Space: 1999 "Matter of Life and Death" TV episode Screenplay by Art Wallace and Johnny Byrne Directed by Charles Chrichton Original air date: January 16, 1976

When the Alphans discover a potentially habitable planet, Dr. Russell's long-missing husband suddenly appears to warn them off.

 

Read the episode summary at the Moonbase Alpha wiki

 

NOTES FROM THE SPACE: 1999 CHRONOLOGY

 

According to the Gaska timeline, this story takes place 130 days after leaving Earth orbit. 

 

DIDJA KNOW?

 

The title of this episode, "Matter of Life and Death", may be a bit of a pun considering the concept of anti-matter plays a role in the story.

 

The original script of this episode was written to be about the planet Meta and would have followed "Breakaway". But the producers wanted the series episodes to be able to be aired in any order after the pilot "Breakaway" episode, so the script was altered to make the planet Terra Nova instead and dialog added to suggest the Alphans had already had several adventures up to this point. Early in the episode, as his Eagle is flying low over the Earth-like surface of Terra Nova, Parks comments over the radio to Koenig, "Sir, you're not going to believe this, but I think we've made it this time." This may be intended to suggest that the Alphans have investigated at least one other planet before this, finding it/them unsuitable for colonization. In the PopApostle Space: 1999 chronology, this could refer to the Alphans' encounter with the rogue planet Meta on the edge of Earth's solar system in "Operation Deliverance".

 

CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

 

Commander Koenig

Alan Carter

Paul Morrow

Sandra Benes

Anna Wong

David Kano

Lee Oswald

Dr. Helena Russell

Professor Bergman

Bannion

Parks

Tanya Alexandre

Dr. Lee Russell

Dr. Mathius

Juno (Russells' dog, in photo only)

Tony Allan
Pierce Quinton

Professor Feldon (mentioned only)

Blake Maine

Alan Harris

Dr. Mathius

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

The opening few seconds of this episode has music that sounds similar to music used in a previous Gerry Anderson series, UFO.

Computer gives the planet which the Moon is approaching the name Terra Nova, Latin for "New Earth". 

At 4:11 on the Blu-ray, the medical gurney wheeled into the travel tube by the medical technicians has no mattress pad on it, but when they wheel it aboard the Eagle seconds later, it suddenly has a red mattress.

At 6:52 on the Blu-ray, we see a photo of Lee Russell and the Russells' dog. The novelization reveals that the name of the  dog is Juno. Juno was also the name of the Roman goddess of marriage. If the dog was named after the goddess, then, presumably, the dog is female. At 16:29, a small statue on a shelf in Helena's quarters may be of the goddess Juno.

Commander Koenig discusses with Helena how her husband, Lee Russell, could possibly be with them now, "billions of miles" from where he was lost at Jupiter. The end of "Black Sun" implies that the Moon has been delivered into another solar system. If so, that means the Moon is many, many trillions of miles, at least, from Jupiter, as even the closest solar system to Earth's is around 25 trillion miles away (4.37 light-years).

The shot of the Moon approaching Terra Nova at 10:03 on the Blu-ray uses an actual photo of the far side of the Moon.

Morrow says that a total evacuation of Moonbase Alpha would take 48 hours.

Dr. Mathius brings Lee Russell out of his stupor with a drug called metrazine. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious drug.

A model of a Saturn V rocket is seen in Bergman's lab at 18:09 on the Blu-ray.

The books seen on a shelf behind Helena in her quarters at 28:27 on the Blu-ray appear to be volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica.

This episode reveals that Moonbase Alpha apparently has a dedicated autopsy room! Does a base of only ~300 personnel really have so many deaths that they need one (particularly since the Moon's exit from the Earth system was never foreseen)? The cause of most human deaths can be determined by standard medical personnel without the need for an autopsy.

The novelization reveals that the medical technician who is assisting Dr. Mathius with the autopsy on Lee Russell's body is named Blake Maine. He appears again in Survival and "Devil's Planet".

