6.8/10192 votesLoading...#1 - Ordeal
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 4/14/1971
Foster is abducted by aliens from a health spa and is being taken out into space, presumably back to the alien homeworld. However, the UFO was damaged and returns to the moon, crashing there. While the Moonbase personnel try to free Foster of the alien environmental suit, Foster wakes up in the steam room at the health spa. The episode begs explanation for how Foster dreamed in such orderly detail, including Carlin missing a shot and Straker angry at the missed shot, and Dr. Jackson's off-line comments to Straker before they go onto a visual link to Moonbase to guide them through removal of Foster's alien helmet.
Director: Ken Turner
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.0/10179 votesLoading...#2 - Close Up
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/16/1970
Straker gets approval from above to build a probe with a camera that will track a UFO back to its home planet. Inexplicably, the Earth technology is capable of following a UFO travelling 8 or 9 times the speed of light and follows it home. The episode ends with a SHADO guy trying to convince Straker that they were wasting their time, even though they picked up some great pictures of the planet.
Director: Alan Perry
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.0/10168 votesLoading...#3 - The Sound of Silence
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 7/17/1971
A UFO hides in a lake on a country estate of a well-known equestrian, and the equestrian himself vanishes. When SHADO tracks down the UFO and manages to destroy it in an exchange of pot-shots, the UFO breaks up and leaves a thing floating in the water. Treated as if it is a bomb, it is brought back to SHADO and examined, with unexpected results.
Director: David Lane
Writer: David Lane
7.1/10185 votesLoading...#4 - E.S.P.
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/21/1970
John Croxley's talent for extra sensory perception is heightened after his wife is killed when a UFO crashes into their house. With his mind under the influence of the Aliens, Croxley learns the secrets of SHADO and lures Straker and Freeman to the remains of his house - to kill them!
Director: Ken Turner
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.1/10182 votesLoading...#5 - Flight Path
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/20/1971
A SHADO Technician, who is being blackmailed for information by an unknown party, is caught by Freeman, but not before the information is passed. The Technician, Paul Roper, divulges what information he gave to the blackmailers, to SHADO. After much work on the cryptic data, they discover it is part of a plan by the aliens to attack the Moonbase in a way that would be undetectable. Now it's up to Roper to redeem himself, as he is sent on the suicide mission to stop the attack. If he fails, the base will surely be destroyed.
Director: Ken Turner
Writer: N/A
7.2/10176 votesLoading...#6 - Destruction
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/1970
A Naval vessel shoots down a UFO in the Atlantic, but the Admiralty rejects further investigation into the incident. Straker suspects a cover up and wants to know why, so Foster courts Admiral Sheringham's secretary, Sarah Bosanquet. What they discover could mean the end of all life on Earth...
Director: Ken Turner
Writer: Dennis Spooner
7.2/10196 votesLoading...#7 - The Dalotek Affair
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 2/10/1971
Two of the SHADO people, dining at a fancy restaurant, begin to recall this event after one of them sees a diner who was part of Dalotek. A private company installed a facility on the moon which discovered an alien device that disrupted Communications between Moonbase and SHADO on Earth.
Director: Alan Perry
Writer: N/A
7.2/10191 votesLoading...#8 - Computer Affair
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 5/15/1971
After a pilot is killed when Moonbase operatives fail to give him course change information, the personnel are recalled to Earth for an investigation. A UFO crashes in northern Canada and the personnel are assigned to the operation to find the UFO. Gay Ellis is to coordinate the movement of the mobiles trying to approach the UFO.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.3/10215 votesLoading...#9 - The Cat With Ten Lives
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/30/1970
The body of an Alien, recovered after a UFO attack on Moonbase, reveals some startling new evidence which overturns all SHADO's previous theories about the Aliens. For Interceptor pilot Jim Regan, the news has tragic consequences as he becomes possessed by the mind of an Alien held in the body of a Siamese cat!
Director: David Tomblin
Writer: David Tomblin
7.3/10199 votesLoading...#10 - Conflict
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/7/1970
When an Alien Limpet UFO causes the destruction of Lunar Module 32, Straker demands a clean-up programme by the International Astrophysical Commission to remove hazardous space debris from Earth orbit. But Straker finds himself butting heads with I.A.C. chairman James Henderson, who wants a complete shut-down of SHADO operations...
Director: Ken Turner
Writer: N/A
7.3/10177 votesLoading...#11 - Kill Straker!
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/4/1970
When a Lunar Module is attacked by a UFO, Straker makes a split-second decision that endangers the astronauts, but ultimately saves them. Later, he is surprised to find his authority being questioned by his most loyal officer, Colonel Paul Foster, who spearheads a campaign against him. Then an attempt is made on Straker's life...
Director: Alan Perry
Writer: Donald James
7.3/10192 votesLoading...#12 - The Square Triangle
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/9/1970
"Unfortunately for them, an Alien came through that door instead of her husband." In the woods between Clare Cross and Lingbury, an injured Alien stumbles into a lonely cottage and is shot down by Liz Newton and her lover Cass Fowler. Liz and Cass are taken to SHADO HQ for questioning, but when Liz's husband arrives at the cottage, Paul Foster realises that the Alien's death was no accident!
Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Pattillo
7.3/10168 votesLoading...#13 - The Man Who Came Back
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 2/3/1971
Reported missing, presumed dead, after a UFO incident which has left SID disabled, astronaut Craig Collins turns up alive and well. But as an operation to complete repair work on SID is planned, Colonel Lake and Colonel Grey discover that Collins is not the man he used to be...
