousands of issues, many of them Actually, the collecting of space stamps is a
cheap and easy to obtain, others which have fascinating and extremely worthwhile hobby.
already become expensive rarities. On the one hand there's the satisfaction of
The reason isn't difficult to see. Stamps are having an extremely colourful picture gallery
big business, and with the rise, over the last few of pocket size— one that at least has the poten-
decades, of interest in 'thema tics '—stamps tial of increasing its value in time. On the other,
dealing with specific subjects— the collector has you have at your fingertips a ready reference of

27
what surely must be man's most important brought out a complete set dealing with the
historical achievement. evolution of space travel, and kicked off with a
The scope broad For
is . a collection of space £p stamp illustrating an early Chinese rocket
stamps certainly doesn't have to begin from the from the mid-thirteenth century! The set goes
year 1957. on to depict historical astronomy, and ends up
The subject can be broadened to take in, for with man's first landing on the Moon and an
example, rocketry. In 1971, the British-owned impression of a space research station of the
island of Ascension, in the South Atlantic. future.

28
 Cosmonauts and Astronauts have appeared dealers sell them, and they're made up in all

on stamps— and so has the famous

extensively sorts of sizes. You can go on to collect covers,
dog, Laika, sen t up in Sputnik Two in November miniature sheets, whole sets when they take
1957! your fancy. And, if you've got a hankering
If the idea of collecting space stamps grips for something really unusual you can wait until
you— and perhaps the illustrations on these they've set up a post office on the Moon, and
pages will help— a fine cheap way of starting get hold of one of the first envelopes to make an
off is to buy a ready filled packet. All stamp interplanetary journey
COUNT ALL
SIX EAGLES 'SMALL
AS COLLECTED REACTOR
THE PLACE -THE PEOPLE
TOPSEC. PROGRAM 50A. were isolated from their
MOONBASE. SURVIVAL mother planet. And indeed,
PROCEDURES. AERO-SPACE for all they knew to the
AUTHORITY CLASS 1 contrary. Earth itself had
PERSONNEL ONLY. become nothing but an
empty sphere, ravaged by
volcanic eruption and tidal
T on
I
he words
bald
the cover
of the label
of a thick,
wave. They were literally
alone, the staff and person-
official folder. One that had nel of Moonbase. Alone and
been issued to Commander responsible for their own
John Koenig and his key continuing existence!
colleagues. Professor Victor How was it possible for
Bergman and Doctor Helena Moonbase to function? To
Russell. Instructions for the support itself? This is the
process by which Moonbase breakdown of the various finalsay in anything affect-
Alpha could remain a self- —
systems the logical sec- ing their destiny. This man
contained unit, in the event tions that made that still- is Commander John
ofsome possible attack from make the incredible journey Koenig. . . .

outer space. through the void of space

The attack had never possible. Koenig's Command Desk
come, but circumstances is to the rear of Main Mis-
had taken the Moon out of Three hundred men and sion. This is the Central
Earth's orbit. Had left Moon women exist upon Moon- Control of Moonbase, hous-
base a travelling desert base Alpha. All of them ing scanners, communica-
island, so to speak, upon depend upon one man to tions equipment computer
which all her inhabitants guide them. To have the and video screens. It is like

32
 able of supporting life, and wiped out by something as
if not, why not. Its greatest ordinary as a common cold
value is that it actually epidemic ?
speaks its findings, so that —
The hospital as the last
the personnel of Main Mis- picture shows— contains
sion do not have to waste some of the most sophis-
precious time consulting ticated equipment medical
print-outs. science has yet devised. The
charge of the computer,
In auto-analysis machine, for
the guidance area of some David Kano. . . . example, makes it possible
vast space - ship, and a for Doctor Helena Russell to
highly-trained crew of top- He is seen with his assis- diagnose illness accurately
fine personnel staffit. These tant, Sandra Banes nomi- — in seconds. Computerised
people are always on nally one of the 'service scanners fit over a patient's
duty. . . . section' staff of Moonbase, body and, quite painlessly,
as indicated by the yellow read off the whole of his
Yes, they sleep. Even in identification colour on her condition. Temperature,
their un-natural situation sleeve. They all have their pulse-rate, blood -pressure,
they have to preserve the colours. Flame for Main corpuscle count. Instru-
routine of normal human Mission, White for medicals. ments even measure muscu-
life. But each of them is Rust for technical. Purple lar impulse and brain-wave,
duplicated, so to speak, by for security, and so on. checking and coming up
the computer that is the In her capacity as Kano's with an immediate video
very heart of Moonbase. A assistant, Sandra Benes is signal on a bank of dials.
fantastically complicated also responsible for scan- Treatment, too, is of the
computer capable of taking ners and extra-Lunar com- most advanced kind. Injec-
information, and not only munication. tions a re given by hypersonic
storing it, but of evaluating Of the white - sleeves, projection. No problems
it. Capable of coming up Doctor Helena Russell is the with blunt needles on
with decisions. Even orders. chief— in charge of the Moonbase!
Not that it actually controls. whole medicai set-up on There are problems with
Its orders can be counter- Moonbase. which Helena Russell's de-
manded by John Koenig. As on Earth, the people partment cannot deal. Those
But it is so logical that it is under her care are suscept- which stem from unusual,
nearly always right. It can ible to any known disease. unpredictable occurrences
process reports that come The base is not, and never out in space. People, for
in, say, regarding a planet has been, completely sterile. example, brought in after
caught at first glimpse in There is an extensive, fully- excursions to alien planets,
the long-range video, and equipped hospital. suffering from unknown
tell within seconds whether conditions induced by
the place is inhabited, cap- Why is there still illness, malign effects on the mind.
insuch an advanced environ-
ment ? Because humans,
once removed from the
threat of disease, would
cease to produce those inner
substances which combat
germs, bacilli and viruses.
And a human
incapable of
combatting such things
would be useless in the
possibly malignant atmos-
phere of some new planet.
What use would it be if
Moonbase Alpha eventually
came into a position to use
Operation Exodus — the
scheme by which they hope
one day to leave their space-
wanderer — only to land on
another world and then be

