UFO: "The Dalotek Affair"

In "The Dalotek Affair," Colonel Paul Foster (Michael  Billington) and Colonel Alec Freeman (George Sewell) spy a beautiful woman in a restaurant, Jane Carson (Tracy Reed), and her presence reminds Paul of a recent mission.  He remembers the events from six months ago...

...During that span, SHADO's Moonbase began experiencing unexpected scanner and equipment malfunctions, and Commander Straker (Ed Bishop) came to believe these abnormalities were a result of a private operation functioning on the moon: the Dalotek Unit. 

Although executives and employees affiliated with the Dalotek company, including Jane Carson, categorically denied any connection to the malfunctions, or interference with Moonbase equipment, the malfunctions continued to occur.

As Paul, in command of Moonbase at the time, grew increasingly close to Jane during the investigation, he came to learn of an alien jamming device in a nearby lunar crater. It was soon destroyed, foiling another alien plan to sneak past the eyes of Moonbase and reach Earth. 

After the incident, Jane's memory of Paul had to be erased, for matters of security, but now, in the restaurant, Paul sees an opportunity to rekindle the romantic relationship.

"The Dalotek Affair" is another intriguing, if not entirely successful, episode of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's UFO (1970).This installment offers some fascinating observations about the UFO phenomenon in real life, even as it paints a bizarre, slightly-creepy picture of relationships in the future year of 1980.

In this tale, Robert Kennedy, Gerald Ford and General Douglas MacArthur are all name-checked as believers in UFOs. The selection of these individuals is especially noteworthy because years after "The Dalotek Affair," Ford went on to become the U.S. President. Although Straker doesn't refer to him as such in the episode, the fact that he names Ford as an important individual who believes in UFOs actually adds to his point, now, in 2019. In other words, a person as powerful as the U.S. President believes in aliens. As for MacArthur, on several occasions he alluded to the fact that mankind may one day face a common enemy from space, though as Snopes points out, he didn't actually state that it would be our next war we face.

Another individual featured in archival footage in "The Dalotek Affair" is Frank Stranges (1927 - 2008), the founder of NICUFO, in 1967. It is odd, but also pretty bold, for the fictional world of UFO to make such a concerted attempt to connect its premise to realty, and to real, contemporary figures in politics and the pop culture of its era. Stranges was a unique personality (and author), and that's probably the best place to leave any descriptions of the man, and his beliefs. 

By name-dropping Gerald Ford (before he was President), UFO indeed seems very forward-thinking today, as if, The Simpsons-style, it was making a (correct) prediction about the man and his importance to the country.  

But contrarily, Paul Foster's behavior in this episode dates "The Dalotek Affair" very quickly as an artifact of the late 1960's.  While perched in the command chair on Moonbase, in front of all his staff and support people, Paul asks Jane Carson out on a date. He flirts with her while everyone is listening. It's true that Paul may have had an ulterior motive, hoping to learn more about Jane's work on the Moon, it's still inappropriate behavior.  

Then, after Jane Carson's memory is wiped, Paul basically stalks her, locating her in the restaurant so he can ask her out again. Paul is a bit of a horn-dog, the audience understands, but his pursuit of Jane seems to cross lines of appropriateness in "The Dalotek Affair."

Also, it is not clear in this episode if the SHADO "amnesia procedure" is used on everyone who comes in contact with aliens. Is this something new? Because Paul and Carlin clearly did not undergo the amnesia procedure, or they wouldn't be working for the organization. The morality -- or immorality -- of an unwanted medical operation (the amnesia procedure) is also not debated at all in "The Dalotek Affair." It's fascinating, again, to compare the ethos pre-Watergate, with that of the post-Watergate world. In UFO, it is accepted that lies and cover-ups must occur, to protect the people of Earth from danger. By the time of The X-Files in the 1990's, these activities are seen as invasive procedures used by a lying, over-controlling government attempting to hide its complicity in alien activity.

Overall, "The Dalotek Affair" is a stylishly rendered episode of the series, framed in book-end moments at the restaurant, with black-and-white interstitial moments leading up to the flashback, but the overall story itself, of an alien jamming device, is not particularly original or interesting. And Paul's behavior towards Jane just makes the episode feel woefully outdated.

One final observation: Dalotek? Dal(ot)ek? Dalek? The name of the company in this episode seems like an homage to Doctor Who's most famous alien nemesis. And the Daleks, like the aliens of this series, are known to fly in saucer-shaped vehicles.

Next week: "Conflict."