UFO - UNSTOPPABLE CARDS SERIES TWO - TESSA WYATT as Catherine Frazer - VERY LIMITED Autograph Card TW3 - Green Ink Variant
Tessa Wyatt (born 23 April 1948) is an English actress who first came to the public spotlight through her marriage to Tony Blackburn. She later starred in the sitcom Robin's Nest.
Wyatt was born in Woking, Surrey, in 1948 and attended Elmhurst Ballet School and was encouraged to act by her maternal grandmother. She got her first professional job, aged 12, in a television programme featuring Richard Hearne's Mr Pastry character and soon after she gained an agent. Other early television appearances included parts in Z-Cars, The Wednesday Play, Public Eye, Callan, Dixon of Dock Green, Doctor at Large, Play for Today, UFO and The Goodies. Her few film appearances included Wedding Night (1970), the cult horror film The Beast in the Cellar (1970), England Made Me (1973) opposite Peter Finch, and Spy Story (1976).
In 1972 Tessa Wyatt married Tony Blackburn, the radio DJ, but the couple divorced in 1977 after five years, having had a son. Blackburn was left devastated by the breakup of their marriage, and would plead on air for her return (this was later parodied in Smashie and Nicey: The End of an Era). By curious coincidence, Wyatt had played a character called Judy Blackburn in the episode The Comedian's Graveyard in the 1969 series of Public Eye.
From 1977 to 1981, Tessa Wyatt played Vicky Nicholls, later Tripp, in the ITV sitcom Robin's Nest, a spin-off from the successful sitcom Man About the House. Her on-screen boyfriend and later husband Robin Tripp was played by Richard O'Sullivan. Wyatt and O'Sullivan were a couple for seven years from 1978 and had one son. Following Robin's Nest, Wyatt appeared in Return of the Saint, Boon and 2point4 Children.
Wyatt married property developer Bill Harkness at Hammersmith Register Office in 1986, and they have two children. Wyatt was part of the original cast of the Channel Five soap opera Family Affairs playing Samantha Cockerill. Since 2000 she has also appeared in Casualty and Doctors. She appeared in the fifth series of Peep Show as Jeremy's mother and recently was Tom's love interest in one episode of The Old Guys opposite Roger Lloyd-Pack and Clive Swift. In 2013, she joined the cast of EastEnders, playing Betty Spragg. Tessa made a second appearance in the BBC series Doctors on 19 May 2015 alongside George Layton another sitcom stalwart from the 1970s.
UFO
is a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien
invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with
Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21
Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.
UFO
was first broadcast in the UK and Canada in 1970 and in US
syndication over the next two years. In all, 26 episodes, including
the pilot, were filmed over the course of more than a year, with a
five-month production break caused by the closure of the MGM-British
Studios in Borehamwood, where the show was initially made.
The
Andersons had previously made a number of very successful children's
science fiction series using marionettes, including Supercar,
Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the
Mysterons and Joe 90. They had also made one live-action science
fiction movie, Doppelgänger, also known as Journey to the Far Side
of the Sun, and now felt ready to move into live-action television
and aim at a more adult market.
UFO was the
Andersons' first totally live-action TV series. Despite the
assumption of many TV station executives, the series was not aimed at
children but was intended for an older audience; many episodes
featured adult themes such as adultery, divorce, and drug use. Most
of the cast were newcomers to Century 21 although star Ed Bishop had
previously worked with the Andersons as a voice actor on Captain
Scarlet and The Mysterons.
The show's basic premise
is that in 1980 (a date indicated in the opening credits), Earth is
being visited and attacked by aliens from a dying planet and humans
are being covertly harvested for their organs by the aliens. The
show's main cast of characters are members of a secret,
high-technology international agency called SHADO (an acronym for
Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation) established to
defend Earth and humanity against the mysterious aliens and learn
more about them, while at the same time keeping the threat of an
alien invasion hidden from the public. UFOs:
The
extraterrestrial spacecraft can readily cross the vast distances
between their planet and Earth at many times the speed of light
(abbreviated and pronounced as "SOL"; e.g., "SOL one
decimal seven" is 1.7 times the speed of light), but are too
small to carry more than a few crew members. Their time on station is
limited: UFOs can only survive for a couple of days in Earth's
atmosphere before they deteriorate and finally explode. The UFOs can
survive for far longer underwater; one episode, "Reflections in
the Water", deals with the discovery of a secret undersea alien
base, which shows one UFO flying straight out of an extinct volcano,
which Straker describes as "a back door to the Atlantic". A
special underwater version of the standard UFO design is seen in "Sub
Smash". In flight they are surrounded by horizontally spinning
vanes and emit a distinctive pulsing electronic whine that sounds
like a Shoooe-Wheeeh! (produced by series composer Barry Gray on an
ondes Martenot). The craft is armed with a laser-type weapon, and
conventional explosive warheads can destroy it. The personal arms of
the aliens resemble shiny metal submachine guns; these have a lower
rate of fire than those used by SHADO. Later episodes such as "The
Cat with Ten Lives" show the aliens using other weapons, such as
a small device that paralyses victims.