33
Should a mental take-over For Moonbase is far more produced, to be added to
have been attempted by than just Main Mission. the food the people eat.
alien beings, then Professor Three hundred people, re- And also, the lab is respon-
—
Victor Bergman the bril- member—living as much sible for the maintenance
liant scientist who is nomin- normal humans as they
like of the whole life-support
ally only a supernumerary on can. Living their day-to-day system of the Moon. They—
Moonbase {and therefore lives. The routine of work. the people who work there
wears no colours on his Eating, sleeping, relaxing. — have to ensure that Moon-
— stepsin. Hisknow-
sleeve) Raising and looking after base is invulnerable to such
their families. This is no condttionsasfood shortage,
mere complex of scientists air-starvation, neuro-
There is food to be prepared lethargy . . .

Clothes to clean and launder And neuro-lethargy is

Garbage to be disposed of perhaps one of the most

Even money to be earned — seriousconditionson Moon-
though money itself has base. this area, the prob-
In
ceased to have any meaning lems of the subject are
for the castaways. Things worked out. . . .

are made with materials

swapped. It's almost primi-
tive, the way one woman
will make clothes in return
for a toy or ornament made
by someone else. And when
f men relax — perhaps playing
cards, betting on races run
theoretically through the
leisure computer —
they use
ledge of the human brain counters for gambling.
and its workings is para- Where there is no certain
mount. future, wealth is a joke! A depression of the whole
For more routine help. And yet arguments break nervous system caused by
Doctor Russell relies on the out. Petty jealousies. Envy. sheer lack of exercise, it can
help of her assistant. Doctor be overcome by chemical
Math i as. means. People have to be
medicated sothatthey don't
become
Control of Main
Mission
itself is the responsibility of a eft--" •
sive
tired of the exten-
— but naturally limited
— facilities for recreation
Paul Morrow. He is the co-
ordinator of all that hap- on Moonbase. For example.
pens. All that affects life on Even the most fanatical
Moonbase. He makesassess- footballer will become tired
mentsofthesituationand re- of his game if he's con-
ports directly to Comman- stantly in competition with
der Koenig. He is, in fact, the same opposing teams,
the Executive Officer. . . . week after week. To keep
Although Koenig works in minds clear and active, the
direct co-operation with laboratory staff produce
Helena Russell and Profes- additives which calm ner-
sor Bergman, it is Morrow's vous reaction in themselves
job to see that everything For so many people to be and their fellows. And this
runs smoothly. That the thrown constantly into each is where they apply their
Commander's orders are other's company makes for The vast area of inter-
skill.
transmitted to all the far- such things. locked chambers, each kept
thest corners of Moonbase, A section of Moonbase to a closelywatched tem-
that the suggestions, prob- spends itstime scientific- perature and artificial cli-
lems and needs of people ally trying to combat the mate where foods are
from all those corners are worries and stresses that grown. High-protein foods
brought to the attention of affect its people. This is the — forthereare noslaughter-
his chief. research laboratory, where animals on Moonbase that —
And problems there are. safe tranquilising drugs are replace meat in the diet.

