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Space: 1999 #7
Space: 1999 Alien Seed
From the void of interstellar space
a mysterious object is on a collision course with Alpha.
Too ornate to be just a wandering rock,
is it a ship, a living artifact, a tomb?
Contained within it are both an unstoppable horror
that threatens to destroy Alpha
and alien seeds that give rise to a new threat:
a thing of beauty, at once graceful and insidious,
that preys on the blood of those in its thrall
and threatens the lives of everyone on Alpha.
This classic novel has been revised for continuity and has now taken its place within the Powysverse!
a mysterious object is on a collision course with Alpha.
Too ornate to be just a wandering rock,
is it a ship, a living artifact, a tomb?
Contained within it are both an unstoppable horror
that threatens to destroy Alpha
and alien seeds that give rise to a new threat:
a thing of beauty, at once graceful and insidious,
that preys on the blood of those in its thrall
and threatens the lives of everyone on Alpha.
This classic novel has been revised for continuity and has now taken its place within the Powysverse!
- GenresScience Fiction
279 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
1 person is currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
E.C. Tubb
383 books85 followersEdwin Charles Tubb was a writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. He published over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, and is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future.
Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.
An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.
Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.
His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.
In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.
Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.
Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.
An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.
Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.
His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.
In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.
Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 23, 2026
Space 1999 was a not-really-very-good television series fifty or so years ago; it was on for two years, and the first season was better than the first. We watched it because there was little other sf on television then, and it often looked cool, even if it was silly at times. The Moon takes off on a cosmic pinball jaunt through the cosmos, hi-ho! A variety of authors of the time did novelizations of the first season, along with some original stories, in ten volumes, and Michael Butterworth wrote adaptations for 23 of the 24 second season episodes in a six-volume series. There's nothing especially noteworthy about most of them; they vary in quality as did the scripts upon which they were based. The first season seemed to borrow heavily from Star Trek ideas. This seventh book from the first season was written by E.C. Tubb, a science fiction writer who was very prolific and best known for his Dumarest series. It was the first original novel done in the franchise, but it fits seamlessly into the continuity... such as it was. It's a monster-of-the-week tale, with alien seeds landing on the Moon. They hatch into a space vampire who seems to be a beautiful human woman. The men on the base all like her very much, but the women are less impressed. After a bit of drama and adventure and philosophizing, we learn that blood has iron in it and it all works out and everyone's ready for next week's outing. It's a kind of simple and silly story, and the characters are kind of simple and stiff, so that's why I say he did a good job of fitting it in with the episodes. On the other hand, since it's a single long tale rather than a compendium of four episodes, there's a bit more in depth background and character. It's a fast, fun read, although we might have been better off if Tubb had spent the time in getting Earl one step closer to home. Anyway, Space 1999... this one is another brief nostalgic visit to near-forgotten television.
March 13, 2014
I think this was the first Space 1999 novel to feature an original story, and while it has many of the trappings of an episode of Star Trek, it comes off as one of the better Season 1 stories.
As always, E.C. Tubbs' writing is excellent, though his characterizations in this one were a tad on the cardboard and strident side. The novel is still a very good Space 1999 tale and worth reading by any fan, or space opera fan in general._
As always, E.C. Tubbs' writing is excellent, though his characterizations in this one were a tad on the cardboard and strident side. The novel is still a very good Space 1999 tale and worth reading by any fan, or space opera fan in general._
July 7, 2025
I never liked the TV series Space 1999 (starting with the silly idea to choose a date that would soon become ancient history) despite the fact that two of my favorite actors were in it, Landau and Bain.
And I also generally dislike novelizations of films.
But then, I love E.C. Tubb so I finally picked up a book by him about Space 1999. And it is at least an original novel. Original, I am sad to say, in the sense of not based on an episode.
So we have a mysterious object approaching the moon base, just like in half of the Star Trek episodes. Should it be destroyed? Well, maybe not. Maybe we can learn something. (The scientist is played by Barry Morse, who tried to catch Richard Kimble in the real word – another reason the dislike the show.)
The object contains some kind of seeds and finally they give birth to a beautiful woman that all members of the crew, including the commander, fall in love with. At this point I should have stopped reading the book at the very latest, but like I said, I am a Tubb fan. People start dying. Our alien female friend, it turns out, unfortunately needs their blood in order to grow. Yes, naturally. So what to do? Kill her? The females of the crew are all for this sensible move. But the males are just too fond of her. And then, they discover that actually she does not need blood at all, but only iron. So they give it to her. Or to it. And you won’t believe the ending. Finally, she ist satisfied and just leaves the moon base to join her species somewhere. And the commander in finally in control of the moon base again. Just beautiful.
And I also generally dislike novelizations of films.
But then, I love E.C. Tubb so I finally picked up a book by him about Space 1999. And it is at least an original novel. Original, I am sad to say, in the sense of not based on an episode.
So we have a mysterious object approaching the moon base, just like in half of the Star Trek episodes. Should it be destroyed? Well, maybe not. Maybe we can learn something. (The scientist is played by Barry Morse, who tried to catch Richard Kimble in the real word – another reason the dislike the show.)
The object contains some kind of seeds and finally they give birth to a beautiful woman that all members of the crew, including the commander, fall in love with. At this point I should have stopped reading the book at the very latest, but like I said, I am a Tubb fan. People start dying. Our alien female friend, it turns out, unfortunately needs their blood in order to grow. Yes, naturally. So what to do? Kill her? The females of the crew are all for this sensible move. But the males are just too fond of her. And then, they discover that actually she does not need blood at all, but only iron. So they give it to her. Or to it. And you won’t believe the ending. Finally, she ist satisfied and just leaves the moon base to join her species somewhere. And the commander in finally in control of the moon base again. Just beautiful.
