UFO - Mindbender

or, 'Banditos on the Moon!'

If there's a word that can't describe this episode, it's 'meh'*.

Trying the sunspot trick again, a UFO makes a run on Moonbase but explodes four miles out. The debris is pored over for an explanation, but it yields no clues...only an interesting bit of crystal one of the astronauts brings back, thinking it's a natural rock formation. Soon the man, Lt. Conroy, is hallucinating that he's in old Mexico fending off banditos, which he imagines the base personnel to be. The situation ends with Conroy and another man dead.

Back on Earth not long after, another agent goes berzerk when he thinks SHADO HQ has been overtaken by aliens. He had handled the Conroy's belongings, including the rock. He too ends up shot.

Straker is at a loss for an answer. It doesn't help that he's already got general Henderson on his back for a report he'd promised to write, without which Henderson's job is on the line. It's really too much to take, he shouldn't have to! In fact, he doesn't! Both men escalate a confrontation until Straker is ready to take the scene to blows -

– at which the director yells “CUT!” Grant Taylor, playing Henderson, is all smiles. What are we watching? It's the filming of an episode of UFO! This is the point at which Ed Straker goes off the deep end, and the script goes with him. That's right, Ed handled the rock.

What follows is a wonderful bit of heavy meta storytelling. Now Straker, whose cover is as at he head of a movie studio while in reality leading a secret organization to fend of alien marauders, suddenly finds that his life is nothing more than the fiction of a popular TV series.

In a turn to make your head woozy, we're now seeing the sets of UFO as it is seen by the people who actually make the show – we see the Moonbase Command Center and the plywood that supports it, and the lights, and the cameras, and the fact that it is a doorway away from the Earthbound HQ and the Skydiver set...We see Harlington/Straker studios is really Pinewood, and we see that the actors who play roles in UFO are...well, actors who play roles on UFO. Only Ed Straker is confused, except his name isn't Ed Straker. Straker is in his office and isn't seeing anyone.

I've seen meta done by any number of talented writers and directors. It's often at pains to be clever and ends up straining my suspension of disbelief. Mindbender doesn't try to draw the audience into the trick, we're either there or we aren't. It works. It's also a refreshing change of pace for the series, totally unexpected, and credibly drawn. The important trick is that it isn't just a gimmick but flows organically with Straker's character.

With Conroy, we learn that he was attempting to write a bit of fiction set in the Old West before his obsession became flesh. The next man imagined an alien threat, as well he might belonging to SHADO. Straker is pushed over the edge by the stresses of his double life. Se head of SHADO he has to deal with a hundred emergencies at once from bureaucracy to an inexplicable outbreak of madness like an infection that's getting his people killed by the dozen. At the same time, he's got to maintain his stance as head of the studio, dealing with such infuriating, time-wasting rubbish as ego-maniacal stars trying to hijack their own vehicles.

If the obsessions and anxieties of the affected inform their hallucinations, then it's telling that Straker now believes he may actually be actor Howard Byrne. It was Byrne who came to him that day demanding full script approval for the show he stars in, going over the heads of his producers and threatening blackmail to get his way. Straker's own career with SHADO has been shadowed by persistent allegations that he himself bullies his way into “running the whole show” to satisfy his ego, and that there's no dirty trick he won't stoop to. He's certainly aware of his reputation. Mindbender suggests that it does indeed weigh on him, and that he might even find it a source of pain or regret in spite of his outward nonchalance. It's dramatic depth, but there's sly with as well – the shot in which the real Byrne suddenly appears to be Straker's stunt double makes open sport of the wig Ed Bishop wears in the role!

To be sure, there's humor here, without becoming comedy. The best example is the histrionic p[performance of Grant Taylor, first as Henderson and then as Grant playing Henderson. He goes over the top in his blowup in Straker's office, going as far as braying like a sheep, and then the scene is polayed over and over again as the scene is rehearsed and filmed. It's a brilliant bit that turns from pathos to humor to something more nuanced as Grant tones it down his tone to Straker's (Byrne's) sudden fever pitch. So too does the dialog echo the conundrum: “let's get back to realities”, implores a Henderson who is no longer Henderson., and what he means is exactly the opposite. “I'm really seeing you for the first time”, replies a bewildered Byrne/Straker, and the line's meaning is dubious because it's only a line and not the first time he's said it. Mindbender was written by Tony Barwick, whose knowledge of these characters bests everyone's but the actors themselves. It's a subtle, brilliant, witty and thoughtful screenplay.

There is also personal pain. Straker relives the most painful moments of his life, the death of his son and the loss of his wife, played out before him as entertainment...which may be disconcerting to us, the audience, because that's just what they were. Michael Billington as Paul Foster is now Mike the actor who plays Paul Foster predicting that these personal tragedies will be great episodes. It's difficult to watch.

