Gerry Anderson and his team were ahead of their time, and never bettered, this child of the 1960s will be ever grateful for a wonderful collection of fantasy Sci-fi shows, that are always a must watch and never to be missed.
First watched this around 10 years old creeping downstairs in a townhouse we lived in at 11pm on weekdays to see UFO episodes on ITV in the UK. We only had a black & white TV and it took 40 seconds or so for the cathode tubes to warm up after turning on so I had to be there one or two minutes before the show started to listen to the intro music!!! Oh man that intro music .... even in cloudy mono sound was sooo cool. Thank God my parents were heavy sleepers!!!! Ed Straker...OMG... that hair....snappy viper tongue leadership and Gabrielle Drake with purple haze hair...OMG....even at 10 years old I had class....LOL. Insane TV program waaay ahead of its time. I laugh now rewatching it 100 times over and seeing all the loopholes in the production. But 50 years ago we did not realize this....I was mesmerized as a wee lad by the real fact of UFOs landing in the Surrey countryside LOL. Being born to watch this as a kid in this era was a blessing. Gerry Anderson was a God.
(1:08 - 1:12) You know, i always wanted to slide down one of those Launch Chutes. It would so awesome/exciting to slide down them and into the cockpit of one of SHADO's Interceptors! 😁👍
I confess that at first I wasn't sure, but how I'm really enjoying Jon Culshaw's performance as an aged Ed Straker. He sounds reminiscent here, occasionally letting slip a little returning excitement. The Anderverse's 2020 is quite different to its 1980 that he knew and fought in, but there's still a job to do, so he's still here to do it.
It definitely needs to be made today with all the mod cons and bells and whistles of modern film making. I loved this when I was a kid. Great entertainment.
Yesterday, I was walking through a supermarket checkout area when I saw a young person talking to their Apple smart-watch. My mind flashed back to a Thunderbirds episode where Brains is talking to his watch as a massive rocket crosses a highly volatile suspension bridge and I thought, "look at that guy, talking to his watch, he must be crazy." Anderson and the production team at C21 were truly prophetic.
The interceptors were very cool, but I was never too hot on the UFOs themselves. With one major exception. There is one scene in an episode, I cannot remember which one, where a character is being taken out of a house on a stretcher. A UFO is observing them--unbeknownst to them--right above the treetops, and the shot is looking up through the trees at the menacing ship. It is absolutely chilling and well done.
I always t6hought it was stupid that the interceptor had just one missile for attacking, never relised it had a cannon as well, and I dont think I ever saw this cannon used in the series.
Agreed. I also liked the animated Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet series; however, I would have preferred live-action series. The important thing is to get the right people on board (writers, producers, actors, FX, etc.). It should also be written with middle-aged folk in mind who watched the original series as kids. If you do not consider the original audience you end up with a train wreck like the 2004 Thunderbirds live-action movie.
This came on at an odd hour of the day in my area. I think it was 5 or 6 o'clock on Saturday's. It was so good that I couldn't believe that it only lasted one season. And space 1999 came on at 1 in the morning on Saturdays.
Thanks for this. I've been a big fan of the show since first seeing it on TV as a child. Never knew the details of how SID and the moonbase team worked together for a firing solution. Also didn't know about the multiple nuclear warheads each interceptor carried.
This brought back alot of memories of the late Great Jerry Anderson and puppet and later on live action series. The voice over was near perfect of the Late Ed Bishop. Pity u.f.o. was cancelled and Space 1999 took over which was great as well, but it was a pity we never got to know how S.H.A.D.O. got on with the war ? But Jerry made All our Childhood's totally Amazing. Godspeed Jerry and All the other cast members who have passed . From the 🇬🇧
British SI-fi at its best, for an audience that appreciated hard science fiction as opposed to science fantasy. I vividly remember an episode where the dead body of a UFO crew member was recovered & the vac suit was filled with liquid to mitigate or dampen the effects of high G. it was details like this that made it stand out against other shows.
Even as a small child, I spotted the huge flaw in the interceptor design. Just a single missile. All UFOs needed to do was attack with 4 UFOs and moonbase is screwed.
Fantastische S/F. TV-SERIE,die mich als 9 jähriger Junge völlig Faszinierte, lief im deutschen Fernsehen 1969,besonders die Abfangjäger der Mondbasis, aber auch Sky-Diver war klasse und die gepanzerten Fahrzeuge als Raketenwerfer der Erdverteitigung.
Huh. That was really interesting. I was unaware that the Interceptor had a weapon once it's missile was fired or that is broke into multiple mini missiles. I wonder if the reason why that was never shown on screen was because of the restrictions of the FX technology of the time? I wish it had actually been designed in a way that you could see those mini missiles because it seemed really odd to have one massive missile.
