Posted by Shado-cabinet on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/Review-for-UFO-How-it-Ended-parts-1-and-2-by-Anthony-Appleyard-tp4024056p4024058.html

Hi Clare

I'm sorry I keep getting the full title of the 'Cat' episode wrong :(

Well I think its a little unfair to the authors to dismiss their work as 'insane' without at least checking them out first (I mean the whole concept around fanfic is that it is a 'what if ' scenario).

The author does actually address the plot-device of the TV show were aliens are shown to age rapidly when exposed to earth's atmosphere. In the 'How it Ended' story it is revealed that the alien scientists have placed a drug in their helmet systems that is pumped into the liquid-oxygen solution which slowly causes the rapid-aging when the helmet is removed (its basically like a 'suicide pill' to kill the UFO-pilot if he is ever captured). Most of the UFO pilots are unaware of this 'suicide pill' solution in their helmets as a security measure (so as to kill them if they decide to defect SHADO etc). But sometimes this 'suicide pill' fails to kick-in when the helmet is taken off (which can also explain the 'Computer Affair' episode where the alien has had his helmet off for a long time and appears to be unaffected by the atmosphere). In the 'How it Ended' story the author explains that the group of aliens who defect to Earth found out about the 'suicide pill' solution in their helmets and disabled it prior to escaping their homeworld (this can also explain why the alien defector in the 'A Question of Priorities' episode had obviously taken off his helmet and appeared to be unaffected by the atmosphere, ie:  he disabled the 'suicide pill' function of his helmet).

The author is correct to ignore the Dr Jackson theory presented in the 'Cat with 10 lives' episode since the writers & producers of the UFO strip in the Countdown comic have also ignored this. In 'The Snatch' serial the aliens on their homeworld are shown to be humanoid beings who all know how to perform organ transplants because they frequently require them in order live forever (ie: no 'formless beings' possessing earth abductees ala 'Captain Scarlett' etc). And since the Countdown comic is basically an Anderson production then the UFO strip is a definitive companion piece to the TV show (and the alien homeworld presented in the 'How it Ended' story does match this depiction in the comic, and so is arguably more 'canon' than the theories presented by Dr Jackson in the 'Cat with 10 lives' episode etc).

And the author is correct to try and attempt to fill-in the glaring plot-hole of the 'Close Up' episode ( by having SHADO scientists place a UFO engine block in the B142 probe rather than have the probe follow the UFO using rocket engines which would take decades to reach its destination).  Your own theory of the UFO pilot spotting the probe and leading it back to Pluto is also a good one (the only problem is that SID would have detected the UFO & the trailing probe returning to the solar system )

But I would definitely recommend any UFO fan to read the 'How it Ended' story if only as a 'what if' scenario on how the UFO series 'could' have ended.