UFO episode reviews... [spoilers]
- Thread starter Klaus
- Start date
You were talking about the bottom lunchbox illustration, right?Not to hijack this excellent thread, but where did that bottom illustration come from? I decided to deny myself the pleasure of Season 2 of Space:1999 a while back
That scene never really happened, but the creature was in a first season episode "Dragon's Domain". It was one of my favorite episodes and scared the crap out of me when I was little. http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/epguide/t23dd.html
I mustn't have finished off my S1 box set after all, it'll have to be investigated. I thought something that hilarious could only have come from S2 
Wow, this is amazing--how closely they resemble the original cast. Nice work!Just to see the resemblance :
Neal McDonaugh (with Straker-wig) - Ed Bishop
Michael Shanks - Michael Billington
IMHO, I don't think a remake could be pulled off in a believable sense. Not with everyone being so keenly aware of satellite technology, long range radar, and all the monitoring going on after 9/11. Certainly it would be hard to "hide" everything. You couldn't keep the public from being aware of UFO's invading and the SHADO defense craft being launched to intercept.
Actually, I wonder if it could be pulled off in a "vintage" sense. The idea being that back in the 1960's, there WAS a S.H.A.D.O. organization that fought off UFO's, unbeknown to the general public. It eventually finished the job... the UFO's stopped coming, and gradually the organization was reduced until no longer needed. What they would do is remake the original sets and clothing, very similar in design but upgraded in ways that make sense without losing the 60's flair. Of course, the difficulty would be filming city scenes that are believable... but that could be achieved with some clever CGI. All in all, I think that would be the only way to really pull it off. It would be fun, I think... a throwback to 60's vintage sci-fi.
And most of all, the WRITING would have to be much better. Certainly they came up with some great ideas and had excellent direction/photography... but I have to say that after watching the UFO series many years later, I am very disappointed in how these stories all unfolded. Especially the endings! Wow, just plain awful. So abrupt and often on a crummy line. The acting was really mediocre, too. Some good moments, but a lot of "stiffness" throughout (with the exception of character Alec Freeman, and most of the women). The only reason why I'm keeping my DVD's is that I got them rather inexpensively. Otherwise, they'd be sold on "that auction site."
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In lieu of a new review, I checked out an episode further down the line, no. 19, The Cat With Ten Lives.
Suitably eerie this one, some nice camera work and music from the ever dependable Barry Gray. The camera work around the models steps up a notch, with some nice cockpit views from the interceptors.
Don't want to spoil it, nor am I that much of a wordsmith anyway, but its worth catching.
ETA: Forgot too, it formed one of my pet theories about the aliens. Much like those from Dark Skies, I thought perhaps they might be some sort of non-corporeal life forms, skipping from one species to another.
Suitably eerie this one, some nice camera work and music from the ever dependable Barry Gray. The camera work around the models steps up a notch, with some nice cockpit views from the interceptors.
Don't want to spoil it, nor am I that much of a wordsmith anyway, but its worth catching.
ETA: Forgot too, it formed one of my pet theories about the aliens. Much like those from Dark Skies, I thought perhaps they might be some sort of non-corporeal life forms, skipping from one species to another.
My cat hates it when I watch that episode. I think that the cat on the show used some foul cat language. My cat actually hissed at the tv once during this episode.
The Boys from PsyOps are always thinking...
Thanks for reviving the thread, I've got to get off my butt and get the next review done... I'm recovering from driving 400 miles in a snowstorm yesterday, but I'll be caught up on sleep soon. 
I don't recall my cat reacting to the episode, but he's old [nearly 20!] and mostly deaf so he may not be a good sample.
I don't recall my cat reacting to the episode, but he's old [nearly 20!] and mostly deaf so he may not be a good sample.
I also caught the episode about the space camera, I didn't get all the way through it, twas a tad lame. Although I do remember we got to see Lt whats-her-face out of her wig, smoking her brains out.
Forgot to say, the cat episode starts out with a bang (several actually), makes you wonder why the aliens didn't just go all out for moonbase at the start.
Forgot to say, the cat episode starts out with a bang (several actually), makes you wonder why the aliens didn't just go all out for moonbase at the start.
Well...
I just found this picture
Did anyone have the Dinky models from this show? I used to have a Dinky Eagle from Space: 1999 when I was little but the UFO toys were before my time.
...
Ok, it's finally done... the longest one yet!
This is one of the most important of the series’ early episodes, introducing a main character, the hirsutely hunky Paul Foster.
