Confetti Check A-OK.

In this programme, Straker tells Freeman
that he wants to tell his Wife, Mary Straker,
about SHADO under the studio, to alleviate
his guilt (Straker's) over his unsocial/long hours. Freeman counsel's
Straker against it, as it would seriously foul up security, & put Mary
Straker's life at risk. This would strongly suggest Straker's wife never
knew about Straker's secret career.

I also got the distinct impression from "Confetti Check" that Mary Straker
has some sort of Psychological problem(s), and also has very manipulative
parents, which would have made Straker's ex unable to cope if she knew the
whole truth about SHADO & UFO's.

--- In [hidden email], "Kevin Lazenby" <KevinLazenby8@a...>
wrote:
> In this programme, Straker tells Freeman
> that he wants to tell his Wife, Mary Straker,
> about SHADO under the studio, to alleviate
> his guilt (Straker's) over his unsocial/long hours. Freeman
counsel's
> Straker against it, as it would seriously foul up security, & put
Mary
> Straker's life at risk. This would strongly suggest Straker's wife
never
> knew about Straker's secret career.
>
> I also got the distinct impression from "Confetti Check" that Mary
Straker
> has some sort of Psychological problem(s), and also has very
manipulative
> parents, which would have made Straker's ex unable to cope if she
knew the
> whole truth about SHADO & UFO's.

It's hard to say isn't it? My impression would be that she was used
to being doted on but that could be unfair. Here she is newly married
and all of a sudden this handsome guy who has been paying her a lot
of attention starts staying away late at night. I get the impression
that Straker treated her as the princess and treasured her but didn't
share an awful lot with her in the way of his feelings or what he was
doing. If they'd had better communication things probably would have
worked out. I know he couldn't say much about what he was doing but
he could have said something. Does this make her psycotic, no. I
think her reactions are probably fairly typical for someone in that
situation.

You're right about the parents being interfering though. Little hard
to make excuses for your husband when photos of him being with
another woman are shoved in your face.

This is a interesting episode. My husband and I always differ on who is right
or wrong in the whole situation. He feels that Mary was correct in her first
statement at the airport. (waiting to leave on their honeymoon before being
interrupted by Henderson.) This statement being that she married a Colonel in
the Military intelligence. I take this as she understood what his position
intailed. There were certain things he had to do, because of his job. My husband
feels that her latter opinion of Ed's late hours and her reactions were
unacceptable. ([and he'd personally give her the old heave ho) Personally I can
understand both sides of the story. The late hours would start to wear on a marriage
especially if you didn't know why. I more or less think she found it
difficult to handle as it occurred more and more..and the long nights became later.
This may have improved in time. The pregnancy and hormonal changes probably
added to the mix. Also her meddling mother adding her two cents and putting an
idea in her head. I found it ironic that the mother wasn't even there when Mary
was taken to the hospital. Seems funny when she was phoning probably frequently
and it was said at the end that her Dad and Mary would sit and have a long
talk with the Mother. Where was the old girl?? Lol
On the other hand as she had originally said she knew who she had married.
She had full knowledge before taking the vows...just my opinion Amy :0)


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

CONTENTS DELETED

lol I would have made it work...partially because I am biased. Also I believe
in trust...until you know definitely that you can't for whatever reason. Mary
should have trusted Ed and know that whatever he did was for the good of them
both.


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

I've always been of the opinion that Mary was incapable of independent
thought of any kind. She knew she married a man who would have secrets (not
the no-tell-motel-kind, but top security), and she made no effort when ed
started keeping late hours to take a part time job, to take up a hobby to
get to know her neighbours, yada yada yada. In other words she was a useless
female who thought her husband was there to make HER happy, when we all know
that that it we ourselves who have the capacity to make ourselves happy or
not. The scriptwriters depicted her pretty bleakly in any eps in which she
appeared.

Pam

I don't know if this has ever been mentioned or posited before in regards to
Mary's parents, but what if they hadn't WANTED her to marry Straker (for any
number of weird reasons including jealousy that they would no longer be No
#1 in her life et al) and that was why the mother opted for a PI and had
Straker trailed - she and Daddy were LOOKING for reasons to break that
marriage up?

