“Mission of the Darians” is episode nine of season one of Space: 1999.
Main Mission is looking at an enormous spaceship. David says they’ve decoded the transmission. It’s a message from the spaceship Daria. They’ve suffered a catastrophe; large areas of the ship are devastated, thousands are dead and hundreds are dying. They need urgent medical help. Lifesigns are detected and Commander Koenig orders a mission and Eagle 1 readied for immediate lift-off.
Eagle 1 is approaching the ship, looking for a way in, when it’s grabbed and pulled to a docking port. They are unable to leave and can’t contact Main Mission on comms or anything local. Victor reports breathable air and power. No communications; even their comlocks are affected. Radiation has saturated the area, but it’s too weak to harm them. And there’s life. They leave the Eagle into a damaged corridor that leads off in two directions. Koenig and Victor go one way; Paul and Allen another. Dr Russell is left at the Eagle with Bill. It’s probably not going to end well for Bill.
Paul and Alan find increasing damage until a blockage forces them to return. Dr Russell thinks she’s found a door. Bill agrees, and opens it. He suggests waiting for the others. The doctor agrees – but says they should just take a quick look. They hear a sound and two people, both short and apparently mute, show up. They seem to be warning of something. The male leaves and Bill is struck from behind by a full-size person.
Victor and the commander have encountered two people in suits, who use what seems to be a scanner on them, before stunning them and scanning them again.
Paul and Alan have returned to the Eagle and found the male little person there. The female is being taken somewhere with the doctor and Bill. Koenig and Victor are on beds; Koenig briefly comes around and sees someone in a suit. Dr Russell and the others have arrived at a primitive settlement in ruins where more people are. Alan and Paul are trying to talk to the person they found. He leads them to the new opening and they ask him to take them. They arrive at an overgrown ruined city under what looks like a dome.
Koenig comes around and a woman asks if he’s recovered. He says they came to help; why were they attacked? The woman says they are strangers; they needed to know they weren’t hostile. Koenig says they could have asked. The woman explains that their minds were probed. Her people are Darians; Daria was their world. She is Kara, Director of Reconstruction on this ship. The commander asks about the others of his group. Victor was with him; the rest they haven’t located. Apart from this small section, the rest of the ship is a wilderness.
Koenig asks about the signal Alpha received. It was automatically sent when all but one of their nuclear reactors exploded. Over 900 years ago. This is the only shielded part of the ship and, out of 50,000 people, only 14 survived intact. The rest were irradiated; they didn’t all die immediately. Or at all, given what the others have discovered. Kara says they are far beyond the help they needed in the distress call, but the Alphans’ presence is still vital to their survival.
The female that Dr Russell and Bill encountered is examined, proclaimed a mutant and stuck in a small chamber. Where it looks like she’s vapourised. Alan and Paul are watching from the ruins. Bill is examined too; he has one finger shorter than the others. He gets vapourised too. Dr Russell fairs better.
The Darians want the Alphans to come with them to their new world. Which is still 100 years away. And there are quite a few facts that the Darians haven’t been sharing.