The episode that showed Straker's decision to set aside the needs of his family in order to prevent a UFO incursion was an examination of his dedication to the mission overriding personal needs and was quite intense for the time. The good guy losing out by doing his job was pretty rare back then unless he was sacrificing his own life to be the hero. This episode was a new direction for an hourly TV show competing with others where everyone gets saved and alls well that ends well.
I have watched a ridiculous amount of sci fi over the years and UFO still remains my favourite series, it has it's faults and missteps but it always delivered the goods.
@@lpquagmire3621 space 1999, at least series one, it went off the rails when commander Connie took a back seat, and old professor bloke just went missing the alien space woman the could shape shift, end up be monster battle, any lazy scripts, on air in a room no problem I will just turn into an XXX then don't breath ???
@@douglasarthur2673 I always wanted one of those interceptors, but went for the SHADO mobile. Just a shame the plastic missile broke so easily and in those days, when plastic broke, that was it! Did get an Eagle from Space 1999... my pride and joy. I should get an MPC model kit of that, and build one, but it's always sold out and about 130 USD - besides which I couldn't build a model properly if my life depended on it. I wonder how much original Corgi stuff might be available on eBay? It's 8 am, haven't been to bed yet and now you make me want to find my Eagle and play with it! Gee.. thanks a lot 🤣
It was Britain's gain and America's loss when Mr. Bishop decided to make his career and life in the UK... The same was true with Mr. Shane Rimmer, another American expat.
Futuristic 70s design is strikingly beautiful (or is it just me?)! The colours, shapes of cars and phone handsets, furniture, helmet visors, even the tech designs. There’s a visual language going through everything which makes it credible. Kudos to these designers on set
Agreed. The show is just fabulous from a design point of view. I regret that the 1980s didn't actually have fashions, cars, interiors and spacecraft as cool as those depicted. One of the problems with any proposed remake is that I worry that everything would end up redesigned, and they just couldn't make it as damn ... yes, beautiful to look at. Or anywhere near as groovy.
Much of the futuristic design used in sci fi in the 1960s and 1970s tended to be exaggerated There was a sense things were going to change a lot more rapidly than actually they did in real life. I recall not long after Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the Moon that NASA's next major goal was to land a human on Mars by 1980. Well here we are in 2024 and that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. UFO got it wrong. Space: 1999 got it wrong ... still no Moonbase in 2024. Lost in Space got it wrong ... no human mission to Alpha Centauri in 1999. Back to the Future ... Real 2015 was nothing like BTTF 2015. Star Trek seems to be the only one that has got it right to this point. Setting stories hundreds of years into the future is probably a much safer bet than going for the near future.
Gabrielle is right. The show's incredible longevity suggests that the majority of narrative decisions made in the series were correct. Equally Ed is correct that some of the latter shows pointed to a struggle to maintain the original story line. Who am I to argue with the star of the show, but it wasn't a thin series plot, so much as maybe over ambitious production goals at times. And as for A Question Of Priorities, that's right up there as one of the most popular shows with fans. I still watch all the shows right through a couple of times a year and it never loses its sparkle. A true TV classic.
I think UFO was the best sci -fi action series. Once again Gerry ,Sylvia and all the team proved time and time again that they were the best. UFO has not really dated as some sci -fi has. I liked the contrast between the action episodes and the human ones like the episode A Question Of Priorities. With UFO you get the best of both worlds (human and alien) It was such a shame that UFO only ran for one series.
not dated? its set in future but looks very analogue 70,s, i suppose thats unavoidable, they really should have expanded gab drakes role,-good actress, attractive intelligent character ,should have been developed
@@stephenpochly7003 I rewatched the first episode of Space 1999, it was such Crap, the acting was poor, the whole thing was like Bad Sci Fi at its worst, Why did they do it, why did they have to let ITC America Dictate to them, such a loss, UFO could have used some story lines that ran more then one episode and a little bit more into the script writing but the acting was pretty damn good, and over all the concept was Epic, and to learn the Aliens were not even what they thought and were just using the bodies and parts to form another being to transpose their minds into, it was getting too damn good
Gerry Anderson always said UFO was his favorite of all the TV series he ever did. It stands the test of time because it’s still even today, a future you’d want to live in.
@@Armadacon Capt Scarlet was practically the Supermarionation version of those Japanese Mangas. Very dark, violent and adult. Probably quite wrong for the TV market it was selling to, but awesome as Hell for fans! :)
In fact UFO make sit pretty clear that the best Earth could hope for is to force a stalemate and the aliens give up. Kind of like Captain Scarlet, where the Mysterons are clearly the superior hand and it's a "war of nerves". SHADO never really "wins" it is simply preventing a checkmate, and often this is only at great cost.
That was an advantage that British production had. In the 50s, 60s US television had standards of practice that required the bad guy to not get away with it by the epilog. This is why Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller and One Step Beyond has the closing comments by the host to put a bow on a story where a murderer, liar or thief appeared to have prospered. Even if the situation defeated good. Twilight Zone rode a fine line, but more often the good guy came out OK and the evil one was defeated. Westerns did this too and so did Star Trek. You'd watch a complete tragedy, but there'd suddenly be a last scene with an optimistic event or a knee slapping joke....forgetting the 5 extras that died horribly 10 to 20 minutes ago.
I have this on DVD boxset. It's a fantastic series that, in my opinion, should have been commissioned for more than just the one series. I watched it as a kid and, to be honest, never get tired of re-watching it. I liked the fact that each episode concluded with loose ends, or on a sour note. And, of course, the womenfolk were bloody gorgeous.
Bishop certainly has some interesting opinions on UFO but must say I disagree with him on most. Giving Straker definable character flaws and personal dilemmas as well as alien incursions to repulse was both bold and novel in an era where main protagonists were typically one dimensional. As such Straker was a far more complex figure than the archetypal flawless commander stoically ordering the destruction of UFO’s each and every week he could so easily have been. Far from diluting the show’s core premise a humanised Ed Straker enhanced it!
I think he's reflecting on the fact that it didn't propel him to stardom and so something must have been wrong. But 26 * 1 hour episodes is quite a long run really.
The biggest problem is that you never knew when it might be on! In the USA, it was never on a reliable schedule, you would just stumble on it at random times on Sunday afternoons as filler. We were always thrilled when we managed to find it.
@@brettbuck7362 similar problems in the UK - the ITV network had some wild regional variations. I remember it being late afternoon/early evenings on a Sunday, but the first broadcast was Wednesday, 16th September 1970, probably ATV and in the 1830 slot.
UFO is a stand-out sci-fi series. It’s such a shame it was cancelled. However, if I were given the choice of remaking UFO or Space:1999 it would be UFO. It’s darker tone and concept make it perfect for our modern tv drama environment. Of course, there will be those who would never want it to be remade, and I kind of get that, but it is exciting to imagine what they would do with the series now. UFO is amazing!
According to Anderson (YT video) Space 1999 came about because a certain US TV company executive didn’t want to commission a second series based on earth.
UFO is most definitely food for a reboot. It has massive potential. I'm amazed it hasn't happened. The reboot of Battlestar Galactica was amazing, and the source material was nowhere near as good as UFO.
Remakes/sequels are a mixed blessing. Some are good, like Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (how could anyone not love Baby Groot..?) but most are absolutely awful.
Even when I was a young kid watching the show in reruns in the late 70s, I actually loved the "soap opera" themes of many of the episodes. It really set the show apart from other sci fi. And that's probably a major reason why I enjoyed the reimagined Battlestar Galactica too.
What a gut wrencher. I just want to yell at his wife about how selfish she is, but she doesn’t have a clue what he’s dealing with. Truly between a rock and a hard place.
It was the first TV show to make me cry. I couldn`t bear to see my hero (Straker) in such turmoil. Losing his son then being told by his ex wife she never wants to see him again. Utterly heartbreaking.
That theme song used to send kids in Australia into a frenzy. A friend put his foot through a wall, jumping into his bunk pretending it was a spaceship like in the intro.