It also gives a nice glimpse of what happens when people accidentally see crucial UFO-related activities and the amnesia drug can’t be used because too much time has gone by. Will such an incident cost even an innocent person their life in the name of global security? We get some answers, though other questions remain.
------
“Exposed”
The day is winding down at Harlington-Straker Studios, and Miss Ealand calls down to ask the boss if she can leave. Straker says he was just leaving too, and as he gets ready to do so, the phone chirps and Freeman reports a possible sighting. SID calls a red alert, and Interceptors scramble after three UFOs, firing a brace of missiles for a blanket explosion. Two of the intruders are splashed but the third, though presumably damaged, gets through. Freeman is confident that Sky One can get it, but the situation is abruptly complicated as another aircraft moves into the target area.
It turns out to be an experimental test plane being flown for a private firm, at an altitude of 250,000 feet at over Mach 3 by two pilots.
Straker gets on the line to the company and tells them to have it change course or they’ll not have a plane to test. Skydiver gets into position and Sky One blasts off, but high above the test pilots have spotted the UFO and being taking pictures. They are ordered to break off but the pilot refuses as they investigate. Straker declines to call off the attack and says the test jet will just have to take its chances, and when Sky One takes out the UFO the jet is hit by the blast and goes down. The copilot blacks out and the pilot thrashes and fights for control.
We cut from the crashing plane to the pilot, Paul Foster, waking up in a hospital bed panicked because he can’t see.
The doctor comes in and assures him that the blindness is temporary, and tells him he ejected in the nick of time before the crash and that he’s been there six days. Foster asks what happened to his copilot Jim, and the doctor says he didn’t make it.
A nice cut to Foster holding a model of the plane they were flying, which pulls back to reveal him in the office of his company’s CEO. The boss praises Foster [and gives him a cigar] as one of the best test pilots around but chillingly says “that was the past” and they need to consider his future, and suggests he take some time off and check back in a couple of months. Paul asks him where the film is from the camera Jim had and gets the run-around, and when he brings up his report the boss protests that he wrote it three days after coming out of six-day coma. When the boss notes the implausibility of the story, Foster tells him to just process the film – and he reluctantly admits both the plane and the film are in the hands of a military investigation team. Foster wants to talk to them, but the CEO protests that the military will “tear that story of yours to shreds” and his career will be ruined. Undeterred, Foster storms out of the office.
Alec Freeman walks through SHADO Control to visit Straker [with a smile for a unitarded console hottie as always], and grins to see him in a dashing blue frock coat which he claims is “what any well-turned-out film executive would wear,” to which a smoking and smirking Freeman sardonically replies “you should have warned me.” Straker mentions that he needs to spend more time upstairs to keep their studio cover.
Freeman gets down to business and tells Straker that General Henderson had called to say that Paul Foster wanted a hearing about what happened to his plane, and Alec aptly notes that he is “no pushover. He knows what he saw and he’s sticking to it.” Straker recalls the copilot was killed and seems unconcerned since whatever Foster says will be uncorroborated.
Cut to some shots of a really cool-looking jet, which proves to be a luxury executive model whose passengers include Paul Foster, the ever-creepy Dr. Jackson, and a female attendant with a distinctly Lady-Deathstrike air. Jackson notes their complete comfort, privacy, and security and muses “What more could you ask for?”, to which Paul naturally replies “the answers to a couple of questions.” His look around at the jet’s interior shows he is impressed by the luxury but not by the attempt to soften his queries, and Jackson calmly says “Try me.”
He asks where the film from his jet is, and is told the camera was not damaged – so he cuts right to the point and asks if he did or didn’t see a UFO. Jackson teases him and says “aren’t you sure?”, but when Paul tells him not to play games he says that he does believe Foster saw something. “At least that’s a start,” Foster says, and we get the distinct impression this is about as receptive as anyone has yet been on the subject. [If Dr. Jackson is your biggest encouragement, look out!] Lady D comes in with coffee, and when she leaves Foster cuts to the chase, saying that he’s an experienced test pilot and he is convinced the craft he saw was extraterrestrial. Jackson has her run the film [Gee, they do have a copy? We’re shocked!] and naturally it shows nothing other than Sky One flying by, no sign of a UFO. Paul’s expression hardens as he realizes he’s been had and angrily asks “What have you done?”
When Paul accuses him of altering the film, Jackson says “Why should I do that?”, and when Foster comes at him to “wipe that smile off your face” Lady D. proves my instincts correct and neatly grabs Paul in a headlock.
He struggles vainly and Jackson reminds him that things are not always what they seem, illustrating it with an interesting bit of dialogue. Tossing a pen in the air, he asks Foster if he saw it stop at the top of its trajectory before starting back down, and Foster says “if you say so,” to which Jackson replies “No Foster, it didn't. It's moving forward at five hundred knots, like everything else in this plane. And yet, then, this whole aircraft is moving with the rotation of the Earth. Confusing, but fact. But then, facts can be confusing in an aircraft at night at two hundred and fifty thousand feet.”
This leads to an exchange with Jackson where he gives alternative explanations for what Foster saw, with Paul getting increasingly angry. Jackson says he needs to write his report and asks to confirm some basic facts, including that he made previous UFO reports three years ago and two and a half years before that. Foster says yes, and Jackson ends the scene by laughingly noting that “Then we shouldn't be meeting again for another couple of years.”
We fade from the jet landing to Paul coming home and finding his apartment door unlocked. He bursts in and finds a woman waiting for him who says the janitor let her in. Foster proves he’s never one to miss an opportunity and grabs a bottle and offers her a drink, to which she replies “why did you murder my brother?” Paul is nonplussed.
Back at SHADO HQ, Straker and Freeman walk to his office discussing the report on the recent incident, and Straker tells Freeman to go to Moonbase to try to get the Interceptor launch time down to two minutes after a red alert call, saying “Drill them, flatter them, cajole them, whatever, but get those times down!” Alec asks where he should get his stick, and an amused Straker notes “that would be my way,” and then says “I'm sending you because you're the right man for the job.”
Freeman then asks about Foster, who Straker says is tough and persistent – and when Alec asks what they’ll do if he gets too close to the truth, the reply is chilling and to the point: “One man or the cover of a multi-billion dollar set up? What do you think?”
Back at Foster’s apartment, he and Janna Wade [the sister of his copilot] have been talking and drinking. She tells his that she was told he’d cooked up the UFO story in order to cover his own incompetence and culpability in her brother’s death. He notes that the idea of UFOs being extraterrestrial in origin had been officially denied as far back as 1968, and that the reason for it is simple: “Let's say the authorities have proof, indisputable proof, that UFOs have come to Earth. What would be the result if it leaked out? Mass hysteria, terror, a break-down of authority. So, they issue a report, an official denial, and try to discredit anyone who claims to have seen one.” Janna says she believes him, and when Foster asks if she has her brother’s camera she says that Kofax, the Venture CEO, told her his effects were being held for security reasons. At that piece of information Foster heads out quickly and tells her to meet him tomorrow, nicely noting with a grin “Don't worry, everyone else thinks I'm a nut. I've got nothing to lose.”
That night Foster breaks into Kofax’s office – amusingly finding the keys to the safe in a folder labeled “SAFE” in a filing cabinet and saying “Kofax, you've got a mind like a steel trap.” Inside he finds the camera, some slides and an envelope – addressed to Ed Straker at the studio.
Straker is told that Foster broke into the office, and we cut back to Paul showing Janna the slides at his apartment. They’ve been doctored too, and though she suggests dropping it he refuses, and she leaves to get some papers he wanted. He settles in to watch the slides again, and as if on cue two goons bust in, ransack the apartment, and knock Paul out.
Janna returns, and though woozy Paul says he’s OK… and when she shows him the newspaper back issues she obtained, his injuries are forgotten. One headline is a story about the attack on the limo from the opening sequence of the series pilot, including the “miracle escape” of a certain American colonel.
With another reference to Straker, Paul’s next step is clear.
Straker gets a call that Paul Foster wants to see him, and instructs the secretary to tell him they’ll meet in the studio in an hour.
He sends the delectable Lt. Johnson to find Freeman, and goes to his briefcase and removes a gun. When Alec arrives he tells his he’s going to meet Foster, and when Freeman asks how much he knows, Straker replies “That's what I aim to find out.” When Alec asks if he intends to use the gun, and gets no reply as Straker gives him the conn and leaves, though we do see a great worried Alec face to end the scene.
Foster arrives at the office, and Miss Ealand directs him to the set. He finds the right area and walks along – and gets Straker’s gun placed to his head.
Straker introduces himself and shakes Foster’s hand, while calling for one of the construction crew. Paul asks him if the gun’s real, and by way of reply he fires three shots at the wall, and three bullet holes appear. After he approves a blueprint, Straker asks Foster what’s on his mind, and when Paul says UFOs he gets the cheery answer “Oh, good subject. Got a script?”
After a bridge sequence of Freeman anxiously inquiring from down below, we see Foster finishing the explanation of what he saw to a seemingly-amused Straker, who says though it’s a good story, “I'm in the film business. I suggest you tell that story to the police, the army, the marines.” He tries to give Foster the brushoff, forcing Paul to deal his trump card as Straker walks away and wonder how one get from Air Force colonel to film executive. We see Straker’s face harden slightly as he realizes a line has been crossed, but he reinitializes his smile and turns back to tell Foster he must have crossed his wires somewhere -- and then Paul pulls out the old newspaper clipping.
Straker says “Mister Foster, let's step into my office,” but leads him into an empty studio and ominously notes that it’s soundproof. As usual Paul cuts to the chase, saying “Look, ten years ago, you were a colonel in the air force. A degree in astrophysics, two years lunar research at MIT. A career officer. What happened?” When Straker says the accident made him change his outlook – and that it was a simple tire blowout – Paul angrily says he doesn’t buy it. Straker steps over to a nearby wind machine and turns it on as Foster continues to argue his case. “I saw a letter to you in his safe. Oh, that was innocent enough, but someone got at him! And then Jackson, from the military investigation team! What happened to the film, Straker?. The film that showed the proof, the film that cost my copilot his life? And then those two bright boys who came to my apartment to bust the place up. I suppose they were sent to frighten me off?”
Straker continues to taunt him about having no evidence, and Paul tells him “Look, I don't give up. I keep slinging mud until some of it sticks. You haven't heard the last of this, Mister Film-maker named Straker.” He storms off, but Straker flips a switch to lock the doors and follows Foster, gun drawn. He comes over and fires three shots into Paul’s chest – and nothing happens.
Straker smiles in amusement at a consternated Paul and throws him the pistol. “Things are not always what they seem, Mister Foster. An acoustic gun. Very clever. Place charges in the wall of a set, for example, load the gun with blanks, and when you fire it, the sound detonates the charges. Very realistic. You look surprised. I think we've got a few more surprises for you. Let's go.”
Straker takes him past a surprised Miss Ealand and down the rabbit-hole, asking him if as a test pilot, Foster is trained to expect the unexpected, and when Paul agrees he says “brace yourself.” When told this is the entrance to the headquarters of SHADO, his natural question about what that means is answered by the sign greeting him when he exit the elevator.
In Straker’s real office, Paul is introduced to Alec Freeman – and then, in sequence, his doctor from the hospital [the blindness was artificially induced to keep him on ice for a while], the ever-creepy Jackson and Lady D, the goons who roughed him up, Louis the construction manager – and even Ms. Wade, his copilot’s sister, who Straker describes as “the field leader of 'Project Foster’.” He also reveals that Paul’s apartment was bugged and plays back his own words to Janna about why things would have to be kept secret to avoid mass panic. Straker tells him “It's all been a test for you, Foster. You followed a predictable set of clues, you even showed a certain...initiative. But, basically, it was an inevitable chain that led you to the studio.”
Everyone else but Alec is dismissed, and Straker gets to the point himself. Foster obviously knows too much to ever go free, but there is one other option – join the team. “SHADO needs men. I'm talking about leaders, commanders, men able to captain the world's most advanced submarines, take control of Moonbase. The right men. Are you one, Foster? After the stiffest medical you've ever experienced? After weeks of computer and psychoanalytic tests? After a training course that will tear your guts out, you might be half-way there.”
Foster says he’d like to try, and Straker says he thought he would – and gives him what we all covet, his official SHADO ID card!
Freeman takes Foster off to the first day of the rest of his life, and we end with Straker barking commands into the phone and demanding action, as always.
------
This episode works as fan wish-fulfillment [what would it be like to be recruited into SHADO?] but goes beyond that to several wider issues.
The question of Foster being blackballed for saying he saw a UFO is a key one since it reflects the real situation so well. One of my uncles is a UFO true believer, and they always place a lot of stock in the reports of experienced pilots, who are both presumably better-equipped to judge what they’re seeing and strongly socialized NOT to say anything about it. It brings to mind the opening sequence of Close Encounters where we see airliners buzzed from the POV of the air traffic controllers and the pilots decline to file official UFO reports even though everyone knows what happened. It’s probably the most realistic part of the movie, and a similar sense informs Foster’s quest for the truth. He’s willing to lay it all on the line regardless of the consequences, partly to give meaning to Jim’s death but also because it’s just simply true, and that tells us a lot about him. The UFO wiki entry mentions that Foster was added to give the show a more-energetic second male lead than Alec Freeman was providing, and as much as I love George Sewell’s work I do think it was a good idea. The tiny bit with Straker’s blue coat was a nice moment showing the old-friend side of their relationship, and it also introduces the issue of the upper echelon’s responsibility to both run SHADO and keep Harlington-Straker Studios a going concern. And the exchange about Alec being the right man to get the launch times down shows that Straker does realize the limits of his hard-ass approach, that it’s not applicable to every situation. I wish Freeman and Foster had been together for the entire run, as they give Straker’s militant inflexibility a needed counterpoint of humanity in nicely contrasting flavors.
I like this episode a lot, but it does beg one disturbing question. What would have happened if Foster hadn’t been such a completely perfect candidate for SHADO recruitment? Straker obviously wouldn’t have personally shot him, but methinks Paul wouldn’t have been wandering around free – or above ground – for long if he hadn’t been a world-class test pilot and generally bright guy. What makes the sequence in the movie studio work – and it’s one of the very few which stuck with me for thirty years since seeing it as a kid -- is the fact that we truly believe Straker is more than capable of killing someone to keep SHADO’s secrets. He’s already proven willing to let people die to further the cause, and now we see he’s willing to actively get them out of the way. That belief remains unshaken by Foster’s recruitment, and in future episodes we will see further evidence, in searing detail, of the personal price Straker is willing to pay to keep Earth safe. He is deadly serious in every meaning of the term.
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This is one of the most important of the series’ early episodes, introducing a main character, the hirsutely hunky Paul Foster.
It also gives a nice glimpse of what happens when people accidentally see crucial UFO-related activities and the amnesia drug can’t be used because too much time has gone by. Will such an incident cost even an innocent person their life in the name of global security? We get some answers, though other questions remain.
------
“Exposed”
The day is winding down at Harlington-Straker Studios, and Miss Ealand calls down to ask the boss if she can leave. Straker says he was just leaving too, and as he gets ready to do so, the phone chirps and Freeman reports a possible sighting. SID calls a red alert, and Interceptors scramble after three UFOs, firing a brace of missiles for a blanket explosion. Two of the intruders are splashed but the third, though presumably damaged, gets through. Freeman is confident that Sky One can get it, but the situation is abruptly complicated as another aircraft moves into the target area.
It turns out to be an experimental test plane being flown for a private firm, at an altitude of 250,000 feet at over Mach 3 by two pilots.
Straker gets on the line to the company and tells them to have it change course or they’ll not have a plane to test. Skydiver gets into position and Sky One blasts off, but high above the test pilots have spotted the UFO and being taking pictures. They are ordered to break off but the pilot refuses as they investigate. Straker declines to call off the attack and says the test jet will just have to take its chances, and when Sky One takes out the UFO the jet is hit by the blast and goes down. The copilot blacks out and the pilot thrashes and fights for control.
We cut from the crashing plane to the pilot, Paul Foster, waking up in a hospital bed panicked because he can’t see.
The doctor comes in and assures him that the blindness is temporary, and tells him he ejected in the nick of time before the crash and that he’s been there six days. Foster asks what happened to his copilot Jim, and the doctor says he didn’t make it.
A nice cut to Foster holding a model of the plane they were flying, which pulls back to reveal him in the office of his company’s CEO. The boss praises Foster [and gives him a cigar
] as one of the best test pilots around but chillingly says “that was the past” and they need to consider his future, and suggests he take some time off and check back in a couple of months. Paul asks him where the film is from the camera Jim had and gets the run-around, and when he brings up his report the boss protests that he wrote it three days after coming out of six-day coma. When the boss notes the implausibility of the story, Foster tells him to just process the film – and he reluctantly admits both the plane and the film are in the hands of a military investigation team. Foster wants to talk to them, but the CEO protests that the military will “tear that story of yours to shreds” and his career will be ruined. Undeterred, Foster storms out of the office.Alec Freeman walks through SHADO Control to visit Straker [with a smile for a unitarded console hottie as always], and grins to see him in a dashing blue frock coat which he claims is “what any well-turned-out film executive would wear,” to which a smoking and smirking Freeman sardonically replies “you should have warned me.”
Straker mentions that he needs to spend more time upstairs to keep their studio cover.
Freeman gets down to business and tells Straker that General Henderson had called to say that Paul Foster wanted a hearing about what happened to his plane, and Alec aptly notes that he is “no pushover. He knows what he saw and he’s sticking to it.” Straker recalls the copilot was killed and seems unconcerned since whatever Foster says will be uncorroborated.
Cut to some shots of a really cool-looking jet, which proves to be a luxury executive model whose passengers include Paul Foster, the ever-creepy Dr. Jackson, and a female attendant with a distinctly Lady-Deathstrike air. Jackson notes their complete comfort, privacy, and security and muses “What more could you ask for?”, to which Paul naturally replies “the answers to a couple of questions.” His look around at the jet’s interior shows he is impressed by the luxury but not by the attempt to soften his queries, and Jackson calmly says “Try me.”
