Thursday, September 8, 2016
UFO - Computer Affair
“The decision and the responsibility must be yours.”
That's the responsibility hanging over Lt. Gay Ellis when an attempted UFO interception results in the death of a pilot who is awaiting instructions from her. What went wrong? Straker wants to know. Ellis and the two surviving astronauts are ordered back to Earth for evaluation. It is revealed that Ellis is attracted to pilot Mark Bradley (what's more the interest is reciprocated). However, this doesn't answer the crucial question: did it affect her judgment?
Meanwhile, the UFO that got through the Interceptor defense has been damaged and lands in the forests of Canada. SHADO scrambles to put together a team to capture the vessel and its occupants.
I think the word that sums this one up might be 'ambivalence'. So far I've enjoyed the way the writing and editing assume that we are intelligent enough to connect the dots if we're provided enough dots. The Computer Affair is just a little hazier than usual (for example, it might help if we understood better how these flight logistics work), and more provocative for it.
We first learn that something is up with Ellis through Alec Freeman: when the pilots launch, Ellis hands Bradley his helmet. It's an innocuous gesture, yet an obtrusive edit draws our attention to Freeman finding it suspicious. Is politeness a breach of protocol? Is it out of character for Ellis? His hunch is correct, but it strikes me as more intuitive than substantive. What's more intriguing is that when SHADO analyst Dr. Shroeder deduces the very same thing, Freeman balks. It's not the conclusion that bothers him, clearly, as he secretly agrees. His verbalized objection is to the method by which the conclusion was reached - computer analysis, albeit guided and interpreted by a human. Underlying this, I think, is a more basic motivation – he wants to protect Ellis, but his hands are tied in the matter. So, he keeps to himself that he already knew she was attracted to Bradley and protests with the only argument he has, that Shroeder's results are too flimsy to credit. Ironic, given his own intuitive leap earlier.
Freeman doesn't hide his unhappiness with Shroeder, or with Straker for backing the Doctor. Ellis, it looks, is going to take the fall. Freeman ought to know better, and so should we. Straker always, always plays it close to the vest. How many times does he have to say it, he wants to know why it happened. As well he should! There's no mention of blame, no talk of punishment...his manner, though, is aggressive as to be leading. He gives every appearance of a man on a headhunt, and he's known to be cold. Freeman, the one person who knows Straker best, has made another assumption.
All this talk of Freeman in what ostensibly is Gabrielle Drake's hour. UFO has placed a woman in a position of not only authority but of grave responsibility. More, she is engaged in what has always been considered a strictly male calling: war. That's a provocative move for a show circa 1970, a female warrior in command of a squadron of male fighter pilots. Computer Affair is the episode that sets out to justify that move. To do so it takes on the usual objection, that a woman is simply too emotional to be a warrior, that she is too prone to attachments. No man ever had feelings!
Freeman heads up the task force in Canada hunting the downed UFO and takes Ellis and Bradley with him. He's giving her a chance to prove herself, and she takes it. The overt charge over her is that she will allow her emotions to compromise her judgment, that she will not follow procedure. That was never the real concern, though, but whether a woman can put the mission above fear for a loved one in harm's way. More irony, then, because she proves herself capable precisely by putting her own need above the mission – she sends in Mark's team rather than the one in the better position. Instead of losing her job, she secures her place. It's the wrong move tactically but the right one to prove her steel.
That's plenty for one show, isn't it? No, writer Tony Barwick had to go even further by touching on interracial relationships! Oooooh, let's really make the men nervous, she's a white woman attracted to a black man! Barwick skates over the topic, just bringing it up enough so as not to pretend it isn't an issue...but ignoring it enough to demonstrate (quite rightly) that it shouldn't be an issue. There's an awkward moment where racism is thrown in Bradley's face just to see how he'll react, and he coolly blows it off. No such blatant trap is pulled on Ellis, but she panics when she has to respond to the word 'black' in a free-association test. She's not blind to it, it's on her mind. What exactly it is that's on her mind is never forthcoming. Was Barwick just being skittish? I don't know. Sometimes you can say a whole lot more by saying less.*
Decision and responsibility...is it just me or have Bradley and Ellis not acted on their mutual attraction to this point? When Shroeder points it out to them, they react with genuine surprise. There's never an outright statement to this effect but I read into it that they were surprised to hear that the affection was reciprocal, and a little startled that it was finally spoken aloud for the other to acknowledge. The episode's coda is the first time we see the two as a couple when they go out on a date – Ellis the warrior has also taken command of her love life. There's no either-or sacrifice here. She's capable of both.
