UFO - The Long Sleep (final episode)

The waters are awfully icy this morning. Col. Lake informs Straker that a ten-year-old case has just been reopened and asks if he would like to look into it personally. 'Asks' night not be the right word, more like 'taunts'...and then we learn why. The case involved a woman who had been hit by a car and sent into a coma. The man that hit her was Straker, and the woman has just woken up. The way Lake lets her boss know borders on cruelty. Straker has such a look of guilt on his face that he can't object.

Under the care of Dr. Jackson, Catherine Frazer rebuilds her memories of the accident and the circumstances that led to it. As a young woman she had just run away from her parents and spent the day with another youth she had just met, Tim Redman. Tim also was an escapee with nowhere to go, he running from academia. Together they wasted a day in an abandoned farmhouse. At night, Tim introduced her to drugs. While they were high, they encountered by chance a couple of aliens planting a device in the barn. What fun!

Imagine the poor aliens' bewilderment at these two crazed humans who steal the key to the device to play tag with, lead them on a merry chase to the roof, and then one of these mad terrestrials leaps off the roof to his own death. Imagine poor Tim, who thought he could fly.

Now imagine poor Catherine. She awakes the next day to see Tim's body dragged away by the aliens and witnesses the UFO fly away. She hitches a ride to return to the city only to have to flee the driver who tries to molest her. She runs right into the path of one Ed Straker.

It's Ed that Jackson calls in to help revive her memories (that's right, Jackson, the girl's state is fragile so call in Mr. Tact). She has no family now, her parents died waiting for her to recover.

Someone else is waiting. Tim was revived by the aliens ten years ago, programmed, and stationed as a sentinel to watch over Catherine. As long as it may take, they want that key.

Something about Cathy's tale has Ed spooked. In 1974, three days prior to colliding with Cathy, a UFO was spotted over Turkey. A few hours after that Turkey was rocked by an earthquake that killed 80,000 and leveled a city. (note - that places this episode as taking place in 1984, so it has now been four years since our introductory episode 'Identified'). Somehow Straker makes the leap: the UFOs destroyed the Turkish city, therefore they must have been about to do the same to rural England. (Really? Not, say, London?) Yes, it must have been a bomb! No, not the plan, I mean literally a bomb - and it's still there!

Indeed it is. A bomb, barely covered by loose soil hastily tossed ten years ago, in a farmhouse no one has set foot in for ten years, not even local kids looking for diversions. Yep. Not only that, the key is still on the houseboat it landed in, the boat that still sits on the same patch of river under the bridge Catherine threw it from. The chase is on because now Tim knows, and so does Straker. they both obtained the final lost memory with the use of an alien serum that sped up Catherine's heart rate as a side effect. Tim used it on her and carelessly left it behind. To stop him it must be used on her again. For once, Straker is unable to make the call that endangers a life, and the morally inscrutable Jackson is reluctant as well. It's Foster who insists. Turkey, 80,000 people dead...Straker put the fear into him. Ed, though...you'll remember the last time someone he was responsible for was in a hospital waiting for him to make a choice. Ed has come to care about Catherine.

We see Ed in the waiting room. it's a nicely understated callback to 'A Matter of Priorities' without exposition or otherwise being obvious. I like the direction of this episode very much, the work of Jeremy Summers who also directed The Psychobombs. The flashbacks scenes are in sepia, until that gives way directly to shifting bright color filters for the pharmaceutical high. It's an effective transition. The script is by the same David Tomblin who gave us The Cat With Ten Lives, Reflections in the Water, and three episodes of The Prisoner. Just what the aliens get from killing by the tens of thousands is unclear, but it doesn't exactly hurt their aims either. One might speculate that it throws nations into chaos as cover for the aliens to do their work. Real-world answer is likely the same fuzzy spec script communication that resulted in 'Destruction': they're aliens so they must want to kill us all (and who said anything about body harvesting?) You might wonder why the aliens don't simply send another key on the next UFO headed our way, as in 1974 SHADO was probably not up and running yet, but it may be a matter of resources - notice they left a human drone behind to deal with it instead of their own personnel. That's a minor matter. What counts is that this is the rare episode that lets us have a little backstory for our civilian characters, not much but enough to invest in them, get to like and root for them.

Alas, this is UFO so things come to a sad end. Tim accomplishes his task and essentially falls over dead. SHADO techs fail to disarm the bomb, so they employ a miniature rocket to send it into space. Returning to the hospital, Ed finds that Catherine died as Tim did: their life force spent. Catherine aged rapidly. Jackson doesn't have any answers but guesses that the aliens brought Tim back to life by stealing some of her life essence.

Tim and Catherine met, perhaps fell in love, and spent one glorious day together. They spent ten more years apart but locked together, and died still tied one to the other.

Lake's anger at Straker has vanished, replaced by empathy for his pain and for Catherine. Ed goes home alone.

10 'Century 21' logos. Even those thrilled me as a child, part of the ritual of watching every Sunday around noon like seeing the old UA symbol appearing before Bond flicks when they aired on the ABC Sunday Night Movie.

And so UFO comes to a close. Plans were shaping for a second season in which SHADO would expand their forces, the aliens would step up their fight, and much of the action would take place on and around the Moon. Unfortunately the show was dropped by ITC. Not ready to give up entirely, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson took what they had and created Space: 1999.

UFO - Timelash

The morning after leaving to pick up Col. Lake at the airport, Commander Straker suddenly appears at SHADO HQ disheveled and apparently stark raving mad and taking it out on the machinery. Taking the show out to the Harlington/Straker sets, he leaves in his wake a hefty damages bill and questions: how did he get back into the building, why is he holding dangerous drugs to increase metabolism, why is Lake unconscious on the roof, and why is one of the lesser technicians dead in a go-cart, riddled with bullets?


Lake isn't much help when she comes to. She's diagnosed as having sustained a blow to the back of the neck that has caused a two-hour amnesic gap. I don't know what's more impressive, knowing to tap a neck to produce a two-hour amnesia (top that, Spock) or diagnosing that it's been done.


The answers will have to come from Straker, who also inhabits a recovery bed. Not coming around fast enough for Henderson who declares that a SHADO without Straker is a dire emergency and promptly orders Dr. Jackson to administer a drug that might kill Straker instead of hastening his recovery. Makes sense. You wouldn't want to just give the man a day or so to get his wits back. Might be a rough job of it, from his ravings. "They murdered time!"


Here begins the flashback. Returning from the airport the night before, Straker and Lake are first tracked by a UFO, then attacked as they near HQ. We know something happens as the screen image turns negative for a moment, but just what it is will take unraveling. I've seen the episode some four or five times over my life, and I'm still trying to work it out. Hurrying on to the studio lot, night suddenly turns to day and time has stood still - people frozen mid-stride, birds aflight, tossed objects that remain in the air. Straker grabs a piece of wood and strikes at a stool doing bullet-time and can't make it move, failing to realize that he should have been unable to pick up the wood...or open doors for that matter. Apparently only objects that were under the influence of kinetic energy are paralyzed while those at rest can still be manipulated. Probably a neat conundrum in there somewhere, make for a cool sci-fi novel. There's no time to explore it here, but we do pause for some brief exposition that clears up nothing.


