Space: 1999 # 015
Doesn’t work. Too slow and too silly.
- A party of Alphans (that we’ve never met and consequently have no reason to care about) has disappeared. All the early scenes involve the regulars talking about them and then searching the planet for them. Talking and walking… for scene after scene after scene. Boring.
- John and Helena disappear from the narrative early on and the focus shifts to Alan and Sandra. This is a welcome change - as it is always good to see Alan at the forefront - but they accomplish nothing much, either. He’s brave, she’s scared, that’s about it.
- Eventually both Alan and Sandra are attacked (she’s kidnapped!) and we then begin to see what the story is about: the missing Alphans have been regressed to cavemen!
- There then follows a lot of grunting and screaming, to fill out the hour.
- The production values are superb, and there is a valiant attempt in the final scene to bring meaning and depth to proceedings, but this is a bad episode.