Directorial choices and editing are perfect, including the decisions of when and when not to shift between character POVs. Conroy's delusion is first displayed from his perspective to take us by surprise, then explained to us. The opposite happens with Beaver, to cement our objective understanding of the situation. When Straker goes gonzo, we go with him all the way.

The best adjective I can apply is 'rewarding'. That's what this felt like, a solid payoff for getting to know the characters (Henderson as well, not just Straker), and for investing in the series. This might bet eh single best episode it has to offer.

I give it 10 sheep. *MEEHHHH! MEEEHH-H-H-H-H!

Thoughts...

If only the episode were longer, it would have been a joy to see Dr. Jackson have to deal with Straker under the stone's influence. It's already jampacked as it is.

Steven Berkoff appears again as an Interceptor pilot. This time he's been granted a name, Captain Steve Minto. The part amounts to even less than it did last time, but it's still nice to see him.

So, the aliens are not above sacrificing their pilots as pawns. This was a suicide mission to wreak havoc with SHADO.

I saw the movie Saturn 3 this past week, and saw on IMDb that Ed Bisshop was in it. I failed to notice, and am not sure just who he was. He didn't get a screen credit.

Ah, some wall art that isn't painfully '60s! I like the b&w cityscape. It has the contrasts of pen and ink but with a flowing watercolor texture. That's the kind of look I aspire to in pencil.

UFO - Subsmash

If you've got a TV show that features a submarine, you're obliged to do an episode in which it sinks with everyone trapped aboard. I think it's a law or something. This is Trope TV.

When SHADO suspects that the sinking of an ocean-going vessel may have been caused by a UFO, Straker swallows his claustrophobia and descends with Skydiver to oversee the investigation. Soon Skydiver too is attacked and sunk. With oxygen running out and most means of escape damaged, Straker and the crew await a rescue operation while trying to get each officer out of the craft one by one.

There's nothing more to say of the plot or of the story. Foster is aboard, which confirms that he has been well versed in all areas of SHADO operation – this is why I believe he is being groomed as a potential future replacement for Straker's position.

Nina Barry is on hand as well, a switch from her usual duties on Moonbase. Dialog suggests that this is because of her expertise with radar and sonar tracking – when Straker makes the decision to accompany the mission, he insists that the best possible crew be assembled. That's his phobia talking, I'm sure, as it raises the question of the quality of the usual crews. Including Barry is surprising, as it would not seem to make much sense, but it's most welcome all the same as it gives Delores Mantez a rare moment to shine. Barry tries to escape via a crashdive tube only to find the release hatch jammed, and herself stuck in a narrow space she nearly cannot navigate. Ironic, Straker is the one dealing with claustrophobia when her situation is far more alarming on that score. Now, this is the episode's lone female breaking down and crying...I would too, honestly, so I'd like to convince myself that it wasn't a sexist choice. Not really buying it.

Another officer, Chin, has suffered a severe concussion that leaves his head pierced with a high-frequency whine and a fever. The one emergency hatch can be used one crew member at a time, once every ninety minutes as it refills with oxygen. Eventually Straker is the last one aboard, or so he thinks. As Barry finally makes her way back up the tube and tries to re-enter the ship, Straker – battling his claustrophobia – imagines he hears first his dead son and then his estranged ex-wife Mary. It's the one genuine bit of story in the episode, poignant and unexpected. This bit of insight into Straker...he still loves and misses Mary, he will always be haunted by the loss of his son but also that of his wife as well. She is still alive, yet he will always be walled away from her. This raw moment alone raises my score to 5 boxes of celebratory cigars you shouldn't smoke 'cuz, y'know, they'll kill you. It's a decent episode but waaaaay standard.

Thoughts:

Anthony Chinn, playing Chin, has already appeared on UFO as the alien who stumbles into a murderous plot and gets accidentally offed in The Four-Sided Triangle.

I've always thought Delores Mantez lovely but so much more without that purple wig. It doesn't do anything good for her at all, unlike the living anime doll Gabrielle Drake. I, uh, rather like that string vest on Nina too...

Watched 2001: A Space odyssey this past week. Don't think I ever realized before that Ed Bishop plays the Aries 1B pilot (that's the ball-shaped shuttle flying from the orbital space station to the moon).

So the UFO – actually not a regular UFO but a drone – leaves the ocean and flies off, is pursued and blown out of the sky by Sky 1. What did I miss here, why did it fly away? “Mission accomplished”? Perhaps it only sank the freighter (I think it was a freighter) to lure Skydiver in.

UFO - KILL STRAKER!

Evading SID and Moonbased tracking, a UFO manages to assault a shuttle attempting Earth re-entry. Sixteen hours later the shuttle is discovered undamaged and its pilots dazed but unharmed. One of those pilots is Col. Foster, and he's in a real mood about it.

It's a mystery to Straker and Freeman, but not us. We know what they do not, that the pilots were bombarded with an irresistible hypnotic suggestion to “Kill Straker. Kill Straker! KILL STRAKER!”