Let me see if I have this close to right...at first it appears that SHADO has been caught in a bubble of frozen time. We have to guess why Straker and lake are immune, perhaps because they were caught at the edge of the affect area. Their watches no longer work. Straker has a better theory: the aliens have projected in which they themselves move at a highly accelerated rate, making everything around them appear to stand still. This explains how they could get past moonbase, an incoming UFO is travelling in such a bubble, and because its path brings it right to HQ the forward edge is now affecting Harlington/Straker studios. SHADO is shielded by heavy lead within its walls, so another field generator has been placed inside HQ, thus necessitating a traitor to plant the device. They wouldn't have to do that to blow the place sky-high, so the idea must be to take it over entirely. An ambitious scheme on all fronts!

Wait, that doesn't sound right either...if the wave is hitting the studio, then everything there should speed up too. My brain hurts, it'll have to come out.


Frozen time, sped-up movement...either way it presents us some problems that haven't been worked out. For instance, if the world is still moving at normal speed then things like elevators, guns, and electronic security panels should not be moving at his speed. Nor go-carts. Nor should the laws of physics bend to his will - gravity and others. So, we have to wonder. Like Straker, we're guessing. Best leave it at that.


Like I said, not a lot of time (heh!) to discuss it because - let's all shout it angrily together - "TRAITOR!!!" One of our lesser techs, Turner, is an agent for the aliens and it didn't take mind control to turn him. Looks like Straker's not a hit with everyone after all. Turner is one of those with a hate-on for humanity and how he's been treated, and sells us out with the promise of a chance to whip out his psyche and wave it at Straker.


The rest of the episode, a good half maybe, is a game of cat and mouse with Lake & Straker hunting Turner while an unhinged Turner tries to kill them. Somewhere on the base is a bit of equipment that the tech rewired into a transmitter for the alien time wave. Again, I'm too slow to follow what does what here. The signal is being sent from a UFO outside the time envelope, and though it is on it's way it has to come slowly because it is operating at a different temporal level and must adjust as it passes the threshold. I think. I wonder if that shouldn't affect the oscillation of the signal as well (ala sound and light waves). Meanwhile, Turner is able to play with time in ways a Gallifreyan would envy, projecting himself backwards or forwards, pulling Straker out of incidents to witness them again. So what kind of time manipulation are we talking about here? A world slowed down or people sped up? if there's an explanation for this it could only be pulled from Jackson's backside. It's wicked fun and doesn't make a lick of sense. Seems to me the aliens have endowed Turner with more power than they've allowed themselves, a rather foolhardy move. You can tell from the childishness of his taunts that his cogs have slipped big-time. He's been promised a high place in the new regime. Aren't they all?

I'm also not clear how Straker and Lake made it into the affected field and whether they were meant to. I doubt it, as they were attacked before arriving...and why do they not need to adjust at the same rate the UFO does once they're through the envelope? Really, there are all sorts of things that you're not meant to think about here. Timelash was written by Terence Feely, who also contributed scripts to Space: 1999 and The New Avengers. I enjoyed those as well, but this is easily the better piece aided by terrific direction and fx work.


I don't care. It's a brisk episode that grabs your attention right away and never lets up, nor is it straightforward enough to easily guess where it's going. If sense must cede to sensibility, this is a good way to go. with many wondrous little touches and a little skewed humor. This is among the best of what UFO could be when it comes to sheer exuberant strangeness. So, I'll give it 9 magic machine guns that never need reloading.



Asides:
It's good to see Henderson again, and Jackson! I'm gonna miss these guys.


ep concludes with Straker coming to his senses. Jackson explains to Henderson that Straker has experienced...ah, I can't remember what he caled it, but it sums up what we just saw. But how the hell does he know that??


One of these episodes, either this one or Mindbend, has a glimpse of the Interceptor cockpit sets. Between the swift pace and looking away to take notes, I failed to spot them.


Give Harlington/Straker a hand, ladies and gentlemen! That prop gets a lot of use. maybe they're filming a sequel to whatever movie used it last time.


Catch the funky wind machine effect on Straker's face as he tries to target the UFO? To quote MST3K, "That's quite a tic ya got there, son."


Turner fumes that Straker is "the guy all the girls admire". There's no evidence from the series to support that. I can buy that Turner believes it, though, it's clearly a sore spot and I can see him endowing Straker with every trait he feels a failure at.

UFO - Ordeal

"Two weeks here and you're going to feel on top of the world", the therapist says.  He should have said "out of this world".  It would have been truer.

Immediately followng his return home from a stint on Skydiver, and the night before a mandatory stay at SHADO's torture  health spa, Col. Foster spends the last of his energy on a party.  (Prediction for the 80's: your future will be fashion retro with a nostalgic wave of mod 60's excess.  Get your unironic Austin Powers on!)  So he's drained going in, struggling when he realizes he's locked in the sauna with the temperature rising, and limp when the aliens find and kidnap him.

Except they don't.  Foster has passed out and is having a vivid stress-induced nightmare.  You're not told that until the final moments of the episode, and there's a deft bit of sleight-of-hand to fool us all: SHADO HQ has been hunting a UFO that broke though their perimeter, and Foster's nightmare hinges on just that scenario.  It almost feels like  a cheat upon reveal, but the former is common enough for SHADO while the nightmare would be a  common one to personnel.

Speaking of entertainement in general, this is exactly the twist that always turns audiences off.  The 'it was all in his/her head' ending.   People become invested in the situation only to be told "It didn't happen?"  "It didn't mean anything!"  It smacks of the writers not being able to think up a decent solution to the central dilemma so they reach for their handy book of trite cop-outs.  An argument can be made that the dream of Ordeal does certainly mean something and has some value, but in this case I can only be just so enthusiastic about it.

The episode is illustrative of the fear, tension, and fatigue that must be what every SHADO agent carries just under the sonscious barrier on a daily basis.  That's worth seeing.   As an inner look at Paul Foster, he turns out to be not that interesting.  We see very little that we hadn't already seen on the surface.  That is, we may not know it's a dream but sriter Tony barwick does, so he's aware that manifestations of Straker, Freeman, Jackson and the like are taken from Foster's own perceptions and expectations.  Of ccourse, Barwick doesn't want to tip his hand, so we get the same Straker, Freeman, etc.. that we always do...and honestly I don't think Barwick was after anything other than a thrilling experience, which he deelivers quite expertly.  From our POV, we've never been the abductee before.  Now we have.  I'm just saying we could have had that small bit more, not enough to break the illusion but enough to leave lingering questions about Foster and his working relations.

Maybe there is something,  though.  For a fantasy concocted by Foster's id, Lt. Gay Ellis features a lot in his rescue.  For example, how often so we see her take to the lunar surface personally when someone under her command needs rescuing?  Foster is an exceeption, is he?  Must be awfully special to her...It's your classically romantic scenario, she spends every minute after in his company, reassuring and comforting him right up to the moemnt he comes to on the sauna floor at the health spa.

