UFO Episode Discussions: CLOSE UP

Hi all,

Well, our time for discussing the UFO episode COURT MARTIAL has come and
gone, so it's time to move onto our next episode -- CLOSE UP. So if you
have any comments, please make them in the next 2 weeks!

As for me, I find this an "okay" episode. What surprises me is that
there are folks out there that *loathe* this episode -- I've read on
several occasions in Fanderson publications about this being the *worst*
UFO episode of them all, which frankly confuses me...

Comments? Discussion?

Marc

> What surprises me is that
> there are folks out there that *loathe* this episode -- I've read on
> several occasions in Fanderson publications about this being the
*worst*
> UFO episode of them all, which frankly confuses me...
>
> Comments? Discussion?
>
> Marc

I certainly don't loathe this episode. It's probably true that it
might not be one of the stronger ones, but i felt the idea of them
building something to follow a UFO back to it's point of origin was
an interesting one, even if it could have been better handled. Also,
there's a nice bit of internal SHADO politics with one of the non
front line staff working away in a back room somewhere on research
projects, but struggling to get the necessary funding. There's some
good conflict as well between Straker and Henderson in the conference
scene, as he trys to win them all over regarding funding. Then's
there's the infamous leg scene at the end - what can one say? OK, on
one level it's spectacularly sexist and rather funny that the
engineer guy has been able to set up this demonstration for Straker
employing the shapely figure of Miss Ellis! And on the other hand -
who cares? Great stuff! One wonders what the original version
scripted with Ayshea might have been like...

Marc Martin wrote:

> As for me, I find this an "okay" episode. What surprises me is
> that there are folks out there that *loathe* this episode --
> I've read on several occasions in Fanderson publications about
> this being the *worst* UFO episode of them all, which frankly
> confuses me...
>

It is a real stinker! A few points:

[*] The plan to divert a UFO back to its home planet without
visiting Earth at all, with a SHADO satellite in tow seems very
unlikely to succeed, not least because it seems to me that it
would very quickly be detected and destroyed.

[*] SHADO receives pictures taken of the alien planet and
apparently because the magnification/range details are not
transmitted, they are declared next-to-useless. I can't quite
accept that, even after watching Kelly's demonstration - there
must be some useful information. And at the very least, the
project has to be considered successful in as far as it
demonstrates that a spy satellite can be deployed around the
alien planet, no mean feat. But:

[*] We are given no indication of whether the project might be
tried again at some point.
[*] The means by which Kelly illustrates his point about
magnification, using Gay Ellis' leg is gratuitously elaborate
and slightly misogynist. I'm certain Straker would probably
greatly prefer the point to be made in a rather more
straightforward and less theatrical way, but he doesn't seem in
the least irritated. And in fact instead of chewing Kelly's
head off about the fault in the electron telescope, he offers
to help him get his funding for his project.

[*] Straker ultimately agrees to help Kelly with his microscopy
research. Why? I can't imagine a potential benefit to SHADO
and the script doesn't even hint at one.

[*] The 'sexual tension' subplot theme between Straker and Ellis
doesn't really go anywhere, and his 'never forget, you're an
attractive girl' comment is gut-wrenchingly patronising in
context.

[*] There's a lot of filler in this episode - the NASA launch
scene really drags and adds nothing to the plot. Same with the
Skydiver scene at the beginning, and to an extent the space
walk scene. Admittedly they're all nice to have, but they all
last far too long, arguably. Frankly I think this was really a
20 minute episode that was padded out to the usual length.

[*] (less importantly, admittedly) The scene where Freeman and
Straker pore over the pictures from the 'test run' is bizarre
indeed - they are clearly looking at some very ordinary,
low-definition pics of the Earth, but they exclaim "look at the
detail!" and "fantastic quality!" Would have worked better if
they had been looking at 'close up' pics showing buildings and so
on.

[*] More positively, I love the model work in this episode and
the space walk scene, with the SHADO shuttle and the probe
shown against the lunar surface far below is spectacular. The
music in this scene works really well.

Speaking of fantastic quality, it had been a while since I
had watched a UFO episode and I had forgotten how beautifully
crystal clear the Carlton DVD transfer is.


