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| Ed Bishop in UFO |
During the late 1950s and on through much of the 1960s, the husband-and-wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson created some of the most exciting children's shows on television, including Stingray, Fireball XL-5 and Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons. These series all featured top notch puppet and model work, and exciting action sequences. The Anderson series from this period that most US viewers remember is Thunderbirds, about a team of adventurers who rescued people in peril all around the world. By the late 1960s, the Andersons decided to branch out into live-action, and they produced a film called Doppelganger, aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, starring Roy Thinnes as an astronaut who returns from a spaceflight only to find he's landed, not on Earth, but on a parallel version of our world.
Their next project was UFO, a science-fiction adventure series about a
secret organization called SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization) battling alien invaders
who are visiting our planet for nefarious purposes, including stealing
our organs to prolong their lives. The series
starred Ed Bishop (who'd done voice work for the Andersons), George
Sewell, Gabrielle Drake and Michael Billington. Bishop played Ed
Straker, the head of SHADO, who commanded the group's forces on Earth
(which were hidden beneath a movie studio) as well as their base
located on the moon. UFO is fondly remembered by fans of a certain age
for the excellent special effects by Derek Meddings, some groovy 1970s style
fashions (designed by Sylvia Anderson) and the very cool theme music,
provided by Barry Gray, a frequent contributor to projects produced by the Andersons.
The show was aimed at a more adult audience than previous Anderson
efforts like Fireball XL-5, and was considerably darker in tone. Several episodes dealt not only with the ongoing conflict with the
alien invaders, but focused on the personal lives of the SHADO
crew, and the toll their job took on their personal lives. For example,
the episode "A Question of Priorities" highlights a pivotal moment in
Straker's life, as he makes a difficult choice between his family and his work at SHADO. Other entries dealt
with ESP, corporate espionage and even a murder plot which was interrupted by the arrival of an alien. The cast was uniformly
excellent, and featured several familiar faces in guest roles,
including Jane Merrow, Jean Marsh and Lois Maxwell.
The series aired in England in 1970 and was syndicated in the US in
1972. While initial ratings in the States were strong, they dropped off
towards the end of the run, which ended plans for a second season
of the show. Originally, the new season would
have mostly featured episodes set on SHADO's moonbase. Gerry Anderson
re-worked this concept into what later became Space:1999, starring Martin
Landau and Barbara Bain. UFO has aired throughout the years in
syndication and on cable stations. Invasion: UFO, a 1980 film
compiled from several episodes, was released overseas in cinemas and on
cable in the US. UFO has also been issued on various home video
formats, most recently on Blu-ray from Imprint Films. Here's a trailer
for that release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap2e-_bQ918. If you're a fan of 1970s sci-fi, or Gerry Anderson's other series, UFO is definitely work a look.
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