14
 Domed areas with artifi-
cial sunlight exist where
vegetable crops— the green
stuff so important to human
life — are grown. Coupled
with artificial vitamin pro-
ducts, these keep the Moon-
base people properly
healthy, until— as they all
—
hope they find their new
planet and take up a new
and more normal life that
doesn't have quite so much
of man-made science as its
background.
As for water, that, too, is
produced by chemical means
— the sparking of hydrogen
in atmospheres of oxygen.
And even the that the
air
people breathe is thanks to
the technology of the scien-
tists who first made Moon-
base possible. A constant
re-purification system ex-
tracts all the carbon dioxide
and regenerates life-giving
oxygen.
So the Moon broken —
though it is from the grip of
Earth's gravity, and travel-
ling perhaps endlessly
through space— could con-
ceivably support its people
more or less for ever. A
constant re-use of materials,
a regenerative nuclear sys-
tem, heat and light for
always ... serve to pro-
all
vide an eternity of amenable
surroundings for the lost
three hundred.
There are gymnasiums to
keep them fit. Games rooms
to keep them occupied.
Sports facilities to satisfy
anyone. Soiariums where
they can even get a tan
But it is all artificial.
Man made. There can be no
real rest in the minds of the
castaways until they have
found their new home.
Until then, for all their
perfection of surroundings,
they are still prisoners. On
their erraticlump of way-
ward matter once known
as The Moon. . . .
 Barbara Bain -
Doctor
HELENA RUSSELL
That's a coincidence! I'd just off on tour with the play
Bain: You're kind of glamorous Bain:
doctor been dancing, and doing fashion- -Middle of The Night", and I got
for ;i

modelling on the side, when I an understudy to the lead job and

must decided to branch out into drama, a small part in the same show. So
Russell: Why. thank you. It
they've chosen you to and|oined theCurt Conway acting the tour was our honeymoon!
be true if

play me! school. And there I met Martin

Landau. You know we're married, Russell: Did you always work
of course. together professionally?
Bain So we like each other
:

Seriously, how about filling me in

Russell You're lucky. 'm a Bain: No. When we arrived at
on the Helena Russell story! : I

widow ... 1 think. If that sounds Hollywood, we went our separate

strange, you'll understand when I ways. I concentrated on television.
Russell: I'm Moonbase Alpha's
tell you that husband, who was
my I appeared in a detective series
Chief of Medical Section. I'm the
also into space medicine, went with David Janssen. and did guest
daughter of an American West-
missing on a mission. spots on shows like "Get Smart",
Coast physician, and 1 guess I just
followed in my Dad's footsteps!
"Dick Van Dyke", "Bonanza"
Bain: That's terrible\ How could and several others. I also did
you cope? Emotionally. mean? stage work.
Bain: I didn't! I set out in life to I

be a dancer even though I'd

. . .

Russell: By retiring into my job. Russell: You had plenty to keep

gained a B.S. degree in Sociology.
i hope I haven't lost my feminin- you occupied Weren't you scared
!

Russell: Ah! So we're eggheads ity, though ... don't think 1 have,
1 of drifting apart from Martin,
together, eh? was It the challenge because have— well, between us,
I socially ?

of space medicine that got me. I I have a real thing about John
Koenig. Bain: Uh-huh. But then came
found it just fascinating, and I We
"Mission Impossible".
must have had a natural aptitude
wish you luck You know, worked on the series together, you
for it, or I'd never have got my Bain I
: !

job on Moonbase. 1 really slaved Martin and I were actually mar- know. It was a wonderful thing
Once at New York's for me, and I won the Television
at medical school, you know but .
ried twice.
Academy Award— "The Emmy"
.

Istill had time to meet my husband City Hal!, then ten days later at a
there! religions ceremony. Martin was —as best actress in a dramatic
scries three years m succession. accompany Martin on location
They tell me it's an all-time work. I did tackle various one-
record shot productions during that time,
but it wasn't until "Space 999"
1

Russell: What about when the that I really got into full-time work
series ended'.' again. It's a happy series for me,
because not only am I working
Bain took a rest. It gave me time
: I with Martin again, but this time
to devote to our daughters, Susan we've got our children with us.
and Juliet, and I was able to
 i-

'

, ./ ,
pvo you remember? The parations. Thousands of circumnavigations of the
first breath-taking steps scientists, engineers, tech- Moon. In each of six of these,
inman's conquest of Space ? nicians and other specialists two astronauts actually
The astronautical program- formulated the concepts, landed on the Lunar surface.
me that led to the incredible drew the blueprints, then Considering themselves en-
achievement of a human built the machinery for voys from planet Earth, the
foothold on the Moon? Apollo's voyages of dis- first two to do so — Neil
They called it Project covery. Armstrong and Edwin
Apollo, and it began way Project Apollo encom- Aldrin, left a plaque there
back in 1961. . . passed eleven three- man inscribed "we came in peace
The first seven years — up space flights, two in earth for all mankind". Such was
—
to 1968 consisted of pre- orbit and nine involving the excitement of the event

38
CODENAME -AF
that few of the five hundred
million people who followed
the historic event on radio
and television throughout
the world could have been
disappointed that there
were no 'little green men'
to pop out of their holes
and read it

