Ford says he's been with SHADO for 2 years. But Confetti Check A-OK shows he's been there for at least 10 years. Which makes him quintiply s t u p i d!
Nah, I'm kidding. I like Ford really

Gabrielle Drake seems to momentarily forget her line 'Maintain tracking', but remembers just in time.

Mr Mahler looks like Space 1999s Ed Spencer.

'May I introduce our electronics expert, Virginia Lake' ...... and her ten storey hair-do!

The DVD contains an interesting commentary by Gerry Anderson on this ep. Although directed by himself, he does admit that this ep is a bit boring (padded with shots to introduce the show's settings).

The unisonmic tracking system (which tracks faster than light UFOs) mentioned seemed more appropriate for Star Trek than 1980. Quite a bit of technical breakthroughs happen within ten years!

Towards the end, an alien with Carlin's sister's transplanted heart is recovered. Shortly thereafter, a funeral (without a body) is held for Carlin's sister. An ethical question: Should SHADO have allowed her heart to be buried at the funeral?

I believe it is called a "Utronic" tracking system, and not unisonic.
Did anyone notice that Waterman's British acccent was dubbed over with an American accent. In Computer Affair, his British accent is back.
Gerry Anderson states that Lt Ellis is the Commander of Moonbase (he regards himself as ahead of his time for casting a female in that role). However, she really doesn't seem to have an air of authority in that get-up. The scene of her "undressing" might seem like a bit of gratuitous titillation but it does nicely showcase her gimmicky outfit (in which the legs can be removed and a skirt added to make it more casual).
The character of Alec is a real hoot. He seems to be an embodiment of sixties Bond style sexism. Today, his "flirting" with all the female characters would probably be regarded as sexual harrassment. His over the top checking out the bum of that SHADO operative was a bit unprofessional too. The playful aspect of his character does help to enliven the oh so serious atmosphere of SHADO. The funniest part about Alec is that he isn't very handsome, but he sure is a ladies' man. What chutzpah!

Some might think Anderson went overboard praising Ed Bishop's work on the series, but I have to agree. Ed is great, only he could be Straker!

Um, I think the stuff was referred to as "the neutronic equipment".

Sounded like Utronic to me.

We later find out that the aliens are harvesting human organs, so why are the aliens shooting at the three humans at the beginning with somekinda machine gun that puts big ol' holes in the body & can ruin the organs they want to harvest.

Jean goes flying backwards in such a way that makes her landing against the tree like she does unlikely.

Those aliens are bad shots. They can't even hit the road, much less the vehicles on it.

Surpisingly a motorcycle cop is knocked down even though he didn't seem that close to the explosion. Guess the explosion must have thrown up a rock that hit the guy just right. Same anti-nit for those holes in the car's windshield.

1980 sure doesn't look like I remember it.

NANJAO. Back in the late '80s or early '90s I designed a car for a character I had created. Looking at Striker's car in this ep I was surprised to see quite a few similarities. Guess that design got stuck in my head when I saw this show as a kid.

Anderson's commentary caught two nits I had. The office as elevator & why Lt. Ellis doesn't change into a fresh outfit.

I think if anyone had the name Gay in 1980 they would use a nickname or middle name instead. (Heck I knew a guy whose last name was Gaylord & he got a lot of flack over that in the '70s.)

Why is Striker risking security by telling Moonbase what the jet is carrying? Logically all he needed to say was, "Track this jet. Scan for and stop any UFOs that approach."

SID sure is a big ol' target. You'd thunk the aliens would try to blow it up.

Given SID's specific uses why only give the security code after giving it orders? Shouldn't the code be given before SID even responds?

Fortunately the alien ship doesn't have infra-red or radar capability so flying into clouds confuses it.

An alien body, containing who knows what kind of alien organisms, is carted around without being put into any kind of isolation device?

Also look at the anti-septic conditions of that operating room. The doctors don't even bother putting on their masks until they are just about to operate.

Striker says that bodies have been found mutilated around UFO sites & theorizes they were harvested for their organs.
Wouldn't it make more sense to just take the whole body and transport it back to their planet before butchering it for parts?

On moonbase they have that food dispenser with meals from various countries. What exactly constitutes "American Meals"? Hamburgers, milkshakes & apple pie? America is a melting pot of cultures. Our foods tend to be a mix & match of other cultures' foods. (Or do they mean American Indian Foods?)

Isn't there a dispensor for "English food" ?
Jack Chirac would not be amused.

Don't remember if English meals was one (what would that be, vowels & consanents? ;-). I do remember seeing Russian meals, though (Borsht & Vodka?)

The utronic equipment will allow them to track UFOs when they are travelling far in excess of the speed of light.

They then track the UFO at SOL 8 (1.5Million miles/sec is close enough to 8c as to not make a difference). How do they track the UFO without the utronic equipment installed?

The scene between Miss Ealand and Alec is deliberately Bond-esque.

Its interesting that Captain Carlin is allowed to smoke on Skydiver, although I have no idea if most navies currently prohibit smoking on subs.

