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Space:1999: Look-In, 1976
 For issue 6 of Look-In, there was a change around. With the advent of a new series of The Tomorrow People, the strip was promoted back to colour and now drawn again by John M. Burns. Space:1999, by turn, was now drawn by Mike Noble, who had been working on The Tomorrow People for the past few months, and 'demoted' to black and white - a move possibly due to the series being relegated to Saturday mornings in the London region.
Noble, who had drawn Fireball XL5, Zero X, Captain Scarlet and Star Trek for TV21, had been with Look-In from the first issue, working on Timeslip, Follyfoot and Black Beauty. With a deceptively minimal, dynamic line and wash art, Noble epitomised the sleek lines and action of the TV21 era, and his clean style captured beautifully the look of Moonbase Alpha and the Eagles. Whereas Burns' views of Main Mission were tight and almost claustrophobic, usually centred on the characters with a hint of the background, Noble often used a wide shot that gave an impressive sense of scale even in small frames.
 As Noble took over the strip, it also seemed that Angus Allan hit his stride with the stories. Whereas the first strips and annual had fallen back on straightforward adventure ideas and science-fiction cliches, Allan now tackled some of the human issues of being stranded in space. This epiphany is also apparent in his second Space:1999 annual (which would be published later in 1976 but was probably being written at the same time as these strips), notably in the opening story Survival - Exodus, which uses the discussion by two Alphan wives as a backdrop to a survey of a new planet. Allan would appear to have been inspired by some episodes of the television series itself, as well as his previous work for the Gerry Anderson strips, such as Captain Scarlet.
This is apparent in the first black and white story, where a dead crewman reappears alive but under an alien influence on a newly explored planet. A similar reuse of the 'Mysteron' concept would be used in Look-In again by Allan in a Tomorrow People strip at the end of 1977, where a murderous alien assassin 'as facially similar as to make no odds' replaces a worker on the Galactic Trig, and for an intriguing teaser in the first colour Buck Rogers In The 25th Century strip in 1980.
But it is here that Allan makes Moonbase Alpha more of a community as well as a springboard for adventures in space. While obviously integral to the plot, the frames showing Koenig leading a funeral service add a much needed human touch missing from earlier stories (and, some would say, from the series itself). This is also the first story where Operation Exodus is seen in the strip, and Allan gives us the views of other Alphans, making it clear he thought whole families were living on the base. We see the Alphans enjoying a movie in the next story, and taking Tina Morand to see a film sparks the jealousy between Paluzzi and Kassel that results in murder for the seventh strip. While the accent is still on adventure, and the families issue is debatable, it did give the strip a much wider scope and deservedly put these in the realm of classics alongside its TV21 counterparts.
Space:1999 strip guide - part two
Story Four
Written by Angus P. Allan. Drawn by Mike Noble. Pages 20 & 21, b/w.
 Part 1 - Issue 06, week ending 31 January 1976
The atmosphere is tense in the hospital unit of Moonbase Alpha! Doctor Helena Russell and her assistant, Doctor Mathias, fight for the life of service crewman Baker, struck down by a heart attack...
Despite every attempt being made to revive him, Baker dies, and Helena goes to tell Koenig. But the commander is busy in Main Mission as a new habitable planet has been detected. As preparations are made for an initial exploration, Koenig leads a service for the 'burial' of Baker in deep space - his body launched in a small capsule into the dark void. Koenig and Bergman take an Eagle down to the planet, which does not repond to hails, and so could be in a primitive stage of development. But the landscape is a lush promising paradise, and they land... only to see Baker walk out of the foliage, welcoming them...
Part 2 - Issue 07, week ending 07 February 1976
Warning the Eagle pilot to return to Alpha if anything should happen to them, Koenig and Bergman disembark to confront Baker. The crewman welcomes them to Lassa, and he lives again by the power of the Great Makka. As Koenig transmits data to the base computer, Helena launches an Eagle to investigate Baker's capsule. But when Alan Carter nears it in space, it explodes, denying them analysis. Bergman's own tests show Baker to be normal, but he refuses to return to Alpha. There is a struggle but the crewman flings Koenig and Bergman off, fleeing back into the underground claiming this should be the Alphan's new home...