I had to consider whether that was a mistake, to give that away so soon, but it was probably the right call. We've been here before, innocents with an implanted imperative to KILL STRAKER(!), which means we'd have known just where the episode was going and underwhelmed by the reveal when I came. Besides, it makes for an exciting way to tease what's come.

Still, it undercuts what should have been a strong character-driven story between Straker, Foster, and Freeman. Immediately Foster radiates a resentment against Straker for issuing an order that might as easily have killed him as saved him from the UFO. Fair enough, though Foster knows that such an order is a trademark of his commanding officer. There's more on his mind, a lot more, and it's all to do with Straker's excesses and arrogance.

Where is it all coming from? Not the aliens, all they did was implant a command. This is not mind control. It's up to the pilots, Foster and Craig, to supply their own justifications for it from their psyches. Freeman is flummoxed, and wants his old friend Ed Straker to slap down this subordinate. Normally Straker would do juts that, but with Paul Foster he's uncharacteristically humble about the charges laid against him. It must be demoralizing...these allegations are not new, everyone says the same things about him (including the audience), but coming from Paul they're a blow. Until now Paul Foster has had a puppydog case of hero worship for Straker. Gee, Straker might be thinking, maybe I'm really not such a swell guy if I've failed Paul of all people.

Knowing that Paul is acting on alien influence undermines the very personal nature of a conflict that should have been explored for character depth. Freeman and Paul have been developing a friendship, how does he feel about that? General Henderson is on hand as well, in a nuanced position beautifully played by Grant Taylor. Foster goes beyond the pale to report confidential details of a plan to expand Moon operations (four new bases) in a letter of complaint against Straker. These are just the things Henderson himself believes about Straker, yet he knows that Foster is the last person who should be saying them – and the manner in which he does so raises a red flag. Henderson wants to do the right thing, but what should that be? There's a nice exchange between he and Freeman, when the General summons Freeman under instructions not to inform Straker and knowing that's the first thing Freeman will do. Freeman, loyal to Straker to his core, doesn't disappoint. There's a lot of great stuff here, it just could have used some tweaking to bring it out more fully.

Col. Craig is a non-entity, we know nothing of him. Straker must not know him well either, because he's only taken notice of major shade from Col. Foster. That is, not until Craig tries to KILL STRAKER(!) in a lively extended sequence on Moonbase that leads to explosions on the Lunar surface. That also is good stuff. So is a suspenseful standoff between Foster and Straker when a slip of the tongue reveals both pilots have conspired to...you know(!).

Like I said, we know pretty much where it's going and it does. The only surprise is that it gets there fifteen minutes early. Foster is examined by everyone's favorite slippery SHADO operative, Dr. Jackson, under which his imprinting is revealed. That's not good news for Foster, because as we know SHADO lets no one retire. Not alive. He's not exactly cured, either, per Jackson, there may always be a trace of the alien command lurking like an unexploded bomb in Foster's psyche. It's time for another reckless move by Straker.

Straker locks himself and Foster in the SHADO arsenal, pretends that he intends to kill the junior officer, and proceeds to stoke the man's anger and sense of survival to the breaking point, playing off all the complaints Straker is too aware of regarding his command. Foster breaks, but cannot bring himself to kill Straker. Not in anger, not in self defense. The look on Paul's face is a troubling and moving image, a highly emotional moment. They've both been through hell.

7.5 melodramatic voices growling in your head.

Asides -

There's a line of dialog acknowledging that the orbits of the moon and SID do result in blind spots and loss of communications. Smart.

“No one gets fired by SHADO.” Chilling bit of understatement. Confirms that the danger to Lt. Ellis in Computer Affair was much greater than implied.

Straker has his own guest quarters on Moonbase? That's the only place I've seen his shifting art display aside from his office Earthside. He must actually like it as art, because it can't possibly be hiding anything here. Where is there to escape to from a base on the Moon?

“Why don't you girls go and grab a cup of coffee?” Ah, progress! Always nice to to be reminded one is respected as an equal!

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 - The Man Who Came Back

The plot synopsis:

Craig Collins, a SHADO operative and longtime friend of Ed Straker, is on his way home to Earth when the aliens spring a two-pronged attack, putting the Space Intruder Detector out of commission and apparently killing Collins.

Some time later as plans are underway to repair SID, Collins turns up alive and well on a desert isle. Good news all around, Straker is buoyed for his old friend, but also fortuitous in that Collins is one of the few astronauts with the training to repair their sentry satellite.

Heading up that project is John Grey, who has had a longstanding adversarial relationship with Collins. Just bad chemistry, he says, no real reason for it...they just rub each other the wrong way. That being what it is, when Grey begins to suspect that Collins has came back not entirely himself and possibly dangerous, Straker assumes Grey's antipathy is causing him to jump at shadows. After all, three SHADO psychiatrists have cleared Collins for duty.

