More UFO DVD News

Hi all,

Some interesting private e-mails came my way today. One is from
someone who has actually seen the new "digitally remastered" episodes
of UFO, and say's that you're not going to believe how good the
series looks now! (and here I thought the Japanese laserdiscs would
never be improved upon!)

A second e-mail from someone else says that A&E is now responding to
queries about UFO by saying that A&E's UFO DVD Box #1 will be
released "in the summer". Which is certainly consistent with the
July 2002 date that's been reported for the last 6 months. However,
if you're hoping that the Ed Bishop/Gerry Anderson commentary is
going to be on the A&E discs, you may be out of luck -- Ed was told
that the commentaries were recorded only for the UK DVD's.

Perhaps we need an e-mail/letter writing campaign to get those
commentaries on the American DVD's too?

Marc

> Perhaps we need an e-mail/letter writing campaign to
> get those
> commentaries on the American DVD's too?
>
> Marc

To whom should we write to? I want A&E to know that
I'm willing to pay more for the discs if they include
the extras that the UK versions have.

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>To whom should we write to? I want A&E to know that
>I'm willing to pay more for the discs if they include
>the extras that the UK versions have.

I'm not sure what the best method is to contact A&E about
special features on their upcoming UFO discs. Perhaps if
you use this A&E feeback form:

http://aande.com/feedback/feedback.html

Also, since all of the A&E DVD's are really put together
by a company called "New Video", they might be good
people to contact too:

http://www.newvideo.com/about.shtml#contact

If anyone hears anything new from contacting these people,
please let us know! I fear we're going to have a situation
much like with the past Gerry Anderson DVD releases, where
the UK versions are loaded with cool special features,
and the American versions just have some pathetic photo
gallery... :-(

And remember, the UK DVD's have already announced cool
features like:

* Ed Bishop commentary on SUB-SMASH
* Gerry Anderson commentary on IDENTIFIED
* hundreds of never-before-seen behind the scenes photos
* scenes edited out from IDENTIFIED and EXPOSED
* alternate opening sequence

If you want things like these on the American DVD's,
we need to let A&E know about it NOW, before it's too late!

Marc

CONTENTS DELETED

>I don't understand their motivation for not wanting to include the
>commentaries on the USA release. You'd think commentary would be a feature
>that would influence buying the DVD even more. Why on earth provide something
>in the UK version and not in the US? Did A & E not want to pay whatever
>expense it would cost to have the commentary included?

The way I see it, A&E either figures that American audiences aren't
really interested in all of these special features that show up on
the UK discs (I actually heard that from their consultant!). Or,
they don't think the discs will sell enough copies to warrant
spending a lot of money of securing the rights to a lot of special
features (they may have a point here -- I have no idea how much money
special features cost, nor how many UFO DVD's they're actually going
to sell)

Marc

[hidden email] wrote:
> [hidden email] writes:

>
> I don't understand their motivation for not wanting to
> include the commentaries on the USA release. You'd think
> commentary would be a feature that would influence buying the
> DVD even more. Why on earth provide something in the UK
> version and not in the US? Did A & E not want to pay whatever
> expense it would cost to have the commentary included?
>

I suppose this is simply due to the fact that the DVDs are being
released by two different companies, no? I assume the commentary
was commissioned by Carlton, so it's not necessarily an option
for A&E to include it.

If it's any consolation, generally UK DVD releases have much less
extras and goodies than the equivalent US releases.

James

CONTENTS DELETED

Has Carlton mentioned the episode order that will be used for the UFO DVDs?

It will be interesting to compare the UFO DVDs to the Japanese laser discs
when A&E releases the DVDs this summer.

Wanda Ventham appears on the front and backside of the DVD case for volume 5
of The Saint recently released by A&E. She appears in the episode Escape
Route.

>Has Carlton mentioned the episode order that will be used for the UFO DVDs?

Well, you can tell from the information on the first 4 volumes that
it's what I think of as "The Fanderson Order". That is, it's the
production order with EXPOSED and SURVIVAL switched so that Foster is
properly introduced into the series:

IDENTIFIED
COMPUTER AFFAIR
FLIGHT PATH
EXPOSED
SURVIVAL
(the rest is the production order)

My preferred order is similar to this, but inserts CONFLICT in
between EXPOSED and SURVIVAL, so that we actually see Foster in
charge of Moonbase for an episode before he's the commander who needs
to be replaced!

