Review for Invasion: UFO

As taster of what is to come with the imminent release of the entire series of UFO on Blu-Ray, arguably Gerry Anderson’s best looking show, Network have released the compilation ‘movie’, ‘Invasion: UFO’ on Blu-Ray, which combines elements from 4 episodes, pretty convincingly, into a damned decent stand-alone sci-fi movie. (Episodes used are Identified, Computer Affair, The Man Who Came Back and Confetti Check A-OK).



Originally released in 1974, the decision was made back then to pan and scan the original 4:3 image to 16:9 and it looks like Network have picked up and polished up the negatives from that. I imagine that to be the case as Network are generally very respectful of the original source material and its original aspect ratio. Whilst the picture quality is breath-takingly good, the picture feels tight with little breathing room where the image has been pushed in and cropped, presumably to make it more ‘cinematic’ for a theatrical release. If this isn’t the case, and the fine folk at Network have taken it upon themselves to ‘widen the picture’ from the original episode source material, it’s a crime against the show almost as heinous as that committed by ITV in their UK Blu-Ray release of ‘Thunderbirds’, cropped to 16:9 widescreen for our convenience and looking utterly cramped and cropped as a result. It should be noted that a 4:3 version is included on the disc, but this is a un-restored master which was used for a VHS release in the early-eighties (which I remember buying) and is virtually unwatchable in comparison to the pristine restored version. I’m not entirely sure that this wasn’t just a further crop from the 16:9 crop to get it back to 4:3 either. I should take a close look at some point. (It’s worth noting that Network have already declared that the Blu-Ray of the series will be in OAR of 1.33:1 which is something of a relief!).


UFO aired from 1970-1971 in the UK and is a series I am particularly fond of as it is based at Pinewood (indeed, film-making is S.H.A.D.O.’s pretend business above ground) where my company once had an office. It’s also the place I met with Gerry Anderson on a couple of occasions. It’s also a series that featured Ed Bishop who I worked with on several occasions in the late 1990’s. But putting all that personal stuff aside, it’s also a great series – perhaps Anderson’s best ‘live actor’ show. It certainly is the best looking, mixing Kubrick style white backgrounds with incredible colours and styles.


Once you get over the wide-screen crop, and start to enjoy the ‘film’, it really is a lot of fun. The image quality is superb and this bodes extremely well for the imminent release of the series on Blu-Ray. Watching the ‘film’ feels like watching a greatest hits adventure but it does hold together as a narrative very well – perhaps as a result of the singular nature of the series itself. It was always about fighting alien invaders so any one part fits pretty well with any other.


It also features the origin story, where S.H.A.D.O. (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation) is formed and headed up by Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) looking super-cool with his white hair and groovy silver tank top. A native American (though living in the UK), Ed Bishop gave ITC the American angle to help sell the series there, and help justify the pretty ambitious cost of production.

The film starts as it means to go on; full of excitement and adventure. A UFO (looking a bit like a spinning top rather than the traditional ‘saucer’) has landed in some woods and one of its occupants wanders out to capture an unsuspecting woman. It then cuts to a younger looking Ed Bishop in standard Army Officer uniform, travelling in a Rolls Royce with General Henderson. He is clutching a top secret dossier in a black case when the car is attacked by one of the UFOs.


Things are clearly serious and its Straker’s advice that the government need to invest in a specialist unit dedicated to stopping the alien invasion of earth, whilst avoiding mass hysteria. The net result is S.H.A.D.O. and Straker is put in charge to protect people against aliens who seem intent on killing earth creatures for their body parts.

We then move forwards in time to 1980 and to the Straker we know and love, a hundred feet below the surface of the Harlington-Straker film studios, orchestrating the many fantastic vehicles and weapons against this new and mysterious threat.

S.H.A.D.O. also has a base on the moon with Interceptors (I still have my Dinky one…) as well as S.I.D., a satellite that detects UFOs, and a fleet of submarines.


We see a healthy dose of all these in action across the course of a pretty dramatic ninety minutes, as well as plenty of fashion and glamour.
There are very few special features on the disc which is unsurprising with two full versions of the film already included but, for the record, they include the original 1980 VHS trailer, full-frame opening and end titles, Textless end titles (HD, mute) and, worthy of mention, a full Dolby 5.1 mix on the restored widescreen version only.


Overall, this is a highly recommended release and a good stop-gap until the whole series is released in high definition glory (from original 35mm master negatives) in the correct aspect ratio. Hurrah!