ESP

I know it's been a while. It has been really busy at
work since Christmas. And then, unexpectedly, I ended
up adopting two feral kittens. I've been spending a
lot of my spare time taming and domesticating them.
But I'm back. Too many good episodes yet to go.


ESP

ESP is one of my favorite episodes. I think the
reason for that is that Croxley makes both a creepy
and sympathetic character, an interesting combination
. On the other hand, I found Croxley’s wife a shrill
and annoying person.

The episode starts with Croxley leaving work, heading
for his classic camero. The guard at the gate speaks,
surprising Croxley, but that is itself is suprising,
because Croxley suffers from acute ESP. He gets to
the car and we see that he and his wife have about
reached their breaking point because of that ESP. He
can’t seem to stop replying before she makes the
comment.

Croxley’s wife has nagged him into going to a
psychiatrist to try to get some help. The doctor
thinks that there is something blocking his ability to
get to the source of Croxley’s problem. Croxley
decides he shouldn’t have come. And his wife is going
to have a visitor.

Meanwhile a UFO is inbound and it is behaving
unusually – it is zigzagging as it comes in. Straker
arrives just as Alec is getting nervous. Yes, the UFO
is not making the usual approach. An attempt to
intercept it fails, wiping the silly grins off of
Alec’s and Straker’s faces. It’s still out there and
it’s made it past Moonbase defenses.

Straker orders Paul Foster to the expected target area
and the area cordoned off as John Croxley heads home.
He asks if her visitor has arrived yet.

I love the comment Straker makes about, “What could it
want in the middle of a wilderness of trees and
brrracken”.

A SHADO team stops Croxley at a road block telling him
there are military maneuvers. The UFO is going to
crash! No, it’s just Stella’s visitor arriving by
flying straight through her bedroom. Poor Stella! At
least the cat got out. When Paul closes in on the
UFO, it explodes. The poor guy with him is a classic
red shirt.

Feeling something important is up, Straker takes Alec
to the wreck of the house. They go in and survey the
damage. Notice the weird way Ed Bishop held his head
as he looked up. I think it was to keep the wig from
coming off. Straker find’s the wife’s compact. He
should talk to the husband.

Alec goes out and sends Croxley in. Croxley sees to
already be zeroing in on something inside. I think it
is significant that all Croxley knows is the
experimental plane explanation. He doesn’t seem to
pick up the UFO part from Straker. Ed comments
afterward to Alec that Croxley seemed to know exactly
what he was going to say.

Time goes by and Straker is reading reports. The most
interesting thing to me is he is sitting on the wrong
side of the desk. Alec mentions he went to see Paul
and he wants to see Straker.

Next scene is Straker visiting a bare-chested Paul in
the hospital (well bare except for the bandages).
Paul is concerned that everytime he looks up there is
a man looking at him and he gets a queasy feeling.
Straker asks if he called him all the way out there to
tell him that. Ah, but as soon as Straker leaves we
see Croxley peaking in the door dressed in medical
scrubs.

Straker arrives at work. Miss Ealand is checking out
a manila envelop covered with stamps. It’s just
paper. Straker jokes with her about it being a small
atom bomb. It’s probably just a script. And just so
happens Paul is back at work.

Straker walks in, shakes hands with Paul, then tells
him to come to his office. Alec gets this evil grin
on his face like Paul is being called the principal’s
office until Straker call him in also. Then Straker
kids Paul about his little friend. My, he’s in a good
mood this morning!

Paul almost gets shot by the ubiquitous Croxley.
Straker calls Alec back down to his office. That
supposed film script is the lowdown on SHADO. The
writer? It’s on the front, John Croxley. But the
figure out he must have been Paul’s little man in the
hospital.

Straker and Alec visit the Doctor who tells them that
Croxley has ESP. He can anticipate things. He can
carry on a conversation without the other person
saying a word. Croxley called here for you earlier
today. He wants you to meet him at the ruins of his
house at ten tonight. “And how did he know we’d be
here?” “ESP?” LOL!

So of course Straker insists they go out there alone
so as not to scare him off. They arrive early.
Meanwhile Paul is having problems, fixating on the
house. Maybe he should go back there and overcome his
anxiety.

Alec and Straker enter the house and find Croxley.
Croxley says he’s had ESP all of his life but it got
worse about a year ago. When Alec mentions UFOS he
yells at him to shut up. He accuses Straker of
killing his wife. Straker tries to reason with him.
When Croxley goes and puts a gun at Straker’s head he
says Straker is thinking about his mother. It’s now
almost midnight now.

