One Moment of Humanity
One Moment of Humanity
One Moment of Humanity is the fourth episode of Space: 1999's second season, and the 28th episode overall. It aired on 25 September 1976. The episode was written by Tony Barwick and directed by Charles Crichton. Its original title was "One Second of Humanity."
Plot
Moonbase Alpha loses power, making the crew light-headed and then immobile. A humanoid woman, Zamara from the ice planet Vega, appears and says Alpha is trapped inside a force field. She and Vega’s residents Zarl and Number 8 take two Alphans back to Vega: Doctor Helena Russell and Commander John Koenig, who Zamara believes are lovers.
On Vega, Russell meets a masked humanoid called Number 8 and learns that the Vegans are the flesh-and-blood people, while Zamara and Zarl’s kind are the robots called Numbers. The Numbers were created when Vega’s ecology collapsed and the Vegans built service robots linked to a master computer. The robots grew more capable and eventually enslaved their human creators. The androids want to kill the Vegans, but the Vegans have never felt anger, so they cannot, and they try to provoke emotions instead.
Back on Alpha, the two Alphans discover the master computer is protected by an energy field. Zamara and Zarl want to return Alpha to its people, so the humans decide to wish to go back. They do, but Alpha turns out to be deserted and the Moon has travelled far into the future. The androids have placed the Alphans in a fake Alpha to break them psychologically. Russell worries Verdeschi drugged her coffee; Verdeschi worries Russell sabotaged life support. They nearly kill each other, but realize they are being tested and stop.
Zamara then finds Shakespeare’s Othello in Alpha’s data banks and plans a drama to force the lovers into jealousy. Koenig reveals he is Russell’s lover and claims that Maya is Verdeschi’s. Zamara teleports the pair back with her and orders Zarl to seduce Russell. Zarl, playing Iago, tries to ruin Koenig’s relationship with Russell. As the seduction begins, Koenig fights Zarl and defeats him. The androids’ weakness is their linked minds: if one fails, they all fail. Russell urges Zarl to become fully human by embracing love. Overwhelmed by emotion, Zarl collapses and the rest of the Numbers shut down. Zarl admits he felt love before dying. Russell states that one moment of humanity is worth oblivion.
Production notes
- The shooting script was written by Tony Barwick, a former UFO script editor, and the final script date is 12 February 1976.
- Filming took place March 4–17, 1976.
- The episode’s epilogue, which shows a restored Alpha and Vega, was cut for time.
- After this episode, Zienia Merton left Space: 1999 due to contract and involvement issues. Her character was replaced by Yasko, played by Yasuko Nagazumi.
- Billie Whitelaw, renowned for The Omen, played Zamara. Her voice had to be adjusted in post-production so it wouldn’t overwhelm the soundtrack.
- The Vega sets were created with input from production designer Keith Wilson and costume designer Emma Porteous, who worked to give Vega a distinct look.
- The episode used music by Derek Wadsworth, including references to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Gino Vannelli’s Storm at Sun-Up for the dance scene. Some original “space horror” cues from earlier episodes were reused.
- TV Zone praised the episode as powerful, especially Whitelaw’s performance. Critics noted influences from Star Trek, particularly in the androids and the test of humanity.
- The episode was later adapted into the 1977 Space: 1999 novel Mind-Breaks of Space, which included the deleted epilogue scene.
Note
The story explores themes of humanity, love, and moral testing, using a clash between humans and androids to ask what it means to be truly human.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:50 (CET).