“A Matter of Balance” is episode fifteen of season two of Space: 1999.
Tony is working on his beer again, assisted by a girl in hydroponics, Shermeen. Her colleague, Eddie, is upset she’s ignoring him for Tony. Shermeen says the beer is fine.
In the Command Centre, Maya contacts the commander and says they’re picking something up. Tony arrives with the beer, but everyone turns him down. Tony tries it himself. It’s revolting. He says that he’s going to try something different, not involving hydroponics this time. Shermeen accuses Tony of blaming her and runs off as the commander arrives. Dr Russell follows. Maya tells Koenig that Shermeen has a teenage crush. Tony thinks they’re overreacting. Shermeen is in her quarters, crying, when a man’s transparent head appears and transparent hands beckon.
The doctor arrives and Shermeen says she must have fallen asleep, describing what she saw. Dr Russell offers tranquilisers.
In the Command Centre, Maya reports a planet that is fit for humans; vegetation but no animal life. Koenig asks Bill to ready a landing party, then asks Dr Russell to come with. She has experiments she has to watch, then describes Shermeen’s vision. The commander wants Shermeen on the landing party, but the doctor doesn’t think she’s up for it, so Eddie is chosen instead. Tony says Shermeen has always been on the first team – even though she’s never been seen before – and will be hurt. Koenig asks him to explain to her.
Shermeen hears her name, then sees the man again. He disappears when Tony arrives. Tony apologises, then talks about the planet. Shermeen thinks he’s the one who said she couldn’t go and is upset. After Tony leaves, the man appears again and says he won’t harm her. His name is Vindrus. You could say he comes from Sunim, the planet they are approaching. Shermeen will find the answer to her unhappiness there and Tony will never upset her again, if she does what he says. Vindrus tells Shermeen to get a seed and do things to it, then plant it. He tells her to go and get ready as Eddie approaches. The seed grows rapidly after Shermeen leaves and Eddie sniffs a flower, then collapses.
On the way to Eagle 1, the landing party finds Shermeen in the travel tube. Eddie was taken ill; Dr Russell said Shermeen is fine to go.
On Sunim, the commander says it’s like Earth, but there are no animals and there should be. Shermeen is collecting plant samples as the others come across a structure. Vindrus appears to her and tells her to come. The other three approach the structure, and Maya still can’t detect life. Then something armed and armoured comes out. A laser bounces off it so they run. It won’t follow them past some obelisks. The commander asks Maya and Bill to find Shermeen as he tries, and fails, to contact Alpha.
Vindrus takes Shermeen to the structure and tells her the creature won’t attack. It doesn’t. She enters and, inside, Vindrus says he needs to cross over. There’s a machine that will allow his solid body to come into Shermeen’s universe, but it’s damaged because of a generator explosion. He needs her to take a cylinder back to Alpha.
The others find Shermeen’s prints leading to the structure and Maya gets inside. Shermeen seems fine. Though she’s planning to take a strange cylinder back to Alpha without telling anyone, all on the instructions of a transparent man. That is not going to be a good idea. Either Vindrus has some hold over Shermeen, or she’s being actively stupid.