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Destruction By Sound

Synopsis:
Professor Zeffer has developed a machine that can transport things almost instantaneously across space but in a test, Cassie returns speaking backwards! While on the Moon, Dart meets Yria from Alpha Centauri again who is visiting before returning home. He also encounters a prospecter using super ultrasonics, which gives him the idea for using it to cure Cassie. Meanwhile, Irya returns and relates that a great artificial brain, created to rule the planet, has turned malevolent...

Galasphere 347 approaches Asteroid
Cast
Captain Larry Dart
Husky
Slim
Colonel Raeburn
Marla
Professor Haggarty
Cassie
Professor Zeffer
Zeffer's Assistant
Irya
Delta Brain
Prospector
Doctor

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Dick Vosburgh
Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens
Murray Kash
Ysanne Churchman
Ronnie Stevens
Ysanne Churchman
Dick Vosburgh
Ronnie Stevens
Ysanne Churchman
Dick Vosburgh
Murray Kash
Ronnie Stevens

And The Moral Is:
All Head And No Heart

Today I Will Be Mostly Learning... :
The computers on Delta became so advanced that they were capable of creating living matter. This may have seemed like a flight of fancy but with the advances in genetic studies and the Genome Project, this is startlingly close to becoming something of a reality.

Raeburnt:
“I’ve never managed a Turkish Bath without being interrupted!” We’d never have guessed...

“Don’t Call Me Pop!”:
“Whenever she calls me Pop, it breaks me heart!” Even backwards, it would seem...

To Coin A Phrase:
Haggarty “I’d have to be a superman to... super! That’s given me a idea.”

Is This A Joke ?:
Strangely, Husky is incredulous of the Galasphere’s Delta-enhanced acceleration despite this being a return trip.
Irya's response to Dart’s comment about him being controlled by a ‘brain’ (Raeburn) is “You are joking?”.

‘Riding Along In My Monobile... ‘:
We think Dart drives to see Haggerty but curiously we never get to see the occupant.

‘I’m An Alien!‘:
The computers on Delta are so advanced they can create living matter.

Ooh, Bitch...:
Haggarty calls Zeffer ‘a Martian moron’! and on referring to the mixed-up Cassie “She looks as lovely as ever but she’s talking nonsense.” gets Raeburn’s sexist retort “That just about makes her a normal woman... “

Continuity:
The crew of Galasphere 347 are on leave and still have a week left.
Irya has not returned to Alpha Centauri for ‘many years’, having been exploring other star systems.
The Delta Unit to accelerate a Galasphere to faster than light speed is rebuilt, but no mention of the inability of the ships to withstand the stress is mentioned.
The flight time to Alpha Centauri is still four months.
For the last time in the series, Dart gets an offer to take up residence on another planet - this time by the grateful inhabitants of Delta.

Plot Device:
Ultrasonics is once again a universal solution. They’ll be curing headaches with it next...

Haven’t I Seen... ?:
The transmission device seems to be Zeffer’s star measuring and invisibility device - gets around, doesn’t it ?
The lunar geologist is the giant from ‘The New Planet’ and the doctor is Jim Barratt.
The robots of the Great Brain are identical to those on Earth.
The control of the Great Brain uses most of the Galasphere control panels.
Most of the sequence on board Galasphere 347 as it accelerates to lightspeed is taken from Message From A Star (including an unused sequence - see below), even though Irya’s voice has been redubbed - the stars on Slim and Husky’s uniforms are a dead giveaway.

Take A Break:
Having suggested that a super ultrasonic machine might cure Cassie, Dart adds they can find one at the Space Hospital.

"You are lying, but I do not care!
Go... now!"
The Great Brain


Astro Viewer Working:
Cassiopeia speaks several of her lines backward in this episode:
    “Oh, Pop!  Something terrible has happened.  I feel perfectly normal Pop, but I’m talking backwards!”
    “I’m talking normally, but everything I say comes out backwards!”
    “It’s awful not being able to talk.” “Pop, I’m sorry Pop.”
    “I want you to do it!” “Aw, please Pop, please Pop!”
    “I must say I’m getting rather nervous.”
    “No!” “Yes.”

Irya’s voice is different.
Interestingly one sequence, seemingly shot for Message From A Star but unused, turns up in this episode. In the Galasphere, when Irya tells the crew about our Sun seeming like a star from Alpha Centauri - the costumes and postions of the crew are identical to scenes just after the Galasphere lands on Delta in the earlier episode, though Irya's voice has been redubbed. In Message From A Star, Irya says the same thing to Raeburn over the monitor in his office, suggesting a change in the script.
The Deltans have blackboards and chalk apparently, though how they use it without arms is anyone’s guess.

Hoorah!:
By accident or design, the reflections of light on the dome of the brain resemble a pair of small gleaming eyes and, in some shots, a kind of small grinning mouth.
Its callous malevolence at Dart (see Notable Quote above) is also a nice arrogant touch that makes you wish it had also become a regular threat.

Boo!:
Where did the Great Brain get the metal to build its robots and control room from. Surely they’re not made of lizard horn too ?

Computer Central:
Another episode not to feature Libby Morris.
First screened: June 4th 1964 (Associated-Rediffusion London)
Running time: 24 minutes 35 seconds
BFCC Classified - 9th August 1999
VHS - Volume 9
DVD - Complete Series Box Set, Disk 6

Listings
London, June 4th 1964:
Professor Haggarty uses his daughter as a subject for a strange experiment, which ends still more strangely and affects events in another galaxy.
Tyne Tees, June 15th 1964:
A Martian professor invents a machine which breaks down atoms and transmits their pattern to another Machine, which then rebuilds the pattern. People can be transmitted in this way and Professor Haggarty's daughter Cassie volunteers. She comes out at the other end completely perfect - except that she talks backwards! And nothing can cure her...

Ready To Lift ?:
This seems initially promising with the development of matter transmission before turning into another hybrid episode, reusing and mixing elements of The Robot Revolution and Message From A Star but never really developing any of them.






On to the next episode



Episode Guide Series One
Episode Guide Series One
Episode Guide Series Two
The Unknown Asteroid
The Evil Eye Of Venus
Secret Formula
The Telepathic Robot
Deadly Whirlwind
The Jitter Waves
Sands Of Death
The Hairy Men Of Mars
The Grass Of Saturn
Forcefield X
The Water Bomb
Destruction By Sound
The Shrinking Gas Of Jupiter
Episode Guide Series Two
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'