Cheers guys for a great start to a hectic Saturday. Still one of the best sci-fi shows ever done with a great back story, yes it has faults but how many of those can be written by budget and interference from higher up (Lew Grade).
Really enjoyed this series as a teenager - especially the cars and other vehicles. Really love Barry Gray's music too. The opening sequence music is the perfect 1 minute piece.
Interesting to hear the various points of view. With respect to Ed Bishop, however, I think one must appreciate that the creative teams had only less than an hour to pack in everything and make it coherent. Thanks to the love affair with the US market, Anderson and the creative teams always worked under that damacles sword of cancellation, which inevitably, and unjustifiably happened toward the end of the series. If the UK had given the teams, say, a five year run then I think you would seen storylines and themes expanded as the series matured. As it is, though, everyone involved had ( and still has ) something to be very proud of in UFO.
I’m currently writing the second volume of my UFO guide books. It’s focused on Straker’s private life. I’ve read Ed Bishop’s comments and I think you’d have to be misinterpreting to think he disliked his character or the way it was developed. His one major regret was that UFO never went to a second season. I agree with him there. UFO was a masterpiece in my opinion. I corresponded briefly with him in the 1990s and found him a good sport with a great sense of humour and he had some funny and interesting ideas about how Straker could have been revived. Basically it did not go wrong. I assume Mr Bishop was speculating on why it wasn’t a longer running show and he seemed to be assuming it was not commercial enough. In truth it was cut short because Lew Grade found it was easier to sell a new show than a second season of an existing one.
I think that the only Anderson shows that deserved a 2nd season were Captain Scarlet and UFO. I'd have much rather they'd gone along with the original plans and end up with something like UFO: 1999.
@@zypalitra8080 A second season of UFO would have been brilliant because, whatever form it took, we would have had more of Ed Straker, the most complex and realistic character in any Anderson show.
I think Ed Bishop would have made a more credible Commander of Moonbase Alpha than Martin Landau. Landau was an exceptional actor but he never seemed that comfortable as Koenig. While Ed Bishop seemed very at ease as Straker.
@@michaeldeal8060 It's hard to imagine Space: 1999 without Landau, (although the season 2 episode Dorzac does well with Alan, Tony and Maya in the lead). But more of UFO would have been extremely welcome. Ed Bishop once said Straker was a well rounded character and could have benefited from some expansion of the format, had they gone on. In the interview we see in this video, I think he was playing Devil's advocate and questioning the series creative decisions. But in most interviews, he was very positive about the show and I think he was generally very proud of it.
Would Mr Bishop be open to performing as the voice for a CGI or Cartoon version of a new series of UFO? I think it would be brilliant to renew the series and find out what happened to everyone next.
UFO was probably the most underated Sci Fi show ever made and deserved so much more, certainly it would be ripe for a big budget TV reboot, because Ed is right it had so much to offer and such a huge story arc that could have been played out.
It was interesting that Ed raised "A Question of Priorities" although I was surprised by his negative take on it. Gerry Anderson said that ITC in New York didn't ike that episode because of its very human focus and that presumably they wanted more "action" - he rightly disagreed. However it is the human issues that make that one of the most memorable episodes and help to show that UFO was very much an adult series. As well as the whole drama of Straker's son it also has the fascinating possibility of an alien defector. As someone else mentioned in the comments you can't separate action and a "battle against the aliens" from the personal lives of those involved. If UFO had essentially just been an action show uninterested in human emotions and relationships it would have been far less effective.
As a child, I was VERY disappointed by episodes like 'A Question of Priorities' and 'The Square Triangle' due to their lack of blowing up aliens, but as an adult, they are probably my favourite stories.
I was 11 year old in 1970, and never saw UFO until maybe 10 years later as reruns. I'm still watching it. It is many times better than Space 1999 that followed it. That show went completely off the rails. I wish they had continued to make more episodes of UFO.
The danger would have been degenerating as Space 1999 did with the 2nd series, abysmal in every way compared to the 1st. The Prisoner stopped when it was decided that the series had exhausted the quality episodes. As good as UFO was, maybe it finished at the right time especially as the last episode (the hippy doctor and the bomb in the farmhouse) was too strange for credibility.
Agreed, UFO is far superior to Space1999. The sets and whole design of the show was much better, the stories more engaging, the characters more relatable.
Rewatching in 2023 I enjoy Space 1999 and UFO, need to just go with the bizarre storylines like the Bernard Cribbins hysterical robot. It’s Gerry Anderson sci fi, it’s expected to be fanciful and bizarre.
A remake? Oh no! Can you imagine the gender and race swapping, and general Wokeism? I'd rather watch the original, even if it is a little clunky at times!
@@lemming9984 Speaking as a proud transwoman, the problem wouldn't be transpeople, whose presence would fit with UFO's futurism and general high [medical] tech advancement, and the problem wouldn't be racial diversity, which the original already did very well, as did Star Trek. The PROBLEM would be that today's anti-integrity, culturally relativist, and outright nihilistic _anti-Western-civilization_ writers couldn't even grasp the romanticism which made the original so great. Thus any transpeople in a remake would very likely pay too much homage to entitled low-passability clowns like on Tiktok, and any blacks or other "diverse" races would pay too much homage to entitled street thugs like you see in flash-mob robbery videos. And the relativism and nihilism wouldn't stop there. It would all too probably devolve even further into: beautiful women wearing micro-skirts and boots is sexist and harms all vagina-havers, maybe the aliens aren't so evil after all, since they're just trying to survive - and what's so different about them harvesting us when we harvest animals as food when we should all be happy Bambi-loving vegans anyway? And blah-fn-nihilistic-low-IQ-blah. Bad philosophy and bad values would be the problem. Which means that ultimately a failure to understand the original - when philosophy and _most_ values were demonstrably superior - would be the problem. Think the pathetic V reboot, or even The Munsters. The problem runs so much deeper than casting a t-girl or a black person.
Gerry Anderson was a genius ahead of his time. I even went in a Thunderbird at pontins holiday camp in the early 70s it went to the ‘moon’ by way of an onboard tv screen lol - and I believed it! He made my childhood and my active imagination as we all played with Action Man and vehicles
Certainly one of the best opening credits and theme tunes ever!...along with all the gerry and Sylvia stuff...usually at the hands of the late barry gray..genius..not forgetting Derek meddings sfx...gone but not forgotten 👍big fan..gazzz
I loved UFO as a kid 50 years ago. I recently found every episode online and have enjoyed watching them again. The only thing I find funny about it is the laughably futuristic year of 1980 that it takes place in. That's only 10 years after the show was filmed.
I used to love UFO so much that when it was on at 1pm on a Sunday Afternoon, I used to watch the Politics programme beforehand for the whole hour - and I was 8 years old !!!!! Sad, but true !! In this age of remakes, this is one I could really live with !
I was a fan of the series right from the first episode. I hated when it stopped. I was about 14 at the time. A friend told me it was stopped because it got too near the truth. It would be easier to say which episodes I didn't like. I was ill with Cancer 17 years ago and watched the whole series while I could. I got better. I have the theme tune as my ringtone now.
Glad to hear that you recovered. As for your ringtone, it really is a great tune isn't it. But let's face it, every tune that Barry Gray came out with in those days was pure gold.
I started watching UFO in 1975 here in Brasil. I was 13 years old. Although, my family's was a 1965 Philips b&w 25" screen tv set, I could clearly see the overall quality of this series. It stood out even from Star Trek. Everything was amazingly beautiful and well made. The opening, the theme song, the soundtrack and the stories. Can you believe I got to listen to The Beatles' 'Get Back' for the first time watching a scene of a party where Cel. Foster is dancing accompanied by a beautiful lady? Usually, when we watch our favorite old TV series on higher definition, we spot its failures in sound and image quality. In the case of UFO (and Thunderbirds) it got much much better. And thus without making use of artificial upgrading. Thanks for posting.
