DIDJA NOTICE?

 

The builder of the new fountain in the botanical cavern is Nancy Coleman. Is she any relation to Cindy Coleman, who later appears in "Dead End", also written by this novel's author, E.C. Tubb?

 

Presumably the botanical cavern is the same cavern that was just beginning to be dug in "Breaking Ground". On page 97, the cavern is officially called Rural Area One, nicknamed Eden.

 

On page 2, Commander Koenig reflects on the tremendous explosion of nuclear waste that tore the Moon from Earth's orbit and sent it on its incredible journey in "Breakaway".

 

Page 3 reveals that the botanical cavern has a mass of lights mounted into the high ceiling to mimic an Earth-type sun, complete with sunset, nighttime with stars, and dawn.

 

Page 4 explains that the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha had recently been disappointed in hopes of being able to escape the confines of Alpha through the actions of the people of the planet Ariel who had tried to help them. This refers to events in "The Last Sunset".

 

On page 4, Connie Boswell talks about also adding some artificial birds in artificial trees in the cavern, to sing during the day.

 

Nancy tells Koenig that some of the men want to decorate the walls of the cavern to look like the interior of a cathedral, suggesting Chartres. Chartres Cathedral is a real world Catholic cathedral in Chartres, France built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It is famed for housing the Sancta Camisa (the alleged tunic of Virgin Mary worn during Christ's birth) and its Black Madonna statue. 

 

On pages 6-7, Dr. Russell tests Lynne Saffery for extrasensory perception using cards whose faces are marked with star, circle, square, cross, or wavy line, which Dr. Russell later tells Koenig were invented by a Dr. Rhine years ago. These cards are actually called Zener cards, designed by perceptual psychologist Karl Zener (1903–1964), who worked with parapsychologist J. B. Rhine (1895–1980) testing subjects for extrasensory perception in the 1930s.

 

The asteroid belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter mentioned on page 9 is real. It is believed by most astronomers to have been formed from the primordial solar nebula, though a smaller number of researchers suggest it is the remains of an exploded planet that may have once existed between Mars and Jupiter.

 

On page 11, Kano reports that the approaching asteroid is on an intercept path with Crater Plato. Moonbase Alpha is located in this crater.

 

Paul Morrow still has his arm in a cast and sling due to the broken arm he suffered in "The Last Sunset". This element was added to the Powys revision, not seen in the original version of the novel.

 

On page 13, Bergman is described as a genius.

 

On page 18, Koenig orders three Eagles armed with a full complement of nuclear missiles to intercept the object approaching the Moon. This is the first indication that Alpha is armed with nuclear missiles. What was the original reason that missiles were stocked at the moonbase when the Moon was still orbiting Earth? An additional NATO-type deterrence of nuclear response to a nuclear attack against nations of Earth by rogue nations?

 

Carter's co-pilot for the Eagle approach to the object is Chad Amonovich. He will appear again in "Dead End" by the same author. In the original novelization of Alien Seed, he is called Chad Bailey instead. I don't see any reason the name was changed unless it was just to increase the international flavor of Moonbase Alpha with a Russian-sounding last name.

 

It seems that David Kano attended Dawakin Tofa Science College, as he was acquainted with Frank Baker, gardener there, a man he greatly respected for his uneducated wisdom. Dawakin Tofa Science College is a real world college in the state of Kano, Nigeria. Is David Kano named for his home state?

 

After Alpha successfully nudges the object off its collision course with the moonbase, Computer predicts it will strike the Moon about 30 miles away in the region of Gaghiel, a shallow satellite crater of Plato. As far as I can find, Gaghiel is a fictitious name as far as Moon craters go. In the original novel, the crater is called Schemiel, which also seems to be fictitious.

 

On page 37, Dr. Mathias tells Koenig and Russell of an experiment he and fellow students performed at the Kenyatta Institute in Nairobi. This presumably refers to Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

The Peter Garforth who appears in this novel also appears in "The Lambda Factor", Survival, and Born for Adversity. In the original novel, the character is simply someone called "Frank" instead.

