I watched two disc of episodes of UFO yesterday. I finished kind of late and didn't get around to posting until now. On the whole I'm feeling pretty disappointed in UFO. It's the scripts that I'm disappointed in, scripts make me cringe at times and yell at the screen.
One of the episodes was about Ed Straker's kid being run down by a car. The kid needs a new drug that's only available in New York. Ed has it picked up and uses a SHADO craft to fly it to London. It's diverted by his second in command and the kid dies. It's all so horribly contrived it's embarrassing to watch. If only Ed had mentioned what he was doing then it would still be on the way, but no, he's got his mouth shut like a moron. The SHADO crew all seem to make some of the stupidest decisions that it's a wonder the aliens haven't taken over all ready.
The whole lot of SHADO seem incompetant at their jobs but Ed seems like he's one of the worst. In one episode Ed has an interview with a woman reporter. She's interviewing the head of the studio not the guy who's head of SHADO. That whole studio plot device seems like such a security risk. Anyway, they just let this woman breeze in without a security check. After the interview is over, Ed and the lady leave his office. A few minutes later, the reporter returns to get her purse and the secretary lets her go into the office alone. The reporter gets her purse and Ed is suspicious when he hears this later. He knows she had a tape recorder embedded in her purse and he's wondering what she might have gotten on it after they left the office. Turns out that the communications guy had paged Commander Straker over the intercom in his office. Quickly they find out that the woman wasn't working for the paper she mentioned. Now I could see a studio not checking the credentials of a reporter, taking her at face value, but SHADO is a secret organization and they should have some amount of background checks. A little later in the show it's found that the reporter has a criminal record. That's the shit that should have been pulled up before she even got to the door. Ed eventually catches her, gets the tape back, only to have her knock him down with a vase and escape with the tape. After a so-so car chase Ed catches her and takes her out for drinks and back round his place for a meal. Yeah, I know. Unbelievable. Even after learning about her past and he lets her go. Why? Who the fuck knows.
Here's the first paragraph, by MartinHafer, from his IMDb comment on the episode.
This is a pretty good episode and it just goes to show you that in this world, there are some very scary people! The show begins with Straker being told my his receptionist that earlier in the day a Miss Fraser had briefly gone into his office to retrieve her handbag. What the ditsy receptionist didn't know is that Fraser is a reporter--and Straker is panicked. When he checks, he discovers that she'd planted a bug in his office--and he begins to worry what she might have overheard. So, much of the show is spent showing Straker as he tracks down this lady--to find out what she knows and what sort of security breach occurred.
Martin seems to have forgotten that the episode begins with Ed having an interview with the reporter. He seems to also have forgotten that the "ditsy receptionist" tells Ed, before the interview, that a reporter is coming to interview him today. What the fuck did Martin see? Was he drunk or just stupid. People often decide to comment on episodes or movies they have seen in the past, it's occasionally mentioned in the post, and in the ensuing time they've forgotten many details. Not that it stops them making shit up commenting. I don't have any issue with people's opinion but when they don't have the facts right, that's annoying. Martin is a top reviewer and it makes me wonder.
Another episode turned out to be a dream brought about by a hot sauna. It was too bad, it could have been better if it were really happening.
Generally, I'm the most disappointed in this series over any other Anderson production. It makes Space Police look much much better and that was no great shakes.
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