Close Up (UFO)

"**Close Up**"
"Close Up"
UFO episode
Episode no.	Episode 11
Directed by	Alan Perry
Written by	Tony Barwick
Editing by	Harry MacDonald
Production code	13
Original air date	16 December 1970
Guest appearances
	Neil Hallett as Dr Joseph Kelly; James Beckett as Dr Young; Alan Tucker as Tracking Station Operator; Mark Hawkins as Lieutenant Gary North; Frank Mann as Launch Controller; Bob Sherman as First Launch Control Operative; Robert Howay as Second Launch Control Operative; Clive Endersby as Harry, Launch Control; John Levene as Interceptor pilot;
Episode chronology
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	List of episodes

"Close Up" is the eleventh episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. The screenplay was written Tony Barwick and the director was Alan Perry. The episode was filmed between 29 September to 9 October 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands on 16 December 1970. Though shown as the eleventh episode, it was actually the thirteenth to have been filmed.^[1]^[2]

The series was created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.^[3]

Plot

SHADO place a B142 tracking probe (launched with NASA Rocket 712) equipped with a newly developed high resolution electron telescopic camera aboard in lunar orbit, during a spacewalk accomplished by Paul Foster and camera developer Lt. John Masters. A UFO is turned back by the SHADO Interceptors from Moonbase and the probe follows it back to its home world. The images the probe returns several months later have no information regarding range or magnification, however, rendering their intelligence value moot.^[4]

Regular cast

Ed Bishop — Commander Ed Straker
George Sewell — Colonel Alec Freeman
Michael Billington — Colonel Paul Foster
Gabrielle Drake — Lieutenant Gay Ellis
Dolores Mantez — Lieutenant Nina Barry
Gary Myers— Captain Lew Waterman
Keith Alexander— Lieutenant Keith Ford
Ayshea — Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson
Grant Taylor — General James Henderson

Reception

TV Zone magazine considered this episode the worst of the series, commenting that the story lacks tension and the downbeat ending is "hardly worth a 50-minute wait".^[5] John Kenneth Muir calls "Close Up" one of UFO's "most dated" episodes, partly because of its "sexist" portrayal of Lieutenant Gay Ellis. Muir also criticises the ending, noting that it sees Neil Hallett's character, an expert on microphotography, "lecturing to Straker about the importance of 'inner space', and understanding distance and magnification in photographs. Not only is this a seemingly basic fact treated as a cosmic revelation, but it makes all the other characters seem stupid for not realising it."^[6]

Review website anorakzone.com ranks "Close Up" the fourth-worst UFO episode, stating that the plot is "thin [...] for a 50-minute show, and the basic point is hammered home repeatedly before the final credits roll." It also criticises the "oddly spiky" and "out-of-character" interactions between Straker and Ellis, as well as Dr Kelly's demonstration of the images' uselessness, which involves "showing [Straker] a shot of Gay's 'private area', magnified several thousand times over. Straker, ever stoic, seems oddly unconcerned by two of his underlings getting together to make him look an utter fool, or the fact that Gay's crotch looks like an alien planet when seen close-up."^[7]

References

^ "UFO Episode Guide - Close Up". Fanderson. Archived from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^ "UFO Characters - Close Up". SHADO Library. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^ "Underappreciated TV: UFO". Den of Geek. 4 January 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^ Bentley, Chris (10 January 2003). The Complete Book of Gerry Anderson's UFO. 978-1903111659. p. 74. ISBN 978-1903111659.
^ Payne, Stephen, ed. (Summer 2004). "The Anderson Files". TV Zone Special. No. 57. London, UK: Visual Imagination. p. 53. ISSN 0960-8230. OCLC 438949600.
^ Muir, John Kenneth (7 May 2019). "UFO: 'Close Up'". reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
^ "Worst to Best: Gerry Anderson's UFO". anorakzone.com. September 2019. Archived from the original on 18 July 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.