Bootprints of the astro-

nauts now dent the Moon's
surface. Tyre tracks mar
the ground where the Apollo
14 crew pulled a handcart
and where the crews of
Apollo 15, 16 and 17 drove
their Lunar Roving Vehicle. because the Moon suffers
At all Apollo landing sites erosion. If these rem-
little
stand four- legged lower nants of man's presence
sections or 'descent stages' have made the Moon a
of the lunar modules with heavier,
ttle astronauts
which the men lowered have lightened it somewhat
themselves to the surface. by removing 395 kilogram-
Attached to each is a plaque mes of lunar rocks and soil
inscribed with the name and to bring back for analysis!
date of the mission and the The astronauts installed
names of the crew, And a network of nuclear-
surrounding each landing powered, automated re-
spot lies abandoned equip- search stations on the Moon
ment — a museum of relics that transmits millions of
that may remain undis- items of information to
turbed for millions of years, Earth each day. So scientists
have been able to gather
more and more knowledge
about Earth's closest neigh-
bour. Thanks to Project
Apollo, gone are the worries
that electrostatically at-
tracted dust might have
buried the spacecraft. That
moon rocks might explode
upon contact with Earth's
atmosphere. That moon

A Saturn 1B rocket blasts off

the launch pad at Cape Kennedy
now Cape Canaveral) Florida.
'germs' might spread un-
controllable epidemics. And
gone are the fears that man
might be unable to survive
outside the planetary en-
vironment. This was man's
greatest step forward in
the whole history of civili-
sation. A step with the
codename Apollo. —
THE MANNED MISSIONS
Apollo 7. October 11-21. 1968.
Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham
make first 3-man flight. 163 Earth
orbits.

Apollo December 21-27, 1968.

8.
Barman, Love/I and Anders come
within 112 kilometers of Moon.

Apollo 9. McDivitt, Scott and

Schweickart orbit Earth 151 times
in 10 days- March 3-13, 1969.

The wild desolation of a Lunar landscape as Astronauts from Apo ,lo 10 May js-26 1969
Apollo 16 tour the surface. And below, the distinctive badges of Stafford, Young and Cern'an make
the eleven manned Apollo missions. 7J Earth orbits, 31 Moon orbits.
Stafford and Cernan fly lunar
module to within 15 kilometres of
Lunar surface.

Apollo 11. Man's first landing on

the Moon. 0256 hrs, GMT, July
21, 1969. Collins, Armstrong and
Aldrin.

Apollo 12. November 14-24, 1969.

Conrad, Gordon and Bean. Conrad
and Bean make pinpoint landing at
Ocean of Storms.

Apollo 13. April 11-17, 1970.

Lovell, Swigert and Haise avert
disaster through on-board explo-
sion of oxygen tank. Return to
Earth.

Apollo 14. Jan. 31-Feb. 9, 1971.

Shepard and Mitchell on Moon for
nearly 34 hours, while Roosa re-
mains in orbit.

Apollo 15. First use of Moon Car.

July 26-August 7, 1971. Scott,
Irwin and Worden.

Apollo 16. Young, Mattingly and

Duke. Young and Duke live on
Moon for three days. April 16—27,
1972.

Apollo 17. Cernan, Evans and

Schmitt. December 7-19, 1972.
The programme closes. The end of
the beginning. . . .
 1

— So you've been reading this

know your
annual. And you've probably
watched the Space 1999
series on television. Just how
much do you know about it

moonbase all? Pit your wits against

these questions
trying to use the
and no
Moonbase
computer to help you You
!

can check your answers on

1. He's using a ray-gun— and he's

got his space-helmet on. But
who he?
is
3.
V
Towers
of special
like these protect the
light. What is the
page 62.

Moonbase complex- They emit beams

name of this type of special beam?

4. His flame-coloured sleeve

shows he is in the "Main
Mission section, and his job is
Controller.Who is he?

2. This is a vital piece of equip- This is area where the

the
ment for command personnel moon's breakaway began.
on Moonbase Alpha. What is Shafts sunk into the moon are
it called? for the storage of what?
. . .
There would be little hope means when the time joined the Astronautics pro-
— little chance for the eventually comes — of quit- gramme way back in the
people of Moonbase if the ting their wandering prison. early eighties, Alan was a
terrifying breakaway that Chief Space Pilot Alan natural for the Moonbase
threw them out of Earth's Carter (played in the Space team Virtually alone in his
orbit had destroyed their 1999 Series by Australian field after the breakaway
whole Eagle fleet- Nick Tate) is the man to when his principal co-pilots
These amazing ships are whom the control cabin of died in the holocaust— this
the only means they have of his Eagle is more of a home iron -willed, nerveless man
fully investigating anything than his bunk on Moonbase has had to take on the train-
in their path. Their only An ex-Navy flier who ing of new colleagues from

