Lt. Gar Ellis

Say, in light of all this, what would you all consider
to be the worst episode of U.F.O. and why?

Jim Main
--- Pamela McCaughey <[hidden email]> wrote:




____________________________________________________________________________________
Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.
Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta.
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html 

> Say, in light of all this, what would you all consider
> to be the worst episode of U.F.O. and why?

Heh, heh... you're likely to get 26 different answers
for this question... for me, I'd say it's ORDEAL.

Marc

Marc-you forgot to expain why you think so highly of
it?
Jim Main
--- Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:




____________________________________________________________________________________
Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels
in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit.
http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097

> Marc-you forgot to expain why you think so highly of
> it?

Oh, sorry!

In my "UFO Series Guide", I wrote the following:

Review: This is my least favorite episode of the
series. The ending is dissapointing, the writing
and acting is poor, and the episode is loaded
with filler shots. Grade: D

I should also add that the episode is somewhat
of a waste, because anything we learn about
SHADO and the Aliens cannot be trusted, as
the whole episode is a dream.

However, when I went and read the original
script, I think it might have been better
if they filmed it in the way the episode
was originally intended. That is, Straker's
behavior became more and more unbelievable,
and one would probably get the impression
half way through the episode that something
weird was going on. There was a Captain
Scarlet episode like this, and I thought
that worked. Although in that episode,
they took advantage of the dream and killed
off some regular characters (Space:1999
did this as well).

So, I guess if they were going to do a UFO
"dream" episode, they should have at
least destroyed Moonbase, killed off
Straker, etc. THAT would have been
interesting...

Marc

I HATE The Cat with 10 Lives. It is anti-feline, and very very silly. I have
written several fan fi UFO pieces giving Straker 4 Siamese cats who end up
saving his life several times in retaliation for that eps! Pam the Canuck

I have several favourite eps - Sub-Smash being at the top of the list I
think. The Responsibility Seat is good too. Ordeal is great. And yes, I do
like the Dalotek Affair even tho its got a dumb romance in it. I prefer the
action-adventure angle of UFO, plus the neat hardware - I find romance a bit
more than my stomach can take, ha ha! Pam the Canuck

I believe the term "jump the shark" refers to the moment when a television show goes downhill, when it has gone as far as it can go, and can't get any better, only worse.

That is according to what I've been reading at the Jump The Shark web site.

Clay <[hidden email]> wrote:
I've seen that a bunch lately: "Jump the shark". What does that exactly
mean? If it's in reference to Fonzi jumping over a shark on Happy Days
and the fortelling demise of a show, then how can we explain that Happy
Days had about 100 more episodes after that one?

Just a thought.

__________________________________________________________
8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time
with the Yahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#news





---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.

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

> That is according to what I've been reading at the Jump The Shark web site.

Speaking of which, you can go read 3 pages of comments on why UFO did/did not
"jump the shark", and add your own comments here:

http://jumptheshark.com/topic/ufo-general-comments/2067

Marc

It never jumped the Shark in my opinion, just took a while to hit it's stride. But judging by Mindbender/Timelash/Long Sleep, I'd say it ended at it's peak of brilliance rather than ever getting to the point where it "lost it".

Worst ep? Hmm...well I like Cat With 10 Lives and I think the cat being possessed and having to die is tragic rather than anti-feline, just as Jim the interceptor dude's death is tragic. Ordeal's a bit naff at the end and I'm not keen on the song, but I still get entertained and there's a possible subtext in it that this is Foster's grotesque fears not only of being taken by aliens but also that Straker and co would "press the button on him" if taken, too. So, it kind of works for me. Close up is pretty flat but even then, I can see some merit. I might pick Ordeal if I absolutely had to pick one, but all in all, it may be UFO never had a truly bad episode in my opinion...or jumped the shark, either!

Best ep? Timelash by a country mile. Minbender, Long Sleep, Reflections, Psychobombs, Confetti Check, Priorities, Sub Smash all compete for second place and come about...er...equal!

Z.

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> That is according to what I've been reading at the Jump The Shark web site.

Speaking of which, you can go read 3 pages of comments on why UFO did/did not
"jump the shark", and add your own comments here:

http://jumptheshark.com/topic/ufo-general-comments/2067

Marc




Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com 
Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com 

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

I tumbled on this earlier. It's always interesting that people see
the same program and interpret things so differently!


--- In [hidden email], "Richard A. Shores" <richard@...> wrote: attractive,
> but at work she wanted to be admired for her capabilities. [snip]

But having your boss tell you how as
> good as a man that she had to perform better than them.
>
> Rather than telling her that that this view was wrong, Ed should
> have told her how much he admired her determination, and dedication.

[snip]
> Although Ed never intended them so, his comments made her feel like
> her work capabilities were being ignored. Something that wouldn't
> have been overlooked if she had been a man.



