Space: 1999 "Spores" Comic book story Space: 1999 #3 B&W comic magazine published by Charlton Publications Story: Mike Pellowski Art: Adolf Buyalla March 1976

The spores of a space-borne fungus drift onto the Moon.

 

Read the brief story summary of "Spores" at Dark Worlds Quarterly

 

DIDJA KNOW?

 

"Spores" is a 15-page comic book story in issue #3 of Charlton Publications' black-and-white Space: 1999 magazine.

 

This is yet another story that begins with an object on a collision course with the Moon. Others are "Live Warhead", "Black Sun", and, of course, "Collision Course".

 

CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS STORY

 

Commander Koenig

Professor Bergman

Dr. Russell

Alan Carter

Paul Morrow

Hawk pilot #1 (unnamed, dies in this story)

Hawk pilot #2

assistant controller

botanical engineer (unnamed, dies in this story)

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

On page 1 of the story, the narrative mentions "John Koenig and his 311 comrades" at Moonbase Alpha. The 311 number comes from the number of personnel believed to be on the base when the Moon was blown out of Earth orbit, as stated in a newscast at the end of "Breakaway". Of course, that 311 included Koenig at the time! And, as perusers of PopApostle's Space: 1999 chronology know, the base gained about 50 more refugees from the top secret Moonbase Beta in "Operation Deliverance".

Koenig and Bergman enjoy playing chess together.

On page 1 of the story, Alan Carter is engaged in the old Earth custom of "standing on a corner watching all the girls go by." This line is a lyric from the 1956 song "Standing on a Corner" by the Four Lads.

In this story, Main Mission is for some reason referred to as Emergency Base.

As in "Live Warhead", on page 2 of the story Alpha sends up Hawks to intercept the meteor. However, Alpha itself is not known to have any Hawks (though a number of them are stored at the as-yet-undiscovered secret cache on the far side of the moon, as revealed by Admiral Walker in "Aftershock"). It might be best to here imagine that only Eagles are sent up to target the meteor.

To pilot the "Hawks", page 3 describes Carter and two other pilots proceeding from the "Emergency Base" to the adjoining launch bay. What is it with "Emergency Base"??? The writer continues using the term throughout the story and also the term "Moon City" as if the two were separate compounds on the Moon. Possibly, he was using some old promotional material for a new series concept that eventually became Space: 1999 (see Publicity Booklet for Menace in Space).

In the lead Hawk, Carter refers to the other two Hawks approaching the meteor as "brood".

The space spores that drift onto the Moon are seen to be about the size of a baseball.

On page 9, Bergman, at a loss on how to control the space fungus infecting the base, suggests, "Maybe COMCOM can give a course of action to follow!" In the aforementioned Publicity Booklet for Menace in Space, the Commander's Computer in his office is called COMCOM.

On page 11 of the story, Bergman relates his idea of producing heavy water through electrolysis and getting the fungi to absorb it. Heavy water is water in which the hydrogen component is mostly deuterium (heavy hydrogen, containing both a proton and neutron at its nucleus, as opposed to just a proton) instead of standard hydrogen. It can be produced through electrolysis, just as Bergman states. However, Bergman's concept of using heat to then turn the "heavy fungi" into miniature H-bombs to destroy them is pure fantasy.

On page 12 of the story, the commlock in Koenig's hands is about twice the size it should be!

On page 15 of the story, a couple of bulldozer-like track vehicles are seen to be part of the base's vehicle contingent.

The Eagle seen on page 15 of the story is missing its landing struts!

    After destroying the fungi that has invaded the base, personnel are sent to gather up the remaining dormant spores and load them into an Eagle which is then sent into space and set adrift. This seems like an awful waste of the base's limited supply of Eagles! It's better to think of it as the deadly spores were placed into an hermetically-sealed containment pod and the pod then ejected from the Eagle to drift into space.

    It would also be essentially impossible to gather up all the spores that had originally drifted onto the Moon. They fell widely across the surface of the Moon after all, not just on the base. Any expeditions onto the Moon's surface should be continuously warned not to pick up anything that looks like the large spores.

As the story ends, the Alphans are relieved to be rid of the spores, now drifting in space aboard the sacrificial Eagle. Carter then remarks, "Whoever finds those seeds and plants them will reap a bitter harvest!" and Dr. Russell responds, "Amen to that!" Are you frakking kidding me?! So, the Alphans are celebrating the idea that some other poor suckers will be killed by the spores! Hey, at least it's not us, right?? (Not to mention that throughout the story, the invading parasite is referred to as spores and fungi, not sprouting from seeds.)

To provide a good laugh at the end of the story, Carter ends up with an ironic case of athlete's foot.