Part 3 - Issue 08, week ending 14 February 1976
Giving chase, Koenig and Bergman are flung back by a force field. The Eagle pilot goes to assist, and the three return to Alpha as Koenig believes the planet is dangerous. At a conference of the Alpha section chiefs, the commander outlines his concerns - the planet is perfect for them, but Makka is an unknown, and he must have contact before giving the order for Exodus. On Lassa itself, Baker is also in a meeting with Makka, a great statue atop a glowing mechanism, and is given the mission of leading the Alphans to the planet, or being condemned to eternal hell...
 Part 4 - Issue 09, week ending 21 February 1976
Delegations from different sections of Alpha are starting to insist Koenig give the order to go to the planet, but despite growing unease and a potential mutiny, the commander leaves for Lassa alone to confront Makka. On the planet, Koenig is once again confronted by Baker, who reveals Makka needs worshippers - but they must die first in order to join the ranks of the living dead. Koenig tries to open communications to Alpha to reveal this to everyone, but Makka is causing static, and Main Mission cannot read the signal...
Part 5 - Issue 10, week ending 28 February 1976
Controller Paul Morrow decides to activate Project Exodus - but with all Eagles fully armed in case of trouble. As services and families prepare, Bergman is concerned Koenig is being deliberately prevented from making contact with them. And on Lassa, Baker is leading the commander to contact with Makka, who remains an voice from an unseen source to him. Baker makes the conclusion obvious - the Alphans are on their way, to become servants of Makka, but Koenig will remain an outsider. With a blinding flash, Koenig hurled to the ground...
Part 6 - Issue 11, week ending 06 March 1976
With Koenig unconvinced, Baker's usefulness is at an end, and he is destroyed. But Koenig himself now struggles through a landscape transformed to a barren, near airless, rockscape - the true appearance of planet Lassa - back to the Eagle. Exodus is already in operation, and waves of Eagles lift from the moonbase. One of Makka's wraithlike slaves asks what will become of the commander, and the reply is he will be allowed to live long enough to see the Alphans in his vision of paradise, longing to be with them before he withers to dust. Under the Eagle, Koenig makes one last despairing attempt to contact the base, but he is too late - Main Mission is already deserted as the last flight of Eagles lifts off...
Part 7 - Issue 12, week ending 13 March 1976
In one of the lead Eagles, Morrow and Helena are still unable to read Koenig on long-range scanners. The commander is fighting for survival as Makka, now finally seen, creates a dust storm. The Alphans will still see Lassa as a paradise, but they will be landing in a sea of molten lava. Sheer panic gives Koenig the final strength to reach the Eagle, and he climbs aboard. As the first Eagles approach for landing, the commander lifts off and heads on a frantic collision course for Morrow's Eagle. Seeing his intent, Helena orders him to the fleet to climb - as a furious and cheated Makka reveals the reality of Lassa's desolation to them. Koenig orders them back to Moonbase - their home for now - and an explanation which defies experience.
Reprinted:
• TV Junior Number 1, March 1978 (Portugal - complete b/w compilation) as Espaco 1999.
Where Eagles Daren't...
• Amazingly, no Eagles are destroyed in this story.
Notes:
• A gripping story, with some similarities to the episode 'Guardian Of Piri', and this website's candidate for the best strip of the entire run.
• Doctor Mathias makes his debut in the strip, and this is the first time we see Project Exodus in operation, making for a nail-biting cliffhanger for the final part.
 • As artist Mike Noble relates, he never had time to watch the series on television, so for these first stories, he draws the Eagles with only three main engines (which was all that was apparent from the reference he was given), and it was seemingly one of the few times he received letters from readers, who pointed out the error.
• Koenig and Bergman are also shown leaving and entering their Eagle by use of a ladder which emerges from the command module (right) - someone had mistaken the 'Moonbase Alpha' emblem for a hatch...
• Coinciding with the first part of this story, Look-In ran a competition to visit Pinewood Studios and meet the stars of the series, which was currently starting production on the second series. Runners-up would win the first six Space:1999 novels.
• This story was adapted as a set of colour artwork cards in Malaysia, part of a set including other television series such as Kojak, Marine Boy and The Six Million Dollar Man.
• The Fanderson magazine FAB reference title for this story is The Living Dead.
• John Stewart, at his Look-Out website, refers to this story as Danger in Paradise.