Aliens:
Notably for science fiction, the alien race is
never given a proper name, either by themselves or by human beings;
they are simply referred to as "the aliens". They are
humanoid in appearance, and the autopsy of the first alien captured
reveals that they are harvesting organs from the bodies of abducted
humans to prolong their lifespans. However, the later episode "The
Cat with Ten Lives" suggests that these "humanoids"
are actually beings subject to alien mind control, and one "alien"
body recovered was suspected of being completely homo sapiens,
"possessed" by one of the alien minds. Their faces are
stained green by the hue of a green oxygenated liquid, which is
believed to cushion their lungs against the extreme acceleration of
interstellar flight; this liquid is contained in their helmets. To
protect their eyes the aliens wear opaque sclera contact lenses with
small pinholes for vision. The show's opening sequence begins by
showing the image of one of these contact lenses being removed from
an obviously real eye with a small suction cup, even though the lens
is not shown in contact with the eye. The entire lens-removal
sequence is shown in the pilot episode.
Only two of
the alien suits were made, so at no point in the series are more than
two of the aliens seen on screen at any one time. In the episode
"Ordeal", Paul Foster is carried by two aliens while he is
wearing an alien space suit, but one of those two aliens is always
off-screen when Foster is on-screen.
The alien
spacesuit costumes were made of red spandex. At the start of
production the alien spacesuits were ornamented with brass chain
mesh, as seen in the episode "Survival". Later this was
replaced by silvery panels as in the image. In reality, the dark
vertical bands on the sides of the helmets were slits meant to allow
the actors to breathe.
SHADO:
To
defend against the aliens, a secret organisation called SHADO, the
Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation, is established.
Operating under the cover (as well as under the premises) of the
Harlington-Straker Studios movie studio in England, SHADO is headed
by Commander Edward Straker (Ed Bishop), a former United States Air
Force colonel and astronaut, who poses as the studio's chief
executive.
Establishing the main character as a
studio executive was a cost-saving move by the producers: the studio
was the actual studio where the series was being filmed, originally
the MGM-British Studios and later Pinewood Studios – although the
Harlington-Straker studio office block seen throughout the series was
actually Neptune House, a building at the former British National
Studios in Borehamwood that was owned by ATV. Pinewood's studio
buildings and streetscapes were used extensively in later episodes,
particularly "Timelash" and "Mindbender", the
latter featuring scenes that showed the behind-the-scenes workings of
the UFO sets when Straker briefly finds himself hallucinating that he
is an actor on a TV series and all his SHADO colleagues are likewise
actors. In "The Man Who Came Back", the main set for The
Devils, then in production at Pinewood, can be seen in the background
of several scenes.
Typical of Anderson productions,
the studio-as-cover idea was both practical and cost-effective for
the production and provided a ready-made vehicle for the viewer's
suspension of disbelief. It removed the need to build an expensive
exterior set for the SHADO base and combined the all-important
"secret" cover (concealment and secrecy are always central
themes in Anderson dramas) with the trademark ring of at least
nominal plausibility. A studio was a business where unusual events
and routines would not be remarkable or even noticed. Comings and
goings at odd times, the movement of vehicles, equipment, people and
material would not create undue interest and could easily be
explained away as sets, props, or extras.
Another
Anderson leitmotif was the concept of the mechanical conveyor, e.g.
the automatic boarding tubes of the Stingray and the Thunderbird
craft. In UFO, this appeared in the guise of Straker's "secret"
office, which doubled as a lift (elevator) that takes him down to the
SHADO control centre located beneath the studio. The pilots of the
space interceptors and the submersible "Sky One" jet
interceptor slide down boarding chutes into their craft. The
interceptors then rise from their hangar via elevating platforms to a
launch pad disguised as a lunar crater. This was a carry-over from
the earlier marionette series where it was used due to the difficulty
in getting puppets to walk and get them into cockpits.
SHADO
equipment:
SHADO has a variety of high-tech
hardware and vehicles at its disposal to implement a layered defence
of Earth. Early warnings of alien attack would come from SID, the
Space Intruder Detector, a computerised tracking satellite that
constantly scans for UFO incursions. The forward line of defence is
Moonbase from which the three Lunar Interceptor spacecraft, carrying
nuclear missiles, are launched. The second line of defence includes
Skydiver, a submarine mated with the submersible, undersea-launched
Sky One interceptor aircraft, which attacks UFOs in Earth's
atmosphere. The last line of defence are ground units including the
armed, IFV-like SHADO Mobiles, fitted with caterpillar tracks.
