Conference noted::sf

    Jim,
    
    I hope this will answer your questions.  The series you're refering
    to was a British commercial (as opposed to BBC) TV series from about
    1972-73.  There must have been a few dozen of them made.  The British
    title was "UFO", and it stars Ed Bishop as Cmdr. Straker, Gabrielle
    Drake as the Moon base commander and others like Wanda Ventham and
    George Sewell. It was reshown on British TV fairly recently, which
    is when I first came across it.  When originally screened, it was
    shown on Sunday afternoon at about 1 or 2 o'clock, closely followed
    by the soccer.
    
    I hope that helps.
    
    Michelle Allen
    

    
    Where's Theo de Klerk?  He could probably read us chapter and verse
    on this, since it's a Gerry Anderson production.  See the Thunderbirds
    note.
    
    I watched the thing on WHLL last night too.  If I had to guess,
    I'd say it was a bunch of episodes, including the pilot, from the
    old series edited together by someone.  And not all that well, I'm
    afraid.  Lots of discontinuity and loose ends.  For example, at
    one point it looks like Lt. Ellis is going to catch hell when a
    UFO crashes into an interceptor, but nothing ever comes of it. 
    Also, in the climactic scene, the satellite SID is hit by an incoming
    UFO attack, and nothing is ever done about that either.  I remember
    the last scene as being the inciting incident of a whole episode.
    
    DFW

    I watched this as a kid back in the 70's and absolutely loved it.
    Not sure how it would stand up today.
    
    From what I understand, this was set in the SPACE:1999 universe
    and the SHADO base on the moon eventually became Moonbase Alpha.
    
    				=ELB=

    UFO was the Anderson's first live-action show, and was produced
    in 1969. There were 26 episodes in all. There was supposed to
    be a "second season" (or "series", as they say in Britain), but
    it ended up being transmogrified into SPACE: 1999.
    
    --- jerry

    I'll not forget the opening episode, where the girl on the moonbase
    (to the tune of staccato background music), having been asked for
    a date, strides briskly to her room and changes her outer-outerwear
    before returning to the man who asked her out.  It looked like her
    "changing room" was in plain view.
    
    It was a very juvenile series, rife with inconsistencies.  (How
    does instrumentation restricted to the speed of light detect something
    coming in at multiples of the speed of light? for starters.)  Nobody
    ever explained how the super_hi-tech aliens _allowed_ a defense
    force to be built up....
    
    Oh, it was no sillier than _V_, I suppose; but that's not saying
    much....
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

      Now the way I remember SPACE:1999 was that it was a moonbase of
     that era that because of the big Nuke war on earth left them alone
    on the moon. And unable to go to earth because of the radiation.
    Unless I'm missing something this story does not go with what I
    read in the previous notes. To story change from a moonbase that
    hunts aliens to a moonbase that is stranded is one hell of a change.

    They are different shows.  
    
    Space 1999 involved an outpost on the moom that was storing nuclear
    wastes on the other side of the moon for Earth.  The wastes exploded
    and blasted the moon on a meadering voyage through known and unknown
    space.  
    
    The other show (title escapes me) involved a military base on the
    moon to defend earth from alien invaders.  
                                    
    			Hope this makes sense,
    				DanF

    Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons???
    
    /Bevin

    As I remember, didn't they pronounce UFO phonetically? (eg: "you-foe")
    jim
    

    From some fanzine someplace I remember an explanation on SHADO and
    the moonbase from SPACE:1999. SHADO was a secret base on the darkside
    and moonbase alpha was a public research center and nuclear dump
    site. Both exist at the same time in the live action Gerry Anderson
    universe.
    
    I believe that the comment about UFO being juvenile is well founded.
    When the show came over to the US, I know I had a UFO lunchbox.
    Got all sorts of kidding from the other second grade boys because
    of the picture of a woman in the form fitting uniform on one side.

    No, I think that the SHADO base existed before the Space:1999 base. I
    seem to remember that in the opening credits of UFO they flashed "1984"
    up on the screen.  My guess is that the aliens just stopped coming, and
    they converted the base into Moonbase Alpha. 
    
    				=ELB=

    I don't recall any connection between "UFO" and "Space:1999" except
    that both were juvenile, and didn't hold up very well.
    
    "UFO" quickly fell into a pattern of invaders trying to get past
    the Moon and satellite defenses to drop off aliens on Earth. Mostly,
    they got creamed. Once in a while, a few aliens would make it. Their
    purpose seemed to be to work their way into SHADO headquarters and
    bump off Cmdr. Straker. More's the pity, they usually failed. There
    were a couple of attempts to make the show "relevant" or mature,
    e.g., I think Straker was divorced, and every once in a while, an
    alien would knock off a significant character. For the most part,
    though, it was strictly cookie cutter adventure with space ships,
    abbreviated costumes and purple or green dyed hair.
    
