Posted by Griff! on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/UFO-Episode-Discussions-THE-RESPONSIBILITY-SEAT-tp1499810p1499963.html

Hi All :)

Okay, The Responsibility Seat. In some ways, it's one of my favourite
episodes, as it has a great balance between SHADO/Alien action and personal
interest. In many of the other UFO episodes there seems to be either one or
the other.

It is very interesting to see Straker in a more sympathetic light, to
witness his vulnerabilities and perhaps naivety where women are concerned.
It also does go some way to explain his focus and single-mindedness with
SHADO. I think he wanted things to work out with Jo Frazer, he in some way
he even trusted her to some extent, but over-estimated his intuition, but
was saved by his sense of logic and procedure that forced him to check her
out for sure. SHADO security: where were you?

The touching scene at his house seems to indicate that he is willing to give
things a try, and he also seems to show sympathy for her story and wants to
believe it. He even trusts her to some degree, and wishes to understand why
she went about things the way she did, giving her every chance to explain
herself. This is good interpersonal stuff, and I believe for the fan fiction
writers gives (of all the episodes) the best personal background
understanding as to the psychology that makes up the character of Straker.

Of course, I cannot blame Straker, Jo Frazer is VERY pretty :)

There are a few things that bother me though:

Okay, I'll bypass the obvious observation that Jo Frazer would never have
been allowed within 10 miles of SHADO within being thoroughly vetted by
SHADO security (as I presume all visitors normally are vetted), even
standard checks would have shown her history, she didn't even appear to
change her name, then there's fingerprints, voiceprint, and the fact that
Harlington-Straker are in the media business, they would have people in the
know, and have to be pretty savvy about such gold/dirt diggers.

Then there's the inconsistency about her car. She finally admits it's hired,
and yet Straker mentions that the vehicle was logged and traced back to
her...

I find it disappointing that SHADO tracking RADAR cannot differentiate
between a weather balloon and a UFO - their RADAR signature characteristics
would be massively different, and indeed all US and European weather
balloons are tracked and their plots shared with all airline and military
flight traffic controls - and always have been.

I find it hard to believe that it is possible that the Russian Mining Rig
maintains an exact collision course for Moonbase over fifty miles, even with
all the obstacles that must be in the way, but hey, maybe it had some kind
of Moon GPS system to keep it on course, but it would seem unlikely.

Okay, also the fact that the space helmets appear to change colour; well,
this could be down to inconsistent lighting, bad colour matching or even
different film stock or processing.

I also like the jovial relationship between SHADO (Anglo-Americans) and the
Russian Sovatek base remembering that UFO was filmed during the thick of the
cold war... good foresight Gerry and Sylvia :)

...I have loads of other observations, but I guess I'll leave it there :)

Anyway, as I mentioned I think of this episode as one of my favourites.

Best to all

Griff

-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Martin [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 3:28 PM
To: SHADO Discussion Group
Subject: [SHADO] UFO Episode Discussions -- THE RESPONSIBILITY SEAT


Hi all,

Okay, I think our time for discussing the UFO episode CONFETTI CHECK
A-OK has come and gone, so it's probably time to move onto our next
episode. We had skipped THE RESPONSIBILITY SEAT before because it
wasn't part of A&E's UFO DVD Set 1, so lets go back to that one.
Anyone have any comments on this episode? If so, please make them
within the next 2 weeks!

Marc



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