385 – Space: 1999 – The Seance Spectre

When a combination of John Koenig’s bad command decisions and a lack of leafy green salads to look at come together there’s bound to be lots of high-drama action or excitement, plus questions, lots of questions, like: Was that a seance? Where is the spectre? Why haven’t the Alphans risen up and thrown off their oppressor long ago? Ben and Eugene discuss the Seance Spectre. Synopsis 2,012 days after leaving Earth’s orbit, the moon encounters a gaseous space anomaly that they name Tora. Because it bears no similarity to a planet, they think there might be a possibility that there is a planet there, but because that would once again raise the Alphans hopes of a possible new home, Koenig decides the best course of action is to clamp down a total information black out and lock down Command Center so that, when the thing that looks nothing like a planet turns out to be not a planet, no one’s hopes will be crushed like a little fluffy bunny run over by a lawn mower. Unfortunately, Sanderson, head of a Surface Expedition unit has gone totally nuts and is apparently bringing his whole team along to crazy town. He thinks Koenig is a tyrant and a dictator too wrapped up in his own egotistical power trip. Hmm, come to think of it, Sanderson might not be so nuts after all. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] He and his team have been holding hands in the dark and concentrating and he has predicted a beautiful green planet, perfect to the Alphans to settle on and exactly the kind of thing that would destroy Koenig’s brutal reign of terror. They attack Command Center, shooting everyone there trying to get Koenig to reveal the truth. Koenig; however, is in space and has just detected a sudden change in position of Tora. It is now on a collision course with the moon. He tries to alert Alpha but everyone in Command Center has been shot. When he returns, Sanderson and co get arrested and confined to Medical Center but not before Koenig agrees to fly into the cloud, without his onboard computer, to see if there’s a planet. In Medical Center Helena diagnoses them, especially Sanderson, with Green Sickness – a longing for green leafy salads that causes hallucinations. Koenig, doubtful that there’s a planet inside the cloud, plans to escape the cloud the instant there’s any indication of gravity, which does rather seem like he’s running away if there is a planet. Sanderson and Co escape, sabotage Alpha’s computers, causing Koenig and Maya to crash on the planet. Oh, did I mention? There is a planet. A worthless, lifeless one, with a poisonous atmosphere and no leafy green salads. The Eagle is damaged, blah blah blah…. Maya turns into a massive leafy green salad so Koenig can breathe her waste gasses… blah blah blah. What will we do about the planet? Blah blah blah, let’s detonate our nuclear waste and change the course of the moon. Etc etc etc Meanwhile, Sanderson is convinced that the moon will be going into orbit around a beautiful planet with leafy green salads for everyone, so he tries to stop Koenig from detonating the nuclear waste and he falls in a big hole and gets blown up real good. To cure everyone else of Green Sickness, Helena proscribes Aversion Therapy, forcing everyone to stare at leafy green salads until they’re sick of them.[/expand]