Rating: 
Summary: Tackier Than I Remember, And That's Good!
Review: "UFO" had one of the most dynamic title sequences in television history. A great theme song, with a jazzy organ and brass group playing the theme and some fantastic editing of the notable Gerry Anderson FX cut with a teletype machine giving you facts about the SHADO organisation (well, it is British!) and the faces of the lead characters, finishing with the interceptors destroying a UFO right on beat!But beyond that, the show itself was an interesting one. It's funny seeing it now, since we're much farther away from the futuristic year of 1980 than the people who made it were at the time! Cars with gullwing doors, guys (and even doctors!) wearing Nehru suits. And, of course, an established base on the Moon, (complete with girls in Nancy Sinatra white go-go boots, silver lamé jumpsuits and pastel purple wigs!) to prevent evil aliens from invading. It's clearly a late 60s view of the early 80s, and that makes this series fascinating enough and tacky enough to recommend on its own! Beyond that, this DVD collection has a lot going for it. In addition to all of the episodes, carefully preserved by A&E, you get some bonus deleted scenes and/or other fx on each one of the eight disc collection. And the stories themselves are intriguing as they are improbable, so that's pretty entertaining! It may not be Gerry Anderson's most famous work (cult kids classic, "The Thunderbirds" and "Space: 1999" are sure to be better known), but I think it's the best of the bunch! Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Tackier Than I Remember, And That's Good!
Review: "UFO" had one of the most dynamic title sequences in television history. A great theme song, with a jazzy organ and brass group playing the theme and some fantastic editing of the notable Gerry Anderson FX cut with a teletype machine giving you facts about the SHADO organisation (well, it is British!) and the faces of the lead characters, finishing with the interceptors destroying a UFO right on beat! But beyond that, the show itself was an interesting one. It's funny seeing it now, since we're much farther away from the futuristic year of 1980 than the people who made it were at the time! Cars with gullwing doors, guys (and even doctors!) wearing Nehru suits. And, of course, an established base on the Moon, (complete with girls in Nancy Sinatra white go-go boots, silver lamé jumpsuits and pastel purple wigs!) to prevent evil aliens from invading. It's clearly a late 60s view of the early 80s, and that makes this series fascinating enough and tacky enough to recommend on its own! Beyond that, this DVD collection has a lot going for it. In addition to all of the episodes, carefully preserved by A&E, you get some bonus deleted scenes and/or other fx on each one of the eight disc collection. And the stories themselves are intriguing as they are improbable, so that's pretty entertaining! It may not be Gerry Anderson's most famous work (cult kids classic, "The Thunderbirds" and "Space: 1999" are sure to be better known), but I think it's the best of the bunch! Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE GROOVIEST KIND
Review: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson have long been hailed as the 20th Century's answer to Jules Verne - with foresight and vision far beyond the technology of the 1950's & 60's - Made in 1968, this series deals with the 'S.H.A.D.O' organisation, a covert section of a united world security council, who routinely patrol air, land, space and sea in search of hostile alien aircraft and subsequently destroy them. With the aid of the Space monitoring station S.I.D and a defence base on the luna surface, they feature amazingly advanced aircraft and gadetry that would make Flash Gordon run away to his papier-mache-ed spce ship. The former husband and wife duo who brought children around the world the amazing "Sting-ray', 'Fireball-XL5', 'Space 1999' (featuring Martin Landau & Barbara Bain)and of course the 'FAB'-ulous Thunderbirds they have amassed a world-wide following with the brilliance of their work and clairvoyant-like view of the future (although we aren't quite living on the moon as yet in 2004)- a wonderful live action series that appeals to both old kids and young. Ed Bishop plays Commander Straker (he also supplied the vocal talent for "Captain Blue" in the Anderson childrens series: 'Captain Scarlett and the Mysterons' which was made at around the same time - a more technologically sophisticated 'supermarionation' series than 'Thunderbirds', however Thunderbirds is the benchmark for all fantasty/sci-fi TV buffs (especially us 'late baby-boomers' of the 1960's). The wardrobe styling is very 1968 with Nehru suits for the men and metallic miniskirts, purple wigs, clingy body-suits and go-go boots for the girls. Even the cars are way out - they 'out-Austin' Austin Powers!!! - hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I first saw it in 1969. Gerry and Sylvia ANderson are true visionaries, the likes of which are unlikely to be seen again
