Alan Carter (Space 1999)

Space:1999 character|if=
bgcolor = #fa0
Title = Alan Carter


Caption = Alan Carter
Species = Human
Gender = Male
Appearance =
Height =
Hair color =
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Birth = 19 December 1966, New South Wales, Australia
Death =
Planet = Earth
Affiliation = Moonbase Alpha
Posting = 14 June 1999 fourth tour of duty on Moonbase Alpha
Rank = Captain, chief Eagle pilot, third in command
Section = Reconnaissance
Portrayed = Nick Tate|

Alan Carter (born May, 1966 in Sydney, Australia) is a fictional character from the television series "". He was played by Nick Tate.

The chief Eagle pilot of Moonbase Alpha, he was on his fourth tour of duty on Moonbase Alpha as chief pilot when the Moon broke away from Earth in September 1999. After the Moon left Earth's orbit, Carter became the head of the reconnaissance section on the moonbase.

Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Australia, Carter's major talent was horsemanship, but hisfondest dream and greatest love was flying. As a teenager he flew his family's private plane. As a young man he joined the Australian Air Force.He joined the space programme in the early 1980s and trained with NASA until the late '80s.Afterwards he became an Astronaut in the U.S./Australian Space Co-operation Program (1994). Three years later he was the third man to go to Mars and a year after that crewed on a flight to Venus. In 1996 Alan became a member of Moonbase Alpha, having successfully tested the Eagle Transporter and Mark IX Hawk.

At the time of the Moon's breakaway from Earth, Alan Carter was co-ordinating the launch of the Metaprobe from the orbital dock. After the probe was launched Carter would receive telemetry and other flight data on Moonbase Alpha; this was the same type of job that Commander Koenig had done for the Ultra Probe in 1996. Carter was the only resident of Moonbase Alpha to be absent when the moon broke away from Earth; instead he was piloting an Eagle spacecraft above the moon. When the nuclear explosions occurred which knocked the moon out of Earth's orbit, Carter decided to return to Alpha rather than chance a trip to Earth.

For the remainder of the series Carter remains Alpha's Chief Eagle pilot, and he is arguably the best pilot on the moonbase. He tends to be aggressive whenever Alpha is confronted by aliens; and he often subscribes to the theory of "shoot first and ask questions later". However, he is utterly loyal to Commander Koenig and nearly always obeys the chain of command. Carter's heroics save Moonbase Alpha on a number of occasions; for example, in the episode "Collision Course" Carter risks his life to destroy an asteroid with a nuclear weapon before it can hit Alpha. In terms of personality, Carter is initially gruff, excitable, and sometimes abrasive and argumentive during season 1. In the episode "Missing Link", Alan displayed a rare instance of losing his temper to the point of brutal physical violence against his comrades. Alan mellowed out in season 2 and becomes among the most cheerful and outgoing residents of Alpha; he appears to be less-stressed in the second season.