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UFO: Ed Bishop's Opinion on the Series and the Mistakes it Made
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- Ed Bishop was very attached to his role in UFO as Commander Straker, and as such he had many thoughts on the series as a whole - and how it was only towards the end that the concept really worked.
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Ed Bishop was one of the best actors from the show
Correction: With respect, Mr. Bishop was and is one of the best and unappreciated actors ever.
In anything he ever did, be it James Bond films, Kubrick films, anything.
nss
Loved Straker's car. Had the Corgi model as a youngster.
@@douglasarthur2673 I always wanted one of those interceptors, but went for the SHADO mobile.
Just a shame the plastic missile broke so easily and in those days, when plastic broke, that was it!
Did get an Eagle from Space 1999... my pride and joy. I should get an MPC model kit of that, and build one, but it's always sold out and about 130 USD - besides which I couldn't build a model properly if my life depended on it.
I wonder how much original Corgi stuff might be available on eBay?
It's 8 am, haven't been to bed yet and now you make me want to find my Eagle and play with it! Gee.. thanks a lot 🤣
I have watched a ridiculous amount of sci fi over the years and UFO still remains my favourite series, it has it's faults and missteps but it always delivered the goods.
What about SPACE PRECINCT?
Loved it , esp.the girls with the tight , pert arses
@@lpquagmire3621 space 1999, at least series one, it went off the rails when commander Connie took a back seat, and old professor bloke just went missing the alien space woman the could shape shift, end up be monster battle, any lazy scripts, on air in a room no problem I will just turn into an XXX then don't breath ???
It was one of the first things I ever watched on TV (1972 )Tues morning at 10:30 on BBC2 just after the test transmission for TV service engineers.
What faults?
Ed Bishop. Such a great actor in this and many other shows, So underrated. Loved this series
It was Britain's gain and America's loss when Mr. Bishop decided to make his career and life in the UK... The same was true with Mr. Shane Rimmer, another American expat.
He was in diamonds are forever
Rimmer was from Canada.
Futuristic 70s design is strikingly beautiful (or is it just me?)! The colours, shapes of cars and phone handsets, furniture, helmet visors, even the tech designs. There’s a visual language going through everything which makes it credible. Kudos to these designers on set
Agreed. The show is just fabulous from a design point of view. I regret that the 1980s didn't actually have fashions, cars, interiors and spacecraft as cool as those depicted. One of the problems with any proposed remake is that I worry that everything would end up redesigned, and they just couldn't make it as damn ... yes, beautiful to look at. Or anywhere near as groovy.
Much of the futuristic design used in sci fi in the 1960s and 1970s tended to be exaggerated There was a sense things were going to change a lot more rapidly than actually they did in real life.
I recall not long after Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the Moon that NASA's next major goal was to land a human on Mars by 1980. Well here we are in 2024 and that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
UFO got it wrong.
Space: 1999 got it wrong ... still no Moonbase in 2024.
Lost in Space got it wrong ... no human mission to Alpha Centauri in 1999.
Back to the Future ... Real 2015 was nothing like BTTF 2015.
Star Trek seems to be the only one that has got it right to this point. Setting stories hundreds of years into the future is probably a much safer bet than going for the near future.
This was the first 'adult' SciFi TV show, because it demonstrated that the 'good guys' do not always win in every episode.
Captain Scarlet had some downbeat endings.
@@Armadacon Capt Scarlet was practically the Supermarionation version of those Japanese Mangas. Very dark, violent and adult. Probably quite wrong for the TV market it was selling to, but awesome as Hell for fans! :)
In fact UFO make sit pretty clear that the best Earth could hope for is to force a stalemate and the aliens give up. Kind of like Captain Scarlet, where the Mysterons are clearly the superior hand and it's a "war of nerves". SHADO never really "wins" it is simply preventing a checkmate, and often this is only at great cost.
@@adriansherlockdamondark.1094Especially given how influential Gerry Anderson was on Japanese media.
That was an advantage that British production had. In the 50s, 60s US television had standards of practice that required the bad guy to not get away with it by the epilog.
This is why Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller and One Step Beyond has the closing comments by the host to put a bow on a story where a murderer, liar or thief appeared to have prospered. Even if the situation defeated good.
Twilight Zone rode a fine line, but more often the good guy came out OK and the evil one was defeated.
