UFO (TV series)
Television series | |
---|---|
German title | UFO |
Original title | UFO |
Country of production | United Kingdom |
original language | English |
Year (s) | 1970-1971 |
length | 48 minutes |
Episodes | 26th |
genre | Drama , science fiction |
idea | Gerry Anderson , Sylvia Anderson |
music | Barry Gray |
First broadcast | September 16, 1970 on ATV Midlands |
German-language first broadcast |
June 8, 1971 on ZDF |
occupation | |
|
UFO is a British science fiction - television series by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson , which was first aired from 1970 to 1971.
content
In the 1969/1970 produced 26 episodes fights the secret funded by several national governments organization SHADO (short for S upreme H eadquarters A lien D efence O rganization; English shadow = shadow.) In the 1980s against hostile aliens who kidnap people and threaten the earth. The headquarters of SHADO are located below a film studio in southern England to camouflage themselves. From here the different lines of defense are coordinated: an AI -controlled surveillance station in space ( SID ); the base of the moon, from which space fighters can be sent towards the UFOs; the multi-purpose submarine “Skydiver”, whose front half can uncouple and stop UFOs as an atmospheric interceptor, and the armored ground vehicles against UFOs that have already landed.
The motives of the aliens for their attacks are drawn in such a way that they are completely human-like and, as a “degenerating race” on an “exploited planet”, are interested in organs for transplants and generally in the resources of the earth. In doing so, they usually see people as they do pets or game. Only in the second half of the series does the possibility become clear that the human appearance of the aliens could be due to the fact that they psychologically control kidnapped human bodies. The origin of the aliens is never clarified, although in one episode a human spy probe arrives at their planet of origin - the photos from this probe are only incompletely transmitted (and over an unknown distance) to Earth.
In addition to the general will to survive and the prevailing good cooperation, people's interests are also characterized by recurring internal competition and mistrust, so that SHADO remains secret until the end of the series. Due to the lack of public awareness of the defensive war, SHADO can only fall back on limited resources, for which its boss has to struggle again and again.
The individual episodes of the series are largely conceived as self-contained stories that show different sides of the defensive war and the private lives of the human actors. In addition, there are a few characteristics that show an overarching development. This essentially refers to the continuous arms race between humans and extraterrestrials, the history of the human actors is sketched only partially or not at all with a few exceptions (Commander Straker). In the first episode, people achieve a localization breakthrough that enables reliable detection of the UFOs. Since the aliens, despite their laser-like weapons, are inferior to humans in direct space combat or aerial combat, SHADO now records kills continuously, mostly already in the outer defense ring (the moon base interceptors). The reasons shown in the series for this tactical inferiority of the UFOs are either their short weapon range or sluggish reaction times. In addition, for a long time the UFOs only attack individually or at most in threes. SHADO can also ward off espionage and infiltration attacks. From about the middle of the series onwards, the aliens vary their tactics more and more and rely more and more on PSI attacks, mostly of a hypnotic kind. People who are “upside down” carry out targeted attacks on SHADO leaders or attack entire facilities or combat vehicles as living bombs. Doppelgangers also appear in an episode. Once an "upside down" cat infiltrated the SHADO headquarters. Towards the end, entire UFO fleets are attacked for the first time, including with new water-air weapons. People react relatively sluggishly to this development. In terms of weapons, on the one hand, more skydivers and, on the other hand, lunar-based air defense vehicles are used, but overall both lines of defense remain thin; there is no development of new weapons and the lunar base itself is never expanded and secured in a more stable manner. The greatest losses, however, can be attributed to the fact that people are only very slow to adapt to the PSI attacks and are unable to mobilize much creativity to defend themselves until the end. There is no foresight in this area; it is left to spontaneous intuition and the tactical genius of the SHADO leadership to ward off the worst. Ultimately, this is enough to always be one step ahead of the aliens.
Episodes
Episodes that have not been dubbed are listed with the German title in italics. These titles were only given for DVD release.