There was one episode that we saw the high velocity machine guns fire. I can't remember which. But network TV reruns may have cut it. You need to go to original movies. Yeah - Star Trek is the same way.
One of the things I liked about the UFO series was that Earth's tech seemed like a match or near match to the aliens. Earth's vehicles were certainly better looking, taking away the cool factor that the villains often have in sci fi series. The aliens seemed desperate more so than omnipotent which made them dangerous but in a different way than many other sci series & films. And the Interceptor was sharp!
@@kirgan1000 The novelization of "Flesh Hunters" actually describes deadpan Straker sounding slightly emotional as he identifies the aliens as being driven by the greatest motivation in the universe: "Survival!"
Unless you were from this era you will never get it. Remember this was pre Star Wars and all the modern film sets. The programme was years ahead of it's time and even today some 50 years later it isn't that much dated- okay the cigarettes are dated but effects are stunning. Will never be beaten as a theme tune, costumes and sets.
After all these years I learned what SOL was! I thought it was just something they said. I did not know about the auto cannon either. Thanks for the info.
@Vee Dunham - Yeah, that was new to me as well. I never knew that SOL meant “Speed Of Light” and I wasn’t aware of the additional cannon either. After all these years ...!
The original large-scale model of the interceptor that was used for actual series filming did have the cannon arrangement in the area ahead of the cockpit. Never mentioned in script, but there to see in all the front close-up shots.
Gerry Anderson never received the attention or later the backing he deserved, expensive productions need big backers. Lew Grade could only do some much and he gave Anderson a great chance. There were also some internal private life matters that brought troubles, but that's another story. From my point of view he could have beaten George Lucas hands down with a big budget and ultimately made much more mature productions with quality scriptwriters for big screen work. The early Star Wars films were good space operas, but what would Anderson have done with such budgets? Sadly, we'll never know.
While we do not know what Gerry Anderson would have done with a big budget, we already have the results of what would happen if Derek Meddings, the technical effects director for many of the Supermarionation series, was hired for a big budget production-- Derek Meddings directed the technical effects of both "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker".
We have an idea, with "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun". Written by Anderson, directed by Parrish, but had the Anderson's trademarks all over it. Stylized spaceships with interiors very much in the fashion of "The Thunderbirds", and an interesting plot. Unfortunately, the whole affair was rather stiff with a real downbeat ending that turned off viewers.
@@Davman316 Spot on. Frakes and the people who made Thunderbirds made an absolute shocking representation of what was a brilliant concept. There's was a teenage angst film. No Jeff Tracy to give orders and control them... no let the kids do it all and squabble etc. The only things more wooden than Frakes were the stage backgrounds and props. Captain Scarlet should be as dark as the kids' TV show. Played as any gritty modern-day action/Sci-fi film... no overt comedy and NO Snowflake politics or woke political message, no love story, in fact, the first-ever episode of Captain Scarlet would be marvellous made using real people! I've hoped for this to happen...Great idea Davman! A faithful reproduction of that... its story would be believable today! You couldn't say Gerry's Earth battling the Mysterons, with his vehicles etc. is dated. The SPV is my all-time 'dream-car' lol. Let's face it... the people that made The Avengers films didn't have to look far for their Air-base, did they? I'm fairly certain it's the first kids show that showed and treated death explicitly. In other series, it was always known but not seen... Stingray and the Giant Fish, when a sting missile took one of the giant fish out... the occupants The Aquaphibians were obviously killed... BUT sometimes even comical music was played as the 'Fish' sank to the bottom of the sea. I grew up on SUPERCAR, XL-5, STINGRAY, THUNDERBIRDS and of course probably my favourite Captain Scarlet!! All were better made and had better values than Frakes' Thunderbirds. You probably know that Gerry Anderson was not asked to help on this AND it was known by the directors he didn't think much of their plans... BUT he said later they offered him a shed-load of money to do the pre-release lobbying around the world to promote the film... he knocked them back instantly!!
If SHADO Moonbase became part of Moonbase Alpha wouldn't that mean that the Interceptors were still in their hangers at the time that the events in Space 1999 occurred? It seems strange that on every event shown in Space 1999 they never utilised the Interceptors although they could have been useful.
The actual larger-scale model used for actual series filming does have the nose-mounted cannons. No episode included cannon action, but in close shots of the interceptor, the cannons are there to be seen, so Andrew Clement's narrative here is not completely fabricated. The business about reloading an interceptor for a fourth shot is a ventured explanation for the final battle scene in "Reflections In The Water". Actually a montage of stock footage, there were four interceptor missile firings depicted in that scene. My preferred explanation is that SHADO had one or more reserve interceptors down in the hangar bay. That would make sense operationally, just like "Replacement Sky One", and it would explain how there were always three interceptors shown, even in episodes following the ones in which an interceptor was destroyed. This video provides a very good, plausible, in-story explanation for the CONSTANT comment/question of why the interceptors only had one missile each. The real world reason was to provide dramatic tension and opportunities for story development.