12
 Benes, although Chief Tech-
nician Joe Wallis is virtually
in charge of them. The excur-
sions they make out on the
—
surface to the waste dis-
posal areas, for example-
are monitored by static
scanners connected directly
to Main Mission.
Each of Moonbase's inha-
bitants, from Commander
Koenig downwards, carries
a piece of equipment known
as a Comlock. A remarkable
'the beak'. The central areas device, carrying a photo- control to fire lethal rays in

are capable of taking a graph of its owner for identi- the form of high-frequency
variety of units
—
'pod mo- fication, each is program- radio waves generating in-
dules' —designed to carry med to answer a call. An tense heat. Conversely, it
stores, personnel, or speci- array of buttons brings into can project a heat-absorp-
fically equipped with survey play its many operations. It tion beam that will 'freeze'
machinery, medical facility anything it touches.
or armaments. The Eagles The other armaments upon
themselves can be mounted Moonbase include a 'force-
with assault laser equip- shield' of laser-type rays,
ment and missile racks. capable of warding off
Fortravel upon the surface meteorites. Even compara-
of the Moon itself, there is tively large bodies can be
a fleet of Moon Buggies disintegrated by this means,
propelled by electrically although the power required
operated enclosed combus- for the force-field's use on
tion units using a revolu- a large scale is a severe drain
tionary re-cycling fuel. on the colony's power re-
These buggies are capable sources, and is only used as
of indefinite mileage, and a final resort.
are fitted with a floating Additionally, there is a
suspension that can give a sonic bombarder, devised
smooth ride over the most by Milo Kovacz, Technician,
inhospitable terrain. Their Class One. This impulse pro-
tyres —made of an expanded jector is effective against
synthetic, have enough grip hostilealien craft which
to allow the vehicles man- needs pressure on one to approach too closely to the
oeuverability up almost open doors, on another to Moon's surface, and is a
vertical faces. contact the various depart- vivid proof of the will of the
Coming within the Service ments, another to bring in space castaways to live
section, the buggies are the two-way television, and so and keep living.
responsibility of Sandra on. Each person's Comlock
is equipped to open only the
doors through which he is
entitled to pass, thus assist-
ing Moonbase security.
Commander Koenig's Com-
lock is also able to impart
instructions from him to
the computer.
Key personnel of Moon-
base —and the security
guards as well carry in —
addition a stun-gun. A so-
phisticated weapon using
hypersonic impulses, it can
be adapted at the touch of a

44
 Barry Morse
Professor
VICTOR BERGMAN
Morse : How does it feel being the human life, sir ? reduced. In short, I don't panic.
father-figure, so to speak, of the
key personnel on Moonbase Bergman: I am a scientist. Mr. Morse: It's an old adage that
Alpha? Morse. I deai in facts. Hard, actors have "gotta have heart" . . .

scientific facts. And in my ex-

Bergman : How does it feel to be perience in life that facts are Bergman: Hal I can laugh at a
playing the father figure? responsible for human behaviour. joke, you see Actually, my mech-
!

Therefore, I am a humanist. anical box-of-tricks is a source of

Morse: Oh, it's fine for me. I've worry on many occasions. It
been all sorts of people in my time, Morse: A mighty cold one, I'd might be feasible for some ruthless
from a vindictive police inspector guess! I had plenty opportunity of or desperate person to interfere
to a Romanian drag-smuggler, observing human life at its teeming with the workings of it, and so
from a hopeless drunk to— of all best, you know— when I was a entirely upset my whole metabol-
things— a belly dancer! youngster in East London. Oh yes. ism. Similarly, unknown condi-
I'm a proper cockney, despite my tions in outer space could repre-
Bergman: People about whom I. acting-trained voice. I used to be sent a danger to its workings.
would know very little,
personally, an errand boy, cycling round with
f fear. glass-manufacturer's samples for Morse: Now we're getting morbid.
potential customers. Let me tell you about my career.
Morse: You're not an observer of My first was at
professional job
Bergman And what_/in7 took you
; the People's Theatre, London, in
from such a beginning to the "If I were King". After that, I
stage, for heaven's sake? had four years of repertory, before
my West End debut in "'School for
Morse A talent for mimicry And
: ! Slavery". Later, I went into films,
good old London cheek! I acting beside another newcomer,
thought, "I'll be an actor" ... so I Peter Ustinov. I was very early into
pedalled along to the Royal Aca- television work, and played a
demy of Dramatic Art, and de- considerable number of films.
manded an audition. I passed it,
too— so they took me on and Bergman: A busy man! Are you
gave me a student grant at £3 a married?
week! It was a fortune compared
to what I'd been getting in wages Morse: I married early, to Can-
adian actress Sydney StiargesS,
Bergman A most interesting case.
: who was in repertory with me. We
For myself, I could never have had a son, Hayward— now an
made such a rash step. My mind is actor himself— and a daughter
very precise, you know, and i am Malunie, who's an artistes' agent.
not often urged to spontaneous I went to Canada with Sydney,
emotional behaviour. and there I entered Canadian
which was just starting
television,
Morse: Surely that's because of up.I became a producer, director

