Close-up viewmaster reels

If I recall correctly, the viewmaster changed the story slightly from the TV
version. The space probe found an earth-like planet. On the tv show wasn't
there some kind of technical screw-up that made the pictures useless?

Shaking out the cobwebs from 30 years ago........

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> If I recall correctly, the viewmaster changed the story slightly
> from the TV version. The space probe found an earth-like planet.
> On the tv show wasn't there some kind of technical screw-up that
> made the pictures useless?

Yes, there was a screw up on the episode, which wasn't mentioned in the
viewmaster version. The pictures and text from the viewmaster version
can be found on my website:

http://ufoseries.com/3d

Marc

The end of the actual episode showed pictures from the
camera which had no contrast or scale. So, the chubby
scientist who wanted an "inner space grant" took
pictures of Gay Ellis' thigh to demonstrate how you
can look at an object and see something entirely
different when it's out of context. This made all of
the pictures worthless. Straker kept the pictures of
Ellis' thigh and put it on his wall next to the "lava
lamp".

This was a really good episode.

Scott


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Right Kiddies, here is how you disable those annoying French subtitles
on the French TFI releases. This has worked on my UFO and Department S
boxed sets. Possibly a more pertinant as regards the Department S box
as, the TF1 France release is the only way to get the [entire] series
on DVD - but for those of you who have the UFO box [my guess is will
work on the Space 1999 set as well] it's a neat work around and worth
the effort.

---------

Before you begin, you will need your
DVD manual, as you are going to have to change the subtitle language
which means that you will be going into
the actual settings on your DVD player
and doing it from there.

So (and I do hope that this works!)

1. Insert a 'The Champions' disc and
"Select Audio".

2. Then select "Version Originale
Sous-Titree".

3. Select "Choix Par Episode"

4. Select an episode and press "Play"

5. Select "Sans Anecdote"

Press "Play" then "Pause" (this bit is
important; if you don't press Pause absolutely nothing happens later
on).

Now you have to go into the actual DVD
Set Up (there should be a button) or Settings and change the subtitle
language to "Catelan" or "Catelana"
(this is that language that they speak
in Barcelona in Spain, I'm sure you know this, but anyway...).

6. Select Subtitle and press "enter".

7 Select language as Catalan/Catelana

8. Enter "Catalan" as subtitle language
(in my case I had to type in some numbers, that is why you will need
your handbook) in my case it was 6765 other players will no doubt be
different.

9. Press "Return".

Finally press "Menu".

After a few seconds you will be
presented with the episodes menu again. Just select the episode that
you want to look at, and hopefully they will be
subtitle free :-)

> This was a really good episode.

There are a lot of folks who would disagree with this. I was personally
rather surprised when I read in various Fanderson publications that
CLOSE UP was considered to be the worst
UFO episode, and even its director Alan Perry hates it!

Marc

Really, I always enjoyed it. I liked the spin at the
end of the pictures lacking proper scale. I truly
thought this was a better episode.

Ah well, I always tend to like things everyone else
hates (the Lost In Space movie, The Time Machie
update, Star Trek Nemesis).

Scott


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As we have discussed earlier, Close up had quite a numbers of holes in it.One of the biggest problems that I saw was the fact that they did nothing with the information they did have. You have the location of the enemy home planet, or at least a major base.
Do you send the biggest baddest bomb you can assemble in space to it? Or even send another probe that has been checked out six ways from Sunday, and twice on Monday?

Hell no! So far as I can tell they never did anything with the information, except sit on it.
Another thing FTL Intercepters? then why do they never intercept the UFOes out around Pluto or Saturn? It is always very close to Earth, so if they miss, you have no time to send a new group of intercepters. Come on people, TV show or not, every one knows that you intercept as far away from the target as you possibly can, just in case you do miss. Simple tatics are allways the best.
Scott McIntyre <[hidden email]> wrote:
Really, I always enjoyed it. I liked the spin at the
end of the pictures lacking proper scale. I truly
thought this was a better episode.

Ah well, I always tend to like things everyone else
hates (the Lost In Space movie, The Time Machie
update, Star Trek Nemesis).

