“Dragon’s Domain” is episode eight of season one of Space: 1999.
Dr Russell is typing a report. It was 877 days since they were blasted out of orbit (which means there are season two episodes that in theory take place during season one) and they were between galaxies when Tony Cellini believed for the second time he was closing with his mortal enemy.
Tony wakes in bed in a room filled with weapons. He sees spinning lights, grabs a tomahawk and manages to hit the communications post as he tries to hit it. Dr Russell gets a warning and contacts Tony, as his pulse and metabolic rate are in the danger zone. Tony claims it was just a dream. Afterwards, he leaves his quarters.
David is beating Commander Koenig at chess in an otherwise deserted Main Mission when Computer alerts him that Tony is entering a restricted area on Launchpad 4, even though he’s not on duty. The commander orders Tony’s commlock cancelled when Tony doesn’t respond to the commander’s message. The door won’t open for Tony and, when Alan approaches, Tony knocks him down and steals Alan’s commlock.
Tony enters an Eagle as the commander finds Alan. David can’t stop the take-off, but the commander gets onboard the Eagle and confronts Tony, stunning him.
Tony is in medical as Dr Russell speaks to Koenig. She expected something like this. They’re three months’ Eagle travel time from the nearest system. Is that the behaviour of a rational man? He didn’t even take a toothbrush. The commander says that before the Ultra probe, Tony was the best. Koenig says something happened on Ultra that he, Dr Russell, Tony can’t understand, and it’s destroying him. The doctor says that Tony can’t take failure. He made a disastrous mistake and can’t admit it. The commander disagrees and isn’t happy to hear that the doctor was on the team that effectively certified Tony.
The doctor continues narrating. In 1994, Victor discovered a new planet. Both Tony and Koenig were up to command the probe. Victor tells them they need to make a decision as to who goes. Koenig suggests flipping for it. He loses. She introduces the Ultra team. The ship spent 8 months travelling to Ultra, which had conditions similar to Earth. A landing was planned, but the probe moved behind Ultra and contact with Moonbase Alpha was lost. No landing was made.
Ultra had discovered something in orbit and went to take a look. Many ships, no lifesigns. They dock with one and Tony opens the connecting airlock from the cockpit. Spinning lights rush out. Darwin tells Tony to close the door; there’s noise, wind, lights. Tony can’t close it. Darwin tries to close it manually, as a monster appears, but the lights envelop his head. He heads to the monster and is dragged under. His corpse is thrown back out shortly after. Dr Mackie tries shooting the creature, but the same happens to her. Tony gets out of the cockpit and finds Dr Bouchere in the creature’s grasp. He can’t save her, heads back to the module and separates it. He was alone for six months before it was found and returned to Alpha.
Tony’s story about a space monster wasn’t believed at the time, especially as the black box had no data to support it. However, Alpha has now entered a region where the same monster is lurking. This time, Tony’s story will probably be believed.