On
earth, SHADO also uses a Shadair supersonic jet (e.g., in episode
"Identified"), a transatlantic Transporter with a
separating Lunar Module (e.g., in episode "Computer Affair"),
a Helicopter (actually, a small VTOL aeroplane with large rotating
propellers, in episode "Ordeal"), and a Radio-controlled
(Space) Dumper (e.g., in episode "The Long Sleep"). Also,
the Moonbase has hovercraft that can be deployed for transportation
or reconnaissance.
Special effects, as in all
Anderson's marionette shows, were supervised by Derek Meddings, while
the vehicles were designed by Meddings and his assistant, Michael
Trim.
Stories:
The show's concept
was unusually dark for its time: the basic premise was that Earth had
not simply been visited by extraterrestrial visitors, but indeed was
under brutal alien attack, and that alien invaders were abducting
humans to use as involuntary organ transplant donors. A later
episode, "The Cat With Ten Lives", contains a sinister plot
point which suggests that the UFO pilots are not humanoid aliens at
all, but are in fact human abductees under the control of the alien
intelligences, suggesting that, as in Captain Scarlet, the aliens, in
the words of the character Dr Jackson, "may have no physical
being at all and therefore need a container, a vehicle – our
bodies".
The show also featured realistic,
believable relationships between the human characters to a far
greater extent than usual in a typical science fiction series of the
time, showing the clear influence of American programmes like The
Twilight Zone and Star Trek and British action series such as Danger
Man. One early episode, "Computer Affair", suggested an
interracial romance between two continuing characters – something
that was uncommon in British TV of the period – while others showed
the heroes making mistakes with sometimes fatal consequences.
Furthermore, relatively few episodes of the series actually had happy
or (for the characters) satisfying endings.
The
episode "Confetti Check A-OK" is almost entirely devoted to
the breakdown of Straker's marriage under the strain of maintaining
the secrecy of the classified nature of his duties. "A Question
of Priorities" takes this exploration further, and hinges on
Straker having to make the life-or-death choice of whether to divert
a SHADO aircraft to deliver life-saving medical supplies to his
critically injured son, or allow the aircraft to continue on its
mission to attempt a last-chance intercept against an incoming UFO.
Two key images from "A Question of Priorities" –
Straker's son being struck down and his ex-wife declaring she never
wants to see him again – are repeated in flashback in two
subsequent episodes, "Sub Smash" and "Mindbender",
suggesting that Straker remains haunted by these unresolved emotional
issues.
Another episode, "The Square
Triangle", centres on a woman and her lover who plan to murder
her husband. When they accidentally kill an alien from a downed UFO
instead, SHADO intervenes and doses the guilty pair with amnesia
drugs. (This was decades ahead of a similar story device in Men in
Black, and it was one that was deployed for similar reasons.) Straker
realises, however, that the drugs will not affect their basic
motivation and, worse, he cannot reveal the truth to local legal
authorities. The end credits of this episode run over a scene set in
the near future, showing the woman visiting her husband's grave and
then walking away to meet her lover.
Some critics
complained that the emphasis on down-to-earth relationships weakened
the show's science fiction premise and were also a means of saving
money on special effects. The money-saving argument might have been
true to a limited extent, but the Andersons made a virtue of
necessity. They had always hoped to direct live-action TV drama, and
although the marionette shows helped them develop impressive skills
in effects and scripting, they had always considered them as
essentially being a way of keeping in work and earning money while
they tried to break into "real" TV drama. Others countered
that the characters were more well-rounded than in other science
fiction shows and that science fiction concepts and special effects
in themselves did not preclude realistic action and interaction and
believable, emotionally engaging plots. Ultimately, the mix of dark
human drama with traditional science fiction adventure is probably
the reason for the enduring cult popularity of UFO and what sets it
apart from the rest of TV SF series. For example, the time-freeze
plot of the episode "Timelash" is similar to The Outer
Limits episode "The Premonition". But UFO adds a drama
twist: Straker repeatedly injects a drug (X 50 stimulant) to remain
awake during the time freeze, which results in him being hospitalised
in SHADO's medical centre. The ending not only shows him lying in bed
recovering from the harmful effects of drug use, but has a subtext
that the plot of the episode may, in fact, have been a drug-induced
delusion.
UFO confused broadcasters in both Britain
and the United States, who could not decide if it was a programme for
adults or for children – In the UK, the first series was originally
shown in the 5.15pm 'tea-time' slot on Saturdays, and on Saturday
mornings during an early repeat, by both London Weekend and the-then
South-East franchisee, Southern Television, which began broadcasting
the first series almost two months before the London area. The fact
that the companies associated with the Andersons, such as APFilms and
Century 21, were primarily associated with children's programming did
not help matters. This confusion and erratic broadcast schedules are
considered contributing factors in its cancellation, although UFO is
credited with opening the door to moderately successful runs of later
live-action, adult-oriented programming by Anderson such as The
Protectors and Space: 1999.