Worryingly, other people who know Collins (including a recent lover) see a change as well though it is Grey alone who finds it suspicious. Collins is acting far more aggressive then he used to, bordering on veiled hostility. He's also stepped up his game at chess...and in one curious instance, something about him freaks out a total stranger on the Harlington/Straker lot - one Sir Esmond, who is blind but senses that Collins is not what he must seem.

During a weight training session, Collins misjudges his weights and injures Paul Foster, who had been assigned to partner with him on the SID mission. Surely it must be an accident? After all, it was Collins himself who had specifically requested Foster. Ah, well, only one man is left available for the job: no less than the head of SHADO himself, Ed Straker. Straker, who is having none of the now fully-alarmed Grey's warnings that he's being set up. Someone tried to murder Grey by shutting off the oxygen to his private compartment on Moonbase, and who else would it have been but Collins?

Enter the enigmatic Doctor Jackson, one of the three who had cleared Collins. Something's been nagging at him, and when Grey seeks his advice Jackson hesitantly shares the source of his misgivings. You see, alongside the standard evaluational tests, Jackson has been experimenting with a new procedure of his own, one for which Collins yielded puzzling results. These were not passed along to Straker because the experiment is so new that Jackson doesn't even know how to interpret what the test reveals about its subjects, let alone an anomaly like Collins. The test studies the brainwaves of a subject when shielded from external stimuli or input. When tried on Collins, he essentially ceased to exist as a person at all. He became an empty vessel.

Jackson and Collins theorize that the aliens have been controlling Collins via radio transmitted right into the astronaut's mind, and that their aims are to cripple SHADO by killing its head and making the recovery of SID impossible. Confronting him (rather recklessly alone), Collins silences first Grey and then Jackson. Grey survives the attempt on his life and at the last moment is able to relay his discovery to Straker, who realizes his old friend is gone and is forced to kill Collins to save himself.

evaluation:

Benefiting from a hiatus in production, this first episode from a new studio steps up it's game by the same factor Collins does his chess game. It's sharper, more fluid and dynamic on every level from acting to storytelling craft. You see it right away with a gripping pre-credits teaser in which the UFOs make a more sophisticated advance than they had before, three in number. Previously they had used diversionary ruses, where this time either one of their targets (Collins and SID) could be mistaken for a diversion but are equally integral to one grand plan that would effectively set SHADO back for months. This sequence is taut and exciting and boasts several new fx shots, one especially nice one that gives us a close look at the alien panels as they spin. In earlier episodes the actors' delivered their lines in neatly choreographed arrangements from stage 101. The opening of TMWCB lets the dialog flow in an almost Altmanesque rush, everyone talking at once. Our attention is commanded.

Editing is tightened throughout the episode, ratcheting up the tension level. Dialog is more organic with a minimum of exposition, so the human element is vivid without feeling forced. The usual extraneous fx sequences are pared to a bare story-telling necessity rather than filling time. This is not a theme-driven script, just a damned good drama.

Improvements continue production-wise, I even saw (or imagined I saw) more texture in the sets - seams in the cement pillars within SHADO central, for example. The new fx shots are simply a delight to behold, like the damaged SID spinning out of its orbit over Earth.

Straker has been a polarizing figure to this point, often losing what sympathy we'd want to grant him for his personal losses. He's didactic, removed, dictatorial, and more than a little insufferable for his arrogance. Writer Terence Feely manages to humanize Straker here without altering his persona one whit, as the opening sequence effectively puts us in the middle o=f his dilemma having to deal with an attack unfolding too quickly to respond to. This once, he's without a clever insight or sneaky ploy. He's not a television hero to smart to be real, he's just a man having to rely on his gut feelings and what his people tell him. It's not his episode, either, the tale centers on Grey...but it's Straker who loses the most and who we have to feel for ultimately. Pretty neat trick for a central character many viewers have come to dislike. You can see the terrible loss in his face when he realizes his friend is already gone. The episode doesn't even give us the solace space of a coda or wrapup, ending on Straker's heartbreak. This is on death he feels to his core.

The one thing that I would mention as a potential objection would be Jackson's premise for mind control, that Collins' "personality center has been burned out". That's problematic, though not to the point that it bars fanwank. Without his personal traits, including the most deep-seated ones like sense of humor or quirks of irritation, he would be fooling no one. Is it possible the aliens made a template of his psyche so complete as to replicate his most formative thought patterns, which they were able to beam back into his head subservient to his progtamming? That would mean an amazing level of sophistication I don't think we've seen from them before.

Still, that never gets in the way of the drama. 9 inflatable tubular pillows, because they may look uncomfortable but, dammit, this is the future!



Asides:

Jackson! Squeeeeeee! And in a sympathetic light, too!

Wanda Ventham is back as well, a welcome character return. it's well worth noting that her character is treated not as a sex object ala her introduction in Identified but as a fully dimensional personality. Her sexual life is openly questioned, and she has no hesitation in owning it as both private and fully considered. It may be a small moment, but a progressive one for the era (and sadly still for some in this one as well) ia woman who owns and takes responsibility for her own sexuality.