As the Eagle carrying Koenig's landing party prepares for liftoff at 33:35 on the Blu-ray, Carter announces 20 seconds to lift-off. But his intermittent countdown after that takes about 40 seconds to complete!

Carter remarks that as long as the landing party leaves their locator beams on, there should be no trouble finding them if something happens on the planet's surface. Presumably, the locator beams are part of the personnels' commlocks. Locator beams are also mentioned later in "Dragon's Domain".

The birds seen among the tree branches on Terra Nova are a scarlet macaw and two blue-and-yelllow macaws.

    At the end of the episode, Kano tells Koenig and Bergman that the feasibility studies he'd been running through Main Computer revealed their present trajectory would take them past something like 10 million planets, which should include 3,600 Earth-type planets, statistically speaking, over the course of about 2500 years.

    Kano says the 3,600 Earth-type planets works out to 10 planets for every member of Alpha. That suggests about 360 people on Alpha, which works pretty closely with the 311 personnel said to be there at the end of "Breakaway", plus the about 50 refugees from Moonbase Beta acquired in "Operation Deliverance" (though there have been a few deaths since then).

Notes from the novelization of "Matter of Life and Death" by E.C. Tubb as it appears in the Space: 1999 Year One omnibus published by Powys Media. The page numbers presented here come from the full Space: 1999 Year One omnibus. "Matter of Life and Death" begins on page 160 of the book. There will also be notes (as appropriate) from the original adaptation of "Matter of Life and Death" by Tubb as it appeared in Space: 1999 - Breakaway, a merged novelization of the episodes "Breakaway", "Matter of Life and Death", "Ring Around The Moon", and "Black Sun", first published by Pocket Books in 1975. (Roughly speaking, chapters 5-8 cover the events of "Matter of Life and Death").

Commander Alex Preston (mentioned only, deceased)

Dan Mateo

Laura Adams 

On page 160, Koenig is still having some minor pain in his ribs, an injury incurred when his Eagle had crashed (in "Breakaway") and secondary bruising when he had tussled with Preston (in "Operation Deliverance").

Also on page 160, Koenig reflects on the past months since the Moon was torn out of Earth's orbit. How many months is not stated. According to my calculations in the study of "Ring Around the Moon", that episode took place 56 days after leaving Earth orbit, so this must be at least 60 days since leaving Earth orbit. According to the Gaska timeline, this story takes place 130 days after leaving Earth orbit. 

    The Recreation Section of Moonbase Alpha is depicted for the first time here. It is seen in several later episodes. A part of it not seen in the episode, but described here in the novelization, is that it has a transparent roof looking out to the stars.

    Koenig almost accidentally interrupts an intimate moment between Dan Mateo and Laura Adams. This pair is seen again in "The Troubled Spirit". Koenig feels some envy towards the pair here. Perhaps he's thinking of his increasing attraction to Helena?

    In the original Pocket Books novelization from 1975, the intimate pair in the rec center is Ted Clifford and Aretha Robinson instead. Ted Clifford dies in "Ring Around the Moon".

On page 161, Bergman tells Koenig he's perfected his anti-gravity shield, thanks to their experiences with the Tritonian probe ("Ring Around the Moon") and the black sun ("Black Sun") and it can now be installed on every Eagle and it will extend their ranges enormously and give "full protection against any external dangers."

Also on page 161, Koenig discusses with Bergman the fact that the planet they are nearing just happens to be in the Goldilocks zone. The "Goldilocks zone" (more officially called the "circumstellar habitable zone" or CHZ) is the range around a sun a planet can have as an orbit that allows liquid water on the surface, provided the planet also has an acceptable atmospheric pressure. The "Goldilocks zone" appellation is an allusion to the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", in which the girl, Goldilocks, enters the house of the three bears and tries out many objects (such as cooked food and beds), rejecting the ones of most extreme condition, and settling on the ones that are "just right".

