The Beta Cloud - Novelisation

Novelisation

The episode was adapted in the third Year Two Space: 1999 novel The Space-Jackers by Michael Butterworth, published in 1977. The narrative differs somewhat from the broadcast version: to save Verdeschi from the creature, Maya transforms into a two-headed, dragon-bodied, fire-breathing 'Love Beast'. The Love Beast cannot stand up to the creature and takes a severe beating. When it changes back into Maya, the transformation does not eliminate the injuries and she spends much of the segment in critical condition in the Medical Centre. A recovering Alan Carter goes off with Verdeschi to help repel the invader. Maya's epiphany comes in Medical when Ben Vincent inadvertently refers to the creature as a 'runaway robot' (in a revised version published in Space: 1999—Year Two, it is Sahn calling the creature a 'killing machine'). Later, sustained only by injections of stimulants and pain-killing drugs, she joins the three men for the final showdown at Life-Support. Sahn is again portrayed as a young Indian man, substituting for Sandra Benes and Yasko during the crisis.

In the 2003 novel The Forsaken written by John Kenneth Muir, it is stated the events of this story were one of the consequences of the death of the eponymous intelligence depicted in ‘Space Brain’. The Brain provided life support for the xenophobic aliens residing within the cloud; after its death, the beings would be forced to look elsewhere for an alternative.