"The Beta Cloud" is the fourteenth episode of the second series of Space: 1999 (and the thirty-eighth episode overall of the programme). The screenplay was written by Charles Woodgrove (a pseudonym of producer Fred Freiberger); the director was Robert Lynn. The final shooting script is dated 11 June 1976. Live action filming took place Monday 26 July 1976 through Friday 6 August 1976. A two-day remount was scheduled for Tuesday 21 September 1976 through Wednesday 22 September 1976 during production of the two-part episode "The Bringers of Wonder". Story It is 1503 days after leaving Earth orbit, and Moonbase Alpha is suffering a massive epidemic. Lassitude, depression and loss-of-will have incapacitated the majority of the population. Only a few dozen remain healthy to nurse the sick and keep essential services running. Seven days previously, the Moon encountered a massive cloud composed of unknown elements and exhibiting strange characteristics. Soon after the sighting, people began passing out all over the base—John Koenig and Alan Carter among them. Working alone, Doctor Helena Russell was unable to identify the cause of the disease. Four days previously, Astronaut Tom Graham was dispatched to collect particles for analysis in the hope the causative agent could be found and a treatment devised. After steering Eagle Six into the cloud, Graham was never heard from again—until today. Tracking radar suddenly picks up Eagle Six on final approach. Relief turns to doubt when the staff realises the ship should have exhausted its fuel two days previously, there is no response to hails, and sensors show no life-forms on board. Tony Verdeschi, Bill Fraser and one of three still-healthy Security guards go to meet the mystery ship as it lands. Boarding the Eagle, there is no sign of Graham. The search ends when the men are ambushed by a vicious alien beast. After proving resistant to stun-gun fire, the seven-foot-tall, frog-headed, enormously-muscled brute crushes the guard to death with its bare hands. Verdeschi and Fraser only just manage to escape via the travel tube. The security chief has the remaining two guards to report to the travel-tube terminus armed with heavy rocket guns. He orders them to immediately fire on anything following him out of the travel unit. All attempts to analyse the cloud meet with failure. An unknown emission is scrambling the sensors; all they show is a large mass shrouded by gas and dust. Verdeschi and company