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!)