RE: Doppelganger, UFO and ratings

I only saw Doppelganger once and that was on TV over 30 yrs ago. Is it true
that this movie preceded UFO? I vaguely recall it, but not any real details.
I gather there were many future UFO alumni participating in the film.

After UFO's run on English TV here in Canada, it was dubbed and played for
several yrs on the French channels. I continued to watch it, even though I
only got about on sentence out of every 10! As you can imagine, s-f on TV in
Atl Canada was pretty scarce! UFO ran in English on what was then known as
Lionel TV (CKCW). A few yrs later, CKCW was absorbed by ATV (no, not that
one!).

Once I started working for the Atlantic Television System in 1981, I
discovered WHY our English network in our region was playing such drek. The
man in charge of buying programming was a complete philistine and purchased
such groaners as Cattlecar Elaxative, Duck Dodgers in the 24th and half
Century (unfortunately it was the Gil Gerrard version, NOT Daffy Duck's!), V
(which he insisted on playing during the supper hour until a spate of angry
letters from viewers with kids rebelled against seeing the aliens eating
budgies and mice, head first, over their dinner table....). This man (who
had a grade 7 education I believe) refused to air Trek, X-Files, even the
original Twilight Zone. All surefire ratings getters. It was eventually
discovered that our competition TV network (for which my father worked at
the time) was beating the hell out of us during the 5:00-6:00 pm supper time
period - how? They were playing stripped eps of TNG against our newscast and
winning the time slot! That should give you some idea of how unpopular our
own newscast was, ha ha! Eventually, this dinosaur of intellect was retired,
and the powers that be worked very hard to acquire as many top s-f shows as
possible.

Today, ATV plays the latest incarnation of Trek, and anything else they can
get with Gene Roddenberry's name on it - like Earth: Final Conflict and
Andromeda. The network was taken over by some consortium in Ontario, and
they rooted out all the "deadwood" and backwards thinking execs who got to
their positions via the Peter Principle.

What does this have to do with UFO? Well, for me and other s-f fans in the
region, this housecleaning at ATV means we might possibly get a shot at
actually seeing UFO2 when it becomes available as a miniseries or TV show.
Any programming director today who does not recognize the ratings power of
s-f should have his head examined!

Pam

--- In SHADO@y..., "Pam McCaughey" <editor@a...> wrote:
> I only saw Doppelganger once and that was on TV over 30 yrs ago.
> Is it true that this movie preceded UFO? I vaguely recall it, but
> not any real details. I gather there were many future UFO alumni
> participating in the film.
>

Yes there were several UFO Actors and elements which first appeared
in Doppelganger:
Ed Bishop as David Poulson (EUROSEC NASA liason)
George Sewell as Mark Neuman (EUROSEC security)
Keith Alexander as EUROSEC launch controller
Vladek Sheybel as the EUROSEC psychiatrist

The spacesuits, cars, and other props in UFO were first seen in
Doppelganger.

The sound effects of the Lander/Lift body taking off were the same
sound effects used for the takeoff of Fireball XL-5.

The UFO end title music was first used in Doppelganger. Right after
the astronauts crach landed, their wreckage was being approached by a
mysterious search vehicle. The crescendo comes when Ross pulls a gun
on a descending figure in amphibious gear, who knocks it from his hand
and scoops him up.

At 08:31 PM 2/19/01 -0000, you wrote:
That particular person was Anthony Chin (Lt. Chin from SUB SMASH and
also an alien from another episode, the name of which escapes me at the
moment...).



There was a space traveler named Wright
Who liked to go faster than light
He started one day
In a relative way
And came back the previous night!

Dave Walsh
Harlington-Straker Sound Productions
[hidden email]
http://members.home.net/darqnyt/index.html

--- In SHADO@y..., Dave Walsh <darqnyt@h...> wrote:
> At 08:31 PM 2/19/01 -0000, you wrote:
> > The crescendo comes when Ross pulls a gun on a descending figure
> > in amphibious gear, who knocks it from his hand and scoops him up.
>
> That particular person was Anthony Chin (Lt. Chin from SUB SMASH and
> also an alien from another episode, the name of which escapes me at
> the moment...).
>

Just compared video, and yes, it sure is. I didn't recognize the face
at first under the bulbous helmet, but the voice is unmistakable.
The amphibious outfit looks interesting, but that speaker/mouthpiece
looks as if would take out the wearers teeth if hit, unless it was
super soft. It didn't appear that way in the video.