I rewatched this series a few years ago and was surprised that it held up as well as it did. Yes, lots of sexism, but not untypical for that time. Like Star Trek, it had women in authority roles, but also in sexy outfits, so a bit of a mixed bag. They also got handsome Michael Billington out of his shirt a few times, which I found quite interesting for reasons that didn't become clear to me until some years later :)
Space:1999 started as a sequel to this series, set ten years later, on a greatly expanded Moonbase. They eventually abandoned that connection.
The opening credits theme music and editing are just brilliant.
I just watched through this over the summer. It’s a fascinating specimen of a show. I am highly confident much of the Austin Powers aesthetic is borrowed from this, from the featureless suit coats to the everyone-is-mad-sexy to the swinging soundtrack.
It’s a Gerry Anderson production, so lots of great Thunderbirds-style miniatures too. And wild cars. All the action sequences have the delightful feel of an eight year old playing with toys. In fact a lot of it seems to have a fun child’s-idea aspect. “And it’s part submarine and part fighter jet! And they slide down chutes into the cockpit! And his office is a secret elevator! And all the grownups are doing computer things! And to get a whiskey you push a whiskey button! And the whole thing is under a movie studio!”
But god yes, Stryker’s family story is harsh. Way overbearing the trope that he’s such a powerful dedicated man keeping the world safe that his utterly neglected family has to suffer so badly. Particularly when much of the time, he’s standing around the office smoking and drinking and asking the nearest woman to go fetch him some coffee. You thought you were getting a show about high tech futuristic alien defense. Well, you have to watch a lot of office banter too, that’s the deal.
Still, super stylish. And its cousin “Space: 1999” might be more interesting/bonkers sci-fi, but UFO (pronounced YOOFO) is just relentless with the looks and swagger. Each episode is worth watching for the intro alone.
Definitely, the vibe of an international secret organization with cool vehicles is very much in line with the series. Although funnily enough I found contradicting interviews with Julian Gollop (the lead designer) as for what the level of influence was.
"I remember going out and buying a video tape of the old Gerry Anderson UFO TV series, and the thing that inspired me from that was the idea of having a worldwide organisation that was set up to stop this alien menace."
- Now Gamer, 2011 (https://web.archive.org/web/20111026175106/http://www.next-g...)
"Despite such inspiration, Julian actually hadn’t seen Gerry Anderson’s 1970s UFO TV series before writing the game, despite the identical title and scenario. “After we finished I bought one of the videos, but to be honest I found it a bit boring.”"
- Amiga CD32 magazine, 1994 (https://archive.org/details/amiga-cd-32-gamer-issue-5/page/n...)
Let's keep this pertinent to Hacker News: The nicely intoned computer voice of SID on UFO was way more advanced than the clunky monotone of the Star Trek TOS ship's computer.
Ah, the memories. The joyous days spent imagining the future...
As a 70's child, I grew up with the UFO Interceptor[1] toy, a treasured possession, and fondly remember blasting it around the house, scraping it on the floor, shooting off the rocket missile, chasing the cat, pew pew... but gradually getting tired of it, losing the missile in some corner of our backyard.
I wasn't allowed to watch the TV show, but occasionally caught glimpses of it, mostly only ever interested in the scenes involving the models and spaceships, never quite getting the gist of the story...
A couple years or two later, I got the SPACE:1999 Eagle[2] toy for a birthday, must have been my 6th or 7th year - my Mum obviously realizing I'd outgrown the UFO Interceptor, having long lost the rocket bit that made it the most fun. For some reason by then I was allowed to watch the odd SPACE:1999 episode, but stopped after the trauma of the "Dragon's Domain" episode. (If you know, you know.)
I was enamored with the Eagle for a few months, but after a short period of use it then sat mostly unused as a trinket on my shelf, alongside my Capsela[3] constructions - themselves later supplemented by Denshi Blocks[4].
I have this sense that these devices were how the consumer cycle was imprinted on me as a kid, as well as a deep longing for a computer of my own.