The above is set back slightly by an old cliche - the woman who discovers what must be a dead body naturally has to scream. Now, if it had been the male hotel manager and not the maid, that would have made my day!

Not only is Jackson's experiment not some wild sci-fi whimsy, it was actually a fad in scientific circles at the time: sensory deprivation booths. These are the same experiments that would be more widely popularized in Altered States in 1980.

The footage of the rocket on its launchpad came from Gerry Anderson's feature film Doppleganger, aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.

It's kind of odd and amusing to think of the Harlington/Straker lot now located at a new studio...that's a little more meta than expected.

UFO - Court Martial

Hotshot new protégé Paul Foster has been found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death. SHADO has sprung a leak with information privy only to Foster nearly becoming public. Is Foster all wet?

I don't know much about military tribunals but I do know a guy being railroaded when I see one. An investigation eventually clears Foster, revealing the leak is the result of an industrial spy prying on Harlington-Straker's film orperations, and stumbling onto military secrets. Not knowing what to do with those secrets, the spy sells the the press thus setting in motion the suspicions pointing to Straker's golden boy.

So why is Foster set to be executed? Because the trial and verdict came before the investigation! Therein lies the fundamental problem I have with this episode. I just can't buy into it. I can almost believe that the communications dilemma in The Dalotek Affair would be so upsetting that it would make everyone find a meteor to be a distracting nuisance rather than looking into it, but this is more than I can suspend disbelief for.

Just how much does Henderson hate Straker, anyway? We've seen before that he's a fair man, even regarding his former friend and now nemesis. Would he kill Straker's fast-rising recruit for revenge? Is he so hot to pursue an execution without ascertaining the facts? "It's gonna take positive proof of innocence to convince me!", he barks. Yet it did not take positive proof of guilt for him to sentence a man to death. As a matter of security, it would be prudent to keep a traitor alive long enough to discover how far the damage goes and where it may lead. I guess Foster shouldn't have yelled at him the first time they met. That's one hell of a bad first impression to leave that strong a grudge.

What about Straker? He too allows an investigation to be an afterthought. Worse, apparently he would not have conducted one at all if not for a lead from one of the directors affected by a leaked script that had been handled by Foster.

Freeman? He'd be the obvious advocate for the defense, but he also is an afterthought in this outing, following Straker's lead and keeping his own counsel.

Aaaaaah, but Doctor Jackson has returned! Vladek Sheybal always light up the screen even as he leaves an oily film on it. What about Jackson? Well, it' s a delightful performance as Jackson takes up the job of prosecuting the case against Foster. He plays true to expectations for being slippery, alright, but I'm still not sure it makes sense. As a psychological analyst for SHADO, I have to wonder at his motive. Seems to me he'd be as interested ass Straker to learn the truth rather than leap to blatantly unsupported conclusions - not out of concern but for his own fascination. Putting it plainly, I just don't get him here. none of the characters quite ring true, nor the plot. As it was written by Tony Barwick, the best writer on the series and the guy who knows these people best, that's disappointing.

I'm being harsh. Churlish, even. The hour has some joy in it. The pace is brisk, the twists keep us off balance, and the personal exchanges are a delight. As always there's a genuine spark between Henderson nd Straker. Everyone puts in an edgy performance, and Sheybal keeps the tribunal taut.

There is a detail of Foster's rise that is sharp, and one I would never have thought of: he is now a major player in the life of their cover operation, a movie producer! That's clever writing. I wish the substance had been as clever, expanding on the characters or exploring a theme...or at least making me believe what I was seeing.



This episode has always bugged me for it's illogic, and now that I'm taking a more serious look at the series overall it bugs me just a little more for being filler. It's fun but I can't give it more than 6 recording ballpoint pens from Sharper Image..

UFO - The Dalotek Affair

Mistaken for a meteorite, an alien device has been delivered to the moon's surface to disrupt communications between Moon-based defenses and Earthside SHADO forces. The outage causes the deadly crash of a moon shuttle and could shield incoming UFOs from interception, possibly with Earth unwarned of pending attack. Unaware of the source of the interference, Paul Foster (currently commanding officer Moonbase) suspects a privately owned business venture with a base nearby is operating equipment putting his people in harm's way.

Usually when I write up these episodes, thoroughly laying out the plot helps me process the material, see the connections and work out the themes. Nothing doing this week, it's a solid story with a nice pace, suspense, tension, and a modicum of personal involvement - if inconsequential - involving an attraction between Foster and a Dalotek employee. It's a fun episode, but there's nothing more substantial I could find in it.

