Monday, October 27, 2008

UFO: Timelash

I don't often go about posting pirated YouTube clips (other than, you know, the stuff everyone else does ... like TV theme music videos!), but this one is special.

It's from the Gerry Anderson TV series UFO. Perhaps the best episode of the entire series, Timelash.

Veteran watchers of this series will notice some oddities in the theme visuals. Some shots have been reversed and "1980" has been replaced (badly!) with "1986." I don't know why. Nor do I understand why it starts with the NBC peacock logo. Plus, the Barry Gray theme music opens with a painfully slow tempo not present in the unmolested original.

Teleplay by Terence Feely, directed by Cyril Frankel.

It's important for people to understand that this was done decades before CGI. With that perspective in mind, the time-freeze special effects are even more incredible in retrospect.

This is a great piece of writing. The very long pre-UFO logo setup. Then the quick cutting summary to establish the mystery.

UFO was syndicated in the U.S. at the time. Several stations refused to air this episode due to the drug use. True to form, New York City didn't ban it. For some people who saw UFO at the time, this episode would have been brand new when buying DVD boxed set!

If you have an understanding of physics, this episode might irritate you. At the time, I didn't know the relevant physics, so I enjoyed it.

To see the rest, go to the post at the WordPress blog.

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