• You can read the entire strip at www.space1999.net.
Story Five
Written by Angus P. Allan. Drawn by Mike Noble. Pages 20 & 21, b/w.
Part 1 - Issue 13, week ending 20 March 1976
Dressed in his robes of untanned animal skin, the High Priest of the ancient community raises his arms to the sun...
It is written that the gods will send messengers from the skies, and a massive chalk figure has been carved on a hillside so they will know where to be find the tribe. But there is no response...
The film ends in the Moonbase Alpha cinema, and the audience chat about it as they leave. Professor Bergman has been to the real carving - The Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex - many times, and ponders if it really was carved by primitives as a signal to the gods. But there is a new danger, and radio emmissions from an invisible source in the Moon's path indicate a collision course with a black sun. The collapsed star's immense gravity can crush the Moon out of existence, and the runaway satellite is already accelerating towards it. Koenig takes charge of a flight of Eagles carrying nuclear fission devices in the hope of blasting the Moon away from it, and Helena and Bergman go with him. But in flight, Koenig suddenly has a vision of the Long Man carving...
Part 2 - Issue 14, week ending 27 March 1976
The flight of Eagles despatch their deadly cargo of fission devices in space, and magnetic groupers on their spherical casings bring them together to form a barrier. But Alan Carter notices the commander's Eagle has not shed its bombs and is continuing on. Calls are ignored, and the Eagles are ordered back to Alpha as there can be no delay in detonation. Koenig, Helena and Bergman, from their own perspective, appear to have gone through a warp back to Earth, and land in Sussex right next to the Long Man carving. On Alpha though, Paul Morrow has no option but to declare them missing, presumed dead, and orders the safety shutdown in preparation for the fission detonation...
Part 3 - Issue 15, week ending 03 April 1976
David Kano believes there may still be a chance but impulsively - and correctly - Paul Morrow triggers the fission detonation, and space ignites into a wall of fire ahead of the Moon. The effect of the shockwave and gravitational forces on Alpha are like the Breakaway all over again but as before, while damage is extensive, the base survives and readings show the Moon to have veered away from the black sun. Alan Carter believes now that even if Koenig and the others had survived the black sun, the blast must have killed them. But elsewhere, the commander, Helena and Bergman are enjoying the fresh air and countryside of Earth, even though they have no idea how they got there...
Part 4 - Issue 16, week ending 10 April 1976
Now in charge of Alpha, Paul Morrow is taking stock of the damage and loss of life when Sandra Benes finds the commander's Eagle, hanging in space! Kano has an explanation though, that time slows near a black sun and the Eagle is an illusion of that effect, which will be visible for centuries. The commander and the others must be dead for certain. Elsewhere, Koenig, Helena and Bergman are very much alive, but may not stay that way for long. Primitives bear down on them, and attempt to smash them to the ground...
 Part 5 - Issue 17, week ending 17 April 1976
While Paul Morrow and Sandra discuss the image of the Eagle, Koenig and the others fight for survival. The afray is stopped by the arrival of a tribal leader. Unable to understand each other's speech, Koenig tries to show the leader where they habe come from by drawing in the dirt. Likewise, the leader draws what appears to be a UFO, with bizarre alien creatures emerging and attacking them. The carving is an ambush to lure the aliens back and kill them. The leader mistakes Koenig's friendly gesture of a handshake, and a spear lances at the commander's chest...
Part 6 - Issue 18, week ending 24 April 1976
Koenig is dead, and in an uncharacteristic rage, Bergman lunges at the savages and fends them off while Helena struggles to get the body back to the Eagle. As the craft lifts off with all three aboard, Helena is amazed to hear the leader call at them in English! But not as amazed as Paul Morrow is when Sandra sees the 'illusion' of their Eagle turn and head back to Moonbase Alpha! On board, Koenig is now alive again, and all three recall the events as if it were a collective dream. Is there something else in the black sun... a storehouse of knowledge for those who dare venture close? They can only speculate as land back at base.
 Where Eagles Daren't...
• And another tale with no Eagles lost, but there is extensive damage in the launch bays when the Moon changes course.
Notes:
• This story features the Long Man of Wilmington, a real chalk carving on the South Downs in Sussex. A long-time resident of the county, Mike Noble himself suggested the idea of using the figure in a story to writer Angus Allan.
