Posted by Marc Martin on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/A-E-UFO-DVD-Set-2-Arrives-tp1498952.html

Hi all,

My A&E UFO DVD Set 2 arrived this morning. I only had about 30 minutes
to examine it before I had to go to work, so here are my initial comments.

* basically it's about the same as A&E's UFO set 1. Same style of artwork
on the cover & discs, same type of container, same type of menus. And from
my brief glimpse at the episodes, the same high quality of audio/video (and
at the corrected, slowed down speed from the PAL versions)

* the commentary tracks are as expected. Ed Bishop for SUB-SMASH, Mike
Billington & Alan Perry for KILL STRAKER. Sylvia Anderson and Wanda Ventham
for TIMELASH. I listened to about a minute of the KILL STRAKER and TIMELASH
commentaries -- KILL STRAKER seemed to have a lot of talking and very informative.
Billington's seemed a bit groggy/soft-spoken. TIMELASH seemed to be like
two giggly schoolgirls chatting about the episode they are watching. But
again, this is only from listening for a minute -- my opinion will likely
be different after I've heard all of them.

* the "Video Outtakes" would be best titled "Audio Outtakes". There's quite
a few of these, none of which appeared on the UK discs, and some of which
appeared on the French discs. For KILL STRAKER, they have the original
audio of Ed Bishop & Mike Billington talking in Moonbase, illustrated by
the video from the episode. You can see/hear that the conversation was
filmed/recorded in two passes, and you can hear the "other" actor talking
in the background with performances that haven't been heard before, plus
when they screw up a line and restart, plus the crew saying "action", etc.
There is also the original audio of 2 guards searching the liesure sphere,
again illustrated with video from the finished episode.  

* the 3 takes of SID singing (first heard on the French discs) are here.
The footage illustrating this seems like it might be something that wasn't
seen in any episode.

* the filming of the night scenes during the daytime in TIMELASH (first
seen on the French discs) is here.

* a 2-second shot of a clapperboard in TIMELASH with Henderson and Foster
behind it (first seen
in Fanderson's UFO documentary) is here.

* Some alternate audio of Tim jumping off the farmhouse rooftop (first in
the French discs) is here.

* the "photo gallery" is just like that in Set 1 -- all frame captures.
A complete waste of time, and especially dissapointing to me, as they asked
me for gallery photos and I sent them ~60 of them, none of which were used.

So that's my initial, 30-minute impression. If there are mastering errors,
I haven't had the time to find them. Assuming that there aren't, people
will most likely be very pleased, as the episodes look great, there are
3 commentary tracks, and a nice handful of audio/video outtakes (some which
have never been seen before on either the UK or French discs). There's
certainly a lot of stuff from the UK discs which is missing here, but I
still think the A&E disc still stands on its own, and has its own unique
extras.

I'll certainly have more to report tomorrow, after I've had a chance to
listen to the commentaries and briefly check the video/audio quality of
each episode.

Marc