Food for thought...

This from 'The Guinness Book of Classic British TV';

'UFO, Anderson's flawed masterpiece... has been treated badly by
British television, never having been networked and acquiring an
undeserved reputation for being, in some way, 'dodgy', which has
meant that several excellent (although perfectly harmless) episodes
have never been shown terrestrially outside of a late night slot...
Ed Bishop's dour Commander Straker was in all of the episodes, but
because of the curious filming schedule (UFO was filmed in two
blocks, one of 17 episodes, then a further nine with a break in
between), the cast was seldom the same two episodes running...
The best episodes made use of the series' sweeping, multi-character
aspect, which gave UFO a filmic quality... UFO's reputation, however,
was made by the four episodes given restricted time
slots. 'Mindbender' was a surreal episode in which Straker touches a
hallucinatory alien rock. He finds himself wandering around the UFO
studio set, having his dialogue stopped by a shout of 'Cut!' from
Sylvia Anderson, talking to Paul Foster, who tells him he is an actor
called Michael, and watches 'rushes' of previous episodes.
Feely's 'Timelash' was deemed to be risky after Bishop and Wanda
Ventham injected themselves with drugs to counteract an alien device
which was slowing down time. 'The Responsibility Seat', a
straightforward tale of the isolation of command, contained scenes in
which beautiful spy Jane Merrow seduced the SHADO chief. The last
episode caused the most fuss. 'The Long Sleep', with its monochrome
tinted hallucinatory dream sequences, plethora of drug speech, and an
implied rape, was provocative enough to be totally banned in certain
regions.
The episode has never been shown on terrestrial television before
10:30 p.m.'

Hmmm...

Andy

CONTENTS DELETED

Hi Amelia,

<<That's an extraordinary review.>>

Yes, it seems like a very good book. And I'm sure the
reviewers were being honest in their opinions, as
shown by their review of another Anderson show,
'Space:1999';

'the premise was excellent... Unfortunately, despite a
promising beginning, a clutch of guest stars... and
several well-remembered episodes... the series was
vacuous, slow-moving hippie drivel. A second season,
made in 1976, tried to be a more standard adventure,
and, in doing so, found new ways to be awful.'

OUCH !

<<One of the rare reviews that doesn't overlook the
excellence of UFO simply because it included babes in
purple bobs.>>

Yeah. It highlights how some of the things that made
'UFO' such a good series - dealing with 'adult' issues
like sex, death and drugs - were the very things that
made it impossible to get a regular time slot on TV
(what TV exec in their right mind would schedule a
show with an LSD 'trip' scene at a 'family viewing'
time ?). This in turn made it impossible to build up
sufficient of a regular viewer base to get a second
series. 'UFO' was, ironically, a victim of its own
excellence.

Regards,

Andy


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Andy Lovie wrote:

<<
Found the Guinness book containing the 'UFO'review in
the library this morning - kind of a consolation prize
after finding the Chris Drake 'UFO-Space 1999' in
their stock list, but the librarians were unable to
find either the copy of the book or any borrowing
history... weird... guess either SHADO or the green
guys don't want people to read the book ;)
>>

Someone probably stole it. <grrrrrr>


LOL! But true! :-)

BUMMER!

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Hi Yuchtar,

<<Andy Lovie wrote:

<<in the library this morning... f(ound) the Chris
Drake 'UFO-Space 1999' in their stock list, but the
librarians were unable to find either the copy of the
book or any borrowing history... weird... guess either
SHADO or the green guys don't want people to read the
book ;) >>

<<Someone probably stole it. <grrrrrr> >>

Yeah - but was it SHADO or the aliens ? No borrowing
history, remember ? <g,d&r>

> 'Space:1999';
>
> 'the premise was excellent... Unfortunately, despite
> a promising beginning, a clutch of guest stars...
and
> several well-remembered episodes... the series was
> vacuous, slow-moving hippie drivel. A second season,
> made in 1976, tried to be a more standard adventure,
> and, in doing so, found new ways to be awful.'
>
> OUCH !

LOL! But true! :-) >>

Sadly, yes... quoted the above as much because it
shows the reviewers have their heads screwed on
properly as that the review is horribly funny ;^

> Yeah. It highlights how some of the things that made
> 'UFO' such a good series - dealing with 'adult'
issues
> like sex, death and drugs - were the very things
that
> made it impossible to get a regular time slot on TV
> (what TV exec in their right mind would schedule a
> show with an LSD 'trip' scene at a 'family viewing'
> time ?). This in turn made it impossible to build up
> sufficient of a regular viewer base to get a second
> series. 'UFO' was, ironically, a victim of its own
> excellence.

BUMMER!>>

Yes - but at the same time, suggestive perhaps that a
revamp might find a new audience, a la 'The X-Files',
more adult and prepared to enjoy sci-fi with a black
side, maybe even with the dark side predominant.
'UFO:2010', here we come !

Regards,

Andy



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snip

>Yeah - but was it SHADO or the aliens ? No borrowing
>history, remember ? <g,d&r>

Nah, it was the Smoking Man from X Files, still trying
to stay ahead of SHADO....<vbseg>.

snip

>Yes - but at the same time, suggestive perhaps that a
>revamp might find a new audience, a la 'The X-Files',
>more adult and prepared to enjoy sci-fi with a black
>side, maybe even with the dark side predominant.
>'UFO:2010', here we come !

Yep. Judging from X-Philedom, the darker side might play
pretty well these days....

Joyce
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