UFO - The Sound of Silence

I've gone through this series some five times now and The Sound of Silence never makes enough impression to remain much in memory. I think now I know why: this is what you get when a story sketch is treated as if it were a developed script.

The opening pageant is promising as a UFO approaches Earth behind an American space program craft. SHADO defenses are stymied by the close proximity. It's a taut, well-directed bit of business but has little to do with the plot that follows. Actually, it establishes a tension that what follows tries to maintain itself upon.

The UFO makes it to the English countryside and hides in a lake on a private estate. This is a gamble, as the alien craft cannot last long in water. Foster leads a force of Mobiles scouring the area. Meanwhile, life goes on oblivious for the family – the father, his son Russell (a famous showjumper), and Russ' sister. Oh, and Cully the Hippy who makes a habit of trespassing there. We know he's a hippy because he has a bad wig, is contemptuous of others and their property, and is cruel to animals. None of the characters are well-developed, we know them by their response to each other. For example, Russell hates hippies and that's pretty much the sum of the characterization he's endowed with. Soft-spoken and even-handed. Anne is more jovial. Roughly speaking, they're about as developed as Russell's horse. If we weren't already familiar with Foster and Straker, they'd be non-entities in equal measure here.

UFO, your era is showing. Cully is pure stereotype. Dialog is scattered lightly with “hippy”, “fuzz” and a highly non-PC line, jokingly offered, trading on racist tropes on Native Americans. It's not strong enough to cause much offense but does stand out.

If the people are in the dark about the alien presence, the horse isn't. Nor is Cully's loyal-to-a-fault dog, a pleasant type that puts up with having wood and knives chucked at it. Get close to the lake and you'll notice how the entirety of the local wildlife has gone nervously silent. It's a smart idea around which to base an episode, that animals have a sixth sense about the aliens' presence. This could be good.

Foster is paying attention. Russell has gone missing and been reported. On meeting the family and getting a tour of the property, Foster realizes where the UFO must be. Another excellent action sequence ensues as the craft is drawn into the open. I have to say, the fx crew earn constant praise for their miniature vehicles but not enough for their miniature landscapes.

The UFO is destroyed, freeing a canister from its confines. Fearing that the object may be a bomb other destructive device, it is rushed to SHADO HQ (Was that wise? It was, after all, out in the middle of nowhere, do you want to rush a potential WMD to a populated area?) “The closer you are to an explosion: , Straker says, “the better your chances are.” Ummm...okay. Hard to argue with.. Now we have a third fine setpiece as the object is examined and cut into, with all HQ personnel silently on edge. Inside the canister is Russell in hibernation for transport back to the alien home world.

Now this is chilling. It doesn’t tell us anything new, but its the first time we've seen how humans are physically treated as raw resource material. This is what happens to us when we're captured – we're canned like food.

Russell begins to come around, and the direction is very leading. His blank expression and the disorientation through which he sees suggests, dare I say...alienation? Anne looks on hopefully and it looks like an “AHA!” moment. Here's where the horse sense will come in! Russell's horse will tell them whether it's him or not!

Hey, wait, why are you guys giving Anne the amnesia drug now, this hasn't been resolved yet!

Aaaaaand that's where I'm at with this episode. We keep getting elements worthy of exploitation that are never developed. Animal instincts. The problem of telling when a human is still a human. The problems with hiding the real purpose of SHADO from space programs like NASA. The disruption of life on the estate on which the aliens hide. It's all there...and just lays there. Writers David Lane and Bob Bell don't seem to be all that interested in the aliens, and the people themselves fail to engage me. Three riveting suspense sequences and a lot of dull business that doesn't build.

A final scene has Foster visit the farm after life has been returned to normal. We see Russell having fun with his horse (ergo it must be Russell still). Perhaps he's there for another sexual conquest now he's been established as the series' lothario as Freeman was proposed initially. I'd like to think he was making sure the horse took to its owner. No one thought it worth making clear.

So again the problem of applying a number comes up. Subsmash is an ep I really do enjoy more than many, because it's well made, moves well, and entertains...but because it does nothing you couldn't find in any other show I gave it a 5 (that was painful to do). Close-up earned a 3 for being kinda creepy in an offensive way. TSoS suffers neither of these problems and is sporadically lively, but not enough and not in total. It's going to fade from memory like it always does.

4 entitled class-tier attitudes

Asides:

Russell is played by Michael Jayston. Some have speculated that Jayston was not actually born but grown entire from the severed hand of David Tennant.