Every episode was awesome..as child UFO was suspenseful and thrilling ,...as a late 50yr old now, BRING IT BACK....SITTING there with my dad and brothers on a late Friday evening ..words cannot explain how good a TV show it was
I only found out about the series a few years ago on the Horror channel which has been renamed Legend. I've seen a lot of Sci-fi shows in my time, and this one holds up with the best of them. I just wish we got more seasons. Ed's portrayal of Striker was great in my eyes.
This is one of my favorite sci-fi shows from the golden era of television. The great irony, perhaps, is that with the veil of secrecy surrounding UFOs [aka UAPs] being lifted in the real world as we speak, we're finding out that the real thing is FAR more mysterious [and technologically advanced] than what we predicted in fiction in 1970. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. If the series were to be rebooted today, you'd have to employ the real "phenomenon" as the antagonist.
@@RobertFalconer1967 A reality only for the inexperienced and gullible who have no knowledge of centuries of worldwide evidence of ultraterrestials - the djinn , the Fae , Devas , Missing 411 , cryptids etc .
When he says it's bad for the audience to "get ahead of the characters", I was reminded, several episodes of THE NEW AVENGERS made this mistake. Whereas many of the best episodes were intriguing mysteries where the last piece doesn't fall into place until the last act, you sometimes had things where they TOLD the audience what was going on before the theme song came on, and it made the heroes look like idiots because THEY didn't know what was happening. One thing that was a shock to me was HOW MUCH BETTER "UFO" works as a whole if you watch them in PRODUCTION ORDER. There is a painfully-slow but steady story arc wherein, in the first half, SHADO is struggling and barely has their act together at all. But then, in the 2nd half, they ARE getting their act together, but the aliens are constantly upping their game and the odds with more and varied and more bizarre things they're doing. So if you watch if in the order they're on the DVDs, it just builds and builds and builds. But this was completely DESTROYED when the stories were shuffled like a deck of cards and run AT RANDOM. Pushing the later episodes forward to try and grab audience earlier, while holding back the lesser earlier ones only makes those early ones look WORSE than they are. You need to see them in order, so the whole series unfolds slowly like a novel. The whole problem started when the show never got on the air at all until ALL 26 episodes were already finished. This also had the added problem that Century 21 closed up shop before the series even debuted, and everyone involved had to find other jobs. By the time the show gained any popularity at all, there was no one around to do a "3rd set of 13", so to speak. Every time I get to the final episode, the tragic epilogue of sorts, "The Long Sleep", I think, "THIS WAS NO TIME TO CANCEL THE SERIES!" When you see those last 13 episodes in the correct order, by the end, it just SCREAMS for a 2nd season that never happened. As an aside, "Priorities" may be my least-favorite. It had 2 parallel plotlines, and BOTH ended tragically. Had it been one or the other, I think it could have worked better. Having massive suspense over will John live or die was fine, having John DIE was too much, and pointless. My late friend in Wales suggested the whole mess was one more reflection on just HOW BAD Gerry & Sylvia's marriage had gotten by that point. Ed did all he could to try to save his son's life, and then his ex blames HIM for what happened. When, in truth, she was just a lousy mother. She didn't want "her" son seeing his father, and somehow the kid runs out into traffic, but that's supposedly Ed's fault. A better resolution would have been that thanks to Ed's efforts, John WAS saved, and after, Ed would resolve that he's GOING to see his son WHENEVER he wants.
I respect Ed Bishop's opinion but I also think that the more narrow focus was a positive thing. Sci Fi TV shows of that period always seemed to have way more ambiton and scope than their budgets and the technology of the day would allow. They would often come off as cheap in some way. Not UFO. I'm still knocked out the the fantastic writing, the costumes and set design and the visual effects that were truly amazing for the late 1960s. A narrow scope often allows films and TV do amazing things with limited resources, look at Ridley Scott's 'Alien' for example. Certainly UFO is a step above Space 1999 for this very reason (Also because the groovy 60's outfits and music of UFO are so much better than the ugly 1970's styles of space 1999. Flared trousers, polyester jump-suits and sideburns do not belong in space!)
UFO was superb. The thing that raised it above all the other Anderson shows for me was when it went weird - it worked. As the Aliens were the ones with the strange powers, not the heroes, when it did Anderson moments with plot holes and strange ideas it got away with it as they just made the aliens more sinister. For instance, Timelash should have been terrible - daft idea and a dodgy script, but it just works. Though having Patrick Allen and Wanda Ventham isn't a bad thing either.
Good interviews, interesting about the quality (35mm) some credit to Brendan Stafford (lighting cameraman who returned to work on space 1999 series 2 Sound of Silence / Mindbender and timelesh (shot at pinewood) very well made episodes and particularly like the long sleep (sepia toned sequences) think also the change in Directors for the 2nd block of episodes helped look forward to more informative Ufo content.
Gabielle Drake (LT Ellis) is the sister of the very talented singer songwriter Nick Drake. I only realise now as recognised her from a documentary about Nick Drake I saw a few days ago!. I knew he had a sister who was an actor but never made the connection before. What a talented family. Loved this series growing up.
I was 7 or 8 when the series aired in 1972-73 in Italy and I just loved it. We didn't even have colour TV back then (we got it in 1977-78) and I remember visiting relatives when holidaying in the UK and revelling in the colour footage. I then used to come back home and boast to my friends about watching episodes in English *and* colour.
I love the style of this show, it's a marvel of filmmaking. It just couldn't be made today with the same charm, but maybe AI could update a few parts and bring it to a new audience.
A Great Programme never gets old . A Fitting Tribute to the Late Great Gerry Anderson, he made our childhoods totally amazing. Godspeed Gerry G.B.N.F. Ever
@@alexp3752 So very TRUE , never see the like again , mores the pity . The children of this Generation could do with what we had. Take care from the 🇬🇧
Every show goes through growing pains in the first season. Unfortunately UFO only had one season to work with. It was all in all very superior in many ways; especially for its time 🤗
@@An.Individual back in the day most shows were 25-30 episodes a season. Star Trek’s first season was 29 ; I believe. Even TNG and Deep Space did 25-26 episodes per season 🖖
I agree with Ed myself. Question of Priorities while a worthy story and very well acted, but I don’t find it a very pleasant watch. It’s unpleasantly stressful wishing the outcome may be different every time I watch it. My favourite episode is one that tends to get a little lost amongst them. The Psycho-bombs. It’s so ambitious and the guest stars are great!
I think that QoP is an important episode for Straker's growth, but it's as you said "not a pleasant watch". Straker is a completely ruthless individual who'd do anything that he needed to do, but QoP's ending gives Straker nothing to personally fight for anymore.
@@zypalitra8080 Agree with all this. I just thought of how he must appear from his wife’s POV. She was positive he was being unfaithful, then he was no doubt partially blamed for their son’s accident and then finally he let them all down after promising to fix the situation. It’s an uncomfortable family drama in the middle of a sci-fi series. I must have watched it 20 times, but tbh I now avoid it when it’s shown.
I think QoP despite it's disturbing nature,brings a very human side to things. We all have priorities in life and have to make sacrifices to different extremes depending on the circumstances, and this is what the QoP episode depicts, leaving an ethical and philosophical " nasty taste in the mouth".
A fascinating yet frustrating series, rarely seen in the US after its initial run. I agree with Ed! (An example: In "Square Triangle," an alien crash lands in the English countryside; but most of that show focused on a couple whose relationship was crumbling.) My favorite episode, "The Cat with 10 Lives," was written by David Tomblin, one of the writers for The Prisoner.
I used to watch this as a kid. Great ideas and was a good show for its day. I do agree that a wider vision was needed. It was a rich idea and I like that women were portrayed as leaders as well. So this was a forward thinking concept. It was fun back then!
The guy who wrote it, Dennis Spooner, had just written a similar-themed episode for the BBC's Doomwatch series called Burial at Sea. Sadly, that one's missing from the BBC archives.
I think this show had some amazing episodes that were very thoughtful and well written and way ahead of what other sci fi series was doing at the time i.e. it was not all green bug eyed monsters , it was character driven and very well written . For me it is to look at dated but because of the writing and the acting you don't notice that aspect. I love it!
