UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Ken Giuffre
I believe that this was the first Gerry Anderson TV show that utilized real actors and not marionettes. It depicts an international anti-UFO organization hidden deep below a British movie studio. Each show involves a chess-like interplay between the aliens, a dying race who come to Earth allegedly to scavenge human body parts and re-incorporate them to enhance their own survival. Ed Bishop, one of the Orion moon-ship pilots from 2001, A Space Odyssey, plays the embattled director, Commander Ed Straker, complete with a platinum-blonde wig which makes him look a little like one of Anderson's marionettes from an earlier show. Is this show campy...Yes ...Is the acting Emmy quality?...No ...But it still is so much fun to watch. There are well-thought-out spaceships, flying subs and the best model-made UFO to date in my mind. The moon-base girls are sexy in a very tongue-in-cheek kind of way with purple hair and skin-tight foil mini- skirt uniforms. And if you place it back in the context of late 60's early 70's technology...it's damn imaginative and simple fun! Loved this show as a kid and still occasionally enjoy taking in a Youtube episode. Many thanks to the late brilliant producer/creator Gerry Anderson!
CatoTSR2
This is the second greatest TV show in the history of the Cathode Ray Tube, next to The Professionals. Only to be ruined by the non want, or desire of the U.S. market. The second series became a rehashed show, which was morphed into the dire Space 1999: Ed Bishop/George Sewell/Peter Gordeno/Gabrielle Drake, Made this monster hit into a timeless unrepeatable classic. The score by Barry Gray was a continued superlative musical masterpiece. Gerry Anderson's first real attempt, at Sci-Fi without the puppets, was a marvel in its own right. Often repeated or copied in flattery, the technology and realism of the ships have no equal. Its a jealousy thing once again and some countries, just did not like the idea that us Brits, could conjure up such a brilliant piece of work. The best advice I can give to any wannabe' Sci-Fi Buff, is by the box set and indulge, in what should have been....Da Da Da Der!!!
mastertm05
Yeah, I know the acting was a bit cheesy and some of the episodes were inconsistent with each other, but overall, UFO was the most realistic (or the least far-fetched) sci-fi series I can recall. UFO uses ideas that are at least remotely possible for our time in defense of our planet from the mysterious, sinister, silent aliens. The interceptors, skydivers, and mobiles are technologically possible when compared to the distant future gizmos of Star Trek or Star Wars. Factual details of the alien spacecraft, such as their need to slow down to speeds of 1500 miles per hour when entering Earth's atmosphere or needing to be submerged under water to avoid deteriorating in our atmosphere are much more believable than the Enterprise traveling at warp speed. My favorite character: Commander Straker. One cold dude, dedicated to his job. A close second was Lt. Ellis, who appeared quite often in my dreams as a 12-13 year old! Sweet indeed. Favorite episode: "Computer Affair." Wish we could have made that alien talk before overdosing him with that experimental truth serum. Second: "A Question of Priorities." We had an defecting alien that was ready to talk or at least help us. Favorite hardware: The interceptors. Second: Skydiver. Favorite line: Straker in "Computer Affair"..."Don't give me that crud Masden. If you need more aircraft appropriate them!" (Who was Masden anyway?) I would like to see a new version of this series done with the same story line, obviously with new actors set in the year 2020 or thereabouts. Someone could continue and eventually put the finishing touches on a series that had a premature end, a series that was intriguing and most importantly, believable.
peter-faizey
It's alway's surprised me that this series never took off during it's originally transmission. It was (and is) incredibly, dark, menacing and atmospheric and it's budget allowed it to look brilliant. It was ahead of it's time and should have been one of the most popular adult science fiction series of the era. But it wasn't! However now it has become a cult and is recognised as one of the finest sci-fi series ever made. And so it should be! The images of Alien's are horrific (even today) and the writing and choice of cast were just spot on. The late Ed Bishop was just phenomenal really, a truly marvellous actor who played Ed Straker to perfection. George Sewell and later Wanda Ventham were also wonderful. It also has to be one of the scariest science fiction series of the 1970's just look at The Long Sleep - now that really is a scary episode, and it's also damn good! Confined to peoples memories for over 15 years the series was finally brought to us in 1986 (if you miss out Precision Video's release of the confusingly edited Invasion: UFO) when Channel 5 video released many unedited episodes of the series (including Invasion: UFO). From this point the show's popularity suddenly rose and an ITV repeat followed later in the year running into 1987. Interestingly even a 'UFO' convention was held in London in 1988 because of the show's increased popularity in the 1980's. UFO was again repeated this time on BBC2 in 1996, but it took them 3 years to show the entire series! The BBC have never been very good at scheduling. Nowadays the show's popularity is still thriving what with recent DVD and Video releases still available. The series was in short superb and I think grossly underrated. UFO didn't even appear in the 2001 Channel 4 programme 'Top Ten Sci-fi' but Space: 1999 did. Space: 1999 is a great series but sometimes the writing and UFO is just better! Getting back to UFO, it is a popular cult which will stay in peoples memories for many years to come.
