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The episode starts with Keith Ford interviewing a fellow with the odd name of Dr. Frank E. Stranges. Dr Stranges relates his tales of the existence of
UFOs and extraterrestrial life. The scene immediately switches to a secluded and very groovy restaurant. It is the same one Mark Bradley and Gay Ellis went to in Computer Affair. Paul Foster and Alec Freeman are having a meal together. A woman walks in and Foster instantly recognises her but she barely acknowledges him. He then recounts to Alec the tale of The Dalotek Affair. It starts with an unusual UFO attack. For some reason, the aliens decide to go back to where they came from. SHADO is quite right to be suspicious. Straker asks Foster "Is it a decoy that's failed or a red herring |
| that's succeeded?" (If that sounds familiar, Ruric Powell also wrote
Conflict.) As the UFOs depart, they leave behind something bright that falls to the moon. Colonel Foster reports it as a meteorite
to Straker and the Commander barks at him for reporting it. The meteorite creates Crater 213 near the Dalotek base. The Dalotek team Jane Carson, Mark Tanner and Phil Mitchell are geologists and doing their best to keep clear of SHADO. And that is just as well because Straker really has something against a private company working on the moon. He warns the Dalotek boss, Mr. Blake, if his employees get out of hand then he will close Dalotek. |
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As Straker is ordering Foster to pay a visit to the Dalotek base, there is a complete loss of radio signal. Solar activity is minimal.
A Moonbase technician suggests it could be outside interference using limited frequencies. So, Foster pays a visit to the Dalotek team. The geologists are polite enough. Jane Carson is
particularly friendly. Paul believes they have not been using limited frequencies on purpose but he sets up a land line with Dalotek to keep in touch (what a smooth operator is our Colonel Foster). The video link comes back on and a relieved but grouchy Straker gets in touch with Moonbase again. Paul tests the land line and has a flirty conversation. "Tell me Jane, what do you do on your evenings off?" |
| A Moonbase module is in the process of landing with the aid of the computer when the radio link fails again. The pilot eventually switches to manual but it is
too late. The module crashes and all are killed. Paul goes back to Dalotek to shut down their Geo-scanner despite it not transmitting at the time of the accident. The geology team are angry but can not do anything against the military. In the meantime, they collect their instruments on the lunar surface. Tanner goes to the edge of |
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the new crater and sees a strange device. Dalotek think Foster has installed it. The aliens are up to no good: SID warns Moonbase, the Interceptors are launched and...there is another radio blackout. At SHADO HQ, Straker surmises what is happening up on Moonbase by going back to the Stranges interview and hearing the word 'fireballs'. He also realises the device was sent in using an orbit mimicking a meteorite. |
| Moonbase can now only estimate where the attack will take place and the interceptors eventually realise they are on their own. Foster informs Dalotek there has been another radio failure and they are in imminent danger.Tanner tells Foster about the strange device in Crater 213. Two men go out in a Moon Hopper to blow it up, The Dalotek team are ready for the explosive decompression and their base gets punctured. Radio links are instantly re-established. Foster tells Straker they have the UFOs on positive track and successfully blow them up. The Dalotek people are brought to SHADO. Foster gives Jane the snog of her life but, alas, she never remembers it because she is given the amnesia drug. |
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out of 10
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| There is a lot going on in this episode despite it looking like a study in Foster's sex life. Historically, The
Dalotek Affair was being made as the human race finally walked on the moon. I can recall reading somewhere that Michael Billington mentioned everyone on the set was quite concerned
they got it right in terms of walking on the moon. I think they made a very believeable facsimile in the studio. Incredulously, there really is a man called Dr. Frank E. Stranges (does the E stand for Extraterrestrial?) The man visited the set one day and an impromptu interview was set-up with Keith Alexander as the interviewer. It was cleverly woven into the episode. A few years after I had forgotten the finer details of The Dalotek Affair, I went to a talk Dr. Stranges was giving in Santa Monica, California. Sadly, I think the guy is one big con artist. |
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The first time I saw The Dalotek Affair in November 1972, my mother and I had spent a day on Anacapa Island. She rushed me back home
so I would not miss UFO. As she drove down the Pacific Coast Highway towards Santa Monica, I saw something way out in the distant Pacific Ocean. It left a white streak in the sky and beneath it the water churned like it
was boiling (it looked like something out of an episode of UFO!). Eventually the boiling stopped but the white streak remained in the sky. I always thought I had witnessed a UFO crashing into the ocean but I was later told it
was probably...a meteorite. It still freaks me out. I actually find certain aspects of The Dalotek Affair quite sinister. There is SHADO secretly but very valiantly defending the earth. Those aliens are real bastards |
| Some may say The Dalotek Affair does not deserve an 8. Of course it does! Alec shows off his lovely smile. Maybe somebody did, after all, give him a
beautification programme (see Conflict). His wide toothy smile brightens up the episode. He diffuses Straker's ire about the Dalotek installation with a quip and an earthy grin. Alec
is very jovial with Foster at the restaurant. One can not help thinking his thought processes are just as naughty, if not naughtier, than Paul Foster's. We remember what he got up to in Identified
but he is no longer lecherous. Alec is simply lovely being himself and down-to-earth. And what has happened to Ed in this episode? Gee, he sure has a bee in his bonnet about Dalotek. Or, could it |
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be Eyeliner Moment Number Two? We can now finally see Straker wearing a thin black line on his eyelids. I know Ed Bishop took issue with wearing it but that is why I love UFO: it
strove to be different and blew my young impressionable mind as a result! There are a lot of women who loved Ed with his eye-liner so cheer up, Mr. Bishop, you gave (and still do give) us all a thrill. And now for Bitchy Moment Number One: In the "UFO Documentary", Gerry Anderson mentions one guest actress who was being particularly difficult. He never gave her name but said she had problems with the motivation behind picking up a red phone. Okay, well, I can gladly reveal that he was talking about Tracy Reed as Miss Jane Carson. |
| Obviously she needed more acting lessons if she could not find her motivation. Hello? She was supposed to be talking to one of the most beautiful men on the show. What more
motivation did she need? Silly cow. Thanks to the episode lacking in a few minutes, we are treated to yet another kinky moment as Jane slips into a pleasant amnesiac slumber. She dreams of kissing Paul (who wouldn't?)and she is accompanied by the surging strains of the strings and an assortment of coloured lights. The perfect episode filler if you ask me. But, of course, our man of the episode is Paul Foster. When Lew Grade wanted UFO to appeal to a more adult audience, scriptwriter Ruric Powell really took it to heart. Paul is the epitome of raging male hormone. Even |
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