Dragons Domain

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“Dragon's Domain”
Space 1999 episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 23
Written by Christopher Penfold
Directed by Charles Crichton
Guest stars Gianni Garko as Tony Cellini
Douglas Wilmer as Commissioner Dixon
Original airdate December 5, 1975
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"Mission of the Darians" "The Testament of Arkadia"

"Dragon's Domain" was the twenty-third episode of the first season of Space 1999.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Eagle Pilot Tony Cellini suddenly awakes in a cold sweat and seizes an antique tomahawk. Lunging at an imaginary enemy, Cellini buries the tomahawk into the communications post in his quarters.

Cellini leaves his living quarters, meets and clobbers Alan Carter and appropriates Carter's Comlock. Cellini attempts to access an Eagle but is stopped when confronted by Commander John Koenig. Koenig uses a stun gun to knock Cellini unconscious. Doctor Helena Russell believes that Cellini is mentally unstable, but Koenig will not believe such a thing as he was a long time friend of Cellini.

In 1996, Koenig, Cellini and Professor Victor Bergman were working on the Ultra Probe, a high-profile deep-space mission to explore the then newly discovered planet Ultra. Cellini, winning the toss of a colored data-chip, became the probe's command pilot, while Koenig stayed behind at Moonbase Alpha to handle flight telemetry data.

The Ultra Probe began its long journey on 6 June 1996. While hidden behind Ultra, out of communication with Earth and Alpha, the Probe discovered a graveyard of apparently derelict alien ships. No life signs were detected from any of the mysterious space vessels. By consensus, the Ultra Probe crew decided to dock with one of the spaceships. As soon as the Probe's airlock was opened, there was a strange sensation, and Doctor Darwin King shouted to Cellini to close the airlock.

A screaming creature with tentacles like those of an octopus, one eye, and a fiery maw appeared inside the Ultra Probeship and hypnotised some of the crew, then swallowed them, quickly devoured them and regurgitate the remains. Cellini was trapped in his Ultra Probeship pilot module, unable to assist his crew, but eventually forced the door open. Grabbing a laser gun, he fired at the creature, but without visible effect. Cellini retreated to the Probeship pilot module, fending off the creature with an axe, and shut the doors. The pilot section, separated from the main probe, became his escape pod.

Months later, Cellini reached the vicinity of Earth and was rescued barely alive. His story was disbelieved by Commissioner Dixon, who, summoning Cellini, Koenig and Bergman to Earth, says that there is no evidence on the flight recorder of any monsters. He believes that Cellini bungled the docking procedure, caused the deaths of his crew, and refuses to take the blame. Dixon grounds Koenig and Bergman and sends Cellini to a psychiatric counsellor.

Returning to the present day with the Moon adrift through space after 1999, the episode resumes with Cellini saying to Koenig that he was trying earlier in the episode to depart Alpha in the Eagle to confront the monster that he had encountered years before. Koenig is unsure what to believe. An alert from Main Mission calls him away from Medical Centre, and on the viewscreen there is the graveyard of spaceships that Cellini had talked about, with the main structure of the Ultra Probe still docked onto one of the derelicts. Koenig agrees to investigate, and Cellini feels vindicated. Boarding an Eagle, Cellini tells Koenig he is going to apologise to Alan for his earlier actions. Again, he knocks Alan unconscious, and, seizing the Eagle, he ejects the passenger pod, saying to Koenig over the communications channel that he must face his enemy alone.

Koenig sets out in pursuit, but not in time to stop Cellini from docking the Eagle nosecone with where the Probeship pilot's module once sat. Taking a fire axe and rope, Cellini ties himself to parts of the Probeship interior and attempts to kill the monster still within. However, just as Koenig docks with the Probeship, Cellini is overcome by the monster and killed. Koenig sees that the monster seems to have a weakness in its 'eye', and retrieves Cellini's axe. Koenig apparently kills the monster.

Back on Alpha, Koenig ruminates that when Alpha finds their own place to settle, the Alphans will need a whole new mythology. Dr Russell also hands over a typed report of the events of the episode on Space Commission headed notepaper, effectively closing the case and vindicating Cellini.

[edit] Music

In addition to the regular Barry Gray score, Tommaso Albinoni's Adagio for Strings and Organ in G Minor is used for the flight sequences of the Ultra Probe. This music has also been used in films like Rollerball and Gallipoli and can be heard in the thirteenth and last installment of Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

[edit] Guest Cast

[edit] Novelisation

This episode was adapted for the Space:1999 episodic novelisation Astral Quest by John Rankine. In the novel, Tony Cellini's character was renamed Jim Calder, and Doctor Monique Bouchere became Olga Vishenskaya.

[edit] External links

Last produced:
"Mission of the Darians"		 List of Space: 1999 episodes Next produced:
"The Testament of Arkadia"
Last transmitted:
Alpha Child		 Next transmitted:
"Mission of the Darians"