Does anyone remember U.F.O. by Gerry Anderson in 1969?

[Chris_Johnston]

Joshua Jackson? Too young to play a full Colonel, methinks...

no they breathed liquid and it was theorised that was help them during space travel.

I thought it was so the acceleration didn't crush their lungs (or the lungs of their host bodies). 'Breathing' a super-oxygenated liquid would be the answer to that.

yes and that's helping them with space travel - I just couldn't remember the exact details.

I've also seen that concept used in the movie Event Horizon, and Robert L. Forward's novel "Timemaster".
Just another variation on the principle we saw demonstrated in The Abyss, I guess.
Just Google "fluid breathing acceleration" and you'll find quite a few discussions about it.

It went over my head when I watched the show as a 7-year-old, but I was quite impressed when Col. Freeman remarked about it, when I watched the DVD for the first time.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

You'd think that Dinky would have produced one to go with the Interceptor and SHADO mobile vehicle, but it seems not.

Dinky UFO toys

ETA: Ah, but Konami and Product Enterprise did.

Konami even produced a model of Gay Ellis.

I was always so disappointed that Dinky never made a SkyDiver, especially since that emerald green they painted the Interceptor would've been far more appropriate on a submarine.

Oh, and there's a great website devoted to the show...
http://ufoseries.com/

 

[Chris_Johnston]

younger kids might like it.

Start them with the episode about Straker's divorce because of his devotion to his job, and then the one about his having to choose between using one of his aircraft to save his son's life or stop a UFO that only that craft can reach in time, and then the one about the couple that encounters aliens in the countryside while they're tripping their faces off on acid.

ROTFL, those were the episodes that put me to sleep as a kid, but I can't stop watching as an adult.

 

[Procutus]

This show is definitely not obscure. It was a major series at the time, and remains a major part of the Gerry Anderson canon. It was also an early case of programmers not knowing how to handle a series; Anderson's previous series were all for kids, but UFO - forget the wigs - had some extremely adult storylines. One was about marital infidelity, another was about Straker having to make a choice involving the life of a loved one (Torchwood Children of Earth had to have been influenced by it), and I've pointed out before how the US series Threshold of a few years back borrowed things almost beat for beat from UFO.

UFO was cancelled after the first season because US syndicators didn't know what to do with it, so Anderson took his original plan for Season 2, which was going to focus more on the Moonbase, and came up with Space: 1999.

There are a few clunky bits, as is the case with any old show, but I highly recommend the DVD (I hope in the wake of The Prisoner and Space: 1999 going to Blu-ray that UFO follows suit).

My only disappointment is Wanda Ventham, who plays Colonel Veronica Lake, is only in a handful of episodes (there were two production blocks, and for the second block a number of cast members were changed and Wanda's character was added to give a stronger female presence on earth). But Gabrielle Drake rocks the purple wig. One of the early episodes also features Jean Marsh. Interesting someone above also mentions The Prisoner, as Alexis Kanner from that series (he played a bunch of characters include the Dem Bones-singing No. 48) appears in one of the strongest episodes of the season.

Alex

This.
I was 6 when the show first aired, and I watched the DVDs just a couple years ago, and it's astonishing how much more I liked it this time around. The episodes that put me to sleep as a tyke I can now appreciate.

I was ten, and more caught up in the space-related stuff at the time. I watched the entire DVD set a few years back, and really appreciated the other aspects of the show.

 

[Forbin]

I had to laugh at one moment in my recent rewatch, when Jane Merrow tried to seduce Straker. Now, Jane Merrow is a gorgeous woman and I always loved seeing her. But in this scene she stripped to her 1970 underwear and stood there seductively... maybe it's all the years of Victoria's Secret commercials and seeing Adriana Lima in her modern form-fitting bra and panties. But even Jane Merrow didn't look sexy wearing this white lace rig that looked so thick and starched that it may as well have been storm trooper armor.

 

[Procutus]

But even Jane Merrow didn't look sexy wearing this white lace rig that looked so thick and starched that it may as well have been storm trooper armor.

We need images!

 

[Marc]

Had to smile at line form the Dalotek affair where it seems Gerrald Ford never progressed beyound the U.S house of Representaives.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Ha, ha! Well it's forgivable if they didn't see that coming.

 

[Forbin]

But even Jane Merrow didn't look sexy wearing this white lace rig that looked so thick and starched that it may as well have been storm trooper armor.

We need images!

Okay, that'll give me something to do tomorrow.

 

[saturn5]

Yeah, hilarious to think now that it was set in the 1980s. I wonder really why all the SHADO girls had to have purple hair and mini-skirts?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, hilarious to think now that it was set in the 1980s. I wonder really why all the SHADO girls had to have purple hair and mini-skirts?