• The appearance of a black sun, and the use of explosives to alter the Moon's course, echo two of the series' episodes: 'Black Sun' and 'Collision Course'.
• In vein with the Year 1 format, no real explanation of what happened is actually given, only a supposition, making this strip the truest to the somewhat obscure style of the series.
• The start of this story, in issue 13, was promoted on the front cover with a picture of John Koenig in a spacesuit (right) with the Glitter Band, painted by Arnoldo Putzu.
• The original artwork for several pages from this story are believed to exist.
• The Fanderson magazine FAB reference title for this story is The Long Man.
• John Stewart, at his Look-Out website, refers to this story as The Black Sun.
• You can read the entire strip at www.space1999.net.
Story Six
Written by Angus P. Allan. Drawn by Mike Noble. Pages 20 & 21, b/w.
Part 1 - Issue 19, week ending 01 May 1976
In Main Mission of Moonbase Alpha, Commander John Koenig, leader of the space castaways, prepares his people for yet another crisis...
The Moon is heading into a vast asteroid belt, and even with force-fields on maximum, the base is buffeted until it clears the area. An Eagle is despatched for a visual check, as the Moon is trailing asteroid debris in its wake. Some collisions appear to have occurred close to the old nuclear waste shafts, and the pilot - Johnson - is ordered to land and check them. But as he investigates, Johnson is shot down by a beam of light, and his Eagle blasted...
Part 2 - Issue 20, week ending 08 May 1976
Koenig orders a standby team to investigate but Paul Morrow advises against sending more men into an unknown situation. The commander misinterprets, and decides to go himself, finding himself accompanied by Helena. Landing beside the wreck of the Eagle, they are unaware they are being observed by three aliens hidden in nearby rocks. Wary of being discovered too early, one aims a weapon at Koenig as he nears, searching for a sign of what happened. But Helena finds a faint heartbeat from Johnson, and the commander returns to the Eagle, as the aliens plan their next move...
Part 3 - Issue 21, week ending 15 May 1976
The aliens return to their ship, around which many more of them are setting up a camoflaged camp. The alien leader, Tark, takes an aide, Pheron, for the next part of their plan. meanwhile, Koenig and Helena have returned to Alpha with Johnson, although the pilot's chances of recovery are slender. But Koenig is called to Main Mission when Tark and Pheron appear outside making gestures of peace. Able to understand each other through the aliens' unique translation skills, Tark tells Koenig their own ship was caught in the asteroid storm. The commander offers assistance, but Tark further admits it is they who caused the destruction of the Eagle, in an impulsive act believing it to be hostile. Morrow is furious, but the aliens have come forward as they believe they can save the life of the dying pilot. As Koenig leads them to the medical centre, Tark smiles as he wins the human's trust...
 Part 4 - Issue 22, week ending 22 May 1976
In the base hospital, Helena has lost the battle to save the pilot but Tark and Pheron still believe there is a chance. An alien device is attached to the body, and he revives! Tark and Pheron are made guests on the base, and Sandra Benes is entrusted with their care. Retiring to his quarters, Koenig is asked by Professor Bergman what he really thinks of the aliens. The commander still believes they may be hiding something, and the two suit up to investigate their buggy. If their ship had suffered damage, would the buggy have not also sustained some? But before they can act, Morrow calls them - there is an emergency in Area 10A where the aliens are...
Part 5 - Issue 23, week ending 29 May 1976
Pheron has revealed more than he should have, and Tark has seized Sandra and used her comlock to seal the room. Without thought for her, Tark blasts a direct vision port for them to escape through, and Sandra is left as the air is sucked out into the vacuum. Already in their spacesuits, Koenig and Bergman arrive in the nick of time and pull her out of the room to safety. Pulling his helmet off, Koenig orders Paul Morrow to actiate the force-fields... but too late! Tark and Pheron are already clear of the base, and realise they must attack now to keep their advantage...
Part 6 - Issue 24, week ending 05 June 1976
Tactical lasers attempt to stop Tark and Pheron but it is too late. Two security Eagles are launched to bring them back and, unaware of the aliens' base ship, they are destroyed as they fly overhead. Their strength now revealed, Koenig can only order a defensive posture for the base, which he now fears is at war...
