Neil's comments

>Neil May <[hidden email]>
wrote:
Can you imagine if UFO was for real
>in 2003? Straker & Foster could be big-name movie
>producers like Joel Silver or Jerry Bruckheimer! Maybe
>if one of those guys made a UFO movie, it would be
>about what they really do!

I always felt watching UFO as a teen that they WERE big names. Well, I'm a
Hollywood buff myself, so it's not hard to see why I thought that. I mean,
they ran a studio! So cool. As an adult, I can see that they made the
studio out to be pathetic, almost satirical. I decided for my UFO fan fic
stories to make Harlington-Straker the way I had always envisioned it: as a
successful enterprise. BTW, Harlington is the location, not a man.

What a great opportunity
>for a major film studio to show their own film studio
>- albeit, one called Harlington-Straker Studios - in a
>movie!

I would think this setup alone would sell the movie. What's wrong with
those studio execs???

>It would also be fun if the films that
>Harlington-Straker made featured real Hollywood stars
>in cameo roles a la Robert Altman's excellent satire
>The Player.

One of the advantages of fan fic is that you can do that. *grin* I've done
it myself quite often. You can really have a lot of fun with it with the
right stars.

>SS also mentioned that Keith Ford is a subbie. It'd be cool if we
>could hear the voice inside Ford's head & find out
>what he really thinks of SHADO & the way that Straker
>treats him! What do other fans think goes on inside
>his head?

Everyone has a different take on Ford, but I've always seen him as one of
those necessary cogs in the works at SHADO. He keeps the place running. A
bit unassuming and boring, but you'd be surprised how an interested female
might view him. In #13 of my Conover saga (a UFO fan fic series), you find
two females at SHADO who want to "check out his processors." He's a fun
secondary character. At least, I've had fun with him. *grin*
Yours,
Denise

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In one of the two UFO novels which were adapted from the TV scripts
Robert Miall mentions that the Harlington of Harlington-Straker is Geoffery
Harlington the orginal owner of the Studio and that he went into partnership
with SHADO to save his studio.
This to me sounds a more reasonable explaination of the name
Harlington-Straker than Harlington being the town the studio is located in.
I mean there are studios named for there locations like Elstree and
Borehamwood and Pinewood and studios named for people like Bray, Hammer,
Samuel Goldwyn, Fox, Warner Brothers, but you never hear of one being both
the name of the place it is at and the owner.
The only reason to put the name of the town with the name of the owner
wourld be if there was more than one studio location, say such as
Burbank-Straker, or Rome-Straker, or Paris-Straker, or Sydney-Straker. As
there is just the one studio it seem more likely that Harlington is a person
and Robert Miall game him the first name of Geoffery.

James K.


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

Hi :)

I'm scratching my head over this one... I have both of the UFO novels by
John Burke (AKA Robert Miall). There is no mention (that I know of) of a
Geoffrey Harlington in UFO or UFO2. Could you possibly be thinking of
another reference. The books were also published in the US and elsewhere
with different titles, but I have all of those versions as well (indeed
every published version through Pan and their other imprints), and there is
no such reference.

I have always been slightly annoyed when even well-meaning individuals
create 'fictional' backgrounds to series such as UFO - a recent example can
be found with some of the pseudo biographies created especially for the UFO
DVD sets by an Fan Organisation that should know better... Grrr enough said!
I do belong to the aforementioned club, and except for this 'misdemeanour',
they are a truly professional organisation that I would recommend to anyone.

Unfortunately, when 'individuals' create these pseudo backgrounds, technical
insights, cutaways diagrams, it is somewhat a shame that these in time
become seen as factual within the context of the series. UFO has 'suffered'
greatly from these 'helpful' people.

I do not include Fan Fiction, as the authors - for the most part - do not
confuse their insights with the background and contexts laid down through
the original creators and episode writers. Thus there is a neat separation
that augments the series, rather than 'fiddle' with the 'realities' within
the context of the original series.

I fear it is possible that you may have unwittingly fallen into this
particular trap. It is of course possible that I may be wrong, but I do not
think so.

Okay.... I'm a bit of a purist, but hey... each to our own.