Special effects:
The
special effects, supervised by Derek Meddings, were of the highest
quality and outstanding for their day, given the relatively limited
resources at the production's disposal. In a refinement of the
underwater effect developed for Stingray, Meddings' team devised a
disconcerting effect – a double-walled visor for the alien space
helmets, which could be gradually filled from the bottom up with
green-dyed water. When filmed from the appropriate angle it produced
a very convincing illusion of the helmet filling up and submerging
the wearer's head.
Second series and Space: 1999
Two years after the 26 episodes were completed, the
series was syndicated on American television and the ratings were
initially promising enough to prompt ITC to commission a second
season of UFO. As the Moon-based episodes appeared to have proven
more popular than the Earth-based stories, ITC insisted that in the
new season, the action would take place entirely on the Moon. Gerry
Anderson proposed a format in which SHADO Moonbase had been greatly
enlarged to become the organisation's main headquarters, and
pre-production on UFO 2 began with extensive research and design for
the new Moonbase. These developments were not without precedent in
the earlier episodes: a subplot of "Kill Straker!" sees
Straker negotiating with SHADO's financial supporters for funding to
build more moonbases within 10 years. However, when ratings for the
syndicated broadcasts in America dropped towards the end of the run,
ITC cancelled the second season plans. Unwilling to let the UFO 2
pre-production work go to waste, Anderson instead offered ITC a new
series idea, unrelated to UFO, in which the Moon would be blown out
of Earth orbit taking the Moonbase survivors with it. This proposal
developed into Space: 1999.
Merchandise:
As
with many Anderson productions, the series generated a range of
merchandising toys based on the SHADO vehicles. The classic Dinky
die-cast range of vehicles featured robust yet finely finished
products and included Straker's futuristic gull-winged gas turbine
car, the SHADO mobile and the missile-bearing Lunar Interceptor,
though Dinky's version of the interceptor was released in a lurid
metallic green finish unlike the original's stark white. Like the
Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet models, the original Dinky toys are
now prized collectors' items. All the major vehicles, characters, and
more have been produced in model form many times over by a large
number of licensee companies; the Anderson shows and their
merchandise have always had widespread popularity, but they are
especially popular in Japan.
DVD release:
The
complete series was released on DVD in the UK and in North America in
2002 and in Australia in 2007. Bonus features include a commentary by
Gerry Anderson on the pilot episode "Identified," and an
actor's commentary by Ed Bishop on the episode "Sub Smash".
There are also some deleted scenes and lots of stills and publicity
artwork.
UFO had a large ensemble cast, and many of
its members would come and go during the course of the series, with a
number of actors – most notably George Sewell and Gabrielle Drake –
leaving the series during the production break that occurred when the
series had to change studios midway through production. It is
established early on that SHADO personnel rotate between positions,
so the occasional disappearance of characters – some of whom would
later return in other positions – fits in with the concept of the
series. Also, due to the scheduling of the series, which did not
reflect the production order, some episodes featuring departed cast
members were not actually aired until late in the series, giving the
impression that no major cast changes occurred. Among the major
actors, only Ed Bishop appeared in all episodes. These are the major
recurring characters in the series:
Commander
Edward Straker:
Commander in Chief Edward "Ed"
Straker, portrayed by Ed Bishop, is a former American Air Force
Colonel, pilot and astronaut originally from Boston, Massachusetts,
who organised SHADO following a series of UFO attacks in 1970.
Straker masquerades as the head of Harlington-Straker Film Studios,
SHADO Headquarters being located directly below the studio. He might
or might not have been involved with the United States Air Force's
Bluebook Project; this is never made clear in any of the instalments.
He was married to Mary Nightingale in 1970, but
they soon divorced after the birth of John, their son. Timeframes are
never given for events before the series, but it would be reasonable
to presume that their marriage had ended by the end of the flashback
presented in "Confetti Check A-OK". As if perhaps to show
her opinion of Straker and his cold attitude, Mary registered their
son as John Rutland, after his new stepfather, played by Philip
Madoc.
In "A Question of Priorities",
John was later seriously injured when he was hit by a car and
Straker, against his own rules, used a SHADO aircraft in order to fly
in antibiotic drugs from America. But when his second-in-command,
Col. Freeman, was forced to divert the plane in order to investigate
some curious UFO-related events in Ireland, Straker's sense of duty
prevented him from informing and over-ruling him as to the plane's
original mission. The drugs arrived too late at the hospital, and
John died. His ex-wife blamed him for their son's death, and in the
waiting room spat angrily at him, "I never want to see you
again!"
