Monday, May 26, 2014

Television and Cinema Verities: Gerry Anderson's UFO


"The final episodes were very fast moving. The acting, the dialogue, the cutting were all a lot quicker and the storylines much stronger. They stretched the brain buds a lot more with time warps and such. We got away from being stuck on Moonbase with guys scrambling down the laundry chutes each week. We got out of the studio a lot more and on location. The storylines were into the more mind-bending aspects of science-fiction, which I do enjoy watching whenever I do go to science-fiction films, which isn't a great deal."

2 comments:

  1. I used to love "UFO". I recall watching it on public television when I was in my single digits. I've considered buying the series on DVD but I'm concerned that I'll be underwhelmed by the models and miniatures. I know that Gerry Anderson is a master with these effects but I have never really gotten into his programs. But I do remember UFO being one of my fondest childhood TV watching memories. My biggest concern will be just what Ed Bishop states, "guys scrambling down laundry chutes".

    I also just set myself a note to try and watch "Journey To the Far Side of the Sun" also. I've never tried Space:1999, either.

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  2. Memories are often best left as memories, of course, but UFO is even more enjoyable when viewed through adult eyes. It has a richness of character and darkness of soul, more often than not. I highly recommend you try it again. Yes, the series was not meant to last long; it works today because it was a limited run program. Interceptors launching and intercepting "U-FOs" gets bloody tiring, in and of itself.

    You never saw Space: 1999 as a little one, so you would be crashing in with adult eyes; from today. I liked it, more of less, when it first ran -- I was fourteen -- but I had not seen it for years. About six years ago I bought the "Mega Set" of the series and re-explored. I was taken aback by how much more crude and basic it was than my memory of it: Lots of episodes with curtain backdrops, and foam-core-looking control panels. The models are generally good (that was Anderson and Co's main bag, after all), if overused, and the stories are often not well thought out; they were at their best when they were plain weird. I should say that I do like the series -- it's its own thing.

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