Pam

CONTENTS DELETED

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Lazenby" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 8:30 AM
Subject: [SHADO] Confetti Check A-OK.


-----------------------------------------------------------


Not necesarily. She can know that he is in the military, but not be able
to know his REAL JOB in the military, and there is nothing in that
conversation that disputes that.

It's easy to see that she knows the Studio is just a cover for him and
that he is in a secret military project. The issue Straker and Freeman are
discussing in that scene above, is whether he should tell her the truth
about the SHADO portion of his secret military career....not that he isn't a
film exec.

Service members on secret projects frequently tell cover stories to
their families. This is a common thing in military life - for instance; all
the test pilots for the Air Force's "Have Blue" project (developing the
F-117 Stealth in the 80's) would lie to all their families saying they were
doing avionics testing on the A-7 Corsair. ....Why they needed to do that
for long hours at night, nobody seemed to question, but they accepted it for
years....

....Just like Mary did for Straker, until his continual absence grew so
intrusive into their lives that it was breaking up the marriage and opening
the door to suspicion and mistrust. From there, it was easy for doubt, and
then paranoia to develop, especially when being egged on by other friends
and relatives of her's.

It's surprizing the flak Mary catches for her behaviour in this show.
Everything she goes thru is entirely logical and understandable to me, and
I'm even a man!
....And if *I* can see it, being one of those insensitive, piggish
lout neandertals that we're frequently accused of being, then I'm surprized
to be seeing other women defending him and critisizing her for it.

Try living through for real, what she went through for so long, and
you'll eventually see that those pretty blue eyes and bleached blond hair
just aren't worth it.

Dave H.

>Sure, I am biased as hell, but I think Straker met her, fell in love with
love, and she was available and mistakenly thought everything would work
out.
She wasn't right for him, and he wasn't right for her.

Amelia

Amelia....YOU? BIASED?! LOL Maybe just a little. But I think the real
problem with Mary is that she is a child of her generation...she got married
and expected that "to build a life together" meant "build my world around my
husband". She gave up her identity to become a house frau and then got p-d
off when Ed turned out not to be that kind of 9-5 guy that would come home
at a certain hour every night and spend time with her. I wonder if she would
have kept working, even part-time if she would have had a little more
"sympathy" for Ed's workaholic nature.

I read in one of the "Archives" blurbs that Ed met her and 2 months later
married her. She worked as a secretary in the Ministry of Defense or some
such (where she also met her second husband...oddly enough). Hmmm.



Amy:

>lol I would have made it work...partially because I am biased. Also I
believe
in trust...until you know definitely that you can't for whatever reason.
Mary
should have trusted Ed and know that whatever he did was for the good of
them
both.


I think Mary had a right to "question" his loyalty to the
marraige...especially after the pictures. But she was really irrational not
to even let him tell his side of it. We never see her mother (not even at
the wedding if I recall) which makes it seem like the mettle old battle axe
didn't approve of the marraige in the first place. LOL

Samantha

CONTENTS DELETED

You go girl!!! clap clap clap ;0) I can appreciate what you say as my Dad was
a cop working crazy shifts. Mom hardly saw him, but they were married to the
day he died. That's what a marriage is all about. My Father-in-law was a
Federal agent. Just like Straker there were late nights and a lot of information
that could not be told.....even to this day...classified stuff. My Grandfather
also worked for the federal government. Long hours and untold information was
also a factor. My grandparents were married 51 years there again until he had
passed away. Somethings are just worth fighting for and being patience about
:0)


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I've put on my flameproof clothing because I'll probably get torched for
this, but here goes:

Am I the only one who found the entire concept of the title of this episode
just a little too sweet and -- sorry -- stupid? The confetti check is what
I'm talking about.
OK, it may have been cute the first time they did it. But couldn't they just
have stopped there?
Later in the ep, I think they do a confetti check when there was no reason
for him to even have confetti in his hair.

