Space: 1999 "Another Time, Another Place" TV episode Screenplay by Johnny Byrne Directed by David Tomblin Original air date: February 6, 1976

Passing through a temporal anomaly in space, the Moon and its popluation is duplicated and the split Alphans experience very different fates.

 

Read the episode summary at the Moonbase Alpha wiki

 

CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

 

David Kano

Sandra Benes

Tanya Alexandre

Alan Carter

Paul Morrow

Lee Oswald

Regina Kesslann

Commander Koenig

Dr. Russell

Professor Bergman

Dr. Mathius

Tony Allan

Alan Harris

doppelganger Regina Kesslann

doppelganger Victor Bergman

doppelganger Sandra Benes

doppelganger Helena Russell

doppelganger Paul Morrow

doppelganger Tanya Alexandre

doppelganger David Kano

doppelganger Paul and Sandra's son

doppelganger Paul and Sandra's daughter

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

At 10:18 on the Blu-ray, the commlock on Dr. Russell's belt does not have the usual numbers printed on the buttons.

The statistics about Earth's distance from the Sun, diameter, and rotational period given by Computer are accurate.

 As the Moon enters Earth's solar system, Paul says that Computer confirms there are nine planets in the system. But it should be ten planets since the discovery of the distant planet Meta sometime before "Breakaway" (at least if we're counting Pluto, which was still considered a planet in 1999, at least in our universe; in 2006 Pluto was downgraded to "dwarf planet", existing with several others in the solar system). In the Powys novelization of this episode, Paul's statement has been corrected to ten planets, but in the original Pocket Books version, Paul says it is eleven planets! That is because in the original TV episodes, both Meta and Terra Nova ("Matter of Life and Death") are part of the Earth system and Terra Nova was encountered before the Moon passed through the black sun into a very distant part of space in "Black Sun". In the Powys timeline, "Matter of Life and Death" takes place after the journey through the black hole.

At 13:41 on the Blu-ray, Commander Koenig's communications screen in his office is labeled as a Pclick 4480. This is a fictitious brand/model.

At 13:55 on the Blu-ray, Koenig's commlock appears to be the same "fake" one that was on his person in one scene of "Earthbound".

After the Moon-split occurs and Regina dies, Dr. Russell examines the body and scans reveal it had two brains inside the skull. It seems like an exaggeration to suggest that two brains could exist in one human skull, but it is also an eerie hint of body horror for the episode.

At 24:11 on the Blu-ray there are couches in Koenig's office we've not seen before.

Bergman reports that Earth's axis has changed its tilt by 5-6 degrees.

The Alphans find that an area on Earth called Santa Maria is likely the only place left on the planet capable of supporting life. Though there is a real world city called Santa Maria in the general area of Bergman's map (in California), it seems he is more generally referring to the Santa Maria Valley, of which the city is a part. The "future Alphans" they soon find living there seem to confirm this by saying there are other habitations "all through the valley." Bergman's map does not really pinpoint the valley very accurately though.

When Koenig and Carter enter the abandoned Moonbase Alpha on the doppelganger Moon, notice that there is no artificial gravity. They walk as if they are walking on the bare surface of the Moon.

For some reason, the space helmets on the dead bodies of the doppelganger Koenig and Carter have their name stickers under the clear visors instead of above the visors as our Alphans have. Why should they be different?

The examination performed by Dr. Russell on the bodies of the doppelganger Koenig and Carter show they died five years ago, which suggests the doppelganger Moon arrived at Earth five years before the Moon we follow here.

Bergman remarks that they need at least 24 hours for total evacuation of the base. But, in "Matter of Life and Death", it was stated that evacuation would take 48 hours. Why the difference? I suppose it could be that after the events of "Matter of Life and Death", Koenig ordered a review of the Operation Exodus procedures to make it possible to evacuate more quickly, such as having a stock of supplies stacked and ready to be loaded immediately into Eagles, personnel having their own bug-out kits ready to go, etc.

The doppelganger Bergman explains to Koenig that the planet they are on is Earth, but not the world they knew. He says evidence of a past civilization lies everywhere, perhaps of another Atlantis. His remarks seem to say that this is an alternate universe. Atlantis, of course, is a mythological land mass that once harbored advanced civilization that later suffered a severe cataclysm and sank beneath the ocean.

What appear to be gravity towers like those around Moonbase Alpha are seen within the Earth settlement. Presumably they are used for something other than gravity now.

The doppelganger Sandra and Paul are married. Doppelganger John and Helena were also married before his death in the crashed Eagle on the Moon.

At 42:46 on the Blu-ray, a stringed musical instrument is seen hanging on a wall in the doppelganger Helena's domicile. It appears to be a mandolin.