@@2opler UFO was for adults, And American version will probably be poor. look how awful the American version of Red Dwarf was. Even the BBC is ruining SciFi look how the have made a mess of Dr Who. What would be best is if Anderson made it themselves, look how good Nebula 75 is and that's made in a London flat with a zero budget.
Who else wants to see a revival of UFO, and/or Space 1999? But with upgrades/updates, to account for the passage of time since they were last aired as a series?
@@ACtheLegend Interesting, and good to know, thank you. I used to wonder why the Interceptors had tails since you couldn't use any kind of tailfin in the vacuum of space. I assume the decision was to create a more pleasing visual image.
@@frankberry9642 I've always thought that maybe the tail fin is actually a reinforced antenna array of some kind. Perhaps made from off the shelf components intended for atmospheric craft.
@@jamescampbell39 I haven't seen those. I always assumed the one-shot system of the Interceptor was that due to their exceptional speed a UFO would only be within range for one shot, so lobbing a single round of the highest destructive power was the best option. Unless the Interceptors had a comparable speed to their quarry there would be no point in having them give chase in the hope of achieving a second firing solution.
1st discovered this series on late night tv in the early 80's. Got it on a dvd set just over a decade ago n I've watched through it many times since. I've always wanted to see more. To know what ultimately became of SHADO n the aliens. How they were defeated, who they were etc.
UFO pronounced as U-Fo would be an acronym whereas UFO pronouncing each letter is an initialism. To be an acronym it has to make a word e.g. laser, but initialisms have every individual letter produced e.g. BBC, DOA, etc
Where were the launch craters for the Interceptors? You cannot see them from an areal shot. Also, how did the pilots enter the craft from the tubes they slide down?
@@ACtheLegend Logistics problem.....how much air would be wasted depressurizing and re-pressurizing the bays. It's more likely that there was some sort of enclosed gantry conveyor like with Sky 1. Besides, in one episode, their time from orders, to actual launch were mentioned and there was no way they could have done it if they had to "run" and climb in.
@@jrdube One episode depicted an alien-controlled SHADO operative down in the lunar hangar bay, in normal atmosphere, sabotaging an interceptor. So it's canon that the hangar bay was pressurized.
Gravity and static control around the computers. Also, to prevent the need for tons of hair spray that would contaminate the air processing equipment. Otherwise the girls would have some really bad hair days! Their conductive clothing also helped control static.
@@ACtheLegend Really? It certainly didn't show how pissed off kids were when they found a green toy in the pack on Christmas morning...I know, I was one of them!
SOL.. well well, now I know what they were on about...well kinda...lol. Could never understand how the UFO itself, Skydiver and the other odd cars were not made into toys. JFYI, I only found out about 10 years ago that the two main "modern" cars were from a previous movie...and there WAS a third.
For comparision, here is a cutaway from 1973. Not sure how canon is was, but it was the best I had at the time. www.fab1.net/ufo/cutaway.htm I see only a single warhead designed to detonate on impact. But notice item 31: high velocity machine guns. Interesting that it has reverse motors. Many designers ignore the need for those.
that is the reason why the interceptors did not fire until moon base provided firing instructions (precise aiming and timing parameters) this provided a better chance of the misile detonating just before the uFO would collide with the debris and be damaged.
@Jim Allen As you go up to near light speed your mass increases and this means even changing course by a few degrees takes A LOT of Energy/Fuel, so course corrections are only economical at sub light speeds. but you are right about doing light speed so close to earth. they would do that only if they had some way to suddenly decelerate (ie., tunneling, subspace, etc)
The first image of an Interceptor is hilarious because unintentionally or not the missile has 'POINT AWAY FROM FACE' written on it which matches the Dinky toy. Not pointing a nuclear weapon at one's face is of course highly important. 😂
![SHADO Mobile: Century 21 Tech Talk [2.9] | Hosted by General Ed Straker [UFO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/csDHTZIkKIM/mqdefault.jpg)
![SHADO Mobile: Century 21 Tech Talk [2.9] | Hosted by General Ed Straker [UFO]](/img/tr.png)
![Angel Interceptor [Captain Scarlet]: Century 21 Tech Talk [3.4] | Hosted by Jeff Tracy](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E1MVihmjGAc/mqdefault.jpg)
Gerry Anderson and his team were ahead of their time, and never bettered, this child of the 1960s will be ever grateful for a wonderful collection of fantasy Sci-fi shows, that are always a must watch and never to be missed.
best intro theme ever, stryker was as cool as they get, all done with models absolutely brilliant
Outstanding! I’ll never grow up. The greatest television production ever.
