[Editor’s Note: Today we combine our recent space/invasion theme here at LFM, and Steve Greaves’ ‘Loving the Cold War Lifestyle’ series, with a brief look back – and forward – at the classic British TV show “UFO.”]
By Steve Greaves. Fans of the Supermarionation series Thunderbirds and the live-action Space:1999 alike will be intrigued to know that Gerry Anderson’s influential British TV series UFO is currently on track for a Hollywood summer tentpole updating. [See the opening titles of the original series above.] Producer Robert Evans and British network ITV are slated to team up on the project, which will find the year 2020 as the new backdrop for the business of SHADO – the crafty organization that combats alien invasion threats from on high with an arsenal of labs, gizmos, purple wigs and cool vehicles that traverse every frontier. Here is the new film’s website.
Anderson himself was appalled by the miserable remake of his fantastic Thunderbirds franchise, as would be anyone who saw it, but the rumor is that he’s optimistic about the new UFO getting off the ground in style. The original series, which ran for just one season in 1972 in the US, was ahead of its time – especially for TV – and was notable for its special effects, art direction and vehicle design. Perhaps the most important legacy of UFO is that it directly influenced the look and approach to the better-known and more widely enduring Space:1999, which was Anderson’s series that ran from 1975-77 and starred Martin Landau.
Now, one key factor sure to be absent from any new UFO launch that anchored the many other-worlds of Gerry Anderson is the music of Barry Gray. Gray scored or wrote themes for virtually all of Anderson’s shows from the puppeteering days forward, including Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Supercar, Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun, Thunderbirds, and – of course – UFO and Space:1999. The groovy, jaunty flavor of Gray’s music was part of what made these shows something fun and exciting to tune into, not to mention that his themes are among the catchiest in this universe or beyond. One listen to the head-bobbing Joe 90 theme will set you straight [see here and here].
Posted on July 11th, 2010 at 12:11pm.
I love the space girls. TV shows were so much fun back then. Now we have to put up with “Battlestar Galactica” and its stupid anti-war politics.
ITV did such great work in that era. They were always very stylish and imaginative.
I actually just rented this show and saw the first episode last night. It’s really great.
You beat me to it SS. After what they did to Battlestar Galactica, I also cringe to think what they’d do to UFO.
Imagine Thunderbirds in the hands of a Terminator/Aliens era James Cameron.
Indeed. Cameron represents such a loss, by the way. It’s amazing to think that he actually co-wrote the second Rambo film. I still can barely understand what’s happened to that guy. The other day while having lunch, a great scene from “True Lies” came on with Charlton Heston and Schwarzenegger. In the scene they talk about the need to eradicate terrorism. Heston is hilarious, growling with an eyepatch on, lambasting Schwarzenegger for not getting the job done. It’s a great moment. And I’m asking myself in the midst of this: what the hell happened to Cameron?
Awesome. I’m glad he’s keeping some of the Barry Gray theme.
‘“The current plan,” Gratzner explains. “is that Barry Gray’s theme will actually be used in the picture.” Classical composer Richard Sortomme has been enlisted to score UFO. “He re-orchestrated the original Barry Gray theme, huge and sweeping and orchestral…I’m a huge fan of the original UFO theme. If you take away the Herb Alpert trumpet and the Hammond B3 organ and you listen to the music itself, there’s a really spectacular orchestral score there.’
Nooo! They did it again, the mutants in Hollywood stole my idea (of course if they stole all of it, they’d have made UFO into an animated series, with James Woods as the voice of Stryker), someday I’m going to have to find a way to deactivate the transmitter in my brain.