The episode is gripping on a first viewing, with plenty of tension as Straker orders the UFO shot down (will  the Sky 1 pilot Waterman comply?), as the damaged UFO crashes on the moon,  Foster having his lungs filled with the liquid aleins use for space travel, etc.   Having seen it a number of times, I know it holds up on rewatch.  So,  I'm giving it 7 rights clearances to Paul McCartney's catalog.  Never ceases to surprise me that 'Get Back' made it in in the first place, and more that it's still there.

Asides:

F.O., Foster! That means you're first, alphabetically!

At SHADO HQ, a female technician brings coffee to a male tech...at least it  didn't seem as if he aked, she simply offers him some.  Either the sexism problem is more institutionally entrenched at SHADO than any of us has realized, or she really likes the guy and wants him to notice.  I'd like to think it's the latter.  She reminded me a little of someone I fell for once.

"Have you ever been in a sonar bath before?"  Sounds neat.  Is that like a sonic shower on Star Trek?  Hmm, so you need steam for a sonar bath?  How does that work?  Why not just call it - oh, I see.  Sauna bath.  Ne'mind.

Should have been a lot more green liquid gushing out of that helmet, and to clear Foster's lungs he should have been leaning forward. Still, kudos for getting the  panic right.

On learning that Foster was abducted, a Skydiver crewmember exclaims, "How could that happen?"  She must be new, because it happens to SHADO people all the time!

At the spa there's a guy named Franklin who's overweight.  Oh, sorry, I meant to say fat.  We're supposed to be thoughtful of others and not inflict 'political correctness' on them.  Franklin's a tub.  That means he's the comic relief.  Just pointing out that he's a fatass is inherently funny.  So go ahead and have a  laugh at his expense, because even the score mocks him.


Two episodes to go.

UFO - Reflections in the Water

RitW made my brain feel fuzzy.

There's trouble in one particular stretch of water. A commercial ship has been blown apart by what the crew reported as 'flying fish', a film crew has had one of it's divers killed by a slashed air hose, and unusually warm currents are diverting marine life from their usual habitats. Fortunately for Earth, the film crew happens to be under contract at Harlington/Straker and their director a stupefyingly boring man with a keen eye.

I guess those flying fish set the tone for the whole story. Are they cool, or absurd, or some cruel joke played on victims? Basically, they're missiles that shoot lasers instrad of actually hitting their targets. Oops, missed! PSYCH, no we didnt! Na-na-nana-na! UFOs already have laser weapons, so why be so elaborate? Why, because its fun!

At this point the narrative needle skips its groove with a montage of clips previewing the rest of the story. UFO's production team was experimenting with the lesser credits format and someone must have liked it because it would become a staple of Space: 1999's title credits. Not being used to it on UFO, it's momentarily confusing.

Skydiver investigates and finds a UFO plying a route along a cable powering an underwater dome. Straker and Foster don scuba gear and check the place out, finding that its walls are accommodatingly transparent (always handy if you're trying to keep a secret, much like blowing up every ship that passes overhead).

Peering in, they spot one of their own: one Lt. Anderson. Traitor! Or he could just be under mental control, if he weren't such a lying traitor. Back on Skydiver, Straker orders its captain to maintain his position surveilling the dome - he'll be in contact when he gets back to HQ. This was the first instance where I felt my mind slipping, and it wouldn't be the last. Suddenly I needed to rewind the entire block and see it again...surely I'd been mentally wandering and missed some crucial line of dialog? How are Straker and Foster returning to HQ if Skydiver isn't taking them? Sky 1 seats one, and it's not a taxi service. Had they rendezvoused with another Skydiver or some other vessel? Are they going to swim back?

It happened again not long after. There's Anderson, that sickening traitor, smiling at them all innocent-like. Straker straps him up for a third degree. Expert grilling technique, that, consisting of shouting a single question at him denial after denial. Even after two doses of truth serum, Anderson insists he doesn't have a clue what Straker and Foster are on about. Y'know, SHADO personnel have been known to succumb to alien brainwashing - well, sure, you could excuse an innocent person that way but not a lousy traitor. What cheek, pretending his honor has been hurt.

Frustrated, Straker demands the psych evaluation be rushed into his hands. That's Col. Lake's job. Surely the evaluation will explain why Anderson has turned on SHADO...but it doesn't. It's a rather terse reply, almost snide...and there I went again, needing to rewind. I watched the scene three times. Was it the computer that made the analysis (as has happened before) or a doctor such as Jackson (also standard SHADO procedure)? Wasn't Lake, yet she's the one who put forward the questions. She's approached them as many different ways as she can think to, and the answer is always the same. Yes, that's what happens when you're trying to squeeze a computer to yield more than it's programmed with. Yet, I don't recall UFO ever mentioning before that its computer not only has an artificial personality but one that's cranky. That's what it's like to work under Straker, he even pisses off the machinery. Lake knows the feeling well. She's the only one (besides HAL) with the guts to snap at him. Even SID knows better.

Straker and Foster return to the dome. Discovering that it's housed in some wonderful self-sealing skin, they enter to find that the UFO has been there. I'd been wondering about that, as we know they don't last long in our atmosphere, and it's surmised in The Sound of Silence that immersion in water doesn't help. So, now we know the craft doesn't remain in the ocean but rests in the dome. But it's still in an oxygen-rich site, so...? Oh, well, back to the plot.

In the dome they find more SHADO personnel, including themselves. Also Anderson again, who is locked in a cell back at HQ. Aha, thinks Straker, it's plastic surgery. Personally, I leapt immediately to clones and thought that Straker must not have seen enough science fiction TV shows, but no - he's right, it's not clones. If the aliens figured out how to clone bodies, they'd have no more need to raid Earth.

Exploring further (and with the clock ticking, orders having been left to torpedo the dome in exactly an hour), they find a replica of SHADO HQ, wherein they espy their duplicates lipsynching to voice recordings of the genuine SHADO agents. We learned early in the episode that the aliens have mounted an ambitious invasion plan with a force of at least twenty-five UFOs standing by. Now the plan is revealed: when the fleet makes a go for Earth, all defense forces will be ordered to stand down...and they'll do it, too, because they know that Straker has a penchant for wild, suicidal gambits that always pay off.

Not to worry. Straker and Foster blow the joint, figuratively and literally, and when the assault launches it is ably if improbably fought off. We never learn how the aliens intended to neutralize SHADO HQ, which they would have had to do for their own fake to be effective. There's also a question raised about the Interceptors taking out four UFOs - watch the editing, we see exactly three missiles fired. I've always wondered about those three nozzles mounted fore of the visor - are they weapons or thrusters? I still don't know.

Oh, and all's cool between Straker and Anderson, the traitorous bastard, it's all smiles and backslaps. So that's okay then.

