Look.  Everyone has a different take on UFO.  And they should have.  How boring life would be if we all thought the same!  And I've very carefully refrained from making comments when I disagree with you, mostly because that's just stupid.  Differiing opinions make for interesting dialogue.  However, when you diss everything that everyone else on this forum says, claiming you know better, then I have a problem with that.  And don't expect me to remain silent and let you blast them.  This forum is for the intelligent discussion of the show, not for slamming everybody who doesn't think like you.  If you can get that, maybe we'll get along just fine.  If you can't, expect to continue to have your slamming interrupted.

Guina stated

Quote:


Absolutely. My personal take on UFO and the characters is wildly different from everyone elses viewpoint. After all we all live as the centre of our own world don't we, so naturally our individual viewpoints are skewed from the start. (solipstic universe?)

there are UFO fans who like The Long Sleep .. I think it's dire, and who hate Kill Straker ..which, I think, despite the plot holes and poor acting, is the best episode.

So we all differ. The point is that we should be able to reason our points of view and learn from others viewpoints. Who knows, you might , if you give me enough valid, sensible arguements ( and I mean reasoned ones!) be able to convince me to like ( I wil never 'love'!) Long Sleep, or at least look at it with a different perspective. maybe a more analytical POV instead of the rather more emotional  and irrational.. I don't like this episode.. view that I have from my worldvision.

Suffice it to say, I shall watch Psychobombs. and study it with a more open mind, not because I think I am perfect or want to disprove other peoples viewpoints, but because the arguements about the episode have opened my mind to other possibilities, other explanations.
If we didn't want to develop our stories, our thoughts, our experiences, then we wouldn't be here, would we.
I may well still have the same opinion about the programme, but I will have made that decision having considered all the other ideas and options that have been presented.

And after all. everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
 
Bloody Hell!!. That sounds stuffy..  stop sniggering Guina And I didn't mean it to. I wanted to put an unemotional, inoffensive and neutral viewpoint across that doesn't get me hung up by the goolies.. oh.. sorry I don't have goolies.. well then doesn't leave me having my guts used  for garters as the phrase here goes!
 

Hi,

I guess I'm really perverted, but I also like The Long Sleep. I just loved the entry sequence with a so happy early-bird Straker who wasn't taken down even on seeing a mountain in his inbox, to totally lose it over an accident with a girl he could not have avoided.

I also loved that for once his conscience and liking of the girl totally overwhelmed him, making him for incapable of ordering potentially deadly drugs used on her, with - of all persons Paul Foster (!) - being the hard-hearted SHADO exec who does so (also sparing his boss the deed btw).

Lastly, the non-sexual love-story between Straker and the girl is totally heartbreaking. His willingness to take responsibility and care of her, more like a replacement father or brother, his in general very soft behaviour, and the despair when she died. Just great.

That episode really introduced us to a much more grown up and mellowed Straker, one who clearly was heading into his 4th decade, showing us how much more he began to value life and people (as was heralded in subsmash).

Just LOVED that episode!

Guina wrote;
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The part I don't like about the Long Sleep is the ,long boring drug/runaway sequence... there is simply too much 'off UFO' trivia. I do think there are really good things to this episode..(love Straker in that suit!) and his attitude to the girl is excellent. But Col Lake annoys me.(particularly the last shot..running after him!)
 
Trouble is, because I don't like ( or think I don't like!) the episode, I don't watch it. So I don't get a chance to change my views.

Perhaps we could review each episode.. and ask members to try to watch a specific episode each.. what.. month? (not week.. Hubby hates me watching UFO!) and then in retrospect we could give a much more analytical POV.
I actually watched Dalotek Affair this week.. surprised me as its not one I would chose to watch.( I tend to watch about ten of the episodes on a regular basis.. some I have hardly watched  at all!..Ordeal?)

Suggestions? Comments? Thoughts? We could specify particular characters within each episode as well. Just a thought.

Somewhat delayed ... Paul Foster annoyed me when he first appeared. I felt the selection of male characters was quite excellent without adding beefcake. Then I thought about it a couple of decades later and decided that given the venue and given the market share the Andersons were looking at, maybe Paul wasn't the clod I saw to begin with. He was brash, but he saw something unusual and tried to chase it down instead of running away. Test pilots are ... larger than life. Really, they are. Pilots are larger than life and test pilots put their lives on the line every time they take off.

So, some of Paul's character traits rest in his initial position. Then he gets to be a member of a super secret organization that shoots his love life to flinders. (He seems to have a steady girl/maybe live in, when this all starts and she disappears quickly when he's not the 9-5 boy she wants ... oh my, shades of Straker connections. And she was blonde too, as I recall. <chuckle>)

Wow. Aliens are real. SHADO testing is really very annoying. My girl dumps me. I'm gung-ho and I keep having to wait for the aliens to come to me ...

Y'know, maybe some of his apparent character flaws are more coping issues? Even as a teen/20 something Paul struck me as  ... immature. Yet today I find myself writing him as oddly reasonable ... succumbing to a non-actressy lady ... taking the part of the kids to a certain extent in one of my stories, at least sympathizing with them ...

Maybe as a writer he grows on us? (like spanish moss?) I can understand people who just can't stand him. I can understand people who like him. I liked both Kill Straker and The Long Sleep. (OK, I'm a little closer to the hippy dippy bits and had no issues with the staged druggy stuff showing how the two young people were seeing things)

So, over all, Paul is a useful character. Not my favorite, fuzzy guys <elaborate shudder> not my thing. Endomorphs all the way! (those are the long, lean, skinny types, neh? Knew a guy once who was 6 foot and 104 lbs and was not anorexic looking, or anorexic. He was extremely bird boned and very strong ... he and the spousal unit lifted a wing flap into place for an F-4 and hung the thing one night with no help ... baka! definitely baka! but strong. LOL)

So, my attitude about Paul has ... mellowed with time. I'm not sure I ever saw him as antsy to take over Straker's position. I know some fics where that is the thrust of his character. One author in particular. Don't agree with that one's view of Straker either. 

My earliest fics ignored Foster in favor of straker and alec. Today, I'm in favor of whichever character fills the hole I need to handle.

ciao

K-k

I'm in bed. (07.53hrs) My ectomorph husband has gone to work which is a good ting because otherwise he would want to  know why I was laughing   so much

Bodyshapes!
I like ectomorphs and mesomorphs... but endomorphs!   

Nice piece of writing Mk. based on Long Sleep.... I never thought of taking a scene and writing it up like that.

As for dvds.. I have West Wing. which is Great adn I watched about 10 tiimes, but no other series,.( Daughter 3 has loads though! Stargate, CSI X Files, Battlestar, Babylon,) so I borrow hers if necessary. I'm heavily , really heavily into UFO to the extent that it is practically the only thing I watch at the moment. Most of my evenings are now spent writing, drawing or watching an episode (while knitting the baby blanket!)

So if someone wants to pick an episode for us to watch.. go for it! .. but please.. not Ordeal.. it's been a hard enough week already!!

<snerk>

actually, there are a couple of endomorphs ... LOL

I can never get these technical terms straight .