Most important 4 words ever !
First watched this around 10 years old creeping downstairs in a townhouse we lived in at 11pm on weekdays to see UFO episodes on ITV in the UK.
We only had a black & white TV and it took 40 seconds or so for the cathode tubes to warm up after turning on so I had to be there one or two minutes before the show started to listen to the intro music!!! Oh man that intro music .... even in cloudy mono sound was sooo cool. Thank God my parents were heavy sleepers!!!! Ed Straker...OMG... that hair....snappy viper tongue leadership and Gabrielle Drake with purple haze hair...OMG....even at 10 years old I had class....LOL. Insane TV program waaay ahead of its time. I laugh now rewatching it 100 times over and seeing all the loopholes in the production. But 50 years ago we did not realize this....I was mesmerized as a wee lad by the real fact of UFOs landing in the Surrey countryside LOL. Being born to watch this as a kid in this era was a blessing. Gerry Anderson was a God.
I remember doing the same thing. If I recall it was Wednesday, 11:00 pm. A little later every Sunday, 1:00 pm.
In England we spell program as a programme.
@@Mr_KennethIn search of UFOs I left England a long time ago to expand my capabilities to spell English in different ways.😊
This show had such a great concept and had so much potential. Maybe someone should re-imagine it. The vehicle designs were great.
(1:08 - 1:12) You know, i always wanted to slide down one of those Launch Chutes. It would so awesome/exciting to slide down them and into the cockpit of one of SHADO's Interceptors! 😁👍
I first watched this series when in my teens. Way back in the early 70's !
Was always a favorite.
Congratulations on your promotion General Straker.
I confess that at first I wasn't sure, but how I'm really enjoying Jon Culshaw's performance as an aged Ed Straker. He sounds reminiscent here, occasionally letting slip a little returning excitement. The Anderverse's 2020 is quite different to its 1980 that he knew and fought in, but there's still a job to do, so he's still here to do it.
I had one as a child, even as a child I wondered why it only had one huge missile, today I learned.....and it was way cooler than I ever imagined 👍
I still have my model, though it's rather worse-for-wear - it got a lot of playtime :P
Same here, I always wondered why they only had one huge missile, like most of C21 stuff, its soo much cooler than it looks on the surface
It definitely needs to be made today with all the mod cons and bells and whistles of modern film making. I loved this when I was a kid. Great entertainment.
That would be worth a series, with the right scriptwriter and good CGI it would be a massive hit.
Each episode never fails to make me smile
Yesterday, I was walking through a supermarket checkout area when I saw a young person talking to their Apple smart-watch.
My mind flashed back to a Thunderbirds episode where Brains is talking to his watch as a massive rocket crosses a highly volatile suspension bridge and I thought,
"look at that guy, talking to his watch, he must be crazy."
Anderson and the production team at C21 were truly prophetic.
The interceptors were very cool, but I was never too hot on the UFOs themselves. With one major exception. There is one scene in an episode, I cannot remember which one, where a character is being taken out of a house on a stretcher. A UFO is observing them--unbeknownst to them--right above the treetops, and the shot is looking up through the trees at the menacing ship. It is absolutely chilling and well done.
The Interceptors had an additional autocannon?!!!! Great fact!!!
Yes, considering the complicated craft had one shot. As far as we were aware back then...
AutocannonS, plural...
@@MatthewBaileyBeAfraid just singular, one in the middle :)
I always t6hought it was stupid that the interceptor had just one missile for attacking, never relised it had a cannon as well, and I dont think I ever saw this cannon used in the series.
@@bigfella6629 well techically between the 3 of them they have 30 missiles :)
How many memories .... This show was so ahead of its time.
If this could be rebooted and done properly, it would be a fitting tribute to the late Great Gerry Anderson, who made our Childhoods totally Awesome.
Agreed, but as with everything else, any reboot, no matter how good, would have a number of fans complaining that it wasn't exactly the same.
It WAS done properly.
Agreed.
I also liked the animated Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet series; however, I would have preferred live-action series.
The important thing is to get the right people on board (writers, producers, actors, FX, etc.). It should also be written with middle-aged folk in mind who watched the original series as kids. If you do not consider the original audience you end up with a train wreck like the 2004 Thunderbirds live-action movie.
This came on at an odd hour of the day in my area. I think it was 5 or 6 o'clock on Saturday's. It was so good that I couldn't believe that it only lasted one season. And space 1999 came on at 1 in the morning on Saturdays.
