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UFO - Volumes 1-4 Collector's Edition [1970]

RRP: £49.99
Our Price: £23.13 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

UFO was Gerry Anderson's first live-action TV series after a decade of producing such children's animated classics as Stingray (1963) and Thunderbirds (1964). The premise of UFO, which ran for a single season of 26 episodes, was like a more serious version of Anderson's Captain Scarlet (1967)--in the near future of 1980 a hi-tech secret organisation, SHADO, waged covert war against mysterious alien attackers. Ed Bishop played the American head of SHADO--he had had previously featured in Captain Scarlet and Anderson's Doppelganger (1969)--though in all other respects this was a thoroughly British production. As with all Anderson series UFO evidenced remarkable technological inventiveness and groundbreaking production values, coupled with startling lapses in fundamental logic too numerous to list.

Much more adult in story and content than earlier Anderson productions, and surprisingly dark with its pragmatic view of human nature and downbeat endings, the show now seems like a forerunner of The X Files and the equally short-lived Dark Skies (1996). Barry Gray's memorable theme and atmospheric music greatly enhanced the overall impact. Stylishly made, though terribly sexist by current standards and featuring eye-catching costumes more fitted for a camp fancy dress party than the front line of a futuristic war, this cult classic eventually evolved into Space 1999 (1975).

On the DVD: this four-disc deluxe box features the first 13 episodes. The box set has five free postcards and a booklet offering interesting background on the programme. The first disc includes an alternate, more violent opening scene, while later discs feature text transcriptions and photographs from scenes cut due to TV running time restrictions. All discs provide extensive galleries of publicity and behind the scenes photos, as well as character profiles or a history of SHADO. The opening episode, "Identified", features a commentary by Gerry Anderson, in which he talks in general about the production of the series and Ed Bishop does the same for the episode "Sub Smash". From the animated menus onwards these DVDs have been beautifully designed and produced. The mono sound is exceptionally strong and the restored and remastered picture is almost unbelievably good for a 1970 TV show. With barely a flaw anywhere the episodes look so clear, colourful and detailed that they could have been filmed last week. --Gary S Dalkin

The BEST Gerry Anderson One Of All?
Review date: 2007-08-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

Of all the Gerry Anderson series I watched (from Supercar to Terrahawks) THIS one is my favourite (my son loves it too!) and it's regularly played on the DVD player. The story telling and production is so good one forgets the "High Sixties" fashions and other quirks which may have severely dated this series otherwise.

To be honest, UFO, to me, was a bit off beat even for 1970. At that time, we were treated to some wonderful, slightly off the wall fantasy drama series like The Avengers, Danger Man, The Champions and the the most surreal one of all, The Prisoner, but UFO gave it another dimension in my opinion. It could almost have been believable back then in a way that The X Files could have been in the nineties...

This series appeals on so many levels it's hard for me to be specific. Most of the stories had a more adult tone (the ending of A Question Of Priorities still sends shivers down my spine and I still get freaked by Mindbender...), although there was always something there for younger viewers -the effects were absolutely superb, combining live action with amazing model sequences - . The followup series Space 1999, went straight back to "kids TV" level (ugghh!) and was a far safer bet as a series for the TV networks to show.

I'd love an updated version of the series to be made now, not like the brightly coloured campfest of Doctor Who today, but a bit "dangerous," something to make the audience think a bit just like these episodes often do, when Straker and Shado don't always get it right...

A MASTERPIECE of a series; one to watch in the early hours of the morning in almost total darkness....

RECOMMENDED!

Reviews

Total Brilliance
Review date: 2007-07-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a wonderful TV series. I remember seeing it as a child and being totally obsessed by it. Back in the 70's it was absolutely mind blowing and terrifically exciting. The Shado interceptors, the wonderful UFO's, the purple hair. All of it still gave me a huge thrill today as a slightly jaded 40 something. A few years ago I bumped into Ed Bishop (who plays 'Straker') and managed to burble to him how much I loved the show, and I'm glad I did. He's just so perfect in the role it seems. Playing the lonely man at the top destined to protect us from the evil Aliens. What a hero. OK, so by todays standards the fx arn't that realistic. Everybody seems to smoke at work (I half expected to see Straker light up in his space suit, he smokes so much!). But, the stories are great and if you're a child of the 70's it will take you back with a nice warm glow.

Brilliant
Review date: 2007-06-23 Rating: 10 out of 10

There is no doubt about it, Gerry Anderson was/is a genius. Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet are two of the greatest ever kids TV programs ever made. Actually I'm not sure they were purely kids programs, I seem to remember my Dad watching them. Anderson then turned his hand to live-action for the first time in UFO, and he created another classic.