Westerns did this too and so did Star Trek. You'd watch a complete tragedy, but there'd suddenly be a last scene with an optimistic event or a knee slapping joke....forgetting the 5 extras that died horribly 10 to 20 minutes ago.
Gerry Anderson always said UFO was his favorite of all the TV series he ever did. It stands the test of time because it’s still even today, a future you’d want to live in.
As long as your organs weren't harvested.
The voice of captain blue on Captain scarlet for me was his greatest role.
Very true, I would love to see my old school turned into a medical centre ;-)
I'm not sure I'd want to live in the world where we have to be on guard against aliens but then again you can say maybe we are now
@@STho205happens on earth in some places unmentionable
I used to love this series so much when I was a kid. Never missed an episode... in Australia!
Back in 1972 I was 13, and never missed an episode. Great series. Still enjoy it. In Connecticut, USA
Ed Bishop was an incredible talent...
Gabrielle is right. The show's incredible longevity suggests that the majority of narrative decisions made in the series were correct. Equally Ed is correct that some of the latter shows pointed to a struggle to maintain the original story line. Who am I to argue with the star of the show, but it wasn't a thin series plot, so much as maybe over ambitious production goals at times. And as for A Question Of Priorities, that's right up there as one of the most popular shows with fans. I still watch all the shows right through a couple of times a year and it never loses its sparkle. A true TV classic.
wonderful comment...
He's also right about the actors, there's so much ham you could stock Tesco's.
And she got “the proof of the pudding” expression right - most people don’t.
👍👍👍
I have this on DVD boxset. It's a fantastic series that, in my opinion, should have been commissioned for more than just the one series. I watched it as a kid and, to be honest, never get tired of re-watching it. I liked the fact that each episode concluded with loose ends, or on a sour note. And, of course, the womenfolk were bloody gorgeous.
They were really women too! Probably best if they don't remake it and leave our memories intact.
Yup me too-has the dvds
I think UFO was the best sci -fi action series.
Once again Gerry ,Sylvia and all the team proved time and time again that they were the best.
UFO has not really dated as some sci -fi has.
I liked the contrast between the action episodes and the human ones like the episode A Question Of Priorities.
With UFO you get the best of both worlds (human and alien)
It was such a shame that UFO only ran for one series.
I agree. Read my comments.
not dated? its set in future but looks very analogue 70,s, i suppose thats unavoidable, they really should have expanded gab drakes role,-good actress, attractive intelligent character ,should have been developed
it ran for 2, actually and they should have continued it instead of the crap space 1999
@@deathsee Totally agree
@@stephenpochly7003 I rewatched the first episode of Space 1999, it was such Crap, the acting was poor, the whole thing was like Bad Sci Fi at its worst, Why did they do it, why did they have to let ITC America Dictate to them, such a loss, UFO could have used some story lines that ran more then one episode and a little bit more into the script writing but the acting was pretty damn good, and over all the concept was Epic, and to learn the Aliens were not even what they thought and were just using the bodies and parts to form another being to transpose their minds into, it was getting too damn good
I was a fan of the series right from the first episode. I hated when it stopped. I was about 14 at the time. A friend told me it was stopped because it got too near the truth. It would be easier to say which episodes I didn't like. I was ill with Cancer 17 years ago and watched the whole series while I could. I got better. I have the theme tune as my ringtone now.
Glad to hear that you recovered.
As for your ringtone, it really is a great tune isn't it.
But let's face it, every tune that Barry Gray came out with in those days was pure gold.
@@buddhistsympathizer1136 I'm still so happy that I have it. Thanks.
So glad that you won your fight and also concur on the greatness of the theme :)
Bishop certainly has some interesting opinions on UFO but must say I disagree with him on most. Giving Straker definable character flaws and personal dilemmas as well as alien incursions to repulse was both bold and novel in an era where main protagonists were typically one dimensional.
As such Straker was a far more complex figure than the archetypal flawless commander stoically ordering the destruction of UFO’s each and every week he could so easily have been. Far from diluting the show’s core premise a humanised Ed Straker enhanced it!
I think he's reflecting on the fact that it didn't propel him to stardom and so something must have been wrong. But 26 * 1 hour episodes is quite a long run really.
I agree!
Agreed, his personal conflicts remind me of "Sink The Bismarck".
The biggest problem is that you never knew when it might be on! In the USA, it was never on a reliable schedule, you would just stumble on it at random times on Sunday afternoons as filler. We were always thrilled when we managed to find it.