Production sequence |
German title | Original title | First broadcast in Great Britain |
First broadcast in Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The first alarm | Identified | 09/16/1970 | 06/08/1971 |
2 | Computers don't lie | Computer affair | 05/15/1971 | 10/12/1971 |
3 | Treason in your own ranks | Flight path | 01/20/1971 | |
4th | Test pilot Paul Foster | Exposed | 09/23/1970 | 06/22/1971 |
5 | The encounter | Survival | 01/06/1971 | 07/06/1971 |
6th | Trap in space | Conflict | 07.10.1970 | 07/20/1971 |
7th | Moon base - please report | The Dalotek Affair | 02/10/1971 | 09/28/1971 |
8th | The stranger | A Question of Priorities | 10/14/1970 | 08/03/1971 |
9 | The abduction | Ordeal | 04/14/1971 | 08/17/1971 |
10 | SHADO calls Sovatex | The Responsibility Seat | 03/08/1973 | 10/26/1971 |
11 | A murderous plan | The Square Triangle | December 9, 1970 | |
12 | Military court | Court Martial | 05/01/1971 | |
13 | destination unknown | Close up | December 16, 1970 | 08/31/1971 |
14th | Everything has a beginning | Confetti Check AO.K. | 07/10/1971 | |
15th | Paranormal perception | ESP | 10/21/1970 | |
16 | Kill Straker | Kill Straker! | 04/11/1970 | 09/14/1971 |
17th | Caught underwater | Sub-smash | 11/11/1970 | |
18th | The sound of silence | The Sound of Silence | 07/17/1971 | |
19th | The Siamese cat | The Cat with Ten Lives | 09/30/1970 | 11/09/1971 |
20th | Red alert | Destruction | December 2nd, 1970 | December 21, 1971 |
21st | The man who came back | The man who came back | 02/03/1971 | 11/23/1971 |
22nd | The alien force | The Psychobombs | 12/30/1970 | December 07, 1971 |
23 | Mr. Anderson's doppelganger | Reflections in the Water | 07/24/1971 | 01/04/1972 |
24 | The time trap | Timelash | 02/17/1971 | |
25th | Deadly dreams | Mindbender | 01/13/1971 | January 18, 1972 |
26th | The long sleep | The Long Sleep | 03/15/1973 |
Cancellation of the series
A second season was originally planned, but since the funder wanted to start a new series, UFO was discontinued; At this point in time, success could not be foreseen because no episode had yet been broadcast. The originally planned sequel should continue to play in the future and have the working title UFO: 1999 . The project was later named Space Journey: 1999 , eventually became Space: 1999 ( Moon Base Alpha 1 ) and then had very little to do with UFO . The company ems published a UFO / Space: 1999 crossover novel as a PDF file with the title The Long Darkness as bonus material on the Moon Base Alpha 1 DVDs in the DVD-ROM section .
Around the turn of the millennium, a new edition of UFO was briefly considered, but in the end the plans were discarded for various reasons.
German processing
Of the 26 episodes produced, 17 were purchased and dubbed. Four of the episodes selected by ZDF were shortened for the German version by UFO ; two of them have been changed in terms of content: In the first episode of the series, the last scene in which you can see how a coffin is given over to the fire in a crematorium was removed. The coffin is empty, however, because the victim fell victim to a UFO attack and the relatives are not allowed to know what really happened.
In the episode Der Fremde ( A Question of Priorities in the original ), Commander Straker's son is seriously injured in a car accident and needs a drug that has to be flown in from the USA. Straker hires a SHADO machine to transport it, but it has to be redirected due to a UFO incident. The drug arrives too late and Straker's son dies in the original version; in the German version, however, he survives. For this, the end of the episode was cut and provided with a new text, in which it is explained that Straker's son is alive. The following scene, in which the news of his death is delivered and Straker's ex-wife collapses, has been removed and replaced by a scene in which Straker's son lies in the hospital bed and sleeps.
When the series was dubbed, it was already clear that there would be no second season. Efforts were therefore made to put a definitive end to the German series version. So the last dialogue of the episode Tödliche Träume ( Mindbender ), which was broadcast as the last episode on German television, was changed and Straker explained that the threat is now over: “Was that your last attempt? Did you sacrifice your last UFO for it? "(Original:" It was a boobie trap. "" Yes, aimed on our mind. ")
The opening credits have also been changed: The first scene in which an alien's contact lenses are removed has been cut. In addition, the year 1980, which can be seen flashing between the short scenes in which the work of the SHADO organization is presented, was replaced by other images. The rest of the opening credits are the same as the original. Barry Gray's theme music was also retained.
The episode SHADO calls Sovatex ( The Responsibility Seat ) was broadcast in Germany two years before it was first broadcast in the country of origin, Great Britain.