November 3, 2022
The beginning was good, the end was good....the middle dragged. Still a fan of the show though :)
April 15, 2019
Way back last century, in the 1970s, Gerry Anderson's most bizarre science fiction story, Space: 1999, made its debut. The premise - by the year 1999, humans were colonising the Moon. They had established a base, Moonbase Alpha, presumably the first of many Moonbases to be named after the other Greek letters.
The Alphans had their scientific duties, such as being Mission Control for a manned probe to a planet called Metta, but mostly they were guardians over the Earth's two nuclear waste disposal facilities - until, on the eve of the Metta Probe launch, the waste dumps detonated, improbably sending the Moon out of Earth's orbit and off into space.
The rest of the series followed the Moon as it somehow jaunted from star system to star system, managing to travel faster than light somehow in order to reach worlds where everybody spoke perfect English. It was absurd, but somehow beautiful at the same time, with terrifying moments and frightening monsters.
This was the first Space: 1999 spinoff book I read, and the novel featured a monster of the week. It turned out to be an original novel, as compared to novelisations of selected episodes which seemed to be the speciality of John Rankine.
I got to read four of these original novels - this one, Rogue Planet, Android Planet, and the big E C Tubb novel which felt like an AU version of the show, where John got date raped by Dr Russell so that she could get pregnant (I kid thee not) and which ended with the Moon returning to Earth.
Alien Seed began with what feels like a standard season 1 story - something unidentified and alien lands on the Moon, and begins wreaking havoc. They manage to destroy the rampaging space monster, but it leaves behind strange nodules - I got the impression of these nodules being spheroids resembling football-sized, iridescent, metallic, nutmeg seeds.
One of them germinates, extends a flower, connects with an Alphan who has unusually high ESP potential, and drains her of haem like a vampire - then creates a beautiful alien humanoid out of a large pod.
Like the season 1 episode "Force of Life," the creature is hungry and consumes a portion of life force from several Alphans, in the form of haem, in order to complete its life cycle and head back for the stars again. Like "Force of Life," it just comes and goes, and leaves the Alphans wondering what the hell just happened.
At the time, I could not get enough of Space: 1999, and any novelisation was devoured eagerly, including original novels like this one. Of all the original Space: 1999 novels I managed to get my hands on, this one was my favourite.
If you can get past the absurd premise of the charming vintage TV show, you'll find the character portrayals here to be faithful to those on the show. The characters here feel like the ones in the TV show. The story is weird - but then the whole show was weird, even for science fiction shows of its time.
Alien Seed leaves a good feeling in the back of the mouth, and a sense of satisfaction and a complete ending. In the end, it was just one more mystery of space; one more random visitor to the Moon which stayed, had a little snack, and moved on; and it was business as usual for the residents of Moonbase Alpha.
The Alphans had their scientific duties, such as being Mission Control for a manned probe to a planet called Metta, but mostly they were guardians over the Earth's two nuclear waste disposal facilities - until, on the eve of the Metta Probe launch, the waste dumps detonated, improbably sending the Moon out of Earth's orbit and off into space.
The rest of the series followed the Moon as it somehow jaunted from star system to star system, managing to travel faster than light somehow in order to reach worlds where everybody spoke perfect English. It was absurd, but somehow beautiful at the same time, with terrifying moments and frightening monsters.
This was the first Space: 1999 spinoff book I read, and the novel featured a monster of the week. It turned out to be an original novel, as compared to novelisations of selected episodes which seemed to be the speciality of John Rankine.
I got to read four of these original novels - this one, Rogue Planet, Android Planet, and the big E C Tubb novel which felt like an AU version of the show, where John got date raped by Dr Russell so that she could get pregnant (I kid thee not) and which ended with the Moon returning to Earth.
Alien Seed began with what feels like a standard season 1 story - something unidentified and alien lands on the Moon, and begins wreaking havoc. They manage to destroy the rampaging space monster, but it leaves behind strange nodules - I got the impression of these nodules being spheroids resembling football-sized, iridescent, metallic, nutmeg seeds.
One of them germinates, extends a flower, connects with an Alphan who has unusually high ESP potential, and drains her of haem like a vampire - then creates a beautiful alien humanoid out of a large pod.
Like the season 1 episode "Force of Life," the creature is hungry and consumes a portion of life force from several Alphans, in the form of haem, in order to complete its life cycle and head back for the stars again. Like "Force of Life," it just comes and goes, and leaves the Alphans wondering what the hell just happened.
At the time, I could not get enough of Space: 1999, and any novelisation was devoured eagerly, including original novels like this one. Of all the original Space: 1999 novels I managed to get my hands on, this one was my favourite.
If you can get past the absurd premise of the charming vintage TV show, you'll find the character portrayals here to be faithful to those on the show. The characters here feel like the ones in the TV show. The story is weird - but then the whole show was weird, even for science fiction shows of its time.
Alien Seed leaves a good feeling in the back of the mouth, and a sense of satisfaction and a complete ending. In the end, it was just one more mystery of space; one more random visitor to the Moon which stayed, had a little snack, and moved on; and it was business as usual for the residents of Moonbase Alpha.
June 5, 2008
I read several Space 1999 books. The tv series was excellent. The special effects [done by the Andersons of Thunderbirds fame] were superb for their time and pre-dated the oscar winning effects of Star Wars by a few years.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews