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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Mary Straker (Read 11643 times)
Guina
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Mary Straker
Jul 29th, 2010 at 12:00pm
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Hi,

am I the only one who would have loved to pick up Mary Straker by the front of her amply filled blouse(s) and shaken her until some sense plops back into her little empty head?

Sorry, Mary Straker is the one single totally poorly conceived character in the series. I hated her one-dimensionality, she's so cliché my back-teeth hurt every time I see her face or hear her speak.

Part of that may be the actress, who just didn't fit the part, nor complemented her husband.

But a huge part of that was how Mary was written. And it's a cliché which was old already then and has a miles long beard today still (whenever I get served another policeman's/Vet's/doctor's/etc wife giving her husband hell for not sitting down punctually for dinner or visiting parties/operas/theatres/kids' birthdays in a book or movie, I immediately cease reading and am known for having left the cinema...).

There truly was quite enough potential for conflict between Ed and Mary without resorting to that old bore. A huge chance squandered...
  
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Neesierie
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #1 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 3:00pm
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That is so true!  What woman would marry a man in a high profile profession, then complain when he works?  Duh!  Most woman aren't that stupid, and those who are really aren't fun to watch in a movie or on tv.  What would have been cool (and intriguiing) would have been a supportive wife who through trying to help her overworked husband finds out more than she should about the organization and he has to find some way for Security not to kill her!  That would have been interesting to watch!  Wink
  
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Matt
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #2 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 3:02pm
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Like "Full Circle" one of my favorites! Smiley

I'll do a writeup on Mary later! Wink
  

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Lightcudder
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #3 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 3:08pm
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That would also be very interesting to read! (Denise's idea for Mary finding out about Shado adn Security havingto get involved!)
No... I can't.. I have too many ideas on the go already.

But Mary Straker was a real pain. a spolit brat, who seemed to marry for the wrong reasons....... very immature and naive.
Surely she must have realised that her husband ( still in Military Intelligence when they married?) was  bound to have ot work long and unsocial hours..  and the episode didn't make it clear when Straker 'retired'.. was it shortly after his wedding? Anyway , any sensible woman would have realised that something was up... Silly fool.

I was disappointed with a lot of the 'additional' actors in UFO.. Roper was downright old and as for Janna Wade... well, could they not have found someone slightly more attractive?



  

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Neesierie
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #4 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 3:10pm
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Not really, Matt.  I'm talking before they reached a split.  Not after.  Dragon's take on Mary afterward inspired me to write 'Full Circle', but it would have been better if the writers of the show kept them together and let her slowly amass more information than was good for her.  Very suspenseful then, don't you think?  Instead of whining and complaining in every scene!  Tongue  (Such a screecher creature!)
  
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Matt
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #5 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 3:14pm
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Good point! Smiley Yeah that would have been cool, but I did like the way you solved the problem in Full Circle. Smiley I think that was the first of your stories I had read. Smiley

Screecher Creature! I love it! Smiley
  

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Guina
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #6 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 3:29pm
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Hi,

yep, the idea of having her find out about SHADO would have been a great one. Even the line of her believing him to cheat on her might have been done in a much better way and resulting in the split, or have been the last straw after her e.g. finding out about a couple of his more cavalier decisions regarding personnel or people under his decisionmaking.

As to that old bore: last year my old mare colicked on Christmas Eve, colicked badly. I called my vet out of a huge Christmas event at the next town's opera house. He arrived in dinner jacket, his wife alongside in expensive evening gown. She held his instruments for him and prepped meds, while he was shoulder deep, stripped down to bare chest,  groping inside a very messy horse anus at something like 9 in the evening and inside an ice-cold snowcovered outdoors shed. I asked her how she saw herself and him in that respect, and she just grinned and said "I married him open-eyed".

As to Mary - I find it very implausible that someone like Straker would root for a woman clearly not very intelligent and self-reliant.
  
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dragon
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #7 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 4:25pm
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As I've said before, the tail end of the 1960's produces insane cardboard characters in this show. In giving Straker a distressing, isolating background, they did a great disservice to the people who created that background. I've always felt bad about Mary because she had the potential to be a real person and instead they foisted a paper cutout on her.

I've written a couple of stories in which she matured, and at least one in which her sanity snapped. Ask anyone here, I'm the Mary redeemer in the crew. <ducking the inquisitive looks about the couple of stories that are unfinished>

ciao

d
  
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Lightcudder
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #8 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 4:34pm
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Couple of stories?????
Hmmm????