In other sci-fi series, a character
must face a challenge and overcome it, though the problem is
invariably solved by hour's end after which all is well. In contrast,
the UFO series makes it clear that Ed Straker has had to completely
sacrifice his personal life for the organisation, and that although
he has learned to live with the fact, he has never forgotten the
suffering it has caused to him and people he loved most. Moreover, it
is repeatedly demonstrated that there is no realistic prospect of
Straker's circumstances ever improving, though if circumstances were
different he would undoubtedly embrace change. Straker's underlying
tension and unhappiness is the foundation of his wounded character,
exemplified most powerfully in the "Confetti Check A-OK"
episode. The overall effect of Straker's regularly referenced back
story is to transform what could have been a stereotypical sci-fi
character into one who is three-dimensional, complex and sympathetic.
One relatively consistent element of Straker's
character is that he refuses to drink alcohol even though he has a
fully stocked bar in his SHADO office. The very first instalment,
"Identified", refers to him possessing the willpower to
avoid alcohol, yet in "Confetti Check A-OK", he drinks
champagne at his own wedding, and later to commemorate his wife's
pregnancy. Some fans have suggested he might be a recovering
alcoholic. Interestingly, his friend Alec Freeman remarks in the
episode "Identified", "Sometimes I think drinking
requires more self-control." However, Straker is fond of cigars,
and he can be seen smoking in some episodes. Straker suffers from
claustrophobia, a fact known only to the SHADO doctors and Alec
Freeman. This was a major sub-plot in the episode "Sub Smash".
Col. Paul J. Foster:
Colonel Paul
Foster (portrayed by Michael Billington) is introduced in the second
episode, "Exposed". A former test pilot, his plane was
critically damaged when SHADO's Sky One intercepted and destroyed a
UFO in close proximity to Foster's jet. His subsequent persistent
investigation of the incident threatened to expose SHADO's existence
and Straker considered having him killed, but instead was impressed
enough with Foster to offer him a position with SHADO. Foster appears
to be something of a protégé of Straker's, as he is shown in a
number of major positions. He is Moonbase commander for a time
(substituting for Lt. Ellis), is assigned to Skydiver for several
months, and also receives a position of authority at SHADO HQ. He
masquerades as one of Straker's film producers in the studio and
enjoyed a brief relationship with Col. Virginia Lake. Foster has the
unique distinction of having once befriended one of the aliens,
though he could not prevent the alien from being killed by SHADO
personnel; his overall demeanour became noticeably more cynical after
this event, which the instalment "Survival" chronicled.
Lt. Gay Ellis:
Most often seen as
Moonbase commander during the first half of the series, Lt. Ellis
(Gabrielle Drake) is occasionally portrayed as lacking
self-confidence, and at other times as a take-charge officer. She is
briefly reassigned to SHADO HQ when it is suggested that she may be
romantically involved with Interceptor pilot Mark Bradley ("Computer
Affair"). She also appears to be attracted to Ed Straker, though
nothing comes of this.
Col. Alec E. Freeman:
SHADO's first officer until about the three-quarter
point in the series (when actor George Sewell left following the
change of studios, being later unavailable when series production
resumed at Pinewood studios). In the French-dubbed version, Freeman
is Canadian – Straker sometimes calls him amicably "The
Canadian." However, his nationality was never mentioned in the
English-language show and his original British accent makes a
Canadian origin doubtful. Initially depicted in the pilot episode,
"Identified," as being a cheerful ladies' man in his early
40s, Freeman is thereafter a much more strait-laced, more serious
character who is Straker's right-hand man and, occasionally, his
muscle. Everybody's pal at SHADO, Freeman takes a sardonic attitude
towards some of the things Straker and SHADO must do to survive, and
once submitted his resignation in protest over a decision ("Computer
Affair"). Straker's closest friend and best man at his wedding,
Freeman was the very first operative recruited into SHADO by Straker,
as seen in "Confetti Check A-OK." His pre-SHADO background
includes a history as a combat pilot as well as in air force
Intelligence (for which country was unspecified). Freeman finds
standing in for Straker difficult in "The Responsibility Seat,"
but in other episodes, such as "Close Up," he has become
confident at handling control in Straker's absence. He appears to
have overseen the training of Paul Foster following his recruitment
to SHADO in the episode "Exposed" and formed a friendship
with the new officer, as they are seen out at dinner in "The
Dalotek Affair". Freeman is a key figure for scenes with Straker
in the MGM Borehamwood episodes, but besides the episodes
"Identified," "Computer Affair," "Flight
Path," "E.S.P.," "Confetti Check A-OK," and
"Court-Martial," he is largely a SHADO control-based senior
figure, unlike Foster and, later, Straker himself, having no further
background character development.
Gen. James L.
