UFO

MoonStraker

UFO
Century 21 TV 1970-1971
Network Blu Ray B
26 episodes

UFO was Gerry Anderson’s first crack at a TV show featuring live action performers instead of his Supermarionation puppets of previous shows such as Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 (although he had worked on live action movies before). It was also his first stab at making television for an older, more adult audience and yeah, there are definitely some instances of mild violence, sexual undertones and mature themes explored in the show. It aired for only one series between 1970 - 1971.

And, yeah, I was two to three years old and I loved it. To the extent I had the UFO Interceptor from Dinky. The one with the challenging, pull back lever on the underside which took insane amounts of strength to be able to pull to reload the front missile (look, it was a hard pull for a three year old, okay!) and with the distinctive green metal casing which was completely out of keeping with the white ones seen in the show.

Set in the future world of... 1980... the show starred the great Ed Bishop (who is in a few Bond movies in very minor roles and who was, of course, the voice of Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet) as Ed Straker, the leader of SHADO, which stood for Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation. And it’s amazing how, for a top secret organisation set up to prevent enemy UFOs from attacking the Earth, the SHADO symbol was emblazoned on all the vehicles out in the field. Hmm.

He was backed up by George Sewell (I met him once as a child, his father used to live in the same block of flats as my nan and was friendly with her) and Michael Billington as the primary action man for the show. About two thirds of the way through the show, there was some kind of strike in the studios and, when the balance of the episodes started filming again, Sewell (and a number of actors) were unable to continue (or were fired, I don’t think the American distributors liked Sewell) and so other actors came in, such as Wanda Ventham (mother of Benedict Cumberbatch). Also, the Earth based doctor was played by Vladek Sheybal, who of course plotted to bring about the downfall of 007 in From Russia With Love (reviewed here). 

The series obviously relied on the model making skills and miniature work of Anderson’s regular Supermarionation people and so we had three lines of defence highlighted on the show, each with their own personnel and vehicles. 

So first line of defence was the moon base, where the Interceptors would get launched and all the ladies on the staff wore silvery white, figure hugging costumes and purple wigs (no explanation was given for this). Then you had the ground Earth defence force where Straker was based (an underground base situated beneath the Harlington-Straker film studios, which was their cover operation), which had the trucks with hidden rockets and lasers called SHADOmobiles.  Alas, I never had the Dinky version of the SHADOmobile but always wanted one.

Lastly there was the undersea submarine which launched a kind of hunter plane, it’s rockets somehow igniting under the water and propelling it out of the ocean and into the air. All the people on the submarine... again for no obvious reason... wore string vests. Although the real sexism of the show became apparent here because the female crew were obviously wearing something light in a strategic place below the vest, so you couldn’t see their nipples. C’mon ladies! Equality in the workplace please!

And every week a few guests would appear in the acting roster, some of which would later become famous and some of whom were already big names... but it’s interesting to see ‘unknowns’ such as  Steven Berkoff, David Warbeck and James Cosmo on the show. Along with such stalwarts as George Cole and, even, as a replacement secretary for Straker in a few episodes, Miss Moneypenny herself,  Lois Maxwell. 

And I loved the show then and, finally seeing it again after all this time, I love it now. 

A sign of the times... everybody smokes at work in this (and I mean everybody) and the drinks dispensers on the base are there if you want to help yourself to a refreshing cup of... checks notes... vodka or whiskey while meeting with your boss. So, yeah... the seventies ruled, even if they were pretending to be the eighties (which in no way compared in real life to this wonderful version of that decade). I mean, even the dialogue is almost jaw dropping by today’s standards but we would have thought nothing of lines such as “These clouds give about as much cover as a g-string on a bellydancer!” at the time.

But what strikes me most is the quality of the writing and the stories on this show. I mean, okay, the early episodes were all about showing off the various craft and tech as these defenders of the Earth took out the evil UFOs but, after a while, the show settles down and really tackles interesting issues and gets into real adult drama. Such as the one where Ed’s son is run over in front of his estranged wife’s home (partially his fault) and how he has to put a UFO emergency ahead of flying the required medication needed to save his son using the company’s gadgets, thus resulting in the death of his son. Not to mention stuff like a submarine trapped at the bottom of the ocean with a claustrophobic Straker aboard, an episode where time can be altered and frozen at will by the aliens and a few dealing with alien mind control where ‘friendlies’ are turned into killers. 

Probably my favourite episode, though, is a flashback story called Confetti Check A-OK, where we go right back to the start and a freshly married Straker is asked to spend the next ten years setting up SHADO... and we watch it all being built over the course of the episode, as we also watch the work take a toll on Ed and his wife, witnessing the total disintegration of the marriage. This is one of a few amazing episodes of the show which really hits hard and makes you think.

And of course, all the way through the series, we have regular Anderson composer Barry Gray’s toe tapping music accompanying the cast on their various adventures. I used to whistle this all the time as a kid and, of course, it’s still quite an earworm.

So, yeah, I’d have to say my revisiting of UFO was an entirely positive one. I really enjoyed myself on this. Alas for all concerned, the series was successful but cancelled after one series. However, the direction that Anderson had been heading in for series two, which would concentrate more on the moonbase side of things, was quickly converted into the starting idea for a new live action series, which would run for two years and was called Space 1999 (reviewed here). But, yeah, UFO was a solid sci-fi TV series of the time which did what the genre does best, use the fantastic framework to explore real life ideas in a situation where those ideas could be explored beyond the boundaries of the everyday world. I’m pleased that this one lived up to my hazy memories, for sure. Definitely worth a watch.