@@brettbuck7362 similar problems in the UK - the ITV network had some wild regional variations. I remember it being late afternoon/early evenings on a Sunday, but the first broadcast was Wednesday, 16th September 1970, probably ATV and in the 1830 slot.
Even when I was a young kid watching the show in reruns in the late 70s, I actually loved the "soap opera" themes of many of the episodes. It really set the show apart from other sci fi. And that's probably a major reason why I enjoyed the reimagined Battlestar Galactica too.
Absolute Classic .. It would a great candidate for a remake today.
Nothing could be better than the original!
A remake? Oh no! Can you imagine the gender and race swapping, and general Wokeism? I'd rather watch the original, even if it is a little clunky at times!
@@lemming9984 Speaking as a proud transwoman, the problem wouldn't be transpeople, whose presence would fit with UFO's futurism and general high [medical] tech advancement, and the problem wouldn't be racial diversity, which the original already did very well, as did Star Trek.
The PROBLEM would be that today's anti-integrity, culturally relativist, and outright nihilistic _anti-Western-civilization_ writers couldn't even grasp the romanticism which made the original so great. Thus any transpeople in a remake would very likely pay too much homage to entitled low-passability clowns like on Tiktok, and any blacks or other "diverse" races would pay too much homage to entitled street thugs like you see in flash-mob robbery videos.
And the relativism and nihilism wouldn't stop there. It would all too probably devolve even further into: beautiful women wearing micro-skirts and boots is sexist and harms all vagina-havers, maybe the aliens aren't so evil after all, since they're just trying to survive - and what's so different about them harvesting us when we harvest animals as food when we should all be happy Bambi-loving vegans anyway? And blah-fn-nihilistic-low-IQ-blah.
Bad philosophy and bad values would be the problem. Which means that ultimately a failure to understand the original - when philosophy and _most_ values were demonstrably superior - would be the problem. Think the pathetic V reboot, or even The Munsters.
The problem runs so much deeper than casting a t-girl or a black person.
UFO is a stand-out sci-fi series. It’s such a shame it was cancelled. However, if I were given the choice of remaking UFO or Space:1999 it would be UFO. It’s darker tone and concept make it perfect for our modern tv drama environment. Of course, there will be those who would never want it to be remade, and I kind of get that, but it is exciting to imagine what they would do with the series now. UFO is amazing!
Space 1999 was too ridiculous for words.
According to Anderson (YT video) Space 1999 came about because a certain US TV company executive didn’t want to commission a second series based on earth.
UFO is most definitely food for a reboot. It has massive potential. I'm amazed it hasn't happened. The reboot of Battlestar Galactica was amazing, and the source material was nowhere near as good as UFO.
@@dudovich13 Totally agree! Watched them both again as an adult and I couldn't believe how bad 1999 was.
Remakes/sequels are a mixed blessing. Some are good, like Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (how could anyone not love Baby Groot..?) but most are absolutely awful.
'A Question of Priorities' was one of the best episodes of the whole series imo.
and Suzanne Neve (her wife) excels in this episode!
What a gut wrencher. I just want to yell at his wife about how selfish she is, but she doesn’t have a clue what he’s dealing with. Truly between a rock and a hard place.
An absolute masterpiece of science fiction tragedy.
It was the first TV show to make me cry. I couldn`t bear to see my hero (Straker) in such
turmoil. Losing his son then being told by his ex wife she never wants to see him again.
Utterly heartbreaking.
Thar episode was more appropriate for a soap opera than for a sci-fi show.
UFO was probably the most underated Sci Fi show ever made and deserved so much more, certainly it would be ripe for a big budget TV reboot, because Ed is right it had so much to offer and such a huge story arc that could have been played out.
You could say Dark Skies was that reboot- and it didn't last. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't UFO - sometimes a show just works.
Every episode was awesome..as child UFO was suspenseful and thrilling ,...as a late 50yr old now, BRING IT BACK....SITTING there with my dad and brothers on a late Friday evening ..words cannot explain how good a TV show it was
It was interesting that Ed raised "A Question of Priorities" although I was surprised by his negative take on it. Gerry Anderson said that ITC in New York didn't ike that episode because of its very human focus and that presumably they wanted more "action" - he rightly disagreed. However it is the human issues that make that one of the most memorable episodes and help to show that UFO was very much an adult series. As well as the whole drama of Straker's son it also has the fascinating possibility of an alien defector. As someone else mentioned in the comments you can't separate action and a "battle against the aliens" from the personal lives of those involved. If UFO had essentially just been an action show uninterested in human emotions and relationships it would have been far less effective.
