UFO: Identified (1970)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 16 September 1970
Episode Running Times: 50 mins
Format: colour
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Executive Producer: Gerry Anderson
Producer: Reg Hill
Production Supervisor: Norman Foster
Unit Manager: Roger Connolly

SCRIPT
Script: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, Tony Barwick
Script Editor: Tony Barwick

DIRECTION
Director: Gerry Anderson
Assistant Director: Leo Eaton

PHOTOGRAPHY
Lighting Cameraman: Brendan Stafford
Camera Operator: Derek Black

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Alan Killick

MUSIC
Music: Barry Gray
Music Editor: George Randall

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Ken Rawkins, J.B. Smith
Sound Editors: John Peverill, Jim Hopkins

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Cliff Sharp
Hair: Alice Holmes
Century 21 Fashions: Sylvia Anderson
Wardrobe: Kim Martin, Iris Richens

VISUAL EFFECTS
Supervisor: Derek Meddings
Production Manager: Frank Hollands
Director: Bill Camp
Lighting Cameraman: Harry Oakes
Camera Operator: Mike Rainer
Assistant to Supervisor: Jim Elliott
Designer: Mike Trim

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Bob Bell
Assistant Art Director: Keith Wilson
Instrumentation: Don Fagan, Century 21 Film Props
Constuction Manager: Fred Gunning
Buyer: Harry Solomans

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Doreen Sloan
Assistant to Producer: Des Saunders

LOCATIONS
Locations: Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK; Burnham Beeches, Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK; Handley Page Ltd., Radlett Aerodrome, Frogmore, Hertfordshire, England, UK; Neptune House, BBC Elstree Studios, Eldon Avenue, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Studios: MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, UK; Century 21 Studios, Slough, UK; ATV Elstree, England, UK

STUNTS
Stunt Arranger: Jack Silk

CASTING
Casting Director: Rose Tobias Shaw

CAST
Ed Bishop (Commander Ed Straker)
George Sewell (Colonel Alec Freeman)
Peter Gordeno (Captain Peter Carlin)
Norma Roland (Miss Ealand)
Gabrielle Drake (Lt Gay Ellis)
Grant Taylor (General James Henderson)
Dolores Mantez (Lt Nina Barry)
Antonia Ellis (Lt Joan Harrington)
Vladek Sheybal (Dr Doug Jackson)
Keith Alexander (Lt Keith Ford)
Harry Baird (Lt Mark Bradley)
Gary Myers (Lt Lew Waterman)
Ayshea Brough (SHADO operative)
Mel Oxley (voice of SID)
Wanda Ventham (Colonel Virginia Lake)
Basil Dignam (cabinet minister)
Shane Rimmer (Seagull X-Ray co-pilot)
Gary Myers (Lew Waterman)
Michael Mundell (Ken Matthews)
Keith Alexander (SHADO radio operator)
Jon Kelly (SkyDiver engineer)
Georgina Moon (SkyDiver operative)
Jeremy Wilkin (SkyDiver navigator)
Paul Gillard (Kurt Mahler)
Gary Files (Phil Wade)
Matthew Roberton (Dr Harris)
Maxwell Shaw (Dr Schroeder)
Annette Kerr (nurse)
Edwina Carroll (Leila Carlin)
Gito Santana (alien)
Louisa Rabaiotti (SHADO operative)
Penny Spencer (Janis)
Dennis Plenty (Lt. David Worth)
Jack Silk (motorcyclist)

PLOT SUMMARY

1970: three young people film a strange craft they find sitting in a clearing in a forest. An unseen figure pursues them through the forest, randomly firing at them with a high tech machine gun. Elsewhere, Colonel Ed Straker, an ambitious young USAF officer, and his superior Colonel Henderson are attacked by a UFO while en route to an important meeting about UFO sightings. 1980: Commander Straker is now head of SHADO, an organisation dedicated to fighting the alien threat. A UFO is shot down by Sky 1 and a body is recovered. Returning the badly wounded alien to SHADO HQ, the organisation's crack medical teams set to work. Before the aliens prematurely ages and dies, they make a staggering discovery - many of its internal organs are of human origin...

Typical of Anderson's no-nonsense, full throttle approach, there are few niceties in setting up the premise of UFO. A brief prologue is all we get by way of background, then it's a head first dive into the mayhem, hardware and spectacle. Anderson's direction is, for the most part, merely functional and apart from the moody teaser and the excellent scenes set in 1970, there's not much of the unsettling ambience that was to pervade many of the better subsequent episodes. Despite that, Identified does have its moments, particularly that disorientating teaser with its nocturnal encounter with the eerie, pulsating UFO. And fancy direction and moody atmospherics weren't the aim here. Anderson simply had to establish the premise as quickly as possible and he certainly succeeded in that. By the time Identified's end credits roll, we've seen most of SHADO's defences in action, had our first glimpse of the aliens, established that undeclared war has broken out with an aggressive alien race and listened to some very silly dialogue - most memorably that wonderful "hereditary sterility" gaff! A good, solid curtain-raiser.

1969
April
28: UK - filming begins

May
12: UK - filming ends

1970
September
16: UK - television broadcast (on ITV (ATV))

1972
September
16: USA - television broadcast (on WBZ Channel 4 Boston)

1973
March
18: USA - television broadcast (on WPRI Channel 12 Providence RI / WTIC Channel 3 Hartford CT)

1996
September
16: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

2000
July
13: Italy - television broadcast (on TMC2)

August
28: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)
30: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)
31: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)

September
1: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)
2: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)
3: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)
4: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)
7: Italy - television broadcast (on Canal Jimmy)

Finalmente Identificato - Italian title

KEYWORDS

ufos; aliens; aircraft; organ harvesting