your heart . . . and actor. I won the Best TV

Actor Award five times, as a
Bergman: Ah! My heart ! An matter of fact.
early illness led to my having a
mechanical replacement for that Bergman: You must be extremely
organ, Mr. Morse. And because it versatile. What happened next?
responds more slowly to nervous
stimuli than does a normal human Morse: Hollywood. I had guest
heart, my reactions to most em- roles in series like '"Doctor Kil-
otional stresses are apparently dare" and "'Wagon Train", and of
 can'1 be happening! It's like some terrible from
inexplicably, the four technicians Moon-
Itnightmare!" Commander John Koenig crouched base Alpha had become hunters Now, with the
!

urge to kill, they began searching for the

in the dust-shrouded rubble of the underground entrance to the underground chamber. . . .

chamber- some kind of cellar that was part of a

ruined city. The relic of a civilisation long since new home somewhere in their unalterable journey
vanished- Beside him. Doctor Helena Russell moaned across space.
softly, shivering even under the covers of the ancient The reportshad been good. No, more than that.
material he'd pulled round her. Concussed, she was Excellent. Atmosphere compatible. Temperature,
as helpless as a child! cold but bearable. Traces of vegetation— but none
Koenig looked up. his ears straining for the sound of organo-biological life. It had seemed that the
of the four men on the surface. His men. Techni- place was inhabitable, yet uninhabited.
cians from Moonbase Alpha who--was it only The first initiation of Project Exodus— the plan
twenty four hours ago had been grinning re- to evacuate the Moonbase personnel- had been
assuringly at him in the briefing area of Main put into operation, and a manned craft, with four
Mission. But now now they were hunting him. their quarry! Their
And waiting beneath them,
Searching for him and the injured woman, with only own leader— Commander John Koenig, bur-
one purpose in their minds. Murder. Something dened with his helpless colleague. Doctor
terrible had happened to these men. Something Helena Russell
beyond Koenig's understanding. They were going
to kill him and there was practically nothing that
he could do about it! If Koenig ever needed help,
it was now . but his Comloek was broken.
. .

Shattered in a fall. He hadn't even got the power to

call Moonbase fur assistance . . .

had t nade a long-range probe survey of the

They
. planet
phir as soon as it had been sighted and identi-
fied. All the resources of Moonbase technology had
been marshalled to investigate the possibilities. For
the survivors of the cataclysm that had separated
Moon from Earth were still desperately seeking a
48
qualified survey technicians aboard, had been sent throats of Dumaine and his men!
to make landfall and report. It had been smooth. It had been impossible to get any further sense

Almost too smooth. from the men on the strange planet. Koenig had had
Koenig remembered the calm, confident words of to come to a snap decision. "Something's affected
the survey team immediately after their Eagle had them down there. I'm going in myself!"
landed on the planet. The excitement in the voice of Helena Russell had insisted on accompanying
the leader, Dumaine. "Buildings. Commander! him. She'd pointed out that he was no doctor. And
Ruins, sure enough but clear buildings!" that, whatever had happened to Dumaine and his
And then the discovery of crumbled, humanoid crew, it could be a medical problem. And so the
skeletons some of almost pygmy size, others of two of them, armed and ready for anything, had set
immense stature. Skeletons that a portable carbon- out in the Command Eagle to make contact.
dater had placed at over ten thousand years old! it hadn't taken them long to find the technicians.

"It's a dead planet, sir," the report had come, They were there — among the ruins of the old, long-
"it looks as though something happened to the abandoned city. And they were fighting amongst
inhabitants- Wiped them out wholesale. We're themselves. Fighting as if to the death
going to move further in amongst the buildings. can I "Stun-guns, Helena!" Koenig had gritted out the
see some of them still relatively undamaged .
."
. words as their Eagle touched down. "We'll have to
As it had come in, the information had all been knock them out for immediate examination."
fed to David Kano's computer. Minute details -- No sooner had they come out in the open than the
air-carried radiation count detectable micro radio technicians had separated from their own struggles.
activity light-waves and bacteriological saturation. And instantly, the fire of stun-guns had been turned
The flat voice of the computer had been reassuring. on Koenig and Helena! So swift and unexpected
"All conditions are perfect in the light of known had been the attack that they were taken completely
conditions." by surprise! With shots- -shots aimed to kill-
And then it had happened! Over the radio link. splattering the rubble around them, they had fallen
Technician Dumaine's voice suddenly rose from an back, and all at once, a blast from Dumaine's own
even, level tone to a cry that was almost one of pain gun had blown apart a section of masonry at their
"The light! The green tight?' That was all. Then
silence— silence that lasted a full minute before it
was replaced by an animal growling. A growling
What unknown danger lay on the mysterious
planet ? What was it that made technicians from
that struck chill into the hearts of the listeners on Moonbase Alpha inexplicably attack each other
Moonbase For the growling clearly came from the
! with ferocious violence. . . ?