For example, I might have hoped for something on the conflict between military and private interests. Straker holds an unreasoning attitude toward all such non-military ventures. Understandable, as it poses a potential hazard for SHADO personnel and Earth's defense, but his behavior is still childishly antagonistic. Foster seems more amenable until he too becomes convinced that Dalotek has irresponsibly caused the deaths of the shuttle crew. Will Straker's example as is mentor hold sway? That's another possible thread that could have been explored, but the script has no interest in that angle. The most we get is Foster pressing his luck with the same woman after her memory has been wiped of the whole affair. Or we could have had a story on the impossible dilemma of keeping the doings of a quasi-public operation secret, but that too is swept away none too neatly with that amnesia drug, causing more questions we're not supposed to ask about just how that could work.

The space action thrilled me as a kid. It still thrills the geek in me. 6 lunar excursions. Enjoyable but could have used another draft to build it up.





Stray thoughts:
Has Drake, head of Dalotek, not been informed that Ed Straker is a movie producer? Is he not a little incensed that a movie hack has a seat on a security council overseeing his company?

So the existence of Moonbase is known publicly after all, understood to be a military base. Doesn't explain Straker's involvement, though.

Kind of a script convenience that the alien device landed so near Dalotek. If that was deliberate, was the idea to throw suspicion on them? If so, to what benefit would that be? It seems like it would up the odds of discovery, as is exactly what happened.

Unusual intro sequence, running an old media interview speculating about flying saucers and what authorities might or might not know. Though it comes to play late in the episode, it seems more a mechanism toward re-stating the show's premise for those tuning in anew.

Blowing up the alien device puts the Dalotek base at risk of damage, and they're told to prepare for explosive decompression. Well, now...since they have the environment suits and expect to be ruptured anyway, why not minimize the damage by evacuating the interior atmosphere before the explosion?

Sign of budget-watching: the excursion suits worn by Dalotek are the same as those worn by SHADO astronauts. Must be one company supplying for all space ventures. You'd think SHADO would want their own.

I always loved those sub-surface Interceptor hangars disguised as craters, but I always used to wonder if the pilots had to climb back up the chutes when they came back. Hey, I was six.

It's nice to see Foster cultivating a friendship with Freeman. Both that and the romantic angle harken back to Foster's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in Survival, losing his girlfriend but making an overture of camaraderie to Alec. (Nicely placed, Mr. Levenson!)

UFO - The Square Triangle

A trap has been set in the woodlands where, if all goes to plan, no one will witness it. The prey is on his way.

When the destination of an incoming UFO is determined, Straker risks allowing it to land unimpeded in the hopes of capturing the craft and its crew. Mobiles are in place ready to begin the hunt. No sure bet to begin with, things go awry when a game warden and his dog stumble upon the landing site and a fight ensues. The alien loses his supply of oxygenated liquid, the accidentally shoots his own ship as he kills the unlucky warden, sending the UFO into self-destruct mode. His exit off Earth now barred, he flees the scene. Finding a nearby home, he enters.

Said home belongs to Liz Newton (Adrienne Corri), the wife of well-to-do businessman Jack Newton (Allan Cuthbertson). Liz is there waiting for Jack, and so is her domineering lover Cass (Patrick Mower). Cass has cooked up a scheme to have Liz murder her husband in their own Summer home. Unfortunately for them, the one laying dead in the doorway is not the soon-to-be-late Mr. Newton but the alien, who like the game warden before him has blundered into a trap meant for someone else.

Before Newton arrives home and before the murderers can improvise a cover, SHADO arrives on the scene and takes the paramours to Harlington-Straker Studios. As witnesses to an alien incursion, they are given a drug that clears their memories of the past twenty four hours. Meanwhile, Foster deduces what must have occurred, leaving Straker with a moral dilemma: what to do about a murder which will surely occur but for which there can be no evidence before the fact.

For the sake of SHADO security, he decides that no action can be taken. We soon see the purportedly grieving widow at her husband's graveside before she walks off with Cass (as a nasty sting, this replaces the usual shot over which the closing credits play).

This is not the first time an episode has centered around the private lives of one-off characters, but it's the first time they have been wholly unsympathetic. We never get to know Mr/ Newton, who seems like a nice enough guy, apparently loving and thoughtful of his wife. For his alleged coldness toward her, we have only the unreliable words of Cass, who is manipulating the weak-willed Liz. She's a faithless flounder, but that Cass...well, the list has no end. Alpha male, misogynist, user, and ultimately a sociopath. He's slime. He twists Liz to his will in what we recognize as sheer hypocrisy ('Words! That's all he gives you!”), but Liz submits to it so readily.

What we have then is two parties making life and death decisions over other people, with Straker and Cass respectively calling the shots. This is no moral equivalency being drawn, the differences are clear – Cass and Liz are out for themselves where Straker has the security of the world to weigh. When it comes to murder, Liz is at first horrified to have killed the wrong person while Cass simply panics that he might be caught. Oddly enough, when the decision is made not to interfere with the murder scheme, humanitarian Alec Freeman doesn't bat an eye, not does Foster raise an objection...I thought this was a nice touch - the one note of moral outrage is uttered by Straker alone in his office. “Get them out of here!”, he says into the phone with disgust.