I really liked the one where Alec arrives in his Hummer.... how is that going to end? Smiley

oh yes, and the one where Ed is poisoned/........... and that ending??? Wink


Oooppps;  not forgetting the one where Ed and Mary are in the UFO after he has arrived at her house and they have both been captured Cheesy

I have a long memory Dragon.......... Cool
  

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Matt
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #9 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 4:55pm
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I thought they were dead! Shocked The last one that is! Wink
  

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MkIXHawk
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #10 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 5:06pm
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Alba wrote on Jul 29th, 2010 at 12:00pm:
Hi,

am I the only one who would have loved to pick up Mary Straker by the front of her amply filled blouse(s) and shaken her until some sense plops back into her little empty head?

Sorry, Mary Straker is the one single totally poorly conceived character in the series. I hated her one-dimensionality, she's so cliché my back-teeth hurt every time I see her face or hear her speak.

Part of that may be the actress, who just didn't fit the part, nor complemented her husband.

But a huge part of that was how Mary was written. And it's a cliché which was old already then and has a miles long beard today still (whenever I get served another policeman's/Vet's/doctor's/etc wife giving her husband hell for not sitting down punctually for dinner or visiting parties/operas/theatres/kids' birthdays in a book or movie, I immediately cease reading and am known for having left the cinema...).

There truly was quite enough potential for conflict between Ed and Mary without resorting to that old bore. A huge chance squandered...



How much of her suspicious nature was due to her mother who  stirred things up - she sowed the seeds of distrust by suggesting that there was another woman, then employied a Private Investigator. I wonder if he was subsequently recruited into SHADO- he was VERY good to be able to track Straker
  
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Guina
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #11 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 5:25pm
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Hi,

Quote:
How much of her suspicious nature was due to her mother who  stirred things up - she sowed the seeds of distrust by suggesting that there was another woman, then employied a Private Investigator. I wonder if he was subsequently recruited into SHADO- he was VERY good to be able to track Straker


Oh, I don't think it really mattered in the end where or who  the suspicions came from. It was foreshadowed already at the start of Confetti Check that she'd not hold up under the stress of having her expectations thwarted or being alone often. I mean, jeez, except for hanging pictures and choosing curtains, she didn't do much, did she? That's what I find so umbelievable as a Straker choice.

As to the PI, I doubt that would have been difficult at the time. All he had to do was follow him when Straker set off in the morning. The address he'd have gotten from Mary's mother.

It's sad that one of the most important characters to build Straker's backstory was so feeble done, so one-dimensional.
  
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Lightcudder
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #12 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 5:40pm
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But that was one of the problems with UFO. Most of the characters were very one-dimensional. Apart from Straker. and he only developed after the first few episodes. It makes you wonder if they had actually given any thought to the series, or the
actors.
To have actually selected Delrosa was a big mistake and surely they would have known ( or should have known) that he was unreliable and inept. And the other cast members who were only available for a short time? not good planning.

I suppose Gerry was used to puppets... but he should have really done his research!
But despite all those niggles, all the dreadful storylines and the poor scriptwriting, its still a wonderful series!
  

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MkIXHawk
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #13 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 6:13pm
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Lightcudder wrote on Jul 29th, 2010 at 5:40pm:
B
To have actually selected Delrosa was a big mistake and surely they would have known ( or should have known) that he was unreliable and inept. And the other cast members who were only available for a short time? not good planning.

I suppose Gerry was used to puppets... but he should have really done his research!
But despite all those niggles, all the dreadful storylines and the poor scriptwriting, its still a wonderful series! 



A lot of the Casting was down to Sylvia - she liked Pretty Boys...


...Then again, Gerry had an eye for the Girls...


ISTR that Delores Mantez was cited as co-respondant


Six of one, half a dozen of the other methinks

A lot of the casting was done on the basis of how the person looked on screen, hence most of the SHADO operatives were actually models, rather than actors.

There WERE actually some good actors in the series, such as Grant Taylor, Richard Vernon, Philip Madoc, Edwin Richfield,  and Stephen Berkoff
  
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Neesierie
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Re: Mary Straker
Reply #14 - Jul 29th, 2010 at 6:16pm
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I think one of the earmarks of a great series is when they can overcome enormous obstacles like that and still rivet the attention of the viewers.  Which UFO did week after week.

And let's face it -- year after year!  Grin
  
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