Can only agree. I thought that was an outstanding episode
As a child, I was VERY disappointed by episodes like 'A Question of Priorities' and 'The Square Triangle' due to their lack of blowing up aliens, but as an adult, they are probably my favourite stories.
Gerry Anderson was a genius ahead of his time. I even went in a Thunderbird at pontins holiday camp in the early 70s it went to the ‘moon’ by way of an onboard tv screen lol - and I believed it! He made my childhood and my active imagination as we all played with Action Man and vehicles
This will be extremely interesting.
Incredible theme. Just one of many from Gerry Andersons shows.
Loved the show, wish someone could bring it back
I'd love a re-run, but definitely not a remake. can you imagine all the gender/race swapping, and general Wokeism? It wouldn't be worth seeing!
Interesting to hear the various points of view. With respect to Ed Bishop, however, I think one must appreciate that the creative teams had only less than an hour to pack in everything and make it coherent.
Thanks to the love affair with the US market, Anderson and the creative teams always worked under that damacles sword of cancellation, which inevitably, and unjustifiably happened toward the end of the series.
If the UK had given the teams, say, a five year run then I think you would seen storylines and themes expanded as the series matured.
As it is, though, everyone involved had ( and still has ) something to be very proud of in UFO.
I only recently found UFO and have enjoyed every episode. The only thing I didn't like was the series ended way too soon.
Certainly one of the best opening credits and theme tunes ever!...along with all the gerry and Sylvia stuff...usually at the hands of the late barry gray..genius..not forgetting Derek meddings sfx...gone but not forgotten 👍big fan..gazzz
The episode that showed Straker's decision to set aside the needs of his family in order to prevent a UFO incursion was an examination of his dedication to the mission overriding personal needs and was quite intense for the time. The good guy losing out by doing his job was pretty rare back then unless he was sacrificing his own life to be the hero. This episode was a new direction for an hourly TV show competing with others where everyone gets saved and alls well that ends well.
I was 11 year old in 1970, and never saw UFO until maybe 10 years later as reruns. I'm still watching it. It is many times better than Space 1999 that followed it. That show went completely off the rails. I wish they had continued to make more episodes of UFO.
It was the Cold War back then. The series served a purpose.
The danger would have been degenerating as Space 1999 did with the 2nd series, abysmal in every way compared to the 1st. The Prisoner stopped when it was decided that the series had exhausted the quality episodes. As good as UFO was, maybe it finished at the right time especially as the last episode (the hippy doctor and the bomb in the farmhouse) was too strange for credibility.
Agreed, UFO is far superior to Space1999. The sets and whole design of the show was much better, the stories more engaging, the characters more relatable.
@@John-wd5cb How did it serve its purpose by being shown in the graveyard slot and getting cancelled after only one season?
Rewatching in 2023 I enjoy Space 1999 and UFO, need to just go with the bizarre storylines like the Bernard Cribbins hysterical robot. It’s Gerry Anderson sci fi, it’s expected to be fanciful and bizarre.
I’m currently writing the second volume of my UFO guide books. It’s focused on Straker’s private life. I’ve read Ed Bishop’s comments and I think you’d have to be misinterpreting to think he disliked his character or the way it was developed. His one major regret was that UFO never went to a second season. I agree with him there. UFO was a masterpiece in my opinion. I corresponded briefly with him in the 1990s and found him a good sport with a great sense of humour and he had some funny and interesting ideas about how Straker could have been revived. Basically it did not go wrong. I assume Mr Bishop was speculating on why it wasn’t a longer running show and he seemed to be assuming it was not commercial enough. In truth it was cut short because Lew Grade found it was easier to sell a new show than a second season of an existing one.
I think that the only Anderson shows that deserved a 2nd season were Captain Scarlet and UFO. I'd have much rather they'd gone along with the original plans and end up with something like UFO: 1999.
@@zypalitra8080 A second season of UFO would have been brilliant because, whatever form it took, we would have had more of Ed Straker, the most complex and realistic character in any Anderson show.
I think Ed Bishop would have made a more credible Commander of Moonbase Alpha than Martin Landau. Landau was an exceptional actor but he never seemed that comfortable as Koenig. While Ed Bishop seemed very at ease as Straker.