In the end, though, it's still more of a Freeman episode, and what a humiliating hour for him it must be. On the one hand, he's made a solid effort to support a colleague he values. Assuming she's a friend might be too strong given the stiff formality of the early exchange between them when he arrives on Moonbase. Now I'm really in danger of reading too much into the tale, but dare I suggest that his defensiveness toward her is based on attraction – that he is troubled by the same affliction everyone suspects her of, an affection that will impair his judgment? He misreads Straker (albeit that Straker remains stubbornly unreadable) to the point that Alec tenders his resignation. It's not the first time Freeman has let his emotions sweep him into precipitous action.
Would Straker have fired Ellis if not for the final computer analysis revealing that her actions saved the lives of the other two pilots? We'll never know. He wanted answers and he got them. Perhaps it was an object lesson that saved her, a lesson in decision and responsibility taken when he had a live alien captive for the second time and through his own rash choice caused the death of this invaluable asset (and, it must be said, living being - I guess the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to extra-terrestrials? Interrogation does not supercede the health of your prisoner.)
9 purple anti-static wigs for having the balls to go there. It would have been ten but for Straker's senseless choice with the alien.
Asides: Shane Rimmer! He doesn't get any lines, though, and so does not appear in the credits list.
There's a production gaffe for the interceptor liftoff, as the third craft passes behind a rock outcropping something white or bright seems to fall off the model. It might be light hitting one of the miniature handlers, I can't tell.
I can tell this was an early production because Ellis is wearing that same Spock-browed wig with the quizzical look from Identified.
It's uncanny, Gabrielle Drake in Moonbase uniform really does look exactly like a living anime girl right down to the eyes and figure. Must have really made an impression on me as a kid, because the sight of her with normal hair just doesn't look right to me.
*Admittedly a trick I never learned.
UFO - Confetti Check: A-OK
And now for something completely different. We have a flashback to the
days when people still wore neckties, the British still drove on the
British side of the road, and Ed Straker's instincts for security were
not yet hyper-developed – oh, not by half. Nowhere near enough.
It's a story of the birth of SHADO, and the death of Straker's marriage. General Henderson is about to make his push for the Earth defense program that he and his colleague (protege?) Colonel Straker so passionately believe in, but as he is still recuperating from the crash we saw in Identified he must send Straker in his place. The international committee is so impressed that they name the Colonel as head of the program, with Henderson in charge of funding. If Henderson is disappointed, he hides it well. After all, he and Straker are friends an colleagues, and Straker is clearly the right man for the job.
The crux is that Straker has just married, and he cannot reveal the truth about his work to his new bride Mary. It's a tough call. Ed Straker makes one of the worst gambles he's ever made – that he can handle both the job and the marriage.
After last week I've decided to start paying attention to who is writing each episode. Confetti was penned by Tony Barwick, who served as script editor as well as writing a large portion of the series. If anyone knows this show and how to write it, it oughtta be Barwick. Confetti has some nice touches throughout from continuity to foreshadowing. An example, Straker's first official act as husband is to sign himself and his wife into a hotel but his pen has run dry.
It's a fine character piece, if you've seen enough of the show to realize that the Ed Straker of this flashback bears little resemblance to the detached, cynical man he'll have become by 1980. This Ed Straker is full of easy optimism and ready warmth. Crucially, he's also not that good about keeping a secret except in the one case in which he arguably should have taken a risk. He couldn't hide his newly married status from the hotel staff, and later when interviewing SHADO candidates in private he totally fails to realize that he is being spied upon – this knowing his wife's suspicions of infideltiy.
As the episode is only some fifty minutes, we can;t delve too deeply into these people to know their faults. Is Mary not patient enough to allow for the strains of the job? Then again, night after night of a no-show husband who won't call, what else can she think? Though he clearly loves Mary and cares for her, Straker's passion seems more for the job than his marriage. At least, that's where his passion is being spent. Maybe he's just not good at the personal things. Whatever the case, the honeymoon is over- no, scratch that, it never began.
UFO wouldn't be the show it is without something chilling, and is at its most daring when it's our supposed protagonists who are clearly the menace against all our expectations. Long-time friend Freeman advises Ed that he absolutely cannot confide in Mary because to do so would be to risk the security personnel of their own outfit targeting her for death. Here we've been trusting that Straker and Henderson's initiative is a force for good, and suddenly they're monsters! How did that happen? Was that part of Henderson's/Straker's vision? How did he get himself mixed up in this? A better question: why, if he knew, if he loves his wife, would he have accepted a position that would endanger her life?
Once again, the between Straker and Henderson are brilliantly nuanced, though this time they depend on our familiarity with other episodes. If you've just tuned in for the first time, the ironies will be lost on you.