Scott


--- Marc Martin wrote:

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[hidden email]


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----- Original Message -----
From: "Ookla Mok" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 11:15 AM
Subject: [SHADO] Close-up viewmaster reels


>
> If I recall correctly, the viewmaster changed the story slightly from the
TV
> version. The space probe found an earth-like planet. On the tv show
wasn't
> there some kind of technical screw-up that made the pictures useless?
>
> Shaking out the cobwebs from 30 years ago........
>

It differed in the Miall book also. The probe found an earthlike planet,
complete with pollution, as I remember. It (the probe) was actually quite
excited about it.

And hey, I liked Close Up, one of my favorites, even though I agree it was
one of the worst written, and acted, and thought out in general.
The worst ep, by far, was Long Sleep. Not only did it have a lot of dumb
oversights in it, but it didn't even feel like a UFO ep. It was like a last
desparate episode squeezed out after half the cast and crew had left for
other projects.

And, the pscychobombs babe name was Lynda Simmons Lynda Simmons Lynda
Simmons Lynda Simmons how could you not know that!

Dave H.

--- In [hidden email], Robert Thomas
<screwedmorethenonce@y...> wrote:

> Another thing FTL Intercepters? then why do they never intercept
the UFOes out around Pluto or Saturn? It is always very close to
Earth, so if they miss, you have no time to send a new group of
intercepters. Come on people, TV show or not, every one knows that
you intercept as far away from the target as you possibly can, just
in case you do miss. Simple tactics are always the best.


I think if you analyse the science of UFO too much, its full of holes.

Personally I think the advancements shown in what was then to be 10
years hence were pretty accurate when you look at what did actually
happen in 1980.

We had computers (why did they spell it computor though?) but they
weren't very powerful just like UFO.
No mobile phones in 1980 just like UFO.
No ray guns in 1980 unlike Space:1999 where we'd apparently even
developed them to stun or kill.
The Moonbase was impressive but still pretty modest. What I love
about the show is that they actually look at the price tag of some of
this hardware. The meeting with the UN was excellent with everyone
stunned at the cost and the time to set SHADO up. I loved the
americans repsonse where they insisted it was to be headed up by an
american as they were having to pay for most of it. These were all
themes touched upon in Doppelganger.

I was always a bit surprised by Strakers comment that most of the
valuable minerals on the moon had been taken already. Even over 10
years and assuming it was possible, that's a pretty quick timetable.
Ah well I suppose in 1970 we all thought that we'd be making regular
trips to the moon eventually.

So for the interceptors to only be able to operate in and around
earth and the moon made perfect sense. We only have the technology to
produce spacecraft that could operate locally anyway. To go to the
other planets would still take months or years(though it was never
explained how the probe in Close Up was able to achieve such
phenomenal speeds to get to the aliens homeworld). It was only when
the UFOs were slowing down on their approach to earth that we stood a
chance of intercepting them. Remember Straker's comment? "Thank
heaven for the atmosphere, its the best defence we've got!"

As for building a modest Moonbase similar to that on UFO it would
cost about 3 to 4 trillion dollars. That's 3 to 4 thousand billion
dollars. Its possible but it would be the single most expensive
project ever built by mankind and that's not including the 8 billion
dollars for each trip out there. Remember The Responsibility Seat
when Freeman launches SkyDiver for what turns out to be a weather
balloon? Ford and him knew that the cost would have to be accounted
for so Ford calls it a test launch.

"Cost, time, personnel, resources! You want reasons? I can give you a
hundred" Remember Conflict where the cost of removing space junk was
debated? Fabulous dialogue.

<<> On the tv show wasn't there some kind of technical
screw-up that
> made the pictures useless?

Yes, there was a screw up on the episode,>>

This has always been a bone of contention with me. I
believe the technician (can't remember his name) to
tells Straker there was a "fault," he sabotaged the
device making the photos useless---because he didn't
get his funding--and he was trying to make a point
with Straker about the micro-photography. Looking in
from the outside, I think this is totally obvious--but
from Straker's POV, he just took the guy at his word.