The use of unguided rockets by Sky One is very 1950ish. By the start of the 1980s unguided rockets had largely been retired from air to air use. The interceptor missiles seem much the same, big unguided rockets with large, perhaps nuclear, warheads. Its also strange that Sky One doesn't seem to have any sort of onboard radar, as Carlin seems to have to rely solely on his eyes to find the UFO.

Perhaps the aliens take organs while on Earth instead of whole bodies because they're needed immediately. And it could be that they don't have the facilities to regularly carry complete bodies, dead or alive, to their homeworld.

A lot of the stuff seems like futuristic for futuristic's sake, like the booze dispenser in Straker's office and Lt. Ellis's "convertable" outfit. I think the Space: 1999 opener "Breakaway" did a better, more subtle job of introducing us to tech from the series.

They rather missed the boat as far as predicting the look of 1980. Its as if much of fashion and design froze in 1968. In fact the Nehru style jackets and such probably were starting to look kind of dated by the time the show actually aired.

I had a funny thought during my most recent viewing of this episode.
All this time I always considered Alec's reaction to that beautiful woman greeting him at SHADO Control as just him leering at a hotter-than-usual operative, but a thought occured to me; Straker, Foster, and Freeman are supposedly movie executives up top at Harlington-Straker, so what if this woman is not only part of SHADO and the movie business, but also a famous actress? What if Alec's reaction is not just 'Hey, she's hot', but would be something along the lines of 'Hey, she's hot
...waitaminute! That's Catherine Zeta-Jones!' (Or the equivalent 1980 / UFO-universe actress).

They did used to let people smoke on submarines not sure when they stopped tho probably about the same time this episode was set.

History repeats itself in the UFO universe. In the pilot for 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', Admiral Nelson's car is attacked by an enemy helicopter, but he survives the car crash that results, just as Straker did.

KAM - "SID sure is a big ol' target. You'd thunk the aliens would try to blow it up."

I don't know what episode it is, but SID is damaged and sent spiraling away, saying, "I've been hit...I've been hit...", with 'his' voice slowly winding down.

In Gerry Anderson's commentary, he acknowledges that he made a mistake by not having an engine sound effect for the interceptors at first, because it wasn't realistic. Meanwhile, the UFO is heard as it flies in space with that cool, unique warbling sound.

The DVD extras include an alternate version of the opening scene, and it's very bloody, so I can see why it's not used. The woman that gets shot is seen, bullet-ridden, slumping slowly to the ground by the tree, and Carlin suffers abdominal injuries that should have killed him, but there he is, in command of Skydiver 1 years later.
The real episode cuts away a few seconds earlier, but Straker, after the attack, is seen coughing up a mouthful of blood.

I didn't find this episode boring. Every break ended with suspense, and any series's Episode One needs some exposition to lay down the basic premise for viewers.

My question is; at the end of the end credits, we see a planet or planetoid rather close to Earth, but it's not the Moon, because we can see the Moon near Earth.
I'm assuming it's the alien's home world, but it's too close to be Mars, so...cloaked planet that we can't see? How does that work?

The same issue of access to attack Earth reoccurs in Star Trek - Deep Space 9, and DS9's access to Bajor.
Namely, whatever direction the aliens are coming from, eventually Earth's orbit carries it to the other side of the Sun, so unless the aliens are travelling even further to reach Earth, attacks would only be feasible for less than 6 months of the year. The DS9 similarity would be that the station remains stationary near the Wormhole, while Bajor eventually orbits to the other side of the solar system around it's sun, placing it very far from DS9.

I thought this was a fine 'establishing shot' episode to kick off the series.

Agree with Steve, the UFO sound effect is iconic. Very well done....it exudes menace.

Isn't "English food" an oxymoron?

I kid, I kid....

The older it gets the stronger my sense of nostalgia grows for this 70's show, filmed just after the '60's ended. I got into it right away because of the models ships and special effects, because at the time I wasn't interested in the drama and human conflict-- I wanted to see more of the Skydiver and the Interceptors!
Can't believe this was filmed less than a year after Trek was cancelled-- they're so different in story-telling and premise.
But I remember liking how tough Straker was, and how cool Foster was-- pilot, astronaut, ladies man, sideburns. I probably hoped to grow up looking like him.
So, Eric, any theories on what that planet or planetoid or asteroid is at the end cedits?

Unsure. It isnt the aliens' home planet. I seem to recall in "Close-Up" that that planet is much further away from earth.

I have always appreciated the darker themes in this show, many episodes end in a quite downbeat manner.

I think 'UFO' might hold the record for most down beat/sad endings for a series. 1999, Trek, Doctor Who-- they've done it, too, but UFO does seem to have enough to count them as a 'bunch'.

Not to digress, but Gerry also seemed to gravitate that way in earlier shows like Captain Scarlet. For a kids' marionation show, CS had more shootings, killings, bombings, and pessimistic endings than I've ever seen.

UFO seemed to continue the trend.