Why shouldn't they have purple hair and miniskirts?

 

[Psion]

This show is definitely not obscure. It was a major series at the time, and remains a major part of the Gerry Anderson canon. It was also an early case of programmers not knowing how to handle a series; Anderson's previous series were all for kids, but UFO - forget the wigs - had some extremely adult storylines. One was about marital infidelity, another was about Straker having to make a choice involving the life of a loved one (Torchwood Children of Earth had to have been influenced by it), and I've pointed out before how the US series Threshold of a few years back borrowed things almost beat for beat from UFO.

UFO was cancelled after the first season because US syndicators didn't know what to do with it, so Anderson took his original plan for Season 2, which was going to focus more on the Moonbase, and came up with Space: 1999.

There are a few clunky bits, as is the case with any old show, but I highly recommend the DVD (I hope in the wake of The Prisoner and Space: 1999 going to Blu-ray that UFO follows suit).

My only disappointment is Wanda Ventham, who plays Colonel Veronica Lake, is only in a handful of episodes (there were two production blocks, and for the second block a number of cast members were changed and Wanda's character was added to give a stronger female presence on earth). But Gabrielle Drake rocks the purple wig. One of the early episodes also features Jean Marsh. Interesting someone above also mentions The Prisoner, as Alexis Kanner from that series (he played a bunch of characters include the Dem Bones-singing No. 48) appears in one of the strongest episodes of the season.

Alex

This.
I was 6 when the show first aired, and ...

You were not a number! You were a free man!

 

[Forbin]

Yeah, hilarious to think now that it was set in the 1980s. I wonder really why all the SHADO girls had to have purple hair and mini-skirts?

The purple wigs were the fashionable alternative to clean-room hair nets. Can't have dandruff flaking all over the moon base!

 

[Marc]

Yeah, hilarious to think now that it was set in the 1980s. I wonder really why all the SHADO girls had to have purple hair and mini-skirts?

The purple wigs were the fashionable alternative to clean-room hair nets. Can't have dandruff flaking all over the moon base!

Well that's one explaination that's never been given before

It did strike me that there's a strong resemblance between the SHADO uniforms and the later uniforms worn on Space:1999 though they had different designers (but possibly lots of left over material).

 

[Klaus]

Apparently Sylvia Anderson, who was the costume designer, really thought that wigs might be a regular fashion accessory in the future...

...but that's still not as funny as smoking on Moonbase and in the submarine!

 

[CorporalCaptain]

...but that's still not as funny as smoking on Moonbase and in the submarine!

Smoking on submarines was allowed in the US Navy until the end of 2010 (link). Nuclear submarines can stay completely submerged for months, so the air is scrubbed for waste gases anyway (link).

Not sure what the hell they were thinking on the Moonbase though.

 

[Dac]

Apparently Sylvia Anderson, who was the costume designer, really thought that wigs might be a regular fashion accessory in the future...

Have you SEEN Lady GaGa?!

And Katy Perry for that matter.

 

[Marc]

...but that's still not as funny as smoking on Moonbase and in the submarine!

Smoking on submarines was allowed in the US Navy until the end of 2010 (link). Nuclear submarines can stay completely submerged for months, so the air is scrubbed for waste gases anyway (link).

Not sure what the hell they were thinking on the Moonbase though.

it's probaby a dry facility, minium creature comforts so smoking would be one of the few pleasurers there.

Plus imaging Straker if he couldn't have his cigars when visiting.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

But even Jane Merrow didn't look sexy wearing this white lace rig that looked so thick and starched that it may as well have been storm trooper armor.

We need images!

Okay, that'll give me something to do tomorrow.

I tried to find it myself and stumbled over this excellent Spanish poster for the series.

...but that's still not as funny as smoking on Moonbase and in the submarine!

Smoking on submarines was allowed in the US Navy until the end of 2010 (link). Nuclear submarines can stay completely submerged for months, so the air is scrubbed for waste gases anyway (link).

Not sure what the hell they were thinking on the Moonbase though.

Won't someone think of the inflatable furniture!

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

younger kids might like it.

Start them with the episode about Straker's divorce because of his devotion to his job, and then the one about his having to choose between using one of his aircraft to save his son's life or stop a UFO that only that craft can reach in time

An episode that gets misremembered a lot. Straker doesn't make any such choice. He uses the SHADO plane to fly in a special drug that could help his son's condition. But it's Colonel Freeman, taking advantage of the plane being in the air earlier than scheduled, who diverts the plane to the UFO incident without informing Straker.