Director: David Lane
Writer: Terence Feely
7.3/10168 votesLoading...#14 - Confetti Check A-O.K.
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 7/10/1971
A flashback episode in which Straker recalls his marriage, followed by stormy days as he must work covertly to get SHADO up and running and recruit personnel. All this leaves his wife angry at his absence, suspicious at the things he might be doing (her father photographs Straker meeting a woman in a parking garage, a woman who will be working at SHADO). In the end, she gives birth to their son.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.4/10331 votesLoading...#15 - Identified
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1970
SHADO engages in its first battle with the enemy. Sky One cripples an alien ship which crash-lands in a lake. Straker's team capture its pilot, a strange blue-skinned humanoid - and the grim secret behind the aliens' are revealed.
Director: Gerry Anderson
Writer: Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson, Tony Barwick
7.4/10172 votesLoading...#16 - The Responsibility Seat
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/8/1973
Freeman takes over temporarily while Straker deals with a woman apparently determined to investigate what SHADO is all about.
Director: Alan Perry
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.5/10195 votesLoading...#17 - Sub-Smash
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/1970
Suspecting a UFO to be responsible for the sinking of a freighter, Straker, Foster and Nina Barry investigate in Skydiver. Attacked by an undersea UFO, the submarine is downed on a ledge on the sea bed and the crew are trapped. While Straker fights against his claustrophobia, Nina faces a living nightmare...
Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.5/10185 votesLoading...#18 - The Psychobombs
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/30/1970
A UFO imbues three young people with incredible powers. One blows up a radar station, a second steals fingerprints and tries to get aboard a Skydiver sub, blowing it up. The third, a woman, tries to blow up SHADO HQ but the UFO that is feeding her power has now been destroyed.
Director: Jeremy Summers
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.5/10195 votesLoading...#19 - Survival
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/6/1971
Foster, whose radio is knocked out and his oxygen line cut, is presumed lost (but they did a crummy job, not even trying to find his body) during a confrontation with a UFO on the moon's surface. Foster is found by an alien, and together, they cross the lunar landscape, developing a friendship when the alien must try to do make-shift repairs on Foster's suit to keep him alive. At the end, a Moonmobile crew finds Foster and misunderstands his intent when he points them to the alien nearby.
Director: Alan Perry
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.5/10165 votesLoading...#20 - Court Martial
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 5/1/1971
Foster is suspected of being a security leak, but during the trial, Straker and gang discover that Foster's apartment was bugged and shut down the disreputable business that is selling the spy gear.
Director: Ron Appleton
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.5/10160 votesLoading...#21 - Reflections in the Water
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 7/24/1971
A mysterious dome is found under the sea, that at first looks like the Moon crashed into the ocean. Inside the dome, they find duplicates of SHADO HQ personnel, using non-alien technology - cassette tape recorders - to imitate SHADO instructions to Moonbase and Skydiver.
Director: David Tomblin
Writer: David Tomblin
7.5/10170 votesLoading...#22 - The Long Sleep
Season 1 Episode 26 - Aired 3/15/1973
A woman awakens from a 10-year coma and begins telling the tale about her encounter with aliens, along with her boyfriend, while they were high on drugs. They toyed with the aliens, and the man apparently falls to his death from a bridge or building. The aliens drag him off. She has an accident and falls into the coma. She can't remember quite everything, but the old boyfriend is back, resuscitated by the aliens, and he drugs her so she tells him where the missing part of a device is. He activates what turns out to be a thermo-chemical bomb that will wipe England off the map when the four chemicals meet in a central chamber.
Director: Jeremy Summers
Writer: David Tomblin
7.6/10257 votesLoading...#23 - Exposed
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/23/1970
An XV-104 test plane wanders into a UFO target area and the pilot, Paul Foster, makes sightings of both the UFO and Sky One. Angry and frustrated that no one believes his story, Foster suspects a cover-up and decides to conduct his own investigation into the activities of ex-USAF Colonel Ed Straker.
Director: David Lane
Writer: N/A
7.7/10235 votesLoading...#24 - A Question of Priorities
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/1970
"Important? What can be more important than your own son's life?" Straker faces the toughest decision of his career when his son is critically injured in an accident. The drug that can save his life can only be ferried from New York in time aboard a SHADO Transporter - the same Transporter that is in the prime position to track an Alien defector on the West Coast of Ireland.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.8/10195 votesLoading...#25 - Mindbender
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/13/1971
After a UFO inexplicably destroys itself less than two miles from Moonbase, a mysterious crystal rock is recovered, and it causes the person in its vicinity to hallucinate. The man on Moonbase who found it thinks Mexican bandits have taken over Moonbase. It gets transferred to Straker's office, and he hallucinates that SHADO is simply a set for a TV series, he is an actor named Mr. Burns, Moonbase can be reached by stepping through two doors from the main control room at SHADO HQ, and "Mr. Straker" is not available. Straker breaks the hallucination by jumping in on the scene while the "character" Gen. Henderson is doing a close-up of the line they were doing when the hallucination began.
Director: Ken Turner
Writer: Tony Barwick
The Worst Episodes of UFO
Every episode of UFO ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of UFO!
A secret, high-technology international agency called SHADO defends Earth from alien invaders.
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaAction & AdventureDocumentary
Network:Associated Television
Worst Episodes Summary
"Ordeal" is the worst rated episode of "UFO". It scored 6.8/10 based on 192 votes. Directed by Ken Turner and written by Tony Barwick, it aired on 4/14/1971. This episode scored 0.2 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Close Up".