The Last Enemy (2 Apr. 1976)

The Alphans find themselves caught up in a long-running war between two rival planets, Betha and Delta. When Betha appears to have been hit its commander Dione seeks sanctuary with the ... See full summary »

Director:

Bob Kellett

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
Caroline Mortimer	...	Dione
Prentis Hancock	...	Paul Morrow
Clifton Jones	...	David Kano
Zienia Merton	...	Sandra Benes
Nick Tate	...	Alan Carter
Maxine Audley	...	Theia
Kevin Stoney	...	Talos
Carolyn Courage	...	First Girl

Storyline

The Alphans find themselves caught up in a long-running war between two rival planets, Betha and Delta. When Betha appears to have been hit its commander Dione seeks sanctuary with the Alphans. Koenig attempts to negotiate a truce but Dione has other ideas...

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 April 1976 (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: Two planets.
David Kano: We'll be in range to survey the left-hand planet in 24 hours.
Sandra Benes: Still too distant for visual analysis, but the spectrographic analysis looks promising.
Dr. Helena Russell: Two planets. Be nice to have a choice, wouldn't it?

User Reviews

Wow...two planets and both happen to be inhabited by total jerks!

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.