Part 7 - Issue 25, week ending 12 June 1976
As Tark leads an force of tanks towards Alpha, the outer and civilian areas of the base are evacuated. A squad of armed, space-suited security men take up position in an evacuated outer area, but Tark's forces destroy the laser defence towers easily. As casualities begin to rise, Helena decides to go to the 'front line' to assist. An offensive by laser-equipped Eagles, led by Alan Carter, starts to even the score but then Tark spots Helena, and plans to take her...
Part 8 - Issue 26, week ending 19 June 1976
In a bold move the lithe Tark makes a break for Helena, evading gunfire and fighting off security. From his Eagle, Carter spots the snatch and blasts Tark's tank. This gives Koenig time to alert a counter rescue team, but Tark recovers and takes Helena to another vehicle. Alpha is being overcome, but as Koenig tries to throw in reserve personnel, he receives an ultimatum from Tark - surrender, or Helena dies...
Part 9 - Issue 27, week ending 26 June 1976
Koenig believes it is one life against hundreds, and gains time by shutting off the screen, knowing Tark will not kill Helena if they do not see her die. As the other Eagles have returned to Alpha for their crews to assist in ground defence, only one Eagle remains in space, flown by Alan Carter. Overflying the blind side, he locates Tark's ship and is able to destroy it. As the news of this catches Tark unaware, Helena smashes Tark's helmet with her own and makes a bid for freedom. As Tark's men prepare to shoot her, Carter returns, and blasts the leaderless force from space. It has been a near thing, and Bergman asks Koenig if he really would have sacrificed Helena, to which the commander is not even sure himself of an answer.
Reprinted:
• TV Junior Number 6, October 1978 (Portugal - complete b/w compilation).
Where Eagles Daren't...
• Johnson's Eagle is destroyed by the aliens, then two Eagles sent to follow Tark and Pheron are blown up by weapons fire. Interestingly, no Eagles seem to be destroyed in the actual battle. Must be a first...
Notes:
• After a couple of more thought provoking strips, a return to a much more action-orientated story, reminiscent of the episodes 'War Games' and 'The Last Enemy', in terms of involving Moonbase Alpha in a full scale battle.
• Tark's mission of vengeance against his own people, for him and his followers being expelled as warlike usurpers, also pre-empts the Year 2 story 'The Exiles'.
• Part 1 seems to imply that Moonbase Alpha's force-fields protect the whole Moon. Interestingly, although never implied in the series, this effect does appear to be mentioned in the novelisation of 'Black Sun', by E.C. Tubb.
• Oops - in parts 1 and 2 the pilot is called Johnson, but in parts 3 and 4 he becomes Hawkins.
 • Part 7 mentions the 'beam towers' that protect the Moonbase - a nod to the structures around Alpha that stabilise the gravity on the base, converted into a protective screen in the episode 'Black Sun', and which continue to be used as meteorite defence screens in 'The Last Enemy'.
• Facially, Tark's race echo Angus Allan's description of the aliens from his The Great Brain Robbery story in the first Space:1999 annual: ...a beaked head like a football, the one eye centrally placed..
• Some fans have speculated that the buggy Tark and Pheron use is based the 'Alien' model kit by MPC (right - supposedly a Space:1999 tie-in but actually having nothing to do with the series) but closer examination reveals this is not the case.
• The original artwork for the first page of part 2 of this story are known to exist in a private collection. Several more are also believed to exist.
• The Fanderson magazine FAB reference title for this story is Invasion.
• John Stewart, at his Look-Out website, refers to this story as Deception.
• You can read the entire strip at www.space1999.net.
Story Seven
Written by Angus P. Allan. Drawn by Mike Noble. Pages 20 & 21, b/w.
 Part 1 - Issue 28, week ending 03 July 1976
The nerve-jangling tensions of life on Moonbase Alpha are by no means confined to Commander Koenig and his senior staff. All the instincts of man are there on the runaway Moon, just as they were there on Earth. Among them, that worst of passions - jealousy!
A fight breaks out between technicians Vince Kassel and Danny Paluzzi over fellow operative Tina Morand. Paul Morrow offers to deal with it as Commander Koenig and Professor Bergman are about to survey a newly discovered planet. The new world is promising, with a breathable atmosphere but no sign of civilisation. But Morrow is forced to contact Koenig with the news Kassel took a guard's gun, shot Paluzzi, and has taken Tina Morand hostage...