Henderson:
Henderson (Grant Taylor), Straker's
superior officer, serves as the president of the International
Astrophysical Commission, which is a front for SHADO and is
responsible for obtaining funds and equipment from various
governments to keep SHADO operational. Straker and Henderson butt
heads frequently over the needs of SHADO and economic realities.
It can be inferred that Straker and Henderson
became somewhat estranged after Henderson is injured in the car crash
following a UFO attack in the pilot "Identified". Also,
Henderson is 'passed over' as first choice for SHADO commander due to
his age. Straker also impressed the United Nations delegation
committee (especially the French representative, Duvalle) with his
presentation as Henderson's deputy by urging the necessity for SHADO
to be set up. Straker is then chosen as the first commander, though
Henderson offers him the opportunity to decline, as depicted in
"Confetti Check A-OK," and we are led to believe Henderson
effectively rammed the post of SHADO commander down Straker's throat
in "Confetti Check A-OK". This presumably has the effect of
straining their relationship and causing friction between the two
men.
Over time Henderson appears more and more
resentful of Straker. Episodes such as "Conflict,"
"Court-Martial," and "Mindbender" particularly
highlight their personality clashes. However, later episodes such as
"Destruction," where they share a working breakfast in
Straker's office, and "Timelash," where Henderson refers to
Straker as "SHADO's most important piece of manpower..."
suggests a remaining bond of friendship.
Col.
Virginia Lake:
Col. Virginia Lake (Wanda Ventham)
first appears in the opening episode of the series ("Identified"),
as a SHADO scientist and a target of Alec Freeman's romantic
attention. A computer specialist, she was a member of the "Eutronics"
tracking device design team. Lake, like Paul Foster, is a
comparatively-recent addition to SHADO: both Col. John Grey (Gary
Raymond) & Col. Craig Collins (guest star Derren Nesbitt) are
shown as being of longer experience and senior within SHADO to both
Lake and Foster. She was romantically involved with Foster for a
time, and later served as Moonbase commander. During the last quarter
of the series, Lake returns to take over the post of SHADO first
officer, replacing Freeman. She initially has a somewhat tense
working relationship with Straker, though by the end of the series
they appear to have grown close and she is seen comforting him in the
final scene of the final episode, "The Long Sleep".
Capt. Peter Carlin:
During the
first third of the series, Carlin (Peter Gordeno) is the commander of
the submarine Skydiver and pilot of its interceptor aircraft, Sky
One. In 1970, Carlin and his sister found a UFO and were attacked; he
was shot and wounded and his sister vanished. He joined SHADO in
hopes of finding out what happened to his sister, and eventually
learned that her organs had been harvested ("Identified").
Originally intended as a major regular character, Carlin appears only
in "Identified," "Computer Affair," "Flight
Path," "A Question of Priorities," "Exposed,"
and "Conflict". It is rumoured Peter Gordeno's agent
decided to pull the actor out of the series; a few scripts such as
'Ordeal' were apparently originally written for Carlin but re-drafted
to then feature Paul Foster instead. The main role of Skydiver
commander and Sky One pilot was passed on to Capt. Lew Waterman
thereafter.
Lt. Nina Barry:
One
of Straker's first recruits into SHADO (and in the unenviable
position of being mistaken for the "other woman" whom Mary
Nightingale blamed for Straker's estrangement from her), Barry
(Dolores Mantez) works as a space tracker at Moonbase and later
replaces Lt. Ellis as its commanding officer. She also serves aboard
Skydiver at one point ("Sub Smash"). One of several women
attracted to Straker, she is the second most frequently appearing
character in the series, appearing in 23 of 26 episodes. Bishop and
Mantez had a relationship in real life.
Capt. Lew
Waterman:
Initially an Interceptor pilot on the
Moon, Waterman (Gary Myers) is later promoted to captain and replaces
Peter Carlin as commanding officer of Skydiver and pilot of Sky One.
He becomes a close friend of Paul Foster, as suggested in "Ordeal."
Given Gerry Anderson's business dealings in the 1960s with MCA-owned
Universal, his name could well be a parody of that of veteran agent
and studio head Lew Wasserman. Despite being described as a 'main
character,' he is involved in very few episodes.
Lt.
Keith Ford:
Former television interviewer who
became a founding member of SHADO and its main communications
officer. Actor Keith Alexander left the series after the production
break, so the character disappears at the two-thirds mark of the
series.
Lt. Ayshea Johnson:
A
SHADO headquarters officer in most episodes. Initially seen doing
miscellaneous tasks stationed at a computer console, Johnson (Ayshea
Brough) is the woman seen turning in her seat to smile and wave at an
(offscreen) Col. Alec Freeman in the opening credits, which consisted
of stock footage from "Identified;" she later becomes
SHADO's communications officer following the departure of Lt. Ford.
