Helena Russell
Encyclopedia
Helena Russell is a fictional character from the television series Space: 1999
. She was played by Barbara Bain
. She is American and apparently in her mid-thirties.
Helena Russell is a doctor of medicine and a scientist, and as of the time of Breakaway
, the first episode of Space: 1999
, she was Moonbase Alpha's
Chief Medical Officer.
She attempted to convince Commander Gorski, then commander of Moonbase Alpha, to allow her report her findings to the World Space Commission authorities on Earth, but he refused (under orders from Earth Command to conceal the incident behind a 'virus infection' cover story). Gorski was subsequently relieved of duty and replaced as Moonbase Alpha's commander by John Koenig
. Unlike Gorski, he investigated her suspicions and they proved to be true - the astronauts were all affected by a previously unknown form of magnetic radiation effect produced by the accumulated nuclear waste and building towards a massive explosion. When it happened, the Moon was hurtled out of Earth orbit and plunged into deep space.
on which he was serving was lost. He is discovered living apparently alone on a habitable planet named Terra Nova by the Alphans. In the episode's climax, he revealed that he has been transformed into a being who is far superior to normal humans, possibly anti-matter in nature.
In Series One, Helena Russell often appears to be a somewhat cool, emotionally flat individual, especially in responding to the various crises which occur during the first season. However, over the course of the first series, she develops an emotional attachment to John Koenig
. Koenig is equally smitten with Helena. At their first meeting in Breakaway
, there was an obvious spark of attraction; subsequent episodes indicated a growing, if discreet, relationship (see Matter of Life and Death
, Black Sun, et cetera). In an alternate future, Helena married Koenig, only to lose him in an Eagle crash. In Missing Link
, she was seen in throes of an emotional struggle as her professional duty required her to terminate the life-support systems of the man she loved. In War Games
, her feelings for him allows her to tap into an alien power to bring him back to life after his having been fatally shot, and later rescue him from certain death after his having been marooned in space.
Professionally, Helena had more failures than successes during the first series as the Moon traveled through a universe beyond human understanding. She is unable to save Regina Kesslann, a woman who is living in both the present and future after the Moon's passage through an unexplained space phenomenon, especially after she apparently manifests a 'second' brain. She also loses Technician Anton Zoref to a heat-absorbing life force and Botanist Dan Mateo to a paranormal force raised from the depths of his own mind. After being co-opted by the Space Brain in the episode of the same name, Astronaut Kelly also dies despite her best efforts at freeing him from its influence. She herself is a victim of the Tritonians as she is turned into a tool for relaying information from Alpha's main computer. Fortunately, the Triton ship is destroyed before they would have burned out her brain.
The sudden change in Dr. Russell's personality was the result of a deliberate attempt by the show's producers to "spice up" the chemistry between the main characters and to make them more lively and interesting.
Her make-up and altered hairstyle also reflected her new, softer persona. Her hair was lightened and her makeup warmer and more flattering. She was observed on several occasions in high-end (and somewhat revealing) formal gowns (see One Moment of Humanity
and The Taybor).
Professionally, Helena continued as Alpha's Chief Medical Officer. She also became responsible for overseeing the Moonbase Life Support Section. During the course of Series Two, Helena diagnosed and devised a cure for the Archanon 'Killing Sickness', only to find out that her cure was known to this race, but fatal in its execution. She and Dr. Ben Vincent also constructed an artificial heart based on the Dorfman model devised in 1987 and successfully implanted it into Alpha operative Michelle Osgood. She also experimented with the Ellendorf Quadrographic Brain Complex and its abilities to accelerate patient recovery from coma and other traumatic brain injuries. In The Lambda Factor
, Helena led the investigation into the elevated mental powers of the Alpha personnel influenced by a space phenomenon/entity.
's microscope) as a prize for her work in medical school. The second series two-part episode The Bringers of Wonder revealed that she had a close friendship with medical school tutor/mentor Dr. Shaw. In dialogue trimmed from that episode's final cut, it was revealed that Helena still carried a little guilt that the first patient she ever lost was her own father, who collapsed from a heart attack in their home while she was still in medical school.
She married Lee Russell, who was in the space programme. The Series One Writer's guide stated he was in the medical division. (It also stated his given name was 'Telford'.) In 1994, Helena was widowed when Lee Russell departed on the Astro Seven mission to Jupiter and never returned. All hands of the mission were declared dead. The couple never had children.