Broadcast in Germany
The 17 synchronized episodes were broadcast on ZDF between June 8, 1971 and January 18, 1972 every two weeks and were repeated for the first time in 1985 by Sat.1 . Further repetitions were made by ProSieben and most recently in 2000 by tm3 . All 26 episodes were broadcast for the first time on the Family TV specialty channel from September 2015 . The broadcasts on Family TV were the uncut DVD version. The sequences of the four aforementioned episodes cut out for the German version are contained in the original English version. The nine episodes, which had not been dubbed and not broadcast since 1971, were shown on Family TV in their original English version without subtitles. From September 14, 2018, all episodes of the series were broadcast on the special-interest channel ARD-alpha in the original English.
Voice actor
figure | speaker |
---|---|
Commander Ed Straker | Jürgen Thormann |
Colonel Paul Foster | Christian Brückner |
Colonel Virginia Lake | Gisela Fritsch |
Colonel Alec Freeman | Heinz Petruo |
Lt. Gay Ellis | Brigitte Grothum |
Captain Peter Carlin | Claus Jurichs |
Miss Ealand | Almut Eggert |
SID | Horst Niendorf |
General James Henderson | Werner Peters |
German adaptation: Rondo-Film
Jürgen Thormann is a. a. the German voice of Michael Caine , Christian Brückner the regular speaker of Robert De Niro and Heinz Petruo became known as the voice of Darth Vader from the Star Wars film series .
Conceptual equipment
Characteristic for the series were the elegant to flashy costumes and interiors that reflected the zeitgeist of the late 1960s, but above all Gerry Anderson's detailed model buildings of futuristic vehicles, flying machines, spaceships and stations. These were designed very elaborately and were sometimes only seen in individual episodes. The following means of transport and bases can be seen in the series:
List of vehicles and bases |
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|
Related works
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were also responsible for a number of other science fiction series, such as Moon Base Alpha 1 (orig. Space: 1999 ), Captain Scarlet , Thunderbirds and Kommando Stingray . In some cases, puppets were also used in super marionation.
Others
- The production of the first 17 episodes took place at MGM British Studios in Borehamwood . At the beginning of 1970 these were closed and the production was moved to Pinewood Studios after a break of several months . During this phase Lois Maxwell , known as Miss Moneypenny from the classic James Bond films, which were also filmed in Pinewood, also fell. She starred in the episodes The Cat With Ten Lives and The Man Who Came Back Miss Holland, representing Miss Ealand, the antechamber and secretary of Commander Ed Straker. It is also noticeable that George Sewell (aka Colonel Alec Freeman) no longer appears in the episodes that were shot at Pinewood Studios.
- Episode 12 of the Japanese science fiction cartoon series 009-1 shows eagle spaceships from the Alpha 1 moon base and SHADO-Mobile from UFO.
- A movie planned by director Matthew Gratzner for 2015 with Joshua Jackson in the lead role was not realized. The plot of the new film should take place in 2020; Gerry Anderson advised the project before his death in 2012.
- At the beginning of the film Buddy hits Luke you can see a UFO from Gerry Anderson's UFO.
- In PEZ and Panini ever published a collective picture album to UFO.
- Dinky Toys produced various model vehicles in the series made of metal.
- Product Enterprises released ready-made models of UFO (and later Space: 1999 ).
- A set with three stereo discs appeared for the view master observer.
- The British Gerry Anderson fan club Fanderson published postcard-sized trading cards on UFO.
- In the computer game XCOM: Enemy Unknown , which thematically resembles the series UFO, there is a comment from station commander Bradford that a "Commander Straker" reports on extraterrestrial invaders.
Merchandising
Release in Germany on DVD and Blu-ray
The Berlin company Epix released all 26 UFO episodes unabridged on DVD at the end of 2005 (one box set with eight DVDs or two box sets with four DVDs each); the nine unsynchronized episodes were left in the original and provided with German subtitles. In 2008 a complete edition was published on six DVDs with all the episodes, but the content does not differ from the two previous box sets. On November 28, 2014, the series was released in full HD quality on Blu-ray.
