Cult-TV Theme Watch: Mines

Mines are explosive devices which can be positioned in a variety of terrestrial environments (land or sea), and which have represented a crucial aspect of battlefield tactics since Antiquity.

Mines (and mine-fields) have also appeared with regularity throughout cult-television history.  In the sci-fi genre, in particular, "space mines" have been frequently deployed to pose a threat to unwitting space explorers and other travelers.

In Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999 (1975 - 1977), Moonbase Alpha was equipped with space mines which could be "tethered" in space, or deposited on planetary surfaces (courtesy of an eagle's winch).  These mines were used in the episode "Collision Course" to detonate an asteroid on a crash course with the base.  

Later in the same episode, Professor Bergman (Barry Morse) concocted "Operation Shockwave," a plan to detonate a series of mines in space to change the moon's collision course with another space body.

Glen Larson's premiere episode of Battlestar Galactica (1978 - 1979) also featured space mines extensively.  In "Saga of a Star World," the rag-tag Colonial fleet was running short of supplies, and needed to take a short-cut to the planet Carillon.  That short-cut -- the Nova of Madagon -- however, was mined with explosive devices. 

Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch), and Lts. Starbuck (Dirk Benedeict) and Boomer (Herb Jefferson, Jr.) had to fly their vipers "blind" through the dangerous mine-field and clear a path for the bulkier, slow-moving civilian ships.  This sequence also possessed a mythical relevance. The red-hued Nova of Madagon is rendered a path way to a promised land, thus recalling the Biblical story of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.

"Desslok Space Mines" were the enemy "weapon of the week" in the eleventh episode of the Japanese animated series Star Blazers (1979).  These green and black mines destroyed an inflatable "baby" Argo decoy, and then attempted to attach to the real thing.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 - 1994) also featured a story involving mines called "Booby Trap."  Here, the Enterprise-D wandered unknowingly into a mine-field left over from a 1,000 year war.  The mines in this case were not explosive devices, but rather ones that could dampen all forms of power.  The message here was that your weapons of war -- your follies -- could live long after you, and hurt innocent people.

In Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999), during the Dominion War, Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) attempted to even the odds with his powerful enemy in the Gamma Quadrant by mining the entrance to the Bajoran Wormhole. The mine-field eventually was detonated, and the Dominion swarmed through...