Cheap UFO Set 1 (DVD) (Gerry Anderson) Price

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Customer Reviews of UFO Set 1

Sixties Gold
I saw my first episodes of UFO when I went home from college one summer to find my parents glued to the set. I couldn't believe I hadn't heard a word about such a great series- the best I'd seen since Classic Trek!
Unlike most (all BBC) British series, this Gerry Anderson production had fantastic special effects and sets that still hold up very well today, although some are dated. It is a very believable alternate universe. As always, the strength of the series is in its character development. The pressure cooker-like stress on Cmdr Straker is enough to hook you- you keep expecting him to melt down or explode!
Unfortunately, my favorite episode ("Kill Straker!") was not on this set, so I am eagerly awaiting Set Two.
The four discs had beautiful portraits of the major characters, although the plastic package might have been better designed,
and a booklet would have been nice. The vivid color and picture quality was fantastic!
I'll never understand why this series was shelved to make "Space:1999" - one of the all-time turkeys of SF. (You can't tell me THAT commander wouldn't have been spaced out the airlock the 2nd time- if not the 1st time- he got someone killed for no reason). Straker got some people killed, but he always had a good reason, and he put himself on the line too (you REALLY have to see "Kill Straker!")
Highly recommended!

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It doesn't get any better than this!
If you look up "cool" in the dictionary, you will find a cast photo from Gerry Anderson's 1969-1970 cult classic TV series "UFO." It's too bad this series lasted only one season. It's an unusual mix of American and British ideas, something that doesn't happen much in British or American TV.

At first I thought the series (especially the pilot episode) was like watching Austin Powers played straight, but it soon became evident that there was much more to the series than that. Sure, it has the Sixties look with clothes and decor and cool cars, but the overall storyline contains depth. And as it progresses, the stories become darker and more multi-layered.

Set 2, which contains the last 13 episodes, deals with more kidnappings and multilations by the aliens who are out to harvest the organs of earthlings, but all this just proves the point of how important SHADO was (is?) to the protection of planet Earth and to the human race.

So buy Set 1 and give yourself some time to get into the characters and it won't take long before you find yourself on a roller coaster ride enjoying some first class sci-fi adventures. I have a feeling that by the time you get to episode 13 in Set 1, you will have to have Set 2 of "UFO" in your collection so you can see the whole ball of wax.

Long live Commander Straker (Ed Bishop), sci-fi guru Gerry Anderson and all the other talented people who brought "UFO" to life in the distant future of... 1980. Yep, you heard right, 1980!

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Saving the earth in miniskirts and go-go boots!!
The time is 1980, a scant ten years from the show's inception. Technology has leapfrogged. There is now a base on the moon. It's unclear from the show whose base it is, since the commander of all the SHADO forces is American, yet all the personnel are British. Maybe it's a joint effort. Space travel is relatively effortless--people trek from the earth to the moon the same way they go out to the store for groceries, or at least the military types do. The head of SHADO is a crusty chain-smoking military type named Ed Straker, though we are not sure exactly which government he works for. Maybe he's an Independent Contractor. Anyway, Eddie has never smiled in his life. He always seems to have the world on his shoulders. (Well, he does, literally.) Eddie has so many personality disorders that it's amazing he's trusted with billions of dollars of equipment that can destroy the world. I mean, don't high-ranking military types have to pass some sort of psychological test before they let them play with H-bombs? One thing's for sure: he sure has a lot of toys at his disposal: there's Skydiver, which is a submarine fitted with an airplane that blasts off. Considering Newton's Second Law, I don't know how the rocket doesn't blow the submarine backwards into the continental shelf, but somehow it doesn't. I also don't know how the heck it links back up again later--they never show you that part. But back to Ed's toys: he has three interceptors that hunt for UFOs on the moon. Each interceptor is equipped with exactly *one* missile. I know the Carter Administration cut back the military in the 70s, but this is ridiculous! The aliens are always considerate, however, and rarely send more than three ships at a time, so as not to overwhelm the human defenses. They wouldn't be unsporting and send, maybe, 100 UFOs and wipe us out. Finally in the artillary collection there are the "mobiles," which are giant trucks with radar and lots of flashing lights. All the action is monitored by SID, a forerunner of HAL, a giant orbiting observatory that apparently has Sir Ian McKellen locked inside. ("Eeeuu-eff-ooh heading for earth at four-decimal-threee...") You expect SID to launch into a soliloquy from Hamlet, but he never does.

Now, the world at large doesn't know earth is being attacked by aliens, who want to, alternately, steal our organs, cohabitate with us, or make us breathe green liquid. The world thinks Ed Straker is a movie producer (!!) who goes to work in a studio in London every morning in his cool aerodynamic car. Actually he does, and then he locks himself in his office, announces his name, and *the whole office* lowers itself underground, to his secret SHADO base. Once he forgot his lunch, and his secretary had to go to the empty elevator shaft and throw it down to him, but it's still not clear if she knows he's leading a double life. His ex-wife certainly didn't know. She thought he was spending too much time at the office and divorced him. In reality he may have been spending too much time with the chicks with purple hair. Eddie is always finding excuses to visit these moon-babes, because, as I said, this is about as easy as running to the store for a quart of milk. No explanation for the purple wigs is given. There's been speculation over the years--was it a code for lesbianism? Just some oh-so-mod 60s fashion thing? Producer Gerry Anderson and his fashion-designer wife Sylvia insist there's no hidding meaning, but that hasn't stopped suspicion, even though the women don't have colored handkerchiefs sticking out of their back pockets. At any rate, the sole purpose of the four chicks on the moon seems to be to walk about in silver go-go boots and micro-minis while the camera lingers at thigh-level. I'm surprised they aren't shown dancing in cages. Judging from the costumes all the women wear and the fact that all female personnel are young and babe-like (and wear more mascara than a hooker at the Nevada Hilton), one would conclude the attitude around SHADO was extremely sexist, and would not be tolerated in these more enlightened times of skin-tight jeans and cropped baby-tees.

The tone of the show is pretty heavy. By that I mean everyone stands around looking at each other grimly saying things like, "The aliens are evading our defenses." "Yes. That must mean they're getting through." "Yes." "And if they're getting through, they must want to come here pretty badly." "Yes." "But why? What do they want?" "I don't know." "Well, d---it! You're supposed to know! Go lock yourself in your office with a miniskirted go-go girl and don't come out until you have an answer for me, Colonel!" Robert Towne it isn't.

Some have said the special effects are cheesy. I think they are actually quite respectable considering the budget, and the fact that this was only a few years after Star Trek (talk about cheesy effects). What's perhaps most effective about the whole show, that I've never seen commented on, is that there are often long sequences where no words are spoken, where the viewer has to put things together or divine the aliens' intentions. I wonder how much of a Kubrick 2001 influence there was when it comes to this, but some of the most memorable bits are when there is no dialogue at all, and it usually involves something the aliens are up to. We never do conclusively find out what they want with us. Maybe they're being driven to conquer earth by a crusty chain-smoking commander on their planet who says, "Why are they wearing go-go boots on the MOON? I want answers, d---it!"