UFO Episode Discussions?

Hi all,

Well, it's beginning to appear that only one or two people
are willing to regularly participate in our UFO episode
discussions, which makes me wonder if we should bother
continuing them?

Marc

P.S. If we do continue, the current episode up for
discussion is EXPOSED, and there's a week left for
this episode.

I have always thought that Foster, on paper, should not have been
hired by SHADO based on his behavior in EXPOSED. I mean, he was
given an order to abandon the sector where he was flying, and what
did he do? As a result, an expensive test aircraft and his copilot
were lost. He should had been put on trial for not obeying his
orders!

And this gets worse during CONFLICT, where he blatantly disobeys
orders and takes the lunar module for a ride... did he get
disciplined for this? But this is the subject of another discussion.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Foster character, but sometimes his
actions where inconsistent to what should have been required for a
SHADO operative...

David Levine

In a message dated 01/10/02 13:20:30 GMT Daylight Time, [hidden email]
writes:


> And this gets worse during CONFLICT, where he blatantly disobeys
> orders and takes the lunar module for a ride... did he get
> disciplined for this? But this is the subject of another discussion.
>

And another pint (just to stick my oar in) how about in Timelash where he
countermands Straker's orders with the injection for Catherine.....definitely
court martial material there.

Claire


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

Uh - that was "Long Sleep" and Foster didn't actually countermand Straker's
order. During the discussion, Straker backed down (a first) and Foster
stepped up to take over. What isn't explored is why Straker backed away from
the obvious solution to the problem, why he tried to protect Catherine even
though protecting her was obviously at variance with his duty to SHADO. (For
that matter, the security at the hospital was so lax that nobody bothered to
check her room for bugs or eavesdroppers?)

As to Exposed - Foster showed himself as a person who, despite instructions
to the contrary, followed his instincts as to what was right. "Easier to ask
forgiveness than permission."
For some this can be considered a leadership capacity - he was on site, saw
something that demanded to be attended to and went to see to it. The people
on the ground didn't know what was going on - their orders came from higher
up without an explanation, not from what they might have seen on their
scopes - "Uh, Paul, you're heading into an unannounced war games area and
word is, they're using live ammo."

In Conflict - Straker was playing a dangerous game. He agreed to Henderson's
conditions knowing either Foster or Freeman would take matters into their
own hands. Foster was the one to do it - note that although Straker promises
to have a 'discussion' with Foster, Foster seems to escaped that discussion
unscathed (can't have been much - he was still walking.)

The key was that although Foster may have been headstrong, it was relatively
infrequently and always moderated by a considered weighing of the options -
how much did something need to be done despite orders - not what he could
get away with.

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 5:23 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Re: UFO Episode Discussions?


In a message dated 01/10/02 13:20:30 GMT Daylight Time,
[hidden email]
writes:


> And this gets worse during CONFLICT, where he blatantly disobeys
> orders and takes the lunar module for a ride... did he get
> disciplined for this? But this is the subject of another discussion.
>

And another pint (just to stick my oar in) how about in Timelash where he
countermands Straker's orders with the injection for
Catherine.....definitely
court martial material there.

Claire


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





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[hidden email] wrote:

> And another pint (just to stick my oar in)

Mine's a lager please ..

> how about in Timelash where he countermands Straker's orders with
> the injection for Catherine.....definitely court martial material
> there.


The Long Sleep, not Timelash, but in any case he doesn't disobey
orders here - Straker looks unhappy about it, but he goes along
with it.

In general though, the Foster character does usually represent a
certain contradiction. Straker is very much a 'by the book',
authoritarian leader, and Foster disobeys the rules a bit too
often for his relationship with Straker to be credible. It is a
military organisation, after all.

In a message dated 01/10/02 16:25:07 GMT Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:


> Uh - that was "Long Sleep

Yes sorry, I realised my mistake soon after posting

Claire


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

In a message dated 01/10/02 16:39:10 GMT Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:


> And another pint (just to stick my oar in)
>
> Mine's a lager please

Sigh, .....you know - there are days when I just shouldn't go near a computer
and today is ALL of those days <walks away shaking head>, (LOL)

Claire


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

In a message dated 01/10/02 16:39:10 GMT Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:


> Foster disobeys the rules a bit too
> often for his relationship with Straker to be credible. It is a
> military organisation, after all.
>

And another pint <g> - The above narrative is what I was trying to get at
earlier.

Apologies to all those who will be writing in to correct my error (I had just
been mailing a US friend about Timelash and I guess it stuck). Of course it
was TLS. and now that I've caused uproar......stage left!

Claire


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

--- In SHADO@y..., "Deborah Rorabaugh" <librarian@s...> wrote:
> As to Exposed - Foster showed himself as a person who, despite
instructions
> to the contrary, followed his instincts as to what was
right. "Easier to ask
> forgiveness than permission."
> For some this can be considered a leadership capacity - he was on
site, saw
> something that demanded to be attended to and went to see to it."
Leadership capacity? Again, in this case his curiosity was the cause
that the test plane was lost, and his co-pilot died. If he had just
blindly followed the instructions, the plane and his partner
probably would have been OK.

I think the higher ups could have given him a pass for the
insubordination in a case like this if it hadn't had any negative
consequences, but again, here that wasn't the case. In real life, he
probably wouldn't have flown ever again (as a pilot).

David Levine