 

On page 47, Dr. Russell looks at a sketch of a house that Bergman had once planned to build. This must be the same house of which she had seen the plans for in Bergman's quarters in "Black Sun".

 

On page 49, Koenig, Bergman, and Dr. Russell discuss where the gigantic seed pod originated and how it could have wound up in space, speculating a scenario similar to the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa. Krakatoa is a caldera in a volcanic island group in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra. In that year, the caldera exploded in one of the most destructive events in recorded history, with some researchers speculating it blew debris into space.

 

The panspermia theory that life travelling through space on meteors and other types of debris can arrive at a hospitable world and populate that planet is a real one hypothesized by Swedish scientist Svante August Arrhenius in 1903 (though first proposed in the 5th Century CE by Greek philosopher Anaxagoras).

 

Dr. Warren, the head of Hydroponics at Alpha, appears here for the first time. Apparently no relation to astronaut Frank Warren who died in "Breakaway", Dr. Warren will be seen again in "The Troubled Spirit". Warren does not appear in the original version of the novel.

 

Dr. Russell tells Koenig that there is always the danger that the pressure and stress the moonbase inhabitants face on their bizarre, haphazard journey through the cosmos could cause General Adaptation Syndrome, resulting in violence against one another and their situation, similar to the combat fatigue of World War One. General Adaptation Syndrome is a profile of how organisms respond to stress, developed by Hans Selye, an endocrinologist who conducted research in the 1930s into the responses of organisms to stress.

 

On page 56, Koenig, seeing Lynne in her hospital bed, thinks she looks like a painting of an angel by a pre-Raphaelite school artist. The pre-Raphaelite school of art strived for realism in its artistic depictions.

 

A humorous line on page 56, as Koenig thinks that Lynne looks like an angel: An angel, Koenig thought, but, at times, all men thought women were angels. Most later changed their minds.

 

On page 64, Bergman paraphrases a quote from Sherlock Holmes, "When faced with the incredible, first eliminate the impossible and then what is left, no matter how improbable, must be the answer," and Koenig compares it to Occam's Razor. Sherlock Holmes is the legendary fictional detective character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). In the novel The Sign of Four, Holmes says "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Occam's razor is a principle which suggests that the simplest possible answer that fits the facts of a puzzle is probably the correct one. It was devised by William of Ockham (1287–1347), an English Franciscan friar and philosopher.

 

Page 66 reveals that Bergman's wife (named as Dorothy in the novelization of "Black Sun"), died in a crash at some point in his past.

 

Another amusing line, on page 68: David Kano wasn’t married to the computer, but even so, he took it to bed with him.

 

When Kano tries to call Koenig's commlink on page 70, he receives a message telling him that the commander's commlock was already engaged, with an option to hold or try again later. In the original version of the novel, he calls the "operator", who gives him that message! An instance of an operator is seen again on page 151 of the original version.

 

This novel suggests that Professor Bergman would take temporary command of Moonbase Alpha if Commander Koenig were to die, until such time as a new commander could be decided upon.

 

Page 97 states that Nancy Coleman developed a new strain of wheat and page 99 informs us it was called W-725 and it took her 15 years to develop. She had also bred a hybrid Luna Orchid in the low gravity Moon environment and it had taken the botanical world by storm. It goes on to state, if the Moon had not been blown out of Earth's solar system, she would have been able to retire with wealth to her small estate in the Lesser Antilles. The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean, including the Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

 

Worrying that the giant "seeds" could actually be eggs of the tentacled creature that killed five men on the Moon's surface, Koenig tells Bergman that he may have planted a nest of serpents in Eden. Eden, as mentioned earlier in the study, is the Rural Area One hydroponics cavern beneath Alpha, but in Koenig's statement it is also a reference to the Biblical Garden of Eden, where the serpent (Satan) tempted Eve.

 

On page 111, Bergman is said to have a depiction of the Evening Star, one of the first interplanetary transports, on his desk.

 

The man called Osgood in charge of cavern examinations on page 115, is probably Patrick Osgood who appears in a similar role in "Catacombs of the Moon". In the original version of the novel, the character is called Roper.

