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The premise is a simple one - aliens come to Earth in UFOs (pronounced You-fohs) to kidnap people and cause all manner of havoc. SHADO - Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organnization - is dedicated to defending the helpless planet. The vast majority of humanity knows nothing of the aliens or of SHADO.
The setting is 1980 as seen from 1969. Still psychedelic and decorated in hideously bright colours, but futuristic and with "better" aerodynamic lines, cooler cars and lots of space ships. Ties with suits are a thing of the past and so is racial discrimination. ("Hasn't been an issue for five years!" one of the heroes states at one point.) Oh, and everyone still lights up wherever they please - including on space ships and in submarines.
Run by the intrepid Commander Straker, SHADO has a secret underground base in London (underneath a film studio and Straker's cover is as a movie producer), a moon base complete with three high tech interceptors, a cool submarine that can also launch an interceptor, several mobile units, talking computer satellite to help track the You-fohs, a few planes and some shuttles to get back and forth to Moon Base. One assumes that there are other bases and resources since it's supposed to be a world wide organization, but these are all we really see.
Of course, the space interceptors only carry one missile each and they rely on Moon Base to tell them when and where to shoot, where and how to fly and pretty much everything short of the pilots wiping their own butts, so they're not really good for much. In the second episode, for example, the pilots don't seem to be capable of taking evasive action on their own, needing Moon Base to tell them what to do. Can we say cannon fodder boys and girls? Probably very expensive cannon fodder, but hey, it's TV.
Moon Base is populated by people (mostly hot babes) in skintight suits. The women there all wear purple wigs and bizarre makeup, but look normal if they return to Earth. The men look like men there and on Earth. I should mention that almost everyone's clothing is skin tight, designed to show off breasts (babes) and tushies (everyone). The uniform shirts for the sub crew are a mesh that doesn't use much fabric with regular long sleeves.
The writing is thin and repetitious, though it does show a tiny bit of originality (for the time) now and then. The acting falls mainly into the category of over as in overacting or over the top. Yeah, and you thought Shatner pushed things. Rather than dramatic moments, we're mostly given melodramatic moments. The UFOs appear to be silver painted shuttlecocks on top of pie plates spinning very quickly. The special effects were mostly mediovre even for the time, but it's a British production so had a ridiculously low budget.
There is that psychedelic theme music and a few explosions now and then, but there's often the feeling left over at the end that you were, in fact, watching something in Supermarionation. It might as well have been the Thunderbirds with a different premise.
And yet, I'll watch it. Not seriously, but laughing all the way. I know that's not what the Andersons intended, but it only holds up as humour.
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Page last updated: 24 Apr 2003.