Croxley is frantically trying to stay in control.
Then he is channeling the aliens. “Our planet is
dying. Our natural resources are exhausted. We must
come to earth. We must come to earth to survive.”
Next he’s reliving part of his past. In an attempt
to get the gun, Croxley shoots Straker in the hand.
“We mean no harm to the peoples of earth. Why do you
attack us? We’re fighting for existence. You must
understand!”

It is time. Then Paul Foster shoots him from behind.
Funny, when Straker bends over him and checks to see
if he’s dead, there isn’t blood on his hand anymore.
Straker believes Croxley knew Paul was coming and
chose to be killed.

The final scene has Alec and Straker talking and
having a drink in Straker’s office. Straker’s glass
holds a brown liquid. Is this the alcohol he says he
doesn’t drink? Straker shreds the file Croxley wrote.


There’s some things I want to comment on. As much as
I like the episode, I don’t understand how the action
in the house ruins took 2 hours. Or did Straker and
Alec sit out there until a long time after their 10 PM
meeting? I have to guess that Croxley actually put
the suggestion into Paul’s head to come to the house.

The big question left by the episode is about what
Croxley “channels” from the aliens. Is it the truth?
Somehow I doubt that. Is it something Croxley picked
up from Paul or Straker? Or are the aliens telling
Straker and Alec what they expect to hear? I’m not
sure what to think.

Would Straker think about his mother at the point of
his death? Or was it something he was doing to try to
throw Croxley off. It seemed curious to me.

As creep as Croxley was, I feel sorry for him. He
didn’t ask to be a UFO victim. They killed his wife
to make him cooperate. And then he sacrificed himself
to thwart them. The poor man.

Diorite

--- In [hidden email], Diorite Gabbro wrote:

> I know it's been a while. It has been really busy at
> work since Christmas. And then, unexpectedly, I ended
> up adopting two feral kittens. I've been spending a
> lot of my spare time taming and domesticating them.
> But I'm back. Too many good episodes yet to go.


Hi Diorite,

Thanks for the very entertaining review of ESP :-) Glad to see
you're back on the most important task, although the temporary
reassignment was imho a very valid one ;-) I hope both the kittens
do well :-D

"ESP" is one of those episodes it pays not to think about too much;
like "Mindbender", it really does mess with the mind, in a futile
attempt to rationalize why things happen as they do, although it
doesn't stop me trying..!? ;-/ It leaves so many more questions
unanswered than are answered - if this makes any sense - which is
surely one of the characteristics that makes UFO such a great series,
although some might say this is entirely due to overly large plot
holes ;-)

I also felt sorry for Croxley; as if he didn't have enough trouble
suffering with acute ESP that was destroying his marriage, the aliens
had to try and use him to do their dirty work, albeit unwillingly.  
His long-suffering wife was given a swift yet merciful exit and "Mr
and Mrs Average" entered the SHADO incident files as the tragic
victims of an inexplicable, if suspicious alien miss-hit.

According to the script, on entering the ruined house Straker is
looking up because of a fall of dust, that is meant to bring home how
dangerous it is for him to be there, although your theory is just as
credible ;-) One of the aspects that endears is the interaction
between the three SHADO men; all the more interesting because of the
lack of much dramatic action, this episode relies more on their
differing perspectives of the increasingly tense situation.

I can never justify why Straker meekly goes along to meet Croxley as
requested, when surely he ought to have figured out the only likely
reason can be to kill them? Freeman - with his more devious thought
patterns - has worked this out, yet disbelieves Croxley's ESP.  
Perhaps Straker, who was convinced about Croxley's powers, realised
the aliens were controlling him and planned to use this to his own
advantage, in some way?  

I don't know whether the following is true, but soldiers fatally
injured in battle purportedly call for their own mothers at the
moment of death. It's probably fallacy, but might have been what the
scriptwriter was thinking of? Whatever was meant it succeeded in
unbalancing Croxley even further. I don't think Paul's arrival at
the house was anything but sheer coincidence; "fate", as Straker and
Freeman later toasted. Maybe Croxley was able to read the alien's
minds as well as humans and decided to stick with his own; he knew he
was a dead man whatever happened.

As for that "alcohol" - it was ginger ale - LOL! Freeman had
scotch; what else would you expect? ;-) All in all I always enjoy
watching ESP; it's a nice episode, with John Stratton stealing the
show for his creepy but sympathetic performance as the ill-fated
Croxley.


Sarah