UFO feature films
Films cut from several episodes (see compilation film ):
No. | Italian title | English title | German title | UFO episodes | VÖ Italy | VÖ Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Invasions: UFO | Invasion: UFO | (not published in Germany) | Identified, The Computer Affair, Reflections In The Water, The Man Who Came Back | 1980 | - |
2. | Alarm rosso ... Attacco alla Terra! | (not published in England) | 80,000 miles through space | The Psychobombs, The Cat With Ten Lives, Timelash | 1973 | 1977 |
3. | Distruggete Base Luna | (not published in England) | (not published in Germany) | A Question Of Priorities, Flight Path, Confetti Check-A OK | 1973 | - |
4th | Annientate SHADO uccidete Straker | (not published in England) | SHADO space command | The Square Triangle, Kill Straker! | 1974 | 1985 |
5. | Prendeteli Vivi | (not published in England) | (not published in Germany) | Reflections In The Water, Destruction and short scenes from other episodes | 1974 | - |
6th | Contatto Radar, Stanno Atterrando | (not published in England) | (not published in Germany) | Identified, Exposed, Survival, Court Martial and short scenes from other episodes | 1974 | - |
The film Invasion: UFO was produced for the British market, the other five for the Italian market, where they were also shown in the cinemas (although the plot was partly changed by the Italian dubbing). All six UFO feature films were released on DVD by Hachette in Italy. In Germany only 80,000 miles ran through space in the cinema (German theatrical release: November 4, 1977). This film was also released as a VHS cassette by UFA in 1981, but was shortened by approx. 5 minutes when it was released on video. Laser Paradise (Crest) has released the two feature films 80,000 miles through space and SHADO space command in a hard box in a restored version on DVD. The film 80,000 miles through space by Ascot Elite has now been released entirely in HD quality on Blu-ray. Weltraumkommando SHADO premiered on VHS in Germany and appeared on International Home Video in 1985. In the film versions from Italy, in addition to the original film music by Barry Gray, film music by John Barry from James Bond films was sometimes used.
The films published in Germany have a different synchronization with other speakers than the series. In some cases, excerpts from episodes were synchronized that were not processed by ZDF ( A Murderous Plan (The Square Triangle) and The Time Trap (Timelash)).
80,000 miles through space
character | speaker |
---|---|
Commander Ed Straker | Fred Maire |
Colonel Paul Foster | Christian Brückner |
Colonel Virginia Lake | Ursula Heyer |
Nina Barry | Marianne Lutz |
Captain Steve Minto | Lutz Riedel |
Dr. Doug Jackson | Wolfgang Völz |
Lt. Jim Regan | Hans-Werner Bussinger |
SHADO space command
character | speaker |
---|---|
Commander Ed Straker | Peter Lakenmacher |
Colonel Paul Foster | Claus Wilcke |
Colonel Alec Freeman | Rolf Jülich |
Nina Barry | Heidi Berndt |
Dr. Doug Jackson | Wolf Rahtjen |
General James Henderson | Gottfried Kramer |
German adaptation: Hamburger Synchron GmbH
Script and dialogue direction: Reiner Brönneke
Super 8 films
Published by UFA (complete versions: three rolls of 110 m each, or short versions: one roll of 110 m):
No. | German Super 8 title | Original English title | German TV title |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Alert level 1 | IDENTIFIED | The first alarm |
2. | Unknown dangers | EXPOSED | Test pilot Paul Foster |
3. | Psycho bombs | THE PSYCHOBOMBS | The alien force |
4th | The cat with ten lives | THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES | The Siamese cat |
Novels
Published by Breitschopf-Verlag:
No. | title | author | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|
1. | In the clutches of the aliens | V. Straub | 3-87254-516-7 |
2. | A space odyssey | Patrick O'Connor | 3-7004-0107-8 |
3. | The wall of cold | YM Loiseau | 3-7004-1061-1 |
comics
In England a total of 45 UFO adventures appeared as sequels in Countdown (1971), Countdown for TV Action (1972) and TV Action (1973) as well as the special volumes Countdown Holiday Special , Countdown for TV Acton Holiday Special and TV Action Holiday Special . The UFO comic adventures were mostly in four colors, but some were also black and white. In Germany, seven UFO comics appeared as second stories, greatly reduced in size (in black-white-blue) in the Perry-Rhodan comics Perry - Unser Mann im All (Moewig-Verlag). The comics logically continue the television series, and the SHADO people even fly to the aliens' home planet.