This was just plain fun, and I give it 7 "Damn dome!"s and other alliterate outbursts.
The score - no, the musical score - included a short burst heavy on brass that sounded like the standard villain's cue on the '66 Batman. Because it occurred while onboard Skydiver, I thought Burgess Meredith was about to enter quacking.

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.

UFO - The Sound of Silence

I've gone through this series some five times now and The Sound of Silence never makes enough impression to remain much in memory. I think now I know why: this is what you get when a story sketch is treated as if it were a developed script.

The opening pageant is promising as a UFO approaches Earth behind an American space program craft. SHADO defenses are stymied by the close proximity. It's a taut, well-directed bit of business but has little to do with the plot that follows. Actually, it establishes a tension that what follows tries to maintain itself upon.

The UFO makes it to the English countryside and hides in a lake on a private estate. This is a gamble, as the alien craft cannot last long in water. Foster leads a force of Mobiles scouring the area. Meanwhile, life goes on oblivious for the family – the father, his son Russell (a famous showjumper), and Russ' sister. Oh, and Cully the Hippy who makes a habit of trespassing there. We know he's a hippy because he has a bad wig, is contemptuous of others and their property, and is cruel to animals. None of the characters are well-developed, we know them by their response to each other. For example, Russell hates hippies and that's pretty much the sum of the characterization he's endowed with. Soft-spoken and even-handed. Anne is more jovial. Roughly speaking, they're about as developed as Russell's horse. If we weren't already familiar with Foster and Straker, they'd be non-entities in equal measure here.

UFO, your era is showing. Cully is pure stereotype. Dialog is scattered lightly with “hippy”, “fuzz” and a highly non-PC line, jokingly offered, trading on racist tropes on Native Americans. It's not strong enough to cause much offense but does stand out.

If the people are in the dark about the alien presence, the horse isn't. Nor is Cully's loyal-to-a-fault dog, a pleasant type that puts up with having wood and knives chucked at it. Get close to the lake and you'll notice how the entirety of the local wildlife has gone nervously silent. It's a smart idea around which to base an episode, that animals have a sixth sense about the aliens' presence. This could be good.

Foster is paying attention. Russell has gone missing and been reported. On meeting the family and getting a tour of the property, Foster realizes where the UFO must be. Another excellent action sequence ensues as the craft is drawn into the open. I have to say, the fx crew earn constant praise for their miniature vehicles but not enough for their miniature landscapes.

The UFO is destroyed, freeing a canister from its confines. Fearing that the object may be a bomb other destructive device, it is rushed to SHADO HQ (Was that wise? It was, after all, out in the middle of nowhere, do you want to rush a potential WMD to a populated area?) “The closer you are to an explosion: , Straker says, “the better your chances are.” Ummm...okay. Hard to argue with.. Now we have a third fine setpiece as the object is examined and cut into, with all HQ personnel silently on edge. Inside the canister is Russell in hibernation for transport back to the alien home world.

Now this is chilling. It doesn’t tell us anything new, but its the first time we've seen how humans are physically treated as raw resource material. This is what happens to us when we're captured – we're canned like food.

Russell begins to come around, and the direction is very leading. His blank expression and the disorientation through which he sees suggests, dare I say...alienation? Anne looks on hopefully and it looks like an “AHA!” moment. Here's where the horse sense will come in! Russell's horse will tell them whether it's him or not!

Hey, wait, why are you guys giving Anne the amnesia drug now, this hasn't been resolved yet!

Aaaaaand that's where I'm at with this episode. We keep getting elements worthy of exploitation that are never developed. Animal instincts. The problem of telling when a human is still a human. The problems with hiding the real purpose of SHADO from space programs like NASA. The disruption of life on the estate on which the aliens hide. It's all there...and just lays there. Writers David Lane and Bob Bell don't seem to be all that interested in the aliens, and the people themselves fail to engage me. Three riveting suspense sequences and a lot of dull business that doesn't build.

A final scene has Foster visit the farm after life has been returned to normal. We see Russell having fun with his horse (ergo it must be Russell still). Perhaps he's there for another sexual conquest now he's been established as the series' lothario as Freeman was proposed initially. I'd like to think he was making sure the horse took to its owner. No one thought it worth making clear.

So again the problem of applying a number comes up. Subsmash is an ep I really do enjoy more than many, because it's well made, moves well, and entertains...but because it does nothing you couldn't find in any other show I gave it a 5 (that was painful to do). Close-up earned a 3 for being kinda creepy in an offensive way. TSoS suffers neither of these problems and is sporadically lively, but not enough and not in total. It's going to fade from memory like it always does.

4 entitled class-tier attitudes

Asides:

Russell is played by Michael Jayston. Some have speculated that Jayston was not actually born but grown entire from the severed hand of David Tennant.

UFO - Destruction

Stalwart TV fantasist Dennis Spooner (Doctor Who, the Avengers, various Anderson productions) pens his one and only UFO teleplay. It's crackling entertainment that intrigues, moves at a steady pace, and presents us with a real danger. It could be a series high point but for that bit about flying in the face of the series premise. Seems no one bothered to brief Spooner.

A British naval vessel sights and promptly shoots down what they claim is a UFO. The thing went down in one of the oceans deeper trenches and will never be found. Henderson is satisfied that the story is a dead end and no security risk, and probably wasn't an actual UFO anyway, and happy enough to let it go. Straker's not so sure and wants to press the matter. Have the aliens found a way past SHADO screening? Why would the Navy be so hot to fire on an unidentified vessel that had not attacked? Why the rush to conclude the matter with no investigation?

Straker and Henderson take a shot at official channels while Foster is assigned to try a more sneaky approach, wooing and spying on the secretary of the Admiral directly involved. Col. Lake, meanwhile, takes command of Skydiver to surveil the ship as it heads back to deep waters.

The secretary turns out to be the daughter of one of the men who built Moonbase – in fact, one who disappeared off the moon and was never heard from again, suspected to have been taken by the aliens. She has an expensive telescope with astral co-ordinates marked off. Parking an interceptor along that path incapacitates the pilot when an intense signal passes through the craft. Someone's passing information to the aliens, but what exactly is the information and what is the interest?

Straker and Henderson open up to the Admiral in hopes he will realize the danger Earth is in (and noting their trusty amnesia drug anyway). They are told that the navy has been tasked with the dispensing of a WMD so volatile that if released would wipe out all life on Earth. Imagine if you will a UFO attack on the vessel with that gas on board!

That is exactly what happens. Skydiver is on the scene and blasts the UFO out of the sky. Earth is saved. From the aliens. Who need us for their survival. Wait, what?

Okay, okay...so...reaching back to 'A Question of Priorities'... In that episode, a lone alien attempted to defect from his people. We know so little about the aliens that we may assume that they are not of one mind on the subject of Earth's exploitation or perhaps other matters. Might we accept that this attempt to exterminate Earth's resources is being carried out by another faction?

Given the work that went into conditioning the secretary, furnishing her with high-beam communications equipment, and posting multiple UFOs along the trajectory of that equipment (remember, one was shot down and there's at least one more that appears), plus the presence of an agent to periodically put the woman under remote mind control...there is organization behind this assault, and long-term effort. This is no lone wolf acting against alien interests as we've understood them thus far. Remember, that was always an assumption on SHADO's part. It's never been confirmed by an alien.