Happy New Year to all :)

Griff

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 3:41 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Neil's comments


In one of the two UFO novels which were adapted from the TV scripts
Robert Miall mentions that the Harlington of Harlington-Straker is Geoffery
Harlington the orginal owner of the Studio and that he went into partnership
with SHADO to save his studio.
This to me sounds a more reasonable explaination of the name
Harlington-Straker than Harlington being the town the studio is located in.
I mean there are studios named for there locations like Elstree and
Borehamwood and Pinewood and studios named for people like Bray, Hammer,
Samuel Goldwyn, Fox, Warner Brothers, but you never hear of one being both
the name of the place it is at and the owner.
The only reason to put the name of the town with the name of the owner
wourld be if there was more than one studio location, say such as
Burbank-Straker, or Rome-Straker, or Paris-Straker, or Sydney-Straker. As
there is just the one studio it seem more likely that Harlington is a person
and Robert Miall game him the first name of Geoffery.

James K.


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




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Griff,
It's been a while since I've read the novels and at the moment they are in a
sealed box in the storage buliding but I think it was the first one which is
The Flesh Hunter if I remember correctly. It was just one line in the book
so it would be easy to forget as it is not mention again in either novel. I
guess it stuck with me because it answered the unanswered about Harlington.

James K.


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

Hi James,

Okay... I will check it out later for you if you like, having harped on
about it so much :)

I forgot to mention that Gerry Anderson did mention in one of his
commentaries that Harlington was a fictional name and place, and also it was
mentioned as part of the fictional address for the Studios in E.S.P.

Later,

Griff

ps. There is no longer (technically and/or legally) a place called Wessex
(there used to be - subject to great legal land registry disputes years back
and still going on) - even if the Queen's youngest son (Edward) has been
titled the Duke of... er... Wessex... there have been arguments for hundreds
of years about Wessex, whether it technically exists in reality, or whether
it is just a titled area with no legal confines... even the Doomsday Book is
self-contradictory in this area... wherever it is :)

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 5:10 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Neil's comments


Griff,
It's been a while since I've read the novels and at the moment they are in a
sealed box in the storage buliding but I think it was the first one which is
The Flesh Hunter if I remember correctly. It was just one line in the book
so it would be easy to forget as it is not mention again in either novel. I
guess it stuck with me because it answered the unanswered about Harlington.

James K.


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




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Thanks Griff,
I guess Miall just added something to the script he was working from.
Actually there is now a company called Harlington-Straker Group Ltd.
somewhere in Ohio in the USA.

James K.


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

BTW...

Personally I do not regard either of the two UFO novels as true reference
sources to the UFO series, as although they were duly written with
cooperation from the Series Editor (Tony Barwick), and with some reference
to the UFO Series Guide, they were written early on (hence they only
reference some of the early scripts, with some scenes that were edited out
of the TV series) technically they had nothing to do with Century 21, and
were not under editorial control from the series producers, although some
liberties and latitude were allowed - I was told this first hand, years
back! ...although, personally I really like them... John Burke (er AKA
Robert Miall) wrote with a certain succinctness and flair, he also did some
of the Jason King books, and a number of other titles for ITC with 'some'
cooperation

:)

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 5:10 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Neil's comments


Griff,
It's been a while since I've read the novels and at the moment they are in a
sealed box in the storage buliding but I think it was the first one which is
The Flesh Hunter if I remember correctly. It was just one line in the book
so it would be easy to forget as it is not mention again in either novel. I
guess it stuck with me because it answered the unanswered about Harlington.

James K.


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




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

> I always felt watching UFO as a teen that they WERE big names. Well, I'm a
> Hollywood buff myself, so it's not hard to see why I thought that. I mean,
> they ran a studio! So cool. As an adult, I can see that they made the
> studio out to be pathetic, almost satirical. I decided for my UFO fan fic
> stories to make Harlington-Straker the way I had always envisioned it: as a
> successful enterprise.

Interesting, Denise. The UFO novelisation goes into this just a
teensy bit more. Apparently, according to them, H-S studios
'specialises in flops'. The novel then goes on to state that they
made two pictures that were 'really terrible, I swear'. They
subsequently, and totally against expectations, went over big at
the box office. Straker was furious. Apparently because

"you can't account for a profit in military terms"

I never bought into this myself. Surely SHADO would welcome
every additional penny that it can get into its coffers. They always
seemed to be fighting Henderson for more cash.

Dave.

> Actually there is now a company called Harlington-Straker Group Ltd.
> somewhere in Ohio in the USA.