Love this show and Space 1999. UFO's opening theme played out with the teletype still some of the best tv music around. I watch them both on my Roku channel and have them running in the background while doing my housework. I worked for the local Bell Telephone Company and we had IBM Selectric typewriters and teletypes going constantly, it was the sound of the future.
A great show, well ahead of its time. I still have my SHADO mobile and Moon base interceptor, although the missile's long gone. I think Ed's right, though. After Star Trek appeared UFO seemed a bit parochial in comparison. Gabrielle was one of my first crushes. She's still beautiful.
To Mr Ed Bishop,Commander Starker was like Capt James T Kirk in that the one thing that was most important to the both of them.One was SHADO and to the other his ship and crew.Both great t.v Shows in there own way.
Gerry told this story at Worldcon. Something like two days before UFO was going to premiere, the US Air Force released the results of Project Blue Book, which was their multi-decade investigation info the phenomena, and the first line of the report said "There are no UFOs. And Gerry was like "Well, that's that, then."
Loved UFO as a kid in the 70s and still love it today. Sure, some of the stories were rubbish and some of the acting was wooden, but on the whole a superb series that will still be shown in a hundred years time when we are all long gone. Can you image today, a production company with millions to spend producing a UFO reboot?! We can all dream.
I was a fan of Gerry Anderson shows as a kid but UFO passed me by, even in my adult life. What I adore about Anderson shows is the incredible retro futuristic designs on practically every element, from vehicles, costumes to set designs. Everything looks spectacular. You don't seem to get that vision nowadays.
Yes, I've seen that in one or two other actors over things they've done. It's a shame. I thought UFO packed a lot of variety into its stories considering the limitations of the format which forced the writers to really work at it, same as when Pertwee's Dr Who was exiled to Earth.
The human tragedy elements in UFO are the reason I became such a fan of the series, and its compelling central character Ed Straker. The ONLY reason. By far the best thing that came from the Andersons. (Only in the last year - thanks to RUclips - I introduced the series to a friend and she got addicted to the show. A new fan. She wouldn't have liked it all had it not been for the quirky dramas.)
I was crazy about the UFO series when I was 12. Now I am 62 and I can still watch any episodes with great pleasure : this means the series cannot be bad.
Phenomenal show. I watched the entire series again last year and was amazed by just how damn good it was. I was equally disappointed when I rewatched Space 1999 with how bad it was.
Born in 1962, I was 8 when the series started, 9 when it finished. The "Question of Priorities" episode stuck in my mind so strongly then, and remains one of my favourite episodes of any show up there (along with the "Find the Lady" episode of Shoestring in 1979, when I was 17)
What I particularly love about this series is the imagination of 1980 on 1970's life i.e. the obviously late 1960's fashion, music and hairstyles - also still smoking 20 regal a day like everyone I knew did back then when I was very young.
Near future Science Fiction; not meant as any kind of prediction, but speculation on what it would be like today, if things had gone slightly different in one specific area, and how we might react to it. Which is why I must humbly disagree with Mr. Bishop on concentrating on one character's personal reaction rather than the overall scenario.
Great show all round, the actors, the models and the effects, it was the next logical step for Thunderbirds to evolve into and I think it really did set a benchmark, only with CGI could you really improve on it. Perhaps if they had multiple 'enemies' that might have added variety and allowed another season or two. It still looks good today.
I was born in 1972 so had never heard of UFO. Started watching when I saw a re-run with George Cole (Arthur Daley) in it and I thought it was good. Never knew Gerry Anderson had done live action before. Continued to watch the whole thing and caught up with the episodes I'd missed and without a doubt "A question of priorities" is one of the best episodes. It's such a change of pace to see the back story of Straker. The story was good and well acted and gave a great insight into the character. In 1969 it must have been one of the first sci-fi shows to have done that. Really good series. Shame it only went for one season.
Gabrielle Drake looks great after all these years! I understand what Ed Bishop means, it's true some of the screen-plays were lousy, but it was one of the best TV series back in the late 60s and early 70s. I miss them. even with their crude special effects and predictable plots.
3:46 The same "thing" in many shows, the action/"mythology" episodes compared to the "personal"/background,"filler" episodes. Personall, I liked a mixture of the two. Get to know the "why" the character and the "how".
I've only just properly started watching at 58 and I'm still impressed. I actually liked seeing the personal side of Straker. Special effects and models in this series are still impressive by today's standards.
I agree w Striker ab that episode being problematic. I was watching the whole series on DVD w my son. I was shocked that they let the kid die and Straker was suddenly a bad guy. Nearly a deal breaker. That one episode is torture.
I was 7 when the show first aired in L.A., and episodes like "A Question of Priorities" and "Confetti Check A-OK" bored me to tears, because they were too "talky", but watching again as an adult, such episodes are now my favorites! Funny how that works, huh?
The episode that showed Straker's decision to set aside the needs of his family in order to prevent a UFO incursion was an examination of his dedication to the mission overriding personal needs and was quite intense for the time. The good guy losing out by doing his job was pretty rare back then unless he was sacrificing his own life to be the hero. This episode was a new direction for an hourly TV show competing with others where everyone gets saved and alls well that ends well.
I have watched a ridiculous amount of sci fi over the years and UFO still remains my favourite series, it has it's faults and missteps but it always delivered the goods.
What about SPACE PRECINCT?
Loved it , esp.the girls with the tight , pert arses
@@lpquagmire3621 space 1999, at least series one, it went off the rails when commander Connie took a back seat, and old professor bloke just went missing the alien space woman the could shape shift, end up be monster battle, any lazy scripts, on air in a room no problem I will just turn into an XXX then don't breath ???
It was one of the first things I ever watched on TV (1972 )Tues morning at 10:30 on BBC2 just after the test transmission for TV service engineers.
What faults?
Ed Bishop was one of the best actors from the show
Correction: With respect, Mr. Bishop was and is one of the best and unappreciated actors ever.
In anything he ever did, be it James Bond films, Kubrick films, anything.
nss
Loved Straker's car. Had the Corgi model as a youngster.
@@douglasarthur2673 I always wanted one of those interceptors, but went for the SHADO mobile.
Just a shame the plastic missile broke so easily and in those days, when plastic broke, that was it!
Did get an Eagle from Space 1999... my pride and joy. I should get an MPC model kit of that, and build one, but it's always sold out and about 130 USD - besides which I couldn't build a model properly if my life depended on it.
I wonder how much original Corgi stuff might be available on eBay?
It's 8 am, haven't been to bed yet and now you make me want to find my Eagle and play with it! Gee.. thanks a lot 🤣
I had the huge pleasure of briefly working with Ed on a voiceover. He was delightful and intelligent. Great guy.
Ed Bishop. Such a great actor in this and many other shows, So underrated. Loved this series
It was Britain's gain and America's loss when Mr. Bishop decided to make his career and life in the UK... The same was true with Mr. Shane Rimmer, another American expat.
He was in diamonds are forever
Rimmer was from Canada.
A question of priorities is one of my favorite episodes.
Futuristic 70s design is strikingly beautiful (or is it just me?)! The colours, shapes of cars and phone handsets, furniture, helmet visors, even the tech designs. There’s a visual language going through everything which makes it credible. Kudos to these designers on set
Agreed. The show is just fabulous from a design point of view. I regret that the 1980s didn't actually have fashions, cars, interiors and spacecraft as cool as those depicted. One of the problems with any proposed remake is that I worry that everything would end up redesigned, and they just couldn't make it as damn ... yes, beautiful to look at. Or anywhere near as groovy.
Much of the futuristic design used in sci fi in the 1960s and 1970s tended to be exaggerated There was a sense things were going to change a lot more rapidly than actually they did in real life.
I recall not long after Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the Moon that NASA's next major goal was to land a human on Mars by 1980. Well here we are in 2024 and that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
UFO got it wrong.
Space: 1999 got it wrong ... still no Moonbase in 2024.
Lost in Space got it wrong ... no human mission to Alpha Centauri in 1999.
Back to the Future ... Real 2015 was nothing like BTTF 2015.
