Murder in Space

Murder in Space is also the title of a 1955 science fiction novel by David V. Reed and a 2007 mystery novel by Sydney J. Bounds.
Murder in Space
Written by Wesley Ferguson
Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern
Starring Michael Ironside
Wilford Brimley
Martin Balsam
Damir Andrei
Tom Butler
Wendy Crewson
Scot Denton
Peter Dvorsky
Leo Ilial
Alan Jordan
Jan Rubes
Cathie Shirriff
Kate Trotter
Nerene Virgin
Alberta Watson
Arthur Hill
Theme music composer Arthur B. Rubinstein
Country of origin United States
Production
Producer(s) Robert Cooper
Otto Penzler
Cinematography Laszlo George
Editor(s) Rit Wallis
Running time 95 Minutes
Production company(s) CTV Television Network
Zenith Entertainment
Distributor Showtime Networks
Release
Original network Showtime Networks
Original release July 28, 1985

Murder in Space is a 1985 science fiction murder mystery television movie set in the near future. The crew of an international space mission are on the return leg from Mars to Earth when an explosion occurs on the craft Conestoga, shortly after a series of murders starts. The crew of the returning craft are forbidden to return until the murderer is caught.

On its initial premier, the film was shown without the ending and a competition was set for the viewers to solve the mystery of who the murderer or murderers were. The conclusion of the film was shown several days later, with the contestants eliminated one by one until the winner correctly identified the killer or killers. The final 30 minutes of the film was shown at a later date when the mystery was solved.

Conestoga crew

Actor Character Rank Country Murdered How Murderers Possible motive
Michael Ironside Neil Braddock Captain U.S.A. No
Cathie Shirriff Olga Denarenko U.S.S.R. Yes Strangled Pregnant with other crew member's child.
Damir Andrei Andrei Kalsinov Colonel U.S.S.R. Yes Blown up
Timothy Webber Guy Sterling Canada Yes Cyanide poisoning
Tom Butler Kurt Steiner Major East Germany Yes Strangled
Leo Ilial Phillipe Berdoux Doctor France No
Scot Denton David Tremayne Navigator U.S.A. No
Kate Trotter Pamela Cooper England No
Alberta Watson Dominica Mastrelli Italy No

Other cast members

Other cast members were reporters, wives and husbands, mission control staff and additional Russian characters.

Name Rank or part Played by
Vice President Arthur Hill
Dr. Andrew McCallister Space program director Wilford Brimley
Dinah Greenberg Secretary to McCallister Gloria Carlin
Jeffrey Kilbride Reporter Alan Jordan
Mitch Carlino Peter Dvorsky
Alexander Rostov Russian Politician Martin Balsam
Dr. Margaret Leigh Doctor Nerene Virgin
Giorgi Denarenko husband of cosmonaut Olga Denarenko Jan Rubes
Irene Tremayne Wife of astronaut David Tremayne Wendy Crewson

Prize money

Accompanying book

A novel also called "Murder In Space", published by Penguin, was produced around the same time; the last page of the book was an entry form for the competition to solve the mystery. It was written by "FX Woolf", a pen-name for Howard Engels and Janet Hamilton.[1]

References

  1. The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.