UFO: "Flight Path"

A SHADO officer, Dawson (Keith Grenville) is compromised by the pilot of a landed UFO. Controlled by aliens, he blackmails another SHADO officer, Paul Roper (George Cole). If Roper doesn't compromise SID, the satellite which tracks alien vessels, Dawson threatens to kill his wife, Carol (Sonia Fox).

Roper succumbs to the blackmail, but fails his SHADO psyche test, demonstrating signs of anxiety, tension and neurosis. Alec (George Sewell) spies on him, and learns that Roper, his friend, has been compromised.

After Roper is apprehended  by SHADO, Dawson attacks his wife, and though he is shot, manages to kill her.  A vengeful Roper then heads to Moonbase to destroy an incoming alien UFO before it can target the installation.

An early episode in UFO's production order, "Flight Path" features a number of fascinating story and character ideas, but somehow doesn't come across as brilliantly as a similar tale, which I reviewed last week, "The Square Triangle."

In a way, "Flight Path" and "The Square Triangle" are eerily similar.  In both cases, there is a triangle of sorts, though in this case, the triangle involves a blackmailer, a husband and wife, rather than an illicit lover, a husband and wife. Unfortunately, the scenes involving Roper and his wife don't create much by way of sympathy or emotion, and there is a distance, or reserved quality, to both the acting and the storytelling here.

I wrote last week about "cost," and one can say that the cost of war is again the focus of "Flight Path."  Aliens co-opt Dawson (who dies), and he kills Carol. Then Paul gives up his life to avenge Carol's death.  Again, Straker is involved, because he sends Paul on what seems like a suicide mission. He sends the SHADO officer to the lunar surface and his him shoot down a UFO.  Roper is killed in the ensuing blast, and dies on the moon.

But, somehow, despite the personal stakes involved, the episode never seems anything other than straight-forward. Straker quashes debate by noting, curtly. "This is a war!" and though that makes the point well enough, the episode doesn't linger, for example, on Alec's feelings about the sacrifice of his friend. Alec's role of "emotional barometer" is far less successful than Foster's similar role in "The Square Triangle." This episode is about Roper and his wife, but never really lets us know how Alec and Straker feel about what becomes of them, or about their role in the tragedy.

Perhaps the most impressive aspects of this episode are technical. There's a fantastic scene mid-way through, in which a UFO strafes Roper's car on a country road, and the special effects hold up well.  Still, it is odd that Roper is driving what becomes identified, essentially, as Straker's car, in other tales.  

Also, the climactic scene on the moon is well-rendered, and even tense, as Roper takes his first shot at the UFO, and it survives. Then, with only seconds to spare before it is in firing range of Moonbase, he re-acquires the target and blows the UFO to smithereens. We see it hit the lunar surface and explode, with fragments hurtling towards the camera.  It's an impressive, trademark Gerry Anderson effects moment.

In writing a review like this one, I endeavor never to be unfair in my conclusions. "Flight Path" is an adequate hour of science fiction TV but it doesn't carry the emotional wallop of "Confetti Check A-OK," "A Question of Priorities," or "The Square Triangle." 

Nor is "Flight Path" one of UFO's great high-concept action masterpieces such as "Mindbender" or "Timelash."  Overall, it's probably somewhere down in the middle of the pack, in terms of episode quality.

Next week: "Timelash."