As I've already stated, the last nine episodes are simply some of the best television ever made. The writing is where it begins. If it isn't for the writing, then it doesn't matter how your directors, costumes or actors are, then nothing is there. Gerry Anderson stated himself that one thing that creates good storytelling is variation. Especially in the case of UFO, the last nine episodes alone compared to the first seventeen is certainly very different, which is of course of the influence of the new writers and directors, injecting some great new blood into the show. With faster-paced episodes, and the concept of the aliens is explored further. The Sound Of Silence and The Cat With Ten Lives are examples of the different variation, whilst other episodes like Destruction feel like they could perhaps fit in the original seventeen episode run.
Despite lots of characters being absent from the first episodes which to some may feel alienating (and to be honest I did miss some like Alec and Ellis), the stories begin to feel more developed and even more grown-up, dealing with factors like drugs, especially in The Long Sleep. The Long Sleep is a good example of the variation to the series, which can make us as the viewer thrilled episode after episode after episode. Like at the start, there's just that inner fan boy-ness that is just so good that you can't explain because they are so good! It is interesting seeing how the show progressed from Identified right up to The Long Sleep - two very different episodes. But it would also have been really great to see another series (not what was planned to feature the series on SHADO's vastly expanded Moonbase) which I would have preferred for it to remain on Earth but would also like to have seen the series only set on Moonbase. Especially because the series reached such incredible standards, I would have liked for the concept to remain the same, but as they were going ahead with the Moonbase in 1999, and if it would have happened, I would be fine with it if the quality was retained (my favourite being The Psycobombs - I love it just so much!).
The last nine episodes of this series feature an astonishing variety of stories. Which is as strong as the standards of some of my favourite pieces of TV - absolute quintessential entertainment.
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UFO: The Vault
Non-FictionGerry Anderson's UFO was the first big budget British live-action television series of a secret government organisation named SHADO (Supreme Headqauters Alien Defence Organisation) combat a dying alien race who have come to Earth in order to survive...