    "Space: 1999" rapidly deteriorated into a sort of fantasy. They
    went through various star gates or black holes, careened all over
    the galaxy (or was it the universe?), and always ran into aliens
    who spoke English. At least "Star Trek" had the decency to get around
    this problem with a universal translator device, and had allowed
    humans to spread themselves around the galaxy for some time before
    Kirk & Co. came on the scene. "Space: 1999" was just inept after
    the initial show, and kept reaching harder and harder for story
    lines.
    
    - Richard

    Re .12 (Richard):
    
    >purpose seemed to be to work their way into SHADO headquarters and
    >bump off Cmdr. Straker. More's the pity, they usually failed. ...
     
    I didn't watch the show more than the first couple of episodes.
    How many times _did_ they manage to bump off Cmdr. Straker? :-)   
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    I remeber watching U.F.O (as it was called) in New Zealand as a
    kid.
    
    I thought it was ok back then, but of course your tastes change
    as you get older, though of course the female staff on Moonbase
    were something of an eye-catcher too (clothes, makeup wigs etc).
    
    However by the time 'Space 1999' rolled along I'd grown up a bit and
    never particularly liked the show. Id addition I'd become a fairly
    keen 'Star Trek' fan. I happened to catch an episode of 'Space 1999'
    on TV a few weeks ago, and did I revise my estimates of the show:
    
    	right down to sub-basement level.
    
    The episode I saw had them being threatened by a giant 'space brain'
    (groan !).
    
    Needless to say I will not be wasting my time again wathcing that
    show. However I probably would spend some time watching 'U.F.O.',
    probably mainly because of nostalgia.
    
    Mike
    
    re: one of the preceeding notes mentioning 'V'. I thought it started
    of with some merit, but alas as with 99.9% of TV show rapdily
    deteriated, looking for decent plots etc. 

 Re .2:

   Well, it took me a while but it's a giant leap from BOMBE::TV note 68.*
   (Thunderbirds) via YUPPY::LONDON via TRIVIA to this note. I thought
   THUNDERBIDS et al is a typical TV topic - hence I never looked beyond
   that notesfile.

   Anyway. To put some records straight.

   "Invasion UFO" is indeed an "Americanized" version of ITC NY to sell
   some 50 minutes UFO (pronounced indeed as You Ef Oh) episodes into
   a mini series to cash in again on the series. I don't think it worked.
   In the same batch were 3 "minis" on Thunderbirds, 2 on Stingray, 2
   on Scarlet and 3 on Space 1999. The least worst multilation was cutting
   episodes front-to-end. The worst are those of Stingray and Thunderbirds
   where ITC found it necessary to superimpose some awful laser ray effects
   on top of the films. And added relentless music all the way through.
   As you can see, I'm much of a purist if it comes to Gerry Anderson
   stuff.

   Now...

   UFO was made in the 1969-71 era and showed shortly afterwards. Some of
   the hardware was also used in Doppelg�nger (known as Journey to the Far
   Side of the Sun - available in HiFi stereo VHS on NTSC format).
   It was Gerry's first attempt in a full life-action series after a
   half/half attempt with the final puppet series Secret Service (hardly
   shown anywhere but the UK).

   It has 26 episodes (2 seasons of 13). Episode guides available through
   e.g. Starlog, where my friend David Hirsch did several articles on it.
   Everything was scheduled for UFO Season 3 but Lew Grade of ITC decided
   he needed something else - something that would never look back at
   Earth again. And so came Space 1999. In my opinion a dreadful series,
   an attempt to copy Star Trek with the Moon as the USS Enterprise. The
   story lines are unbelievable. The 2nd season could only be made when
   Freddy Feinberger would finance it. As American, he suggested several
   "improvements". American flavouring of European series normally never
   works. If anything, it makes matters worse (the Avengers fortunately
   died before the US got a chance to ruin it...). So series 2 suddenly
   had Aliens (Maya) that could do any trick to escape any predicament.
   I could do with some of those capabilities but it makes stories very
   unbelievable and without excitement: she'd snap her fingers and....
   with a spoonful of sugar the world went round!

   UFO has had a rerun in the UK in the "Late Night Late" show and a
   tremendously succesful UFOria convention in London last summer. It was
   a big hit and many people appreciated the series more than when it
   came out originally.

   There is much to say to inconsistency of series. However, SHADO (
   the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization) never spotted
   UFOs beyond light speed. The UFOs were traveling below "1 c" when
   approaching Earth or Moon and were then spotted.

