Customer Reviews

UFO, Set 2

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

UFO was ahead of its time; the real-life counterpart to Captain Scarlet in terms of sophistication of plot and technical excellence. Considering how long ago this series was made the models and special effects were truly superb. I often wonder what might have been if Gerry Anderson and Gene Rodenberry had gotten together.

Where UFO set 1 started a little awkwardly with the characters finding their feet, UFO 2 represents more sophisticated plot lines and characterisations. The series kinda ran out of steam in no small part because the entire premise was a little too far fetched to stand the light of scientific scrutiny, but it's still better than most of the drivel produced today. The Aliens are really a vehicle for stories that revealed human strengths, weaknesses and falibilities.

One point. This series was made in an era when smoking was 'cool'. Hard bitten professionals always smoked because they were "Real Men". So you'll need to look beyond this glaring example of Political Incorrectness.

UFO deserves to be reborn but I don't know where they'd find the script writers to do a decent job. Overall this DVD collection is a must-have for sci-fi buffs and I will always feel grateful to Gerry Andersen for his vision, energy and immense talent.

I remebeer watching this show since the early seventees when there was only sci-fi sows like star trek. UFO had what trek lacked, style and flash. whether it's the cool intro theme, the skydiver (half sub half fighter craft) and not to mention the moonbase cuties with the purple wigs i guess it's only to match their silver skirts. ha ha!

the stories are ahead of their time and much more sureal than the tv shows during that era.my favourite epidsodesfrom set 2 are:
SUBSMASH were stake confronts his fear of claustaphobia) REFLECTIONS I TH WATER (shado discovers an aien underwater base that mrrors thier own HQ)

MINDBENDER (a mysterius rock with brainwashing efets, this epidsode also gives a inse look behid the sets of UFO)

TIMELASH (te last epidsode of UFO with commentary from actress wanda wentham and sylvia anderson) and The cLAssic epidsde THE LONG SLEEP (this epidode was too contraversial to air on television for awhile mainly due to the subjects :drug abuse and rape. the last minute of THE LONG SLEEP was a tear jerker and is rightfully aired as "the last epidsode" of UFO) unfortunetly it only lasted one bloody season. needless to say, ufo had paved the way for the lame SPACE 1999 series. this is the case of "if it aint broke.."

UFO had the coolest gadgets that were believable Even for asci-fi series (electric tothbrushes,cordless phones,text pager ETC.)
as a matter of fact, we have these things today. te andersons had a go idea of what the future would be

I remember watching his show as a kid, and with this DVDS i can relive my childhood...

This is the science fiction series the Andersons made before Space 1999, and an early prototype to the X-Files. Its visually stunning and well photographed,and the stories are very series and grim- alien conspiracies, zombies, mind altering weapons and all sorts of wild crazy things happening. There are purple wigs and silver mini-skirts and really cool mod fashions. If youre a fan of the X-files check this show out.

This is volumes 5-8 and these are actually better than 4-8. This series has some really strange problems, the Moonbase girls had to work in purple wigs (never explained), this is supposed to be futuristic (1980s! hehehe) and yet everyone looks like a overaged refugees from Carnaby Street after a discount swinging 60's sale, you have aliens suffering from 'hereditary sterility', aliens breathing blue liquid and stealing body parts from the earthlings, and the only hope for mankind is English military branch under Shepperton Studios, and to top it off created by the team that brought you Fireball XL5, Stingray and Captain Scarlet - PUPPETS! Okies, that off my chest, somehow this series not only works, it is sheer fun. So put the SCI-FI critique, and maybe a little of logic, on hold and enjoy Straker (Ed Bishop), Foster (Michael Billington) and Lt. Ellis (Gabrielle Drake) saving the Earth. The girls are pretty - even in purple wigs - the guy properly macho, the effects surprisingly neat for small time UK telly show.

The transfer is wonderful, though the special effects section is not much more than the first one. A Gallery of Stills, a commentary by Ed Bishop and one from Michael Billington on Kill Straker episode.

So for all you UFOers who sat up at odd hows of the morn hoping to catch a stray episode - power to the DVD remote - watch and enjoy them when you wish!! It's sheer FUN.

I've been looking for this box set of UFO for a long time. My order came on time and in very good condition. I'm very happy. Thx!

Set in the near future of 1980 this late 60's sci-fi show is set in a world where the government knows UFO's are real and aliens are visiting earth to harvest organs from humans.

If knowledge of this were to leak out, there would be a panic, so the UN set up SHADO, a secret military organization designed to combat the aliens without the public catching on. Their main base is at a movie studio, so if anything slips out, it can be laughed off as a prop gone astray. Further forces are a base on the moon, submarines at see and tank like ground vehicals.

More than a 'shoot-em-up though "UFO" is more about mind games and plots in a dark world where the aliens and human defenders both move in the shadows. For example in one episode aliens are stealing parts from people near a very high profile riding stable. The locals must be kept from finding out what's going on, but they have enough local influence to keep from just being 'evacuated' without an explanation.

This packet has the second half of the show's 26 episodes. From the first group you can see how they have tightened things up a bit, but there are some problems as well. Hoping to sell the show in the US the craigy faced XO is moved out and replaced with the chesty Wanda Veldtham. She's a capable acctress but there's not explanaiation given in the show for the fact that one of it's previously most visible characters has disappeared.

The real charm of this series, beyond the sci-fi plots, was that it was filmed in late 1969 and early 1970 and they set it in the 'near future' of 1980. The desingers tried to guess what the styles would be like in the near future and cloths and cars and such are, well laughable. The aliens have the excuse that they are, aliens but there is never a reason given why the uniform of women on the moon base includes a bright purple wig. Simlarly while more modern shows like Star Trek Enterprise" and "Battlestar Gallactica" have ground troops in dark clothing, operators of SHADO look darn silly running around in the woods in bright blue uniforms with white plastic boots. Maybe they're hoping the aliens are color blind. One episode where you see the commander's house, what is supposed to be the home of a successful executive, looks like something from an episode of "Trading Spaces" that went horribly, horribly wrong.

For all that, this show is a wonder. In the days before George Lucas, Anderson's models and effects were state of the art and the writing, showing the possibility of a dark future that leaves you wondering, 'what if...' and isn't that what sci-fi is supposed to do?

Okay, so the stories weren't really great, and the acting is bad sometimes, but if you remember watching this TV show in early 1970, like I do, it is worth it to see it again! I had these recorded on audio tape (no videos back then). And it was quite nostalgic to hear them again. I've really enjoyed watching them and remembering being 12-13 years old right after American astronauts Armstrong and Alden had walked on the moon. A much simpler time.