Recently I was pleased to receive for review two novellas based on two Gerry Anderson television series being published by Anderson Entertainment, the company founded by Gerry Anderson, and continuing today, even though Gerry passed away in 2012.
Both novellas have been published on 13 September 2024 for ‘Breakaway Day’, a significant day in the Space: 1999 universe and a milestone for fans – the date that Earth’s moon was blown out of orbit by a massive nuclear explosion in the first episode of the series. The books will be published in a limited-edition hardback and paperback, with eBooks to follow at a later date.
The Space:1999 novella is reviewed here, but this review is about the UFO novella.
Context, then, for those who don’t know, or perhaps need reminding. At the end of the 1960s, Gerry Anderson moved from puppets (Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 amongst others) and Supermarionation into live action with the darker series UFO. The timing was perfect for Anderson’s team to design and produce a brand-new live-action series set in a future 1980 concerned with Earth defending itself from aliens who seem intent on harvesting human organs to be transplanted into their own bodies. UFOs were becoming a more and more popular topic in the 1960s, and in the mid-1960s the first heart transplants were taking place.
The series lasted for 26 episodes, transmitted in 1970 – 71, with the human’s SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organisation) base the last line of defense in this clandestine war between humanity and the alien invaders. Hidden underneath the Harlington-Straker film studio. SHADO is led by the uncompromising Commander Ed Straker, who is highlighted on the book’s cover. Straker’s job is to command Earth’s defenders both on Earth and at a Moon Base, which is demanding of time and effort.
In recent years, repeated showings of the UFO television series on cable television here in the UK have meant a reassessment of the series. From a series that was generally dismissed as dull (I remember comments along the lines of Anderson’s actors being as wooden as the puppets they replaced!) to something that is increasingly regarded as one of Anderson’s best, if not the best of his work. Using more adult, often more violent, scripts and merging the detailed models and special effects of series such as Thunderbirds with real actors clearly play to Anderson’s strengths. UFO is now being seen as a great series. Whilst its vision of a future 1980 is – well, let’s be charitable and call it optimistic – in terms of its clothes and vehicles, it is the human element of the stories that still holds up, being a darker, more intense series than Space:1999 which followed it. Having recently rewatched some episodes for research before writing this review I can say that generally I think they hold up pretty well.
And so, to this novella. The plot’s pretty straightforward – after an experiment goes wrong, Straker awakens from a coma with missing memories and strange hallucinations that threaten his grip on reality. From the start the reader is left guessing whether these are the result of alien interference, or whether the commander’s iron will has finally cracked. But what happens when the man at the top is pushed too far?
Like with the Space: 1999 novella, Swallow also manages to get the tone of the original programme in his prose. This is different to that of the Space:1999 novella, in that this feels darker, more intense, more paranoid – a reflection of the dark times the series was made and set in. (Similarly, Straker’s constant cigar smoking, a feature of the television series, is also a reminder that we are reading something set in a future-past!)
Although the reader will recognize many of the other characters in the story, Power Play is really all about Straker, and most of all the story emphasizes the stresses such an important position can put upon a person and the risks of having an organization so dependent around one person.
This tension throughout is also emphasized by the point that the story is focused on the viewpoint of Ed Straker, and so much of the book is about whether we can believe Straker and what he sees – he even has doubts himself about what is happening, and Swallow really gets under the skin of what makes Straker tick. There’s a plot twist towards the end, but the ideas behind it are based on events from the original series.
Here there’s some nice (but brief) referencing to Straker’s background from the original TV episodes, which gives a little more depth, but again it’s not too important to remember much about the series, now near 55 years old, as enough backstory is given along the way to remind readers. The only annoyance I had with it was the writer’s insistence in using the term’ u-foe’ rather than ‘UFO’, although this is not throughout the book.
Having said that, and perhaps understandably, there’s a fair amount of exposition as we go along – explanations of the settings and vehicles used, a definition of the term SHADO and brief descriptions of the other characters in the story, for example – but generally Swallow manages to balance between the necessary information and keeping the plot moving.
In summary, then, UFO: Shadow Play is a strong effort in adding to the UFO story. In fact, as much as I enjoyed the Space:1999 novella, I enjoyed this one more. I think that fans of the series will not be disappointed and enjoy this a great deal.
UFO: SHADOW PLAY by James Swallow
Published by Anderson Entertainment, September 2024
140 pages
ISBN: 978 191 4522 802
Review by Mark Yon