@@michaeldeal8060 It's hard to imagine Space: 1999 without Landau, (although the season 2 episode Dorzac does well with Alan, Tony and Maya in the lead). But more of UFO would have been extremely welcome. Ed Bishop once said Straker was a well rounded character and could have benefited from some expansion of the format, had they gone on. In the interview we see in this video, I think he was playing Devil's advocate and questioning the series creative decisions. But in most interviews, he was very positive about the show and I think he was generally very proud of it.
Would Mr Bishop be open to performing as the voice for a CGI or Cartoon version of a new series of UFO? I think it would be brilliant to renew the series and find out what happened to everyone next.
Cheers guys for a great start to a hectic Saturday. Still one of the best sci-fi shows ever done with a great back story, yes it has faults but how many of those can be written by budget and interference from higher up (Lew Grade).
Really enjoyed this series as a teenager - especially the cars and other vehicles. Really love Barry Gray's music too. The opening sequence music is the perfect 1 minute piece.
He certainly knew how to write a good theme.
The campiness of it all made my TV-viewing childhood such a delightful scream
Every show goes through growing pains in the first season. Unfortunately UFO only had one season to work with. It was all in all very superior in many ways; especially for its time 🤗
I agree. See my comments.
Is 26 * 1 hour long episodes really one season? PS filmed over 16 months with 6 month break in the middle.
@@An.Individual back in the day most shows were 25-30 episodes a season. Star Trek’s first season was 29 ; I believe. Even TNG and Deep Space did 25-26 episodes per season 🖖
Perhaps the Big Finish adaptation could build on it. 🤔
I only found out about the series a few years ago on the Horror channel which has been renamed Legend. I've seen a lot of Sci-fi shows in my time, and this one holds up with the best of them. I just wish we got more seasons. Ed's portrayal of Striker was great in my eyes.
I liked the episode where 2 tripping hippies mess around with some aliens trying to plant a super-nuke bomb in a barn.
that was the final episode - The Long Sleep.
this was when tv was worth watching fond memories thanks Gerry
I grew up watching the show when it was on the air and I still pull out my box set DVDs from time to time. 🙂
This is one of my favorite sci-fi shows from the golden era of television. The great irony, perhaps, is that with the veil of secrecy surrounding UFOs [aka UAPs] being lifted in the real world as we speak, we're finding out that the real thing is FAR more mysterious [and technologically advanced] than what we predicted in fiction in 1970. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. If the series were to be rebooted today, you'd have to employ the real "phenomenon" as the antagonist.
The Alien-Demon deception , Project Bluebeam , the Babalon Working .
@@gosforthlad Not a deception. Reality.
@@RobertFalconer1967 A reality only for the inexperienced and gullible who have no knowledge of centuries of worldwide evidence of ultraterrestials - the djinn , the Fae , Devas , Missing 411 , cryptids etc .
A fascinating yet frustrating series, rarely seen in the US after its initial run. I agree with Ed! (An example: In "Square Triangle," an alien crash lands in the English countryside; but most of that show focused on a couple whose relationship was crumbling.) My favorite episode, "The Cat with 10 Lives," was written by David Tomblin, one of the writers for The Prisoner.
I used to watch this as a kid. Great ideas and was a good show for its day. I do agree that a wider vision was needed. It was a rich idea and I like that women were portrayed as leaders as well. So this was a forward thinking concept. It was fun back then!
I think this show had some amazing episodes that were very thoughtful and well written and way ahead of what other sci fi series was doing at the time i.e. it was not all green bug eyed monsters , it was character driven and very well written . For me it is to look at dated but because of the writing and the acting you don't notice that aspect. I love it!
I loved this series and i am happy for every new information i get from my heroes.
I always loved this show. Rewatched it a few years back.
I started watching UFO in 1975 here in Brasil. I was 13 years old. Although, my family's was a 1965 Philips b&w 25" screen tv set, I could clearly see the overall quality of this series. It stood out even from Star Trek. Everything was amazingly beautiful and well made. The opening, the theme song, the soundtrack and the stories. Can you believe I got to listen to The Beatles' 'Get Back' for the first time watching a scene of a party where Cel. Foster is dancing accompanied by a beautiful lady? Usually, when we watch our favorite old TV series on higher definition, we spot its failures in sound and image quality. In the case of UFO (and Thunderbirds) it got much much better. And thus without making use of artificial upgrading. Thanks for posting.
that was Ordeal where Col. Foster is kidnapped by aliens - which all turns out to be a dream!!!
