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U.F.O was a British television science fiction series created by Gerry Anderson. Anderson had previously made puppet science fiction series including Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. He had also made one live-action science fiction movie, Doppelganger, aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, and now felt ready to move into live-action television.
UFO first aired in the UK in 1970 and in US syndication over the next two years. There were 26 episodes including the pilot, filmed over the course of a year, with a five-month production break caused by the closure of the show's original studio.
The premise of the show was that in the near future (a fictional version of 1980) the Earth was under attack from aliens. Their spacecraft were only big enough to carry three or four people, and could only survive for a few hours in Earth's atmosphere before disintegrating or exploding. In flight they were surrounded by horizontally-spinning vanes and emitted a distinctive electronic whine (actually produced by series composer Barry Gray on an Ondes Martenot). They defended themselves with laser-type weapons, but could be destroyed by conventional explosives.
Captured aliens were almost human in appearance but breathed a blue, oxygenated liquid. It was believed that the liquid filled the UFOs in flight to cushion the crew against extreme acceleration. To protect their eyes from the liquid the aliens wore opaque contact lenses with small pinholes for vision. (The show's opening sequence begins by showing the removal of one of these lenses, which upset some squeamish viewers.)
To defend against the UFOs an organisation was set up called SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation). SHADO was based beneath a fictional movie studio (Harlington-Straker Studios) and was run by Commander Ed Straker (played by Ed Bishop), a former United States Air Force Colonel, now posing as the studio's chief executive. In reality of course the studio was the actual studio where the series was filmed - originally the MGM British Studios, later Pinewood Studios.
SHADO had a variety of hardware at its disposal including large Mobile vehicles with caterpillar tracks; Skydivers - submarines mated with sea-launched Sky fighter aircraft; and SID (Space Intruder Detector), a computerized tracking satellite. There was also a base on the moon from which Lunar Interceptors were launched. Special effects, as in Anderson's puppet shows, were by Derek Meddings.
The show's concept was very dark for its time - the basic premise was that the alien invaders were after human bodies to use as involuntary organ transplant donors. A later episode, "The Cat with Ten Lives", suggested that the UFO pilots were not humanoid aliens but human abductees under the control of non-human intelligences.
The show also focussed on the relationships between the human characters to a greater extent than usual in a science fiction series. One episode is entirely devoted to the breakdown of Straker's marriage, while another concerns his frantic effort to save the life of his critically-injured son by illegally diverting SHADO medical resources. Another episode is about a plot by a woman and her lover to murder her husband. When they accidentally kill a UFO pilot instead, SHADO intervenes and doses the guilty pair with amnesia drugs. But Straker realises the drugs will not affect their motivation, which means they will go ahead with their murder plot - and SHADO cannot interfere without blowing its cover.
Some critics complained that the emphasis on down-to-earth relationships weakened the show's science fiction premise and were also a means of saving money on special effects. Others suggested that they made the characters more three-dimensional than in other science fiction shows.
After the 26 eisodes were completed plans were drawn up for a sequel to be called UFO:1999 which would have been set in a much bigger Moonbase. The concept was eventually changed to a story about the moon being blown out of orbit and Moonbase along with it - Space: 1999.
The complete series has been released as a pair of digitally restored Region 2 DVD sets in the UK. Bonus features include a commentary by Anderson on the pilot episode "Identified", and an actor's commentary by Bishop on the episode "Sub-smash". There are also some deleted scenes and lots of stills and publicity artwork
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