Back in the good ol' days when I was in college, a friend of mine showed up one day with a tape of a couple episodes of an old sci-fi series called UFO. He swore it was amazing and that I needed to see it. I was ambivalent after he told me it was from Gerry Anderson, the creator of super-marionette shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett, which had never appealed to me all that much (surprisingly to many). But when he explained that the show was live action and fulfilled every wish I'd want from the future, I decided to pop it in the VCR and see for myself.


He was right. Oh my God, he was so, so right. As soon as you start seeing moon girls with silver go-go boots and mini-skirts and metallic purple hair you know you are in the future we were supposed to have instead of the one we got. The world of UFO, which was produced by Anderson for British TV in 1970, is full of brightly colored, space age pop art and fashion design. The cars are cool looking, the home decor is fabulous and often inflatable, and Commander Straker, in charge of protecting the world from alien invaders, has a liquor fountain in his office.

The series centers around the activities of SHADO, a secret organization located beneath a movie studio and dedicated to protecting Earth from marauding aliens about whom we know very little beyond the fact that they seem interested in collecting our vital organs. SHADO is commanded by former American Air Force officer Straker (Ed Bishop) and his startling platinum blond hair. Second in command is Alec Freeman (George Sewell), and then young hotshot Colonel Foster (Michael Billington) and Moon Base commander Gay Ellis (Gabrielle Drake). Other characters cycle in and out of the main cast, sometime staking on significant roles, sometimes disappearing mid-series with no explanation (whatever happened to that black guy on Moon Base?).

UFO follows the blueprint of other Gerry Anderson shows. SHADO incorporates a variety of gadgety vehicles in their defense of Earth, including a submarine/airplane combo, moon rockets, shuttles, jets, and other cool stuff that you wouldn't want to actually depend on in a real fight (like the Moon Base Interceptors, which only have a single missile and no back-up weaponry). These vehicles are realized through some fairly impressive miniature work, and while UFO relies heavily on stock footage (the same explosions, same launch sequences, et cetera), that's nothing out of the ordinary for these types of shows, and all in all, the effects look surprisingly good most of the time, especially when held up in comparison to other sci-fi television shows of the time (umm, Doctor Who, anyone?).

But the real focus of the show is on the core characters. If you thought Sci-Fi Channel's reimagining of Battlestar Galactica was one of the first sci-fi series to really put its characters through the ringer, then UFO's human drama is going to catch you off-guard. The show is merciless with it's characters, racking up one heck of a body count and frequently putting Straker in the situation of deciding between two equally horrible options. Straker himself is divorced, and in the first episode of the show I ever saw, forced to chose between saving his own son's life or diverting resources to investigate what might be an alien attempting to defect to Earth's side. In the end, he winds up with a whole lot of nothing. UFO doesn't shy away from investigating the way in which the jobs of our heroes destroys their personal lives. Straker's is a mess. Young Foster drifts aimlessly from one relationship to the next aware that any attempt to forge something meaningful is futile given the secrecy and hours he must observe. The show has its lighter moments, but it never hesitates to be grim if it needs to.

Such drama is played out against a deceptive candy-colored background highlighted by the costume design of Sylvia Anderson. Her work here is an incredible menagerie of mini skirts, flares, Mandarin collar jackets, jumpers -- man alive is it ever cool. The only misstep is her design for the submarine crew uniforms, which feature loose mesh long-sleeve shirts. Not appealing. But when she counters that with the Moon Base girls in their sheer silver fishnets and bikinis and mini-skirts, we can certainly forgive her.

UFO boasts a surprisingly fancy production, and everything about the show is A-game, including the acting. There's not a weak link in the cast, and the characters are far more complex than you expect from sci-fi television. Straker constantly deals with his responsibility versus his emotional response, often making hard calls that do not benefit his friends. The women confront sexism in the face of their command positions, and there are also moments in which racism are confronted head on. It's largely a morally ambiguous show that allows its characters to make bad decisions, sometimes devastatingly bad, showcase flaws, and attempt to improve themselves (sometimes succeeding, sometimes not). The look on Lieutenant Gay Ellis' face when Straker show sup at Moon Base and asks her, the Co, to make him some coffee, is still one of the series' most priceless moments (her episode one costume change is another). There is rarely a clear-cut black and white, and perhaps reflecting the social unrest of the era, UFO's primary goal seems to be that decisions, even wrong ones, are rarely made in a vacuum or with intentional malice. Even Straker's bureaucratic foil, General Henderson, is given understandable motivations and point of view to back up his blustering and annoyance with Straker.

Really an outstanding show, start to finish, and one of the landmarks of science fiction television. It possesses a sophistication well ahead of its time, and even if you don't appreciate that, you can appreciate all the miniature spaceships and UFOs blowing the crap out of each other, all the inflatable furniture, Straker's hair color, and of course, all the moon girls in mini-skirts.

Labels: Science Fiction