When the two Moons re-merge, Carter wonders if their doppelgangers made it, if they survived. Koenig counters, "Did they ever really exist?" But, Dr. Russell picks up the roses she brought back from Bergman's garden on Earth. Since they still exist, mustn't the duplicate Alphans as well?

Notes from the novelization of "Another Time, Another Place" by John Rankine 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. "Another Time, Another Place" begins on page 188 of the book. There will also be notes (as appropriate) from the original adaptation of "Another Time, Another Place" by Rankine as it appeared in Space: 1999 - Moon Odyssey, a merged novelization of the episodes "Alpha Child", "The Last Sunset", "Voyager's Return", and "Another Time, Another Place", first published by Pocket Books in 1975. (Roughly speaking, chapters 7-8 cover the events of "Another Time, Another Place").

Ken Lucas

doppelganger Bill Fraser

doppelganger Annette Fraser

doppelganger Bill and Annette Fraser's daughter

doppelganger Bill and Annette Fraser's son 

Professor Bergman has some speculations on the possibility of maneuvering the Moon in some way to increase their chances of making planetfall. Did he ever implement these for later planetfalls?

The novelization reveals that Sandra was in the process of training Regina as a stand-in for herself as part of a protocol Commander Koenig had implemented for all senior personnel.

When the Alphans realize the Moon has been thrust back into Earth's system on page 193, it is referred to as their Ithaca. This is a reference to the Greek island of Ithaca, to which the hero Odysseus seeks to return in Homer's classic tale of the Odyssey.

On page 195, artist Ken Lucas provides some art supplies to Dr. Mathias for Regina's use while she recovers in the medical center. Lucas is later mentioned in the novelization of "End of Eternity" and appears in Resurrection.

On page 197, the crazed Regina is described as "moving jerkily in her floating flimsy wrap like a Maenad maddened and stung by an ivy leaf brew." The maenads were the female followers of Dionysus, Greek god of winemaking, vegetation, and insanity; they often wore ivy or decorated objects with it.

On page 199, Bergman, hearing Alpha's own navigation signal coming at them from the duplicate Moon orbiting Earth, struggles to remember something that is more than déjà vu, less than memory, and which has been nagging at him since their Moon's emergence from the black sun. At the end of the novelization of "Black Sun", it seemed that the mysterious unknown force had taken away from Bergman the memory of Meta being the Moon somehow returned to the outskirts of the Sol system, as he'd realized at the end of "Operation Deliverance".

    Page 202 depicts our first glimpse of real physical intimacy between John and Helena. Having just completed examinations of the bodies of the doppelganger Koenig and Carter, and knowing what happened to Regina, she fears for John's life in his intention to go down to the Santa Maria Valley on Earth, and she warns him to be careful, placing her head on his chest as they stand together and he strokes her hair. And on page 203, as they decide that she must accompany him and Carter to Earth's surface for a Phase One probe, he slides his hands under the silky bell of fair hair and touches her forehead with his mouth.

    Later, aboard the Eagle, while Carter is in the command module piloting, John and Helena are alone in the passenger module and its implied they make love for the first time. 

Page 204 states that the tune the doppelganger Bergman is whistling while he works on the plants at the settlement is Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".

After the Moon-merge on page 210, the Alphans in Main Mission are described as wondering if they were as alone as a wandering Ka or if what they saw on the big screen was real. Ka is an ancient Egyptian term for what we would today probably call a soul.

Notes from the "Journey to the Future" adaptation of "Another Time, Another Place" German comic strip Zack #24 Koralle-Verlag GmbH Text: Farinas Art: Cardona November 17, 1977

 

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).

 

On the last panel of page 1 of the story, Regina's dialog balloon is blank!

 

In this comic strip, the Moon not only doubles...it quintuples! What happened to the Alphans of all those other Moons aside from the story of the two we actually see here?

 

On page 4 of the story, Regina sees a double reflection of herself in the medical center mirror and then she smashes the mirror in terror. In the televised episode, she sees just a single image of herself.

 

In the TV episode, Regina dies, but in this comic strip, she survives her ordeal. At the end of the story, Koenig even says she is healthy again.

 

In the comic strip it is stated plainly that the evidence suggested Earth had been through a nuclear war that wiped out civilization some time in the past. 

 

On page 11 of the story, the interior of the command module of the Eagle is larger than seen in the TV episodes and even has a navigator chair for Koenig! And why would Helena be sitting in the co-pilot's seat next to Carter?!

 

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

 

Why did the Eagle piloted by the doppelganger Koenig and Carter crash "five years ago"? No explanation is given.

 

MEMORABLE DIALOG

 

beyond explanation.mp3

Earth orbit confirmed.mp3

not the world we knew.mp3

another Atlantis, perhaps.mp3

did they ever really exist?.mp3

 

Back to Space: 1999 Episode Studies