In her final appearance, she is stationed at Moonbase ("Mindbender").
Highly observant, she provides crucial information in the episode
"The Cat with Ten Lives". NB: this character's full name is
given in episode scripts but only referred to once on screen, in "The
Sound Of Silence". In the credits she is identified only as
Ayshea (as is the actress).
Dr. Douglas Jackson:
SHADO psychiatrist and science officer. A somewhat
sinister-looking figure who sometimes appears to have his own agenda,
Jackson (Vladek Sheybal) serves a number of capacities within SHADO,
including acting as prosecution officer during the court-martial of
Paul Foster. When Foster escapes custody after falsely being found
guilty, Jackson successfully convinces General Henderson to have his
guards use tranquiliser darts in their pursuit, rather than shooting
to kill. It is implied that "Douglas Jackson" is not the
character's birth name, as he speaks with a strong Eastern European
accent. His origins, however, are never explored. In voice overs on
the DVD Ed bishop commented that the actor had a much better pedigree
than anyone else on camera and he must have wondered what his agent
had gotten him into.
Lt. Joan Harrington:
Another Moonbase Space Tracker, Harrington (Antonia
Ellis) was one of the organisation's earliest recruits, as seen in
"Confetti Check A-OK".
Miss Ealand:
Ealand (Norma Ronald) is a SHADO operative
masquerading as Straker's movie studio secretary. She is the first
line of defence against anyone entering SHADO HQ via Straker's
office/elevator. The character is not seen in most of the post-studio
change episodes, being replaced in two episodes by a Miss Holland,
played by Lois Maxwell.
Lt. Mark Bradley
Bradley
(Harry Baird) is a Caribbean-born Interceptor pilot based on the
Moon. He becomes romantically involved with Lt. Ellis for a time,
leading to a temporary assignment at SHADO HQ on Earth, and later
briefly assumes the position of Moonbase commander. Baird left the
series after filming four episodes, but appeared in stock footage in
several later episodes.
Minor characters:
One
of the female Moonbase operatives, Joanna, was played by Shakira
Baksh, who later married actor Michael Caine. Producer Gerry Anderson
later said that he had lost his temper with her so badly on the set
of UFO that he always feared the idea of running into Michael Caine
at some actors' function, and being punched on the nose by him. Steve
Minto, one of the interceptor pilots, was played by the actor Steven
Berkoff.
Look of the show:
It is
never explained why female Moonbase personnel uniformly wore mauve or
purple wigs, silver catsuits, and extensive eye make-up (although it
has been suggested in the novelisation of the show that it was to
combat static electricity) and their unusual apparel is never
discussed in the series. Gerry Anderson has commented that it made
them look more futuristic and that it filmed better under the bright
lights, while Sylvia Anderson said she believed wigs would become
accepted components of military uniforms by the 1980s. But whenever
female Moonbase personnel visited Earth (as Ellis and Barry did from
time to time), their lunar uniforms and wigs were never worn.
Ed
Bishop, who had dark hair in real life, initially bleached his hair
for Straker's unique white-haired look. He later began wearing a
white wig when the bleaching began damaging his hair. Straker's
unusual look may have been an attempt to make Bishop look like
Captain Blue, the character he voiced in Captain Scarlet and the
Mysterons. Bishop, until not long before his death, possessed one of
the wigs he wore on the show and took great delight in displaying it
at science fiction conventions and on TV programmes. In the episode
"Mindbender", Stuart Damon is seen wearing the same white
wig, although deliberately ill fitting, in a dream sequence segment.
Bishop also kept a Certina watch that was specially made for his
character. Straker's look was one of the inspirations behind The Fast
Show character 'Jazz Club's' Louis Balfour.
Many
other male characters in the series also wore wigs, again because the
Andersons felt that they would become fashionable for both sexes by
the 1980s. Early episodes in which Michael Billington does not wear a
wig can be identified by his receding hairline and long sideburns.
On both Skydiver and Moonbase, SHADO pilots enter
their interceptor craft by sliding down tubes. This is an allusion to
the Andersons' earlier series, Thunderbirds, which had the characters
reaching their craft in similar fashion. This was due to the
difficulty in getting a puppet into a cockpit easily and in a natural
way.
Ed Straker's dramatic gas turbine car,
resembling somewhat the 1970 Citroën SM, was, in fact, based on the
chassis of a humble Ford Zephyr with a specially built aluminium body
shell. There appear to have been only two cars made for the series, a
prominently featured brown/gold car and a purple car with a larger
hood opening. It appears that at some point in production the brown
car was damaged because in some shots, it can be seen that one of the
headlight openings has been covered in tape, one of the wheels has
been replaced by a mismatched wheel, and the lead characters start
using the purple car more frequently.
