Episodes
Voyager's Return (Year 1 / Episode 12)
ITC Press Release
"VOYAGER'S RETURN"
Original ITC press release
Grim danger emerges from the past. Moonbase is threatened with destruction from an unmanned spacecraft sent up from Earth many years earlier, with tragedy in its wake. Even worse lies ahead from outer space victims seeking revenge.
The clock rolls back fro Commander John Koenig (MARTIN LANDAU) and Moonbase Alpha personnel when a spaceship is seen approaching, a voice from its computer signalling that this is Voyager One, with greetings from the people of Planet Earth.
Voyager One was launched back in 1985, long before the explosion which sent the moon out of orbit. It has been polluting space ever since because of a tragic miscalculation in its Queller Drive engine, causing a lethal pollution producing fast neutrons which annihilate matter. Realization of this came when Voyager Two was launched and the Queller Drive activated too soon, causing the deaths of an entire scientific colony on the moon.
The danger Moonbase is now in is made clear when two Eagles on reconnaissance are caught in violent vibrations. Voyager One must either be destroyed or its Queller Drive de-activated. Professor Bergman (BARRY MORSE) protests that to destroy it would mean loss of all the valuable information it had gathered during its years in space. If possible, it must be saved and the one man who might be able to do so is scientist Dr. Ernst Linden (JEREMY KEMP), of the experimental Laboratory, who is asked if there are any means of over-riding the Voyager One computer's security codes and get access to the command circuit, enabling instructions to be given to shut down the drive.
Although it is not realized at the time, Dr. Linden is most certainly the only man capable of doing this. He is, in fact, Ernst Queller. He changed his name after the disaster caused by Voyager Two. But can even he achieve this new assignment? He is facing a desperate race against time, and the situation takes a grim turn when his assistant, Jim Haines (BARRY STOKES), whose parents were lost in the early disaster, discovers his real identity and, losing his temper, strikes Dr. Linden with such force that he is incapacitated. Dr. Helena Russell (BARBARA BAIN) struggles to revive the injured man, struggling against the clock. Only minutes remain before Koenig must decide to give the destruct order.
Voyager One is saved at the last moment and is brought to a safe landing on the moon, but there is even greater drama ahead with the materialisation of a humanoid alien, and the appearance of three alien spaceships. The strange newcomer introduces himself as Aachon (ALEX SCOTT), "Chief Justifier of the Worlds of Sidon", seeking vengeance for the millions whose lives were extinguished when the Queller Drive decimated two of those worlds...........
NB All spelling and punctuation as in the original.
SCREENPLAY BY JOHNNY BYRNE
DIRECTED BY BOB KELLETT
Guest Star
JEREMY KEMP
Guest Artist
BARRY STOKES
with
PRENTIS HANCOCK as PAUL MORROW
CLIFTON JONES as DAVID KANO
ZIENIA MERTON as SANDRA BENES
ANTON PHILLIPS as DR. MATHIAS
NICK TATE as ALAN CARTER
JOHN HAMILL as DOMINIX
EVA RUEBER-STAIER as JANE
Episodes are in production order.