Star Trek seems to be the only one that has got it right to this point. Setting stories hundreds of years into the future is probably a much safer bet than going for the near future.
And that score by Barry Grey
I used to love this series so much when I was a kid. Never missed an episode... in Australia!
Back in 1972 I was 13, and never missed an episode. Great series. Still enjoy it. In Connecticut, USA
Gabrielle is right. The show's incredible longevity suggests that the majority of narrative decisions made in the series were correct. Equally Ed is correct that some of the latter shows pointed to a struggle to maintain the original story line. Who am I to argue with the star of the show, but it wasn't a thin series plot, so much as maybe over ambitious production goals at times. And as for A Question Of Priorities, that's right up there as one of the most popular shows with fans. I still watch all the shows right through a couple of times a year and it never loses its sparkle. A true TV classic.
wonderful comment...
He's also right about the actors, there's so much ham you could stock Tesco's.
And she got “the proof of the pudding” expression right - most people don’t.
👍👍👍
I think UFO was the best sci -fi action series.
Once again Gerry ,Sylvia and all the team proved time and time again that they were the best.
UFO has not really dated as some sci -fi has.
I liked the contrast between the action episodes and the human ones like the episode A Question Of Priorities.
With UFO you get the best of both worlds (human and alien)
It was such a shame that UFO only ran for one series.
I agree. Read my comments.
not dated? its set in future but looks very analogue 70,s, i suppose thats unavoidable, they really should have expanded gab drakes role,-good actress, attractive intelligent character ,should have been developed
it ran for 2, actually and they should have continued it instead of the crap space 1999
@@deathsee Totally agree
@@stephenpochly7003 I rewatched the first episode of Space 1999, it was such Crap, the acting was poor, the whole thing was like Bad Sci Fi at its worst, Why did they do it, why did they have to let ITC America Dictate to them, such a loss, UFO could have used some story lines that ran more then one episode and a little bit more into the script writing but the acting was pretty damn good, and over all the concept was Epic, and to learn the Aliens were not even what they thought and were just using the bodies and parts to form another being to transpose their minds into, it was getting too damn good
Gerry Anderson always said UFO was his favorite of all the TV series he ever did. It stands the test of time because it’s still even today, a future you’d want to live in.
As long as your organs weren't harvested.
The voice of captain blue on Captain scarlet for me was his greatest role.
Very true, I would love to see my old school turned into a medical centre ;-)
I'm not sure I'd want to live in the world where we have to be on guard against aliens but then again you can say maybe we are now
@@STho205happens on earth in some places unmentionable
Ed Bishop was an incredible talent...
This was the first 'adult' SciFi TV show, because it demonstrated that the 'good guys' do not always win in every episode.
Captain Scarlet had some downbeat endings.
@@Armadacon Capt Scarlet was practically the Supermarionation version of those Japanese Mangas. Very dark, violent and adult. Probably quite wrong for the TV market it was selling to, but awesome as Hell for fans! :)
In fact UFO make sit pretty clear that the best Earth could hope for is to force a stalemate and the aliens give up. Kind of like Captain Scarlet, where the Mysterons are clearly the superior hand and it's a "war of nerves". SHADO never really "wins" it is simply preventing a checkmate, and often this is only at great cost.
@@adriansherlockdamondark.1094Especially given how influential Gerry Anderson was on Japanese media.
That was an advantage that British production had. In the 50s, 60s US television had standards of practice that required the bad guy to not get away with it by the epilog.
This is why Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller and One Step Beyond has the closing comments by the host to put a bow on a story where a murderer, liar or thief appeared to have prospered. Even if the situation defeated good.
Twilight Zone rode a fine line, but more often the good guy came out OK and the evil one was defeated.
Westerns did this too and so did Star Trek. You'd watch a complete tragedy, but there'd suddenly be a last scene with an optimistic event or a knee slapping joke....forgetting the 5 extras that died horribly 10 to 20 minutes ago.
I have this on DVD boxset. It's a fantastic series that, in my opinion, should have been commissioned for more than just the one series. I watched it as a kid and, to be honest, never get tired of re-watching it. I liked the fact that each episode concluded with loose ends, or on a sour note. And, of course, the womenfolk were bloody gorgeous.
They were really women too! Probably best if they don't remake it and leave our memories intact.
Yup me too-has the dvds
Bishop certainly has some interesting opinions on UFO but must say I disagree with him on most. Giving Straker definable character flaws and personal dilemmas as well as alien incursions to repulse was both bold and novel in an era where main protagonists were typically one dimensional.
As such Straker was a far more complex figure than the archetypal flawless commander stoically ordering the destruction of UFO’s each and every week he could so easily have been. Far from diluting the show’s core premise a humanised Ed Straker enhanced it!
I think he's reflecting on the fact that it didn't propel him to stardom and so something must have been wrong. But 26 * 1 hour episodes is quite a long run really.
I agree!
Agreed, his personal conflicts remind me of "Sink The Bismarck".
The biggest problem is that you never knew when it might be on! In the USA, it was never on a reliable schedule, you would just stumble on it at random times on Sunday afternoons as filler. We were always thrilled when we managed to find it.
@@brettbuck7362 similar problems in the UK - the ITV network had some wild regional variations. I remember it being late afternoon/early evenings on a Sunday, but the first broadcast was Wednesday, 16th September 1970, probably ATV and in the 1830 slot.
UFO is a stand-out sci-fi series. It’s such a shame it was cancelled. However, if I were given the choice of remaking UFO or Space:1999 it would be UFO. It’s darker tone and concept make it perfect for our modern tv drama environment. Of course, there will be those who would never want it to be remade, and I kind of get that, but it is exciting to imagine what they would do with the series now. UFO is amazing!
Space 1999 was too ridiculous for words.
According to Anderson (YT video) Space 1999 came about because a certain US TV company executive didn’t want to commission a second series based on earth.
UFO is most definitely food for a reboot. It has massive potential. I'm amazed it hasn't happened. The reboot of Battlestar Galactica was amazing, and the source material was nowhere near as good as UFO.
@@dudovich13 Totally agree! Watched them both again as an adult and I couldn't believe how bad 1999 was.
Remakes/sequels are a mixed blessing. Some are good, like Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (how could anyone not love Baby Groot..?) but most are absolutely awful.
Even when I was a young kid watching the show in reruns in the late 70s, I actually loved the "soap opera" themes of many of the episodes. It really set the show apart from other sci fi. And that's probably a major reason why I enjoyed the reimagined Battlestar Galactica too.
'A Question of Priorities' was one of the best episodes of the whole series imo.
and Suzanne Neve (her wife) excels in this episode!
What a gut wrencher. I just want to yell at his wife about how selfish she is, but she doesn’t have a clue what he’s dealing with. Truly between a rock and a hard place.
An absolute masterpiece of science fiction tragedy.
It was the first TV show to make me cry. I couldn`t bear to see my hero (Straker) in such
turmoil. Losing his son then being told by his ex wife she never wants to see him again.
Utterly heartbreaking.
Thar episode was more appropriate for a soap opera than for a sci-fi show.
This will be extremely interesting.
That theme song used to send kids in Australia into a frenzy. A friend put his foot through a wall, jumping into his bunk pretending it was a spaceship like in the intro.
Incredible theme. Just one of many from Gerry Andersons shows.
I always loved this show. Rewatched it a few years back.
Cheers guys for a great start to a hectic Saturday. Still one of the best sci-fi shows ever done with a great back story, yes it has faults but how many of those can be written by budget and interference from higher up (Lew Grade).
I only recently found UFO and have enjoyed every episode. The only thing I didn't like was the series ended way too soon.
Brilliant......just brilliant!!!!!!
Loved the show, wish someone could bring it back
I'd love a re-run, but definitely not a remake. can you imagine all the gender/race swapping, and general Wokeism? It wouldn't be worth seeing!
Really enjoyed this series as a teenager - especially the cars and other vehicles. Really love Barry Gray's music too. The opening sequence music is the perfect 1 minute piece.
He certainly knew how to write a good theme.