 

On page 123, Koenig compares Dr. Russell to Galen. Galen (129-216 CE) was a Greek physician, surgeon, and medical researcher who influenced the fields of anatomy, neurology, pathology, pharmacology, and physiology, as well as the disciplines of logic and philosophy. In the original version of the novel, no mention of Galen is made, Koenig simply thinks of Russell as a tiger when she is determined to get her way in a medical situation.

 

In the original version of the novel, security chief Tony Allan is replaced with a standard security man named Brody.

 

On page 129, Connie and Edward discuss the myth of Jason and the Argonauts and of Cadmus. Jason and the crew of the Argo, as well as Cadmus are characters from Greek mythology. Edward corrects Connie's assertion that Jason planted the teeth of the dragon that Cadmus slew, which grew into warriors, saying it was Cadmus who planted the teeth. But, actually, they are two separate legends, with both Jason and Cadmus planting dragon's teeth in the ground. I suppose this mix-up was intentional on the part of the author, to show that neither Connie nor Edward were particularly up on their Greek mythology.

 

On pages 131-132, Koenig sits in his office listening to music from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite, specifically "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age". This is a real world music suite by Holst, written between 1914 and 1917.

 

Page 133 implies that Koenig enjoys skiing.

 

On page 135, Coleman explains that garden peas have 8 chromosomes and humans have 46, while the alien seeds growing in the cavern have more than 500. Her statement of the number of human chromosomes is correct, but the original version of the novel has her saying 48. Older textbooks (into the 1960s) used to say that humans had 48 chromosomes. Geneticists Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan showed in 1955 that humans had 46 instead. I guess author Tubb was reading an old textbook!

 

On page 139, Coleman remarks that chrysanthemums will only flower when the days and nights are of equal length. I have not found any knowledge that says this is so. Chrysanthemums are known to bloom in response to short days and long nights.

 

In the original version of the novel, when Koenig is told that Connie Boswell suddenly has anemia, he remarks, "It's almost like saying the girl has a fit of the vapours." "Vapours" is an outdated, somewhat derogatory, term ascribed to women who seemed to suffer from depressive or hysterical conditions, believed to be caused by internal emanations from the womb. It was essentially a way of dismissing women's constitutions. Koenig's line was probably removed for the new edition due to its outdatedness, and possibly, so it would not sound dismissive of those who suffer from anemia.

 

Dr. Russell explains that normal anemia is simple to treat with injections of liver extract and vitamin B-12. This is roughly accurate for common anemia (a lowered ability to carry oxygen due low red blood cells count).

 

The Alphans name the woman who emerges from the sole surviving alien plant Enalus. In Greek mythology, Enalus was a man from the island of Lesbos whose virgin lover was to be offered as a sacrifice into the sea in honor of the goddess Amphitrite (Queen of the Sea and wife of Poseidon) and the Nereides and he leaped into the sea with her.

 

On page 175, Enalus is compared to Aphrodite. Aphrodite is the Ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to the later Romans).

 

When Koenig becomes fearful that a plague may have struck Alpha on page 179, he thinks of it has one of the Four Horsemen that have always threatened humanity. This refers to the Bible's Book of Revelation, the vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death).

 

While Morrow assists with running a socialized test on Enalus, his spot in Main Mission is taken by Winters. Winters also replaces Morrow in "The Infernal Machine". In the original version of the novel, the replacement is referred to only as a relief man.

 

On page 188, Dr. Russell calls Sandra "Sahn". In Season Two of the TV series, Sandra is always called Sahn, for short, for some reason. In the Season One televised episodes, she is always "Sandra". In the original version of the novel, Dr. Russell calls Sandra "girl" here instead!

 

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

 

It seems rather coincidental that the gigantic pod carrying the seeds is on a collision course not only with the wandering Moon itself, but will collide at a point practically on top of Moonbase Alpha. Considering that the sole surviving progeny of the pod metamorphisized into an ethereal, higher order of life, could it have been connected to the Mysterious Unknown Force and therefore was deliberately targeted for Alpha as a test of humans there?

 

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