I love the style of this show, it's a marvel of filmmaking. It just couldn't be made today with the same charm, but maybe AI could update a few parts and bring it to a new audience.
A question of priorities is one of my favorite episodes.
Gerry Anderson always said UFO was his favourite series he ever did. It stands the test of time, even now it’s still a future I want to live in.
love videos like this! more please!
I used to love UFO so much that when it was on at 1pm on a Sunday Afternoon, I used to watch the Politics programme beforehand for the whole hour - and I was 8 years old !!!!! Sad, but true !! In this age of remakes, this is one I could really live with !
One of the best Themes for a TV show...Ever !
Always liked UFO and Space 1999. These were great shows
A great show, well ahead of its time. I still have my SHADO mobile and Moon base interceptor, although the missile's long gone. I think Ed's right, though. After Star Trek appeared UFO seemed a bit parochial in comparison.
Gabrielle was one of my first crushes. She's still beautiful.
Did you know that you can buy replacement parts for these models, including the missiles? Look up Steve Flowers Model Supplies...
I have always loved this series! I first saw it in the early 1970's been a fan ever since. My favorite episode is " Destruction".
The guy who wrote it, Dennis Spooner, had just written a similar-themed episode for the BBC's Doomwatch series called Burial at Sea. Sadly, that one's missing from the BBC archives.
Good interviews, interesting about the quality (35mm) some credit to Brendan Stafford (lighting cameraman who returned to work on space 1999 series 2 Sound of Silence / Mindbender and timelesh (shot at pinewood) very well made episodes and particularly like the long sleep (sepia toned sequences) think also the change in Directors for the 2nd block of episodes helped look forward to more informative Ufo content.
Ed Bishop... what a total sci-fi legend🌌‼️: Commander Straker from UFO, Captain Blue from Captain Scarlett & The Mysterons, Space Pilots from Space 2001 - A Space Odyssey & Saturn 3, Detective Elijah Bailey from Asimov's Caves of Steel as well as the narrator from Stephen King's audio drama's: I am the Doorway/One for the Road + Ray Bradbury's Sunset on Shoreline. RIP you awesome-eternal legend ☄️☄️☄️
My favourite Ed Bishop performances:
🌟Commander Straker in UFO 🛸
🌟Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons 👽
🌟Detective Elijah Bailey in BBC audio's (& Isaac Asimov's) The Caves of Steel 🤖
🌟Captain Tom Decker in the anthology series Out of the Unknown's episode: Beachhead 🌐
🌟Private security guard Carson in the anthology series Thiller episode: Nurse Will Make It Better 👨🏻⚕️👹🌋
🌟Space Pilot in Space 2001 - Space Odyssey 🚀☄️
🌟Space Pilot in Saturn 3 ☄️🚀
🌟Narrator in Stephen King's audio I am the Doorway & One For The Road 🧛🏻♂️🦇⚰️
Watched it when it was originally released and love the dvds.A great series.
This and Blakes 7 were the best sci fi on television. Good stories and real characters.
To Mr Ed Bishop,Commander Starker was like Capt James T Kirk in that the one thing that was most important to the both of them.One was SHADO and to the other his ship and crew.Both great t.v Shows in there own way.
I agree with Ed myself. Question of Priorities while a worthy story and very well acted, but I don’t find it a very pleasant watch. It’s unpleasantly stressful wishing the outcome may be different every time I watch it. My favourite episode is one that tends to get a little lost amongst them. The Psycho-bombs. It’s so ambitious and the guest stars are great!
I think that QoP is an important episode for Straker's growth, but it's as you said "not a pleasant watch". Straker is a completely ruthless individual who'd do anything that he needed to do, but QoP's ending gives Straker nothing to personally fight for anymore.
@@zypalitra8080 Agree with all this. I just thought of how he must appear from his wife’s POV. She was positive he was being unfaithful, then he was no doubt partially blamed for their son’s accident and then finally he let them all down after promising to fix the situation. It’s an uncomfortable family drama in the middle of a sci-fi series. I must have watched it 20 times, but tbh I now avoid it when it’s shown.
I sometimes wonder if episodes like QoP might have influenced Hideaki Anno's portrayal of certain characters in Evangelion... 🤔
I think QoP despite it's disturbing nature,brings a very human side to things.