Interesting to hear the various points of view. With respect to Ed Bishop, however, I think one must appreciate that the creative teams had only less than an hour to pack in everything and make it coherent.
Thanks to the love affair with the US market, Anderson and the creative teams always worked under that damacles sword of cancellation, which inevitably, and unjustifiably happened toward the end of the series.
If the UK had given the teams, say, a five year run then I think you would seen storylines and themes expanded as the series matured.
As it is, though, everyone involved had ( and still has ) something to be very proud of in UFO.
I’m currently writing the second volume of my UFO guide books. It’s focused on Straker’s private life. I’ve read Ed Bishop’s comments and I think you’d have to be misinterpreting to think he disliked his character or the way it was developed. His one major regret was that UFO never went to a second season. I agree with him there. UFO was a masterpiece in my opinion. I corresponded briefly with him in the 1990s and found him a good sport with a great sense of humour and he had some funny and interesting ideas about how Straker could have been revived. Basically it did not go wrong. I assume Mr Bishop was speculating on why it wasn’t a longer running show and he seemed to be assuming it was not commercial enough. In truth it was cut short because Lew Grade found it was easier to sell a new show than a second season of an existing one.
I think that the only Anderson shows that deserved a 2nd season were Captain Scarlet and UFO. I'd have much rather they'd gone along with the original plans and end up with something like UFO: 1999.
@@zypalitra8080 A second season of UFO would have been brilliant because, whatever form it took, we would have had more of Ed Straker, the most complex and realistic character in any Anderson show.
I think Ed Bishop would have made a more credible Commander of Moonbase Alpha than Martin Landau. Landau was an exceptional actor but he never seemed that comfortable as Koenig. While Ed Bishop seemed very at ease as Straker.
@@michaeldeal8060 It's hard to imagine Space: 1999 without Landau, (although the season 2 episode Dorzac does well with Alan, Tony and Maya in the lead). But more of UFO would have been extremely welcome. Ed Bishop once said Straker was a well rounded character and could have benefited from some expansion of the format, had they gone on. In the interview we see in this video, I think he was playing Devil's advocate and questioning the series creative decisions. But in most interviews, he was very positive about the show and I think he was generally very proud of it.
Would Mr Bishop be open to performing as the voice for a CGI or Cartoon version of a new series of UFO? I think it would be brilliant to renew the series and find out what happened to everyone next.
Always liked UFO and Space 1999. These were great shows
UFO was probably the most underated Sci Fi show ever made and deserved so much more, certainly it would be ripe for a big budget TV reboot, because Ed is right it had so much to offer and such a huge story arc that could have been played out.
You could say Dark Skies was that reboot- and it didn't last. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't UFO - sometimes a show just works.
@@Julius_Hardware fair point. Not to mention the crap Independence Day sequel.
It was interesting that Ed raised "A Question of Priorities" although I was surprised by his negative take on it. Gerry Anderson said that ITC in New York didn't ike that episode because of its very human focus and that presumably they wanted more "action" - he rightly disagreed. However it is the human issues that make that one of the most memorable episodes and help to show that UFO was very much an adult series. As well as the whole drama of Straker's son it also has the fascinating possibility of an alien defector. As someone else mentioned in the comments you can't separate action and a "battle against the aliens" from the personal lives of those involved. If UFO had essentially just been an action show uninterested in human emotions and relationships it would have been far less effective.
Can only agree. I thought that was an outstanding episode
As a child, I was VERY disappointed by episodes like 'A Question of Priorities' and 'The Square Triangle' due to their lack of blowing up aliens, but as an adult, they are probably my favourite stories.
I was 11 year old in 1970, and never saw UFO until maybe 10 years later as reruns. I'm still watching it. It is many times better than Space 1999 that followed it. That show went completely off the rails. I wish they had continued to make more episodes of UFO.
It was the Cold War back then. The series served a purpose.
The danger would have been degenerating as Space 1999 did with the 2nd series, abysmal in every way compared to the 1st. The Prisoner stopped when it was decided that the series had exhausted the quality episodes. As good as UFO was, maybe it finished at the right time especially as the last episode (the hippy doctor and the bomb in the farmhouse) was too strange for credibility.
Agreed, UFO is far superior to Space1999. The sets and whole design of the show was much better, the stories more engaging, the characters more relatable.
@@John-wd5cb How did it serve its purpose by being shown in the graveyard slot and getting cancelled after only one season?
Rewatching in 2023 I enjoy Space 1999 and UFO, need to just go with the bizarre storylines like the Bernard Cribbins hysterical robot. It’s Gerry Anderson sci fi, it’s expected to be fanciful and bizarre.
Absolute Classic .. It would a great candidate for a remake today.
Nothing could be better than the original!
A remake? Oh no! Can you imagine the gender and race swapping, and general Wokeism? I'd rather watch the original, even if it is a little clunky at times!
@@lemming9984 Speaking as a proud transwoman, the problem wouldn't be transpeople, whose presence would fit with UFO's futurism and general high [medical] tech advancement, and the problem wouldn't be racial diversity, which the original already did very well, as did Star Trek.
The PROBLEM would be that today's anti-integrity, culturally relativist, and outright nihilistic _anti-Western-civilization_ writers couldn't even grasp the romanticism which made the original so great. Thus any transpeople in a remake would very likely pay too much homage to entitled low-passability clowns like on Tiktok, and any blacks or other "diverse" races would pay too much homage to entitled street thugs like you see in flash-mob robbery videos.
And the relativism and nihilism wouldn't stop there. It would all too probably devolve even further into: beautiful women wearing micro-skirts and boots is sexist and harms all vagina-havers, maybe the aliens aren't so evil after all, since they're just trying to survive - and what's so different about them harvesting us when we harvest animals as food when we should all be happy Bambi-loving vegans anyway? And blah-fn-nihilistic-low-IQ-blah.
Bad philosophy and bad values would be the problem. Which means that ultimately a failure to understand the original - when philosophy and _most_ values were demonstrably superior - would be the problem. Think the pathetic V reboot, or even The Munsters.
The problem runs so much deeper than casting a t-girl or a black person.
Gerry Anderson was a genius ahead of his time. I even went in a Thunderbird at pontins holiday camp in the early 70s it went to the ‘moon’ by way of an onboard tv screen lol - and I believed it! He made my childhood and my active imagination as we all played with Action Man and vehicles
Certainly one of the best opening credits and theme tunes ever!...along with all the gerry and Sylvia stuff...usually at the hands of the late barry gray..genius..not forgetting Derek meddings sfx...gone but not forgotten 👍big fan..gazzz
I loved UFO as a kid 50 years ago. I recently found every episode online and have enjoyed watching them again. The only thing I find funny about it is the laughably futuristic year of 1980 that it takes place in. That's only 10 years after the show was filmed.
I used to love UFO so much that when it was on at 1pm on a Sunday Afternoon, I used to watch the Politics programme beforehand for the whole hour - and I was 8 years old !!!!! Sad, but true !! In this age of remakes, this is one I could really live with !
I was a fan of the series right from the first episode. I hated when it stopped. I was about 14 at the time. A friend told me it was stopped because it got too near the truth. It would be easier to say which episodes I didn't like. I was ill with Cancer 17 years ago and watched the whole series while I could. I got better. I have the theme tune as my ringtone now.
Glad to hear that you recovered.
As for your ringtone, it really is a great tune isn't it.
But let's face it, every tune that Barry Gray came out with in those days was pure gold.
@@buddhistsympathizer1136 I'm still so happy that I have it. Thanks.
So glad that you won your fight and also concur on the greatness of the theme :)
I was five and I loved the toys.
I started watching UFO in 1975 here in Brasil. I was 13 years old. Although, my family's was a 1965 Philips b&w 25" screen tv set, I could clearly see the overall quality of this series. It stood out even from Star Trek. Everything was amazingly beautiful and well made. The opening, the theme song, the soundtrack and the stories. Can you believe I got to listen to The Beatles' 'Get Back' for the first time watching a scene of a party where Cel. Foster is dancing accompanied by a beautiful lady? Usually, when we watch our favorite old TV series on higher definition, we spot its failures in sound and image quality. In the case of UFO (and Thunderbirds) it got much much better. And thus without making use of artificial upgrading. Thanks for posting.
that was Ordeal where Col. Foster is kidnapped by aliens - which all turns out to be a dream!!!