Thanks for this. I've been a big fan of the show since first seeing it on TV as a child. Never knew the details of how SID and the moonbase team worked together for a firing solution. Also didn't know about the multiple nuclear warheads each interceptor carried.
Nasci em 1965 e esse show iluminava minha imaginação de criança. Tanto que até hoje ela brilha em mim. Parabéns aos produtores todos.
I’m looking forward to this. FAB
Me too!
This brought back alot of memories of the late Great Jerry Anderson and puppet and later on live action series.
The voice over was near perfect of the Late Ed Bishop. Pity u.f.o. was cancelled and Space 1999 took over which was great as well, but it was a pity we never got to know how S.H.A.D.O. got on with the war ?
But Jerry made All our Childhood's totally Amazing.
Godspeed Jerry and All the other cast members who have passed .
From the 🇬🇧
British SI-fi at its best, for an audience that appreciated hard science fiction as opposed to science fantasy. I vividly remember an episode where the dead body of a UFO crew member was recovered & the vac suit was filled with liquid to mitigate or dampen the effects of high G. it was details like this that made it stand out against other shows.
Even as a small child, I spotted the huge flaw in the interceptor design. Just a single missile.
All UFOs needed to do was attack with 4 UFOs and moonbase is screwed.
They attacked with 50 UFOs in the series and still lost. And if you watch the video, you know it's not just a single missile ;)
Well written
Fantastische S/F. TV-SERIE,die mich als 9 jähriger Junge völlig Faszinierte, lief im deutschen Fernsehen 1969,besonders die Abfangjäger der Mondbasis, aber auch Sky-Diver war klasse und die gepanzerten Fahrzeuge als Raketenwerfer der Erdverteitigung.
I still watch it today fun and it had a good look
AND GIRLS WERE GOOOOD LOOKING I WAS 10.
👽👾👍.
Well... ! THAT certainly explains why we supposedly/ allegedly haven't been back to the Moon since the Apollo missions...
👽😅!
Fantastic channel.
I have used the UFO theme as my phone ringtone for years.😀
Me too!
How do you do it?
I always enjoyed the British TV Shows, specially SCFI. I miss those years
Se la serie venisse riproposta con gli effetti speciali di oggi avrebbe un enorme successo!! ❤️
Damn right!
Loved that show im going to have to dig out the box set now ❤️👍👍
Huh. That was really interesting. I was unaware that the Interceptor had a weapon once it's missile was fired or that is broke into multiple mini missiles. I wonder if the reason why that was never shown on screen was because of the restrictions of the FX technology of the time? I wish it had actually been designed in a way that you could see those mini missiles because it seemed really odd to have one massive missile.
There was one episode that we saw the high velocity machine guns fire. I can't remember which. But network TV reruns may have cut it. You need to go to original movies. Yeah - Star Trek is the same way.
@@ZiggyDude777 What 'original movies?' (Unfortunately) there were no movies and if you mean the 'original shows' it didn't happen there, either.
Many memories of my childhood.Love it.Subscribed.
Very informative and entertaining video!
Was a great show
One of the things I liked about the UFO series was that Earth's tech seemed like a match or near match to the aliens. Earth's vehicles were certainly better looking, taking away the cool factor that the villains often have in sci fi series. The aliens seemed desperate more so than omnipotent which made them dangerous but in a different way than many other sci series & films. And the Interceptor was sharp!
What was the UFO motive to attack Earth?
Apparently:
1. Keep humanity weak and disorganized to help achieve their main goal...
2. Human organ retrieval.
@@kirgan1000 The novelization of "Flesh Hunters" actually describes deadpan Straker sounding slightly emotional as he identifies the aliens as being driven by the greatest motivation in the universe: "Survival!"
Jon Culshaw!! Nice one mate!!
Simply brilliant!
Unless you were from this era you will never get it. Remember this was pre Star Wars and all the modern film sets. The programme was years ahead of it's time and even today some 50 years later it isn't that much dated- okay the cigarettes are dated but effects are stunning. Will never be beaten as a theme tune, costumes and sets.
Gerry Anderson QEPD LA AVENTURA CONTINUA
Fantastic guys
Ragazzi, che figata! (Man, how damn cool is this!)
this was and still is my fav show, in fact i bought the dvd box set
Loved it!
These are so good! Keep up the excellent content !👌,
" POINT AWAY FROM FACE" :) always was a good idea
I am 66 now but this was good stuff, just like international rescue!!!
解説ありがとうございます✨
Still the best theme song of any TV series!
Agree. And a great series. I´ve got it on DVD
@@OldNorsebrewery As do I. 🙂👍🇬🇧
UFO, Space 1999 sea 1, and Airwolf.
