UFO VIEWING ORDER

Are there any suggestions as to why the episode viewing orders should vary like they do.
Marc states that the original ATV Midlands viewing order (which I saw when I was 12 years old) was in fact ridiculous.

Having thought about this a little more I,m not so sure.
Apart from the fact that I am conditioned to this order because of nostalgia,I'm of the opinion this order does in fact make a good deal of sense.
The ATV Midlands order provided variety and had a balanced
structure.You will generally see an episode from the first
13 episodes alternating with one from the last 13 episodes.
Each episode will differ in pace and content.Yes some characters will appear and then disappear,but this is normal expectation in keeping with one's own life.It also kept an audience familiar with all the characters,through the whole series even if from time to time they were'nt in an episode.
Can you imagine what it would have been like for some fans if after 17episodes they could never drool over Lt Ellis again.I also think the loss of George Sewell as Col Freeman
made a big qualitive difference.His character was much more influencial on Straker than either Foster or Lake.
His relationship with Straker was much closer than either of the other two senior officers.In fact I think this would have been very noticeable had the production order been used for broadcast.
So in fact I think the original ATV Midlands order is in fact,on reflection the best choice.So much so in fact that I have re-authored my disks to take account of it.It feels like I,m greeting an old friend.

Mark UK

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> Marc states that the original ATV Midlands viewing order (which I
> saw when I was 12 years old) was in fact ridiculous.

It's true that most of the episode standalone quite well and can
be mixed up without too much trouble, but there is an evolution
of the series which can best be seen by following the production
order. My order on varies from the production order in an
attempt to introduce Foster's character in a way that makes
some sense.

As for the ATV order, nit-pickers would point out that both
MINBENDER and SUBSMASH feature flashbacks to CONFETTI CHECK
AOK, yet in the ATV order CONFETTI is shown after these two
episodes! Also, COMPUTER AFFAIR is the episode where we
learn that the UFO's cannot handle being in the atmosphere
more than a few days, and this fact is taken for granted
in later episodes. However, in the ATV order, COMPUTER
AFFAIR is episode #21! Also, in the production order, the
UFO attacks and SHADO's ability to intercept them increase
slowly over the episodes. In the ATV order, you go from
barely being able to make an interception (episodes 1 and
2, IDENTIFIED and EXPOSED) to being a perfect shot and
an all-out battle (episode 3, THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES).

Certainly when one is familiar with the episodes, the order
doesn't matter much. However, I for one wouldn't want to
introduce any newcomers to the series using the ATV order --
the continuity in UFO is bad enough as it is without using
this order to make it worse!

Marc