The SHADO HQ
and Moonbase control consoles, computer units, lighting panels and
spacesuits make numerous appearances in later TV shows of the 1970s
such as Doctor Who, Timeslip, Doomwatch, The Tomorrow People, The
Goodies, The New Avengers, Star Maidens, and Blake's 7, as well as
feature films such as Diamonds Are Forever, Carry On Loving, and
Confessions of a Pop Performer. An alien spacesuit can also be seen
in the Children's Film Foundation film Kadoyng.
Sylvia
Anderson, having had made a pair of very sheer trousers for actor
Patrick Allen to wear in the episode "Timelash," later
regretted not having had the nerve to ask him to wear a jockstrap
underneath, and commented on the DVD release of the series that "you
should not be able to tell which side anybody's 'packet' is on".
The futuristic, gull-winged cars driven by the Ed
Straker and Paul Foster characters were originally built for the
Anderson movie Doppelgänger (US title: Journey to the Far Side of
the Sun). During the shooting of the UFO series, David Lowe and
Sydney Carlton raised funds to form a company called "The
Explorer Motor Company," dedicated to the mass production of
these cars for sale to the public. A plastic mould was made of the
Straker car, in preparation for mass production, but the company
never got off the ground.
Both Ed Bishop and
Michael Billington commented that the futuristic cars were
"impossible to drive" (partly because the steering wheel
was designed for looks, rather than functionality). Also, the
gull-wing doors did not open automatically. Every shot in which the
car door was seen to open automatically had to be arranged so that a
prop man could run up to the car, just outside the frame, open the
door, and hold it open while Ed Bishop stepped out. In certain
episodes (most notably "Court Martial") the prop man can be
seen.
The show also made limited use of American
models, which were unfamiliar to British viewers. These supposedly
futuristic vehicles included a 1965 Ford Galaxie station wagon and an
Oldsmobile Toronado. American viewers found these appearances rather
amusing.
The episode "Survival" shows
that SHADO's Moonbase is in the Mare Imbrium, or in the northeast
part of it, according to a map that Foster and an alien studied while
they were stranded on the surface. The map is a real one.
On
the Carlton DVD commentary for the first episode, Gerry Anderson
noted that perhaps the programme's most dated aspect was its tobacco
and alcohol consumption. To be fair, however, in the 1980 of real
life England and America, there was still plenty of smoking indoors,
as well as executives with bars in their offices. Straker has a
futuristic home bar in his office, which dispenses whisky, bourbon,
vodka, etc., from which Col. Freeman partakes fairly regularly. While
he himself does not drink, Straker is regularly seen smoking in SHADO
headquarters, his tobacco of choice being either a cigarette or what
appears to be a slim panatela cigar complete with holder. And despite
the high-tech milieu and enclosed environments, smoking is seen
throughout the show, as was par for course in 1970s British
television drama. As a consequence, some of the sequences in the
bunker of SHADO HQ are seen through a slight smoky fog. Similarly
many of the medical staff smoke whilst on duty, and smoking is even
permitted on board the closed environment of the Skydiver, where
Capt. Carlin is shown idly flicking through magazines with a
cigarette in hand. Most striking of all, Moonbase personnel also
light up frequently.
The Trimphone, a British model
of telephone designed in the 1960s, was featured prominently in the
series.
The machine typing out information in the
intro is, or is based on, an IBM Selectric electric typewriter
(likely a Mag Card or Mag Tape model) in action, using an Orator
element. The first Selectric was released in 1961, eight years before
the series was produced.
Predictions:
UFO,
which was filmed in 1969 and 1970, made a number of predictions about
what life in the 1980s would be like, some of which have come true.
Among the innovations predicted by the series:
Spacecraft
launched from an aircraft, as in the episode "Computer Affair".
Extensive use of computers in day-to-day life, even
to the extent of predicting and analysing human behaviour.
Electronic fingerprint scanning and identification
against a database.
Voice print identification
systems; also, vocal analysis used to identify individuals in the
same way as fingerprints.
Metadata and a space
observatory (called an "electron telescope"), as in the
episode "Close Up".
The episode
"Survival" indicates that racial prejudice will have
"burned itself out" on Earth in the mid-1970s, a prediction
which did not come true.
That cars would drive on
the right-hand side of the road in the UK and be converted to
left-hand drive, another prediction, which did not come true.
UFO
also featured episodes dealing with issues that would become topical
in later years, such as space junk and the disposal of toxic waste.
Cordless telephones. (The three telephones on
Straker's office desk had no cords between the handsets and the
base.)
Miniature music players – In "Court
Martial," Straker's secretary has one playing on her desk.
Liposuction – In "Ordeal," the doctor
threatens, "When all else fails, I'll remove that blab around
your middle surgically!"
Winglets - An
aircraft appears with winglets on the nose, in "A Question of
Priorities".