After her husband's death, she was employed on Earth by the World Space Commission. In 1997, she was part of a team evaluating the mental state of Captain Tony Cellini. Cellini, the sole survivor of the Ultra Probe mission, returned to Earth speaking of his ordeal with a deadly space 'dragon' lifeform in a spaceship graveyard on the far side of planet Ultra. Her report, she felt, reinforced the already overwhelming case against Cellini, who was the Commission's scapegoat for the failure of the high-profile and expensive space mission.
At this time, she was aware of John Koenig, but was not acquainted with him personally. She was acquainted with the woman whom Koenig was seeing at this time: Space Commission navigating officer (and notorious 'man-eater') Diana Morris. Not on the best of terms, they seemed to regularly trade polite barbs and insults.
Assigned to Moonbase Alpha
as head of the Medical Section, Helena Russell is depicted as a dedicated and concerned physician and a highly competent practitioner of space medicine. Despite her apparent emotional detachment, she did empathise with her patients and their loved ones (see Force of Life, Voyager's Return, End of Eternity and Space Brain). In Alpha Child, she was overjoyed at the birth of the first child on Alpha and was initially willing to accept his fantastic transformation into a five-year-old boy that occurred hours after the birth.
In addition to her relationship with Commander Koenig, Helena Russell was close with Moonbase scientist Victor Bergman, with whom she shared a close father/daughter relationship. A friendship was also apparent with fellow physician Bob Mathias.
In the second series she becomes much more friendly and outgoing, developing a sharp sense of humor and sense of playfulness. As stated earlier, her relationship with Commander Koenig became much more overt and demonstrative, with many public displays of affection in front of others. She also becomes close friends with Maya after the metamorph's arrival on Alpha.
An interest in the arts is revealed in The Exiles
where we see an extensive microdisc library in her quarters devoted to literature, art and fashion. In this episode, it is also revealed that she is a talented sculptress (an unrealised fact originally included in her backstory created for the first series). Her sculpting abilities are further touched on in the later episode The Taybor when she assists in the construction of an inanimate life-sized figure of Maya for that episode's title character.
Doctor Russell was in all forty-eight episodes of Space: 1999, though she had only a narrator's part in Devil's Planet
.
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
. She was played by Barbara Bain
Barbara Bain
Millicent Fogel , known professionally as Barbara Bain, is an American actress.-Early life:Bain was born in Chicago. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She moved to New York City, where she was a dancer and high fashion model. Bain studied with...
. She is American and apparently in her mid-thirties.
Helena Russell is a doctor of medicine and a scientist, and as of the time of Breakaway
Breakaway (Space: 1999)
"Breakaway" is the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by George Bellak ; the director was Lee H. Katzin. Previous titles include 'Zero-G', 'The Void Ahead' and 'Turning Point'. The final shooting script is dated 22 November 1973...
, the first episode of Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
, she was Moonbase Alpha's
Moonbase Alpha
Moonbase Alpha is a fictional moon base and the main setting in the science fiction television series Space: 1999.-Moonbase Alpha:Located in the Moon crater Plato and constructed out of quarried rock and ores, Moonbase Alpha is four kilometres in diameter and extends up to one kilometre in areas...
Chief Medical Officer.
Meta Probe Crisis
In September 1999, a mysterious rash of deaths hit Moonbase Alpha. Eleven astronauts — nine workers at Nuclear Disposal Area Two, and Frank Warren and Eric Sparkman, the two pilots for the manned probe to a newly-discovered planet christened Meta — experienced all the symptoms of radiation sickness: malignant growths, disorientation, irrational and violent behaviour, before lapsing into comas and dying. Doctor Russell believed that the astronauts' deaths were being caused by radiation leakage from the nuclear waste disposal sites on the Moon. Repeated tests of the waste disposal areas revealed no detectable leakage.She attempted to convince Commander Gorski, then commander of Moonbase Alpha, to allow her report her findings to the World Space Commission authorities on Earth, but he refused (under orders from Earth Command to conceal the incident behind a 'virus infection' cover story). Gorski was subsequently relieved of duty and replaced as Moonbase Alpha's commander by John Koenig
John Koenig
John Koenig is a fictional character from the television series Space: 1999. He was played by Martin Landau. He is American, apparently in his early forties.-Character Biography:...
. Unlike Gorski, he investigated her suspicions and they proved to be true - the astronauts were all affected by a previously unknown form of magnetic radiation effect produced by the accumulated nuclear waste and building towards a massive explosion. When it happened, the Moon was hurtled out of Earth orbit and plunged into deep space.
Character development
Following the Moon's breakaway from Earth, Dr. Russell and the other Alphans have one encounter after another with mysterious and often hostile alien races and inexplicable forces. In the second episode, she encounters her long lost husband, Lee Russell, who had been declared dead after the Astro Seven mission to JupiterJupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
on which he was serving was lost. He is discovered living apparently alone on a habitable planet named Terra Nova by the Alphans. In the episode's climax, he revealed that he has been transformed into a being who is far superior to normal humans, possibly anti-matter in nature.