Also, I occasionally think that the optimal order puts EXPOSED at
episode#2, so we can imagine him in SHADO "boot camp" during the
course of COMPUTER AFFAIR and FLIGHT PATH... :-)

Marc

>It will be interesting to compare the UFO DVDs to the Japanese laser discs
>when A&E releases the DVDs this summer.

Yes it will!

We got the opportunity to make a similar comparison with Space:1999
this past year, and I'm afraid that I liked the 10-year old
laserdiscs better... :-( The new DVDs were technically superior
using all of the standard measurements (better color, better
contrast, better sharpness), but to me they ruined the
dark/mysterious/atmospheric effect by making the picture super-bright
and super-clear (in technical terms, I believe it to be a function of
the "gamma" value). Unfortunately, on the DVDs some of the special
effects & set paintings became obviously fake looking, when they
looked good before. :-(

The Japanese UFO laserdiscs also have that
dark/mysterious/atmospheric effect, and I wonder if the DVDs will
attempt to retain that look, or they'll instead opt for the
super-bright effect. If so, the laserdiscs may remain as my
favorite versions. Although, I'll certainly prefer a brighter
transfer for those night-scenes in UFO, which are too hard to make
out on the Japanese laserdiscs...

Marc

Wanda also can be heard singing in this episode of The Saint and very nicely
too I might add.

James K.

I not remember if this is already on the SHADO Mailing List but I
will inform that on http://www.carltonvideo.co.uk I check on A - Z
Index and on "U" letter and just I found now information by Carlton
on the UFO DVD:

UFO DVD - Volume 1.
£15.99 Temporarily Out Of Stock
Director
Starring Ed Bishop,Michael Billington,George Sewell,Grant
Taylor,Wanda Ventham,Gary Myers,Peter Gordeno,Gabrielle Drake
Run Time 200 mins.
Released DVD: Mar 18, 2002
Volume 1 episodes include:'Identified', 'Computer Affais', 'Flight
Path', 'Exposed' DVD extra features include:- Stills Gallery,Gerry
Anderson commentary,Alternate opening sequence,Deleted scenes gallery.
       
UFO DVD - Volume 2.
£15.99 Temporarily Out Of Stock
Director
Starring Ed Bishop,Michael Billington,George Sewell,Grant
Taylor,Wanda Ventham,Gary Myers,Peter Gordeno,Gabrielle Drake
Run Time 150 mins.
Released DVD: Mar 18, 2002
Volume 2 episodes include: 'Survival', 'Conflict','The Dalotek
Affair' DVD extra features include:- Stills Gallery,Character Profiles

UFO SERIES ONE - Complete 4 Disc DVD Boxset.
£49.99 Temporarily Out Of Stock
Director
Starring Ed Bishop,Michael Billington,George Sewell,Grant
Taylor,Wanda Ventham,Gary Myers,Peter Gordeno,Gabrielle Drake
Run Time 400 mins.
Released DVD: Mar 18, 2002
THE PLOT: The operatives of the secret Supreme Headquarters Alien
Defence Organisation (S.H.A.D.O) defend the Earth from Aliens who are
abducting humans to obtain organs,which can be transplanted into
their own bodies. THE CHARACTERS: Commander Ed Straker(Ed Bishop)
Colonel Paul Foster (Michael Billington) Colonel Alec Freeman (George
Sewell) General James Henderson (Grant Taylor) Colonel Virginia Lake
(Wanda Ventham) Lt./Captain Lew Waterman (Gary Myers) Captain Peter
Carlin (Peter Gordeno) Lt.Gay Ellis (Gabrielle Drake)

--
Angelo Finamore
--

Some days ago someone (I think Teresa) ask about RATED. Always on
Carlton Web Site I found the total description of the various RATED
specifications. (UFO is "PG").

RATED U - Universal- Suitable for all audiences
 
RATED Uc - Universal –Particularly suitable for young children
 
RATED PG - Parental Guidance- General viewing, but some scenes may be
unsuitable for young children
 
RATED 12 - Twelve- Suitable only for persons of twelve and older. Not
to be supplied to any person below twelve.
 
RATED 15 - Fifteen- Suitable only for persons of fifteen and older.
Not to be supplied to any person below fifteen.
 
RATED 18 - Eighteen- Suitable only for persons of eighteen and older.
Not to be supplied to any person below eighteen.

--
Angelo Finamore
--