Hello

I stumbled on to this group via Marc Martin's excellent website and I just thought I'd say hello.

I've been a fan of "UFO" since the early seventies, between the ages of about 10 and 12, when I thought it was absolutely wonderful. At that time, it reflected the optimism about spaceflight which persisted before the budget cuts of the next decade. It seemed almost self evident that in a few years there would really be a moonbase and spaceflight would become as common as flying to Australia.

I still watch it on video from time to time, and it's still enjoyable, but with age becomes more apparent some of the wooden acting and creaky dialogue.I think that a major problem with the programme was that it really wasn't sure of its audience. Amongst all the action adventure scenarios typical of the earlier Gerry Anderson series were more complex themes involving marriage breakdown, the "alternative" culture of the sixties and the occasional scenes of a sexual or violent nature, although very tame by today's post modern viewpoint. No wonder the regional TV stations in the UK were unable to find a regular slot for it.

However, the special effects still stand up well, and the opening title sequence and music are among the most exciting I can recall. For that matter, the closing credits and accompanying music have retained an eerie quality. I think Barry Gray was probably a genius.
My favourite episodes are "A Question of Priorities" and "Mindbender". My least favourite episode is "Close Up" which contains some of the worst scientific implausibilities and inaccuracies of the entire series. I think the script editor must have been on holiday when that one went through. Just how could they send a probe to follow a UFO travelling at many times the speed of light? And when it does get there, the camera has a fault.... why don't they just send another one? It seems that the only reason for this episode was to use microphotography (if that's the right word) techniques and display gratuitous close ups of Gabrielle Drake's legs...which isn't such a bad idea, I suppose.

And Ed Bishop was, of course, a really cool dude. Did anyone see the programme a few months back on Stanley Kubrick, which included Ed talking about his role in 2001? He played a lunar shuttle pilot wearing what looks suspiciously like a cinema commissionaire's uniform. How come he was never a bigger star? He was certainly no more wooden than Martin Landau, and certainly a lot less gloomy.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw in my thoughts, for what they're worth.

See ya!








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

Peter,

Hello and welcome! My own UFO experience is fairly similar to
yours. I was absolutely addicted at the age of 10, then on
rediscovering it years later in my twenties I was really
surprised to see how poor some of the scripts and the acting
had somehow become in the intervening years ... But despite
its faults there is still a lot to love about UFO - the basic
idea, the music, the hardware, the clothes and the sets ..

I agree with you about Close Up too - definitely my own least
favourite episode. It just doesn't seem to make sense in many
respects. My own favourite episodes are Exposed and The Man WHo
Came Back.

Not sure about Martin Landau / Ed Bishop comparison - I think
I would nominate Landau as the less wooden of the two, at
least at the time. But Bishop had his moments, and was
definitely more charismatic.

Cheers
James