“The Lambda Factor” is episode seventeen of season two of Space: 1999.
Dr Russell says they are travelling through an area with no possible dangers, which is just asking for trouble. Alpha is having problems, one being with discipline. Sally Martin hasn’t done the medical inventory and now has to do it during recreational hours. Sally is currently doing it and complaining when there’s a tremendous disturbance, like a poltergeist. She tries hiding in a room but the door is ripped apart.
The commander is having a nightmare about a woman claiming he killed her, when the doctor contacts him and asks him to come to medical stores as there’s been a casualty. When he gets there, Sally is dead. Tony says nothing came in or out of the base. The doctor is unsure what killed Sally without an autopsy. Koenig is a bit short with the doctor about the autopsy and Tony on a dossier on Sally.
In the Command Centre, Sandra and Alan report they’re getting bugs and glitches. The commander wants them fixing. Maya reports she may have found the source of the problem, a space phenomenon emitting electrically charged particles. Koenig asks if that’s all she’s got. Maya says the charge is too slight to harm humans. The commander is a bit snippy with her and she’s snippy in return.
In the recreation centre, George is upset because Carl won a game of chance 17 times in a row. George ends up accusing Carl of cheating and attacks him. Tony breaks it up; Carl explains he can’t seem to lose. It seems Tony was heading there to speak to a couple, Caroline and Mark, to tell them Sally Martin is dead, and that the commander would like to ask them questions.
Dr Russell has done Sally’s autopsy. There’s no sign of weapon use, but her body is shattered internally. Tony arrives and says Caroline and Mark are there. Koenig wants to speak to them separately. He begins with Mark, and the commander and Tony ask Mark questions about his relationship with Sally; it seems they were going to get married, but Mark broke it off, and Sally said some nasty things. Then Caroline, who was sharing quarters with Sally at the time and says Sally blamed her and moved out. She’s questioned about a project she’s working on.
Afterwards, Tony is sure Caroline held something back. The commander is snippy again, and asks if he heard three-quarters of the Eagles are out of commission.
Caroline finds Tony examining her project. She isn’t happy and smashes it up so that it can’t be blamed for the next murder.
Alan is speaking to an engineer, Peter Garforth; it seems he’s been involved with all the Eagles that have had problems. Peter is also an Eagle test pilot, so he’d be endangering himself. He wants Alan to look at a motor. It works fine on the bench, but not in an Eagle. Peter is called away and Alan tests the device again. When Alan tries to leave, the doors shut and the device comes on again. And it isn’t making a healthy noise. Neither the alarm nor the communicator works.
In the Command Centre, Maya says the charge from the phenomenon is getting stronger. Koenig calls Peter about Alan, who says Alan was heading to Command Centre. The commander thinks the phenomenon might be the source of the problems. He tells Tony and Maya to go to medical to check Sally’s autopsy.
On the way, they hear Alan having problems. he tells them to get away; Maya changes, rips the door open and then rips out the power for the engine. Alan explains what happened.
In the Command Centre, Maya reports something new. The phenomenon is emitting Lambda waves. The Lambda variant, according to Dr Russell. Discovered during ESP and paranormal powers experiments. She wants to run some tests. Carl manages to move a ball bearing without touching it and Peter bends a piece of metal with his mind.
Koenig is seeing a man and a woman who are accusing him of leaving them to die of Venusian plague. This is affecting his ability to sleep. The doctor’s tests show over 90% of people have gained a significant increase in paranormal powers. Especially Caroline, Carl and Peter. It seems likely the phenomenon is behind this, and also likely that it’s causing someone to gain the power to kill with their mind.