Gerry Anderson's UFO

[Bounty]

In trying to identify a wickedly cool toy that I used to play with at my grandparents' house, I've stumbled onto one of Gerry Anderson's lesser-known gems: a late-sixties SF series called UFO.

Unlike Thunderbirds, Stingray and their ilk, UFO is a live-action series, although the big effects sequences are done using the methods developed for the earlier puppet shows. the premise of the series is a mix of Thunderbirds and Men In Black: a secret organisation, SHADO, has been tasked with monitoring the activities of the "aliens", who have been using their UFOs to capture and harvest innocent humans. In order to stop them, SHADO operates a lunar base with space interceptors and a fleet of submarines called the Skydivers, which can launch an atmospheric fighter craft. The organisation's headquarters lies below a film studio, which doubles as a cover and a secret identity for SHADO personnel.

This is in many ways an extension of the Thunderbirds concept, but with a much grimmer tone. The episodes often have an unhappy or at least inconclusive ending, and along the way the body count among named characters can get quite high. The show also doesn't shy away from showing truly disturbing scenes and concepts, the worst of which is the suggestion that the "aliens" may be nothing more then harvested humans used as puppets. Flashbacks, hallucinations and other dreamlike sequences are used to great effect when trying to show the characters' mental state. Here's an example from the - excellent if disturbing - episode "Mindbender".

The storylines are rarely less than intelligent and thought-provoking, with well-developed characters and great dialogue, which makes the look of the show all the more jarring. This is 1980 as seen from 1970: ridiculous hair, ridiculous cars, ridiculous uniforms... characters spend the majority of their time drinking, smoking, womanising, or a combination of the three. While the the design of the show' hardware is excellent, the Anderson staple of elaborate launch sequences also makes an appearance, and in the context of a "mature" show they tend to look... overly cartoonish.

Then again, the show was ahead of its time in other areas. Women and minorities feature heavily in important roles, as commanding officers and respected scientist; one episode hinged on an interracial relationship which was treated as perfectly normal, and many characters refer to racism as being a thing of the past, which is quite a statement to make in an era where an interracial kiss on TV can still cause an uproar.

I'm enjoying the series very much, and its a shame that there are only 26 episodes. I can heartily recommend it to anyone who likes a well-made, unique SF series and can stomach a few unfortunate design choices. Has anyone else watched this?

[Omeros]

Yes, the series has just finished a repeat showing on the digital ITV4 channel here in the UK. I must admit many of the episodes were much better than I remembered from childhood viewings, although all of the drinking, smoking (even on Moonbase!), and womanising does mark it out as a period piece these days.

[Bounty]

smoking (even on Moonbase!)

And in the medical centre, and the computer rooms, and the submarine. I'm surprised the fighter pilots didn't light one up halfway through a dogfight.

As a sort-of ghetto edit to the OP, the toy that got me to the show in a roundabout way was a Dinky Toys SHADO mobile. I used to think it was just a tank, and it was awesome: flip up firing missile rack, real tank threads over moving wheels, great detail... the only problem with it was that, as a Dinky Toy, it was cast from the core of a white dwarf and weighed about as much as an obese elephant. Having that fall from four feet up onto your foot, well, let's just say that the tank was fine and my foot still isn't quite right nineteen years after the fact.

[Raesene]

I saw this series in the 80s when it was shown during the summer holidays. For me, t was a must see and was on par to the ST:TOS. Skydiver, the lunar interceptors and the lunar shuttle were awesome! I remember I tried to build the vehicles in LEGO. Two years ago I saw an Interceptor model at a gaming convention, but the price was well above my spending limit.

When buying the DVDs recently, I found out that german and austrian TV edited the series; some episodes were never shown, and most had scenes cut before airing (e.g. the removal of the contact lenses in the intro wasn't shown on TV). When airing it about 1985, they cut the "1980" from the intro

A pity there never was a second season, and the relaunch in the 90s didn't happen.

Perhaps we can get Moore to do it after BSG is finished ? Any ideas to the cast ?

[Jade Falcon]

Bounty, if you want quality replicas, look up on some of the sites like Ebay and Amazon, Product Enterprises. They did die cast replicas of a lot of Anderson stuff. I myself got two Space:1999 Eagles and a Fireball XL5.

Their UFO line up was of three different Shado Mobiles, the Interceptor and UFO, and Skydiver.

This page gives you a look at them

http://www.alphagroupmodels-retail.co.u ... ection=ASC

Aye, the series was pretty good. Space:1999 was originally planned as a second UFO series, with the Moonbase having expanded but this was dropped.

[Ford Prefect]

ridiculous uniforms

Even today, the fact that purple hair was a part of the moonbase uniform astounds.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

ridiculous uniforms

Even today, the fact that purple hair was a part of the moonbase uniform astounds.

Purple wigs to be specific: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson assumed that wigs would be commonplace in 1980s fashion.

[Jade Falcon]

I think there are a few episodes where you see the Moonbase girls without their wigs. At least one episode had Commander Gay Ellis Earthside, and there was a background episode showing the forming of Shado which showed Bishop meeting the coloured woman whose name escapes me for the moment.

[Bounty]

One of the MoobnBaes women (Barry?) was also on Skydiver during Sub-Smash.

[Jade Falcon]

It might be stating the obvious here, but do you think this was the inspiration for at least the early X-Com series of games?

