A Question of Priorities Part 3

Beware - Interpretation and comments below!


Who is the other person who may be in jeopardy in this
episode? It’s the elderly Mrs. O’Connor, who is
blind. The alien is creepy as he arrives at her door.
I think the thing that bothers me most about him is
the contacts with the holes in them – they are offset
on his eyes so his pupils appear to be in the wrong
place. And he doesn’t say a thing. He apparently
forces his way in and sets about his mysterious
objective.

Alec comes back from dinner. Alec and Straker play a
little game of trying to size each other up. They
know each other too well. Alec is still trying to
figure out what is wrong. Straker is trying to figure
out how much Alec knows or suspects. When Straker
doesn’t say anything but the steak sounded appetizing,
Alec suggests Straker go home. “What home?” Alec’s
“Ow” reaction tells us he knows he said the wrong
thing.

Straker also calls the hospital to let Mary know the
drug is on the way. He seems to think he may have
finally met her expectations. She tells him not to
let Johnny, or them both, down this time. I have
visions of Ed having missed a number of visits with
John because of work.

Mrs. O’Connor meanwhile tries to call for help and to
leave while the alien in her house works on his
project. Why won’t he talk to her? The alien furrows
his brow with intent. Is this a sign that the aliens
are telepathic and the stupid humans can’t hear it?
But SHADO starts picking up a transmission of her
voice on their frequency. Alec makes the fateful
decision to divert the transporter to help triangulate
on the signal.

You know it’s coming, but it takes a while to happen,
as Alec and Straker discuss the possibilities of what
is going on with the UFO. Finally it comes out that
the transporter will be in Ireland in a few minutes.
When Straker stands it looks like he wants to shout,
“What?!” but instead asks in a voice without
inflection, “A transporter?” Alec affirms that it’s
the one from New York. Straker’s eyes flick back and
forth as he tries to find something to say. He looks
at Alec, flounders a beat, then “What have you done?”
“I’ve diverted it, what else?” Straker looks down and
gulps. “Is something wrong?” Straker shakes his head
but his eyes begin to get red. Alec takes off, intent
for the moment on finding that UFO. After he leaves,
Straker sinks slowly to sit, looking numb.

In the next scene, we see Straker obviously thinking
about something, he’s pacing the room and smoking.
Then, we see Mary teary-eyed at the hospital. Back in
his office, Straker makes his decision. As in this
whole episode, he’s trying to do “the right thing”,
whether it’s not causing problems about his visitation
rights or doing things that he doesn’t want to, like
here. He’s decided he has to be a man about it, call
Mary, and let her know that the medicine has been
delayed. Unfortunately for him, first he has to talk
to Rutland. It’s painful for him, but he still asks
to explain to Mary. She won’t listen, however. What
could be more important than his own son’s life?
Straker tries to explain that it’s not a question of
something being more important but she won’t listen.
She says she’ll never understand and hangs up. He’s
failed with her again.

Next, Straker checks on the transporter and orders it
back in the air as soon as it’s unloaded. Alec
finally understands that there is something
significant about the transporter. He asks if it was
important. Straker replies in what seems a bitter
voice that these things are always a question of
priorities. Then he starts bellowing orders to cover
his emotion.

I know there has been a lot of discussion about what
Straker did and did not do in this episode. I agree
with the idea that using the transporter for personal
reasons is an abuse here. It’s only mitigated by the
fact he was just ordering the transport to leave
early, not sending it somewhere it wouldn’t have gone
otherwise. And I’d bet this was the first time in his
career Straker used his rank to do anything for
personal reasons.

The point of most controversy has come over Straker’s
failure to countermand Alec’s orders diverting the
transporter. IMHO he makes the morally correct
decision. Straker is seen all along doing what he
believes is right and he makes the hard decisions
others wouldn’t want to have to even consider. It’s
not something most of us could do, putting duty ahead
of personal considerations.