The Interceptor->Eagle path was obvious, but something else happened .. losing the Interceptors rocket frustrated me immensely, so I fashioned a new one out of a pencil.
As I recall, the latch mechanism that made it so satisfying as a projectile launcher required that I notch a groove into the pencil, a process that took me an afternoon with various waves of fun and disappointment, as the latch/spring eroded the pencil down .. there was a curve at which the top of crest the pencil being launched was so satisfying, but after repeated blasts, also kind of meh as the wood wore down. I was also, as a kid, immensely frustrated that the launched projectiles never went straight, rendering it quite useless for shooting things. Still, my engineering senses had been cracked, the seed began to grow ..
I moved on to Capsela, which was an utter delight, and then Denshi Blocks, which were mind-expanding to an 8 year old kid by then, utterly enamored with any electronic technology I could get my hands on, and I even attempted wiring up the Denshi Blocks and the Capsela to try to make a kind of robot, which never got too far, although my imagination took it into cosmic realms.
This all faded away of course, until I touched my first computer - a Commodore Pet some business associate had added to his office, not knowing what to do with it whatsoever, just knowing he had to have one .. I think the only use it ever got was as a babysitter for me while he and Dad did whatever it was they did, as I tapped away and learned all the key combo's to make pretty pictures.
There was a sexual awakening happening in me too, I didn't realize it at the time - the crush I'd had on the lost female crew member from "Dragon's Domain" resurfaced in my teens, and its still the kidnapper of girl I like.
What a time to remember how the future used to be...
I love the soundtrack (the future used to be groovier), and the understated Earth civilian wardrobe, but I tried to rewatch it and it's so sexist and misogynistic it's almost disturbing. And I find it cool there was never an in-universe explanation for the purple wigs.
My 1970's self liked it. My 2026 one not so much.
I also think Benedict Cumberbatch's mom was an early crush because of this series, but 1970's me didn't quite know what to do with those feelings.
It doesn't really seem that sexist for a 60s show. There's definitely a ton of male gaze, much like the miniskirts in TOS. OTOH the men are also in tight fitting clothing as well, and just like TOS it has the women in positions of power and authority which was progressive for the 60s.
While the show is campy as hell (in a fun way) many of the plotlines are extremely heavy and dark, like the episode where Striker has to choose between his duty and saving his son's life. Or the episode where his marriage falls apart because he's working too much.
From the perspective of Striker the show honestly shows the destruction of a man. He's left with nothing in life but his job, which also tortures him.
> And I find it cool there was never an in-universe explanation for the purple wigs.
I saw an interview with the costume designer (a woman FWIW) and she liked the idea of the purple wigs both as both a sign that fashion is more flexible in the 1980s and also that the wigs maybe play some practical purpose on the moon. The moon women are in some scenes on earth and they're not wearing wigs.
The silver miniskirt/leotard moon suits the women wear with removable leggings were supposed to be incredibly sexy of course, but also the designer was playing around with the idea of "modular" clothing that could be "reconfigured" for different contexts.
The fishnet shirts the submariners wear is likewise supposed to imply something both practical and highly modern. Of course, talking about male gaze the women in the submarine wear an undershirt under the fishnets whereas the men don't!
Thanks for the extra information. I do remember the series being repeated broadcast but only I saw the occasional episode.
Recently, I got the box set from a charity shop, struggled with the misogynistic imagery and attitudes just watching the first couple of episodes. I put the box set on the shelf.
Perhaps, I need to try again to watch for the character development. Especially as my wife recently dyed her hair purple. My younger self would have stunned at that and my grey hair.
The episode (_SURVIVAL_) that stuck with me as a kid was the one where Col. Foster is lost on the surface of the Moon with an alien and they have to work together to survive. The end of the episode was gutting.
>There's definitely a ton of male gaze, much like the miniskirts in TOS.