The marvellous opening credit sequence is a great start. The music by Barry Gray is quite brilliant and its worth having the DVD's for the credit sequence alone. Some of the rest of the show has dated a bit, Ed Strakers car and the frankly cheesy 70's costumes now look, well odd! However the stories are good, the acting is generally good and as always Gerry Anderson and his team designed some superb models for the show. As I recollect a couple of episodes were even banned from being shown for a while becuase of their content. No doubt these would seem tame now now, but I'm sure this is true.

This is a far better series than Space 1999, which for me never quite worked and I recommend it strongly.

Before there was Space 1999, there was SHADO....
Review date: 2007-05-12 Rating: 8 out of 10

This was Gerry Anderson's first series using real "live" actors--his previous efforts were mostly sophisticated children's fare filmed in Supermarination, shows like "Stingray" and "Captain Scarlett"--basically impressively detailed puppets used on scaled-down sets. UFO is an interesting pop artifact from 1969-70 about an elite paramilitary organization--SHADO--dedicated to fighting a worldwide threat from an alien race. Although somewhat dated, the series has an expensive look to it--the use of miniatures and special effects are impressive as is the costume design, the cars, the sets, and yes, those crazy purple wigs (never explained)--but the acting remains
somewhat wooden especially in the lead players with the exception of George Sewell, a noted English TV actor who has appeared in many fine UK dramas such as Special Branch and Public Eye. Many see the series as a precursor to Space 1999, but the similarity ends there. In UFO, there was no real attempt to understand the alien race-just to destroy them. Space 1999, for all its faults, at least attempted to explore the "let's just try to communicate with them" theme four years later. As a result, these green skinned aliens from UFO--albeit very human looking ones (low rent special effects here--just extras from Pinewood Studios with green makeup on their hands and faces) only serve as merely cannon fodder for our intrepid band of 70's mod superheroes. But if you like British sci-fi like I do, then give this set a spin on your DVD player.

great show
Review date: 2006-12-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

The official reviews quotes the box as saying
"The mono sound is exceptionally strong and the restored and remastered picture is almost unbelievably good for a 1970 TV show. With barely a flaw anywhere the episodes look so clear, colourful and detailed that they could have been filmed last week."

It is only different for British TV because unlike American TV in those days British TV rarely used 35mm film stock. Beyond that the picture quality is a result of the best of then and the best of now. The picture is as it was because it was edited not on an electronic system like today but cut on film-stock and of course it is shot in Academy ratio which fits perfectly into traditional 4:3 TV ratio for full resolution. This production was made in an analogue age an age in which digital compression was not around to compromised the quality of so much of what we see and hear today. As for the restoration in the digital domain this has been done very well using the best digital restoration techniques to get back to the look and quality of the analogue of the early 1970's. This can only be done by applying the highest bit rate and the least or no compression in the restoration process. For those of you who are too young to have watched British TV in the early 1970's KNOW THIS that the stunning picture quality and photographic depth of field you get from this show is how TV was then. Look at FREEVIEW or SKY digital then look at this well authored DVD set. These DVD's have reproduced that 70's quality. When did any digital TV channel look like this? With the right AV gear you can produce more resolution and depth of field from these SD DVD's than you will ever see off one of SKY's low bit rate so-called HD
channels. Today they are trying to tell us that 16meg 1080 transmission from SKY is High Definition...(real HDTV would be 32meg) but back when UFO came on in the age of analogue transmission and Decca and Grundig TV sets the photograph definition of TV blew away any of today's data compressed TV transmissions. These well authored DVD's of these well restored UFO masters allow you to have that experience. Try and use a 4:3 TV or get yourself a video projector with either a 1:1 ratio pull-down screen or a 4:3 ratio pull-up portable screen. An added tip or two, go for a XGA (1024x768pixel) 4:3 native LCD projector and a AVT3800 ImageMax Plus Video Scaler the latter from Keene Electronics.

Product Details/Specifications

Actor(s):
Grant Taylor
Harry Baird
George Sewell
Ed Bishop
Gabrielle Drake

Recording label: ITV DVD
Manufacturer: ITV DVD
EAN: 5037115024138
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 4
Format: Box set, PAL,
Release date: 2002-03-18
Number of discs: 4
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 620 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1971-06-08
Language: English (Original Language)

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UFO - Volumes 1-4 Collector's Edition [1970]

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