It's a neatly woven schematic but my enjoyment of it is blunted somewhat by the repulsive Cass and Liz Nor am I satisfied that there was nothing to be done to at least warn the intended victim to take extra care for his life. I'd have liked to have seen Freeman exercise his usual unauthorized initiative and try just that, but that would have unbalanced the scheme (Cass and Straker call the shots, Liz and Freeman follow) and strayed from the focus. Most likely any attempt to warn Newton discreetly would have been too little too late, shrugged off. Still, it bothers. It was meant to.

A fleet of 7.5 futuristic hauling rigs in impeccable miniature surroundings. I was going to give it a 6.5, but distaste aside it deserves better.

Asides: an error arises in the use of stock footage. As the Interceptors are recalled having not fired their missiles – the shot used is one where all three have indeed fired.

Nice continuity! The female SHADO agent who greets everyone who comes down the hydraulic office is waiting as always! Lorkris suggested she's a security officer, which sure seems to fit.

There's a really nice shot of Straker sitting at his desk, from an angle we've never seen before. POV is from behind the desk, and as we watch Straker we see colored lights shifting across him. These lights emanate from the animated lights of the art display that hangs on the wall behind his desk. We've all seen it, we know what it is, but I noticed that the shot comes in this particular scene without a prior shot establishing that the piece is there. I don't often notice the hands of the directors at work (to my own discredit), so let me say kudos to director David Lane.

UFO - A Question of Priorities

“This movie hates us, doesn't it?” - Crow T. Robot, on 'The Giant Spider Invasion'
For a series dedicated to cynicism and the unhappy ending, A Question of Priorities sets the gold standard. No one gets away unpunished, least of all the audience. How to rate it – a 6, a 9? It's a frustrating hour, but then it's designed to be such and excels at it. It's one of the finest episodes in the series yet one I always dread having to watch again. I don't like downers.

Ed Straker's son lies in hospital after being struck by a car. The boy is in critical condition and needs medicine available only in America. Straker puts SHADO resources into play to make that happen, but time is running out.

Meanwhile, an alien on the run from his own kind has made a mad dash for Earth, crashing off the coast of Ireland. Taking shelter in the home of an elderly blind woman, he has built a radio transmitter in an attempt to reach SHADO, but that same signal is picked up by the UFO sent to kill him.

Both these men, Straker and the alien, will be thwarted – by luck, by fate, by the opposing agendas and even the best intentions of others, perhaps by some god or other. Without invoking religious faith (hardly needing to), this is an existentialist story.

We'll never know what drove these men to make crucial decisions. If there's one detail that ties them together it's that Straker and the alien are close-mouthed about what they are thinking. Good friend Alec Freeman cannot miss that Ed is upset, and gives him multiple opportunities to confide. We can guess why Straker spurns them, but we'll never know the truth. It costs him at a crucial moment. Likewise the alien does not speak when perhaps he might have found an ally in the woman who sits terrified, a prisoner in her home. I continue to wonder at the silence of these aliens – an inability to speak, or even to understand spoken language? He has a transmitter but does not speak to his listeners. All we know is that he wants to be taken by SHADO and that his people will kill him to prevent it.

Both are faced with impossible choices. A SHADAIR transport might reach Ireland in time to take the alien before its fellows can. Or it might reach London in time to save the boy. There's no guarantee the medicine will be enough, nor that the alien will prove a turning point in the war with the extraterrestrials. When Freeman, not knowing of Ed's plight, redirects the transport, Straker freezes and allows the diversion to stand. His son's life, or the safety of the human race? Likewise the alien, when he realizes the hunter UFO has locked on to him, can remain where he is or take the beacon away from the house, sacrificing his own already-doomed life but saving the woman.





Why does Straker freeze?  I think the words froze in his throat because he was blocked by his own silent nature.  Oh, he was misusing  the organizations resources, but to hell with that - it's his son's life.  No...this is a man who cannot reveal himself even to save his son.  A psychological block.  It just won't come.

There's nothing much else I can say. It's all on the surface, every painful minute of it, except for what remains unspoken.. We're thoroughly invested in this most riveting of episodes. No deus flies in from the machina. No one is saved. Every effort to do the right thing is brutally smacked down. I gave away a spoiler of sorts in one of my first two episode reviews: I said that Ed Straker is a man who's had his humanity damaged. This is the one I knew was coming. It has an inevitability to it. There's still something tender to him, but he'll never show it even to his closest friend. It's buried too deep.

10 model boats gifted to a loved one.

Next week I want some catharsis!!

