Helena Russell - Personal Details

Personal Details

The daughter of a well-to-do American West Coast physician, Helena Russell is an outstanding scientist, medical doctor and surgeon; in the series' first episode it was revealed that she had won a replica of an 1887 Donnelmeyer antique microscope (a duplicate of Louis Pasteur's microscope) as a prize for her work in medical school. The second series two-part episode The Bringers of Wonder revealed that she had a close friendship with medical school tutor/mentor Dr. Shaw. In dialogue trimmed from that episode's final cut, it was revealed that Helena still carried a little guilt that the first patient she ever lost was her own father, who collapsed from a heart attack in their home while she was still in medical school.

She married Lee Russell, who was in the space programme. The Series One Writer's guide stated he was in the medical division. (It also stated his given name was 'Telford'.) In 1994, Helena was widowed when Lee Russell departed on the Astro Seven mission to Jupiter and never returned. All hands of the mission were declared dead. The couple never had children.

After her husband's death, she was employed on Earth by the World Space Commission. In 1997, she was part of a team evaluating the mental state of Captain Tony Cellini. Cellini, the sole survivor of the Ultra Probe mission, returned to Earth speaking of his ordeal with a deadly space 'dragon' lifeform in a spaceship graveyard on the far side of planet Ultra. Her report, she felt, reinforced the already overwhelming case against Cellini, who was the Commission's scapegoat for the failure of the high-profile and expensive space mission.

At this time, she was aware of John Koenig, but was not acquainted with him personally. She was acquainted with the woman whom Koenig was seeing at this time: Space Commission navigating officer (and notorious 'man-eater') Diana Morris. Not on the best of terms, they seemed to regularly trade polite barbs and insults.

Assigned to Moonbase Alpha as head of the Medical Section, Helena Russell is depicted as a dedicated and concerned physician and a highly competent practitioner of space medicine. Despite her apparent emotional detachment, she did empathise with her patients and their loved ones (see Force of Life, Voyager's Return, End of Eternity and Space Brain). In Alpha Child, she was overjoyed at the birth of the first child on Alpha and was initially willing to accept his fantastic transformation into a five-year-old boy that occurred hours after the birth.

In addition to her relationship with Commander Koenig, Helena Russell was close with Moonbase scientist Victor Bergman, with whom she shared a close father/daughter relationship. A friendship was also apparent with fellow physician Bob Mathias.

In the second series she becomes much more friendly and outgoing, developing a sharp sense of humor and sense of playfulness. As stated earlier, her relationship with Commander Koenig became much more overt and demonstrative, with many public displays of affection in front of others. She also becomes close friends with Maya after the metamorph's arrival on Alpha.

An interest in the arts is revealed in The Exiles where we see an extensive microdisc library in her quarters devoted to literature, art and fashion. In this episode, it is also revealed that she is a talented sculptress (an unrealised fact originally included in her backstory created for the first series). Her sculpting abilities are further touched on in the later episode The Taybor when she assists in the construction of an inanimate life-sized figure of Maya for that episode's title character.

Doctor Russell was in all forty-eight episodes of Space: 1999, though she had only a narrator's part in Devil's Planet.