"I was wearing them on the street. What's wrong with wearing them on the air? I wore 'em on airplanes. It was the era of the miniskirt. Everybody wore miniskirts" —Nichelle Nichols, 2001 <https://web.archive.org/web/20011115192358/https://www.bbc.c...>
Arguably, because they were on a naval(? not military because Starfleet isn’t, but…) vessel in professional roles. If women had been in the air force in the 60s I doubt they’d have been in mini skirts.
I loved, loved, loved this show when I was a kid (I saw it as a syndicated show in the US around 1971, I am guessing). Yes, the soundtrack was the hook: I came for the (at the time) great theme song, but I stayed for the mystery of the UFOs, the spaceships and moon base, and Michael Billington (who, for some reason, I liked better than the star, maybe because he was younger and actually went out into the field).
Edit: Interestingly, Ed Bishop and Michael Billington both died within five days of each other in 2005, despite Billington being quite a bit younger.
This is US centric, because it's what I'm familiar with.
I'd think really hard about how the characters are coded. I haven't seen this particular show. Short skirt and ditzy is a cash grab to sell beer. Short skirts and extremely competent? that's a whole different thing. There are a million problems with the dukes of hazard. Daisy Duke is not one of them. Extremely competent character. Echoed by Marisa Tomei in my Cousin Vinny. the us has a whole other suite of issues around race, that I'm going to avoid. Wonder Woman falls into the same category I think.
The lesson, repeatedly, don't judge a book by its cover. at the time, it's funny, but it's gently poking fun at the audience for their sexism.
maybe it's some dumb campy show. maybe there's something more subtle that's being pushed, that's only really possible to push in science fiction. this isn't us, this is some far-away future.
Gloria Steinem continued to wear mini skirts. a playboy bunny is a ditzy girl with no value beyond delivering drinks, which is gross. Legally blonde fits into the category as well, you can't just look at the surface, you have to look at the whole person.
I can't speak to this particular show. but maybe try to put yourself into the mindset of that time, and see if they're showing you something about that worldview.
I rewatched this series a few years ago and was surprised that it held up as well as it did. Yes, lots of sexism, but not untypical for that time. Like Star Trek, it had women in authority roles, but also in sexy outfits, so a bit of a mixed bag. They also got handsome Michael Billington out of his shirt a few times, which I found quite interesting for reasons that didn't become clear to me until some years later :)
Space:1999 started as a sequel to this series, set ten years later, on a greatly expanded Moonbase. They eventually abandoned that connection.
The opening credits theme music and editing are just brilliant.
I just watched through this over the summer. It’s a fascinating specimen of a show. I am highly confident much of the Austin Powers aesthetic is borrowed from this, from the featureless suit coats to the everyone-is-mad-sexy to the swinging soundtrack.
It’s a Gerry Anderson production, so lots of great Thunderbirds-style miniatures too. And wild cars. All the action sequences have the delightful feel of an eight year old playing with toys. In fact a lot of it seems to have a fun child’s-idea aspect. “And it’s part submarine and part fighter jet! And they slide down chutes into the cockpit! And his office is a secret elevator! And all the grownups are doing computer things! And to get a whiskey you push a whiskey button! And the whole thing is under a movie studio!”
But god yes, Stryker’s family story is harsh. Way overbearing the trope that he’s such a powerful dedicated man keeping the world safe that his utterly neglected family has to suffer so badly. Particularly when much of the time, he’s standing around the office smoking and drinking and asking the nearest woman to go fetch him some coffee. You thought you were getting a show about high tech futuristic alien defense. Well, you have to watch a lot of office banter too, that’s the deal.
Still, super stylish. And its cousin “Space: 1999” might be more interesting/bonkers sci-fi, but UFO (pronounced YOOFO) is just relentless with the looks and swagger. Each episode is worth watching for the intro alone.
Apparently, this UFO series was one of the influences that went into the 1994 game UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM).
Definitely, the vibe of an international secret organization with cool vehicles is very much in line with the series. Although funnily enough I found contradicting interviews with Julian Gollop (the lead designer) as for what the level of influence was.
"I remember going out and buying a video tape of the old Gerry Anderson UFO TV series, and the thing that inspired me from that was the idea of having a worldwide organisation that was set up to stop this alien menace." - Now Gamer, 2011 (https://web.archive.org/web/20111026175106/http://www.next-g...)
