Loud crashing noises and the jolt of impact lead Devon (Keir Dullea), Garth (Robin Ward) & Rachel (Gay Rowan) to think that the Ark - the massive starship they are on which is housing the remaining people of Earth, is under alien attack. Devon asks the computer 'sphere projector' (William Osler) what is going on and he is directed to the on board observatory of Dr.Linus Farthing (Edward Andrews).
Farthing informs them it is not an attack but a meteor shower. It naturally occurs to Rachel to ask whether or not they can alter the course of the Ark. As the viewers of previous episodes know an accident knocked the Ark off course and into the path of a class 'G' solar star. Farthing can't fix the course and says nothing can which is perplexing since he manoeuvred the ship into the meteor shower just so he could get a look close up.
It becomes apparent that the meteor shower will destroy the Ark unless necessary repairs are made. Devon and his friends volunteer on a risky mission to set things right. It involves Devon doing a spacewalk to make the repairs on the exterior of the Ark before meteors begin to collide with its path again.
This episode serves to undermine the credibility of the entire narrative in a way that made for a pattern on the series. Farthing has altered the course of the Ark to get a look at the meteor shower but says he can't alter the course of the Ark to get it out of the collision course with a sun.
Like other guest characters Farthing knows that the Ark is going to collide with a sun but he is preoccupied with other things which do not include anything that might serve to find a new place for the people on the Ark to live on or evacuate them to other ships. Anyway we know that the Ark can be put on a different course from the previous episode in which the alien Oro demonstrated how it could and tried to guide it to his home planet.
In that same episode Devon won command of the Ark but is not sen using any of the authority of the position beyond that episode. If he had he could have ordered Farthing to alter the course of the Ark. He would have almost certainly thrown him in a brig for putting the Ark in danger.
Logically the disparate group of people we have seen depicted on the show, and especially scientists like Farthing, would be working collectively on those issues. But they aren't and like Farthing, they resent being bothered when the subject of those issues is raised even after acknowledging their urgency.
The holes in the plot which provoked raised eyebrows and quizzical looks amongst audiences would periodically be interrupted by clumsy attempts at staging. The contradictory nature of story lines on this show would tend only to be upstaged by slipshod production value on a level lower than that seen in Japanese monster movies.
Farthing informs them it is not an attack but a meteor shower. It naturally occurs to Rachel to ask whether or not they can alter the course of the Ark. As the viewers of previous episodes know an accident knocked the Ark off course and into the path of a class 'G' solar star. Farthing can't fix the course and says nothing can which is perplexing since he manoeuvred the ship into the meteor shower just so he could get a look close up.
It becomes apparent that the meteor shower will destroy the Ark unless necessary repairs are made. Devon and his friends volunteer on a risky mission to set things right. It involves Devon doing a spacewalk to make the repairs on the exterior of the Ark before meteors begin to collide with its path again.
This episode serves to undermine the credibility of the entire narrative in a way that made for a pattern on the series. Farthing has altered the course of the Ark to get a look at the meteor shower but says he can't alter the course of the Ark to get it out of the collision course with a sun.
Like other guest characters Farthing knows that the Ark is going to collide with a sun but he is preoccupied with other things which do not include anything that might serve to find a new place for the people on the Ark to live on or evacuate them to other ships. Anyway we know that the Ark can be put on a different course from the previous episode in which the alien Oro demonstrated how it could and tried to guide it to his home planet.
In that same episode Devon won command of the Ark but is not sen using any of the authority of the position beyond that episode. If he had he could have ordered Farthing to alter the course of the Ark. He would have almost certainly thrown him in a brig for putting the Ark in danger.
Logically the disparate group of people we have seen depicted on the show, and especially scientists like Farthing, would be working collectively on those issues. But they aren't and like Farthing, they resent being bothered when the subject of those issues is raised even after acknowledging their urgency.
The holes in the plot which provoked raised eyebrows and quizzical looks amongst audiences would periodically be interrupted by clumsy attempts at staging. The contradictory nature of story lines on this show would tend only to be upstaged by slipshod production value on a level lower than that seen in Japanese monster movies.