Force of Life (24 Oct. 1975)

A wandering energy force inhabits the body of Alpha technician Anton Zoref, turning him into an energy absorbing being.

Director:

David Tomblin

Writers:

Gerry Anderson (creator), Sylvia Anderson (creator),

Stars:

Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Martin Landau	...	Commander John Koenig
Barbara Bain	...	Dr. Helena Russell
Barry Morse	...	Prof. Victor Bergman
Ian McShane	...	Anton Zoref
Gay Hamilton	...	Eva Zoref
Prentis Hancock	...	Paul Morrow
Clifton Jones	...	David Kano
Zienia Merton	...	Sandra Benes
Anton Phillips	...	Dr. Mathias
Nick Tate	...	Alan Carter
John Hamill	...	Dominix
Eva Reuber-Staier	...	Jane

Storyline

A wandering energy force inhabits the body of Alpha technician Anton Zoref, turning him into an energy absorbing being.

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Plot Keywords:

dead woman with eyes open | dead woman | freeze to death

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 October 1975 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Cmdr. John Koenig: What do you make of it, Victor?
Prof. Victor Bergman: Not much. It's a new one on me.

User Reviews

May the Space-Force be with you!

This randomly selected episode was my first acquaintance with a series of which I heard and read an awful lot about, but unfortunately never had the pleasure of "experiencing" myself. Being a child of the 80's, I never witnessed "Space 1999" playing on television, but I already heard from several people that it was one of their highlights of the week when another cool and petrifying episode of this aired on TV and the content would inevitable be the subject of their nightmares for a whole week. Thanks to the wonders of DVD, these hardcore fans can relive their childhood and younger generations can still their curiosity hunger. Like I secretly expected already, I really liked my introduction to "Space 1999". I'm a sucker for everything that is horror and Science Fiction and comes out of the 1970's, especially when there are kitschy set-pieces, flamboyant costumes and exaggeratedly far-fetched story lines involved. I've only seen one episode of "Space 1999" so far, and I can already safely say the series is chock-full of fascinating little gimmicks and imaginative trivia details. It is so incredibly charming and entertaining to behold how the cast members keep a straight-faced and look sincerely terrified when they're looking out the window to see a big and funky blue meteorite approaches their moon base station. But nonetheless, in between all the grotesque decors and cheesy effects, the scenarios for this show are seemingly very intense, unsettling and nightmare-inducing. The Alpha Moonbase apparently always bathes in an atmosphere of doom and total annihilation. In this episode a shapeless but powerful alien life force takes procession of technical engineer Anton Zoref, whilst the rest of the station is temporarily paralyzed, and uses him to gradually absorb all the energy within the station. This includes the energy from the reactor, but also the body heat from fellow crew members. The episode is fairly well paced and contains a couple of pretty bloody and confronting sequences, including the pitiful death of a defenceless girl trapped in a corridor. Martin Landau, a severely underrated actor throughout his whole career, is his usual stern and charismatic self and Ian Shane makes an effectively menacing killer. The music, mechanical equipment, costumes and the space models are simply irresistible. Can't wait to explore more of the series!