UFO (British TV series)

File:Ufodvd-sm.jpg
UFO DVD cover
depicting one of the distinctive
"spinning top" UFOs.
Note UK 12-Year-Olds rating.

U.F.O was a British television science fiction series created by Gerry Anderson. Anderson had previously made a number of very successful marionette-based children's science fiction series including Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. He had also made one live-action science fiction movie, Doppelganger, aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, and now felt ready to move into live-action television and aim at a more adult market.

UFO was Anderson's first series with live actors, but he had long experience with the one-hour format, good scripts and exemplary production values. The show was aimed at children, but not exclusively, and also had braod appeal for teenagers, inlvolving more realistic violence and remarkably 'adult' storylines.

UFO first aired in the UK in 1970 and in US syndication over the next two years. There were 26 episodes including the pilot, filmed over the course of a year, with a five-month production break caused by the closure of the show's original studio.

The premise of the show is that in the near future (a fictional version of 1980) the Earth is under attack from aliens. Their spacecraft can cross the vast distance between the two planets, but are only large enough to carry three or four people, and can only survive for a few hours in Earth's atmosphere before disintegrating or exploding. In flight they are surrounded by horizontally-spinning vanes and emit a distinctive pulsing electronic whine (actually produced by series composer Barry Gray on an Ondes Martenot). They defend themselves with laser-type weapons, but can be destroyed by conventional explosives. The alien ships can, however, survive underwater and one episode deals with the discovery of a secret undersea alien base.

Captured aliens are almost human in appearance but breath a blue, oxygenated liquid, which is believed to cushion their bodies against the extreme acceleration of interstellar flight. To protect their eyes from the liquid the aliens wear opaque contact lenses with small pinholes for vision. The show's opening sequence begins by showing the (remarkable for the time) image of the removal of one of these lenses from an obviously real eye with a pair of forceps -- a sight which upset some squeamish viewers.

To defend against the UFOs, a secret organisation called SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation) is established. Operating behind the cover of the Harlington-Straker Studios movie studio in England, SHADO is headed by Commander Ed Straker (played by Ed Bishop), a former United States Air Force Colonel who poses as the studio's chief executive. In reality, this was a clever cost-saving move by the producers -- the studio was the actual studio where the series was being filmed, originally the MGM British Studios, later Pinewood Studios --

Typical of Anderson productions, the studio idea was both practical and cost-effective for the production and a neat plot device. It removed the need to build an expensive exterior set for the SHADO base, while providing that all-important "secret" cover (concealment and secrecy are always central themes in Anderson dramas) with the trademark ring of plausibility. A studio was a business where unusual events and routines would not be noticed, and where comings goings at odd times, the movement of vehicles, equipment, people and materiel would not excite undue interest and could easily be explained away as "sets", "props" or "extras".

A regular Anderson leitmotiv was the concept of the mechanical conveyor -- e.g. the automatic boarding tubes of Stingray and the Thunderbird craft. In UFO this appeared in the guise of Straker's "secret" office, which doubled as a lift that takes him down to the SHADO control centre located beneath the studio.

SHADO has a variety of high-tech hardware and vehicles at its disposal including the armed, tank-like SHADO Mobiles, fitted with caterpillar tracks; SkyDiver - a submarines mated with the submerisble, undersea-launched Sky One interceptor aircraft; and SID (Space Intruder Detector), a computerized tracking satellite that constantly scans Earth space for UFO incursions. The forward line of defence is MoonBase from which the three Lunar Interceptors are launched. Special effects, as in all Anderson's marionette shows, were supervised by Derek Meddings.

The show's concept was very dark for its time -- the basic premise was that the alien invaders are coming to collect human bodies to use as involuntary organ transplant donors. A later episode, "The Cat with Ten Lives", contains a particularly sinister plot point suggesting that the UFO pilots are not humanoid aliens at all, but are in fact human abductees under the control of the alien intelligences.

The show also featured realistic, believable relationships between the human characters to a far greater extent than usual in a typical science fiction series, showing the clear influence of American programs like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek and British action series such as Dangerman.

One especially dramatic episode is almost entirely devoted to the breakdown of Straker's marriage under the strain of maintaining his secret identity. Another hinges on Straker having to make an agonising life-or-death choice -- to rescue his critically-injured son by diverting Sky One to deliver life-saving medical supplies, or to attempt a last-chance intercept against an incoming UFO.

Another episode concerns a plot by a woman and her lover to murder her husband. When they accidentally kill a UFO pilot instead, SHADO intervenes and doses the guilty pair with amnesia drugs. But Straker realises the drugs will not affect their motivation, which means they will go ahead with their murder plot -- and SHADO cannot interfere without blowing its cover.

Some critics complained that the emphasis on down-to-earth relationships weakened the show's science fiction premise and were also a means of saving money on special effects. The money-saving argument may have been true to a limited extent, but Anderson had always hoped to direct live action TV drama and although the marionette shows helped him develop impressive skills in effects and scripting, he had always considered them as essentially being a away of keeping in work and earning money while he tried to break into 'real' TV. Others counter that the characters are more rounded than in other science fiction shows and that sci-fi concepts and special effects did not preclude realistic action and interaction and believable, emotionally engaging plots .

As with all the later Anderson series, the special effects, supervised by Derek Meddings, were of the highest quality and outstanding for their day, given the relatively limited resources at the team's disposal. The space sequences involving the Interceptors and UFOs are very well shot (showing the technical improvements that had come along since Kubrick's 2001), with tight editing, fast action and spectacular explosions.

In a clever refinement of the underwater effect developed for Stingray, Meddings' team devised a disconcerting effect -- a double-walled visor for the alien space helmets which could be gradually filled from the bottom up with blue-dyed water. When filmed from the appropriate angle it produced a very convincing illusion of the helmet filling up and covering the astronaut's face.

After the 26 eisodes were completed plans were drawn up for a sequel to be called UFO:1999 which would have been set in a much bigger Moonbase. The concept was eventually changed to an even more far-fetched story about the moon being blown out of orbit and Moonbase along with it - Space: 1999.

As with many Anderson productions, the series generated a range of desirable and well-executed merchandising toys based on the SHADO vehicles. The classic Dinky die-cast range of vehicles -- quite large by the standards of the day -- featured robust yet finely-finished products and included Straker's futuristic gull-wing gold car, the tracked SHADO mobile and the missile-bearing Lunar Interceptor. Like the Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet ranges, the original Dinky toys are now prized collectors items. All the major vehicles, characters and more have been produced in model form many times over by a large number of licencee companies; the Anderson shows and their merchandise have always had widespread popularity, but they are especially popular in Japan.

The complete series has been released as a pair of digitally restored Region 2 DVD sets in the UK. Bonus features include a commentary by Anderson on the pilot episode "Identified", and an actor's commentary by Bishop on the episode "Sub-smash". There are also some deleted scenes and lots of stills and publicity artwork

External links

• FANDERSON The official Gerry Anderson appreciation society site.
• UFO Episode Guide