    Bergman admits that the Moon coming upon a planet that seems perfect for human life had an infinitesimal chance of happening by all the logic they know. What Bergman doesn't speculate is that the Mysterious Unknown Force most likely guided the Moon there for a reason.

    Koenig muses to himself about another paradise that had a snake in the garden and maybe this planet would, too. This is a reference to the serpent in the Biblical Garden of Eden, i.e. Satan.

In the original Pocket Books novelization from 1975, Terra Nova is actually the planet Meta, renamed by the overly-optimistic Alphans. The story takes place on the edges of Earth's solar system, shortly after the events of "Breakaway". In the Powys timeline, Meta was investigated by the Alphans during the events of "Operation Deliverance".

On page 168, Koenig uses the term "Q.E.D." This stands for the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, "what was to be demonstrated".

On page 171, Helena has a dream of looking down from a cliff to the waves crashing on the Cornish coast. This refers to the Cornwall region on the tip of the South West Peninsula of England.

On page 172, Dr. Mathius is said to be readying a hypospray to medicate the unbridled Lee Russell. As far as I can tell, this is the first mention of a hypospray in Space: 1999. A hypospray is a fictitious device used to inject medication into a subject, invented for the 1966-1969 TV series Star Trek. Since then, the term has occasionally popped up in other science-fiction franchises as it as here.

On page 174, Koenig reflects on his friendship with Bergman and his gratefulness that Bergman had been there during the events of September 13th 1999. This date, of course, is the day the Moon was blown out of Earth orbit in "Breakaway".

On page 176, Bergman tells Koenig of some experiments that had once been conductedon some unstable ore by a Professor Feldon at the Deimos Laboratory which resulted in something close to antimatter. Possibly the Deimos Laboratory is on the Martian moon of Deimos, just going by the name.

On page 180, the surface of Terra Nova is described as beautiful like the stuff of legends such as Paradise, Avalon, Hesperus, Arcadia, and the Elysian Fields. Paradise is the world of the afterlife in many religions. Avalon is a beautiful island in British Arthurian legend. Hesperus is the lovely planet Venus (the Evening Star) in Greek mythology. Arcadia was a utopia in Greek mythology. The Elysian Fields were the final resting place of the heroic in Greek mythology.

The fruit Helena and Koenig eat on the planet's surface seems to change to the flavor of anything they think of. They compare it to the Tree of Life, "The perfect food which was all things to all men." The concept of a "tree of life" is an archetype of many world religions, mythologies, and philosophies. In the Book of Genesis of the Christian Bible, the tree of life existed in the Garden of Eden.

Helena's comments to Koenig on page 181 about starting a new civilization on Terra Nova are similar in general to what other Alphans say about finding a new world to live on in "The Hope of Mankind?".

On page 185, Lee Russell gives a hint to Helena that the "mysterious unknown force" is working to help the Alphans once again, saying, "You know so little. Children thrown into the dark, afraid, facing forces and entities you cannot understand. And yet about you there is something commendable. A sensitivity, a concern--it must not be wasted."

On page 186, Lee seems to say that there is some form of intelligent life living deep beneath the surface of Terra Nova.

Notes from the "The Curse of Terra Nova" adaptation of "Matter of Life and Death"   German comic strip Zack #16 Koralle-Verlag GmbH Text: Farinas Art: Cardona July 26, 1978

 

Zack was a German comic magazine, 17 issues of which featured a Space: 1999 strip. Many of the strips were original stories, others adaptations of the televised episodes. All were written by Farinas and drawn by Cardona (Spanish artist José Maria Cardona Blasi).

 

In the comic strip, Lee Russell tells Koenig and Bergman during his interrogation that the force which would kill them on Terra Nova can't appear to them because it is too much for the human brain, and human knowledge is too small.

 

The bird seen on Terra Nova on page 8, panel 4 of the story appears similar to some species of toucan. 

 

MEMORABLE DIALOG

 

Terra Nova.mp3

are you Helena?.mp3

matter never dies.mp3

how much older you'll be.mp3 

 

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