James

Well, this certainly isn't the worst episode of UFO, but it's also not the
best. It is, however, one of the better story ideas, but the execution
wasn't so great. Some minor storyline changes could have made this a great
episode. First of all...I find it ludricous that the images are of no
value because of some technical glitch concerning magnification
measurements and scale. Heck...certain things are just flat out simply
identifiable no matter what magnification. For example...if they had
something that looked like the Astrodome (but could have been a microscopic
virus), I think the dead give-away that it was not a virus and was a huge
Dome structure would be if there were UFO's in the picture to compare the
larger structure to. Likewise, if that ship had the ability to do the
magnification levels they were speaking about, surely they could have made
out lots of other details. It's highly unlikely that a civilization as
advanced as the aliens seem to be would not have an advanced city structure
on their home world, unless for some reason they lived exclusively
underground...but still, there would be something identifiable on the
surface. I just simply don't buy that cop-out in this episode. Also, that
probe sure did get to the alien home world rather quickly. Since when does
SHADO have faster than light propulsion systems? They are always talking
about the UFO's travelling faster than light, then having to slow down
before they get to Earth's atmosphere. And that makes a lot of sense,
because otherwise the alien world would have to be within our own solar
system (which it's suggested many times over that it is extrasolar) for
them to be able to arrive here in any timely manner. Just look at it this
way...if they were from the Centauri system...it'd take 4.3 years at the
speed of light. If they could go four times the speed of light, it'd take
over 1 year for the UFO's to arrive here. It appeared that the probe
arrived at the alien homeworld in no more than a matter of days or maybe
weeks or months. Nothing is suggested that it took years...so that means
one of two things...the alien homeworld is closer then suggested, or SHADO
produced one hell of a propulsion system...so why aren't the Interceptors
equipped with the same propulsion system? And for that matter, why don't
we build a fleet of attack ships and just go obliterate the alien's home
world? If they learned nothing else from the launch of the probe...they
learned WHERE the alien homeworld is...of course to my knowledge, it is
never said any time during the entire series, exactly where their home
world is located (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). The part about
Ellis' leg...well, I'm a guy, and heck, she's a good looking
woman...especially WITHOUT all that ridiculous makeup and silly purple wigs
(but the silver miniskirts can stay!). It's also silly that with all
their technology, the aliens didn't detect the probe. Maybe SHADO borrowed
a cloaking device from the Romulans!

Now, here's what I'd have done...

The part about chasing the UFO back home is kinda ridiculous too, so I'd
have come up with another idea on that front...like studying the flight
trajectory of the UFO's, and having one come in for a recon mission and
returning possibly with something or someone that it acquired while being
here. SHADO had developed this probe and was waiting for such an
occurance, and when they detected the UFO going back homeward, the probe
was launched. The probe would have kept a lock on it's target, perhaps
with some kind of radiotelescopic or laser sensor, but would have taken
much longer to get to the alien world than the UFO, in fact, several years
(I know this might hurt the timeline of the episode, but it's gotta be
realistic). Once the craft reached orbit around the homeworld, it would
have begun it's series of photographs...only instead of the measuring stick
glitch...there would have been a fault in the antenna relay that
transmitted the images back to SHADO...so instead of their feeble
excuse...they would know WHERE the homeworld was...but would not be able to
receive any images. Or perhaps just as the probe began transmitting, it
was detected and destroyed by the aliens.

Well, I wouldn't call it the WORST, but I don't think it makes much
sense. Surely, they could have gotten SOME info about the planet from
that probe (Like WHERE IT IS!?) And that whole bit with Gay's leg -
pretty stupid. Yeah, I know you guys like that part - LOL! I do like the
line from Straker to Foster about not judging a situation by the end of
a conversation. Not one of my faves.

-- Y


Marc Martin wrote:

> As for me, I find this an "okay" episode. What surprises me is that
> there are folks out there that *loathe* this episode -- I've read on
> several occasions in Fanderson publications about this being the *worst*
> UFO episode of them all, which frankly confuses me...


