DIDJA NOTICE?

 

Eagles 1 and 2 are sent out to investigate the approaching object. Eagle 2 is destroyed by the emanations of the Queller Drive on Voyager One. We know that the inventor of the Queller Drive, Dr. Ernst Queller (under the alias Ernst Linden) is present at Moonbase Alpha from his previous appearance in "Cargo".

 

The Voyager One seen here (and Voyager Two mentioned) are not be confused with the real world NASA robotic probes Voyagers 1 and 2 which studied the outer planets of our solar system before entering interstellar space.

 

Paul Morrow reminds the operatives in Main Mission that the Queller Drive moves ships at incredible speed produced by fast neutrons spewed out into space, annihilating everything in their path.

 

Computer reveals that Voyager One was launched in 1985, its mission to probe the galaxy for signs of intelligent life, to find habitable solar systems, to make man's presence known in the galaxy.

 

Professor Bergman speaks to Voyager claiming to be the voice of Earth Space Authority and then Earth Space Control. This is the first mention of these organizations.

 

Morrow reveals that his father was killed by the Voyager Two accident with the Queller Drive 15 years ago.

 

In Linden's lab at 16:46 on the Blu-ray, a DeVere Cathomag 540 photo enlarger is seen in the background. Although I've been unable to confirm the 540 model, DeVere was a real world manufacturer of Cathomag photo enlargers.

 

At 17:55 on the Blu-ray, we see Voyager's Queller drive functioning as the vessel speeds through space. The exhaust plume effect of the engine is obviously achieved with a water jet in the model, as moisture can be seen dripping from the exhaust nozzle!

 

Eagles 6, 9, and 10 are sent to act as insurance against the Voyager probe in the event Linden's attempt to shut down the Queller Drive fails. Eagle 6 crashed and was left behind on the surface of Piri in "Guardian of Piri", so this must be a different Eagle taking on the designation.

 

At 23:09 on the Blu-ray, someone's hand can be seen on top of Linden's Voyager control circuit as Jim Haines looks down at Linden on the floor (and no one else is there with them). The hand is even moving a little bit! I guess it must be a stagehand (no pun intended).

 

Once Linden successfully communicates the shutdown command for the Queller drive on the Voyager, Eagle 5 escorts the probe to a landing on pad 4.

 

At 30:55 on the Blu-ray, studio lights are visible on the ceiling of the boarding tube as Linden walks towards the sealed Voyager hatch.

 

At 31:39 on the Blu-ray, Linden points to where he and the other two heads of Voyager development signed their names on the interior hull: Ernst Queller, Charles Borges, and Neill Cameron.

 

The alien man in the hologram communication that appears inside Voyager announces himself as Aarchon, the Chief Justifier of the Federated Worlds of Sidon. He remarks that Voyager One visited two of the Sidon worlds at the outer galaxy. Aarchon seems to speak English in his communications to Moonbase Alpha. Did his people learn the language from Voyager in some way? Or do the Sidonians have universal translator technology?

 

Aarchon is wearing two different outfits in close-up and distance shots of the hologram!

 

Aarchon is described as more alien-looking in the novelization than he appears in the televised episode: It was humanoid, but strangely alien, fierce, bony with an enlarged cranium. Eyes glared angrily from deep sockets [...with a] thin feline mouth.

 

The data box recovered from the Voyager appears to be a repainted and reused AE35 unit from the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey!
Voyager data box	AE35 unit from 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

Faced with the threat of the Sidon fleet, Alpha sends Eagles 4, 6, and 10 into intercept positions. 

 

At 46:17 on the Blu-ray, the image on the right-most display under the Big Screen appears to be a map of the constellations as seen from the Earth's northern hemisphere. I don't how useful a map of the stars as seen from Earth would be to the wandering Moon which has been warped far beyond the solar systems near Earth.

 

Notes from the novelization of "Voyager's Return" by John Rankine as it appears in the Space: 1999 Year One omnibus published by Powys Media.   The page numbers presented here come from the full Space: 1999 Year One omnibus. "Voyager's Return" begins on page 336 of the book. There will also be notes (as appropriate) from the original adaptation of "Voyager's Return" by Rankine as it appeared in Space: 1999 - Moon Odyssey, a merged novelization of the episodes "Alpha Child", "The Last Sunset", "Voyager's Return", and "Another Time, Another Place", first published by Pocket Books in 1975. (Chapters 5-6 cover the events of "Voyager's Return").

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

 

The story opens with Koenig reflecting that the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha were coming out of the numbing disappointment of Ariel removing the atmosphere it had attempted to give the Moon. This refers to the events of "The Last Sunset".

 

On pages 338-339, Morrow is seen to have occasional lingering pain from his formerly broken arm (incurred near the end of "The Last Sunset").

 

Notes from the "Voyager's Return" comic strip adaptation   German comic strip Zack #14 Koralle-Verlag GmbH Text: Farinas Art: Cardona 1978

 

Zack was a German comic magazine, 17 issues of which featured a Space: 1999 strip. Many of the strips were original stories, others adaptations of the televised episodes. All were written by Farinas and drawn by Cardona (Spanish artist José Maria Cardona Blasi).

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

 

On page 1 of the story, Eagles 1 and 2 have to fly through a meteor swarm in space before getting to a place where they can get close scans of the approaching object (Voyager One). The meteors do not appear in the televised episode or novelization.

 

In the comic strip, Professor Ernst Linden is called Ernest Linder instead.

 

Here it is Eagles 6, 7, and 9 that stand guard against the approaching Voyager, not 6, 9, and 10 as in the televised episode.

 

In the comic strip, "Sidon" is spelled "Sydon" instead.

 

Aarchon refers to himself as "Executioner of Sydon" instead of "Chief Justifier of the Federated Worlds of Sidon."

 

Unanswered Questions

 

How was Voyager One able to travel such distances through the galaxy, even with the Queller Drive? The drive would have to be some kind of faster-than-light drive to achieve it, which seems unlikely given the description of how it works.

 

It seems rather coincidental that Voyager One is on a course that takes it into the path of Earth's wandering Moon. Double coincidence is that the inventor of the Queller Drive just happens to be living on Moonbase Alpha as well! Was Voyager's course altered to intercept the wandering Moon by the Mysterious Unknown Force?

 

MEMORABLE DIALOG

 

the voice of Voyager One.mp3

it would take 100 years to learn what Voyager already knows.mp3

the Queller Drive made star travel possible.mp3

he should know who he's working with.mp3

are you citizens of the planet Earth?.mp3

revenge sanctioned by authority.mp3

resistance shall alter only the manner of your destruction.mp3

paved with good intentions.mp3 

 

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