We all have priorities in life and have to make sacrifices to different extremes depending on the circumstances, and this is what the QoP episode depicts, leaving an ethical and philosophical " nasty taste in the mouth".
'love "The Psychobombs!" Deborah Grant, the explosion of SkyDiver 3... It all clicked on that episode.
Interesting stuff. He's probably right.
I watched a lot of Gerry Anderson shows, but I never knew this existed.
That theme song used to send kids in Australia into a frenzy. A friend put his foot through a wall, jumping into his bunk pretending it was a spaceship like in the intro.
Gabielle Drake (LT Ellis) is the sister of the very talented singer songwriter Nick Drake. I only realise now as recognised her from a documentary about Nick Drake I saw a few days ago!. I knew he had a sister who was an actor but never made the connection before. What a talented family. Loved this series growing up.
"..urrry up.." Need to deliver some prototype models later, but don't want to miss this.
I remember loving this show. I now own the entire series on DVD. For its time, it was pretty special, to me at least.
Love this show and Space 1999. UFO's opening theme played out with the teletype still some of the best tv music around. I watch them both on my Roku channel and have them running in the background while doing my housework. I worked for the local Bell Telephone Company and we had IBM Selectric typewriters and teletypes going constantly, it was the sound of the future.
A Great Programme never gets old .
A Fitting Tribute to the Late Great Gerry Anderson, he made our childhoods totally amazing.
Godspeed Gerry
G.B.N.F. Ever
Same with Sylvia and Ed as well. They helped give us The Golden Age of Television, which shaped young minds decades ago, sadly to never come again.
@@alexp3752
So very TRUE , never see the like again , mores the pity .
The children of this Generation could do with what we had.
Take care from the 🇬🇧
Straker was a great, human character. the idea of how to hide such an organisation and the problems with it were very interesting.
Brilliant......just brilliant!!!!!!
Excellent show before it's time. Now it would be a hit
When I was a little kid I had the toys of all the vehicles and spacecraft. Guess I must've been a massive fan. Certainly brings back memories.
I was 7 or 8 when the series aired in 1972-73 in Italy and I just loved it. We didn't even have colour TV back then (we got it in 1977-78) and I remember visiting relatives when holidaying in the UK and revelling in the colour footage. I then used to come back home and boast to my friends about watching episodes in English *and* colour.
What I particularly love about this series is the imagination of 1980 on 1970's life i.e. the obviously late 1960's fashion, music and hairstyles - also still smoking 20 regal a day like everyone I knew did back then when I was very young.
The most glam sci fi series ever
And Britain driving on the right hand side of the road..! Never going to happen.
I’ve been to visit Ed bishops resting place a couple of times to pay my respects. Loved him in UFO
Born in 1962, I was 8 when the series started, 9 when it finished. The "Question of Priorities" episode stuck in my mind so strongly then, and remains one of my favourite episodes of any show up there (along with the "Find the Lady" episode of Shoestring in 1979, when I was 17)
Shoestring is a great little series, sadly overlooked today even more so than UFO! I still think it's the best thing Trevor Eve has done.
This is without a doubt Gerry's Greatest show!🤔😁👍
I was born in 1972 so had never heard of UFO. Started watching when I saw a re-run with George Cole (Arthur Daley) in it and I thought it was good. Never knew Gerry Anderson had done live action before. Continued to watch the whole thing and caught up with the episodes I'd missed and without a doubt "A question of priorities" is one of the best episodes. It's such a change of pace to see the back story of Straker. The story was good and well acted and gave a great insight into the character. In 1969 it must have been one of the first sci-fi shows to have done that. Really good series. Shame it only went for one season.
Great show all round, the actors, the models and the effects, it was the next logical step for Thunderbirds to evolve into and I think it really did set a benchmark, only with CGI could you really improve on it. Perhaps if they had multiple 'enemies' that might have added variety and allowed another season or two. It still looks good today.
The human tragedy elements in UFO are the reason I became such a fan of the series, and its compelling central character Ed Straker. The ONLY reason. By far the best thing that came from the Andersons. (Only in the last year - thanks to UA-cam - I introduced the series to a friend and she got addicted to the show. A new fan. She wouldn't have liked it all had it not been for the quirky dramas.)
Loved UFO as a kid in the 70s and still love it today. Sure, some of the stories were rubbish and some of the acting was wooden, but on the whole a superb series that will still be shown in a hundred years time when we are all long gone. Can you image today, a production company with millions to spend producing a UFO reboot?! We can all dream.