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ultramannick wrote:

> This has always been a bone of contention with me. I believe the
> technician (can't remember his name) to tells Straker there was a
> "fault," he sabotaged the device making the photos useless
> ---because he didn't get his funding--and he was trying to make a
> point with Straker about the micro-photography. Looking in from
> the outside, I think this is totally obvious--but from Straker's
> POV, he just took the guy at his word.
>

I strongly disagree - there is nothing in the script to support
the idea that Kelly sabotaged the probe. If the scriptwriters
had intended this, they would not have allowed him to get one
over on Straker, and get away with it.

Kelly is portrayed as a sympathetic figure - not someone who
would throw away billions of dollars and a potential advantage
against the aliens to make a point.

<<Kelly is portrayed as a sympathetic figure - not
someone who
would throw away billions of dollars and a potential
advantage
against the aliens to make a point.>>

When I first saw the episode in 1970 and even now,
Kelly comes across as a very vindictive character.
He's obviously pissed when he's told that funding was
denied...and if you watch his body language and
attitude toward Straker, it's strongly suggested
that's what he did. Maybe the script wasn't written
that way, but you could clearly interpret it that way.
If Kelly didn't want to make a point, he would have
said, "Commander, there was a failure--the photos are
useless. I'm sorry." But WHY would Kelly tell him they
was a fault...and then go into this entire
presentation of micro-photography---ending up using
Lt. Ellis as a "prop" and kind of putting Straker in
an embarassing situation (even though Kelly wasn't
privy to their conversation on the moon). He CLEARLY
wanted to make a point and make Straker look stupid.
Kelly didn't get his funding--and Straker didn't get
his photos.

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Some excellent interpretations... You've convinced me!!
I always thought there was something shifty about Kelly :O))

Jaime
http://jaime.net

On Thursday, August 14, 2003, at 07:33 AM, ultramannick wrote:

>it's strongly suggested
>that's what he did. Maybe the script wasn't written
>that way, but you could clearly interpret it that way.

Also note that there were cases in UFO where the directors
didn't really like the scripts they were given, and made
their own changes. Ken Turner made some real changes
to the MINDBENDER script, and probably should get a lot
of credit for it being such a good episode. Also, there
are some big differences between the script and episode
CLOSE UP. Also there's that final moment between
Straker and Nina in SUB SMASH, in which Nina's behavior
towards Straker is different than the script.

Marc

Hi all,

I see I've been doing a bad job keeping our UFO episode discussions
going at a regular pace -- oh well, what can I say? It's been a
hectic summer... :-)

So the next episode on the list is THE MAN WHO CAME BACK. Comments?
Opinions?
Let's hear them!

Marc

They have Department S on DVD?
Do they have the episode with Wanda Ventham?
If so Marc this is your chance!

James K. (whose computer was shotdown last week)


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If Alan Perry doesn't like the episode there is no one to blame but himself
he being the director.
As for me I liked it. And not just for the exposure it gave Gay Ellis thighs.
I'd be more than happy to discuss the matter with Mr. Perry at length. He
can pick the alley.

James K.








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

----- Original Message -----
From: "ultramannick" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Close-up viewmaster reels


Sorry dude, for whatever little my HO is worth I had to weigh in. Can't
believe for a second that Kelly would blow such a significant project on a
point like that. He seemed entirely sincere in the episode, in spite of his
own project desires, and people CAN be dissappointed without sabotaging the
welfare of the entire human race over it.
....And as for Ellis's little show, they might as well use her for a
little tease in the episode, as they're paying her salary.

Dave H.

I don't think Kelly did anything to the probe. No matter how careful we try
to be things will go wrong. It happened with the Hubble Space Telescope where
they did not grind the mirror correctly the first time. It has happen with
several recent Mars Explorer probes. You think this could be because someone
at NASA is in league with the Marians to keep up from nosing round their
backyard and taking naughty photos of Dejah Thoris?

Kelly had a right to be a bit angry as he was asking for so little for his
project and the probe cost so much. And don't you forget if there was any hint
of sabotage that Straker would have found out and and the person behind it
would get the short trip the the firing range.

James K.


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