The episode begins with the arrival of a ship. It's commander, Sahala (who also happens to be rather hot--and Alan would certainly agree), asks for assistance from Moonbase. It seems they've had an accident while transporting a dangerous prisoner. When Sahala enters the facility, she immediately shoots Maya with a paralysis gun--as she is from the same planet as their evil prisoner, Dorzak. In other words, since Dorzak is a baddie, Sahala assumed that Maya was also an evil little piggy. However, Sahala has a hard time convincing everyone that Dorzak is evil. Maya naturally believes that the famous poet from her old home planet is a swell guy and all evidence of his eviltude (or is it 'evil-ocity'?) is gone. As a result, the Moonbase residents let Dorzak go...and naturally things go awry. It seems that Dorzak is not quite as wonderful as Maya remembers him to have been. Soon, the Alphas begin to suspect that Dorzak might just be a jerk. But how do they test him to see if he's full of sweetness and light or a nasty old jerk bent on terror? Tune in and see--as well as the interesting twist that comes next.
Like all too many episodes of the second season of "Space: 1999", Commander Koenig just happens to be off-world at the time--a convenient excuse for him to take the week off from the series. The crew seemed, as usual, to get alone pretty well without him--especially since this is a much better than average episode. Unlike the typical season two show, there are no stupid rubber-suited monsters or stupid swirly space clouds or a script ripped off from the original "Star Trek" series. Instead, the idea was original and worth seeing--something you just can't say of most of the shows after the series 'jumped the shark' after season one and made many bad wholesale changes to the show.
Sadly, while this is one of the best episodes of season two (not a hard thing, actually), it was also the final episode filmed. It's a real shame, as more episodes like this one might have meant a third season for this British series.
Like all too many episodes of the second season of "Space: 1999", Commander Koenig just happens to be off-world at the time--a convenient excuse for him to take the week off from the series. The crew seemed, as usual, to get alone pretty well without him--especially since this is a much better than average episode. Unlike the typical season two show, there are no stupid rubber-suited monsters or stupid swirly space clouds or a script ripped off from the original "Star Trek" series. Instead, the idea was original and worth seeing--something you just can't say of most of the shows after the series 'jumped the shark' after season one and made many bad wholesale changes to the show.
Sadly, while this is one of the best episodes of season two (not a hard thing, actually), it was also the final episode filmed. It's a real shame, as more episodes like this one might have meant a third season for this British series.
