Am I Missing Something?

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

UFO was produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson who up until then had been responsible for a range of internationally successful puppet based shows eg Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet etc. The basic conceit being that Earth was being visited by Aliens who were 'harvesting' humans for organs etc. and the travails of the defence arrangements made to respond to the threat. Set in 1980, there were two aspects to the production: the hardware as presented by model-work and the human interactions as represented by a'live' cast.Firstly, the show has an aspiration to be for 'grown-ups' with many of the stories being to do with inter-human relationships against extraordinary backgrounds. This in itself is very ambitious, and I must say not entirely successful.The nature of the alien threat is never taken beyond the flying saucer escapes interception and generates a threat to which SHADO, the defence organisation, deals with.The show is attractive to watch in terms of production values and casting. The nature of SHADO, the global defence organisation, is well established but seems very lightweight in terms of the assets and personnel it controls to deal with the threat. But to be honest, I don't think this works against the show.The main recurring characters are attractive and garner interest. The challenge of dealing with extraordinary situations is the main theme throughout the 26 episodes and in general terms the scripts superficially arrive at some kind of resolution, not always comforting or simple. The show was an ambitious one, and for it's time (1969/70) was quite successful in presenting and dealing with big issues. But it was never clear to whom the show was being presented to. Often broadcast as a kids show, even where issues involving extra-marital sex or drug addiction were plot themes, you do wonder if the broadcasting networks ever watched the show!Attractive to watch and of its time, the show retains interest and can be recommended to Anderson fans and viewers of 1960s social commentaries/dramas.

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.

Yeah, I know the acting was a bit cheesy and some of the episodes were inconsistent with each other, but overall, UFO was the most realistic (or the least far-fetched) sci-fi series I can recall. UFO uses ideas that are at least remotely possible for our time in defense of our planet from the mysterious, sinister, silent aliens. The interceptors, skydivers, and mobiles are technologically possible when compared to the distant future gizmos of Star Trek or Star Wars. Factual details of the alien spacecraft, such as their need to slow down to speeds of 1500 miles per hour when entering Earth's atmosphere or needing to be submerged under water to avoid deteriorating in our atmosphere are much more believable than the Enterprise traveling at warp speed. My favorite character: Commander Straker. One cold dude, dedicated to his job. A close second was Lt. Ellis, who appeared quite often in my dreams as a 12-13 year old! Sweet indeed. Favorite episode: "Computer Affair." Wish we could have made that alien talk before overdosing him with that experimental truth serum. Second: "A Question of Priorities." We had an defecting alien that was ready to talk or at least help us. Favorite hardware: The interceptors. Second: Skydiver. Favorite line: Straker in "Computer Affair"..."Don't give me that crud Masden. If you need more aircraft appropriate them!" (Who was Masden anyway?) I would like to see a new version of this series done with the same story line, obviously with new actors set in the year 2020 or thereabouts. Someone could continue and eventually put the finishing touches on a series that had a premature end, a series that was intriguing and most importantly, believable.

I'm a devoted fan of science-fiction, even if I prefer the intellectual rather than the cheesy stuff: this one - with its hilarious would-be futuristic fashions and gadgetry and the cheap effects - tends to lean towards the latter category, apart from the occasional psychological insight (particularly the contribution of Vladek Sheybal as the space organization's resident doctor), intriguing 'horror' theme or outburst of excitement and suspense...but I warmed up to it after a while and actually found its inherent naivete quite endearing! Given that each episode follows a different plot line, quality is bound to vary but they're all eminently watchable and entertaining (despite some dull patches and a general lack of pace); the series' creators had earlier made sci-fi TV shows involving puppet characters, such as THUNDERBIRDS (1965), but the level of maturity here is clearly higher (if inconsistent).The main characters - Ed Bishop, George Sewell and Michael Billington, supported throughout the series by a respectable array of guest stars - are surprisingly engaging and the score, as redolent of its period as the rest of it(!), is undeniably infectious. Just for the record, I'd name "A Question Of Priorities", "Court Martial", "E.S.P.", "Kill Straker!", "The Cat With Ten Lives", "The Man Who Came Back", "The Psychobombs", "Reflections In The Water", "Timelash" and "Mindbender" among the best episodes - many of which are comparable to what was being done in THE TWILIGHT ZONE series; on the other hand, the weakest would have to be "Flight Path", "Survival", "Ordeal", "The Square Triangle" and "Close Up" - verging from the pedestrian to the overly technical.P.S. The series shared a staggering 11 actors with the sci-fi feature DOPPELGANGER aka JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN (1969) - apart from being partly shot on standing sets from that film, not to mention utilizing some of its music cues!; regrettably, I missed out on its sole broadcast (on late-night Italian TV) eons ago...