"Despite such inspiration, Julian actually hadn’t seen Gerry Anderson’s 1970s UFO TV series before writing the game, despite the identical title and scenario. “After we finished I bought one of the videos, but to be honest I found it a bit boring.”" - Amiga CD32 magazine, 1994 (https://archive.org/details/amiga-cd-32-gamer-issue-5/page/n...)
Let's keep this pertinent to Hacker News: The nicely intoned computer voice of SID on UFO was way more advanced than the clunky monotone of the Star Trek TOS ship's computer.
It was also recorded the best part of a decade later than TOS too. People’s expectations of computers had grown.
Ah, the memories. The joyous days spent imagining the future...
As a 70's child, I grew up with the UFO Interceptor[1] toy, a treasured possession, and fondly remember blasting it around the house, scraping it on the floor, shooting off the rocket missile, chasing the cat, pew pew... but gradually getting tired of it, losing the missile in some corner of our backyard.
I wasn't allowed to watch the TV show, but occasionally caught glimpses of it, mostly only ever interested in the scenes involving the models and spaceships, never quite getting the gist of the story...
A couple years or two later, I got the SPACE:1999 Eagle[2] toy for a birthday, must have been my 6th or 7th year - my Mum obviously realizing I'd outgrown the UFO Interceptor, having long lost the rocket bit that made it the most fun. For some reason by then I was allowed to watch the odd SPACE:1999 episode, but stopped after the trauma of the "Dragon's Domain" episode. (If you know, you know.)
I was enamored with the Eagle for a few months, but after a short period of use it then sat mostly unused as a trinket on my shelf, alongside my Capsela[3] constructions - themselves later supplemented by Denshi Blocks[4].
I have this sense that these devices were how the consumer cycle was imprinted on me as a kid, as well as a deep longing for a computer of my own.
The Interceptor->Eagle path was obvious, but something else happened .. losing the Interceptors rocket frustrated me immensely, so I fashioned a new one out of a pencil.
As I recall, the latch mechanism that made it so satisfying as a projectile launcher required that I notch a groove into the pencil, a process that took me an afternoon with various waves of fun and disappointment, as the latch/spring eroded the pencil down .. there was a curve at which the top of crest the pencil being launched was so satisfying, but after repeated blasts, also kind of meh as the wood wore down. I was also, as a kid, immensely frustrated that the launched projectiles never went straight, rendering it quite useless for shooting things. Still, my engineering senses had been cracked, the seed began to grow ..
I moved on to Capsela, which was an utter delight, and then Denshi Blocks, which were mind-expanding to an 8 year old kid by then, utterly enamored with any electronic technology I could get my hands on, and I even attempted wiring up the Denshi Blocks and the Capsela to try to make a kind of robot, which never got too far, although my imagination took it into cosmic realms.
This all faded away of course, until I touched my first computer - a Commodore Pet some business associate had added to his office, not knowing what to do with it whatsoever, just knowing he had to have one .. I think the only use it ever got was as a babysitter for me while he and Dad did whatever it was they did, as I tapped away and learned all the key combo's to make pretty pictures.
There was a sexual awakening happening in me too, I didn't realize it at the time - the crush I'd had on the lost female crew member from "Dragon's Domain" resurfaced in my teens, and its still the kidnapper of girl I like.
What a time to remember how the future used to be...
[1] - https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/UFO_Interceptor_(D...
[2] - https://dinkytvspace.com/359-eagle-transporter/
[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela
[4] - https://www.elektronauts.com/t/gakken-denshi-blocks/136198
I love the soundtrack (the future used to be groovier), and the understated Earth civilian wardrobe, but I tried to rewatch it and it's so sexist and misogynistic it's almost disturbing. And I find it cool there was never an in-universe explanation for the purple wigs.
My 1970's self liked it. My 2026 one not so much.
I also think Benedict Cumberbatch's mom was an early crush because of this series, but 1970's me didn't quite know what to do with those feelings.