He asks where the film from his jet is, and is told the camera was not damaged – so he cuts right to the point and asks if he did or didn’t see a UFO. Jackson teases him and says “aren’t you sure?”, but when Paul tells him not to play games he says that he does believe Foster saw something. “At least that’s a start,” Foster says, and we get the distinct impression this is about as receptive as anyone has yet been on the subject. [If Dr. Jackson is your biggest encouragement, look out!
] Lady D comes in with coffee, and when she leaves Foster cuts to the chase, saying that he’s an experienced test pilot and he is convinced the craft he saw was extraterrestrial. Jackson has her run the film [Gee, they do have a copy? We’re shocked!] and naturally it shows nothing other than Sky One flying by, no sign of a UFO. Paul’s expression hardens as he realizes he’s been had and angrily asks “What have you done?”When Paul accuses him of altering the film, Jackson says “Why should I do that?”, and when Foster comes at him to “wipe that smile off your face” Lady D. proves my instincts correct and neatly grabs Paul in a headlock.
He struggles vainly and Jackson reminds him that things are not always what they seem, illustrating it with an interesting bit of dialogue. Tossing a pen in the air, he asks Foster if he saw it stop at the top of its trajectory before starting back down, and Foster says “if you say so,” to which Jackson replies “No Foster, it didn't. It's moving forward at five hundred knots, like everything else in this plane. And yet, then, this whole aircraft is moving with the rotation of the Earth. Confusing, but fact. But then, facts can be confusing in an aircraft at night at two hundred and fifty thousand feet.”
This leads to an exchange with Jackson where he gives alternative explanations for what Foster saw, with Paul getting increasingly angry. Jackson says he needs to write his report and asks to confirm some basic facts, including that he made previous UFO reports three years ago and two and a half years before that. Foster says yes, and Jackson ends the scene by laughingly noting that “Then we shouldn't be meeting again for another couple of years.”
We fade from the jet landing to Paul coming home and finding his apartment door unlocked. He bursts in and finds a woman waiting for him who says the janitor let her in. Foster proves he’s never one to miss an opportunity and grabs a bottle and offers her a drink, to which she replies “why did you murder my brother?” Paul is nonplussed.
Back at SHADO HQ, Straker and Freeman walk to his office discussing the report on the recent incident, and Straker tells Freeman to go to Moonbase to try to get the Interceptor launch time down to two minutes after a red alert call, saying “Drill them, flatter them, cajole them, whatever, but get those times down!” Alec asks where he should get his stick, and an amused Straker notes “that would be my way,” and then says “I'm sending you because you're the right man for the job.”
Freeman then asks about Foster, who Straker says is tough and persistent – and when Alec asks what they’ll do if he gets too close to the truth, the reply is chilling and to the point: “One man or the cover of a multi-billion dollar set up? What do you think?”
Back at Foster’s apartment, he and Janna Wade [the sister of his copilot] have been talking and drinking. She tells his that she was told he’d cooked up the UFO story in order to cover his own incompetence and culpability in her brother’s death. He notes that the idea of UFOs being extraterrestrial in origin had been officially denied as far back as 1968, and that the reason for it is simple: “Let's say the authorities have proof, indisputable proof, that UFOs have come to Earth. What would be the result if it leaked out? Mass hysteria, terror, a break-down of authority. So, they issue a report, an official denial, and try to discredit anyone who claims to have seen one.” Janna says she believes him, and when Foster asks if she has her brother’s camera she says that Kofax, the Venture CEO, told her his effects were being held for security reasons. At that piece of information Foster heads out quickly and tells her to meet him tomorrow, nicely noting with a grin “Don't worry, everyone else thinks I'm a nut. I've got nothing to lose.”
That night Foster breaks into Kofax’s office – amusingly finding the keys to the safe in a folder labeled “SAFE” in a filing cabinet and saying “Kofax, you've got a mind like a steel trap.” Inside he finds the camera, some slides and an envelope – addressed to Ed Straker at the studio.
Straker is told that Foster broke into the office, and we cut back to Paul showing Janna the slides at his apartment. They’ve been doctored too, and though she suggests dropping it he refuses, and she leaves to get some papers he wanted. He settles in to watch the slides again, and as if on cue two goons bust in, ransack the apartment, and knock Paul out.
Janna returns, and though woozy Paul says he’s OK… and when she shows him the newspaper back issues she obtained, his injuries are forgotten. One headline is a story about the attack on the limo from the opening sequence of the series pilot, including the “miracle escape” of a certain American colonel.
