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.