In Series One, Helena Russell often appears to be a somewhat cool, emotionally flat individual, especially in responding to the various crises which occur during the first season. However, over the course of the first series, she develops an emotional attachment to John Koenig
John Koenig
John Koenig is a fictional character from the television series Space: 1999. He was played by Martin Landau. He is American, apparently in his early forties.-Character Biography:...
. Koenig is equally smitten with Helena. At their first meeting in Breakaway
Breakaway (Space: 1999)
"Breakaway" is the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by George Bellak ; the director was Lee H. Katzin. Previous titles include 'Zero-G', 'The Void Ahead' and 'Turning Point'. The final shooting script is dated 22 November 1973...
, there was an obvious spark of attraction; subsequent episodes indicated a growing, if discreet, relationship (see Matter of Life and Death
Matter of Life and Death (Space: 1999)
"Matter of Life and Death" is the second episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Art Wallace and Johnny Byrne; the director was Charles Crichton. The original title was 'Siren Planet'. The final shooting script is dated 8 January 1974...
, Black Sun, et cetera). In an alternate future, Helena married Koenig, only to lose him in an Eagle crash. In Missing Link
Missing Link (Space: 1999)
"Missing Link" is the seventh episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Edward di Lorenzo; the director was Ray Austin. The final shooting script is dated 5 April 1974...
, she was seen in throes of an emotional struggle as her professional duty required her to terminate the life-support systems of the man she loved. In War Games
War Games (Space: 1999)
"War Games" is the seventeenth episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Christopher Penfold; the director was Charles Crichton. The final shooting script is dated 15 October 1974...
, her feelings for him allows her to tap into an alien power to bring him back to life after his having been fatally shot, and later rescue him from certain death after his having been marooned in space.
Professionally, Helena had more failures than successes during the first series as the Moon traveled through a universe beyond human understanding. She is unable to save Regina Kesslann, a woman who is living in both the present and future after the Moon's passage through an unexplained space phenomenon, especially after she apparently manifests a 'second' brain. She also loses Technician Anton Zoref to a heat-absorbing life force and Botanist Dan Mateo to a paranormal force raised from the depths of his own mind. After being co-opted by the Space Brain in the episode of the same name, Astronaut Kelly also dies despite her best efforts at freeing him from its influence. She herself is a victim of the Tritonians as she is turned into a tool for relaying information from Alpha's main computer. Fortunately, the Triton ship is destroyed before they would have burned out her brain.
Series two
In the show's second series, Helena Russell became more outgoing and personable. Her relationship with Commander Koenig is open and deeply loving in the second season, and they often flirt and tease one another. The love between the two was most evident in episodes such as Brian the Brain, in which Helena Russell and Commander Koenig are given a "love test" by the maniacal computer Brian (see Brian the Brain). During the test the two are placed in separate airlocks, and display the depth of their love for each other by transferring all the air to each other, saving each others' lives. Koenig also shows the strength of his passion and devotion in Journey to Where (see Journey to Where), as he tenderly cares for an ailing Helena, even kissing her deeply when she reveals she will soon be near death from viral pneumonia. Their passion is also shown in The Taybor, (see The Taybor), as under the influence of a mind-altering perfume they prepare to make love. The ending of this episode makes it clear that Koenig will follow Helena to her bed to resume their interrupted lovemaking.The sudden change in Dr. Russell's personality was the result of a deliberate attempt by the show's producers to "spice up" the chemistry between the main characters and to make them more lively and interesting.
Her make-up and altered hairstyle also reflected her new, softer persona. Her hair was lightened and her makeup warmer and more flattering. She was observed on several occasions in high-end (and somewhat revealing) formal gowns (see One Moment of Humanity
One Moment of Humanity
"One Moment of Humanity" is the third episode of the second series of Space: 1999 . The screenplay was written by Tony Barwick; the director was Charles Crichton. The original title was 'One Second of Humanity'. The final shooting script is dated 12 February 1976...
and The Taybor).
