The travelling Moon drifts within range of a black sun. Pulled toward certain destruction by its inescapable gravitational force, the Alphans employ desperate measures to stay alive. As a lifeboat Eagle carries six persons to safety, the Moon plunges into the black sun, with only an experimental forcefield protecting Alpha.

An alien spacecraft crashlands on the Moon, its passengers refugees from a dying world. As their destination is Earth, they generously offer to take one person with them when they depart. The scheming Commissioner Simmonds takes steps to ensure that he is the lucky individual chosen, even if it means destroying Alpha.

John Koenig finds himself trapped on the planet Zenno, in the home of an alien scientist and his daughter. Advanced two million years beyond Earthmen, the aliens consider Koenig their missing link. Faced with the threat of being treated like an experimental animal for the rest of his life, Koenig uses an unexpected weapon to confound his captor: love.

An Eagle is sent onto the surface of the planet Psychon, which has titanium, needed for repairs to the Alpha Base. It fails to return and is used by Psychon scientist Mentor as a bait with which to entice other members of the Alphan crew onto the planet. Mentor is building a computer but it will be fuelled by the living brains of humans, and he has his eye on those of the Alphan crew. Fortunately his daughter, the shape-shifting Maya, does not share her father's views and is on the side of the Alphans.

A transmission from Dr. Logan in Texas City leads the Alphans to believe that they can finally land back on Earth, though they have travelled through time and, when they touch down in Texas City, they will be in the twenty-second century. However, due to a hitch, they find themselves in a barren and hostile environment. It is Scotland in the fourteenth century where the Scots are at war with the English invaders.

A sinister woman called Zamara materializes on the base, forcing Helena and Tony to accompany her to the planet of Vega, whose natives are anything but friendly. A servant of the Vegans, known only as Number Eight, informs the two Alphans that he and his race are the natural inhabitants of the planet and that Zamara and her race are androids, who, it turns out, want the Alphans to teach them warfare.

Whilst Koenig and Maya are exploring a planet called Luton,which is lush in vegetation, she picks a flower and he helps himself to some fruit. As a result they are put on trial for murder by three talking trees, the Judges of Luton. The trial is by combat and the pair must face three aliens, one with superstrength, one which can render itself invisible and one which can teleport.

Whilst he is exploring an asteroid Koenig is taken over by an alien race known as the Kalthon, who replace him with an exact double. In consequence every action ordered by the fake Koenig is solely for the benefit of the Kalthon and to the detriment of the welfare of the Alphans. Helena realizes that something is wrong when 'Koenig' is cold to the touch and needs to convince the other crew members.

Koenig and Verdeschi are sucked into a space warp. A feverish Maya is stricken with a fever that causes her to transform into a repulsive space monster.

A pretty, young Alpha technician dies a horrible and unexplained death. Dr. Russell's experiments reveal that one of the crew is possessed of paranormal mental powers and is trying to take control of Moonbase Alpha....

Some subterranean miners start chanting for a planet that will cause the Moon to pass through a nebula deadly to those living at Moonbase Alpha.

The arrival of the Alphans on another planet seems to cause a change in its atmosphere, setting off pollution and poisoning of the water. They meet Zoran, the sole survivor of the last exploratory force, who tells them that the planet is controlled by an immortal being - with whom Koenig must parley if he and his crew are to leave the planet alive.