49
 "A deadly device" said
Victor Bergman. "A device
communicator, bitterly. "I'll have to try and repair
it. Maybe I could do it — if I had time."

"What do you think they'll do on Moonbase?

They must be pretty agitated, now they've lost con-
tact with us!"
"They'll rely on the computer. It'll probably tell
them to abandon the whole project and leave us.
Oh sure there'll be big arguments about it. But
you knuw how it is. The computer's always right!"
Helena Russell bit her lip, and Koenig saw her
fists clench involuntarily. "It'll tell them the un-
known danger down here's too great to risk. John . .

what is the danger? What has made our men go

crazy? And why hasn't the same thing happened to

as?"
Koenig shook his head. "Dumaine said something

f about the Green Light. Remember .?" The Com- . .

mander bent his head and began to strip the outer

casing olThis Comlock. . . .

On Moonbase, as
predicted, argument
Commander John Koenig had
had raged. Tempers had
run riot, with Kano and his fellow scientists adamant
in supporting the decision of the computer to write
off all aspects of the exploration and jeopardise no
further man-power in any sort of rescue attempt.
But Professor Victor Bergman had remained
calm.
"Wait!" Bergman's voice rang out sharply,
feet,to open a chasm in the ground below them! stilling the quarrelsome people around him. "I've

Koenig and the doctor had had one sickening asked the computer to theorise. Working on details
moment of fear as they fell, and then they landed with like the two classes of skeletons the survey team
shattering force in some kind of underground found on the planet. Giants and midgets. And that
green light. The answer's coming up now. ."
chamber . .

As luck had it, Koenig had landed on top -and "Acting on the surmise that the pygmies were the
thus was Helena Russell crushed into unconscious- original inhabitants of the planet," intoned the
ness, to lie inert at his feet computer, "it is logical to suppose that the giants
There had been a passage behind them— a passage were enemies. Possibly from another world. Size of
lit by chinks of light from the broken roof above. buildings would suggest this, for the buildings were
Koenig had lifted his companion across his shoulders not of giant size."
and, dirt-smeared and shaken, had scrambled some "How does this help?" Paul Morrow scowled and
five hundred yards away from the chamber— into gestured irritably. "Be quiet, and listen!" Bergman
which be knew his technicians-turned-killers would was in no mood for interruption.
soon be looking. The computer droned on. "Carbon dating of the
pygmy skeletons reveals a higher concentration of
Gamma rays than in the bones of the giants. I sub-
okay? How do you feel?'
1

Helena! Are you mit that the pygmies were aware. of their annihila-
The doctor's eyes had flickered open. She was tion. Aware that it was inevitable that they would
coming round. "What— what happened, John .?". . be exterminated by their giant invaders. Accordingly,
"T don't know. 1 can't even guess at what's hap- they may have left a device- - a booby trap—to deal
pened to our boys. All I know is that if they find us, with the giants when they landed in force to take over
we're done for. If I could find a way out of here, we the planet."
might be able to get around back of them and take Now Main Mission was silent. All eyes were on
stunning snap-shots at them. But I can't leave you the computer, and it was as though everyone present
alone here. . .
." had been struck by a feeling of truth underlying the
Helena Russell grimaced. She tried to sit up. flat, metallic syllables of Kano's electronic pet.

Failed. "My ankle," she gritted, the pain in her eyes It went on. "A device. Sure to be found by the
striking chill into Koenig's bones. "Not broken. invaders. A ray device capable of destroying their
But badly twisted. I can't move fast!" reason. Forcing them to attack each other. So that
Koenig swore softly. He looked down at his nobody would inherit the conquered land."

50
 Bergman snapped his fingers. Now his eyes were His muscles in agony, Koenig got his hands over
shining. "It's got to be And this device— the Green
! the lip of the shaft. With neck and shoulders, he
Light. It has remained functional over ail these fought aside the rubble, sheer desperation lending
years! Our men found it— and were affected! .
him strength! And then he was through!
Perhaps the same thing has happened to the com- Yet in that same instant, he heard the flat dis-
mander and to Doctor Russell I move that we send a ! charge of a stun-gun! Sickness welled up inside him
task force immediately to subdue them and bring as he released his grip and shot feet-first back down
them off!" the shaft. He'd failed. Lost. Now he would die— but
"I agree. On the basis of mere theory." The not before he himself had killed. Released his men
computer clicked off, and at once. Main Mission from their unknown torment!
became a hive of feverish activity! Precious time was He landed asprawl beside Helena. And his wide
running out. To mount a rescue was no slight eyes took in the sight of one solitary technician,
operation and yet it had to be done and achieved
. . .
flat against the wall, his eyes closed in induced
before the Moon ran past the limits of contact with unconsciousness. His eyes took in the sight of Pro-
the alien planet! fessor Victor Bergman, gun in hand, and Paul
Morrow behind him. '"The U.S. Cavalry," said
Koenig, with a shrill laugh . and pitched forward
. .