Cheers
Rating:
Summary: CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE GROOVIEST KIND
Review: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson have long been hailed as the 20th Century's answer to Jules Verne - with foresight and vision far beyond the technology of the 1950's & 60's - Made in 1968, this series deals with the 'S.H.A.D.O' organisation, a covert section of a united world security council, who routinely patrol air, land, space and sea in search of hostile alien aircraft and subsequently destroy them. With the aid of the Space monitoring station S.I.D and a defence base on the luna surface, they feature amazingly advanced aircraft and gadetry that would make Flash Gordon run away to his papier-mache-ed spce ship. The former husband and wife duo who brought children around the world the amazing "Sting-ray', 'Fireball-XL5', 'Space 1999' (featuring Martin Landau & Barbara Bain)and of course the 'FAB'-ulous Thunderbirds they have amassed a world-wide following with the brilliance of their work and clairvoyant-like view of the future (although we aren't quite living on the moon as yet in 2004)- a wonderful live action series that appeals to both old kids and young. Ed Bishop plays Commander Straker (he also supplied the vocal talent for "Captain Blue" in the Anderson childrens series: 'Captain Scarlett and the Mysterons' which was made at around the same time - a more technologically sophisticated 'supermarionation' series than 'Thunderbirds', however Thunderbirds is the benchmark for all fantasty/sci-fi TV buffs (especially us 'late baby-boomers' of the 1960's). The wardrobe styling is very 1968 with Nehru suits for the men and metallic miniskirts, purple wigs, clingy body-suits and go-go boots for the girls. Even the cars are way out - they 'out-Austin' Austin Powers!!! - hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I first saw it in 1969. Gerry and Sylvia ANderson are true visionaries, the likes of which are unlikely to be seen again
Cheers
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a Look . . . If You Can Afford It
Review: Gerry Anderson's first live-action adventure remains a unique television effort worth at least one viewing by sci-fi buffs. For starters, "UFO" features the funky groove, jazzy music, and moody themes that signified the waning days of the 1960s (even if the show is set in the "distant" future of the 1980s). Beyond that, it's got some of the coolest toys of any show of the period--not very realistic, of course, but certainly enough to get the 12-year-olds in all of us salivating. Predicting the X-Files (but aping the Quatermass films and others of the genre), the show presupposes that Earth is already under attack by alien forces, and it's up to a supersecret government agency (under the guise of a movie studio--brilliant!) to foil the invasion. Ed Bishop plays Commander Straker, the cerebral leader of SHADO, with exactly the correct grounding to make purple-haired moonmaidens, a jet-firing submarine, and wobbly flying saucers believable. What's more, many episodes have a truly creepy edge, especially when we get glimpses of the humanoid aliens, here to steal our organs! Anderson would have slightly more success with this show's sequel, "Space: 1999," but never with the same combination of sheer imagination and atmosphere, even if many of the elements will seem campy to contemporary viewers. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Worth a Look . . . If You Can Afford It
Review: Gerry Anderson's first live-action adventure remains a unique television effort worth at least one viewing by sci-fi buffs. For starters, "UFO" features the funky groove, jazzy music, and moody themes that signified the waning days of the 1960s (even if the show is set in the "distant" future of the 1980s). Beyond that, it's got some of the coolest toys of any show of the period--not very realistic, of course, but certainly enough to get the 12-year-olds in all of us salivating. Predicting the X-Files (but aping the Quatermass films and others of the genre), the show presupposes that Earth is already under attack by alien forces, and it's up to a supersecret government agency (under the guise of a movie studio--brilliant!) to foil the invasion. Ed Bishop plays Commander Straker, the cerebral leader of SHADO, with exactly the correct grounding to make purple-haired moonmaidens, a jet-firing submarine, and wobbly flying saucers believable. What's more, many episodes have a truly creepy edge, especially when we get glimpses of the humanoid aliens, here to steal our organs! Anderson would have slightly more success with this show's sequel, "Space: 1999," but never with the same combination of sheer imagination and atmosphere, even if many of the elements will seem campy to contemporary viewers. (...)
