Space 1999 - The Time Fighters

The Time Fighters by Michael Butterworth. Novelisation of "Space Warp", "Dorzak", "Devil's Planet" and "The Seance Spectre". Major plot adjustments abound in this novel. The most noticeable alteration is the blending of Devil's Planet with "The Seance Spectre", with both stories occurring simultaneously and replacing Koenig with Verdeschi in the latter story. Butterworth continues his use of very alien creatures in "Space Warp" with the first rampaging Maya monster described as a ten-foot-high, iridescent-scaled centaur-like being. Changes made include: (1) Maya's illness is a normal Psychon condition caused by a periodic imbalance of their super-intelligent minds. (2) The Croton spaceship is damaged after it, too, traverses the space warp, causing Sahala to seek help on Alpha. (3) Koenig's absence from "Dorzak" on is explained as a long-range reconnaissance mission to the solar system the Moon is approaching. Among its numerous members are the planet Ellna and its habitable moon Entra and the proto-planet Tora, with which the Moon will collide on its present trajectory. It is suggested that the local fabric of the universe was disturbed by the Moon's passage through the space warp and the collision with Tora is the ultimate result of this bad karma. (4) Koenig's crash on Entra goes unnoticed by the senior staff as this is the moment that Sandor (as Greg Sanderson was originally known in the script) and his many mutineers (more than three) choose to storm Command Centre and brutalise the staff into submission. No rescue Eagle is dispatched and Koenig is presumed missing during the collision crisis. (5) Sandor and his cronies are depicted as a bunch of malcontents rather than suffering from a psychological condition. They are no longer exterior workers, but ordinary Alphans. (6) Verdeschi is in command of Alpha during the Tora incident. He orders the detonation of the nuclear waste site and the evacuation of Alpha, personally performs the procedure to blow up the atomic waste and dispatches the maniacal Sandor before Koenig is rescued from Ellna.

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