Series Description

UFO was a 60 minute British sci-fi series on ITV about aliens who were visiting the Earth and kidnapping humans. An organization called SHADO was formed to defend us from them. SHADO had several lines of defense. Missiles could be launched from a base on the Moon. High altitude aircraft could attack after being launched from submarines. There were also a fleet of armored vehicles spread out all over the planet. The episodes typically involved attempted alien attacks and how Earth defenses stopped them.

UFO Cast

Ed Bishop .... Commander Ed Straker
Mel Oxley .... Space Intruder Detector S.I.D.
Dolores Mantez .... Nina Barry
Michael Billington .... Colonel Paul Foster
Ayshea Brough .... SHADO Operative
George Sewell .... Colonel Alec Freeman
Keith Alexander .... Lieutenant Keith Ford
Antonia Ellis .... Joan Harrington
Norma Ronald .... Miss Ealand
Gabrielle Drake .... Lieutenant Gay Ellis
Jon Kelley .... Skydiver Engineer
Gary Myers .... Skydiver Captain Lew Waterman
Vladek Sheybal .... Dr. Doug Jackson
Grant Taylor .... General James Henderson (1970-1971)
Wanda Ventham .... Colonel Virginia Lake
Georgina Moon .... Skydiver Operative Lieutenant Sylvia Howell
Jeremy Wilkin .... Skydiver Navigator Lieutenant Gordon Maxwell
Peter Gordeno .... Captain Peter Carlin (1970-1971)
Harry Baird .... Lieutenant Mark Bradley (1970-1971)

UFO Trivia

SHADO is an acronym for "Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization". It is a control center hidden underground beneath a movie studio somewhere near London, England.

Earth had a satellite in orbit to detect the UFOs. It was called SID, another acronym for, "Space Intruder Detector".

Ed Bishop (Colonel Straker) was born with the name George Bishop. He had to change his first name because there was already an actor named George Bishop.

The UFOs on the show could travel many times the speed of light, but would overheat and blow up if they spent more than a few days in Earth's atmosphere.

The women on the Moonbase all wore purple wigs. Sylvia Anderson, who along with her husband Gerry created the UFO TV show, thought that some day in the future wigs might become part of a uniform. It sounds silly today, but wigs were very popular at that time before all of the hair care products we have today. In fact, Ed Bishop, George Sewell and Michael Billington also all wore wigs on the show!

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson also created the series "Thunderbirds" and "Fireball XL-5" prior to the UFO TV show. They went on after UFO to create "Space 1999".

Colonel Straker's car had a few features that seemed pretty far off into the future in 1970 but are both available today. It had a car phone and an intruder alarm that automatically notified Headquarters in case he needed assistance of any kind. Science fiction usually becomes a fact of life sooner or later!

Either the UFO writers made a major blunder or the aliens were also liars. In episode #6 "E.S.P." it is stated that the aliens' planet is dying and they meant us no harm. Then in episode #9 "Destruction", some of the aliens tried to wipe out all life on the planet.