Every episode was awesome..as child UFO was suspenseful and thrilling ,...as a late 50yr old now, BRING IT BACK....SITTING there with my dad and brothers on a late Friday evening ..words cannot explain how good a TV show it was
Gerry Anderson always said UFO was his favourite series he ever did. It stands the test of time, even now it’s still a future I want to live in.
I only found out about the series a few years ago on the Horror channel which has been renamed Legend. I've seen a lot of Sci-fi shows in my time, and this one holds up with the best of them. I just wish we got more seasons. Ed's portrayal of Striker was great in my eyes.
I loved this series and i am happy for every new information i get from my heroes.
This is one of my favorite sci-fi shows from the golden era of television. The great irony, perhaps, is that with the veil of secrecy surrounding UFOs [aka UAPs] being lifted in the real world as we speak, we're finding out that the real thing is FAR more mysterious [and technologically advanced] than what we predicted in fiction in 1970. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. If the series were to be rebooted today, you'd have to employ the real "phenomenon" as the antagonist.
The Alien-Demon deception , Project Bluebeam , the Babalon Working .
@@gosforthlad Not a deception. Reality.
@@RobertFalconer1967 A reality only for the inexperienced and gullible who have no knowledge of centuries of worldwide evidence of ultraterrestials - the djinn , the Fae , Devas , Missing 411 , cryptids etc .
I grew up watching the show when it was on the air and I still pull out my box set DVDs from time to time. 🙂
When he says it's bad for the audience to "get ahead of the characters", I was reminded, several episodes of THE NEW AVENGERS made this mistake. Whereas many of the best episodes were intriguing mysteries where the last piece doesn't fall into place until the last act, you sometimes had things where they TOLD the audience what was going on before the theme song came on, and it made the heroes look like idiots because THEY didn't know what was happening.
One thing that was a shock to me was HOW MUCH BETTER "UFO" works as a whole if you watch them in PRODUCTION ORDER. There is a painfully-slow but steady story arc wherein, in the first half, SHADO is struggling and barely has their act together at all. But then, in the 2nd half, they ARE getting their act together, but the aliens are constantly upping their game and the odds with more and varied and more bizarre things they're doing. So if you watch if in the order they're on the DVDs, it just builds and builds and builds. But this was completely DESTROYED when the stories were shuffled like a deck of cards and run AT RANDOM. Pushing the later episodes forward to try and grab audience earlier, while holding back the lesser earlier ones only makes those early ones look WORSE than they are. You need to see them in order, so the whole series unfolds slowly like a novel.
The whole problem started when the show never got on the air at all until ALL 26 episodes were already finished. This also had the added problem that Century 21 closed up shop before the series even debuted, and everyone involved had to find other jobs. By the time the show gained any popularity at all, there was no one around to do a "3rd set of 13", so to speak. Every time I get to the final episode, the tragic epilogue of sorts, "The Long Sleep", I think, "THIS WAS NO TIME TO CANCEL THE SERIES!" When you see those last 13 episodes in the correct order, by the end, it just SCREAMS for a 2nd season that never happened.
As an aside, "Priorities" may be my least-favorite. It had 2 parallel plotlines, and BOTH ended tragically. Had it been one or the other, I think it could have worked better. Having massive suspense over will John live or die was fine, having John DIE was too much, and pointless. My late friend in Wales suggested the whole mess was one more reflection on just HOW BAD Gerry & Sylvia's marriage had gotten by that point. Ed did all he could to try to save his son's life, and then his ex blames HIM for what happened. When, in truth, she was just a lousy mother. She didn't want "her" son seeing his father, and somehow the kid runs out into traffic, but that's supposedly Ed's fault. A better resolution would have been that thanks to Ed's efforts, John WAS saved, and after, Ed would resolve that he's GOING to see his son WHENEVER he wants.
I respect Ed Bishop's opinion but I also think that the more narrow focus was a positive thing. Sci Fi TV shows of that period always seemed to have way more ambiton and scope than their budgets and the technology of the day would allow. They would often come off as cheap in some way. Not UFO. I'm still knocked out the the fantastic writing, the costumes and set design and the visual effects that were truly amazing for the late 1960s. A narrow scope often allows films and TV do amazing things with limited resources, look at Ridley Scott's 'Alien' for example. Certainly UFO is a step above Space 1999 for this very reason (Also because the groovy 60's outfits and music of UFO are so much better than the ugly 1970's styles of space 1999. Flared trousers, polyester jump-suits and sideburns do not belong in space!)
this was when tv was worth watching fond memories thanks Gerry
UFO was superb. The thing that raised it above all the other Anderson shows for me was when it went weird - it worked. As the Aliens were the ones with the strange powers, not the heroes, when it did Anderson moments with plot holes and strange ideas it got away with it as they just made the aliens more sinister.
For instance, Timelash should have been terrible - daft idea and a dodgy script, but it just works. Though having Patrick Allen and Wanda Ventham isn't a bad thing either.
I liked the episode where 2 tripping hippies mess around with some aliens trying to plant a super-nuke bomb in a barn.
that was the final episode - The Long Sleep.
Good interviews, interesting about the quality (35mm) some credit to Brendan Stafford (lighting cameraman who returned to work on space 1999 series 2 Sound of Silence / Mindbender and timelesh (shot at pinewood) very well made episodes and particularly like the long sleep (sepia toned sequences) think also the change in Directors for the 2nd block of episodes helped look forward to more informative Ufo content.
Interesting stuff. He's probably right.
The campiness of it all made my TV-viewing childhood such a delightful scream
Gabielle Drake (LT Ellis) is the sister of the very talented singer songwriter Nick Drake. I only realise now as recognised her from a documentary about Nick Drake I saw a few days ago!. I knew he had a sister who was an actor but never made the connection before. What a talented family. Loved this series growing up.
I was 7 or 8 when the series aired in 1972-73 in Italy and I just loved it. We didn't even have colour TV back then (we got it in 1977-78) and I remember visiting relatives when holidaying in the UK and revelling in the colour footage. I then used to come back home and boast to my friends about watching episodes in English *and* colour.
I love the style of this show, it's a marvel of filmmaking. It just couldn't be made today with the same charm, but maybe AI could update a few parts and bring it to a new audience.
A Great Programme never gets old .
A Fitting Tribute to the Late Great Gerry Anderson, he made our childhoods totally amazing.
Godspeed Gerry
G.B.N.F. Ever
Same with Sylvia and Ed as well. They helped give us The Golden Age of Television, which shaped young minds decades ago, sadly to never come again.
@@alexp3752
So very TRUE , never see the like again , mores the pity .
The children of this Generation could do with what we had.
Take care from the 🇬🇧
Every show goes through growing pains in the first season. Unfortunately UFO only had one season to work with. It was all in all very superior in many ways; especially for its time 🤗
I agree. See my comments.
Is 26 * 1 hour long episodes really one season? PS filmed over 16 months with 6 month break in the middle.
@@An.Individual back in the day most shows were 25-30 episodes a season. Star Trek’s first season was 29 ; I believe. Even TNG and Deep Space did 25-26 episodes per season 🖖
Perhaps the Big Finish adaptation could build on it. 🤔
I agree with Ed myself. Question of Priorities while a worthy story and very well acted, but I don’t find it a very pleasant watch. It’s unpleasantly stressful wishing the outcome may be different every time I watch it. My favourite episode is one that tends to get a little lost amongst them. The Psycho-bombs. It’s so ambitious and the guest stars are great!
I think that QoP is an important episode for Straker's growth, but it's as you said "not a pleasant watch". Straker is a completely ruthless individual who'd do anything that he needed to do, but QoP's ending gives Straker nothing to personally fight for anymore.
