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 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 worldwide premiere, 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 15 minutes of the film was shown at a later date when the mystery was solved with only two countries provided winners with the correct answer.
Conestoga crew
Actor Character Rank Country Murdered How Murderer's Possible Motive Michael Ironside Neil Braddock Captain U.S.A. No Cathie Shirriff Olga Denarenko U.S.S.R. Yes Strangled/Suffocated Pregnant with other crew member's child. Damir Andrei Andrei Kalsinov Colonel U.S.S.R. Yes Blown up Planned to defect Timothy Webber Guy Sterling Canada Yes Cyanide poisoning Needed to be silenced Tom Butler Kurt Steiner Major East Germany Yes Strangled Judgment Leo Ilial Phillipe Berdoux Doctor France No Scot Denton David Tremayne Navigator U.S.A. No Kate Trotter Pamela Cooper UK 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 Grigori Denarenko husband of cosmonaut Olga Denarenko Jan Rubeš Irene Tremayne Wife of astronaut David Tremayne Wendy Crewson
Prize money
USA - $60,000 UK - £10,000
Related Prizes
PRIMETIME magazine, the FIRST CHOICE*SUPERCHANNEL program guide, featured a pull-out entry form which allowed viewers to identify the four murdered characters, their nationalities and, bizarrely, “how murdered?”. It then asked the ultimate question – “Who Committed the Murders?”
Readers who correctly guessed the answer had the opportunity to win a trip on the Orient Express however no entries received were actually correct so instead the closest answer to who the murderer was given a year's free subscription to the magazine.
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 penname for Howard Engels and Janet Hamilton. The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide
Murder in Space: The Solution
A television show, hosted in the UK by Anneka Rice and Roger Cook(making his ITV Debut) and broadcast in September 1985 on UK TV Channel ITV, featured members of the UK public who were close or knew who the murderer actually was, thus winning the £10,000 prize money. The solution was then shown in the final 15 minutes of the movie to reveal the answer. Retronarios Cable TV Throwback
External links
References