Whatever the explanation, it's part of the show now and we have to take it on board. It certainly underlines the absolute threat they pose. I've always had a problem suspending disbelief for stories in which the plot hinges on contradicting common sense, and Destruction comes perilously close. Only our lack of understanding of the aliens gives it an out.

I've said that the script is a top suspenser. There's not a lot in the way of character work and no exploration on those lines, but a few small character moments keep it lively. For example, Henderson and Straker...it's nice to see their professional capacity for working together for once instead of the constant pissing match. Straker is quick to have his defenses up when they meet and bristles for a fight, and Henderson is quick to calm his fears. They make a good team. One can see how firm the grounding of SHADO must have been in their hands. Pity about the falling out.

Another is a round of golf which Foster has been (ahem) invited to play with Straker. It's not Foster's thing, but you don't say no to the boss. Is the molding of the protege now to include his pastimes as well? This is where Foster is told he's to spy on the woman. We're left to wonder what he thinks of the assignment. We've seen him becoming a bit of a player already after having one relationship ended by his involvement in SHADO, so this could be considered a darker turn for him.

There's also Col. Lake. For the era, it's refreshing to see a woman in full command of a military force, even more to see that UFO has no need of elaborating on the fact but expects us to accept it as a given. In that role Wanda Ventham proves more than capable: confident, steady and attentive, decisive, ready to push but mindful of the risks. I dare say she has better command skills than Straker, though we've yet to see if she has his superhuman intuition. There's a good chemistry between Ventham and Ed Bishop, though character-wise I miss the yin-yang on ethical matters that Freeman provided.

How to rate...hell, I've never been good with reducing a work of entertainment to numbers. It'd be a smart story for some other show with a different premise, and Spooner is a legend. Straker's cover is blown again, in a brand new way, this time he's not only forgotten for his media-worthy military background but also as the head of a film studio as well when Henderson tries to pass him off as an official to do with aviation safety. For all his charisma, Straker must be a profoundly unmemorable guy.

7 shock-fuschia carpets, just as you'd expect to find in a high military office. Honestly, I'm leaning toward 6 or 6.5, but the plot really does provide a fun guessing game as well as upping the stakes.


Asides...

David Warbeck plays one of the Skydiver personnel. I know him best from a couple of horror films by Lucio Fulci.

A young Steven Berkoff plays the Interceptor pilot. I almost didn't recognize him. Berkoff played the bad guy General Orlov in Octopussy and has had a long career that includes a couple of Kubrick's films as well as extensive TV work.

Talk about stretching suspense, why did Skydiver wait so long in the finale before launching Sky 1?

Funny that the British military would go to the press with a tabloid headline like 'We shot down a UFO!” Not many world governments are in the habit of publicly crediting the existence of UFOs.

If Straker is itchy to use forget-me-drops on the Admiral, what's he going to do with a fairly huge ship full of witnesses? Will he be willing to settle for the Offical Secrets Act? Are those administered with the drug ever programmed with a false memory or story to cover missing time?

I finally figured out how the fx guys make those UFOs spin. It's the top clear dome that is attached to wires and remains stationary, while the interior and clear base spin. I could never see them that clearly before.

UFO - ESP

In the coda to ESP, Straker invokes fear of the unknown as a motivating force. Many people are naturally afraid of the idea of flying saucers and aliens. So are they nervous about psychism. Speak of either one as a serious topic and you get nervous jokes about loony bins. I'm getting that out of the way because it may have been an inspiration for the episode but as a theme it gets a bit lost in the shuffle.

John Croxley has ESP, which takes the form of receiving other people's surface thoughts and sensing details of the near future. These abilities are not under his control, they are erratic, and they are deeply unwelcome. (That last – anticipating future events – is highly suspect, but like Croxley I'm getting ahead of myself.) This constant stream of unwanted knowledge intruding on Croxley's mind is making him a nervous wreck, Putting a strain on his marriage...and it's not helping that he is seeing a quack for a doctor. According to Mrs. Croxley, the doctor thinks ESP is some kind of virus that will “pass soon”.

Unhappy Croxley makes the acquaintance of Straker under the worst possible circumstances when a UFO crashes into his house, killing his wife. Straker maintains the cover of the UFO having been one of his own vehicles on a test run*. Naturally Croxley blames Straker.

Ah, but wait a mo' – shouldn't the truth be uppermost in Straker's mind, and would not Croxley be aware of it? It's a good question, far from the only one arising from a script that treats the story as a puzzle box that needs working out. Therefore, instead of following the plot as it's laid out, let me look at the info we've gathered by the finale.

Croxley has had ESP his whole life, but only within the past year has it become so intense as to be ruining his life. Why, what triggered the increase? Whenever he's questioned on certain subjects or asked to examine his mental state too closely, he goes into evasion mode aggressively enough to suggest he's hiding something from his conscious mind (his doctor points this out). When he ought to see the truth about aliens from both Straker and Freeman, he mentally blocks it to favor his consuming grief and hatred of Straker.

Then there's the matter of the UFO itself. Early on it seems a contrivance that the saucer should hit this one man's house out of all England to choose from, but the craft was under manual control - meaning it was no accident. This one act and the loss of Croxley's life is the trigger for an obsession with Straker. Coincidence is becoming more and more unlikely.

Brainwashing, I think, is the answer. It's not mind control, as Croxley is not a mindless puppet. He is driven but thinks it is by his own thoughts. His mental block and angry evasions look like post-hypnotic suggestion. The time it took to prepare him for this (a year, we infer) says it wasn't easy for the aliens to control him but had to nudge him instead. Also...well, surely ESP would be an invaluable tool for the aliens in any number of ways and yet they squander it on assassinating one man who's only going to be replaced. Okay, I'm rationalizing the writer's lack of vision, but let's go with an in-universe answer and say that ESP is a rare commodity and Croxley being who he is has limited application. They did what they could with the opportunity handed them.

Might not be the answer you came up with, very little of this is made explicit. We can but guess. Again, Straker from the coda: “We'll never know”. That could be an excuse for sloppy writing, which does play out elsewhere in the script, but the lack of a solid explanation is one of the things I like about this one. Fear drives SHADO, justifiably as we know the aliens are a threat. Fear motivates Foster to seek out what troubled him about the crash and the strange man who hovered near him in hospital. The aliens themselves express fear through Croxley, puzzlement and frustration that they are so feared by humankind. The unknowable, the uncertainty, It's meant to lend a chilly vibe to a premise already brimming with dark nights and horror-genre subjects (If I don't feel the shiver it's partly because I've been watching horror movies my whole life and partly that the director doesn't go for horror tropes). It's also quite sad, the impetus of all this death and tragedy.

