The Last Enemy (Space: 1999)

Lore & Background

The episode's original idea reportedly came from series star Barbara Bain. Writer/director Bob Kellett gave the concept a science-fiction twist, with the age-old conflict between men and women carried out with space-age warfare. Working titles included "The Second Sex" (a reference to Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 book) and "The Other Enemy". The final shooting script is dated 24 October 1974. Live-action filming took place from Friday 8 November 1974 through Tuesday 19 November 1974, with a three-day re-mount scheduled from Tuesday 25 February 1975 through Thursday 27 February 1975, which concluded filming of the first series.

The plot involves the Moon crossing a solar system containing twin inhabited planets, Betha and Delta, which lie on opposite sides of their star. The all-female crew of Betha, led by Dione, uses the Moon as a platform to launch a surprise attack on Delta. After a truce is negotiated, Dione betrays it and resumes bombing. Commander Koenig ultimately destroys the Bethan warship by sending a remote-controlled Moon buggy loaded with nuclear ordnance into it. The episode's ending was greatly extended during the re-mount; originally, Koenig revealed Dione's coordinates and watched as a Deltan missile destroyed her.

Reader's Guide

The episode is a notable entry in Space: 1999 for its explicit gender-war theme and its use of re-shot and added material to extend the running time. All scenes on the Bethan warship Satazius were part of the re-mount, as was Dione's visit to Sandra's quarters. The ending was rewritten to include Koenig's plan to either convince Dione to cease fire or destroy her. Guest artist Alan Bennion, known for playing Ice Warrior Commanders in Doctor Who, was originally filmed as a male Bethan subordinate, but his dialogue was reworked and given to Maxine Audley's character Theia for the re-mount. The episode received mixed reviews: John Kenneth Muir praised it as "splendid television on all fronts," while Video Watchdog described it as "silly and wholly predictable." The episode was adapted into the novel Lunar Attack by John Rankine, published in 1975, which drew exclusively from the final shooting script and did not include the re-mounted material.

Did You Know?

• Working titles for the episode included "The Second Sex" and "The Other Enemy".
• The original idea for the 'battle of the sexes' premise reportedly came from series star Barbara Bain.
• The final cut ran short, prompting script editor Johnny Byrne to write several new scenes and re-work others for the re-mount.
• The Bethan and Deltan gunships were originally intended to be the same model with different paint colors, but the decision to use different models was made for production reasons, not due to a lack of color television.