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I haven't watched this one in a while because it wasn't one of my favorites.
But I remember I enjoyed all the contention in this episode. Like when
Straker gets the funding and the engineer doesn't---Straker's scene with him
was well done. Also when Straker is in Moobase control and the underlying
emotions going back and forth with Gay Ellis...and of course the scene where
he gets her coffee and Paul Foster walks in during a sensitive moment.
Perhaps it's the rendition of this episode in written format that helps the
viewer understand all the underlying emotions. One of the two books details
this episode pretty well doesn't it? It's been a while since I read them
too.

mv


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

--- In [hidden email], Railhead <railhead@e...> wrote:
> episode. First of all...I find it ludricous that the images are
of no
> value because of some technical glitch concerning magnification
> measurements and scale. Heck...certain things are just flat out
simply
> identifiable no matter what magnification. For example...if they
had
> something that looked like the Astrodome (but could have been a
microscopic
> virus), I think the dead give-away that it was not a virus and was
a huge
> Dome structure would be if there were UFO's in the picture to
compare the
> larger structure to. Likewise, if that ship had the ability to do
the
> magnification levels they were speaking about, surely they could
have made
> out lots of other details. It's highly unlikely that a
I love UFO, but certainly it has a lot of technical errors (that
obviously were not even remotely apparent when I first saw the
series
when I was a kid). I am sure that any decent planetary scientist
could extract a lot of info on those pictures, even without the
magnification specs. Another thing to consider, is that apparently
this was an automated probe (that is, it did not need earth's help
to decide what to take). One would expect that for a probe like
this, the engineers that put the probe together would first have
programmed a sequence of pictures to take. After a while, the probe
could had made its own decisions and take its own pictures, but the
first pre-programmed pictures should had been helpfull to identify
what was obtained in the later pictures. Finally, any exploring
spacecraft has several sensors, one of which is typically a camera
(s). The reading from other sensors would had also been helpful to
identify what the camera saw.

> way...if they were from the Centauri system...it'd take 4.3 years
at the
> speed of light. If they could go four times the speed of light,
it'd take
> over 1 year for the UFO's to arrive here. It appeared that the
probe
> arrived at the alien homeworld in no more than a matter of days or
maybe
> weeks or months. Nothing is suggested that it took years...so
that means
> one of two things...the alien homeworld is closer then suggested,
or SHADO
> produced one hell of a propulsion system...so why aren't the
Not only that, but then when the probe radioed the pictures back, it
would had taken at least 4.3 years for the images to travel all the
way and reach earth!

> Ellis' leg...well, I'm a guy, and heck, she's a good looking
> woman...especially WITHOUT all that ridiculous makeup and silly
purple wigs
> (but the silver miniskirts can stay!). It's also silly that with
Hey, calm down, don't mess with Lt. Ellis!! ;-)

Remember, it was just a show that wasn't supposed to be technically
accurate!

David Levine

> Then's
> there's the infamous leg scene at the end - what can one say? OK, on
> one level it's spectacularly sexist and rather funny that the
> engineer guy has been able to set up this demonstration for Straker
> employing the shapely figure of Miss Ellis! And on the other hand -
> who cares? Great stuff! One wonders what the original version
> scripted with Ayshea might have been like...

Ayshea? The 'leg scene' was supposed to have been shot with
Ayshea?

If that's the case why were changes made? :(

Dave.

-----Original Message-----
> Then's
> there's the infamous leg scene at the end - what can one say? OK, on
> one level it's spectacularly sexist and rather funny that the
> engineer guy has been able to set up this demonstration for Straker
> employing the shapely figure of Miss Ellis! And on the other hand -
> who cares? Great stuff! One wonders what the original version
> scripted with Ayshea might have been like...


I've always attributed part of this scene back to the conversation Gay Ellis
and Straker had on Moonbase...which to me was of a more personal
nature--especially when Foster comes in and hears the last sentence and
Straker feels it so necessary to defend his comment. In the same episode
that was portrayed in the book, the reader is lead to believe that there may
have been some UST with Straker and Ellis at some point in time and perhaps
they had not quite gotten over it yet. Thus, this final scene twists the
"was there something between them?" a little more, leaving the viewer to
wonder. They could have used someone else...but then there wouldn't be that
Straker-Ellis curiosity.

Mary