The Dorcons
The Dorcons was the 24th and final episode of the Second Series of Space: 1999. The episode was written by Johnny Byrne and directed by Tom Clegg.
As Byrne explained in the Fanderson documentary, he considered the Second Series of Space: 1999 to be complete rubbish, and felt the character Maya to be particularily hopeless.
The Dorcons, looking very much like a parable of how he viewed executive producer Fred Freiberger as a Caligula-like character (Malic) that had taken control over what was once Sylvia and Gerry Anderson's creation (Archon & Consul Varda), should probably also be seen as an attack on the Maya character as she is sent through processes of pain and torture.
In fact, the episode has a feel to it that makes it look very much like Tinto Brass' Caligula, with the choice of actor to play Malic looking and acting very much like Malcolm McDowell.
All in all, it makes an interesting final episode of the series, ending with Maya pleading for the Alphans to kill her (obviously reflecting Byrne's inner feelings for the series), contrasting the original series' final entry, The Testament of Arkadia, where the message was "the future is the past", i.e. that the seed for the future comes from solving the problems of continental philosophy rather than those of analytic philosophy.
The Dorcons remains an insightful episode with several layers of subtext, functioning both as an elegant ending of the Second Series narrative (the Telemachy) and as an interesting comment on what was going on behind the scenes.