> so sexist and misogynistic
It doesn't really seem that sexist for a 60s show. There's definitely a ton of male gaze, much like the miniskirts in TOS. OTOH the men are also in tight fitting clothing as well, and just like TOS it has the women in positions of power and authority which was progressive for the 60s.
While the show is campy as hell (in a fun way) many of the plotlines are extremely heavy and dark, like the episode where Striker has to choose between his duty and saving his son's life. Or the episode where his marriage falls apart because he's working too much.
From the perspective of Striker the show honestly shows the destruction of a man. He's left with nothing in life but his job, which also tortures him.
> And I find it cool there was never an in-universe explanation for the purple wigs.
I saw an interview with the costume designer (a woman FWIW) and she liked the idea of the purple wigs both as both a sign that fashion is more flexible in the 1980s and also that the wigs maybe play some practical purpose on the moon. The moon women are in some scenes on earth and they're not wearing wigs.
The silver miniskirt/leotard moon suits the women wear with removable leggings were supposed to be incredibly sexy of course, but also the designer was playing around with the idea of "modular" clothing that could be "reconfigured" for different contexts.
The fishnet shirts the submariners wear is likewise supposed to imply something both practical and highly modern. Of course, talking about male gaze the women in the submarine wear an undershirt under the fishnets whereas the men don't!
Thanks for the extra information. I do remember the series being repeated broadcast but only I saw the occasional episode.
Recently, I got the box set from a charity shop, struggled with the misogynistic imagery and attitudes just watching the first couple of episodes. I put the box set on the shelf.
Perhaps, I need to try again to watch for the character development. Especially as my wife recently dyed her hair purple. My younger self would have stunned at that and my grey hair.
The episode (_SURVIVAL_) that stuck with me as a kid was the one where Col. Foster is lost on the surface of the Moon with an alien and they have to work together to survive. The end of the episode was gutting.
>There's definitely a ton of male gaze, much like the miniskirts in TOS.
"I was wearing them on the street. What's wrong with wearing them on the air? I wore 'em on airplanes. It was the era of the miniskirt. Everybody wore miniskirts" —Nichelle Nichols, 2001 <https://web.archive.org/web/20011115192358/https://www.bbc.c...>
Arguably, because they were on a naval(? not military because Starfleet isn’t, but…) vessel in professional roles. If women had been in the air force in the 60s I doubt they’d have been in mini skirts.
I loved, loved, loved this show when I was a kid (I saw it as a syndicated show in the US around 1971, I am guessing). Yes, the soundtrack was the hook: I came for the (at the time) great theme song, but I stayed for the mystery of the UFOs, the spaceships and moon base, and Michael Billington (who, for some reason, I liked better than the star, maybe because he was younger and actually went out into the field).
Edit: Interestingly, Ed Bishop and Michael Billington both died within five days of each other in 2005, despite Billington being quite a bit younger.
This is US centric, because it's what I'm familiar with.
I'd think really hard about how the characters are coded. I haven't seen this particular show. Short skirt and ditzy is a cash grab to sell beer. Short skirts and extremely competent? that's a whole different thing. There are a million problems with the dukes of hazard. Daisy Duke is not one of them. Extremely competent character. Echoed by Marisa Tomei in my Cousin Vinny. the us has a whole other suite of issues around race, that I'm going to avoid. Wonder Woman falls into the same category I think.
The lesson, repeatedly, don't judge a book by its cover. at the time, it's funny, but it's gently poking fun at the audience for their sexism.
maybe it's some dumb campy show. maybe there's something more subtle that's being pushed, that's only really possible to push in science fiction. this isn't us, this is some far-away future.
Gloria Steinem continued to wear mini skirts. a playboy bunny is a ditzy girl with no value beyond delivering drinks, which is gross. Legally blonde fits into the category as well, you can't just look at the surface, you have to look at the whole person.
I can't speak to this particular show. but maybe try to put yourself into the mindset of that time, and see if they're showing you something about that worldview.