UFO - The Responsibility Seat

Spring is in the air. Hey, didn't we just have a seance for Autumn? Techie Lt. Ford is taking a good long look at the attractive officer bringing Freeman coffee, and Straker's head is being turned elsewhere.

Straker's a busy guy, he can't even keep track of his appointments. Case in point, he's been told that a reporter, Joe Fraser, is scheduled to interview him. He'd like to brush it off but that's what you get when you step into the leadership position. Well, maybe it won't be too bad: Joe turns out to be Jo, and Ed can't take his eyes off her. Nor can he take his mind off her when she turns out to the wily type who'll record your conversations without telling you and 'accidentally' bug your office. Bad enough if you run a movie studio, but if SHADO's your gig you'd better get your guard back up. Straker makes it a personal effort to get the tape back and find out if Fraser's running a game.

That means his second, Freeman, taking the center seat for a while. Freeman has been a fine commander of personnel when implementing orders that have come down from the top, but his instincts when it comes to second-guessing his superior have been spotty. Now hell be second-guessing himself. Almost immediately an incursion by three UFOs is reported. One makes it to Earth and disappears. routine stuff, except this time full responsibility for the search is on Freeman. Ford assures him that an unidentified radar blip is certain to be nothing, but Freeman launches Sky 1. It's a weather balloon. A good leader listens to his people, values their input an trusts their competence. An important lesson, though not one that Straker has ever had any use for... Another good lesson is accepting your mistakes and not making your subordinates pay for them. Thankfully, Freeman's a quick study.

You can tell this was an early episode by the amount of time wasted by unnecessarily detailing the launch of Sky 1. Same with the re-use off an fx shot of Interceptors lifting off that contains an unfortunate mistake (looking as if a part falls off one of the models). There's also the matter of an assassination that seems to take out Straker, only to be revealed as a scene being shot at the studio, and the victim a stunt double or actor. We've seen these fakeouts too often to be fooled this far into the series.

Freeman's not the only one out of his comfort zone. Straker may act unflappable when it comes to command but romance is a field he's lost at and never returned to. It might be just an infatuation with Fraser, or maybe it's loneliness, but there must be something about Fraser - Jo - that keeps Ed hooked even after she's used his cranium to deconstruct a vase. Ah, well, he doesn't yet have his answers, after all. One must have patience. String things along, allow a background check to run its course. Jo Fraser, unknown to any news agency. Would you like some wine? Look, I placed a romantic dinner setting for two before I set out to work this morning.

Ed can't get out of his own way. He'd like to tell her to hit the road. He'd like to stroke her hair and hold her close. Instead he sits there with a stony look on his face and confuses the hell out of her. She tells him he's cold. Not the first time he's heard it. So he strokes her hair. Cuddles for a while. Then once he has her waiting in bed he yells at her to get the hell out. Background check reveals she seduces rich men (like studio execs) then takes them for their money.

"It's a man's world, remember?", she yells at him. She'll do what she has to survive, and to hell with everyone else. Screenwriter Tony Barwick has shown us before that we're never quite as advanced as we pat ourselves on the back for re: equality consciousness. Straker is usually the unwitting signifier on that front. When he met her, Jo was apologizing for her own name, of all things, that she should have cleared up her gender before the meeting.

Can Fraser be called a confident person? Where the men deliberate, she acts boldly from an unfailing belief in her ability as a con artist. On the other hand, there's not much kindness left in her for the world. She's hardened and bitter. Yet, there's also a passage of dialog in which she begins to admit that she could have softened for Straker. Was that just another lie to get through the moment or was it genuine?

Straker is not a confident man when it comes to his own feelings. No wonder he avoids them, in situations like this he can't even read his own judgement, let alone trust his instincts.

Freeman does a little better, but not enough to feel comfortable in the responsibility seat. A second blip appears, this time near Moonbase where it's likelier to be important. It turns out to be a Russian commercial rig out of control and on a path to collide with Moonbase. Knowing that it may cause an international incident, he orders it blow up. He trusts his people, he makes the call, he accepts that there will be consequences.

Foster, as usual, goes his own way, which means treating orders as suggestions. There's confidence for you! Like Straker, he risks everyone's lives for the improbable chance to save them all. He climbs aboard the runaway rig, deals with the cabin crew drunk off anoxia, and brings the truck to a halt inches short of Moonbase's command dome. I wondered why non one thought to shoot out a wheel, or - once he was aboard - take advantage of that live feed from the Russian base to translate a warning to the crew. Or, would it be too wild to suggest, just point out the damn front window and look scared?

TRS is in some ways a fractured episode. Either of the two main plots might have been expanded for a more acute look at Straker or Freeman. Freeman, that would have been welcome. He's had too little of his own material, and this is the last we'll have featuring him in any significant way. George Sewell did a wonderful job essaying a complicated role that originally threatened to devolve into a skirt chaser of no depth. Straker we've seen his personal loneliness before but not like this. The third thread makes for an exciting sequence and raises many possibilities worth exploring regarding SHADO having to share the moon with other nations.

None of these fully develops, yet I'm giving it 7 awkward silences between potential paramours. TRS pursues a fragile human quality juxtaposing one quality over a number of different players, and I found that humanity over plot to be refreshing. In the aftermath, Freeman and Straker congratulate each other for their respective handling of their scenarios. Freeman says of Fraser, "If it'd been me, I'd have probably got myself emotionally involved or something". As ever, Straker is imprisoned behind his own stoicism and says nothing. We see it, of course. We can only guess that he feels as bad for Jo as he does for himself.