Lack of specificity is also a potential weakness if you don't just go with it, because it begs a few questions we're probably no supposed to ask. How did the aliens come to know that Croxley has this ability, and how did they increase it? Who's scheme is Croxley following, his own or that of an alien handler, and how could anyone know that Straker would play it out as anticipated? Oh, ESP, right? Okay, but as depicted it doesn't seem to work that way nor does Croxley express an awareness of being trapped in a closed loop of predestination. This is where I am suspicious of his future sight, it's too neat in only this one instance.

Is Croxley himself afraid of his condition? I think one more round of rewriting could have brought this out and made the theme clearer, really brought it all together and made a good episode a great one. We've also got to contend with same poor thinking, especially the lack of coherent characterization for the doctor (doctor/patient ethics not as important as moving the plot forward). Otherwise it's a haunting story well told. Once again we have a potential villain who is nothing of the sort, rather is easy to symapthize with. That's a hallmark of UFO, the archetypes are subverted constantly...antagonists that we feel bad for, heroes who engage in unheroic behavior.


With a riveting story but some loose writing, I have to give this one 6 Zener cards. Which one am I looking at?



Asides:

How does this work exactly, Staker's story for the crash – the head of a movie studio has test pilots and experimental aircraft? Little lax on the cover, guys

Loved the crash into the house – that shot of the UFO coming right at the camera is startling! Must have taken my breath away as a kid, that's one bit that always stayed with me.

Nice touch: Foster “senses” he's being watched on the studio lot just before the doctor explains that we all have these moments of psychism. With hiss being aware of being spied on in the hospital, I wonder if Foster isn't a little but “receptive” himself.

Inconsistency? Croxley declares that Freeman has “a devious thought pattern”, implying that Straker by comparison does not. That should be the other way around.

I can't recall where I know this from or of it's correct, but those missiles on the Interceptors – are they nuclear or not? I ask because one of them went off right next to that saucer with no effect.

UFO - Conflict

For all the suspense and fantasy, sometimes the most rewarding aspect of UFO is the human one. That's what I get out of “Conflict”: the most fascinating relationship in the series is the one between Straker and General Henderson.

When we last met Henderson, ten years ago, he and Straker were collaborators on the budding effort to thwart the aliens and protect Earth. Whether or not they were friends we can only guess, but there was no indication of friction between them. One guesses that Straker's placement as head of SHADO could only have happened with Henderson's endorsement. Now they strain to tolerate each other's presence.

That's a damning comment on what it must be like to have Straker in one's life. Look what ten years have done to them as colleagues! SHADO owes its existence to Henderson more than perhaps any other person including Straker, so you know he believes it to be of vital importance. Yet, he says that SHADO is “in its present form an expensive and unworkable luxury.” That's a condemnation of the man whom he entrusted the operation to.

Straker and Henderson are at each others throats the moment one steps into a room with the other. On this occasion it involves a demand by Straker for a cost-heavy program to eliminate space debris. Henderson doesn't see the urgency, and Straker doesn't see the need to be diplomatic.

Strictly speaking, it will be the council that decides, and Straker is scrambling to assemble a report. Unfortunately, these two have developed a distrust so strong that their defenses go up as a matter of reflex. They blind themselves to the other's point of view no matter how reasonable or who backs it up.

As it happens Straker is right – the debris can be used as a blind by the aliens. A flight from Moonbase to Earth is brought down by a drone limpet that alters the SHADO craft's reentry trajectory, killing the crew. Straker is pressed by Henderson to call a temporary halt to Moonbase flights. Foster disobeys those orders to retrace the path of the doomed flight in hopes of proving that pilot error was not the cause. It's the last straw for Henderson, who rejects the evidence outright. Straker proceeds towards an inspired, or just plain reckless, gambit to prove himself right. It's a gamble that jeopardizes Moonbase, SHADO headquarters, and all personnel within.

What I find compelling here is that beneath all the enmity and outbursts the two share a grudging respect that flirts with civility. You can see a friendship that once was and is no more. Watch their conversations together...Straker is dead certain before arriving at Henderson's office that the General will not allow the proposal a fair hearing, and proceeds from that assumption like a spoiled, entitled brat, with Henderson doing little or nothing justify the suspicion. (Meanwhile, Straker is behaving toward his own subordinates in the same vein, playing the martinet with another friend, Alec Freeman. If Straker thinks Henderson is making his job impossible, that's just what he himself is doing for the people under him.

After Foster's unauthorized flight, Henderson trades time for Straker to investigate with a temporary shutdown of Moonbase traffic. Straker and his personnel take it as a hostile provocation, but Henderson genuinely offers it as a means of protecting Straker from the council, the suggestion being that h is being viewed as a man out of control by more than just Henderson himself. Again, look beyond the surface and see the nuances...this is melancholy stuff, the dissolution of their friendship. As the concluding exchange of dialog sums up, these two men are too much alike. They are both hotheaded and obstinate when they “know” they're right.

Paul Foster has emerged from training to become a fully-fledged SHADO operative, but “Conflict” suggests he is still untempered and a newbie when it comes to knowing his way around his superiors. His flight is an outrageous violation of command that almost costs Straker dearly, could have cost lives beyond his own (depending how Moonbase personnel are called upon to clean up his mess) and the loss of millions of dollars in craft. How does he get away with it? Well, he does prove himself right that his dead pilot friend was not at fault, and proves Straker's case as well...but I think it's more that Straker admires Foster for the gesture. Straker makes an even more extreme gamble in the final act.

(edit: now i think of it, Foster acts like another Straker or Henderson in the making.)

Kudos to UFO for this early concern for Earth's litter orbit. Space debris isn't inherently a very exciting topic, and “Conflict” doesn't translate into heavy action, but there is decent tension in the limpet sequences and I like that the topic is utilized in a creative way. According to Wikipedia space debris had already been a subject for study as far back as the 1940s, even before the space race started contributing more refuse to our orbit. Writer Ruric Powell must have been brushing up on science journals, or perhaps read a story that inspired him. It's not something one sees much of in popular filmed science fiction. In 1979, a scraps merchant named Harry Broderick would build his own moon rocket to salvage some of what NASA left behind on the moon, and a few millenia later drudge workers like Adam Quark would be tasked as flying garbagemen patrolling the galaxy for trash.

I'll give it 7 impressionable recruits. Straker's and Foster's gambles don't bear scrutiny, but the personal drama is smart.


Asides:
I know it's supposed to be a gender-progressive statement that as profound a task as Moonbase operations is under the command of a female staff, but I can;t help noticing that the center seat has been temporarily given to newbie Foster. Lt. Ellis may have been up for a few days off, or been asked to step aside, but filling the post with a raw recruit would seem to undermine the importance of the position, no? I mean...on top of the demeaning uniforms for the female personnel...

Where "Flight Path' seemed to be trimmed from material that ran a little long for the time allotment, this epsiode's fx sequence detailing the recovery of Paul's flight once he's in the clear feels like padding to me. The nerd in me loves watching the fx, but it adds nothing of value to the story.

UFO - Exposed

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin

The successful interception of a UFO is nearly compromised by a corporate test-flight. His co-pilot killed in the near-miss, Paul Foster finds his flying saucer report quashed by his employer (who wants to ground him), the evidence in the hands of the government, and total strangers going out of their way to intimidate him.