Only Captain Scarlet, and Joe 90 come close.
After all these years I learned what SOL was! I thought it was just something they said. I did not know about the auto cannon either. Thanks for the info.
@Vee Dunham - Yeah, that was new to me as well. I never knew that SOL meant “Speed Of Light” and I wasn’t aware of the additional cannon either. After all these years ...!
So, do you know what LOS means?
Line Of Sight. Military Terms are fun for the whole family. 😉
@@morlokvestai-kurak9680 I was thinking Loss of Signal, but yes Line of Sight is a good one, I remember that from the movie Independence Day .
The original large-scale model of the interceptor that was used for actual series filming did have the cannon arrangement in the area ahead of the cockpit. Never mentioned in script, but there to see in all the front close-up shots.
Excellent!
I had a model of the interceptor colored green. Greetings from Italy.
Nice hoping colonel White appears in a future series.
Whoah! This is superb, though John hasn't got Ed's voice quite right. 😉
Ah but the Commander's voice would change with age 😊
COOL.STORY PLEASE DO.MORE.
More on the way each Saturday :)
Thank you
Gary Anderson, every preteen boys' favorite architect.
I dunno, Gerry Anderson is good too ;)
@@ACtheLegend That's what I said, oh wait...
Gerry Anderson never received the attention or later the backing he deserved, expensive productions need big backers. Lew Grade could only do some much and he gave Anderson a great chance. There were also some internal private life matters that brought troubles, but that's another story. From my point of view he could have beaten George Lucas hands down with a big budget and ultimately made much more mature productions with quality scriptwriters for big screen work. The early Star Wars films were good space operas, but what would Anderson have done with such budgets? Sadly, we'll never know.
While we do not know what Gerry Anderson would have done with a big budget, we already have the results of what would happen if Derek Meddings, the technical effects director for many of the Supermarionation series, was hired for a big budget production-- Derek Meddings directed the technical effects of both "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker".
We have an idea, with "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun". Written by Anderson, directed by Parrish, but had the Anderson's trademarks all over it. Stylized spaceships with interiors very much in the fashion of "The Thunderbirds", and an interesting plot. Unfortunately, the whole affair was rather stiff with a real downbeat ending that turned off viewers.
I would love to see an adult Captain Scarlet film. So long as Jonathan Frakes and the fools who made the Thunderbirds movie are not involved.
@@Davman316 Spot on. Frakes and the people who made Thunderbirds made an absolute shocking representation of what was a brilliant concept. There's was a teenage angst film. No Jeff Tracy to give orders and control them... no let the kids do it all and squabble etc. The only things more wooden than Frakes were the stage backgrounds and props.
Captain Scarlet should be as dark as the kids' TV show. Played as any gritty modern-day action/Sci-fi film... no overt comedy and NO Snowflake politics or woke political message, no love story, in fact, the first-ever episode of Captain Scarlet would be marvellous made using real people! I've hoped for this to happen...Great idea Davman!
A faithful reproduction of that... its story would be believable today! You couldn't say Gerry's Earth battling the Mysterons, with his vehicles etc. is dated. The SPV is my all-time 'dream-car' lol. Let's face it... the people that made The Avengers films didn't have to look far for their Air-base, did they?
I'm fairly certain it's the first kids show that showed and treated death explicitly. In other series, it was always known but not seen... Stingray and the Giant Fish, when a sting missile took one of the giant fish out... the occupants The Aquaphibians were obviously killed... BUT sometimes even comical music was played as the 'Fish' sank to the bottom of the sea.
I grew up on SUPERCAR, XL-5, STINGRAY, THUNDERBIRDS and of course probably my favourite Captain Scarlet!! All were better made and had better values than Frakes' Thunderbirds. You probably know that Gerry Anderson was not asked to help on this AND it was known by the directors he didn't think much of their plans... BUT he said later they offered him a shed-load of money to do the pre-release lobbying around the world to promote the film... he knocked them back instantly!!
He should have went to Harlington-Straker Studio
If SHADO Moonbase became part of Moonbase Alpha wouldn't that mean that the Interceptors were still in their hangers at the time that the events in Space 1999 occurred? It seems strange that on every event shown in Space 1999 they never utilised the Interceptors although they could have been useful.
A had 7in single theme tune back in the day wish a still had it
Didn't know the interceptor had secondary weapons, always thought the big missile was it.
That is what I always thought.
The actual larger-scale model used for actual series filming does have the nose-mounted cannons. No episode included cannon action, but in close shots of the interceptor, the cannons are there to be seen, so Andrew Clement's narrative here is not completely fabricated.
