Ordeal pitfalls

>"Mark Davies" <[hidden email]>
wrote:
>Of course the dream ending opens up all sorts of areas for exploration,but
>they should be realised in a much more
>imaginative and intelligent manner.

Mark,
I agree with your analysis. As any competent UFO fanfic writer can tell
you, there's lots of scope for fun and excitement with a dream scenario.
(*grin*) The original screenwriter's version would actually have been
better, since the bizarreness of the characters' behavior would have
enhanced the eerie feeling of the episode. Without even Moonbase or
Skydiver blowing up, we do feel cheated. Star Trek got out of the dumb
dream ending often by using alternate timelines. (Well, this is science
fiction, after all. You always have an ace up your sleeve when you're
dealing with science.) I sometimes feel watching UFO that some of the
writers didn't understand the science fiction audience at all. Or perhaps I
should qualify that to say that they didn't understand the adult science
fiction audience. Any takers on a redo of the Ordeal episode with a better
ending?
Yours,
Denise

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I don't see that the writer had gotten himself into such a fix plot
wise that he had to pull the old it was all a dream escape cliche. I mean
okay Foster had been kidnapped by the aliens and he was in alien spacesuit
filled with their green breathing liquid. But the UFO had been shot down and
Paul, spacesuit had been taken to the Moonbase medical center and he had
been taken out of the suit. What was the problem?
Well I can see that it would have cause some problems down the road as
Foster would have been inside the UFO and able to look it over and know
something about it. That is something that the series had been holding back
on, trying to keep the aliens and their craft a mystery. A simple way around
this would have been to put Foster in one of those metal cylinders like Russ
Stone in Sound of Silence. But that would have done away with the scene of
Foster as the helmet filled with liquid. I guess they could have had a
different type cylinder with a clear glass like material front so you could
see Paul's reactions but it brings you back to the problem of him being able
to see out into the UFO.

James K.


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

--- In [hidden email], SumitonJD@a... wrote:
> I don't see that the writer had gotten himself into such a fix plot
> wise that he had to pull the old it was all a dream escape cliche.
> ... Foster would have been inside the UFO and able to look it over
> and know something about it. ...

It is unlikely that the alien crew would have stored Foster loose in
the main crew compartment where there was a risk that he could
suddenly jump up and grab a weapon and take over the controls.
Precautions are needed when handling a combat-trained prisoner. More
likely the scene happens in the UFO's hold with nothing to see except
blank walls and a shut door.

> It is unlikely that the alien crew would have
> stored Foster loose in the main crew compartment
> where there was a risk that he could suddenly
> jump up and grab a weapon and take over the controls.
> Precautions are needed when handling a combat-trained
> prisoner. More likely the scene happens in the
> UFO's hold with nothing to see except blank
> walls and a shut door.

Main crew compartment? A shut door?
Hehe, if I remember correct then a UFO was just big enough to store
two or three people together in the whole vessel :-)

Take a look at this picture or on Angelo Finamore's website
respectively (sorry, don't know the URL of him at the moment.
Angelo?):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SHADO/files/memorymetropolis/flightpath-
carufo01.jpg

Seems not very big, this vessel. But maybe there are bigger ones?

Christian

Hi Christian,
maybe this picture...
http://www.ufotv.it/Tempor/ufo_size.jpg

--
Angelo Finamore
THE ART OF UFO SHADO DIGITAL FILE
http://www.ufotv.it/ART.htm
--


--- In [hidden email], "Christian J. <memorymetropolis@a...>"
<memorymetropolis@a...> wrote:
> Take a look at this picture or on Angelo Finamore's website
> respectively (sorry, don't know the URL of him at the moment.
> Angelo?):
>
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SHADO/files/memorymetropolis/flightpath-
> carufo01.jpg
>
> Seems not very big, this vessel. But maybe there are bigger ones?
>
> Christian