Professionally, Helena continued as Alpha's Chief Medical Officer. She also became responsible for overseeing the Moonbase Life Support Section. During the course of Series Two, Helena diagnosed and devised a cure for the Archanon 'Killing Sickness', only to find out that her cure was known to this race, but fatal in its execution. She and Dr. Ben Vincent also constructed an artificial heart based on the Dorfman model devised in 1987 and successfully implanted it into Alpha operative Michelle Osgood. She also experimented with the Ellendorf Quadrographic Brain Complex and its abilities to accelerate patient recovery from coma and other traumatic brain injuries. In The Lambda Factor
The Lambda Factor
"The Lambda Factor" is the nineteenth episode of the second series of Space: 1999 . The screenplay was written by Terrance Dicks; the director was Charles Crichton. The final shooting script is dated 6 August 1976, with amendments dated 2 September, 15 September, 27 September, 28 September, 29...
, Helena led the investigation into the elevated mental powers of the Alpha personnel influenced by a space phenomenon/entity.
Personal details
The daughter of a well-to-do American West Coast physician, Helena Russell is an outstanding scientist, medical doctor and surgeon; in the series' first episode it was revealed that she had won a replica of an 1887 Donnelmeyer antique microscope (a duplicate of Louis PasteurLouis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
's microscope) as a prize for her work in medical school. The second series two-part episode The Bringers of Wonder revealed that she had a close friendship with medical school tutor/mentor Dr. Shaw. In dialogue trimmed from that episode's final cut, it was revealed that Helena still carried a little guilt that the first patient she ever lost was her own father, who collapsed from a heart attack in their home while she was still in medical school.
She married Lee Russell, who was in the space programme. The Series One Writer's guide stated he was in the medical division. (It also stated his given name was 'Telford'.) In 1994, Helena was widowed when Lee Russell departed on the Astro Seven mission to Jupiter and never returned. All hands of the mission were declared dead. The couple never had children.
After her husband's death, she was employed on Earth by the World Space Commission. In 1997, she was part of a team evaluating the mental state of Captain Tony Cellini. Cellini, the sole survivor of the Ultra Probe mission, returned to Earth speaking of his ordeal with a deadly space 'dragon' lifeform in a spaceship graveyard on the far side of planet Ultra. Her report, she felt, reinforced the already overwhelming case against Cellini, who was the Commission's scapegoat for the failure of the high-profile and expensive space mission.
At this time, she was aware of John Koenig, but was not acquainted with him personally. She was acquainted with the woman whom Koenig was seeing at this time: Space Commission navigating officer (and notorious 'man-eater') Diana Morris. Not on the best of terms, they seemed to regularly trade polite barbs and insults.
Assigned to Moonbase Alpha
Moonbase Alpha
Moonbase Alpha is a fictional moon base and the main setting in the science fiction television series Space: 1999.-Moonbase Alpha:Located in the Moon crater Plato and constructed out of quarried rock and ores, Moonbase Alpha is four kilometres in diameter and extends up to one kilometre in areas...
as head of the Medical Section, Helena Russell is depicted as a dedicated and concerned physician and a highly competent practitioner of space medicine. Despite her apparent emotional detachment, she did empathise with her patients and their loved ones (see Force of Life, Voyager's Return, End of Eternity and Space Brain). In Alpha Child, she was overjoyed at the birth of the first child on Alpha and was initially willing to accept his fantastic transformation into a five-year-old boy that occurred hours after the birth.
In addition to her relationship with Commander Koenig, Helena Russell was close with Moonbase scientist Victor Bergman, with whom she shared a close father/daughter relationship. A friendship was also apparent with fellow physician Bob Mathias.
In the second series she becomes much more friendly and outgoing, developing a sharp sense of humor and sense of playfulness. As stated earlier, her relationship with Commander Koenig became much more overt and demonstrative, with many public displays of affection in front of others. She also becomes close friends with Maya after the metamorph's arrival on Alpha.
An interest in the arts is revealed in The Exiles
The Exiles
"The Exiles" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury. It was originally published as "The Mad Wizards of Mars" in Maclean's on 15 September 1949 and was reprinted the following year by Fantasy Fiction, Inc...
where we see an extensive microdisc library in her quarters devoted to literature, art and fashion. In this episode, it is also revealed that she is a talented sculptress (an unrealised fact originally included in her backstory created for the first series). Her sculpting abilities are further touched on in the later episode The Taybor when she assists in the construction of an inanimate life-sized figure of Maya for that episode's title character.
Doctor Russell was in all forty-eight episodes of Space: 1999, though she had only a narrator's part in Devil's Planet
Devil's Planet
"Devil's Planet" is the twenty-second episode of the second series of Space: 1999 . The screenplay was written by Michael Winder; the director was Tom Clegg. The original title was 'Devil's Moon'. The final shooting script is dated 9 September 1976...
.
External links
- Space 1999 Cybermuseum - Moonbase Alpha Technical Manual Bio Helena Russell
- Space 1999 Catacombs - Character Profile Helena Russell