UFO - Survival

Can-o'-worms alert: there is an astonishing exchange about racial politics between Straker and Mark Bradley. It went right over my head as a kid, and catching up with the show a few years ago I thought the scene naïve at best (“Racial prejudice burned itself out five years ago!”), and maybe a little embarrassingly wooden. Today, in light of the tragic and frustrating last few years of my nation's culture, I suddenly find the writing of this scene uncannily prescient. Look, says the white guy (paraphrasing), don't pull the race card, we're a post-racial society now! The black guy replies, Really? Is that what you see from your perspective? Sound familiar? Just...wow. Was writer Tony Barwick that observant of humanity* or has this same conversation been going on for decades or more, each generation so oblivious as to think it's new to them? There's a sobering thought.

For the record, Straker is sincerely offering a position of authority to Bradley because Straker believes him to be the best man for the job. And that's exactly the consideration Mark wishes to be assured of. They're on the same page but it takes communication to establish it.

It's a minor scene that seems tangential to the plot, but I'm beginning to think it's the key to the story. We're so close, yet so divided. If we're lucky a little communication is all it takes.

The promotion is due to the unfortunate (presumed) death of Paul Foster, of late risen to Commander within SHADO. Sneaking onto the Moon's surface under cover of a meteor shower, an alien has shot out a window at Moonbase resulting in the death of one of the personnel. Foster barely escapes and takes the death personally. He believes the alien to still be on the moon and persuades Straker that a search be mounted. Naturally, Foster wants to spearhead the effort himself though Straker advises restraint: Straker wants a UFO if not its crew. The operation results in the loss of both the UFO and a Moon craft, and apparently in the demise of Foster himself.

Foster, however, is still alive with a damaged transmitter and limited oxygen. Reaching Moonbase alive may be an impossibility. Complicating matters, one of the UFO crew is also still alive on the surface with him.

Here he is – the enemy. You can say that of either of them. Foster is face to face with the being that killed his colleague; the alien faces his assigned target. Separately they face guaranteed death – Foster cannot make it back unaided, and the alien with his ship destroyed faces any number of sad fates if he turns himself in. Cooperation is the only chance either has. Happily, both find survival to be a deeper instinct than their respective missions.

Call it enlightened self-interest on their parts if you must, but the choices they make evoke an emotion for the audience. We're rooting for both of them to make it out of the episode alive. That's the most satisfying thing about Survival, I think, that we are emotionally invested in a central character we care about, and also in one that comes as a complete surprise. It's refreshing and reassuring to find the nominal villain can be “human” after all. Too often UFO is a show that tempers its audience's emotional response with a layer of detached observation. This time when the resolution is reached, we feel it keenly.

Setting the action on the moon's surface with at least one of them incapable of radio contact is a brilliant touch, I think. Foster and the alien must communicate without the aid of spoken language. We have yet to hear an alien use English, except as spoken through a psychic human conduit. A Computer Affair raised the possibility that they may not even understand English. Without words, each must try harder to think like the other in order to understand and be understood. It heightens the necessity of trust. Words can fail.

Words fail Foster when rescue comes, able to speak to his fellow astronauts but not clearly enough to prevent them from killing the alien on sight. It's a simple case of “us versus them”. A 'them' is inherently hostile and cannot be tolerated. Foster is an 'us'.

Back on Earth, as the story closes, words again fail Foster as he is unable to communicate with his girlfriend due to the need for secrecy. It's no substitute, but for solace he makes an overture of friendship to Alec Freeman, someone he knows can essentially 'speak his language' concerning the secret life they share. Freeman is an 'us'. One of the family. "Home", as Straker reassures Foster he's going.

"Home?"
"Moonbase." SHADO. Not a warm house with a wife or the apartment of a lover. Foster's 'us'es have been defined for him.

My takeaway going forward is this: Foster has had an experience unique to him alone within SHADO, a bond however brief of unity with the enemy. I believe that over the course of the series so far we have seen him being groomed by Straker as a protege. If he diverges from Straker's mold to become his own man, it will be because of this singular experience. Odin gained great wisdom, and it cost him an eye. Foster has personally witnessed the needless death of two colleagues (one on each side of this war) and the loss of a love relationship to attain the empathy he now holds.

The action in this one is exceptionally handled with expert fx work and deftly built tension. As well, the human interaction is pitch perfect, neither histrionic nor underplayed but natural. There are nice quiet touches like Bradley confirming his authority once placed ("I didn't think I had to ask for permission"), Harrington's look of "you're insufferable" when Straker sends her to fetch coffee, and the discreet editing of Freeman breaking the news of Foster's death to Foster's love interest.

If I have one quibble, it's this: if it's such a rare opportunity to get a UFO in undetected then why waste it on the mere shooting out of a window? The earlier plan to attack the base head-on with a UFO (Flight Path) was more ambitious and one would think much more rewarding.


10 circles drawn in moondust for a poignant and satisfying hour of drama.





* ”...bird. Black bird.”  (this note refers to a line spoken by Lt. Ellis in the "Computer Affair" episode and would have been understood by the group watching with me on IMDb.  See that review for an explanation.)

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.

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 - 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.