Posted by Griff! on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/Neil-s-comments-tp1498919p1498923.html

Hi :)

I'm scratching my head over this one... I have both of the UFO novels by
John Burke (AKA Robert Miall). There is no mention (that I know of) of a
Geoffrey Harlington in UFO or UFO2. Could you possibly be thinking of
another reference. The books were also published in the US and elsewhere
with different titles, but I have all of those versions as well (indeed
every published version through Pan and their other imprints), and there is
no such reference.

I have always been slightly annoyed when even well-meaning individuals
create 'fictional' backgrounds to series such as UFO - a recent example can
be found with some of the pseudo biographies created especially for the UFO
DVD sets by an Fan Organisation that should know better... Grrr enough said!
I do belong to the aforementioned club, and except for this 'misdemeanour',
they are a truly professional organisation that I would recommend to anyone.

Unfortunately, when 'individuals' create these pseudo backgrounds, technical
insights, cutaways diagrams, it is somewhat a shame that these in time
become seen as factual within the context of the series. UFO has 'suffered'
greatly from these 'helpful' people.

I do not include Fan Fiction, as the authors - for the most part - do not
confuse their insights with the background and contexts laid down through
the original creators and episode writers. Thus there is a neat separation
that augments the series, rather than 'fiddle' with the 'realities' within
the context of the original series.

I fear it is possible that you may have unwittingly fallen into this
particular trap. It is of course possible that I may be wrong, but I do not
think so.

Okay.... I'm a bit of a purist, but hey... each to our own.

Happy New Year to all :)

Griff

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 3:41 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Neil's comments


In one of the two UFO novels which were adapted from the TV scripts
Robert Miall mentions that the Harlington of Harlington-Straker is Geoffery
Harlington the orginal owner of the Studio and that he went into partnership
with SHADO to save his studio.
This to me sounds a more reasonable explaination of the name
Harlington-Straker than Harlington being the town the studio is located in.
I mean there are studios named for there locations like Elstree and
Borehamwood and Pinewood and studios named for people like Bray, Hammer,
Samuel Goldwyn, Fox, Warner Brothers, but you never hear of one being both
the name of the place it is at and the owner.
The only reason to put the name of the town with the name of the owner
wourld be if there was more than one studio location, say such as
Burbank-Straker, or Rome-Straker, or Paris-Straker, or Sydney-Straker. As
there is just the one studio it seem more likely that Harlington is a person
and Robert Miall game him the first name of Geoffery.

James K.


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