A few notes on Computer Affair and C C A-OK.

Hi everyone,

Owing to problems with my broadband line it's been a few weeks now
since my last posting.
Taking prompts from the ITV4 showings of UFO I have been making notes
on the episodes as they were broadcast.
In order to catch up I'm putting my observations on Computer Affair
and Confetti Check A-O.K. into one post. It has probably all been
said before but here goes anyway.

Computer Affair.

Good all round episode in my opinion, with a few holes here and
there. I'll not go into too much detail on the plot here as Sarah has
already covered this quite thoroughly. It works ok for me as it is
anyway.

On a technical note: The sound effect used for the UFO as it heads
towards the defenceless interceptors is not the usual one. Those
familiar with other Gerry Anderson shows may recognise it as the
sound of the Sun Probe activation beam from Thunderbirds. I wonder if
this was intentional or if they got the tapes mixed up?

There's one really bad continuity edit in this one. It is towards the
end of the scene where Alec is interviewing Gay and Mark over the
results of their psychoanalyses.
Alec reads out the final paragraph of the report then leans back in
his chair. Cut to Mark Bradley, then back to Alec who is leaning
forward on the desk then leans back again!

When mark Bradley is looking at the crashed UFO through his
rectangular binoculars, we see the image as though through round
binoculars. This was to be a recurring mix up in UFO, sometimes the
error being round bins', squared view. (Destruction).

I always found it odd that Straker expected the alien to understand
and speak English in response to his interrogation. How could any
drug help in this respect?

Still, it's a good story with plenty of action, effects, and
character development. And didn't Gabrielle Drake look stunning in
her Moonbase outfit at the beginning?

Confetti Check A-O.K.

Since I started this report Sarah has posted her notes on this
episode. All I can say is WOW. What can I add to that? You've said it
all Sarah.
This is another good episode for us to learn about the main
characters and the history of SHADO. Great stuff! (Though a little
too close to home for comfort in places).

Right. Sound of Silence next.

Best wishes to all,

Kevin

> I always found it odd that Straker expected the
> alien to understand
> and speak English in response to his interrogation.
> How could any
> drug help in this respect?

Maybe he thought the aliens were from Vancouver and
environs? <snerk>

Actually, given their penchant for apparently never
attacking anyone who didn't speak english (internal
evidence of series, not even stock footage of bodies
and non-English countryside, although there were
supposed to be other countries supporting SHADO ...
and how they got the USSR to agree to this ......) it
might be logical to presume that if the aliens spoke
at all they would have command of the local language
... then again it could just be that the commander had
been in England too long and picked up the
idiocyncrasy of expecting everyone to speak English,
however broken. Or, it could just be that the writers
didn't think this one through very well. <chuckle>

dragon

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I think Sallie is right - the writers didn't stop to think maybe the aliens
didn't speak English or perhaps they didn't speak with vocal cords much at
all. I've written a thread in my fanfic that they communicate
telepathically....

Pam the Canuck

Of course I realize this negates the screaming alien from that eps but what
if they could do both and only CHOSE to communicate telepathically with us
lower humans?