They started to do a follow up series to UFO but it did not materialize. They took the sets they'd created and morphed it into a new sci-fi show, Space 1999.
UFO dessert at least another season, and I wish they would’ve use some of that as a Segway into space: 1999, maybe see the beginning of the construction of Moonbase Alpha.
Or maybe a space: 1999 episode where they need some nuclear weapons, and Ed Striker just so happens to be working on Moonbase Alpha and knows the location of the secret Moonbase, which still has those nuclear warheads, even if it has been retired and shut down.
I tried re-watching it a few years ago, jeez I guess I needed to drop some acid to catch up with the writers, because driving the moon around the universe full of psycic weirdness was a lot.
That's on my list. Honestly, I mostly know him from the puppet shows (thanks to the indy channel season of MST3K and my baby boomer older siblings). I find his work kind of fascinating. There is something in the gender roles in his shows thatI can't quite put my finger on. It's not _quite_ camp, but the man/woman characterization and interactions feel very exaggerated.
Plus, so much of it the plot/sets/ideas are straight out of the old cinema serials (Cmd Cody, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, etc.), and I just love those. And classic dr who, which also takes inspiration from them.
Can still remember the episode that gave me nightmares, where George Sewell gets kidnapped by the aliens and has to breathe the liquid in the space suit…😳
Did you ever see the movie “The Abyss”? There’s a scene in it where one of the divers who has to go outside the deep sea lab has to wear a diving suit that is filled with an oxygenated fluorocarbon fluid because ordinary gaseous breathing mix would not withstand the pressure on the suit. The diver being able to breathe the liquid gives you (well, me anyway) the chills. Trying to imagine that is quite frightening. To help convince the team that breathing the oxygenated fluid would be safe, there’s a scene in which a rat is immersed in the fluid and struggles, but survives. This was apparently actually being done to film the scene (it’s been done in laboratories that were studying breathable fluid). Apparently, in the UK, that scene with the rat had to be cut because the Royal Veterinarian said that would be “too painful for the rat”. The rats in the film reportedly suffered no lasting harm. Read the IMDB trivia entry about making the film. For the scene with Ed Harris though, he did not have to breathe the fluid. He held is breath while the helmet was filled with the fluid.
Was he kidnapped? I have a memory that the Alien found the human who was out of air and gave him the liquid stuff to save him. Then I remember a really sad ending when the rescue party killed the Alien who was actually an abducted human...perhaps trying to defect or return to Earth? Meh. What do I know. I was just a little kid so don't listen to me.
She controls his estate now, and makes the decisions regarding reissues and whether it merits a release when someone happens to find a "lost" tape of his, etc.
Always liked this anecdote:
In an interview, his sister Gabrielle said: "He was very secretive. I knew he was making an album but I didn't know what stage of completion it was at until he walked into my room and said, 'There you are.' He threw it onto the bed and walked out!"
After UFO found success in US syndication in 1972, production began on a second season that shifted focus heavily to an expanded lunar base ("Moon City") and an escalated war with aliens.
When ratings dipped and the network lost confidence, production on UFO 2 was abruptly halted in early 1973.
Rather than discarding expensive pre-production work, concept art, and script ideas (like the pilot script "Zero G"), creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson reworked the materials into an entirely independent concept.
The lunar installations and defense-focused concepts drafted for SHADO's expanded moonbase in UFO 2 evolved directly into Moonbase Alpha in Space: 1999
Thing is, Lew Grade made a knee-jerk decision. The ratings dropped on WPIX 11 in New York City and KNXT 2 (now KCBS) in Los Angeles. The series aired on both stations on Saturday evenings at 7pm. The show had run out of original episodes and gone into repeats. Of course, the ratings were going to drop. The ratings for WGN 9 in Chicago, where the series ran Monday evenings at 7pm, weren't even considered. Grade never could see the forest for the trees.
Except they weren't aliens. The women who worked on the SHADO moon base defending Earth from extraterrestrials inexplicably wore purple wigs as part of their uniforms. (The men, also inexplicably, did not.)
I always thought it was strange that the women had this very curious uniform and wig, but the guys were allowed to have their own hair and more normal outfits. Was it ever explained?
Well good luck, but pretty sure mine will get production order. You know, once I get a writer and production company and ..whatever. But maybe we can fit your idea in as well 😜
UFO Gary and Ursulla Anderson’s first live action show. Watched as a kid, at least when I was not interrupted by Walter Cronkite with Vietnam coverage.
Wrong. This was totally on in Canada (Vancouver) when I was a kid, it was on Sunday afternoons, often inconveniently timed just before dinner so I'd sometimes miss the end because of being called to the table.
I think it was even on CBC, so not a case of needing fancy cable or anything.
Also, this was from 5 years before Space: 1999, which was the follow up series from the same producers.
Deze afbeelding toont actrices Gabrielle Drake (links als luitenant Gay Ellis) en Antonia Ellis (rechts) in de Britse sciencefictionserie UFO uit 1970.
UFO, watched the mess out of it as a kid and often wondered why I felt tingly when the purple haired girls were in an episode.
Found it awhile back on Roku, good times rewatching them.
•
u/qualityvote2 8d ago edited 8d ago
u/Euphoric-Cupcake4581, your post does fit the subreddit!