User Reviews

'Space 1999' has been compared to Star Trek Voyager. If you can get past the premise of the show, that astronauts on 'Moon Base Alpha' are stranded on the Moon after a nuclear accident causes the Moon to leave the solar system, it's a great show. There's a hot shape-shifting alien (Maya), and each week, as the Moon travels thru the galaxy those on Moon Base Alpha meet various other aliens. They have small fighter-like spacecraft, and, who knows, maybe they did have some kind of super-reactor powering their base.

In this episode, 'The Last Enemy', as the Moon passes by another star system a ship from one of the planets lands near Moon Base Alpha. The alien ship launches some hellacious looking missiles towards the Moon Base, and, a commercial is cued. After commercial - the missiles roar over Moon Base Alpha - towards another planet in the solar system. The aliens on the ship contact Commander Koenig, saying, 'Not to worry, we have nothing against you, this is a private matter between us and the other planet of the solar system'.

Are these two planets at war?

Commander Koenig takes a Moon-buggy out and visits the alien ship. Their commander isn't just female, they're all females. Their whole planet is populated by females. Of course, Koenig (Martin Landau) has a small affair with the commander of the alien ship.

Meanwhile, Moon Base Alpha receives a transmission from the other planet (and they're all men) - a planet filled with men. Their leader saying, 'if you don't put a stop to what's happening yourselves we're going to destroy this enemy ship and you along with it'.

It turns out, these two planets have been at war with one another, but neither side can gain an advantage. That is, until the Moon shows up.

There are some negotiations in 'The Last Enemy', but in the end, Koenig destroys the alien ship, saving Moon Base Alpha once again.

The Moonbase comes upon a solar system where there are two planets in the same orbit but always directly on the opposite side of their sun. The Alphans think they are lucky--both planets look habitable and they can possible take their choice of which one to colonize. However, what they don't know is that the two planets have been at war for ages and they are about to walk into the middle of it.

Soon, one of the planets sends a warship to the Moon. The base naturally thinks it's under attack, but they are unable to do anything--as the warship has some sort of defense system is able to disable all the Eagle ships. But, the planet's intention is NOT to fight the humans, but simply to use the Moon as a staging site for an attack on the other planet. But, before this can occur, the planet shoots the warship--killing most of the inhabitants. As a result, an escape pod is sent to Moonbase--and the woman inside demands sanctuary! Now, like it or not, Moonbase is in the middle of a war in which it has no interest. Naturally, Commander Koenig is mad...but what can he do? Can Moonbase survive in the midst of two mortal enemies that have no compunction about putting them in the middle?! Perhaps this episode is meant to be a metaphor for the proxy war that had been occurring between the US and USSR from the end of WWII until almost 1990. If it wasn't intended as this, it sure could be seen as an argument against using smaller nations in such a way (such as Vietnam and Afghanistan). So, unlike most episodes, this one had some practically applicability--something that often makes sci-fi more interesting. Such an idea already was used on the original "Star Trek" in "A Private Little War".

So is it worth seeing? Well, yes--very much so. This is one of the more interesting episodes and I loved that the aliens on both sides were so amoral and loathsome. They used the Alphans again and again and their total disregard for them made this rather entertaining--especially since too many aliens during the first season were incredibly cerebral and dull. These jerks were anything but dull! And, I really loved how Koenig sorted out the problem--it was totally cool! All in all, this is one of the best episodes of Season 1--and one that is still very watchable today.