@@zypalitra8080 Agree with all this. I just thought of how he must appear from his wife’s POV. She was positive he was being unfaithful, then he was no doubt partially blamed for their son’s accident and then finally he let them all down after promising to fix the situation. It’s an uncomfortable family drama in the middle of a sci-fi series. I must have watched it 20 times, but tbh I now avoid it when it’s shown.
I sometimes wonder if episodes like QoP might have influenced Hideaki Anno's portrayal of certain characters in Evangelion... 🤔
I think QoP despite it's disturbing nature,brings a very human side to things.
We all have priorities in life and have to make sacrifices to different extremes depending on the circumstances, and this is what the QoP episode depicts, leaving an ethical and philosophical " nasty taste in the mouth".
'love "The Psychobombs!" Deborah Grant, the explosion of SkyDiver 3... It all clicked on that episode.
A fascinating yet frustrating series, rarely seen in the US after its initial run. I agree with Ed! (An example: In "Square Triangle," an alien crash lands in the English countryside; but most of that show focused on a couple whose relationship was crumbling.) My favorite episode, "The Cat with 10 Lives," was written by David Tomblin, one of the writers for The Prisoner.
This is without a doubt Gerry's Greatest show!🤔😁👍
love videos like this! more please!
I used to watch this as a kid. Great ideas and was a good show for its day. I do agree that a wider vision was needed. It was a rich idea and I like that women were portrayed as leaders as well. So this was a forward thinking concept. It was fun back then!
This and Blakes 7 were the best sci fi on television. Good stories and real characters.
Watched it when it was originally released and love the dvds.A great series.
I have always loved this series! I first saw it in the early 1970's been a fan ever since. My favorite episode is " Destruction".
The guy who wrote it, Dennis Spooner, had just written a similar-themed episode for the BBC's Doomwatch series called Burial at Sea. Sadly, that one's missing from the BBC archives.
I think this show had some amazing episodes that were very thoughtful and well written and way ahead of what other sci fi series was doing at the time i.e. it was not all green bug eyed monsters , it was character driven and very well written . For me it is to look at dated but because of the writing and the acting you don't notice that aspect. I love it!
Excellent show before it's time. Now it would be a hit
Straker was a great, human character. the idea of how to hide such an organisation and the problems with it were very interesting.
Love this show and Space 1999. UFO's opening theme played out with the teletype still some of the best tv music around. I watch them both on my Roku channel and have them running in the background while doing my housework. I worked for the local Bell Telephone Company and we had IBM Selectric typewriters and teletypes going constantly, it was the sound of the future.
A great show, well ahead of its time. I still have my SHADO mobile and Moon base interceptor, although the missile's long gone. I think Ed's right, though. After Star Trek appeared UFO seemed a bit parochial in comparison.
Gabrielle was one of my first crushes. She's still beautiful.
Did you know that you can buy replacement parts for these models, including the missiles? Look up Steve Flowers Model Supplies...
To Mr Ed Bishop,Commander Starker was like Capt James T Kirk in that the one thing that was most important to the both of them.One was SHADO and to the other his ship and crew.Both great t.v Shows in there own way.
Gerry told this story at Worldcon.
Something like two days before UFO was going to premiere, the US Air Force released the results of Project Blue Book, which was their multi-decade investigation info the phenomena, and the first line of the report said "There are no UFOs.
And Gerry was like "Well, that's that, then."
Loved UFO as a kid in the 70s and still love it today. Sure, some of the stories were rubbish and some of the acting was wooden, but on the whole a superb series that will still be shown in a hundred years time when we are all long gone. Can you image today, a production company with millions to spend producing a UFO reboot?! We can all dream.
When I was a little kid I had the toys of all the vehicles and spacecraft. Guess I must've been a massive fan. Certainly brings back memories.
I was a fan of Gerry Anderson shows as a kid but UFO passed me by, even in my adult life. What I adore about Anderson shows is the incredible retro futuristic designs on practically every element, from vehicles, costumes to set designs. Everything looks spectacular. You don't seem to get that vision nowadays.
He's very critical of the series that he was in.
Yes, I've seen that in one or two other actors over things they've done. It's a shame. I thought UFO packed a lot of variety into its stories considering the limitations of the format which forced the writers to really work at it, same as when Pertwee's Dr Who was exiled to Earth.
The human tragedy elements in UFO are the reason I became such a fan of the series, and its compelling central character Ed Straker. The ONLY reason. By far the best thing that came from the Andersons. (Only in the last year - thanks to RUclips - I introduced the series to a friend and she got addicted to the show. A new fan. She wouldn't have liked it all had it not been for the quirky dramas.)
I was crazy about the UFO series when I was 12. Now I am 62 and I can still watch any episodes with great pleasure : this means the series cannot be bad.
Phenomenal show. I watched the entire series again last year and was amazed by just how damn good it was. I was equally disappointed when I rewatched Space 1999 with how bad it was.
Born in 1962, I was 8 when the series started, 9 when it finished. The "Question of Priorities" episode stuck in my mind so strongly then, and remains one of my favourite episodes of any show up there (along with the "Find the Lady" episode of Shoestring in 1979, when I was 17)
Shoestring is a great little series, sadly overlooked today even more so than UFO! I still think it's the best thing Trevor Eve has done.
What I particularly love about this series is the imagination of 1980 on 1970's life i.e. the obviously late 1960's fashion, music and hairstyles - also still smoking 20 regal a day like everyone I knew did back then when I was very young.
The most glam sci fi series ever
And Britain driving on the right hand side of the road..! Never going to happen.
Near future Science Fiction; not meant as any kind of prediction, but speculation on what it would be like today, if things had gone slightly different in one specific area, and how we might react to it. Which is why I must humbly disagree with Mr. Bishop on concentrating on one character's personal reaction rather than the overall scenario.
Great show all round, the actors, the models and the effects, it was the next logical step for Thunderbirds to evolve into and I think it really did set a benchmark, only with CGI could you really improve on it. Perhaps if they had multiple 'enemies' that might have added variety and allowed another season or two. It still looks good today.
I was born in 1972 so had never heard of UFO. Started watching when I saw a re-run with George Cole (Arthur Daley) in it and I thought it was good. Never knew Gerry Anderson had done live action before. Continued to watch the whole thing and caught up with the episodes I'd missed and without a doubt "A question of priorities" is one of the best episodes. It's such a change of pace to see the back story of Straker. The story was good and well acted and gave a great insight into the character. In 1969 it must have been one of the first sci-fi shows to have done that. Really good series. Shame it only went for one season.
Gabrielle Drake looks great after all these years! I understand what Ed Bishop means, it's true some of the screen-plays were lousy, but it was one of the best TV series back in the late 60s and early 70s. I miss them. even with their crude special effects and predictable plots.
She went from a superbly gorgeous young woman to a wrinkled old hag. Time is a killer.
I remember loving this show. I now own the entire series on DVD. For its time, it was pretty special, to me at least.
3:46 The same "thing" in many shows, the action/"mythology" episodes compared to the "personal"/background,"filler" episodes. Personall, I liked a mixture of the two. Get to know the "why" the character and the "how".
"..urrry up.." Need to deliver some prototype models later, but don't want to miss this.
I've only just properly started watching at 58 and I'm still impressed. I actually liked seeing the personal side of Straker. Special effects and models in this series are still impressive by today's standards.
UFO was way out there, with very original ideas it was well made and Excellently acted. I still love it too this day.
Great costumes, into music and effects…love it as a kid
Hey! It's Klaus Hergescheimer!
UFO was brilliant
One of the best Themes for a TV show...Ever !
I agree w Striker ab that episode being problematic. I was watching the whole series on DVD w my son. I was shocked that they let the kid die and Straker was suddenly a bad guy. Nearly a deal breaker. That one episode is torture.
Timelash and Psychobombs: My top episodes from an all round terrific series.
I was 7 when the show first aired in L.A., and episodes like "A Question of Priorities" and "Confetti Check A-OK" bored me to tears, because they were too "talky", but watching again as an adult, such episodes are now my favorites! Funny how that works, huh?