Breakaway (Space: 1999)

"Breakaway"
Space: 1999 episode
Nuclear Disposal Area Two explodes, throwing the Moon out of Earth orbit.
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Lee H. Katzin
Written by	George Bellak
Production code	1
Original air date	4 September 1975 (1975-09-04)[1]
Guest appearances
Roy Dotrice as Commissioner Simmonds Philip Madoc as Commander Gorski Lon Satton as Benjamin Ouma Eric Carte as Astronaut Collins Tony Allyn as Security Guard Roy Scammell as Jim Nordstrom Alf Joint as Steiner Don Fellows as GTV Newsreader Laurie Davis as Eagle 2 Stewardess Shane Rimmer as Eagle 2 Pilot Voice Barbara Kelly as Computer Voice Nik Zaran as Astronaut Jackson Robin Scott as Eric Sparkman Milos Kirek as Young (Technical)
Episode chronology
← Previous — Next → "Force of Life"
List of episodes

"Breakaway" is the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by George Bellak (with an uncredited rewrite by story consultant Christopher Penfold); the director was Lee H. Katzin. Previous titles include "Zero-G", "The Void Ahead" and "Turning Point". The final shooting script is dated 22 November 1973. Live-action filming took place from 3 December 1973 to 11 January 1974 (with breaks for the holidays). A three-day re-mount took place from 22 February 1974 to 26 February 1974.^[2]

In September 1999, an Eagle Transporter craft lands at Nuclear Disposal Area 2, a storage facility on the Moon for

An investigation uncovers a link among the sick personnel: they all made flights over Area 1, where heat levels are now rising. Flying out in another Eagle, Koenig encounters energy discharges from the waste silos which cause his instruments to fail, forcing him to crash-land. Koenig is rescued and Area 1 is consumed by explosions. Further examination shows that the disease and Area 1's destruction were caused by magnetic radiation from the waste pile. When Commissioner Simmonds arrives at Alpha to follow up on the Meta mission preparations, Koenig tells him that Area 2 – now also heating up – has become a massive time bomb.

Bergman suggests dispersing the contents of Area 2 to weaken the explosion. However, the Eagle fleet's operation to empty the silos ends in disaster when the radiation surges, starting a chain reaction of energy discharges and explosions that obliterates Area 2 and spreads to the waste containers strewn over the lunar surface. The whole region erupts in a fireball that creates a rocket-like thrust, causing the Moon to break out of Earth orbit and leave the Solar System. The Space Dock and most of the Eagles are destroyed, and the Meta Probe is hurled into space.

Though damaged by extreme g-forces and seismic shocks, Alpha remains intact. However, the Moon's trajectory is uncertain. Knowing that any attempt to return to Earth would fail, Koenig decides not the initiate an emergency evacuation. As the crew of 311 grapple with the reality of being adrift in space, hopes are raised when instruments pick up radio signals from Meta which were previously detected on Earth. Koenig speculates that their future may lie on Meta.

The premiere episode's troubled production history is detailed in the

Scenes deleted from Katzin director's cut include: (1) Koenig watching Simmonds interviewed on a news programme (while providing expositional dialogue about Meta and the probe) before his live conversation with the Commissioner while flying to Alpha. It also reveals that Koenig had also been the first Alpha commander; (2) Ex-Commander Gorski having a conversation with Koenig before leaving, reinforcing Simmonds' dogma about the secrecy regarding the Meta Probe setbacks. He would then express disdain for Helena, her personal judgement and professional competence; (3) Helena giving Koenig an autopsy report on the Probe Astronauts and Collins. He would bring up Gorski's opinions of her. She then revealed Gorski made advances, which she rebuffed—this "questionable judgement" being the cause of him disregarding her findings and suppressing her reports; (4) Morrow listening to the Meta signals with Koenig, hoping the probe mission will answer all their questions.[4] Audio recordings of these scenes were recovered in February 2011 and are available on YouTube and the Space: 1999 website 'The Catacombs' under the "Breakaway" episode guide.

The storyline involving Meta is never resolved. The next episode produced, "Matter of Life and Death", takes place sometime later as the Moon approaches an obviously different planet, code-named "Terra Nova" (although the officially-published 1977 The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook states that they are the same). The fan-produced Message From Moonbase Alpha mini-episode proposes that a final transmission sent from Alpha by Sandra twenty years after "Breakaway" was temporally shifted into the past to become the Meta signals heard in the first episode.^[5]

Lon Satton's character Benjamin Ouma was originally intended to remain as a series regular, but other members of the cast found him difficult to work with, and he was replaced by the character David Kano, portrayed by Clifton Jones, by the next episode.^[4]

An original score was composed for this episode by Barry Gray. A long-time Gerry Anderson team member, Gray's work gave the series a profound symphonic statement, to express the grandeur of space.^[6] The electric guitar segments were performed by producer Sylvia Anderson's son-in-law, musician Vic Elms.^[7] As Katzin's unsatisfactory director's cut necessitated considerable re-editing and filming of new footage, the score was composed and recorded after that of "Matter of Life and Death".^[8]

In an episode-by-episode analysis of Space: 1999, John Kenneth Muir gave "Breakaway" a positive review. He described the episode as a "streamlined hour which elegantly sets up many of the series' tenets", favourably comparing its "wonderfully simple" construction to that of later science fiction pilots such as "Encounter at Farpoint" (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. He also praised the production design and special effects, calling Moonbase Alpha "stunningly presented".^[9]

The episode was adapted in the first Year One Space: 1999 novel Breakaway by

Tubb injected a great deal of 1970s-era scientific knowledge and speculation for the reasons behind the atomic waste's behaviour (the particular blend of waste, high in caesium and lithium contaminants, coupled with the coincidental presence of an iron-based mineral in the rock strata the Disposal Areas were constructed upon was speculated to have precipitated the disaster) and explained the mechanics involved in the Moon's movement out of orbit.^[10]