I didn't take this that way at all. Looked at from 2007 what Straker
says is outrageously sexist. But taken from the view of when it was
filmed, that isn't true (IMHO). I commented to a few friends when I
first got the DVDs and sat through them the first time that for the
time period (1969-1970) Straker is actually pretty touchy-feely, a
man who (when they let him) was aware of the emotions of those around
him.

What I saw was this: When Lt. Ellis said to Straker that it WAS a
rough schedule, he picked up on the fact that he had offended her.  
Later, when the crush of getting the probe off was over, he asked her
for coffee to give her a pep talk to make up for it.

He thanked her for her hard work and told her she was doing a fine
job. There's been lots of times I would have liked to hear that from
my boss. As her commanding officer, he did her a favor telling her
she's pushing too hard. It's in those situations that bad mistakes
get made. But he also told her she's doing as good a job as a man
would and that she didn't need to try harder and be better to get
ahead. Whereas today, unfortunately, many women still has to work
harder and be better to get less pay, we know Straker wasn't like
that. He had (especially for then!) a lot of women in positions of
authority. He wasn't interested in color or sex, just job
performance.

And then there is the comment about she shouldn't ever forget she's a
very attractive girl. Yeah, that can be taken as very
condescending. But there's another way to take it. I guess I feel
very sensitive about this because I am a woman in what is dominantly
a male profession. And one of the coping mechanisms I have seen too
often in other women in my field is that they pretend they aren't
women, they should be exactly like the men in dress, in behavior, in
how gross they should be. I took Straker's comment to mean he was
telling her she could be an effective officer AND a woman at the same
time. But that's me.

But I have to say I laugh every time I see the end of that scene,
when Paul Foster comes in. The look on Foster's face and the little
shake of Straker's head in response crack me up every time. And then
there is the classic line, "Never judge a situation by the end of the
conversation". LOL

Diorite

I always attributed that rather awkward conversation between Straker and Ellis as simply bad writing in a scene trying to depict the commander showing compassion for a subordinate.

Same for those rather letchurous comments from Alec towards those female operatives....bad writing trying to show Alec's character as being a fairly friendly and harmlessly flirtatious person with his female cohorts.

That first scene where they show Alec walking into SHADO Control and Ayshea playfully waving to him was, I thought, the perfect set-up for Alec's character. But then bad dialog writing kind of made him look awkward and silly after that.

I prefer to think of him in the context of that very first (and positive) impression. He's always been one of my favorite characters in the show. I always wished that they'd further pursued his good relationships with the females better in the series, but they just dropped it after that (and sometimes made him look silly.

Dave H


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



----- Original Message -----
From: Diorite
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 9:34 PM
Subject: [SHADO] Re: Gay Ellis's relationship with Cmdr Straker.


I tumbled on this earlier. It's always interesting that people see
the same program and interpret things so differently!

--- In [hidden email], "Richard A. Shores" <richard@...> wrote: attractive,
> but at work she wanted to be admired for her capabilities. [snip]

But having your boss tell you how as
> good as a man that she had to perform better than them.
>
> Rather than telling her that that this view was wrong, Ed should
> have told her how much he admired her determination, and dedication.

[snip]
> Although Ed never intended them so, his comments made her feel like
> her work capabilities were being ignored. Something that wouldn't
> have been overlooked if she had been a man.

I didn't take this that way at all. Looked at from 2007 what Straker
says is outrageously sexist. But taken from the view of when it was
filmed, that isn't true (IMHO). I commented to a few friends when I
first got the DVDs and sat through them the first time that for the
time period (1969-1970) Straker is actually pretty touchy-feely, a
man who (when they let him) was aware of the emotions of those around
him.

What I saw was this: When Lt. Ellis said to Straker that it WAS a
rough schedule, he picked up on the fact that he had offended her.
Later, when the crush of getting the probe off was over, he asked her
for coffee to give her a pep talk to make up for it.

He thanked her for her hard work and told her she was doing a fine
job. There's been lots of times I would have liked to hear that from
my boss. As her commanding officer, he did her a favor telling her
she's pushing too hard. It's in those situations that bad mistakes
get made. But he also told her she's doing as good a job as a man
would and that she didn't need to try harder and be better to get
ahead. Whereas today, unfortunately, many women still has to work
harder and be better to get less pay, we know Straker wasn't like
that. He had (especially for then!) a lot of women in positions of
authority. He wasn't interested in color or sex, just job
performance.

And then there is the comment about she shouldn't ever forget she's a
very attractive girl. Yeah, that can be taken as very
condescending. But there's another way to take it. I guess I feel
very sensitive about this because I am a woman in what is dominantly
a male profession. And one of the coping mechanisms I have seen too
often in other women in my field is that they pretend they aren't
women, they should be exactly like the men in dress, in behavior, in
how gross they should be. I took Straker's comment to mean he was
telling her she could be an effective officer AND a woman at the same
time. But that's me.

But I have to say I laugh every time I see the end of that scene,
when Paul Foster comes in. The look on Foster's face and the little
shake of Straker's head in response crack me up every time. And then
there is the classic line, "Never judge a situation by the end of the
conversation". LOL

Diorite





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