[3] It is 2012 days after leaving Earth orbit, and Moonbase Alpha is operating under strict security protocols.
Long-range analysis proved inconclusive, but within twenty-four hours the Moon will be in range to determine whether it is a habitable planet.
Command Centre is off-limits to all but senior executives and access to the information channels by the general population has been restricted.
Controlling his team (Cernik, Stevens and girlfriend Eva) with a Svengali-like charisma, he presents his latest conspiracy theory—how the Alpha elite are hiding the fact the Moon is approaching a habitable planet.
The four mutineers have slipped into a hypnotic trance and Sanderson's prophesies of a habitable planet drown out the Commander's warning.
The underlying cause of their behaviour is 'greensickness': a mental condition in which subconscious tensions are generated by a prolonged existence in an artificial environment.
In extreme cases, these tensions manifest a psychological craving for contact with nature, resulting in disorientation and hallucinations.
The doctor reckons the team's condition has been exacerbated by their job: month-long survey missions out on the barren lunar wasteland.
The data from Eagle Four's on-board computer shows Tora to be a mass of dust and atmospheric gasses, with electrical storm activity and various precipitations forming a freakish 'weather belt'.
However, Koenig's piloting instincts tell him something is amiss; approaching range one, he can feel external forces acting on the ship, defying the claim of zero gravity.
The Eagle is in poor shape—hull integrity compromised, voice transmission silenced, oxygen recycling plant damaged—but telemetry shows the engines and guidance system are functional.
When the ship lands, the emergency crew finds an unconscious Koenig surrounded by a dense thicket—which recedes as Maya ends her third one-hour stint as vegetation.
Koenig informs them that Tora is a lifeless proto-planet; they have arrived millions of years too early for the blue skies and green fields seen in their hallucinations.
Koenig suggests recreating by design the accident which started their mad journey, making the decision to detonate a nuclear-waste disposal site.
For the sake of the community, he and his followers remain in the travel tube—counting on the Commander's concern for their lives to prevent him detonating the waste pits.
Just as they are warned that Sanderson never evacuated, the crazed man bursts in on them and guns down Koenig with a stun-blast; threats against Maya's safety keep the others from landing.
From above, Verdeschi's Eagle Three spots a moon buggy parked amid the surrounding hills; Sanderson has driven from Alpha and is waiting for them.
The trigger's timer is set for eighteen minutes—the time left before the collision is unavoidable—and Koenig suits up and lopes across the lunar surface to the nearest waste silo.
It seems to be a success as everyone is bored stiff—with the exception of Verdeschi and Carter, who get great pleasure out of their nature watch as all their screen-shots include pin-up girls.
A sequence showing Verdeschi and Carter coordinating the personnel and equipment evacuation from two Embarkation Areas was dropped before filming.
After revealing that the two men are looking at pin-up girls, the viewer would have seen Maya transform into the last model to be pictured (portrayed by actress Venicia Day)[5] and walk enticingly across the room.
Though receiving greater exposure in her second round of episodes, her continued lack of contract and reduced salary (compared to the first series) had her agent keeping an eye out for other work.
Even after receiving the blessings of both Gerry Anderson and Fred Freiberger to leave, she still hoped to finish out the series; however, constant rescheduling repeatedly extended the Space: 1999 production schedule.
Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognise actor James Snell (who portrayed Stevens) from his previous appearance as the doomed Eagle co-pilot Cousteau in the first-series episode "Space Brain".
Sandor and his cronies are rank-and-file Alphans, not surface explorers, and their mutiny is depicted as a workers' revolt; no mention is made of greensickness or its psychology.
[9] In the 2003 novel The Forsaken written by John Kenneth Muir, it is stated the events of this story were one of the consequences of the death of the eponymous intelligence depicted in "Space Brain".