oper@uwmacc.UUCP (Unix operator) (10/07/84)
<I don't know why this must be here, but I'll follow any dumb precedent:-)> Although UFO was only on in my area (everywhere?) for only one season, it was one of my favorite shows and I think that I can fire up the memory cells and dredge up some dusty recollections... There were several lines of defence set up to protect Earth from the aliens by the psuedo-military organization called SHADO (Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defense Organisation). The first were Interceptors 1-3 based on the SHADO moonbase which would be launched when the bad guys were detected. The Interceptors were small, one- man craft which carried only one missile each with which to destroy the alien craft (I never understood why only one since if there were more than 3 craft, you couldn't stop them all. I suppose this gave them some additional story lines. Don't you just love it when someone has a parenthetical comment which lasts so long that you don't recall what was being said when it started?? :-)). Moonbase (it's actual name?) was staffed primarily by women who dressed in silver suits and silver wigs, the latter supposedly to prevent static but they were probably used to make things look more 'space/futuristic-like'. Impending raids on Earth by the aliens were detected by the Space Intruder Detector (SID) satellite which was stationed in Earth orbit. I always thought this device looked odd since it appeared to have a 'face' at one end made up of various sensor devices probably. The satellite was apparently artificially intellegent to some degree, and spoke with quite a proper British accent. Should one or more of the alien craft make it past the Interceptors and into Earth's atmosphere, there were 2 more lines of defence (at least). For interception while the craft was still airborne, SHADO called on the underwater ship SKYDIVER 1, whose front end was a jet/rocket fighter craft named SKY 1. When it had flown off, the submarine portion of the ship was called (can you guess?) DIVER 1. Should the aliens land somewhere on Earth (usually in England, wonder of wonders! :-)), then the SHADO-mobiles (1-3?) were dispatched. These vehicles were like all-terrain vans that carried appropriate detection gear and weaponry (laser rifles?) to dispatch the aliens. The main SHADO HQ was located underneath an english film studio which existed solely as a front for SHADO and it's officers, and was never supposed to make a profit since government agencies aren't supposed to do that. Therefore, all it's movies had to be 100% guaranteed flops. One of the shows had a humorous sub-plot involving a director who didn't want to make a bad movie and had to be convinced by the studio/SHADO head that he hadn't any choice in the matter. The SHADO leader had white (silver? blonde? if only we'd had a color tv!!) hair and was named Straker, I believe. His office at the studio was also the entrance into SHADO, and it would descend like an elevator if you had a voice print on record with the computer. (Gee, the more I go on with this, the more I remember. Or maybe the more I *think* I remember!) I believe that one of the officers was named Paul something, and in one episode he was under suspicion of spying on SHADO and almost executed. Of sourse we all remember why the aliens were raiding Earth. Their race was dying from some great disaster or disease or something, and they were stealing Earth people to use their organs for transplants. Apparantly the body chemistries between the two species were a VERY close match. That's just about it for detail. Most of the rest that I recall is just fuzzy detail and a few scenes/plots,etc. I'd like to know several things about the show, though. (1) Was it produced for more than 1 year? (2) Is it currently being shown anywhere? (3) Who handles the distribution for the show so I can try to get a local station to show it? (*sigh* Not very likely, I know) I'm also interested in any other info on the show, or on any books about the show. Wait a minuite!! I remember buying several books based on the series, ala Blish/Foster!! Wow!! When I get home, my mom'll have to tell me where she's stashed all my old books so I can re-read them!! Well, I didn't expect this to take so many lines to get out of my system, but I guess my long-term memory was stuffed with more of this than I thought. I don't particularly want to be swamped with replies to my questions regarding this show, but if you really feel that you have some thorough information to share then please write. Also, put 'c/o Steve M.' in the subject line if you would, please. Apologies for all typos, spelling and grammatical errors, false info., etc. ============================================================================= "Can I just interrupt here and say that this is in fact the first time I've ever posted something to the net??" "No, there's no time for that! And now over to the election results in net.politics..."
oper@uwmacc.UUCP (Unix operator) (10/07/84)
[This line unintentionally not left blank, that is I thought I should, but...]
Sorry, I thought my .signature file would be included in my previous
posting regarding the UFO program. Apparantly I was wrong, so here it is,
you lucky people...
Steve Manning, Madison Academic Computing Center
...!{allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,uwm-evax}!uwvax!uwmacc!operpdbain@wateng.UUCP (Peter Bain) (10/09/84)
Wasn't there someone by the name of Henderson, who was a bureaucrat
(and hence a semi-villain) who did useful things like get money for the
whole operation? And don't forget the drug that made people forget
everything that had happened to them for the last 24 hours.
- peter bain
...!{allegra|decvax|clyde|ihnp4 }!watmath!wateng!pdbain
hard mail: CCNG, CPH-2369A, University of Waterloo,
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