Part 2 - Issue 29, week ending 10 July 1976
With the planet only in range of the Moon for 48 hours, Koenig is forced to abandon the survey and return to Alpha. Meanwhile Kassel has knocked Tina unconscious and, carrying her, made a bid for freedom through an inspection tunnel. Leaving their Eagle on standby, Koenig and Bergman use a maintenance airlock to rejoin Paul, who is concerned as Kassel won't respond. Unknown to them, Kassel has got to the Eagle, and blasts off...
 Part 3 - Issue 30, week ending 17 July 1976
Koenig is warned of what has happened by Main Mission, and decides to pursue in another Eagle with Victor Bergman and Helena Russell. Approaching the planet, Tina tries to reason with Kassel to no avail. Seeing the pursuing Eagle, Kassel turns and opens fire, and Koenig only just gets the force-shield up in time. With Kassel distracted, Tina takes his gun and orders him to cut engines or she will fire...
Part 4 - Issue 31, week ending 24 July 1976
Kassel spins the Eagle, flinging Tina out of her chair and, as luck would have it, moving his ship out of Koenig's laser fire and allowing him to return the shots. Crippled, Koenig's Eagle is blinded, and Kassel's own craft spins into the atmosphere out of control. Koenig tries to get Paul to trace the fugitive but the loss of signal suggests he has burnt up. But Kassel is an expert pilot and regains control. Koenig and his colleagues are less fortunate, and severely damaged, the Eagle starts to break up...
Part 5 - Issue 32, week ending 31 July 1976
Racing against time, Koenig, Helena and Bergman don helmets and use link-lines to keep them together as the Eagle breaks in two. Paul despatches Alan in Eagle Five as they are perilously close to the atmosphere. It is touch and go as Alan hooks them in at as low a speed as possible, but the wrench still knocks them unconscious. On the planet, Kassel has crash-landed his Eagle and overjoyed, pulls a dazed Tina onto the surface. Alone on the planet, they will be like a new Adam and Eve! But from the undergrowth, eyes are watching...
Part 6 - Issue 33, week ending 07 August 1976
Back on Moonbase Alpha, Koenig, Helena and Bergman have been rushed to the medical centre where they remain unconscious. This leaves the decision of whether to initiate Project Exodus to Paul Morrow. Conditions on the planet seem ideal but a proper reconnaisance has not been made. Unless...
Main Mission try to contact Kassel, in the hope he has survived and can report conditions. However, the renegade wants nothing to do with Alpha, as he sees himself and Tina as a new Adam and Eve in this paradise. He re-enters the cockpit and smashes the radio, but emerges to find Tina has gone and large bare footprints in the dirt. Before he can act, he is clubbed to the ground from behind, by a primitive humanoid...
 Part 7 - Issue 34, week ending 14 August 1976
Paul Morrow wants to give the order for Exodus but feels the responsibility without a proper survey is too great. Aware of this, Doctor Mathias suggests using CNS-Halopon to revive Koenig. Helena struggles to consciousness, calling out the shock to his system is dangerous, but the drug has already been administered. Spasms shake the commander's body... but he revives! Taking stock of the situation, Koenig leads a three Eagle mission to rescue Tina Morand from the murderer. Flying over the crashed Eagle, Koenig spots masses of footprints in the sand, and believes Kassel and Tina have encountered the natives...
Part 8 - Issue 35, week ending 21 August 1976
While Eagles Two and Three fly overhead on watch, Koenig and Alan Carter land to investigate. The chief pilot is concerned about Project Exodus, but the commander now believes it has to wait until they can determine these natives are not hostile. In the jungle, the unconscious bodies of Kassel and Tina have been taken to a settlement, where the natives begin to worship the girl, who fulfils one of their primitive prophecies. Kassel is to be sacrificed to her, and in desperation breaks free back into the jungle - only to be stunned from a shot by Carter...
