Posted by anthonyappleyard <MCLSSAA2@fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk> on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/Fragility-of-alien-craft-and-kit-tp1495267.html

On 5 Jan 2002, at 8:41, [hidden email] wrote (Subject: Re:
UFO smashing):-
> As far as we're aware, the UFO's that came to Earth
> were allergic to the atmosphere and usually blew up
> with[in] twenty four hours of arrival. ...

With alien technology being so advanced, it is to be wondered why
alien science can't come up with an adequate oxygen-proof coating
on vulnerable parts. Even if their own world has run short of
materials, if they can routinely raid Earth, they could surely fly to
other planets to get raw materials. Unless UFO's were deliberately
made to be vulnerable to oxygen when away from home, to make
sure that their crews quickly do their job and come home instead of
going off exploring or staying on Earth or deserting and going
native.

Likewise, I suspect that aliens who breathe Earth atmosphere die
as in "Identified" because while away from home something in their
spacesuits doses them with a chemical that kills them if they are
not breathing spacesuit liquid, to stop them from deserting. That
alien desertion can happen is shown in "The Responsibility Seat".

In issue #2 of the UFO series fan fiction periodical Flightpath
(Published by Mike Adamson / Entropy Express, POBox 270,
Brighton, South Australia 5048 (email: [hidden email])) is a
story "The Hunting of Eagle X-Ray" (in Antarctica SHADO and a
UFO fight together against a different alien threat). In it, an alien
must breathe air to quickly discuss matters with a rather surprised
Freeman, and it makes the alien ill, but he recovers later after he
went back to liquid-breathing. (So far Flightpath has run to 7
issues, with 39 stories, all UFO; a few of them are crossovers.)

Also the fragility of alien spacesuits surprises me. I have seen in
canon matter:-

- An alien on Earth walks through a forest and trips on a tree root
and falls forward, and his helmet faceplate hits another tree root,
and breaks. Earth-made motorcycle and riotsquad helmet visors
routinely withstand much harder impacts successfully.

- In a forest an big dog bites an alien and tears a piece out of his
spacesuit, and SHADO men find the piece. That might be possible
with the c.1970 Earth-made lycra material that the studio used to
represent alien spacesuit fabric; but surely super-advanced alien
science could make something tougher?

As alien crew might get into fights and scrapes, I would have
thought that alien command could come up with stronger
materials, even if they had to go off-planet to get necessary raw
materials. Haven't the aliens discovered kevlar and polycarbonate?

Perhaps it takes many years for aliens to get from their homeworld
to Earth and back, and it will take that long for alien command to
find that Earth is now resisting and they can't any more send their
men and craft in completely "soft" with only hunting-type weapons.
But I seem to remember an episode where, when Monbase came
into operation, the aliens were quick to assemble a large force to
try to knock out Moonbase. Perhaps the aliens did not realise in
time what men were building on the moon. Perhaps they did
realize but it took too long for the information to get far enough
back for an attack force to be gathered.