My Space: 1999 novella released last month – fittingly on the day the Moon was blown out of orbit, September 13th! – and today I’m posting another ‘author’s commentary’ with some insights into the background of the storyline – but first here’s some comments from reviewers…
“This is vintage Space: 1999 in every sense of the word. It’s clever and dark and has a massive central idea and an even bigger heart.” – Alaistair Stewart, Sci-Fi Bulletin
“Swallow does a fantastic job building the tension… The ticking clock feels real, and the stakes couldn’t be higher, aided by the suitably fast pace.” – Jack Knoll, Security Hazard
“Capture(s) that feel that the series had… Anyone wanting to read further the adventures of Moonbase Alpha will enjoy this one.” – Mark Yon, SFF World
Space: 1999 ran for two seasons in the early 1970s, and the series centred on the adventures of the 311 crewmembers of Moonbase Alpha, who find themselves on an odyssey through the void when the Moon is blasted into space after a nuclear accident on the far side – and along the way they encounter alien races, horrible monsters and strange cosmic phenomena. To learn more about the show, click here.
Adrift in deep space, Commander John Koenig and the people of Moonbase Alpha face an uncertain fate, when a planet-killing alien weapon at the heart of a sinister cloud diverts their lost Moon on to a fatal trajectory. As each moment brings the Moon closer to total obliteration, Koenig leads a desperate mission into the unknown to save all life on Alpha. Does hope lie among a rag-tag colony of refugees hiding in the shadow of devastation? Or can the Alphans find a path into the heart of the war machine and end its destructive rampage? With time running out, the answer will mean the difference between survival… or annihilation.
Spoiler Warning! These notes give away story points from The Armageddon Engine and other episodes of the Space: 1999 TV series.
In terms of chronology, The Armageddon Engine takes place late in the first season of Space: 1999.
The Eagle pilots of the series were all male during the TV series, so I decided to break that up by introducing the new character of German female astronaut Elke Lange in the novella’s opening chapter. Other new Alphans appearing in the story are Indian astrogeologist Pari Mishra and Greek astrophysicist Markos Galani.
Helena Russell refers to the Black Sun phenomena from the episode of the same name.
Alan Carter recalls flying Griffons and Falcons, predecessors of the venerable Eagle Transporter.
The strange Zython never appeared in the TV series, but it did show up in Mattel’s line of Space: 1999 action figures as a “mysterious space alien” whose “head glows in the dark”(!), so I thought it would be fun to place this unseen being in this story. Read more here.
In addition, among the survivors in the alien Refuge there are beings from races the Alphans have encountered in previous TV episodes, including Kaldorians (from “Earthbound”), Bethans (from “The Last Enemy”) and Sidons (from “Voyager’s Return”).
The scenes set aboard the alien scientist Vhor’s spacecraft take place in zero gravity – something that would have been too expensive and complicated to create on a 1970s TV series budget.
Koenig’s line “You unleashed a doomsday machine” is a deliberate nod to another story about a world-eating construct from the Star Trek TV series.
As well as drawing from the original series and the novelizations of the show by writers like Brian Ball, E.C. Tubb and John Rankine, I used Tim Heald’s The Making of Space: 1999, Robert E. Wood’s Destination: Moonbase Alpha, Chris Bentley’s Space: 1999 – The Vault and the Moonbase Alpha Technical Operations Manual by Chris Thompson and Andrew Clements as reference materials throughout.
Space: 1999 – The Armageddon Engine is available in audiobook format from Big Finish Productions as a digital download here; and as Limited Edition Hardcover from Anderson Productions at this link.
