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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Quality - Again!, January 4, 2003
This review is from: UFO, Set 2 (DVD)
Like the first A&E UFO DVD set, this set features 13 digitally remastered episodes from Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's British science fiction series "UFO". And again, the video & audio quality is superb throughout, looking as good (or better!) than most current television shows! The episodes here are the last half of the series. In my opinion, these episodes are better than the ones in the first half, as the plots move faster and the acting is better. The last few episodes are rather bizarre, but these are also my favorite episodes! This set features 3 commentary tracks. Ed Bishop does a solo commentary on SUB-SMASH. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot to say, and there are long gaps of silence between his remarks. Also unfortunate is that the recording is slowed down, because it was taken from a recording for the British DVDs which run 4% fast (due to the PAL video format). So the pitch of his voice is lower than natural, and his speech sounds unusually slow. Fortunately the other 2 commentary tracks were recorded specifically for the A&E releases, and are running at the correct speed. The 2nd commentary track is for KILL STRAKER, and features director Alan Perry and actor Mike Billington. Each of them tries to be clever/funny, and it works! I laughed out loud several times during this commentary. There is also a lots of good information, and not many gaps of silence. The 3rd commentary track is my favorite -- Sylvia Anderson and Wanda Ventham on TIMELASH. They remember all sorts of details about the filming, and seemingly have nice things to say about everyone and everything. Sylvia explains what her day-to-day duties were on UFO, and Wanda tells of how she got into acting and got the part for UFO. The chemistry between the two is wonderful, and there are virtually no gaps of silence. In addition to the commentary tracks, there are some interesting "video/audio outtakes", including original stage audio during the filming of KILL STRAKER (featuring Mike Billington, Ed Bishop, and George Sewell), outtakes of the SID satellite singing "Home on the range" (!), and a demonstration of how the night scenes in TIMELASH were filmed in broad daylight. Plus a few more. The "photo gallery" is a disappointment -- these are simply frame captures from the episodes, which is a shame, since the British UFO DVDs had hundreds of interesting behind-the-scenes photos. The packaging & DVD menus in the same style as the first UFO set --- that is, cheap but functional. There are 6 chapter stops per episode, which makes it easier to jump to your favorite part of each episode.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BEST HALF OF A BRILLIANT SERIES, January 28, 2005
This review is from: UFO, Set 2 (DVD)
Once upon a time I was so into this show that I would have called all the episodes great on their own level. In fact, truth be told there are only a few really brilliant episodes in the first half of the series, the rest vary between good and rather dull and ordinary. However...THIS is the second and best half of the series where the whole production team really do seem to hit their stride in a big way. Great episodes follow in rapid succession in this half of UFO, Subsmash, Mindbender, Cat With Ten Lives, Destruction, Reflections in the Water, Psychobombs, Long Sleep and the startlingly good Timelash. They also achieve a unique style and favour of TV Science Fiction, reminiscent of both Thunderbirds and Patrick McGoohan's cult series The Prisoner, but focused on a very serious and very human hero, Straker, played to perfection by the charismatic and energetic Ed Bishop. Its an edgey, surrealistic series, reminiscent of Twilight Zone or The Invaders, at times, with its possessed humans and mind-bending, time-twisting plots. UFO is perhaps one of the ultimate cult series, and a precursor to the underrated but more famous Space:1999. It belongs in the DVD collection of any true SF fan. Highly recommended!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Go ahead and complete the set!, February 22, 2003
This review is from: UFO, Set 2 (DVD)
If you're a fan of the series or you bought the first set and liked what you saw, and you are now considering whether or not to spring for the second, the quick answer is yes. It should be said that the series changed as it went along. The original premise--that the aliens were harvesting transplant organs from humans--gave way to a new concept, that the aliens reprogram the minds of humans for use as zombie servants. This resulted in a radical shift in the series, from a space operatic, us-against-them concept, a la "Star Trek" or "Star Wars", to a psychological horror, us-against-ourselves concept, a la "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or "X-Files." Whether or not this is an improvement depends on your tastes. Sadly, Alec Freeman, Gay Ellis, and Peter Carlin faded away as the series progressed. On the plus side, Nina Barry gets more to do, and Virginia Lake, whom we met in the pilot episode, becomes a regular. Even if these changes are not to your taste, you should buy the set, as it contains three memorable episodes, and one absolute, not-to-be-missed corker: "The Resonsibility Seat": An uncharacteristic lapse in judgment on Ed Straker's part leads to a security problem. Ed decides to go out into the field to deal with it himself, leaving Alec Freeman in command at SHADO. As Ed's adventure veers between security problem and romantic entanglement, Alec struggles to cope with a series of crises, some of which prove to be trivial, and some serious, without succumbing to the temptation to phone the boss and ask for advice. An unusual episode that veers from funny to tense to romantic and back again. "Sub Smash": A compelling episode depicting Ed Straker, Paul Foster, Nina Barry, and two other crew members trapped on the seabed inside a Skydiver that's been disabled by a UFO. "Mindbender": The aliens plant a hallucinogenic booby trap on the Moon which causes SHADO personnel to imagine first, that Mexican bandits have taken over Moonbase, then, that aliens have taken over SHADO HQ. When it finds its way into Ed Straker's hands, he hallucinates that he is an actor in a television series. Guess what it's about. "Timelash": The gem of this set. The aliens manage to freeze SHADO HQ (and the movie studio above it) in time, with the assistance of a traitor named Turner. Only Ed Straker and Virginia Lake are unaffected. They must find a way to stop the aliens and save their colleagues, but first they must beat Turner at his own game of cat and mouse, complicated by the fact that Turner has the ability to slip forward or backward in time. The movie studio above SHADO was always a bit surreal, but it was never used to such good effect as in this episode, where the eerieness is compounded by the time freeze. Studio hands are frozen in the act of tossing a stool, a bird hangs motionless in midair, so does cigar smoke. Great stuff.
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