No. | English title | German title | English comic books | German comic books |
---|---|---|---|---|
01. | UFO - STORY 1 | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 1 | (did not show up) |
02. | UFO - STORY 2 | UFO (untitled) | Countdown # 2-6 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN SPACE # 61 |
03. | TOO OLD AT 32 | Danger to the lunar base | Countdown # 7-11 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN SPACE # 63 |
04. | THE NEW BOSS | Red alert | Countdown # 12-18 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN SPACE # 62 |
05. | THE FORCE FIELD | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 19-24 | (did not show up) |
05. | THE FORCE FIELD II: INVASION FROM MARS | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 25 | (did not show up) |
06. | ARCTIC AFFAIR | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 26-31 | (did not show up) |
07. | THE SNATCH | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 32-37 | (did not show up) |
08. | THE RENEGADE | The traitor | Countdown # 38 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN ALL # 85 |
08. | THE RENEGADE II | A hot lead | Countdown # 39 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN ALL # 86 |
09 | TROJAN HORSE | Operation Trojan Horse | Countdown # 40 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN ALL # 87 |
10. | THE ALIEN-HEART ATTACK | Heart attack | Countdown # 41 | PERRY - OUR MAN IN ALL # 88 |
11. | CATCH OF DOOM | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 42 | (did not show up) |
12. | THE COLOR IS GREEN | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 43 | (did not show up) |
13. | THE HILLBILLY AFFAIR | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 44 | (did not show up) |
14th | ALIEN ESPIONAGE | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 45 | (did not show up) |
15th | STRAKER SMELLS A RAT | (not published in Germany) | Countdown # 46 | (did not show up) |
16. | THE ALIEN TOTEM | (not published in Germany) | Countdown Holiday Special | (did not show up) |
17th | THE MOVIES | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 47 | (did not show up) |
18th | THE ALIEN ALLY | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 48 | (did not show up) |
19th | CLOUD OF MADNESS | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 49 | (did not show up) |
20th | A NEAR THING | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 50 | (did not show up) |
21st | SHOCK WAVE | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 51-52 | (did not show up) |
22nd | GHOST SHIP | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 53 | (did not show up) |
23. | WATERS OF FEAR | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 54 | (did not show up) |
24. | THE KIDNAPPERS | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 55 | (did not show up) |
25th | TERROR IN THE TANK | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 56 | (did not show up) |
26th | THE ALIEN REVOLUTION | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 57 | (did not show up) |
27. | ALIEN BRAINWAVE | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 58 | (did not show up) |
28. | LET THE ALIENS LAND | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 59-66 | (did not show up) |
29 | THE FINAL CLIMB | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 67-70 | (did not show up) |
30th | SMALL WORLD | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 71-77 | (did not show up) |
31. | EYES OF TERROR | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 78-82 | (did not show up) |
32. | VOYAGE OF DISASTER | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 83-87 | (did not show up) |
33. | BROTHERHOOD OF EVIL | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 88-92 | (did not show up) |
34. | THE DESTRUCTIVE DECOY | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action # 93-95 | (did not show up) |
35. | SCANNER SHUT-DOWN | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action 96-100 | (did not show up) |
36. | THE ROBOT RENEGADE | (not published in Germany) | Countdown for TV Action Holiday Special | (did not show up) |
37. | THE MILLION YEAR-OLD TRAP | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 103-106 | (did not show up) |
38. | THE RIVER OF DEATH | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 107 | (did not show up) |
39. | SPIRIT OF FEAR | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 110-113 | (did not show up) |
40. | A PROJECT OF DOOM | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 114 | (did not show up) |
41. | THE ASSASSIN | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 118-121 | (did not show up) |
42. | RECORDBREAKERS | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 122 | (did not show up) |
43. | THEY WALK IN DARKNESS | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 125-128 | (did not show up) |
44. | RETURN OF THE PHARAOH | (not published in Germany) | TV Action # 129 | (did not show up) |
45. | DIG FOR DANGER | (not published in Germany) | TV Action Holiday Special | (did not show up) |
See also
Web links
- UFO in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Essay on the series (German)
- ufoseries.com (English)
- British UFO Comics (English)
- The green beings attack , in: Der Spiegel No. 24 of June 7, 1971 (report on the German first broadcast of the series)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Episode overview on IMDB , accessed November 20, 2010
- ↑ a b episode list on fernsehserien.de
- ↑ Broadcast dates on fernsehserien.de
- ↑ UFO. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on January 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Overview of the technical equipment of UFO ( Memento from June 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 9, 2013
- ↑ Detailed information on the appearance of the facilities and vehicles in the individual episodes , accessed on January 17, 2013
- ↑ Production details at TELEVISION HEAVEN , accessed on January 9, 2013.
- ↑ Thunderbirds Creator Gerry Anderson Dies
- ↑ Easter eggs on xcom.wikia.com
- ↑ UFO - Complete Blu-ray edition on bluray-disc.de
- ↑ Publications of the film 80,000 miles through the Weltrauf on ofdb.de
- ↑ Speaker lists in the synchronous forum