Gerry Anderson's Finest Hours 1970-1973 (UFO)

Member Name: pje

Product:	UFO
Date:	01/06/01 (255 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No puppets, just the greatest TV science-fiction series ever made - BAR NONE!

Disadvantages: Not available on DVD yet (and for some time to come sadly)

Rediscovering programmes you watched as a kid can often
be disappointing. You find that Doomwatch was ludicrous,
Starsky and Hutch was trash (sorry about that karenuk!),
and that Space 1999 was the most scientifically illiterate,
and almost dialogue-less, drivel of all time. And yet it was
Space 1999 that replaced UFO when it was cancelled after
only 26 episodes.

Gerry Anderson had built on the success and popularity
of Thunderbirds (1965-66) with Captain Scarlet and the
Mysterons (1967-68) and Joe 90 (1968-69) before coming
a cropper with The Secret Service - his first attempt to mix
puppetry with live action - which, rather bizarrely, starred
'Professor' Stanley Unwin - he of the mixy dup wordyho,
deep joy!* - as a priest who also happened to be a spy.
For some reason this was not taken seriously.
[*ask your parents, kids, they'll explain]

His next series took him from the ridiculous to the sublime
and is his piece de resistance. Created with his wife Sylvia
and producer Reg Hill, UFO is a live-action series augmented
by the sterling work of special effects maestro Derek Meddings
and some thought-provoking writing.

UFO burst onto British TV screens in September 1970,
unfortunately the show was set only ten years into the future.
At the time, 1980 had an exotic ring to it (we still expected the
world to end in 1984 back then, never mind 1999!) The opening
titles, with Sylvia Anderson's futuristic fashion and purple hairdos
look ridiculous now, but don't be fooled - this series includes
some of the most sophisticated TV sci-fi there's ever been.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.


The scenario is this:
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;''''''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''&
#39;''
A sterile alien race repeatedly attempt to raid planet Earth,
secretly abducting human-beings in order to use their organs
as spare parts.

A top secret Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization
(SHADO) is set up, and hidden under a film studio.
Commander Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) is the irascible white-haired
head of SHADO (as well as the film studio above.)
His second in command is Colonel Alec Freeman (George Sewell)

An automatic Space Intruder Detector satellite called SID
is sent into deep space to provide early-warnings of these raids,
and three Interceptor spacecraft are stationed on a Moonbase
ready to attack UFO's before they reach Earth. A further line
of defence is provided by Sky One - a fighter aircraft attached
to the front end of a submarine (Skydiver) which is launched
from under the water like a Polaris missile (wowee!)

The special effects were some of the best ever produced for TV.
You may say that modern computer generated effects are bound
to be better, but we're talking television here, you get what you
pay for. Want a big budget? Make a movie - TV is for cheap, high
quantity series. We have the late great media-mogul Lew Grade
to thank for commissioning all of Gerry Anderson's series' as well
as many other classic and cult programmes which otherwise
might not have been made. (including:- The Saint, The Prisoner,
The Champions, and even Jesus of Nazareth.)

There are a number of things that make UFO special in my book:
the aesthetically pleasing, round, spinning, crystal-like UFO's
(a true design classic) which certainly captured my imagination
as a child. Then, as an adult watching it again, the daring and
unpredictable storylines impressed me - this certainly isn't
formulaic TV where the good guys are guaranteed to win
every week after a punch-up, it has a rea
l edge to it at times.

UFO was recently re-shown on the Sci-Fi cable channel.
It is available on video, but not on DVD as yet. Shame!

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EPISODE GUIDE
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;''''''''' 9;'''''' ;'

IDENTIFIED
A UFO attack leads to the setting-up of SHADO,
and when a UFO crashes an alien is captured...

EXPOSED
This episode introduces Colonel Paul Foster (Michael Billington)
as a test pilot whose experimental aircraft is caught in the blast
when a UFO is destroyed.

THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES
An interceptor pilot and his wife are abducted by the aliens
after stopping to pick up a Siamese cat they nearly run over.
Bizarrely, the cat is suspected of being used by the aliens
to exert control over human minds.

CONFLICT
When a lunar module is destroyed on re-entry, Straker suspects
sabotage by an alien device hidden amongst space-junk.
After his boss refuses to sanction a clean up operation, he orders
the interceptors to do the job, but this leaves Earth unprotected,
and the aliens launch an attack on SHADO HQ...

A QUESTION OF PROIORITIES
When Straker's young son is knocked down by a car, he has
to choose between acting to save his son's life or saving the life
of an alien defector whose information could prove invaluable...

E.S.P.
A woman is killed when a UFO crashes onto her house, subsequently her husband sends a film script to Straker which
includes top secret details about SHADO which could only have
been gleaned by reading Foster's mind.