With another reference to Straker, Paul’s next step is clear.
Straker gets a call that Paul Foster wants to see him, and instructs the secretary to tell him they’ll meet in the studio in an hour.
He sends the delectable Lt. Johnson to find Freeman, and goes to his briefcase and removes a gun. When Alec arrives he tells his he’s going to meet Foster, and when Freeman asks how much he knows, Straker replies “That's what I aim to find out.” When Alec asks if he intends to use the gun, and gets no reply as Straker gives him the conn and leaves, though we do see a great worried Alec face to end the scene.
Foster arrives at the office, and Miss Ealand directs him to the set. He finds the right area and walks along – and gets Straker’s gun placed to his head.
Straker introduces himself and shakes Foster’s hand, while calling for one of the construction crew. Paul asks him if the gun’s real, and by way of reply he fires three shots at the wall, and three bullet holes appear. After he approves a blueprint, Straker asks Foster what’s on his mind, and when Paul says UFOs he gets the cheery answer “Oh, good subject. Got a script?”
After a bridge sequence of Freeman anxiously inquiring from down below, we see Foster finishing the explanation of what he saw to a seemingly-amused Straker, who says though it’s a good story, “I'm in the film business. I suggest you tell that story to the police, the army, the marines.” He tries to give Foster the brushoff, forcing Paul to deal his trump card as Straker walks away and wonder how one get from Air Force colonel to film executive. We see Straker’s face harden slightly as he realizes a line has been crossed, but he reinitializes his smile and turns back to tell Foster he must have crossed his wires somewhere -- and then Paul pulls out the old newspaper clipping.
Straker says “Mister Foster, let's step into my office,” but leads him into an empty studio and ominously notes that it’s soundproof. As usual Paul cuts to the chase, saying “Look, ten years ago, you were a colonel in the air force. A degree in astrophysics, two years lunar research at MIT. A career officer. What happened?” When Straker says the accident made him change his outlook – and that it was a simple tire blowout – Paul angrily says he doesn’t buy it. Straker steps over to a nearby wind machine and turns it on as Foster continues to argue his case. “I saw a letter to you in his safe. Oh, that was innocent enough, but someone got at him! And then Jackson, from the military investigation team! What happened to the film, Straker?. The film that showed the proof, the film that cost my copilot his life? And then those two bright boys who came to my apartment to bust the place up. I suppose they were sent to frighten me off?”
Straker continues to taunt him about having no evidence, and Paul tells him “Look, I don't give up. I keep slinging mud until some of it sticks. You haven't heard the last of this, Mister Film-maker named Straker.” He storms off, but Straker flips a switch to lock the doors and follows Foster, gun drawn. He comes over and fires three shots into Paul’s chest – and nothing happens.
Straker smiles in amusement at a consternated Paul and throws him the pistol. “Things are not always what they seem, Mister Foster. An acoustic gun. Very clever. Place charges in the wall of a set, for example, load the gun with blanks, and when you fire it, the sound detonates the charges. Very realistic. You look surprised. I think we've got a few more surprises for you. Let's go.”
Straker takes him past a surprised Miss Ealand and down the rabbit-hole, asking him if as a test pilot, Foster is trained to expect the unexpected, and when Paul agrees he says “brace yourself.” When told this is the entrance to the headquarters of SHADO, his natural question about what that means is answered by the sign greeting him when he exit the elevator.
In Straker’s real office, Paul is introduced to Alec Freeman – and then, in sequence, his doctor from the hospital [the blindness was artificially induced to keep him on ice for a while], the ever-creepy Jackson and Lady D, the goons who roughed him up, Louis the construction manager – and even Ms. Wade, his copilot’s sister, who Straker describes as “the field leader of 'Project Foster’.” He also reveals that Paul’s apartment was bugged and plays back his own words to Janna about why things would have to be kept secret to avoid mass panic. Straker tells him “It's all been a test for you, Foster. You followed a predictable set of clues, you even showed a certain...initiative. But, basically, it was an inevitable chain that led you to the studio.”
Everyone else but Alec is dismissed, and Straker gets to the point himself. Foster obviously knows too much to ever go free, but there is one other option – join the team. “SHADO needs men. I'm talking about leaders, commanders, men able to captain the world's most advanced submarines, take control of Moonbase. The right men. Are you one, Foster? After the stiffest medical you've ever experienced? After weeks of computer and psychoanalytic tests? After a training course that will tear your guts out, you might be half-way there.”
Foster says he’d like to try, and Straker says he thought he would – and gives him what we all covet, his official SHADO ID card!