Hey... Where's your sense of romance ;)

Griff

-----Original Message-----
From: D Persica [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 11:14 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Confetti Check A-OK.




I've put on my flameproof clothing because I'll probably get torched for
this, but here goes:

Am I the only one who found the entire concept of the title of this episode
just a little too sweet and -- sorry -- stupid? The confetti check is what
I'm talking about.
OK, it may have been cute the first time they did it. But couldn't they just
have stopped there?
Later in the ep, I think they do a confetti check when there was no reason
for him to even have confetti in his hair.

I have a sense of romance. I guess I just don't have a sense of goofy.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Griff" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 5:17 AM
Subject: RE: [SHADO] Confetti Check A-OK.


>
> Hey... Where's your sense of romance ;)
>
> Griff
>

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 03:10:24 EST
[hidden email] wrote:

> Did you ever think what would have happened if he HAD told her? He
> more than likely would have been injected with the amnesia drug and
> kissed his career goodbye.

Well, the amnesia drug has an effective span of 24 hrs or so, if I
remember correctly, so they wouldn't have done that. In any event,
it would have been more than his career that he would have kissed
goodbye; he would have faced serious discipline involving a long
custodial sentence for a breach of discipline like that, or quite
possibly, a fatal accident would have been arranged for him. Mary as
well, no doubt.

James

--- In [hidden email], "D Persica" <dennispersica@b...> wrote:

Actually it's one of the things I liked in that episode because
something similar happened to my husband and I when we were married.
We didn't do the confetti check before we went into the hotel but we
did it after the hotel clerk congratulated us. I guess there must be
a new glow about married couples that screams out "we just got
married".

Karen

> I have a sense of romance. I guess I just don't have a sense of
goofy.

--- In [hidden email], "davrecon" <davrecon@n...> wrote:
>
>


> ....Just like Mary did for Straker, until his continual absence
grew so
> intrusive into their lives that it was breaking up the marriage and
opening
> the door to suspicion and mistrust. From there, it was easy for
doubt, and
> then paranoia to develop, especially when being egged on by other
friends
> and relatives of her's.

I really agree with you on this.

It's interesting because before coming here I read a gossip clip
about Gwyneth Paltrow:

>"Last year, it was claimed Chris had upset Gwyneth for "deserting"
>her for work.

>The singer had been spending up to 18 hours a day in the recording
>studio."

She's been married less than a year to her husband and has a nine
month old daughter and it seems the long hours he's putting in is
straining their marriage. I immediately thought of this episode.

My first instinct when watching this episode is to dislike Mary
for "not sticking by her man" but the more I think about it the more
I realise that maybe she made the right decision, for her at least
anyway.

Someone said she'd only known Straker for two months before marrying
him. That's not a lot of time to build a firm foundation for a
relationship. He probably wasn't working 18 hour days when he was
courting her so there's no reason for her to have thought that he
would be spending that much time away from her once she was married.
Thinking you can put up with someone being away and actually living
through the reality are two different things.

I remember back a few years ago when my husband had to put in long
hours at work. He came in late every night for about a month. I knew
exactly where he was and what he was doing. I even phoned him at work
sometimes just to chat and encourage him. This is after 24 years of
marriage and I have to admit that I was still a bit paranoid
about where he was and what he was doing. Then he comes home to tired
to do anything (if you catch my drift) and you know it's the strain
of work but then you start doubting yourself.

I've gone from disliking Mary to thinking that she was intelligent
enough early on to realise the situation she'd gotten herself into
and that she had enough self-esteem to figure she was worth more than
what was being offered.

I'm also honest enought to admit that you're right, I am influenced
by the hair and "pretty blue eyes" :)

Karen


> Dave H.

Like I said, the first time was fine with me. It's the fact that they did it again at some other point when he wouldn't possibly have had confetti in his hair that I thought was a little syrupy. (And did they do it a third time? I don't recall)

I think Ed was just trying to lighten the moment when he said it the second
time....seeing that Mary was ticked off at him:) I always thought it was kind
of cute, but I am biased like the rest of the Ed Bishop chicks....lol


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