UFO - The Psychobombs

Writing about The Psychobombs might not be conducive to enjoying it. Thinking is not the best approach to this ep that I do like.

A UFO lands at night in the English countryside (the deuce you say!) and puts three nearby citizens under its spell. Linda, Clark, and Mason have been reprogrammed so that their brain/body chemistry can induce brief periods of amazing strength under stress (akin to tales of people lifting cars off o loved ones), and with an electric catalyst can even become organic bombs of tremendous destructive power. You'd have to ask Doctor Jackson, who will explain to you that the biology of the victims has been altered to harness the energy of the universe itself...on the one hand very New Agey for the era, or something related to speculations of zero point energy.

Once again the aliens have a new method mind control, this one producing much faster results than before. Depending on your disposition you can conclude either that the show is being inconsistent as usual (grammatically speaking, would that be oxymoronic?) or that the aliens, those wacky funsters, really do love to experiment.

Under alien direction the three send Straker an ultimatum: dismantle SHADO or see its forces destroyed. When Straker doesn't immediately comply, the first target (an important ground radar facility) is visited by one of the living bombs and blown sky high. Clark the Bomb really isn't aware of what's happening. Well, yeah, especially now he's gone off.

Next off the bench is Amatol Mason, sent after Skydiver 3 at its base as Straker, Jackson, Foster, and Lake still race to sort out what they're dealing with. Clem steals the identity (or at least the fingertips whorls – don't ask) and gets past the first security barrier but not the photographic or vocal IDs. The ship launches but not soon enough.

This is what makes the episode – not this single encounter but the tension that informs it. Director Jeremy Summers does a fine job establishing and maintaining suspense throughout. While the alien ploy is best unexamined, it yields a story that easily keeps my attention from beginning to end.

More uneven is the hunt for the living bombs when Foster gets close to Linda Simmonds. Foster takes the mission of getting close to his surveillance subject literally and makes romantic moves on Linda...and, look, he's using that old 'creepy stalker guy who knows everything about you' ploy again! And it works again! “How did you know?”, he's asked. “We have our methods.” Sure, and so do the aliens. They've really done their homework on SHADO, seems they know that Foster is an easy mark if they lay on the sex. Serves him right for turning into a player. Linda kisses him and alien control now has a low-level effect on him as well (don't ask). He's invited her back to SHADO HQ to meet the gang.

Straker is the final target, and Explodey Linda is the last bomb left. Using the identity of the first two, a likely landing site for the UFO is pinned down, and a police report from the night in question points to the owner of a car involved with the death of a cop. Linda had been pulled over; the cop was killed. Linda's boss is dead too. Straker makes his usual gamble with disaster when he learns that she's on the way, and decides to throw open the doors.

Linda is a figure deserving of sympathy. She leaves a wake of death behind her in happy ignorance, and it catches up with her as she holds the fate of SGHADO personnel in her hands, literally, and makes an impossible choice.

6.5 UFOs, now available in the new convenient pop-top style! Tempted to go 7, but those questions and then Foster...

Asides: Clem is taken from his sleep when the UFO lands, but not his wife lying next to him. Why not her too? Because the airtime doesn't allow for four bombs, no doubt.

I think given the physiological nature of the aliens and their need for human bodies, we can take the mind control as a matter of course now instead of thinking it's meant to be a clever new twist and saying”Oh, not that again.” It's just expediency on their part to use us as we are if taking our bodies is rare enough to go to war over.

From his car, Straker, calls in and asks whether Foster or Lake are available, and when he's told they're not he sounds put out. He might assume they're busy doing their jobs, but no – if they were doing their jobs then surely they'd be sitting around all day in hopes of his ringing in. Them being unavailable must mean they're goofing off while he's not there to keep an eye on things. “Spread it around I'm on my way in. I find it helps improve efficiency.” Ah, good, it's Tony Barwick. He knows how to write Straker!