Ayshea - Ayesha - 'A'

From the Fanderson Forum.

Interesting topic for discussion...




Controversial, I know, but nowhere in UFO is Ayshea actually referred to as Lt. Ayshea Johnson. Even the slightly oblique reference in 'Sound of Silence' is questionable, as it now seems that she got that almost by default, as it had originally been intended that Straker was talking to the new male replacement for Keith Ford!

So, the 'A' could stand for absolutely anything; Amanda, Annemarie, Alicia or Angela (all names that, ironically, are significant to me!).

However...

In at least THREE original UFO scripts Ayshea's character is referred to as AYESHA. A typo, I hear you cry, but it's worth remembering that the names Sylvia Howell and Gordon Maxwell, which are now considered canon, were, again, never seen or heard onscreen but only in one or two scripts. Using this reasoning I am very much of the opinion that 'A' stands for Ayesha.

Of course it is now generally accepted that the A is for Ayshea, but exactly where and when was this concluded and by whom? Of course I haven't seen copies of every single original UFO script, but the ones that I have seen would seem to support this theory.

As a caveat to that, Ayshea was telling me that her mum made up the name for her and that Ayshea was not an 'off the shelf' name.
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Generally, these names that came from the scripts were promoted by Fanderson publications (e.g. written by Chris Bentley).  I thought "Ayshea" had been used in the end credits for a character name in one episode (e.g. Ayshea played by Ayshea), but perhaps I'm not remembering that correctly.  Mostly (if not all) of the time she was credited as a SHADO operative, or a variation of something like that.

Marc

No, she is never credited as anything other than Shado Operative, or whatever.  I can't recall seeing her credited otherwise.  I wonder if the lack of surname in her onscreen credit was as much to do with the fact that she was in a state of transit, in terms of her surname, as much as to generate a sense of mystique around her.

I'm inclined to think that it would not be wrong to attribute the name 'Ayesha' to her character.  

from the F.F.


I fully understand and appreciate the need or desire to 'fill in the gaps', so to speak, but sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. There has to be at least some evidence to suggest someone's name. For example, 'co-pilot Jim' in 'Exposed'. Could his surname have been Wade? His sister's surname certainly appeared to be Wade and there was no mention that she was married. Although I digress.

Here is a list of original UFO episode scripts in which Ayshea's character is referred to as AYESHA.

A Question of Priorities

Close Up

Court Martial

Timelash


There may be others.

Evidence enough, I would suggest, that this WAS her character's name. Certainly evidence equal to, if not greater than, that to suggest character names such as Lt Gordon Maxwell and Lt Sylvia Howell.

'A' Stands for AYESHA.

In my opinion (and backed up by the above evidence!) of course.
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Please forgive my ignorance for not knowing what 'the F.F'. is, but I just wanted to say that I don't think that 'co-pilot Jim's' surname was Wade.  There is no indication that 'operative Janna Wade' was his sister.  I think she was just pretending to be his sister to have a way to get closer to Foster.





--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 12/10/16, Clare Cross [via SHADO] <[hidden email]> wrote:

 Subject: [SHADO] Re: Ayshea - Ayesha - 'A'
 To: "SHADO" <[hidden email]>
 Date: Saturday, December 10, 2016, 4:04 AM
 
 from the F.F.
 
 
 I fully
 understand and appreciate the need or desire to 'fill in
 the gaps', so to speak, but sometimes this works and
 sometimes it doesn't. There has to be at least some
 evidence to suggest someone's name. For example,
 'co-pilot Jim' in 'Exposed'. Could his
 surname have been Wade? His sister's surname certainly
 appeared to be Wade and there was no mention that she was
 married. Although I digress.
 
 
 Here is a list of original
 UFO episode scripts in which Ayshea's character is
 referred to as AYESHA.
 
 
 A Question of
 Priorities
 
 
 Close Up
 
 
 Court Martial
 
 
 Timelash
 
 
 There may be
 others.
 
 
 Evidence enough, I would
 suggest, that this WAS her character's name. Certainly
 evidence equal to, if not greater than, that to suggest
 character names such as Lt Gordon Maxwell and Lt Sylvia
 Howell.
 
 
 'A' Stands for
 AYESHA.
 
 In my opinion
 (and backed up by the above evidence!) of course.
 
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The F.F. is Fanderson Forum.

True.  She may not have been his sister.  As I said, she just 'appeared' to be.  She may have been; she may not have been.  We'll never know.

Similarly, I note that Shane Rimmer played 'Bill Johnson' in 'Identified'.  I wonder if he was related to the 'Lt. Johnson' of 'The Sound of Silence' fame?!!!  Still, I suppose Johnson is a fairly common name, so maybe not,  And isn't there a 'Phil Wade' in Identified?  

Anyway, to return to the main point; it certainly looks quite conclusive that Ayshea's character in UFO was 'Ayesha'.

I think it likely that "Ayesha" was simply how the writers assumed Ms. Ayshea spelled her name.  In other words, they weren't aware of the misspelling, and the intention was simply to name the character after the actress.  Of course this assumes that the actress herself never objected during script readings - but then her name was never mentioned by any other character, so we'll never really know for sure because we never get to hear it.

I do completely agree that operative Jenna Wade was simply pretending to be the co-pilot's sister in "Exposed".  There seem to have been a few favorite surnames that were used in the series, no?  "Fraser" comes to mind.  "Ross" I believe is used in more than one episode too.

The misspelling of her name by writers/typist is indeed a possibility.

However, whatever the intention, we now have, what, six original scripts which clearly give her character name as AYESHA.  (The Man Who Came Back and The Psychobombs plus my original four titles)  This would have been picked up after the first couple of times and the fact that it was not corrected...

I think in cases like this, one really must return to and defer to the original/accepted text.  

I just took a look at the script change pages for some episodes, and I found the correct "AYSHEA" spelling used in those for A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES and REFLECTIONS IN THE WATER.  So it may indeed have been a misspelling.  

Marc

 

Interesting.  Strange that so many seemed to go 'uncorrected'.

Mind you, the name could have been 'corrected' on the assumption that it was being spelt wrong and then changed back.  I wonder which script was the last written?  

I still believe (and to some degree this is hinted at in the above post by massdream) that there is still some doubt that this was her character's name as it is never mentioned onscreen within the framework of the series.

Reflections in the Water is a pretty late episode... Ayshea is featured in THE CAT WITH THEN LIVES and a bit in MINDBENDER, but her lines in those episodes weren't written for her.  So she's not mentioned in the script.  Maybe in the change pages for THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES, but I don't have those.  :-)

Marc