Really? Actually, I think that's rather cool.

What business line are they in?

Dave.

>> Actually there is now a company called Harlington-Straker Group Ltd.

>> somewhere in Ohio in the USA.

I think it's in the UK:

http://www.applegate.co.uk/engineering/company/co_400239.htm

Assuming that there is a Cleveland in the UK?

Marc

"Marc Martin" wrote:
>
> Assuming that there is a Cleveland in the UK?
>

There certainly is, in the NE of England, one of the 'new'
counties. I was born there (or more accurately the place where
I was born is now in Cleveland, it was in Durham back then).

> I think it's in the UK:

Ahh, that's pretty interesting.

> http://www.applegate.co.uk/engineering/company/co_400239.htm
>
> Assuming that there is a Cleveland in the UK?

Yes, there is. North of England. A predominantly industrial area.

Dave.

--- In [hidden email], "Griff" <griff@g...> wrote:
> ... Gerry Anderson did mention in one of his commentaries that
> Harlington was a fictional name and place, and also it was
> mentioned as part of the fictional address for the Studios in E.S.P.
> ps. There is no longer (technically and/or legally) a place called
> Wessex ...

That is in the real world. Wessex occurs in fiction sometimes as an
English county name, e.g. in some novels by Hardy. West Harlington is
undeniably a place name in the UFO series. If [placename]-[man's
name] looks odd as a movie studio name, well, we are stuck with that,
and this point may as well be added to the list of UFO nitpicks.

In the US, the military, being the government, probably has to account for
every penny it gets and uses. I don't know if this would be the case for
SHADO, but possibly so. I can see where the accountants would have problems
with sudden influx of finances due to a box office hit. I work in
government, it really causes problems when unaccountable funds come in. For
instance, we can't accept donations because we have no way to account for
them, so we have to setup "Foundations" that accept the donations on our
behalf....Sounds stupid doesn't it!?!



Mary




Interesting, Denise. The UFO novelisation goes into this just a
teensy bit more. Apparently, according to them, H-S studios
'specialises in flops'. The novel then goes on to state that they
made two pictures that were 'really terrible, I swear'. They
subsequently, and totally against expectations, went over big at
the box office. Straker was furious. Apparently because

"you can't account for a profit in military terms"

I never bought into this myself. Surely SHADO would welcome
every additional penny that it can get into its coffers. They always
seemed to be fighting Henderson for more cash.

Dave.




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

I think the main problem with having money come in in a goverment operation
particularly one that is a black Ops and there by a Black Budget operation is
if you don't spend all your budget you can't ask more more the next budget
year. And since cost go up each year having a surplus from a hit film which
mean you get less in the next years budget would not be a good thing."

James K.


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

> West Harlington is
> undeniably a place name in the UFO series. If [placename]-[man's
> name] looks odd as a movie studio name, well, we are stuck with that,
> and this point may as well be added to the list of UFO nitpicks.

Harlington is an actual location near London.

Dave.

As to what Harlington Starker Group do, that's anyone's guess! I tried to
YELL for them and this is what I got .....

Harlington Straker Group Ltd
Unit 16 Belasis Court, Greenwood Rd
Billingham Cleveland
TS23 4AZ
Tel: 01642 565658
Classification: FACILITIES MANAGEMENT


Harlington Sourcing Ltd
Unit 16, Belasis Court Belasis Technology Park
Billingham Cleveland
TS23 4AZ
Tel: 01642 560109
Classification: FIXINGS & FASTENINGS


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

>As to what Harlington Starker Group do, that's anyone's guess! I tried to
>YELL for them and this is what I got .....
>
>Harlington Straker Group Ltd
>Unit 16 Belasis Court, Greenwood Rd
>Billingham Cleveland

Here's another interesting company to look into:

http://www.straker.co.nz

(thanks to Griff for finding this one)

Marc

This is too funny. The software is called Shado!

>Here's another interesting company to look into:
>
> http://www.straker.co.nz
>
>(thanks to Griff for finding this one)
>
>Marc

This is fantastic....Do you suppose the owner is a closet UFO enthusiast??

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Merkel [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 15:47
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [SHADO] Re: Neil's comments

This is too funny. The software is called Shado!

>Here's another interesting company to look into:
>
> http://www.straker.co.nz
>
>(thanks to Griff for finding this one)
>
>Marc




 

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