   What I never understood is why those Interceptors only had one big
   bomb attached to their nose and were defenseless once it was fired.

   Still. I enjoyed it and still do. As I do its music. The title theme,
   btw, is available through the Gerry Anderson fanclub (Fanderson).
   There are now 2 mini-EPs (CDs are a bit expensive yet) with Barry Gray
   music not released on commercials records (including UFO, Thunderbird
   Six, Secret Service...)

   Right. I'm back in BOMBE::TV Note 68.*

   Theo   

From: [email protected] (Chad Fogg)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.tv
Subject: UFO (Re: SF TV SHOWS: SPACE 1999 and THE STARLOST)
Date: 14 Jun 89 01:51:46 GMT
Organization: Univ of Washington, Seattle
 
    I called ITC Entertainment in LA to obtain information on items
from the British TV series UFO. They gave me an address to contact.  I
sent a letter a month ago and haven't received a reply as of yet. 
 
    The address:  Private collectors interested in obtaining Gerry
Anderson items are asked to contact: 
 
                                  Jim Jamarrow
                               J-2 Communication
                              10850 Wilshire Blvd
                                   Suite 1000
                                  LA, CA 90024 
 
    Here's the introduction of UFO from an episode guide I have in
ASCII.  I also have one on Space_1999: 
 
    Gerry Anderson's
    UFO
 
    PREMISE:

         In the late 1960s, the United States government issued a report
    officially denying the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects.  The
    government agency designed to look into the phenomenon, Project Blue
    Book, was also closed down and people were led to believe that (as far
    as the government was concerned) UFOs had not come to Earth.

         The format of the television series takes this occurrence as a
    cover-up by the government in an attempt to hide the fact that we were
    not only visited by creatures from space, but brutally attacked.  Their
    reasoning was that mass hysteria and panic would result if the common
    man discovered that his world was being invaded by extraterrestrial s.
    So, in secret, the major governments of the world created SHADO --
    Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defense Organization.  From it's center of
    operations hidden beneath a film studio (where bizarre comings and
    goings would remain commonplace), SHADO commands a fleet of submarines
    (armed with sea-to-air strike craft), aircraft, land vehicles,
    satellites and a base on the Moon.
 
    MAJOR CHARACTERS:
    [omitted]
 
    ABOUT THE SHOW:

         This series was Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's first live action
    television program after 12 successful years doing puppet series like
    Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds (see Vol.  1).  Not only did UFO
    feature the glossy special effects that have become a trademark of the
    Anderson's, but an incredibly realistic portrayal of the world of the
    1980s. Filmed in 1969, the Anderson's guessed that the basic change in
    the look of the world would be in the form of fashion.  Sylvia
    Anderson's team of designers created new and exciting costumes for the
    civilian characters (as well as SHADO personnel during off-duty hours).
    Adding to this, Derek Meddings, supervising director of special
    effects, designed a set of cars and jeeps of futuristic design to help
    jazz up the live action exteriors.

         Despite a successful first season and requests for additional 24
    episodes, however, ITC Entertainment had the entire series revamped and
    eventually, the second season of UFO was transformed into Space: 1999.

INTERNET,BITNET:  [email protected]   DECNET:  max::cfogg
UUCP:             cfogg%blake.acs.washington.edu@uw-beaver

        "When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic."

                        - John Kenneth Galbraith

    From an old episode of "STARLOG" Magazine, there *is* something
    of a foreshadowing statement by writer Howard Zimmerman as to a
    possible connection between the two Gerry Anderson shows:
    
    "Before the moon was blasted out of orbit and sending hurtling through
     deep space in the year 1999, the Earth fought a desperate SECRET
     war. That crucial, quiet struggle took place in the mid 1980's
     and apparently was successful for our planet. Commander John Koenig
     of Moonbase Alpha owes a big debt to Commander Ed Straker of SHADO
     for his ONE-YEAR WAR with Invading alien forces."
    
    So, there's something, at least. I vaguely remember the show growing
    up, but I'd love to see it again, if somebody has it on video to
    lend. You can reach me by e-mail. I also have a complete "UFO" episode
    guide available on-line if anybody would like it (titles only, no
    descriptions). 
    
    Be Seeing You.....whoops.....wrong show...;-) ;-)

From:	US1RMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 29-AUG-1994 23:03:08.74
To:	Multiple recipients of list NEW-LIST <[email protected]>
CC:	
Subj:	NEW: FAB-UFO - The UFO TV Series Mailing List

  FAB-UFO on [email protected]   The UFO TV Series Mailing List

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