KILL STRAKER!
After Straker orders Foster and his co-pilot in the lunar-module
to attempt a suicidal re-entry angle to avoid a UFO, they both
turn on him - violently.
<
br><br><br>SUB-SMASH
A straightforward action-adventure episiode. Straker and Foster
are trapped on Skydiver when it is crippled by a UFO attack and
their air supply is running out...

DESTRUCTION
After the Navy secretly shoot down a UFO, Straker employs
Foster in a spot of sexual subterfuge to find out the details -
and discovers that the aliens plan to attack a ship carrying
a consignment of nerve gas.

THE SQUARE TRIANGLE
A wife and her lover conspire to kill her husband, but an alien
turns up when she's expecting hubby and gets shot by mistake.
The cover-up of the fight against the aliens requires civilians
who come into contact with them to have their memories erased
(by a drug-induced amnesia) but can SHADO ignore the planned
murder and just let it happen?

CLOSE UP
A spy-probe, equipped with a high-powered telescopic camera,
is used to tail a UFO back to its home planet, and send back
pictures to Earth.

THE PSYCHOBOMBS
Three humans are taken over by the aliens and used to destroy
key SHADO targets. The first two are successful, and then
the third reaches the final target: SHADO Headquarters itself.
The aliens demand SHADO's surrender.

SURVIVAL
A UFO manages to land and hide on the moon, and launches an
attack on Moonbase. After a search it is located, and shot down
on take-off, but the debris destroys Foster's Moonmobile and he
is believed to have been killed. He survives, but, stranded on the
moon's surface, he finds he is not alone...

MINDBENDER
SHADO personnel start hallucinating after coming into contact
with an alien rock. This episode takes a post-modern twist as
Straker himself is affected, and hallucinates that he is an actor
making a TV show...

FLIGHT PATH
The aliens threaten to kill the wife of a SHADO operative
(played by George Cole b
efore he became Arthur Daley)
unless he helps them find a way through Moonbase's defences.
I can't tell you that everyone lives happily ever after,
because they don't - this isn't Hollywood.

THE MAN WHO CAME BACK
A friend of Straker's, presumed to have been killed in a UFO
attack that knocks SID out of action, reappears and is chosen
for the repair mission. Behaving strangely, he injures Foster
(his co-pilot) and, unwisely, Straker takes Foster's place.

THE DALOTEK AFFAIR
A civilian base on the moon is suspected of causing a series
of communications black-outs on the moon, but the personnel
there point Foster in the direction of an mysterious installation
in a nearby crater.

TIMELASH
The aliens paralyse SHADO by freezing time, with the assistance
of a traitor played by Patrick Allen (he of the Barrett Homes
helicopter ads, and "mine is the last voice you will ever hear"
nuclear war announcements.) Straker and Colonel Virginia Lake
(Wanda Ventham) inject themselves with an amphetamine
drug to counteract the time paralysis. Now, I don't remember
Kirk and Uhuru ever shooting up on Star Trek, do you?

ORDEAL
Foster is abducted in a raid. The pilot of Sky One disobeys
Straker's order to destroy the UFO taking him away, only crippling
it, and it crashes on the moon. Although he is rescued, Foster has
been adapted to breath liquid the way the aliens do, and he will
die if his space suit is removed.

COURT MARTIAL
Suspected of leaking secret information, Foster is tried,
and sentenced to death. He doesn't have much luck does he?!
(Michael Billington was passed over for the role of James Bond
too!) Straker and Freeman set out to find the real culprit before
the sentence is carried out. But, meanwhile, Foster escapes...

COMPUTER AFFAIR
Moonbase operative Lt.
Gay Ellis (Gabrielle Drake) is suspected
of allowing her feelings for a pilot to affect her judgement.

CONFETTI CHECK A-O.K.
This episode concentrates on how the pressure and secrecy
during the setting up of SHADO destroyed Straker's marriage.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Searching for a UFO that has evaded SHADO defences leads
Foster to the farm of an international show-jumper who has
also disappeared, and to a mutilated body. Nearby is a lake
which appears to be the perfect hiding place for a UFO...

REFLECTIONS IN THE WATER
An underwater dome is discovered on the sea-bed, and when
Straker and Foster investigate they are shocked to see SHADO
personnel inside. It seems the aliens have constructed an exact
replica of SHADO HQ, but why?

THE RESPONSIBILITY SEAT
When a reporter breaches security by leaving a tape recorder
running in Straker's office, he takes a personal interest in tracking
her down, leaving Colonel Freeman in charge of SHADO
and having to deal with a crisis on the moon on his tod.

THE LONG SLEEP
After ten years in a coma, a young woman wakes and remembers
that, while on an LSD trip, she stole a vital component of an alien
bomb which is still in place and could kill millions. This episode,
with it's druggy hallucinations and a rape scene, gave TV bosses
an apoplectic fit and was banned by some ITV regions.

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There is an excellent website devoted to the series at:

http://ufo.simplenet.com/


and there's a UFO web-ring:

http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=ufotv&li st

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