When people say they find UFO unsettling, I never know whether they mean the eerie alien threat or the moral quagmires raised. 'Exposed' is one of those that sits just a tad uncomfortably, and I have to give it credit for exactly that. How disturbing it's meant to be found I'm unsure of thanks to an ambivalent final scene.

SHADO and the dire nature of its secret cover already having been established as deserving our audience sympathies, we now have them in direct conflict with the accidental witness Foster. He's a threat to all we're rooting for. Yet, Exposed makes sure that we see Foster in a positive light – his plight is sympathetic, the man is intelligent, resourceful, even good-looking. In short, he's everything we might want in a hero. Our nominal heroes, meanwhile, share a private conversation that threatens ill for Foster if he blows SHADO's cover. How far will Straker go to keep Foster quiet?

That's what I appreciate most in this episode, the delicate balance of viewer loyalty. I have to wonder how the episode might have played had we seen it entirely through Foster's POV, with Straker a dangerous mystery figure. Would we buy as easily Foster's ultimate choice? It fits his character, but does it speak to the questions raised? Instead the narrative gives us the perspective from sides while cleverly keeping back just enough information to allow a satisfying last-minute twist.

The moral questions here are all too relevant today. Do feel comfortable entrusting our security to entities that are laws unto themselves – who can discredit us, meddle in our employment, manipulate our truths, threaten us physically and psychologically or even (Straker implies) ultimately have us murdered in the name of the greater good? The episode places SHADO in exactly that role, and if things turn out well it won't be because an autonomous agency really has anyone’s best interest at heart but because one man in authority retains a conscience. Under another man's leadership, SHADO wouldn't hesitate to ice the poor bastard.

And that's what ultimately unsettles me about the episode itself, because after the issues have been raised the script swipes them neatly aside without acknowledging the absence of a resolution to them. Satisfaction has been given and no harm done.

That's UFO at its best: fog.

“Exposed” introduces Michael Billington as Paul Foster. Most of the episode belongs to him and he uses it well. It's a neat way of bringing him into the fold, investing us immediately in his character. Vladek Sheybal (From Russia With Love's chessmaster and SPECTRE mastermind Kronsteen) steals a scene laying a head trip on Foster. It's but a single scene and I don't wish to downplay how effective Sheybal is in the Bond flick of note, but I find his character in UFO even more captivating – he's more intriguing as a snake than an ass.

One of the better episodes, tightly told all around. 8 thugs to rearrange your furniture.


Asides: I don't believe Ayshea's 'A' pendant is strictly in line with standard uniform regs. (Then again, maybe it's no more distracting than pharaonic eye shadow...) Maybe it's a high-level pass of some sort.

The miniature fx people really had a passion for their work! At least two new craft are introduced in this episode and despite knowing these models might never be seen again they both got the complete effort. These guys would get to totally unleash with the alien designs on Space:1999, really glorious stuff, but in a way their work on UFO is even more remarkable for having to keep their designs real-world credible.

A personal pet peeve, the notion that the world would collectively freak out if we were told that UFOs are real. It's treated as a given in “Exposed”, but then that wasn’t the story's focus.

I'm getting ahead of myself per the series as a whole but...aah, let's say I appreciate the brevity in editing the stock launch sequences. This happens in some episodes, and not often enough.

Gotta love the jets on Sky 1, that's pure smoke even underwater.

What exactly is the use of that go-cart at SHADO HQ? I guess it must be capable of greater speeds out on the lot, because it's useless for regular locomotion.

"Oh, you're WRONG, Foster, you're SO WRONG!” 😄😃

“That's okay, Ms. Ealand, I'm about to leave myself.” He should leave himself more often, he'd be less uptight.

UFO (ITC, 1970) Introduction and 1st Episode

Explanation and personal note: The preceding year has been a disastrous one for my family and for me personally.  It's still getting worse.  I have been marking time with a small group of TV enthusiasts at IMDb who have made it a practice to select one show at a time, one with a run of a single season, and watch that series one episode per week.  Each week they post their reviews.  Currently they - well, we now - have been watching the first live-action program by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, which followed a string of highly popular and successful children's science fiction adventures done with marionettes.

We are about to see our fifteenth episode.  I'll post my reviews here.  Keep in mind they were not written for this blog but for the discussion board for UFO on IMDb ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063962/board/threads/ ) and thus they may at times make allusions that are unexplained.  I will be posting full spoilers.

There is no correct viewing order for this series.  Production order is unsatisfying, as this was not the order in which the series was meant to be seen. production was done in sets of fifteen and nine with a hiatus between forced by a change in studios.  Due to this, some of the recurring cast could not return.  Because the series was intended to be sold into syndication worldwide, and probably not shown in any kind of order, the disappearance of thse dropped characters was never explained.  Thus, it was hoped that their absence could be masked by mixing the episodes of both filming blocks, making it appear that those regulars were simply on vacation or on duty elsewhere.

About my Stephen King posts...I did in fact watch all thirty one films last August as planned, but fell short on writing them up.  I may someday go back and finish adding comments.

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UFO

Identified


In 1970 three people were killed during an encounter with an unidentified object. Evidence on a cinefilm they left behind was strong enough for authorities to justify an international effort to unveil the alien intruders, discover their objectives, and protect the Earth from their marauding. The name of this program is SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization), and it is unknown to the public – the world's most closely guarded secret.

Ten years later, Commander Ed Straker oversees SHADO on the verge of a breakthrough in their fight against the invaders. Previously SHADO forces have been unable to intercept inbound alien craft due to their tremendous speed, despite specialized resources deployed across the planet, under the sea, and even secreted on the moon. Now new technology has been developed that promises SHADO's first victory, tech that can accurately determine the presence, location, and course of a UFO.

This development has been plagued by highly suspicious setbacks, suggesting spies and sabotage within their organization. It seems likely that when the equipment and personnel behind this breakthrough are transported to SHADO central, there will be an attempt by aliens to shoot down the flight.

UFO is the brainchild of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson of Supermarionation fame, science fiction-based action/adventures that featured puppets and plenty of futuristic craft to appeal to children (especially children of the geek persuasion – I raise my hand here). UFO saw the Andersons transition to live action. While their prior shows had been aimed at children, UFO was more mature in tone and theme though still appealing to the young with its science-fiction action and heavy use of fantastic hardware (sci-fi geek love knows no age). Among other running concerns, episodes explore morality in wartime, the burdens of command, ethics of secrecy in situations where there can be no comfortable solutions and no option is clearly “right”.

This leads to a rather bleak tone to the series overall. Performances lean toward the grim, apropos to the material but occasionally less than dimensional especially when conveying large blocks of exposition or stabs at philosophy (always ungainly, a weak point every time). Critics were often harsh about the actors, saying that their performances were every bit as convincing as the puppets – and that the scripts were just as wooden. Truthfully, some of the actors were just as harsh about the scripts (at least, this was the case with the cast of UFO's followup series, Space:1999, who didn't bother to hide their frustration). I sound like an apologist here for accusations of UFO being emotionally flat, some of those charges are dead on...but to some degree the emotionally blunted tone is a deliberate choice. If you don't think so, see the chilly closing credits sequence and its accompanying score. It's as distant and demoralizing as you could want.

