User Reviews

This has always been one of my favorite UFO episodes - since viewing it as a very young child on its very first release.

The story is quite a simple one - Straker allows a solitary UFO through Earth's defences, after it appears to 'piggy-back' behind a NASA craft for protection. True to form, it appears to land somewhere in the 'home counties' of southern England, and SHADO set about discovering its whereabouts... but it seems to have completely vanished! At the same time, a family who own a large farm homestead in the target area start to experience some strange goings on out in their woodland, and Foster goes to investigate... hoping to solve the mystery.

What I love about this episode is the creepiness of the family's relative isolation in the countryside - not to mention the oddness of their situation, unaware that an alien foe may be closing in on their cozy world.

The chemistry between Foster and the delightful Susan Jameson (as Anne) in this episode is wonderful - I especially like the irony of the ending (which I won't reveal here).

There's a cool, day-glo early-1970s atmosphere throughout, and the horse riding and outdoor scenes open out the action (as in other episodes that make good use of locations) - action which is sometimes (in other stories) more contained in studio sets.

This was of course one of the last batch of episodes made when production switched from Elstree to Pinewood, and the slightly more relaxed feel of these later episodes seems to allow for more experimental plot possibilities, despite the loss of some key cast members.

All in all, a very solid, understated and memorable episode of this classic series.

An alien craft lands on Earth as SHADO is unable to shoot it down.

It lands in the country estate of wealthy show jumper Russell Stone (Michael Jayston.) The animals are acting strangely, SHADO wants to locate the alien. Russell Stone blames some hippy vagrant for frighting the horses and trespassing on his property but he is later found dead.

The alien might be responsible for killing hippy and looking to harvest Stone who has been abducted.

Foster gets to flirt with Stone's sister Anne has he comes around looking for the alien at the bottom of a lake.

There is some good model work but it is a functional episode. It has a creepy atmosphere seeing the Stone family and the animals in peril. Just a shame that Russell is such a stuck up cold fish. The bonus is seeing Anne in some kind of plastic red dress.

This episode is incredibly boring. Very little more than nothing actually happens.

Sort of a murder mystery on Earth with a killer UFO alien on the loose. It gets very hokey, with the mixing of genres quite awkward. Having a movie star, Michael Jayston (of the big-budget film "Nicholas and Alexandra") in the cast doesn't save the misquided effort.

Of course, it's the all-important secrecy require in the SHADO operation that accounts for most plot elements, yet the down to Earth action just doesn't fit with an Outer Space/Sci-Fi show -it seems like one is watching the wrong channel all of a sudden, with the horse back riding and a beggar out in the woods with a Prince Valiant wig on. This script should have been rejected long before shooting.

It seemed so dumb I was expecting to see Ed Bishop dealing with a Yeti next week.