Commander John Koenig threw the dismantled to lie across the body of the doctor. . . .

Comlock away from him in furious exaspera-

tion. It couldn 7 be repaired ! And now he could hear
the sounds. The scrabbling and scuffling— the animal
noises of the pursuit, drawing nearer and nearer!
Desp. irately, Commander
Koeni g clenched his slipping
"This is going to hurt you, Helena. But better to hands on the lip of the long
suffer pain than suffer death!" He grasped hold of vertic al shaft ! To fall now
his injured colleague, trying to ignore her cry of pain woulc mean certain death
1
I

as he lifted her across his back. Then, mercifully, she

fainted Now he stumbled back into the recesses of
!

the chamber, towards the heavy slab of doorway

SB
that led to heaven-knew-where.
His boot crashed against the crumbling structure,
and it gave. Another passage. A glance behind him,

>
and he saw the shadow of a space-suited technician
on a distant wall, gun in hand!
Breath rasping in his lungs, Koenig staggered
along, tripping over fallen stones, slithering on
patches of slippery moss. Ahead of him, another
door!
•
Something— some sixth sense— stopped him bat-
way through. An instinct of danger!
tering his
Gently, he lowered Helena to the ground and felt the
ft V m.^^B
edges of the barrier. It was as though there was a
detectable vibration there! Then — it was just the
faintestglow beneath the crack of the door at his
feet— he saw the thin wash of light. Green light
On the mysterious planet, the Green Light still
"Good grief! I can't go in here! I'll see whatever burned. As the computer had reckoned, an end-
Dumaine saw! The same thing'll happen to me!" less booby-trap to vanquish intruders. But now the
He turned, desperately. The approach of the killer Moon was far out of contact with the deadly sphere.
technicians was growing louder! "I'm— we're In the nick of time, the Eagles had gone back to
1"
trapped Moonbase Alpha, and while Helena Russell lay in
Feverishly, he looked above him. There was light her own hospital, recovering, the four technicians
there. Daylight. Some kind of ventilator shaft! had been released by deep neuro-therapy from the
The top was blocked by fallen rubble— but if he alien force that had fogged their brains.
could clamber up. and shift it, then he could heave Koenig was back on duty. And, like Bergman and
—
Helena through gain a little more time! the others, he thought with regret of the home that
Near to exhaustion, for the atmosphere was colder fate had cheated them from occupying.
and thinner than on Earth, Koenig squeezed himself It was Sandra Benes who brought him out of his
up the narrow channel, using shoulders and knees musings. "Scanners report a planet, sir. Direction
to climb. He slipped. Shrugged off the space-suit to four-three-one, green scale. Distance ten thousand.
give himself better purchase. Began again He had to ! Permission to instigate long-range probe ,?" . .

be quick ... so quick Once those men saw Helena,

!
"Okay, Sandra. Go ahead." Koenig turned to
they'd shoot. . . .
Bergman and smiled. "Start again, square one!"

51
54
 ihikk cieosswoiuii
To be completed at the speed of light

CLUES ACROSS: CLUES DOWN:

2. To do with the Moon. 1. Animal among the first to be spaceborne.
4. No astronaut would last a second in space 2. Metal shield effective against radiation, (two
without this garment. words)
6. Dismantles. Machinery, engines etc. 3. What you'd get if your capsule hit a
7. This describes a really bright star! meteorite shower! (two words)
9. You win this if you come first in a big 4. Arranges. Puts in order.
competition, (two words) 5. The opposite of relaxed.
10. Moonbase flight vehicle. 8. Point in moon's orbit farthest from Earth.

Answers on page 62.

ANSWER TO COLOURCODE QUIZ, PAGE 13
We know who you are and
where you are from and
welcome you. Our radio
wavelength is 334 cycles.

ANSWERS TO QUIZ, PAGE 24

1, (c) Actually 233,813 miles; 2. (c); 3. (c);4. (c); 5. (c);

6. (c) Actually 243 degrees fahrenheit : 7. (c);8. (c); 9. (c);

10. (c) Actually 2,287 mph.

ANSWERS TO QUIZ, PAGE 41

[. Commander John Koenig: 2. A Comlock; 3. Laser;

4. Paul Morrow; 5. The storage of nuclear waste.

ANSWER TO CROSSWORD, PAGE 61

Across: 2. Lunar. 4. Spacesuit. 6. Strips. 7. Shiner.

9. Star Prize. 10. Eagle.

Down: I. Monkey. 2. Lead Plate. 3. Rough Ride.
4. Sorts. 5. Tense. 8. Apogee.