FLIGHT PATH comments?

Hi all,

Okay, we're a week into our UFO episode discussion for the episode
"Flight Path", and I haven't seen many comments. Anyone got anything
to say about this episode?

Mard

Well, you just *had* to ask, didn't you? :)

Here it is -- warts and all.....

It seems our quirky series is beginning to focus a bit. I like the mystery
aspect of this episode -- who, what, where? Those kind of SF stories are
always my favorite. I liked the music and the special effects were good, too.
That UFO flying about on the Moon was really cool. I guess Paul dies at the
end -- I wasn't quite sure, but the "bubble" and the look on his face before
the end credits was enough to give it away. :)

One thing that struck me about this episode was the use of COLOR -- we've said
it before and we'll say it again -- UFO is VERY colorful! It really strikes
home as compared to Space:1999 which was intentionally monochormatic
throughout Alpha. The eye shadow that Gay Ellis wears is a *tad* freaky ---
it's not bad, but I can't see any woman subjecting herself to all that time to
put it on and then highlight it with a little crystal!

I loved the contrasting colors in Paul's house -- very groovy, man! After
seeing it, I was thinking of making a bedroom with all sorts of built in
drawers and cabinets. Great idea -- no furniture to dust! :)

I think we're heading in the right direction -- episodes are getting better,
though they are still a bit "ploddish" in the action department.

Overall: C+

Anthony
ps: when did you change your name to "Mard"?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 3:30 PM
Subject: [SHADO] FLIGHT PATH comments?


> Hi all,
>
> Okay, we're a week into our UFO episode discussion for the episode
> "Flight Path", and I haven't seen many comments. Anyone got anything
> to say about this episode?
>
> Mard
>

I' ve now watched this episode twice. I watched it last Saturday on
my VHS copied from the Japanese Laser Disc and today on my new DVD UFO set
1(I got the last one in the store<VBG>).
Flight Path is one of the top episodes of UFO in the plotting. It
shows it greatness in how it features all the cast and particularly the guest
stars. That was one of the things that was great about UFO is that it was
not built around one cast member so they could do stories featuring any of
the cast or guest stars. I alway thought it was very funny that Gunsmoke was
centered on one character who in the later years of the series only showed up
at the end of the show to shoot that weeks main bad guy.
The plot is very interesting having Roper blackmailed into helping the
aliens by threats to his wife. The aliens also have put some type of mind
control device into Dawson which tells that they know alot about SHADO and
its personnel.
I did spot two big errors in the episode. Where did that first
shotgun load go? When Roper comes home after Carol has been scared by Dawson
she shoots. But she doesn't seem to hit anything? We see when she shoots
Dawson at the midway point of the episode that a 12 bore shotgun makes a big
hole in the door. But when she mistakenly fires at Paul coming home, nothing
is damaged.
The other is how did they find out it was Dawson who was the one
working for the aliens? You see security men report they haven't seen him
but how did they know he is the one to look for?
Another thing worth mention. We talk alot about how Gerry and Sylvia
were ahead of their time and did things first. We they seem to also have
been years aheard of everyone else in Product Placement. If you aren't
familar with the term that is where a brand name product is featured
prominately in a film or TV show. We know that Ed Bishop wore his Certina
watch given him by Gerry & Sylvia all through the series and even now. And
I think I recall that someone said that Wanda Ventham also was given one.
Well please not that during this episode Roper is seen wearing two different
Cerina watches. The one he has on that is a dress model as he looks at the
time when he is suppose to be contacted by the aliens and the one he has on
that is a sport model over his spacesuit on the moon. So do you think it is
safe to say that Certina is the Official watch of SHADO?
One other thing is I noted that in this episode that Alec trying to be
the good guy lets Roper who Straker has set as a stalking goat go early after
Straker sets a trap by holding the intercom open to let everyone know when
Roper will be released. This of course upsets Strakers plan to give him
protection.
Now since I have got my DVD set so late I have so say how impressed I
am by it. The colors on the discs are much brighter and everything cleared
than on my VHS copies made over the years by kind friends. I really loved
hearing Gerry's comments about everything. Can't wait for Set Two. The only
thing I hate is the digi pack. It is a terrible was to package the set.

James K.


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

>I did spot two big errors in the episode.

To me, the biggest error is that Straker tells Alec that they figured
out that Roper's figures were incorrect, then a few minutes later we
see that the gals on Moonbase & SID were still working on figuring
out that the figures were incorrect! The original script (on my
website) has these two scenes properly ordered, but someone must have
messed up while editing the episode.

Marc