History Series / UFO

* OldSchoolDogfight:
** The imagined space combat draws very much from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Battle of Britain]] tropes. Moonbase is the beleaguered sector airfield, and SID (Space Intruder Detector) the early-warning radar. Calmly-speaking young women (the WAAF's) vector in Interceptors (Spitfires) against the anonymous alien invaders (German bombers). But given that the Moon takes 27.322 days to orbit the Earth, [[FridgeLogic one wonders why]] the aliens don't just attack when Moonbase is on the opposite side of their target.
** Averted in that special-effects limitations prevented much in the way of actual dog-fighting - the combat between interceptors and [=UFO=]s consist mostly of missiles and energy weapons being fired at fairly long range.

** The way the moon-based spaceships are able to intercept [=UFO=]s coming from a totally different direction shows some lack of understanding of the distances involved.

[[caption-width-right:332:The 80's [[{{Zeerust}} as viewed from the 70's]]. When men were men and women wore purple wigs.]]

* ComputerEqualsTapedrive (along with BeepingComputers, BillionsOfButtons, and OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture): A montage of flashing lights, spinning tape drives, [[ViewerFriendlyInterface large font letters]] on coloured monitors, swaying female buttocks, and rows of large luminous buttons accompany every RedAlert. SID (the computer-controlled radar satellite) is given a more 'advanced' look, being a [[ComputerVoice talking computer]] and all.

* AutoKitchen: In the first episode "Identified", the break room in Moonbase has what appears to be an automat-style setup on one wall, with six different sets of slots divided by nationality.

''UFO'' still had an influence on pop culture. Both the video-game developer Creator/MicroProse and the anime studio [[Creator/StudioGainax Gainax]] have cited the series for inspiration for ''VideoGame/XCom'' and ''Franchise/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', respectively.

* MistakenForCheating: In "Confetti Check a-Ok", Straker's long hours during SHADO's early days leads his mother-in-law to believe he's cheating on Mary, to the point of hiring a private eye to follow him. He's spotted going into a flat with another woman (one of the Moonbase lieutenants and a celebration of SHADO becoming operational), which causes Mary to leave him.

* TimeStandsStill: "Timelash"

%% * CassetteFuturism

* CassetteFuturism

* ColonelBadass: Straker.

* KarmaHoudini: In "The Square Triangle", SHADO accidentally interrupts a plot by a wife and her lover to murder her husband. However they can't just hand them over to the police, so the conspirators just get their memories wiped and it's implied the murder goes ahead as planned.

** "A Question of Priorities". Straker's son is injured and requires an experimental antibiotic from the United States. Realising that SHADO can get it there quicker than a commercial transport, Straker has it secretly placed on a SHADO transporter. At the same time a possible alien defector lands in Ireland and tries to communicate with SHADO, so Foster diverts the transporter to pick him up. He offers to retask the transporter when Straker explains what it's carrying, but Straker can't put his own priorities above those of Earth. [[spoiler:In the end another UFO turns up to kill the defector before they make contact, and Straker's son dies because he doesn't have the antibiotic, earning Straker the lasting enmity of his ex-wife.]]

** "A Question of Priorities". Straker's son is injured and requires an experimental antibiotic from the United States. Realising that SHADO can get it there quicker than a commercial transport, Straker has it secretly placed on a SHADO transporter. At the same time a possible alien defector lands in Ireland and tries to communicate with SHADO, so Foster diverts the transporter to pick him up. He offers to retask the transporter when Straker explains what it's carrying, but Straker can't put his own priorities above those of Earth. [[spoiler:In the end another UFO turns up to kill the defector before they make contact, and Straker's son dies because he doesn't have the antibiotic, earning Straker the lasting enmity of his wife.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: "Close up" has Straker request a billion dollars for a special space probe outfitted with an advanced telescope to take images of the alien planet. There's the launch, a spacewalk to install the telescope, and then a nerve-wracking interception mission to force a UFO into an orbit near the probe so it can lock on and follow the alien craft when it retreats. And then a months-long wait for data to come back. [[spoiler: And all for naught since the photographs are missing range and magnification data that would allow reliable identification of their contents.]]

* MistakenForCheating: In "Confetti Check a-Ok", Straker's long hours during SHADO's early days leads his mother-in-law to believe he's cheating on Mary, to the point of hiring a private eye to follow him. He's spotted going into a flat with another woman (one of the Moonbase lieutenants and a celebration of SHADO becoming operational), which leads her to leave him.

* GetItOverWith: In "Kill Straker", Foster's response to realizing that Straker intends to kill him is to say that he understands that it has to be done because HeKnowsTooMuch, but "For God's sake, get it over with!" Since Straker's actual goal is to tempt Foster to kill ''him'', this just leads Straker to make up other reasons that are more inflammatory and unfair.

* FrontOrganisation: SHADO headquarters is hidden under a film studio, where all the odd goings-on can be passed off as something to do with a movie. Fair enough, [[FridgeLogic but how does Straker have the time to run a film studio]] ''and'' be the leader of an international alien-fighting organisation? Wouldn't hiring a front man as studio boss make more sense? Of course the real reason for disguising the base as a film studio was that the series was shot at a film studio! (Actually two in succession, because the first studio closed down during production.)

* FrontOrganisation: SHADO headquarters is hidden under a film studio, where all the odd goings-on can be passed off as something to do with a movie. Fair enough, [[FridgeLogic but how does Straker have the time to run a film studio]] ''and'' be the leader of an international alien-fighting organisation? Wouldn't hiring a front man as studio boss make more sense?\\
Of course the real reason for disguising the base as a film studio was that the series was shot at a film studio! (Actually two in succession, because the first studio closed down during production.)

** Our first view of the 1980's is a [[NoNewFashionsInTheFuture mini-skirted dolly bird]] sashaying away from the camera, which is [[MaleGaze positioned at hemline level]].

** The speed, acceleration and maneuvreability of the [=UFO=]s defy all known laws of physics. This is just taken for granted and not even handwaved away.

* AlienAbduction: [=UFO=]s to visit the Earth to abduct humans, either to harvest their organs or to take over their entire bodies.

This dark reimagining of ''[[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons Captain Scarlet]]'' unfortunately backfired, as most broadcasters were expecting the Andersons' [[MagnumOpusDissonance usual children's fare]]. [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Erratic broadcasting schedules]] (no two regional stations ever simulcast the show) and indifferent from American broadcasters, who reacted with a collective "WTF?", prevented ''UFO'' from cultivating an audience. Without US support, a second season set on a more advanced Moonbase in the 1990's was scrapped, and the pre-production design and model work (and basic concepts) reused for the marginally more successful ''Series/{{Space 1999}}''.

** The imagined space combat draws very much from [[WorldWarII Battle of Britain]] tropes. Moonbase is the beleaguered sector airfield, and SID (Space Intruder Detector) the early-warning radar. Calmly-speaking young women (the WAAF's) vector in Interceptors (Spitfires) against the anonymous alien invaders (German bombers). But given that the Moon takes 27.322 days to orbit the Earth, [[FridgeLogic one wonders why]] the aliens don't just attack when Moonbase is on the opposite side of their target.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Straker thinks that Henderson should be in charge of SHADO; ten years later, they're constantly at each others throats.