UFO (1971)

There are many fuller reviews so I want to say that in the ones I've read so far no one has mentioned the actual sound of the UFO. That was a pretty odd noise back in the day, and young as I was I found it creepy and a bit scary but more distinctive than the programme's signature tune (though harder to hum or imitate). There have been a few reviewers who seem to have suggested the show was cheesy or have become apologists trying to defend it, but it needs no defence. People who make anachronistic criticisms are simply showing their lack of insight. This was cutting edge stuff. That it was, at the same time, very much of its own time is quite naturalThe sad thing for me is that the future was never as swish as they promised. There are still almost no car manufacturers (a few Italian crazies aside) who have had the nerve to produce a car as interesting as the ones used on set - I mean homologate, when I say produce. I believe the cars were from major manufacturers, but were futuristic styling exercises which were always, and still are, watered down to accommodate the tastes of fuddy-duddies before tooling up for production. The fashions were a bit closer to what was available from Quant or Courreges et al, but such out and out sparseness was never really widely marketed.And I will get one of those wigs one day ... maybe with some salt n pepper grey thrown in, because my figure is not up to those fashions, but I could get away with being, perhaps, a retired and gone to seed moonbase maiden: and maybe one in 5,000 people would get the reference.From a design point of view this show was superb. The dramas were great stuff. The acting was good. The scripts were sound and thoughtful. Anyone who thinks this show was cheesy probably thinks Metropolis is Kitsch rather than a stunning trailblazer.Sorry, not really a review, just the rant of a fan.

"UFO" is a pretty good show for 1970, though I am sure younger viewers will laugh at the special effects and strange kitschy 1970 sensibilities--such as the purple haired ladies, the weird underwater rocket plane, the clothing, the cars and the wild music. Despite all this silliness, the acting isn't bad and the episodes were mostly pretty interesting. In fact, I am watching the show again along with another famous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series "Space: 1999" and think "UFO", despite more dated special effects, is a more enjoyable and better series. Plus, in a crazy way, the show seemed more plausible than "Space: 1999"--or at least they made it seem that way.Despite being a decent show, I wasn't particularly impressed with the DVD set I recently purchased. The episodes are all in no particular order!! This exact same problem occurs in the Anderson's next series, "Space: 1999"--the DVDs are all mixed up for no apparent reason! Additionally, the special features are quite sparse--with only some DVD commentary tracks and nothing more. One final complaint is that not many episodes are on each DVD and the boxes are full-sized, so just one season results in a HUGE box set! Decent show--lousy packaging. For shame. With packaging like this, I could actually see people avoiding the set or feeling entitled to download it. I am not excusing this, but there should be a lot more concern about the folks who buy this--they deserve better.