To leaven the dire nature of the premise we're offered a strong dose of action, a modicum of humor, and some amount of romance. Aging the best are the action sequences, though by modern terms calling it “action” is a bit of a stretch. Solidly constructed through deft editing and tension, they play more to wracked nerves than fistfights or shootouts. They still grip though, thanks to remarkable production values such as fine photography (many scenes are night shots – half-seen in just the right ways while remaining clear). UFO showcased standard-setting miniature and fx work overseen by Derek Meddings (of Star Wars and 007 fame) and craft designs that still today are sought after by genre enthusiasts the world over in resin, plastic, and diecast.

More strained are the humor and romantic interludes, thanks to unabashed '60s sexism in full peacock display. This is UFO's lighter touch! Impractical uniforms for the women that promise flesh from moonbase uniforms that change from skintight to cheerleader miniskirts with a flick of a wrist to mesh shirts underwater. In fact, their officially issued equipment includes a handy little concealed makeup kit! There's an irony here, when the blatant invitation to objectify is mitigated (in theory) by overtly stated recognition of gender equality in the workplace (because this is set in the future: 1980), yet it's only when the women are off-duty that they are at their most casual. Report for work, and it's time to doll up and get hit on!

Okay, let's get to the first episode.

“Identified” is a tidy, efficient intro to the show's premise as the well-paced plot moves us through an overview of each division of SHADO's operation. We hardly notice the expository nature of the script (well, until Straker opens his mouth, anyway...) because the danger of the flight barrels forward unimpeded with our attention in tow. It's a nicely sustained bit of suspense that lasts well toward the episode’s conclusion, and carries into the first capture of an alien. Throughout, the dire nature of the endeavor has been maintained without much belaboring – the possibility of moles in the organization is introduced but not discussed, the need for secrecy ably demonstrated in the importance and peril of the flight, and finally in the revelations afforded by the alien: they are using us as harvest material.

“Identified” also introduces us to two of the major characters: the aforementioned Commander Straker and his second, Colonel Alec Freeman. Together they form the yin and yang of the soul of UFO, Straker struggling to bury his humanity in the name of the greater good, and Freeman trying to honor his own innate empathy in balance with the job.

Straker's an uptight, hardass micromanager by necessity, who we will later learn has taken a few hits to his humanity already. Played by Ed Bishop, he maintains a vacation-worthy state of near-breaking point. You know he's at his most relaxed when he's in a sardonic haze. Honestly, he's hard to like. Well, protagonists don't have to be likeable but they do have to be interesting – you need a reason to watch. Bishop has a strong presence, captivating good looks (his platinum hair is just jarring enough to deserve its own screen credit) and a deep voice that cuts through everyone. Bishop can't do much with his speeches, but I doubt anyone else could either and Bishop owns the screen whenever he appears.

Countering him is Freeman, who is at least freewheeling when it comes to women – the source of both the show's attempted levity and much of the cringeworthy sexism. Essayed by a crusty George Sewell with the demeanor of a seasoned vet (someone to be relied on) yet unjaded in outlook, he insists on acting as Straker's conscience no matter how much Straker rails that his conscience is overtaxed already. The two have a bond long established and unassailable, but they still clash. In Identified, the first two times we meet him he is all eyes for the women in his immediate vicinity (although it's hard to blame him for noticing the ridiculously sexy uniform one is wearing). It's an impression that will be tempered later but not so much in this pilot episode.

This is a decent episode. Not challenging but holds one's attention with few distractions and delivers a suitably chilling punchline. Low points are kept to a minimum, however much they stand out as awkward they don't sour the production or slow the tale. Besides the script's faults and the attitude towards women, the setup of Shado's location always strikes me as extravagant and a little too on-the nose cute: a top-secret base cloaked in a film studio. Straker's hydraulic office doesn't convince me. But then, is it really that big a stretch in a show where a jet fighter can be launched from beneath the sea?

7 glimpses of something vague behind a tree, because you gotta have somewhere to go up from. Not much personal conflict, gets a little wooden at times, and should be sent to see the principal for heavyhanded sexism.


Asides from the latest viewing...

 Gerry Anderson productions had at least one thing in common with Irwin Allen's TV shows, and that's the brilliant design work behind the craft and machinery (B-9 robot of Lost in Space. They have an iconic style to them that is sometimes of an era while still being timeless, every bit as much as the '66 Batmobile. On UFO I'm especially taken with the SkyDiver, Interceptors, the title craft, and as a kid I thought Straker's car was magnificent. Even the moon base was stylish while simple.

I remember seeing this as it aired back in the '70s (American syndication) and the opening sequence of the UFO almost but not quite glimpsed above the trees has stayed with me - terrified ans thrilled me as a kid. A great lesson in economy, re filmmaking, it was the audio effect used for the Ufos that got under my skin. Great way to introduce the show, had me effectively hooked. The whole episode is solid - concise, easy to follow, dramatic, sets the stakes.

Have to laugh at the overt sexism of "the future world of 1980", Freeman gets away with a lot. Pretty sure the look of the moon contingent and sub crew imprinted themselves on me at a formative age...

It's too bad Shane Rimmer's appearances were always so brief, would love to have seen him play a more important role. OTOH, it's good to see him at all, and UFO brought him back a few times.

Love the funky opening titles theme by Bary Gray. I never grew up with the Supermarionation shows that preceded UFO, maybe they just didn't play local stations in the U.S. Those are some heavy-exposition credits to make sure newcomers get the picture.

I almost don't notice how crazy the purple wigs are on the Moonbase's female personnel, because I first saw this as a child...and not so long after I'd been watching Yvonne Craig cycling around Gotham City in a sparkly purple body suit*. Ah, such style! So, the browline of the base wigs consists of a V that dips down the center, echoing the eyebrows. On Lt. Ellis, one arch of her wig's browline was notably higher then the other, giving her a perpetually wry expression in the best tradition of Mr. Spock.

Ayshea Brough always appears at SHADO as a glorified extra, but this is the first time I've realized that it's her we see at the episode beginning in civilian attire approaching the studio with a script.

It always gets me that the aliens have FTL travel, lasers in their craft, but on the ground they wield machine guns.

While not graphic, the first death seemed especially brutal for TV of that era both in the way it's choreographed and for coming mere moments after rise of curtain. Her body is practically yanked away (was she on wires or did the actress throw herself?), you can practically feel the bullets rip into her body. Instantly lets you know, this one's not a kiddie show.

This critical Utronic equipment that's going to make a vital difference - do we ever hear about it again? it's been a while... The performance of the Moonbased Interceptors will remain spotty at best throughout the series.


* actually, ya know... memory is unreliable. I've just remembered that we had not bought our first color television yet.