It’s strength was in assuming its audience had some brain cells, for a young adults tv show it had some very mature scripting, it didn’t dumb itself down.
I once stood in a line at Sainsbury's supermarket behind Ed Bishop. He caught my eye and said a very kind "Good morning". I responded likewise but the penny never really dropped that it was Commander Stryker of UFO fame until I walked out of the shop thinking, 'Where do I know that guy from?"
That wasn't Ed.
That was Straker. Commanders need to eat too. 😮
UFO is probably the first science fiction series I remember. I was born in 1966 and so would have been between 4 and 5 years old when the series was transmitted for the first time. It’s interesting that at that age, all I was interested in are the models and effects, explosions, etc and I know that I probably would have found episodes such as Question of Priorities; Confetti Check - AOK; Close Up, etc; rather boring, but viewing them when much older I felt differently - and this was precisely the point: The Anderson’s we’re making an adult series and knew that the couldn’t succeed with flash-bang-wallop spectacle by itself.
I remember watching the late night BBC2 repeats towards the end of the 80’s and again when BRAVO picked them up in the 90’s and I appreciated the attempt to show that these were real people and that the job they did created emotional and mental fall-out and also affected those around them. Okay, so because of the series format, such issues rarely lasted beyond the episode they appeared in and then everyone seemed to be remarkably well-adjusted again until the next trauma reared its head, but non-stop action week-in; week-out would have quickly become tedious in the extreme, so I think the balance struck between action and drama was pretty good.
My all-time favourite episode is E.S.P because to me, the balance is pretty much perfect and the idea of John and Stella Croxley being collateral damage in the ongoing battle of wits between SHADO and The Aliens is brilliant and creepily, hauntingly executed to boot! John Stratton gives such an unhinged, vulnerable performance and it’s stayed with me all these years.
Hopefully, Ed Bishop in this interview segment is simply rueing the fact that he never got the chance to develop Cmdr. Straker even further, but definitely to my mind, showing that he had a life, relationships, trust-issues and everything else is a strength, not a weakness and definitely contributes to my being able to regularly repeat watch the series 50 + years later and never be bored with it.
What made (and makes) this show great is how much it just plain commits to its premise, its internal logic and conceits … and never waver.
I was five and I loved the toys.
My fav. Still watch again and again
UFO was way out there, with very original ideas it was well made and Excellently acted. I still love it too this day.
Always liked his voice,and his protrayal of Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet.Always fun to see him in appearances in other shows,like The Professionals, The Saint,and of course, 2001.UFO was a cool show,and had a great look.
I've only just properly started watching at 58 and I'm still impressed. I actually liked seeing the personal side of Straker. Special effects and models in this series are still impressive by today's standards.
I watched it originally in 69-70, and many times since, looking back it Amazes me had it still stands up and what they knew back then
Grew up with this show, and Ms Drake helped me grow up quickly!
I'm astonished Ed thought "Priorities" was a bad move. It's the most memorable, "real" story, and it fits in extremely well with the profound importance of Straker's duties. It made it seem more real.
I partially agree with Ed's first point. I don't think the issue is having emotional stories. I think (from what I've seen of the show) it was often a case of 'This is the action episode ' and 'This is the emotional one', rather than blending the two together.
There's nothing wrong with having an episode with emotions but little action. One of my favorite TNG episodes was "The Inner Light." A Patrick Stewart tour de force with almost no special effects and no adversary. It's one of the most highly regarded of the entire series. Likewise, "A Question of Priorities" is widely considered one of the best of UFO.
@@amightysailingman Well said. I agree.
I was in my mid-teens when it came on the TV screen and I thought it was sexy as hell. And both then and now, that wasn't solely about voyeurism... it was such an exciting time of change (both for me and humanity around the world) and it promised a liberalisation and improvement in how we interacted with each other that's dwindled over the decades since.
What I like about UFO is that it always took itself seriously and never at any point descended into whimsy like so many other sci-fi series did.
Mr. Bishop as Straker truly set the tone for seriousness which help make the whole concept and narrative real.
You know what blew my mind the most about UFO? When I discovered that Gabrielle Drake was the sister of the English musician Nick Drake (which is a melodrama in its own right.) RIP Nick 🙏🏼 (now playing Pink Moon in your honor, sir)
Timelash and Psychobombs: My top episodes from an all round terrific series.
Way ahead of its time , great series’s 👌👌👌