It’s at this point that Straker comes up with the idea
that the crashed alien may want to collaborate. But
it’s too late. John lies dying in the hospital. The
second UFO is on its way to kill the crashed alien.
It’s all too late.

Straker heads towards the hospital replaying events
from the day in his head. He arrives in the waiting
room to find no one there. Then Mary, Rutland, and
the doctor come out of the elevator. She’s almost
hysterical. Straker tries to say something to her,
but she never wants to see him again. We leave
Straker alone in the waiting room, shoulders stooped
and head down, defeated.

Diorite

This is such a great episode. I want to say that I immensely enjoyed
reading your interpretation, Diorite. Usually, with this sort of
thing, a lot of new thoughts are pointed out to me, but I seem to have
had pretty much of all the ones you said already…which isn't a bad
thing; it just shows that we agree.

Other than the wonderful plot of the episode, I really like how Alec
is constantly trying to figure out just what is going on. He knows
Straker too well, and he knows there's something, and this episode
helps connect the way I imagine their relationship to be with the way
it is shown as being. I've always thought that they were a lot closer
than we've ever seen them, most likely because Straker's personality
doesn't exactly allow it to be seen.

It's strange, but I almost never like the main character best, but UFO
is one of the very few exceptions. And I know why it's an exception:
all the bad things that happen seem to happen to Straker. That's not
usually something that is written for a main character, but that's
exactly what these writers have done. In fact, I think the UFO writers
were pretty amazing. They wrote EXACTLY what I would have written and
EXACTLY what I like, and that's something really rare for me to find.
I would have had Straker's son die, and I had a feeling he would the
first time I saw the episode because I knew that the writers wrote in
such a similar way the way I do. It's a lot more than just this one
episode, but I guess I'll save that for when we get to those others. I
just love the way there are so many dark episodes! I know so many
people that say they hate sad endings, but I love them! They're so
much more realistic, less predictable, and they really make you feel.

But going back specifically to this episode, I remember thinking
Straker was going to burst into tears just before he said the
"question of priorities" thing. If you look at his face… That would
have been surprising though; it just looked like he was about to.

> It's followed by one of those
> things that I find I quite like about Straker, the
> fact that he could be quite perceptive. He tells John
> he's almost home, then picks up on the change in mood
> the comment causes. Straker asks about the model boat
> he sent to distract John from thoughts of going home.
> It's a fatal mistake. Alec interrupts with a phone
> call. To bring Dad back from distraction, John asks
> if he wants to see the boat.

This is neat. I recognized that Straker was trying to distract John,
but I never though about John trying to distract Straker. It makes
sense. John sees Straker's tense face after the phone call, and tries
to distract him from whatever it was.

> Then he tries to talk to Mary about
> John. I think it is because of the reaction he got
> when he told John he was almost home.

Now, this is interesting. I never really understood why Straker was
asking that (or at least, what Mary had him asking based on her
answer), or otherwise I just never understood what he really meant to
say. It still seems like kind of a strange question to me, but this
theory has it making a little more sense. It just seems strange to me
that he would ask only about John without some reason for it, which
this theory gives.

>Alpharaptor

--- Alpharaptor <[hidden email]> wrote:

Most of Alec and Straker's relationship is just what
we can infer. Aggravating, isn't it? It's one of the
things I like to think they would have fleshed out
more had things gone better.

This episode indicates how close the two of them are
better than any of them up to this time. Up to this
point, pretty much what was shown was that Alec felt
comfortable arguing with Straker about his command
decisions in a way not normal for a subordinate.
They've absently lighted cigars/cigarettes for each
other. We were told they've worked together for a
long time. Not a lot of fodder for the grist mill.

In "A Question of Priorities" shows that Alec felt
entitled to ask into Straker's personal affairs.
Unless I'm mistaken, Alec is the only one who ever
walks in to Straker's office while he is sitting at
his desk and just sits without invitation. Again,
it's just things that are implied.

I'll be interested to see what you have for future
episodes.

Diorite