Thanks for showing some of the connections here, Prof.
Perhaps other shows would have had their murder plot foiled. Some tip off or rogue action by Foster. Not here folks. Nothing can be allowed to reveal SHADO's purpose.
No doubt the couple would wonder why the date they had planned for came and went. But they're not deterred.
Why did it end up at that house? Perhaps the husband was actually working with the aliens, and the murderers did us a favour.
It's a morally dark episode. Straker protects his organisation, allowing murder and forced drugging along the way. The show's action hero, Foster, is happy to let it all happen. The husband isn't that nice a person, and his wife and lover are murderers. The forester is also murdered, as is the alien who was up to no good anyway. The hero, and moral bright spot, is the forester's dog. who tracks the alien. Perhaps Henderson has a point about the funding, if SHADO rely on stray doggies.
A final thought for George Sewell. He's now reduced to confirming a dog collar to an owner. When they felt they had to bring in Foster, it effectively replaced a number of characters, rather than set up a new dynamic. It's a tough ask to provide a triangle where Freeman would have been a balance between Foster and Straker, while also doing some of the nastier things Foster is not prepared to do.
This viewing, I was particularly interested in taking note of all the connections, MANY of which only become obvious if watched in the correct order. (I've seen the same thing on
NIGHT COURT's 2nd season, which I am convinced was not aired in the right order, either-- but nowhere near as bad as
UFO.)
Interesting possibility about the husband. I hated the man treating his wife as a piece of property; but there's a solution for that: "DIVORCE"!! I suppose the widow inherited his money this way.
SHADO consistently seems to focus MORE on absolute secrecy at all costs than it does on stopping the aliens! NUTS!!
I've heard that the ITC execs actually did not like George Sewell. Must have been lucky for them when during the break, he got another series and was unavailable. Wanda Ventham effectively replaced Sewell, although, in one episode, she replaced Gabrielle Drake, while in another, she replaced Gary Myers (Lt. Waterman). No matter how you look at it, though, it still makes more sense if seen in production order. (The only place
A&E Video screwed up was needlessly swapping "
Mindbender" and '
Timelash"; lucky for me, a Gerry Anderson fan site pointed out the glitch before I bought the DVDs.)
As I've done with various shows over the decades, I've recently "cast" 3 characters from
UFO in my own stories. (I've changed the names, of course.) But in MY universe, they're all MUCH-nicer people.
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