@Benton12 said:

Fred Freiburger. Many thought he was responsible for the somewhat declined quality of season 3. I will say this. Producing Star Trek at all got him work on another scifi show-- "Space:1999". The similarities between the two shows seemed traceable to FF. One ST episode "The Mark of Gideon" was remade on Space:1999 and had two characters going back to Moon Base Alpha and finding nobody else there just like Kirk found the "Enterprise" empty. There was even a scene straight out of TOS where the Alpha characters were looking at a screen seeing where they in space and commenting how far away they were from the planet they had just been orbiting. Almost just as Kirk did on the "Enterprise" when he looked at the bridge screen and commented how the ship was no longer orbiting Gideon. Other similarities too. Freiburger ( back to him)co-wrote this unofficially maybe?

PS The original Star Trek handled the isolated ship element visually far better than Space: 1999 handled there isolated moon base element. It was more striking on the former show. But the latter show also handled it fine.

Probably was an "old chestnut" long before then.

Reminds me of:

"The Twilight Zone"
Episode: Where Is Everybody? S1E1 (1959).
Writer: Rod Sterling

@Benton12 said:

Fred Freiburger. Many thought he was responsible for the somewhat declined quality of season 3. I will say this. Producing Star Trek at all got him work on another scifi show-- "Space:1999". The similarities between the two shows seemed traceable to FF. One ST episode "The Mark of Gideon" was remade on Space:1999 and had two characters going back to Moon Base Alpha and finding nobody else there just like Kirk found the "Enterprise" empty. There was even a scene straight out of TOS where the Alpha characters were looking at a screen seeing where they in space and commenting how far away they were from the planet they had just been orbiting. Almost just as Kirk did on the "Enterprise" when he looked at the bridge screen and commented how the ship was no longer orbiting Gideon. Other similarities too. Freiburger ( back to him)co-wrote this unofficially maybe?

PS The original Star Trek handled the isolated ship element visually far better than Space: 1999 handled there isolated moon base element. It was more striking on the former show. But the latter show also handled it fine.

That sounds like the episode "Another Time, Another Place" which was in season 1. FF was producer in season 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Time,Another_Place(Space:_1999)

Negative, Knixon. I was speaking of the episode "One moment of humanity" where Dr. Russell and Tony seemingly return to Moon Base Alpha.

I suppose. But "Another Time, Another Place" well matched the given description too.

The main difference would seem to be that in "AT, AP" they were (back) in/on the real Moon from an alternate timeline or something, whereas in "OMOH" they were (supposed to be) in a duplicate Moonbase Alpha. (Although the people of Giden had a far more credible justification for having constructed a planet-bound replica of the Enterprise than the Vegans did for Alpha. The people of Gideon had access to the plans etc., and time for construction.)

Suppose nothing. I was directly talking about OHOH guest-starring beautiful and very popular UK actress Billie Whitelaw.

Also, Alan Asherman, who wrote the Star Trek Compendium, questioned how the Gideon's inhabitants managed to construct a perfect Enterprise replica when Gideon was not even a member of the Federation.

But you didn't specify an actor name in your OP. You didn't even specify that one character was female. In "AT, AP" Koenig and Carter - two characters - travel to the alternate Moonbase and find it deserted.

I remember reading about the Gideon question before, as I recall they had had significant interaction with the Federation already, due to their wanting to join. Somehow that led to them getting at least some plans. Maybe via spying, who knows?

But both the 1999 and ST issue reflect a problem I've noticed in various places.

I don’t think “magic” could work since the practitioner doesn’t fully understand the nature of what they’re trying to do/create. For example, I can see a certain logic of the old “magic carpet” stories because the people making those knew exactly how to make them, and so the only “magic” part was that it could fly. But just fly by magic, not because it would have an engine or something.

It would be a different story if someone were to wish for a brand new Cadillac. How could magic – or a genie, etc – be able to do that if they didn’t know exactly how the metal is produced etc? Otherwise all it could really do is take a brand new Cadillac that already exists, from someone else. Creating one from nothing would be impossible.

In the 1999 and ST examples, I don't see how either replica could have been fully created by somehow reading the thoughts of those captured for example, because none of them would have sufficient knowledge/understanding to be able to construct fully-functional replicas.

They weren't really fully-functional of course, although the duplicate Moonbase might actually have to be "more correct" than a starship that doesn't actually have to travel through space, maintain livable atmosphere and temperature etc, since it's already on a planet. But duplicating the Moonbase travel tubes etc would have been a massive undertaking too.

Whitelaw played a robot who visited Moon Base Alpha . With her electronic eyes she surveyed the base making film of it. How they made a recreation of MBA.

Sure, but, I bet they could press buttons and stuff worked, etc. How does the robo-photography accomplish that? Taking pictures/video doesn't get you schematics etc. Or even necessarily how the doors work and stuff.

Unless maybe on that show, they never actually tried anything. But Kirk did on the duplicate Enterprise. The buttons etc at least APPEARED to work, like for the engines etc.