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

[NextGen123]

I read on the web there there is going to be a feature film re-make of this little known sci fi show. It was my favorite growing up in the late sixties and early seventies. Ed Bishop portrayed Commander Straker.

His cover was a movie studio executive who actually commanded of a large base that was responsible for controlling an alien threat to planet earth.

Any fans out there of that obscure show?

 

[lurok]

I'm sure there a few. Just been watching on DVD, and pretty kitsch at times (especially the fashion/decor...purple Prince Valiant wigs and string vests!.... but it is late 60s/70s). Model FX work still stands up...I think some of the people who worked on it went on to do Alien?...and some genuinely good episodes. Some of the latter ones like unmade scripts of The Prisoner. Not sure if feature would work, but a reboot series might. Something much darker/paranoid in tone...

 

[NextGen123]

I'm sure there a few. Just been watching on DVD, and pretty kitsch at times (especially the fashion/decor...purple Prince Valiant wigs and string vests!.... but it is late 60s/70s). Model FX work still stands up...I think some of the people who worked on it went on to do Alien?...and some genuinely good episodes. Some of the latter ones like unmade scripts of The Prisoner. Not sure if feature would work, but a reboot series might. Something much darker/paranoid in tone...

Does Gerry Anderson have a web site where a fan can find out if the rumors are true?

 

[scotpens]

I read on the web there there is going to be a feature film re-make of this little known sci fi show. . . Any fans out there of that obscure show?

“Little known”? “Obscure”?

Not to us geeks, it ain’t!

I love everything about the show — the whole retro-futuristic vibe (it took place in the then-future of the 1980s), the fashions, the cars and jeeps (recycled from the feature film Doppelganger, aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun), the highly improbable vehicles like SkyDiver, and mainly the babes!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I read on the web there there is going to be a feature film re-make of this little known sci fi show.

If so, there's only one Ed Straker:

Neal McDonough.

You know you want it.

 

[sojourner]

<waits for the woosh of this getting moved to sci-fi>

 

[MacLeod]

I remember wathcing UFO during one it's re-runs, where S.H.A.D.O. HQ was disguised as a film studio.

 

[Mr Silver]

Gerry Anderson has a talk show, so it might be worth tuning in and finding out if he has any thoughts on U.F.O.

 

[Holdfast]

I remember the silver costumes and the purple hair, and that's about it. Oh, and there was a really wacky looking car, right?

I suspect I'm remembering the best bits.

 

[Dac]

http://www.ufo-themovie.com/shado/http://www.ufo-themovie.com/shado/http://www.ufo-themovie.com/shado/

Well, it's been a while since I've seen their site and I have to say they've certainly made it very swanky. It seems to be awfully upfront and open for a "big hollywood" movie though, and although Gerry Anderson may be on board with these folks, I don't think this is going to be a big movie....

 

[NextGen123]

http://www.ufo-themovie.com/shado/

Well, it's been a while since I've seen their site and I have to say they've certainly made it very swanky. It seems to be awfully upfront and open for a "big hollywood" movie though, and although Gerry Anderson may be on board with these folks, I don't think this is going to be a big movie....

Is it going to be one of those low budget movies we see on the Sy Fy channel? Or one of those movies that goes direct to DVD at Wal-Mart kind of movie?

 

[NextGen123]

I remember the silver costumes and the purple hair, and that's about it. Oh, and there was a really wacky looking car, right?

I suspect I'm remembering the best bits.

I rmember the car and how the doors opened vertically. I don't think that would work in the Wal-Mart parking lot. For that matter if you were in a parking garage the doors might hit the concrete above.

I wish the show had lasted at least five seasons. It had a lot of stories left to tell. I do have the old paperback adaptations of the old episodes. That was a show that could have been much bigger if it was marketed properly.

 

[NextGen123]

I read on the web there there is going to be a feature film re-make of this little known sci fi show. . . Any fans out there of that obscure show?

“Little known”? “Obscure”?

Not to us geeks, it ain’t!

I love everything about the show — the whole retro-futuristic vibe (it took place in the then-future of the 1980s), the fashions, the cars and jeeps (recycled from the feature film Doppelganger, aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun), the highly improbable vehicles like SkyDiver, and mainly the babes!

The color beige is everywhere just like the corridors in Picard's season one Next Generation Enterprise.

 

[Vendikarr]

I remember.

Fun little show.

 

[23skidoo]

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

 

[Galileo7]

One of my favorites since I first saw(as a 8 y.o. boy) the UFO series debut in the U.S. in 1972-73. The new movie is set to be released in 2013 according to their official site.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Is the new film live-action or CGI?

Also, is there any truth to the rumor that in the original series...

Spoiler: UFO

the aliens had no physical form at all, but were using captured humans as unwilling hosts, kind of like Goa'uld?

 

[Marc]

Is the new film live-action or CGI?

Also, is there any truth to the rumor that in the original series...

Spoiler: UFO

the aliens had no physical form at all, but were using captured humans as unwilling hosts, kind of like Goa'uld?

the true nature of the aliens was contradicted over the shows run. Early they talked about the humans having their organs harvested (the first episode, ended with the revelation that the sister of the captain of Skydiver 1 had been harvested) but it changed later on.

Anderson had use the non-corporeal nature earlier with Captain Scarlet (which incidently featured Ed Bishop as the voice of Captain Blue) for the Mysterions.

Btw anyone know how the episode "The Computer Affair" which had at it's core a relationshop between Gabrielle Drake's character and a black Astronaunt was recieved at the time?

 

[Galileo7]

Is the new film live-action or CGI?

live-action

 

[TOSalltheway]

I remember watching it as a kid in the late 60s and loving it. I don't know if it holds up but would like to see it again and find out.