The business about reloading an interceptor for a fourth shot is a ventured explanation for the final battle scene in "Reflections In The Water". Actually a montage of stock footage, there were four interceptor missile firings depicted in that scene. My preferred explanation is that SHADO had one or more reserve interceptors down in the hangar bay. That would make sense operationally, just like "Replacement Sky One", and it would explain how there were always three interceptors shown, even in episodes following the ones in which an interceptor was destroyed.
This video provides a very good, plausible, in-story explanation for the CONSTANT comment/question of why the interceptors only had one missile each. The real world reason was to provide dramatic tension and opportunities for story development.
Cool TV series!... US Space Force should watch this. 👍
I Wish that Anderson Entertainment can do a revamped version of UFO for CBBC!
You do realise UFO was for adults!
I want them to do a revamped version for grown ups on Amazon Or Netflix
@@2opler UFO was for adults, And American version will probably be poor. look how awful the American version of Red Dwarf was. Even the BBC is ruining SciFi look how the have made a mess of Dr Who. What would be best is if Anderson made it themselves, look how good Nebula 75 is and that's made in a London flat with a zero budget.
Uh hello! SHADO To @@dogwalker666!! UFO IS ALSO A KIDS SHOW YOU DOLT!
Eh no @@2opler! CBBC Is more perfect for the revamped UFO.
Very good. Stupendo from Italy
Who else wants to see a revival of UFO, and/or Space 1999? But with upgrades/updates, to account for the passage of time since they were last aired as a series?
I have the full Series on DvD ;-) Great Show ;-)
KSY Graphics did a Mark 9 Hawk manual that showed the lineage of the craft back to the original Interceptor.
I alway’s liked the Moonbase interceptors that the astronauts used in the serie’s!
Love it.
Goodness, the gentleman was Gen. Straker! Time....
I had a toy(metal) one as a kid
That's the first time I've seen the prototype. Did it ever feature in an episode?
Not on screen, Frank, but it was a concept design for the craft during preproduction for the series :)
@@ACtheLegend Interesting, and good to know, thank you. I used to wonder why the Interceptors had tails since you couldn't use any kind of tailfin in the vacuum of space. I assume the decision was to create a more pleasing visual image.
@@ACtheLegend I saw the Japanese updated drawings of the Interceptor, they carried more weapons and was more aerodynamic in design.
@@frankberry9642 I've always thought that maybe the tail fin is actually a reinforced antenna array of some kind. Perhaps made from off the shelf components intended for atmospheric craft.
@@jamescampbell39 I haven't seen those. I always assumed the one-shot system of the Interceptor was that due to their exceptional speed a UFO would only be within range for one shot, so lobbing a single round of the highest destructive power was the best option. Unless the Interceptors had a comparable speed to their quarry there would be no point in having them give chase in the hope of achieving a second firing solution.
I had no idea they had a short range cannon!!
I have my Dinky Toys interceptor on one of my bookshelves. 🙂
I'm jelly!🤣
@@adstaton8461 ....you are jelly because I have toy or because I have more than one bookshelf? 🙂
@@pauld6967 💲💲💲💲💲💲💲
1st discovered this series on late night tv in the early 80's. Got it on a dvd set just over a decade ago n I've watched through it many times since. I've always wanted to see more. To know what ultimately became of SHADO n the aliens. How they were defeated, who they were etc.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
why was this in my recommended? What have I stumbled across? I am now very confused and have never heard of this series before
by the way if anyone asks U-fo was how in show the cast pronounced the TLA. (TLA = Three Letter Acronym.)
UFO pronounced as U-Fo would be an acronym whereas UFO pronouncing each letter is an initialism. To be an acronym it has to make a word e.g. laser, but initialisms have every individual letter produced e.g. BBC, DOA, etc
But how is “TLA” pronounced?
@@JagoHazzard good point. If it was He-Man texting his friend maybe T-La? But now I’m drifting too far from this franchise.......
www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/12/weve-pronouncing-word-ufo-wrong/
@@KingofPotatoPeople Thank you. That is excellent to know.
Great Vehicle, although I still prefer Skydiver!
Agreed.
What is written on the other side of Skydiver?
@@jmc642 reviDykS obviously.
@@jmc642 It's in Hebrew
now im asking myself, is there gonna be a followup with the mark 9 hawks
Part of my childhood in a box right here...
There was nothing cooler than this show other than my chopper bicycle.
Where were the launch craters for the Interceptors?
You cannot see them from an areal shot.
Also, how did the pilots enter the craft from the tubes they slide down?
The chutes take the pilots to the bay, they run across and jump in :)
I STILL want to see the ENTIRE pilot entry!!!!