I can't decide whether this is a script credibility problem or the tragic sign of a man who was different – optimistic and trusting.
The episode ends with Freeman driving him away from the ruins of his home life. “I'm sorry about this”, he says to Straker, “You know I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't' been absolutely necessary.” What is he referring to? Evidently an edit for time, but it makes no difference. It's just the same story it will always be for Straker. The job is his life and will bear no mistress.
Ten furloughs and a little personal awakening.
Personal reaction...I don't know what I'd do in Straker's place. Well, yeah, that's a telegraph from Captain Obvious, none of us are currently heading up a shady, murderous organization to save the world from aliens (you're not, are you? Guys?). Still, not telling Mary is a choice that I can take in intellectually given the consequences but which doesn't resonate personally. I think Id have told her.
I can't recall seeing this as a child, but I surely did – never missed an ep. I do recall that there were times when the dramatic thrust went right over my head (hi, Captain, nice to hear from you again!). Yeah, I usually followed the plots but the human element didn't ring any bells with my life experience of a whole six years. Oddly, that was one of the draws of this show. I didn't get the drama, but I appreciated that this fantasy indulgence (the good stuff) didn't talk down to me for being a kid.
It's a story of the birth of SHADO, and the death of Straker's marriage. General Henderson is about to make his push for the Earth defense program that he and his colleague (protege?) Colonel Straker so passionately believe in, but as he is still recuperating from the crash we saw in Identified he must send Straker in his place. The international committee is so impressed that they name the Colonel as head of the program, with Henderson in charge of funding. If Henderson is disappointed, he hides it well. After all, he and Straker are friends an colleagues, and Straker is clearly the right man for the job.
The crux is that Straker has just married, and he cannot reveal the truth about his work to his new bride Mary. It's a tough call. Ed Straker makes one of the worst gambles he's ever made – that he can handle both the job and the marriage.
After last week I've decided to start paying attention to who is writing each episode. Confetti was penned by Tony Barwick, who served as script editor as well as writing a large portion of the series. If anyone knows this show and how to write it, it oughtta be Barwick. Confetti has some nice touches throughout from continuity to foreshadowing. An example, Straker's first official act as husband is to sign himself and his wife into a hotel but his pen has run dry.
It's a fine character piece, if you've seen enough of the show to realize that the Ed Straker of this flashback bears little resemblance to the detached, cynical man he'll have become by 1980. This Ed Straker is full of easy optimism and ready warmth. Crucially, he's also not that good about keeping a secret except in the one case in which he arguably should have taken a risk. He couldn't hide his newly married status from the hotel staff, and later when interviewing SHADO candidates in private he totally fails to realize that he is being spied upon – this knowing his wife's suspicions of infideltiy.
As the episode is only some fifty minutes, we can;t delve too deeply into these people to know their faults. Is Mary not patient enough to allow for the strains of the job? Then again, night after night of a no-show husband who won't call, what else can she think? Though he clearly loves Mary and cares for her, Straker's passion seems more for the job than his marriage. At least, that's where his passion is being spent. Maybe he's just not good at the personal things. Whatever the case, the honeymoon is over- no, scratch that, it never began.
UFO wouldn't be the show it is without something chilling, and is at its most daring when it's our supposed protagonists who are clearly the menace against all our expectations. Long-time friend Freeman advises Ed that he absolutely cannot confide in Mary because to do so would be to risk the security personnel of their own outfit targeting her for death. Here we've been trusting that Straker and Henderson's initiative is a force for good, and suddenly they're monsters! How did that happen? Was that part of Henderson's/Straker's vision? How did he get himself mixed up in this? A better question: why, if he knew, if he loves his wife, would he have accepted a position that would endanger her life?
Once again, the between Straker and Henderson are brilliantly nuanced, though this time they depend on our familiarity with other episodes. If you've just tuned in for the first time, the ironies will be lost on you.
I can't decide whether this is a script credibility problem or the tragic sign of a man who was different – optimistic and trusting.
The episode ends with Freeman driving him away from the ruins of his home life. “I'm sorry about this”, he says to Straker, “You know I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't' been absolutely necessary.” What is he referring to? Evidently an edit for time, but it makes no difference. It's just the same story it will always be for Straker. The job is his life and will bear no mistress.
Ten furloughs and a little personal awakening.
Personal reaction...I don't know what I'd do in Straker's place. Well, yeah, that's a telegraph from Captain Obvious, none of us are currently heading up a shady, murderous organization to save the world from aliens (you're not, are you? Guys?). Still, not telling Mary is a choice that I can take in intellectually given the consequences but which doesn't resonate personally. I think Id have told her.