Note To T.V. Producers - when making a sci-fi series, it is never a good idea to specify the year in which it is set. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's 'U.F.O.' was made in 1970, but set ten years in the future, meaning it now looks bizarre compared to the reality. No Margaret Thatcher, for instance ( unless she slipped in unnoticed as one of the Moonbase girls! ). My first encounter with 'U.F.O.' came in the pages of the fondly remembered 'Countdown' comic in early 1971. When the series made it to my part of the world a few months later, I was already acquainted with its format and characters.The premise is this; Earth is fighting a secret war against mysterious green-skinned aliens from an unknown planet, who travel in flying saucers that make a distinctive whirring sound. The aliens are not here to take over, but to kidnap people to use their internal organs as replacements for their own, as an unspecified catastrophe is causing them to gradually die out. Set up to defend us is S.H.A.D.O. ( Secret Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation ), headed by Commander Ed Straker ( Ed Bishop ). Its headquarters, concealed behind the facade of a film studio, is a male chauvinist's dream as its operatives are mostly female and shapely. Whenever a U.F.O. is detected entering our part of the Solar System, S.H.A.D.O. launches Interceptors from a base on the Moon. Should the pesky critters elude the Interceptors' missiles ( which was at least once a week ), the next line of defence were the Skydiver submarines ( though we only ever saw one ). Captain Peter Carlin ( Peter Gordeno ) would enter a hatch, gain access to the cockpit of 'Sky One' ( nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch, so don't worry ), the submarine tilted, and its entire front section detached itself and shot into the sky like a bullet. Should Carlin's aim be off, the U.F.O. next had to contend with Mobiles - huge, land-based vehicles not unlike tanks. The aliens knew of S.H.A.D.O.'s existence ( thanks to a number of people under their control ) and did their best to destroy it. In one episode, two of Straker's men are brainwashed and given orders to kill him. In another, a strange crystal found on the Moon drives insane anyone unlucky enough to touch it.All this was tremendously exciting to my eight-year old eyes back in 1971. A war between planets, spaceships, submarines, underground offices, ray guns, cars whose doors opened vertically ( how we all wanted to own one! ), explosions, and Gabrielle Drake looking devastatingly sexy in a purple wig ( her dallying with aliens served her in good stead when she appeared in 'Crossroads' a decade later! ). Derek Meddings once more provided the S.F.X., making this one of the few British sci-fi shows of that period to stand comparison with the better funded American ones. Dinky brought out toy Interceptors and Mobiles ( and before you ask, yes, I had both these! )Of the cast, Ed Bishop was superb as 'Straker', with George Sewell as lecherous 'Colonel Alec Freeman', and Michael Billington providing interest for the ladies as 'Colonel Paul Foster'. The guest-stars included Robin Bailey, George Cole, Adrienne Corri, Michael Jayston, Jane Merrow, Stuart Damon, and Patrick Mower.I.T.V. did not know what to do with the show; many regions dumped it in late-night slots ( including my own - H.T.V. ). The few critics who bothered to review it predictably likened it to Anderson's 'Thunderbirds'. Very unfair, but what you would expect coming from the uninformed.The last few episodes were made after a production break, and experienced film directors such as Cyril Frankel and Jeremy Summers came aboard, resulting in a superb run of stories including 'Timelash' in which Patrick Allen played a malevolent time-jumper, and 'The Long Sleep' with Tessa Wyatt. The latter episode was unusually strong for 1970 television, featuring a drug sequence and an attempted rape. Wanda Wentham replaced George Sewell as Straker's second-in-command.A few years after it ended, 'U.F.O' became a surprise hit on U.S. television, and for a while a second series looked a certainty. But it never happened, and I'm glad it did not because I think the proposed changes in format ( making the Moonbase the focal point of the plots ) would quickly have palled.As I write this, 'U.F.O.' is being screened on I.T.V.-4, and the series came out on D.V.D. some years ago. It may seem strange to young viewers ( I hope they do not think that the 1980 depicted in the show was anything like the real one! ), but I think it stands up well.

It's alway's surprised me that this series never took off during it's originally transmission. It was (and is) incredibly, dark, menacing and atmospheric and it's budget allowed it to look brilliant. It was ahead of it's time and should have been one of the most popular adult science fiction series of the era. But it wasn't! However now it has become a cult and is recognised as one of the finest sci-fi series ever made. And so it should be! The images of Alien's are horrific (even today) and the writing and choice of cast were just spot on. The late Ed Bishop was just phenomenal really, a truly marvellous actor who played Ed Straker to perfection. George Sewell and later Wanda Ventham were also wonderful. It also has to be one of the scariest science fiction series of the 1970's just look at The Long Sleep - now that really is a scary episode, and it's also damn good! Confined to peoples memories for over 15 years the series was finally brought to us in 1986 (if you miss out Precision Video's release of the confusingly edited Invasion: UFO) when Channel 5 video released many unedited episodes of the series (including Invasion: UFO). From this point the show's popularity suddenly rose and an ITV repeat followed later in the year running into 1987. Interestingly even a 'UFO' convention was held in London in 1988 because of the show's increased popularity in the 1980's. UFO was again repeated this time on BBC2 in 1996, but it took them 3 years to show the entire series! The BBC have never been very good at scheduling. Nowadays the show's popularity is still thriving what with recent DVD and Video releases still available. The series was in short superb and I think grossly underrated. UFO didn't even appear in the 2001 Channel 4 programme 'Top Ten Sci-fi' but Space: 1999 did. Space: 1999 is a great series but sometimes the writing and UFO is just better! Getting back to UFO, it is a popular cult which will stay in peoples memories for many years to come.