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST SF TV SERIES EVER MADE!!!
Review: I am happy to admit that I used to be so totally nuts about this show that I drove everyone crazy talking about how exceptionally brilliant it was. Now that I own DVDs of just about everything ever made in the SF/Fantasy genre, I can be a bit more objective. Some episodes, like Flightpath, Computer Affair, Dalotek Affair and Close up are a bit slow and boring, despite some strong scenes and great FX work for the period. The introduction of Paul Foster adds some interest because you get a hero, (if a bit of a shallow one!) and his Mulder-like attempts to crack a government cover-up of UFO attacks is intriguing and his offer of a place in an organization where he will be trained to fly jets, command Moonbase and fight aliens is the kind of wish fulfillment fantasy that makes every kid go "I wish that would happen to me, that'd be so cool!" And soon he is flying Sky 1, meeting aliens, getting accused of being a traitor, and generally getting into scrapes and adventures that grab the audience enough for us to learn interesting lessons (Such as the aliens aren't all automatically evil, as in "Survival") from his new-comer's point of view.
The series really hits its stride, however, about mid season, when the writers realise that the most interesting character is Commander Straker, and they focus on his character. Straker infamously loses a marriage and then a son and finally almost goes nuts from claustrophobia in three power-house drama episodes, "Confetti Check AOK", "A Question of Priorities" and "Sub-Smash" and opens up about it all to a lady friend in the interesting "Responsibility Seat", just before the major overhaul the series gets when Virginia Lake replaces Alec Freeman and the series switches to its last eight or nine episodes. This last batch features faster pace, less focus on the hardware and a lot of scripts by writers David Tomblin and Terrance Feely (who wrote for Patrick McGoohan's cult surrealistic series The Prisoner) and a contribution from ex Dr.Who scripter Dennis Spooner. These eps include such great stuff as "Reflections in the Water" about evil alien duplicates of our heroes and a massive UFO attack, "Timelash" which is the fastest and probably best episode where Straker fights a UFO and a human traitor during a time freeze, "Mindbender" which is truly trippy and disturbing, and the haunting "The Long Sleep". There's a lot of drugs, violence, sexiness and controversy in the last half of the series and all of this adds interest to a show which can be seen as getting better and better as it goes along.
Yes, the costumes are over the top, and yes, the music can be weird and too sixties, and yes, some of the early eps are a bit boring and slow and predictable. But overall, UFO grows into, in it's second half, one of the best SF shows ever made. It's worth your patience, and it is rewarding. Space:1999, the sequel series, is also recommended and if you watch this, followed by the two seasons of 1999, it becomes apparent that starchy adherence to realism slowly falls away until, by the last of 1999, it is pure, freewheeling imagination at work, and that is what makes Gerry and Sylvia Andersons three years of live action SF so compelling. Pure imagination and great story telling.
Rating:
Summary: HELLOOOO,GREAT STUFF HERE!!!
Review: I first saw the show UFO in the mid 70's on saturday afternoons, liked it for it's "ufo" encounters(hey I was just a kid then). Then the sci-fi channel began rebroadcasting them on Sunday afternoons for about a year. Being an adult, I really began getting into them. As another review says, it's intelligent sci-fi, not full of hokey xplosions and wows. Sure it's dated(it was made in 1969) but it's still fun stuff. excellent acting, very good scripts puts this show heads and shoulders above most others. Also, for you computer gamers out there, UFO was the inspiration for the classic game X-COM:UFO DEFENSE created by Mythos games(from England) and published by Microprose. Just get it;you won't be disappointed and this megaset includes the entire 2 seasons in one package at a lower price than for the season 1,season 2 editions.
Rating:
Summary: I am soooo looking forward to this!
Review: I haven't seen "UFO" in over thirty years; but now, thanks to the Internet and Amazon, I can now enjoy it and relive childhood memories. My next purchase should be the "Space: 1999" Megaset followed by "Star Trek", the original series. Thanks Amazon!
Rating:
Summary: very pleased with the service
Review: I ordered the complete set from caiman. It was delivered very promptly. The set was at a lower priced, but It was in its original package. The seller was also very kind as to includea complementary cassette of latin music.
I was very pleased. F. A. Lafayette, Louisiana
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