Chute slide from lounge to bay, run across the pad, jump in, close hatch, boom - done!
@@ACtheLegend Logistics problem.....how much air would be wasted depressurizing and re-pressurizing the bays. It's more likely that there was some sort of enclosed gantry conveyor like with Sky 1. Besides, in one episode, their time from orders, to actual launch were mentioned and there was no way they could have done it if they had to "run" and climb in.
@@jrdube its about 2 minutes, plenty of time.
@@jrdube One episode depicted an alien-controlled SHADO operative down in the lunar hangar bay, in normal atmosphere, sabotaging an interceptor. So it's canon that the hangar bay was pressurized.
OMG ! I used to have one of these.......anyone remember Dinky ? Had Ed Straker's car too !
I look forward to the Tech Talk where we learn what the purple wigs were for.
To make Gabrielle Drake and Delores Mantez look even hotter!
Or as Gerry Anderson put it himself, (and I quote him from when I saw him at a talk he did in Wolverhampton back in the 90s), "Phwoaw!".
@@randomatheist1039 he wasn't wrong
Gravity and static control around the computers. Also, to prevent the need for tons of hair spray that would contaminate the air processing equipment. Otherwise the girls would have some really bad hair days! Their conductive clothing also helped control static.
Nice one thank you. Is it true that the Hawk seen on space 1999 was an updated interceptor ?
Yes that's right, for the UFO: 1999 concept the Hawks would indeed have been the updated Interceptors.
See the coment above!
Quick question: Exactly how did SID track a "faster than light" object? Radar? You mean plain old speed of light radar?
Using the utronix project equipment developed by Virginia Lake, as shown in episode one :)
Learned for the first time that single missile actually had multiple warheads.
Never have so few, given so much. Run out of fuel and ........ God bless the pilots of Moon Base Alpha!
Wrong series ;)
@@ACtheLegend Never surrender.
Can someone explain why some of the die-cast toys of the interceptors in the 70s were metallic green? I was so disappointed.
Market research showed kids wouldn't buy white toys.
@@ACtheLegend Really? It certainly didn't show how pissed off kids were when they found a green toy in the pack on Christmas morning...I know, I was one of them!
@@thecraggrat ironically only a few years earlier they said TB2 was painted blue because kids wouldnt buy green toys...
@@thecraggrat Me too. Never understood that. A white interceptor toy would have been great. Also, I wish they had made a good toy version of the UFO.
SOL.. well well, now I know what they were on about...well kinda...lol. Could never understand how the UFO itself, Skydiver and the other odd cars were not made into toys. JFYI, I only found out about 10 years ago that the two main "modern" cars were from a previous movie...and there WAS a third.
They WERE made into toys that sold briskly in UK, Japan, and Italy, but not so much in North America.
日本語版ではインターセプターの発進シーンでサンダーバード の音楽が流れていた
For comparision, here is a cutaway from 1973. Not sure how canon is was, but it was the best I had at the time.
www.fab1.net/ufo/cutaway.htm
I see only a single warhead designed to detonate on impact. But notice item 31: high velocity machine guns.
Interesting that it has reverse motors. Many designers ignore the need for those.
If the UFOs are travelling above the speed of light, how could the interceptors engage them? Part of this was a clip from Reflections In The Water.
As it states in the video, the Interceptors could only engage if the UFO was damaged and forced to drop to sub-light speed.
@@Carlz1965 they do slow down to enter Earth's atmosphere, but by that stage they're out of range of the Interceptors' missiles.
that is the reason why the interceptors did not fire until moon base provided firing instructions (precise aiming and timing parameters) this provided a better chance of the misile detonating just before the uFO would collide with the debris and be damaged.
@Jim Allen As you go up to near light speed your mass increases and this means even changing course by a few degrees takes A LOT of Energy/Fuel, so course corrections are only economical at sub light speeds. but you are right about doing light speed so close to earth. they would do that only if they had some way to suddenly decelerate (ie., tunneling, subspace, etc)
@Jim Allen yep, their science stopped when they discovered the 'Final solution' to the Ultimate question. 'what you Don't know Can never hurt You' lol
The first image of an Interceptor is hilarious because unintentionally or not the missile has 'POINT AWAY FROM FACE' written on it which matches the Dinky toy. Not pointing a nuclear weapon at one's face is of course highly important. 😂
I think you're the first person to notice that gag, I'd given up hope anyone would see it!
Would it be possible to do one of these referancing the UFO's themsleves?
SHADO must have a certain ammount of info about them, by know?
We’ve already done that. Search our channel
The only problem with this clip is that once you picture the lead penguin from madagascar narrating it, you can't shake that image from your mind...
Where's the Private?
I still have mine. I’m 51 now.