 Part 9 - Issue 36, week ending 28 August 1976
With Kassel unconscious, Alan has to carry him as he and the commander explore further - and find a now revived Tina being worshipped by the natives. Alan stuns a trigger-happy bowman, and Koenig leads the girl from the altar. They are able to walk free before the bewildered natives before they regain what wits they have, and give chase. Struggling with Kassel's weight, Carter trips on a root and sprains his ankle. Koenig is uable to carry both, but the fall revives Kassel and, grabbing Carter's stun gun, he heads back into the jungle. If he returned to Alpha, he would only face a tribunal, but the murderer decides to take his chances here. This gives the other three a chance to escape, and back on the Eagle, Tina feels sorry for the confused Kassel. But they will never know the outcome - Kassel, with his brains and a gun, may also get treated as a god. Koenig feels this is not the home they are looking for. And so the quest goes on for a new one.
Where Eagles Daren't...
• Koenig's Eagle breaks up in orbit, and Kassel's Eagle crashlands on the surface.
Notes:
• An action-packed story, with hints of the episode 'The Full Circle' in the concept of a female crewmember kidnapped by primitive natives.
• The highlight of this story is the spectacular battle between the two Eagles above the planet.
• It is implied, as in the series and novels, that not all Eagles are armed - but Koenig's Command Eagle is, with three laser cannons placed under the command module.
• The complete artwork for parts 6 and 7 of this story are known to exist in private collections.
• The Fanderson magazine FAB reference title for this story is Escape to Eden.
• John Stewart, at his Look-Out website, refers to this story as New Beginning.
• You can read the entire strip at www.space1999.net.
Look-In Television Annual 1977
Centre Of Conflict
Written by Angus P. Allan. 4 pages, colour/duotone.
 Pilot Ken Martin when he crashes his Eagle after returning from the survey of a derelict alien ship that his crossed the Moon's path. Two men sent to examine the wreck are unknowingly infiltrated by small globes of light - and die later when they kill each other while on the lunar surface. Koening ponders if there is a connection, which is dismissed by Helena when she dreams of humanoid aliens warning her. Koenig is dismissive of this, until Sandra Benes - in her sleep - tries to open the airlock doors to the base, which would kill everyone. The 'lights', having failed, decide to control Koenig, but he spots them and issues a warning to all sections. A massive ship appears overhead, and with Helena under the control of the aliens who warned her previously, a conflict of wits by two alien races continues, with the Alphans caught in the middle...
Where Eagles Daren't...
• Ken Martin's crash opens the story.
Notes:
• A reworking of ideas from Allan's own Curse Of The Dead story from the first Space:1999 annual, and the earlier third Look-In story.
• Published just as Year Two of Space:1999 was first appearing on British television, and making its presense known in the weekly strip, this retains the Year One format having been written at the beginning of 1976.
• The text is illustrated by photos from Year One, and while appearing a random selection actually do tie in with events in the story, something Angus Allan had down to a fine art in the Space:1999 annuals:
• Explosion on lunar surface (from 'Breakaway') - Ken Martin's Eagle crashing.
• Astronauts fighting (from 'Breakaway') - Astronauts Walker and Persioff fighting.
• Helena and the aliens (from 'War Games') - Helena's dream.
• Paul Morrow and Sandra (from 'The Last Sunset') - Paul tends to an unconscious Sandra after she tries to open the airlock doors.
• The Spaceship Daria (from 'Mission of the Darians') - The alien spaceship.
• Main Mission flooded with alien antibodies (from 'Space Brain') - The aliens send gas to kill the two energy globes.
• You can read the entire story at www.space1999.net.
 Another nod to the style of the television series was the obscurity of explanation. As far back as the Supercar strips in TV Comic, the professional writing for the Anderson-based strips had been of a high standard and every aspect of a plot was neatly wound up and explained. While the mysteries of fictional space travel were no stranger to Angus Allan, having written Zero X and Star Trek for TV21, some stories were allowed to have less than clear conclusions, and speculation replaced exposition.
Ironically, this period would receive less promotion on the front of Look-In than before, or later on. But as the strip came up to its first anniversary, marked by the first cover in some six months, some strange unexplained changes would become apparent as the new story began...
The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would like to thank:
Angus Allan
Phil Clarke
Peter Hansen
Jeff Haythorpe
Mike Noble
and Martin Willey
- for their help with this feature.
Version 1.3 - 30.04.07
Any comments or notes about any of the strips, please contact technodelic@blueyonder.co.uk.
All text © The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History, and its respective writers, and may not be reproduced without permission.
All images © their respective copyright holders
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