Freeman takes Foster off to the first day of the rest of his life, and we end with Straker barking commands into the phone and demanding action, as always.
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This episode works as fan wish-fulfillment [what would it be like to be recruited into SHADO?] but goes beyond that to several wider issues.
The question of Foster being blackballed for saying he saw a UFO is a key one since it reflects the real situation so well. One of my uncles is a UFO true believer, and they always place a lot of stock in the reports of experienced pilots, who are both presumably better-equipped to judge what they’re seeing and strongly socialized NOT to say anything about it. It brings to mind the opening sequence of Close Encounters where we see airliners buzzed from the POV of the air traffic controllers and the pilots decline to file official UFO reports even though everyone knows what happened. It’s probably the most realistic part of the movie, and a similar sense informs Foster’s quest for the truth. He’s willing to lay it all on the line regardless of the consequences, partly to give meaning to Jim’s death but also because it’s just simply true, and that tells us a lot about him. The UFO wiki entry mentions that Foster was added to give the show a more-energetic second male lead than Alec Freeman was providing, and as much as I love George Sewell’s work I do think it was a good idea. The tiny bit with Straker’s blue coat was a nice moment showing the old-friend side of their relationship, and it also introduces the issue of the upper echelon’s responsibility to both run SHADO and keep Harlington-Straker Studios a going concern. And the exchange about Alec being the right man to get the launch times down shows that Straker does realize the limits of his hard-ass approach, that it’s not applicable to every situation. I wish Freeman and Foster had been together for the entire run, as they give Straker’s militant inflexibility a needed counterpoint of humanity in nicely contrasting flavors.
I like this episode a lot, but it does beg one disturbing question. What would have happened if Foster hadn’t been such a completely perfect candidate for SHADO recruitment? Straker obviously wouldn’t have personally shot him, but methinks Paul wouldn’t have been wandering around free – or above ground – for long if he hadn’t been a world-class test pilot and generally bright guy. What makes the sequence in the movie studio work – and it’s one of the very few which stuck with me for thirty years since seeing it as a kid -- is the fact that we truly believe Straker is more than capable of killing someone to keep SHADO’s secrets. He’s already proven willing to let people die to further the cause, and now we see he’s willing to actively get them out of the way. That belief remains unshaken by Foster’s recruitment, and in future episodes we will see further evidence, in searing detail, of the personal price Straker is willing to pay to keep Earth safe. He is deadly serious in every meaning of the term.
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Great review Klaus.
This episode was an interesting setup for the character of Paul Foster. So many times when a character is added to a show like this, they just suddenly appear with little to no backstory.
I always liked Vladek Sheybal (Dr. Jackson). He had a really sinister look. He had a kind of hypnotic voice that really makes you pay attention to what he's saying.
This episode was an interesting setup for the character of Paul Foster. So many times when a character is added to a show like this, they just suddenly appear with little to no backstory.
I always liked Vladek Sheybal (Dr. Jackson). He had a really sinister look. He had a kind of hypnotic voice that really makes you pay attention to what he's saying.
ty! Yes, I agree that it's nice to get that much backstory on a new addition... I love Foster, and it was really funny to see his head on a swivel watching the SHADO hotties when he and Straker were walking through HQ ... in the future we'll see him partying down too.
... in the future we'll see him partying down too.
When I first saw this picture I thought it was Julian McMahon.
WOW, Klaus! What tremendous reviews you give!
I adored the amazing ships on this show when I was 7, but all the "talking parts" just bored me, so I really didn't understand what was going on.
I noticed that the lending library at my Science Fiction club (LASFS) had the DVDs, so I jumped at the chance to revisit this, but preparing myself for disappointment.
I needn't have worried — my jaw was on the floor the entire time.
Looking at it through adult eyes, I can't get over the high quality of the acting, writing, set design, miniature work, shot composition, etc.
Definitely NOT a "kiddie show"!
And now your reviews are pointing out even MORE levels to appreciate.
Thank you, Kind Sir!
I adored the amazing ships on this show when I was 7, but all the "talking parts" just bored me, so I really didn't understand what was going on.
I noticed that the lending library at my Science Fiction club (LASFS) had the DVDs, so I jumped at the chance to revisit this, but preparing myself for disappointment.
I needn't have worried — my jaw was on the floor the entire time.
Looking at it through adult eyes, I can't get over the high quality of the acting, writing, set design, miniature work, shot composition, etc.
Definitely NOT a "kiddie show"!
And now your reviews are pointing out even MORE levels to appreciate.
Thank you, Kind Sir!
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