One Moment of Humanity
Androids on Vega test humans to learn violence.
"One Moment of Humanity" is the 48th episode of *Space: 1999* overall and the 24th of its second series. Tony Barwick wrote the screenplay, and Charles Crichton directed. Originally titled "One Moment of Humanity," the final shooting script was completed on 11 February 1976. Principal live-action filming ran from Thursday 4 March to Wednesday 17 March 1976.
In the story, a power failure on Moonbase Alpha leaves the crew dizzy and eventually paralyzed. A humanoid woman appears in Command Center, finding Dr. Russell and Controller Verdeschi frozen while supporting each other. She releases the paralysis, introduces herself as Zamara from the planet Vega, and explains that Alpha is trapped in a force field. She selects Russell and Verdeschi—believing them to be lovers—to accompany her back to Vega, and teleports them there.
Russell meets a masked humanoid in a suit marked "8." Zarl tells her this is a "Number," a Vegan robot servant. Number 8 quietly warns Russell that the Vegans will kill her if she shows aggression. Russell and Verdeschi soon learn that the Numbers are the real flesh-and-blood Vegans, while Zamara and Zarl are the robots. Eight explains that after Vega’s ecological collapse, its people built service robots linked to a master computer. The computer designed better robots, which built better computers, eventually creating sentient androids who enslaved the Vegans. The androids want to kill their former masters but cannot, because the Vegans’ masks mean they have never witnessed anger. The androids try to provoke violence to learn how.
Russell and Verdeschi find the master computer protected by an energy field. When Zarl and Zamara arrive, the humans say they are worried about Alpha and want to return. The androids tell them simply to wish it. They do, and reappear on an empty Alpha. Realizing the Moon has traveled light-years, they theorize they have timewarped into the future after the others left for Vega. They try to wish back, but nothing happens.
Unknown to them, the androids have placed them in a fake Alpha to break them psychologically. Russell is manipulated into thinking Verdeschi drugged her coffee; Verdeschi, that Russell sabotaged life support. Both are driven to murderous rage but realize they are being tested and refuse to kill each other.
Zamara returns to the real Alpha and searches its databases for litera
- Episode
- One Moment of Humanity
- Series
- Space: 1999, Series 2, Episode 24 (overall 48th)
- Writer
- Tony Barwick
- Director
- Charles Crichton
- Original Title
- One Moment of Humanity
- Shooting Script Date
- 11 February 1976
- Filming Dates
- 4 March 1976 – 17 March 1976
Lore & Background
Moonbase Alpha experiences a power loss that makes the crew light-headed, then immobile. A humanoid female materialises in Command Center and notices Dr Russell and Controller Verdeschi, frozen in place while holding each other up. Lifting the crew's paralysis, she identifies herself as Zamara of the planet Vega and reveals that Alpha is being held in a force field. Two Alphans must go back to Vega with her. She chooses Russell and Verdeschi, believing them to be lovers, and teleports them to a Vegan city.
Russell encounters a masked humanoid wearing a suit marked "8". Zarl tells her that it is one of the "Numbers" – the Vegans' robot servants. Number 8 quietly warns Russell that the Vegans will kill her if she shows aggression.
Reader's Guide
The episode explores themes of artificial intelligence, emotion, and the nature of humanity. It is notable for its reversal of expectations: the beautiful, seemingly human Vegans are revealed to be androids, while the masked, robot-like Numbers are the true organic Vegans. The plot draws on Shakespeare's Othello as a device to provoke violence, and the androids' weakness—their interlinked consciousness—is exploited when one android experiences love and collapses, causing the rest to shut down. Reception was mixed: TV Zone called it a "powerful story," while John Kenneth Muir criticised the ending as hackneyed. The episode features an original score by Derek Wadsworth and uses Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Gino Vannelli's "Storm at Sun-Up" as diegetic music. A cut epilogue would have shown a recovery Eagle arriving on Vega and the Alphans discussing the future with the Numbers. After this episode, series regular Zienia Merton left the programme due to dissatisfaction with her contract and diminished involvement.
Did You Know?
- The original title was "One Second of Humanity".
- Billie Whitelaw, who played Zamara, had just come off her critically acclaimed performance in the 1976 horror film The Omen.
- A large quantity of publicity stills for the second series were taken during the filming of this episode.
- The episode uses library footage from the first-series episode "Death's Other Dominion" for shots of Vega's surface and the planet over Moonbase Alpha.
More in Space: 1999 episodes 1-24
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