The 2018 DVD cover
UFO, Gerry Anderson's very first live-action television series production, was centred around the activities of the S.H.A.D.O., or Supreme Headquarters of the Alien Defence Organization, in its fight to defend Earth from the brutal attacks of a dying alien race that is harvesting human organs to survive.
Production[]
UFO was the work of Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson, and Reg Hill, who commenced their work for Lewis Grade's and Martin Starger's ITC Entertainment on the production in 1969, the year the real United States Air Force closed the actual Project Bluebook.
Background to the production[]
The Andersons had long wanted to work in live action, and UFO gave them their first chance to do this with series programmes. (Their marriage would fall apart, quite acrimoniously, during the production of their second live-action series-programme production, Space: 1999, as would Gerry Anderson's professional relationship with ITC Entertainment.)
Fiscally, the programme represented a sufficiently expensive production for some properties to be carried over from Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun, also called Doppelganger, to reduce costs. Amongst these were gull-winged motorcars that had been used in the production. These motorcars were never shown with the doors fully exposed in opened position because they needed an outside operator to open them.
For once, the Andersons had to deal with the temperaments of living actors rather than puppets that could not talk back to them. In the instalment "Mindbender," some of Gerry Anderson's frustrations with this fact actually made their way into George Victor "Edward" Bishop's dialogue.
Episode List[]
- Episode 1: Identified. Original Air Date—16 September 1970
- Episode 2: Exposed. Original Air Date—23 September 1970
- Episode 3: The Cat with Ten Lives. Original Air Date—30 September 1970
- Episode 4: Conflict. Original Air Date—7 October 1970
- Episode 5: A Question of Priorities. Original Air Date—14 October 1970
- Episode 6: E.S.P. Original Air Date—21 October 1970
- Episode 7: Kill Straker! Original Air Date—4 November 1970
- Episode 8: Sub-Smash. Original Air Date—11 November 1970
- Episode 9: Destruction. Original Air Date—2 December 1970
- Episode 10: The Square Triangle. Original Air Date—9 December 1970
- Episode 11: Close Up. Original Air Date—16 December 1970
- Episode 12: The Psychobombs. Original Air Date—30 December 1970
- Episode 13: Survival. Original Air Date—6 January 1971
- Episode 14: Mindbender. Original Air Date—13 January 1971
- Episode 15: Flight Path. Original Air Date—20 January 1971
- Episode 16: The Man Who Came Back. Original Air Date—3 February 1971
- Episode 17: The Dalotek Affair. Original Air Date—10 February 1971
- Episode 18: Timelash. Original Air Date—17 February 1971
- Episode 19: Ordeal. Original Air Date—14 April 1971
- Episode 20: Court Martial. Original Air Date—1 May 1971
- Episode 21: Computer Affair. Original Air Date—15 May 1971
- Episode 22: Confetti Check A-OK. Original Air Date—10 July 1971
- Episode 23: The Sound of Silence. Original Air Date—17 July 1971
- Episode 24: Reflections in the Water. Original Air Date—24 July 1971
- Episode 25: The Responsibility Seat. Original Air Date—31 July 1971
- Episode 26: he Long Sleep. Original Air Date—7 August 1971
Errors and Explanations[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Factual errors[]
- Gravity on the lunar surface is actually 1/6 of Earth normal.The actor's movements and inertia are all wrong. The base could be fitted with some form of Artificial Gravity System.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]
- Although set (and filmed) in England, all the futuristic cars are left-hand drive, and everyone drives on the right-hand side of the road. (IMDB) Several other series by the Andersons featured the same driving system, presumably because England was predicted to switch over sometime before the future events depicted. Flashback scenes showed the "normal" English driving arrangement.
