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.)
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