End of eternity

END OF ETERNITY Original U.K. airing week: 20 November 1975 (ATV Midlands)  In the year 1999 CE, lunar nuclear waste storage dumps have exploded, due to magnetic radiation, sending Earth's moon into interstellar space. The inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, unable to escape, are seeking a new home.

“End of Eternity” commences with a team of Alphan astronauts, including Commander John Koenig (Martin Landau) exploring an asteroid that has been adrift for a thousand years.

The appearance of an asteroid is baffling. It is three light years from the nearest star and must have been traveling a thousand years in space. And Computer reports that there is an atmosphere source somewhere inside it.

Professor Victor Bergman (Barry Morse) discovers a chamber with a breathable atmosphere inside the rock, and the Alphans detonate explosives to reach it. Deep inside, they find a “one room world,” and its single occupant: the humanoid Balor (Peter Bowles). He is a citizen of the planet Progron and has been trapped in this prison for a thousand years.

He also based the character of Balor on precedents throughout Earth history. “Balor was named after Baal, an old Indo-European God,” Byrne explained. “Those who worshipped Baal gave their first born to him in these horrible human sacrifices. That is something echoed in the story, that Balor needs placating, and that his appeasement can only be achieved through the pain and suffering of others. Basically, he saw the Alphans as 311 laboratory rats that he could do with as he pleased.”

“End of Eternity” commences with a team of Alphan astronauts, including Commander John Koenig (Martin Landau) exploring an asteroid that has been adrift for a thousand years.

Professor Victor Bergman (Barry Morse) discovers a chamber with a breathable atmosphere inside the rock, and the Alphans detonate explosives to reach it. Deep inside, they find a “one room world,” and its single occupant: the humanoid Balor (Peter Bowles). He is a citizen of the planet Progron and has been trapped in this prison for a thousand years.

When Balor recovers from the injuries he sustained during the Alphans' opening of his asteroid jail, Dr. Helena Russell (Barbara Bain) realizes that his cells are regenerating at an amazing rate.

He is, practically-speaking, immortal. http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2012/09/cult-tv-flashback-space-1999-endof.html But he is now, as Koenig soon comes to realise, a complete psychopath. He is hungry for pain and destruction. his immense strength and powers of re-generation and eternal life drive him on to destroy everything and everyone within his reach. No-one is safe from him, but there is no way of catching him and holding him. How can you kill a man who cannot be killed? The decision Koenig takes is a grim one. Somehow, he has to be lured into an airlock from which he can be released into space forever, but to trap him Koenig has to be with him...

A terrifying power has been unleashed. The man they have rescued gives his name as Balor, citizen of the planet Progron, a philosopher whose people has achieved man's dream of immortality , defeating death with the promise of eternal happiness. But with nothing to strive for, civilisation has lost its purpose and with it the realization that only death can give meaning to life. Balor found a solution in torcher, pain, terror, etc.Balor was blamed and banished, imprisoned in a living rock from the planet and cast in to space as an everlasting prison probably with out food and water but in a breathable atmosphere . This living rock resembled an asteroid.

But he is now, as Koenig soon comes to realise, a complete psychopath. He is hungry for pain and destruction. his immense strength and powers of re-generation and eternal life drive him on to destroy everything and everyone within his reach. No-one is safe from him, but there is no way of catching him and holding him. How can you kill a man who cannot be killed? The decision Koenig takes is a grim one. Somehow, he has to be lured into an airlock from which he can be released into space forever, but to trap him Koenig has to be with him...

[Adopted by slight changes from: http://www.space1999.org/features/episode_guide/year_one/y1ep16-end_of_eternity.html]

Investigating a passing asteroid which appears to have an internal atmosphere, the Alphans blast their way into a living chamber inside. The explosion critically injures the only occupant who is returned to Alpha even though Helena feels that he cannot be saved. However, the alien makes a miraculous recovery and introduces himself as Balor, a Progron scientist who has achieved immortality. Unfortunately, Balor is also a dangerous psychopath who lives for the pleasure of inflicting fear and pain. He requests that Koenig allow him free reign to terrorise the Alphans, promising to use his powers of regeneration to keep them alive indefinately for his eternal amusement, but Koenig refuses so Balor embarks on a rampage of death and destruction... http://www.fanderson.org.uk/epguides/spaceyr1eg4.html#Episode%20Sixteen

He also based the character of Balor on precedents throughout Earth history. “Balor was named after Baal, an old Indo-European God,” Byrne explained. “Those who worshipped Baal gave their first born to him in these horrible human sacrifices. That is something echoed in the story, that Balor needs placating, and that his appeasement can only be achieved through the pain and suffering of others. Basically, he saw the Alphans as 311 laboratory rats that he could do with as he pleased.”

[I personally think he was also influenced by a sect who believe that there 12 th leader is enclosed in a cave atleast for a thousand years, in complete isolation, imprisoned by God. But he did not mensioned it here.]

When questioned about this quality, Balor notes that his people “cast him out” after immortality was discovered on their world. They did so, he states, because they did not appreciate his efforts to make immortality meaningful in the absence of death.

Soon, the Alphans get a taste of Balor’s governing philosophy. He believes that sadism, torture, pain and terror are the true pathways to wisdom for both the immortal and mortal, and wants to introduce these components to life on Alpha. And since he’s virtually invincible -- impervious even to lasers -- Koenig and the Alphans have no way to stop him.

“End of Eternity” reaches its crescendo of horror and suspense in the last act, as Balor and Koenig go head-to-head for total control of Moonbase Alpha. This mano-a-mano contest is, again, expressed through dynamic visualization. As Balor attacks Main Mission and rips up a computer panel, the camera zooms in to a tight close-up, and that very shot -– the zoom to close-up -- is mimicked and reflected in the very next shot of Koenig. It’s all between these two men now, the photography and editing reveal, and indeed, that’s how the episode resolves.

"End of Eternity's" final moments fulfill the promise of the mirror-image zooms to close-up when Koenig sends Balor out of Moonbase Alpha’s airlock (foreshadowing Alien’s [1979] finale). But the lead-up is a nail-biting contest between sadism and power (Balor) and self-sacrifice and experience (Koenig).

In the end, it’s a simple, human thing that renders Koenig victorious. He knows the lay-out of Moonbase Alpha better than Balor does, and is thus able to lead him into a trap. He also understands that Balor -- a bully at heart -- is incapable of resisting the temptation to physically

lord it over him, to hit him. Thus Koenig knowingly goads Balor into striking him, so that our stalwart commander will fall into a safe ante-chamber, leaving Paul Morrow (Prentis Hancock) in Main Mission to open the airlock and send Balor out into space. Adios. http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2012/09/cult-tv-flashback-space-1999-end-of.html  What became of Balor after Koenig decompressed him into space? (Actually this was answered in the Powys Media books,"Space: 1999 - Resurrection and Space 1999 – Eternity Unbound " by William Latham.)

ON WEKI PEDIA NO FURTHER LINK TO THE STORY OF “END OF ETERNITY IS AVAILABLE” SO I HAVE ADDED IT HERE> SEE:

12 "End of Eternity" Ray Austin Johnny Byrne 20 November 1975 16

While exploring an asteroid, the Alphans injure an alien trapped within. Bringing him to Alpha, they discover his wounds have completely healed. The indestructible Balor is a scientist whose people had discovered the secret of immortality. Balor is a psychopath, offering a drastic solution to his people's apathy; now freed of the eternal prison, he plans to spend eternity practicing the art of pain and torture, with the Alphans as his subjects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Space:_1999_episodes