I can't recall seeing this as a child, but I surely did – never missed an ep. I do recall that there were times when the dramatic thrust went right over my head (hi, Captain, nice to hear from you again!). Yeah, I usually followed the plots but the human element didn't ring any bells with my life experience of a whole six years. Oddly, that was one of the draws of this show. I didn't get the drama, but I appreciated that this fantasy indulgence (the good stuff) didn't talk down to me for being a kid.
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.
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.
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 - Flight Path
Stress. Let me emphasize that, it's important. Stress.
Shado operative Paul Roper has been compromised. Feeding a program into the outfit's advance warning satellite, SID (Space Intruder Detector), he receives back a mysterious calculation which he gives to an unknown agent. What looks like a series of coordinates involves an impending date. Straker, Freeman, and Ellis scramble to make sense of the numbers before it's too late.
I love this episode. It deftly blends every element that makes UFO what it is without ever being heavy-handed. Foremost it's a human drama – or a humanist drama, if you like. Roper's actions are traitorous but understandable as his wife has been threatened with death if he does not cooperate and quickly. We have to wonder why he does not go directly to Straker and tell him. Perhaps he doubts that his wife can be kept safe if he betrays his blackmailer? Or maybe it's that he does not know who he can trust within Shado. The question is unimportant, because the real answer is stress. As his routine psychological workup reveals, the man is making very poor decisions due to increased anxiety. It's alarming enough to cause Straker himself to be concerned.
Therein lies the greater personal drama, and a fine bit of character building for Freeman. Prejudiced by his friendship to Roper, Freeman initially balks at the psych evaluation. He's the humanist of the show, the compassionate one whose moral vision keeps Straker on his toes. In Flight Path, Freeman's judgment is at fault not once but twice: when Straker sets up a clever ploy to out what he suspects must be still another inside man Freeman takes it upon himself to muck things up. He does this out of concern for Roper but his rash action puts his friend's life in greater jeopardy as well as throwing the operation for a loss. He is fretting over his friend, for SHADO, and for the sudden unsturdiness of his own instincts. He is making bad choices.
Further to that point, panic will cause Roper's wife to freeze at a key moment. In contrast, Straker and Ellis keep cool heads and puzzle out the plot: a planned attack on Moonbase at a critical time when their defenses will be lowered.
None of this thematic material is overly, uhm...no, never mind. Belabored, that's it. Anyway, we have the week's thematic focus, a strong personal drama as noted with the tug-of-war between Straker's command style and Freeman's sense of ethics lending a much-needed human element to what could have been a dry espionage tale, and the plot earns UFO's keep as both an action program and a science fiction fantasy – all neatly woven together as a satisfying, cohesive whole. Gerry Anderson firmly establishes that UFO is a more somber affair than the average kiddie fantasy as things end on a down note without having to speechify or sacrifice pace and action.
There are two great action setpieces, among the best in the series. The first is a terrific bit involving a UFO attacking a car at night, with a breathtaking first swipe right over the car's roof and ending with a fiery crash. Done with miniatures and expert editing, it's highly convincing and exciting. The second exploits tension as a showdown on the surface of the moon indulges sci-fi fans in the kind of off-Earth environment that thrills us, again brilliantly crafted from editing to fx work. This is the very stuff that had me tuning in when I was six.
8.5 moondunes to fly your saucer behind. It's not challenging material but taut and seamless. Minus half a point for the auto deal (see below).
* * * * *
Asides: A line of dialog spoken by Straker about “a bronze SHADO car” reveals a blatantly sloppy bit of intelligence cover. No, not sloppy, criminally negligent and downright moronic. Everyone in SHADO drives the same make of car! You'd think that would be easy to spot and investigate, that one auto manufacturer is supplying the same car to everyone in this “secret” organization.
Thoughtful spacesuit design , allows the wearer to slip their own wristwatch over the sleeve. Ought to build one into the suit.
More bad thinking, why insist that there be only one defender with rockets to intercept the UFO?
The paranoia at the heart of the show's premise brings back a note that went unexplored in the pilot, “Identified”, that alien agents may have already placed moles with n SHADO.
Lt. Ellis has swapped wigs with another of the moonbase personnel, who now wears the quizzical-expression wig from Identified.
Ayshea gets a spoken line of dialog!
SID reports that he has “relocated” a UFO which had hitherto not been mentioned. It's not a discontinuity, but suggests that the script ran long: filmed or unfilmed, material was surely cut. Always happens with these productions.
In the future world of 1980, we will have no time for any wall art but mod expressionism.
First appearance of the insectile “Moonhoppers”, another wicked cool design.
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.
************************************
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.
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.
************************************
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.
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