[Patrick Degan]

Ahhh... UFO. A fun and oftentimes dark little show from the House of Anderson, with Ed Bishop as the brave but insane Cmdr. Straker. Ripe for MSTing, yet many of its episodes are rather gripping. They played heavily on the Battle of Britain metaphor and also upon the Wellsian saw about aliens coming to Earth because their own planet or species is slowly dying, so they need our world or need to harvest something from it to keep themselves alive —in this case, human organs for transplant surgery. A creepy theme even granted its implausibility.

One angle they really played well was the political skullduggery and secrecy covering SHADO's existence. There was one episode in which a character discovers the fact of the organisation, only to have it revealed to him that clues were deliberately planted for him to find as a test of his intelligence, that even his own girlfriend was a SHADO operative, and Straker (unsubtly holding a pistol) offers him a choice of joining SHADO as a new command officer, or being disappeared because he's seen too much ever to be let free again.

And I had one of those cool Dinky toys SHADO tracked attack vehicles. Among the many things lost to the New Orleans flood...

[Bounty]

brave but insane Cmdr. Straker

Maybe I haven't seen enough of the series yet, but Straker didn't come across to me as insane. Stressed, yes, and he hasn't come to terms with the loss of his son and the way his worked has destroyed his private life; but I never pegged him as a man who isn't, at the end of the day, in control of himself. His actions are extreme at times, but then again, the alternative is often worse.

[Patrick Degan]

brave but insane Cmdr. Straker

Maybe I haven't seen enough of the series yet, but Straker didn't come across to me as insane. Stressed, yes, and he hasn't come to terms with the loss of his son and the way his worked has destroyed his private life; but I never pegged him as a man who isn't, at the end of the day, in control of himself. His actions are extreme at times, but then again, the alternative is often worse.

That's one of those impressions you get to feed an MSTing. I swear there was one scene when one of his pilots reports a surviving alien pilot floating in the ocean following a UFO crash and the look on Straker's face is almost as if he's about to say "ready the experiments".

[Admiral Valdemar]

Did they not get around to making anything more than well built Dinky models? For S:1999, they have Eagles and Hawks that can go for several hundred dollars, so it seems a shame if they haven't done the same with UFO.

[Bounty]

Did they not get around to making anything more than well built Dinky models? For S:1999, they have Eagles and Hawks that can go for several hundred dollars, so it seems a shame if they haven't done the same with UFO.

There's other model kits; apparently the Japanese are big fans of vintage British SF.

[Admiral Valdemar]

There's other model kits; apparently the Japanese are big fans of vintage British SF.

They made an anime series of Thunderbirds and it's often said that the early shows of Anderson inspired many modern sci-fi anime series as their creators grew up with his attention to engineering detail. I believe you can get just about anything from one of the Japanese model makers related to these shows in one form or another.

[Crazedwraith]

Is it just me or does that title sequence have a shot devoted entirely to checking out some chic's swaying butt cheeks?

[Bounty]

Is it just me or does that title sequence have a shot devoted entirely to checking out some chic's swaying butt cheeks?

It's not you. This is, I shit you not, the very first shot of the series proper, after the pre-credits flashback:



...which neatly segues into the title card...



All of that with... swaying. Episode one revisits the theme a few times.

[Stark]

Dude, happening fashion and A CAR WITH GULL DOORS. It must be the future!

[Bounty]

Dude, happening fashion and A CAR WITH GULL DOORS. It must be the future!

It's not just the future, it's 1980. As the show doesn't stop to remind you, 1980. The distant future of 1980. It's right there in the credits, five or six times: 1980. The future.

[Jade Falcon]

Did they not get around to making anything more than well built Dinky models? For S:1999, they have Eagles and Hawks that can go for several hundred dollars, so it seems a shame if they haven't done the same with UFO.

If you check out the link I gave earlier, the company Product Enterprises (Now Iconic Replicas) made some UFO stuff. They are pretty nice. Owning the Fireball XLM, Stingray and the Eagle Freighter and Transporter, they are very good.

The Japanese companies, mainly Aoshima and Imai made some kits. I've got an unbuilt model of a UFO Interceptor.

[Patrick Degan]

And you had some problem with security? Now look, this whole complex sits beneath a 200 acre film studio
and to the outside world, I'm the chief executive of Harlington-Straker Productions. I have to play games.
Nobody even guesses at my real function. I have to mix in the world of top TV stars, film producers, and studio
bosses. It's not easy every day having to face a parade of bubble-headed starlets lined up outside my office to
give me blowjobs so I'll cast them in my next multimillion pound feature film, but that's my job. So you can
just suck it up mister and do YOUR job. I don't want to hear about your problems with security.

[Bounty]

I forgot about one of the best scenes of the pilot; one that had me in stitches, since it's delivered completely dead-pan in the middle of a crisis.

In the episode, an SST is trying to evade an incoming UFO. The airplane is ordered to lower its speed and altitude to make use of a cloud bank below; when the clouds come into view, the pilot has this to say:

FREEMAN
(very Australian)
I don't like it. These clouds give
about as much cover as the G-string
on a bloody belly dancer.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Aussie pilots OF THE FUTURE!
[/Tom Servo]

[Lord Woodlouse]

coloured woman .

Heheh. What colour was she?