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Commander Straker discusses Moonbase's new leave roster with Colonel Freeman. Miss Ealand interrupts to announce that Joe Fraser
from the Press Agency is up-top to conduct an interview with Mr. Film Executive Straker. Ed suggests handing the task over to Alec. "I'm no PR man," he states but Alec points out if Ed does this interview then
it will get the rest of the press off his back. Joe Fraser turns out to be Josephine Fraser. A smile plays on Straker's lips through the interview even after finding out she is secretly taping it. "Oh, that's to insure I don't misquote you and the notepad's for my impressions," Miss Fraser explains. |
| Miss Ealand gives Jo Fraser a decidedly black look as the woman leaves the office with
Mr. Straker. He shows Jo to her car and then walks away to do some studio business. Lt. Ford's seemingly inocuous hailing of Commander Straker in the up-top office will produce some interesting results later on.
Jo goes back to Straker's office because she has left her purse behind (it's all part of the front). "Miss Fraser, I didn't expect you back...so soon," Miss Ealand cattily exclaims. Straker becomes quite concerned after Miss Ealand informs him the reporter came back for her handbag. Down below, he questions Freeman and Ford and finds out Ford had been looking for him. Alec does not think hearing "Commander Straker" on the concealed tape will harm anything. But Ed is not so sure. He orders Miss Ealand to get on to the Global Press Agency to find Jo Fraser. Alec finds out the reporter was female. |
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Straker pinches
his nose as he realises that Jo Fraser is "intelligent, attractive and a possible sercurity leak." There is no one at the GPA with that name. Ed hands over his chair - The Responsibility Seat - to Alec as he goes in search of Jo Fraser to rectify his mistake. As soon as he leaves, Alec has to deal with a UFO attack. Three spaceships come spinning towards earth. Two are destroyed and the third one gets away and seems to vanish. A stationary blip appears on the radar screen. Alec seems rather befuddled but orders the launch of Sky One. The panic is over when Lt. Waterman announces it is a weather balloon. Freeman's wonky decision is covered-up by Lt. Ford calling it in the report a practise launch for Skydiver. Nice one, Ford! |
| Straker catches-up with the reporter. A very surprised Miss Fraser hands over the tape but grabs it back after hitting Ed over the head with a vase.She drives off and a very durable Ed manages a car chase with her. He just avoids a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle and swerves into Jo. He gets her into his car and he asks "Who
are you?" She answers "I'm Jo Fraser, Freelance Reporter, failed." Meanwhile, an unidentified vehicle on the lunar surface drives on an erratic crash course towards Moonbase... Straker ends up taking her for a drink at the restaurant that was featured in Computer Affair and The Dalotek Affair. Gee, it must be a real hang-out pad for SHADO personnel! Ed is interested in her situation, hell, he seems interested in her all over! He says he hates eating alone which is his way of asking Jo to dine with him. |
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There is more indecision from Alec as he asks Ford what to do next about the runaway vehicle on the Moon. He orders another launch of the Interceptors and then heads over to Straker's drinks dispenser.
Ed takes Jo to his house (which from the front looks very much like Paul Roper's house from Flight Path) As Jo fetches the wine from the car, Straker phones Miss Ealand and orders her to conduct a voice check - a full G6 - on Jo Fraser. Ed gets Jo to say a few words to Miss Ealand to get the ball rolling and then they have an intimate dinner together. He opens up the tiniest bit about his divorce: "You know how it is." "Yes, I do know," she replies. |
| After the Interceptors have flown past the vehicle and taken a photo
Moonbase finds out it belongs to a Russian mining company, Sovatek. Even they can not establish contact with their crew. The two men on the vehicle are totally oblivious to what is happening. Paul Foster goes out in a Moon Hopper to save the day. In a seduction scene set to Forest Murmurs by Wagner, Straker gets to snog Jo Fraser. It makes a pleasant change to see someone other than Foster get all the fun. Just as they are about to go at it like rabbits, Miss Ealand saves Ed from a potentially embarrassing situation by phoning to tell him Miss Fraser is bad news. She is in her bra and panties when he walks in the bedroom. He tells her to get dressed and get out. |
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Paul manages to get on board the Sovatek vehicle and push the red handle in time. The two men are suffering from a lack of oxygen. The next day back at work, Ford tells the Commander that Miss Fraser has a "record as long as your arm." Alec admits he would have got himself "emotionally involved or something" but Straker keeps mum. He is raring to go to get back in his responsibility seat. |
out of 10
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Jo Fraser
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Here we have an exceedingly Straker-based epsode with a difference. Up until this point, poor Ed has been the ever-efficient Commander dealing with those dirty aliens. We got to see a much gentler side of him in A Question of Priorities in his role as a father and now we get to see him in action as a lover. He does not have much luck in his emotional life but, boy, it sure is fun to watch him have a good try! Paul gets to be a real Action Man but consider the plight of Alec Freeman in this episode as the Ultimate Dogsbody. He has to give Moonbase the bad news about their leave roster, Ed tells Ayesha to give Alec the re-fuelling schedule and Ed even tries to fob off the interview up-top! Then to make matters worse, Alec gets to be in the big chair for the day. But Alec acts as if this is the first time he had ever had an ounce of power. He is unusually snappy and very indecisive. It just seems |
| so out of character. I understand this was all necessary for the plot but I find it grating. I am sure Alec could be very efficient when he has to take the lead. Continuity suffers in this episode, too. We never get to know what happens to that third UFO. Are Jo Fraser's beige bra and panties supposed to put us off the scent? Having a crystal clear copy of the DVD brings surprising results. As Foster waits to board the erratic SOVATEK vehicle, if you look closely there is the reflection of an alien on his visor! And the colour of Ed's Nehru suit has a couple of changes. He wears his white Nehru suit in the beginning and when he starts searching for Miss Fraser by having a quick tomato juice, the colour of the suit is grey. Lo and behold, the white suit appears again as he is driving his |
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| The first few minutes of The Responsibility Seat are a real tease. We expect a Joe but we get someone in a green and pink dress (that fits a bit snuggly in the hips if I say so myself). Then we see Straker walking down a studio lane and some suspicious characters up to no good with guns. All of a sudden, it looks like Ed is being filled with bullets but it's all part of a scene with a guy dressed-up to look like Mr. Film Executive Straker. It's an incredibly effective twist and had me totally confused when I first saw it. Alec's lot in this episode is not all bad. A lovely black female SHADO operative presents him with a cup of black coffee with no sugar. "Just how I like it," he smiles as he takes the cup. Ohhh, saucy! Well, the poor man deserves some fun, too. I wish there had been a UFO |
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episode in which Alec got to have some romance but I think it would have been one of those episodes screened later than usual. We can be assured of a bit of a crackle when two very different characters get together. A similar pairing happened in the Star Trek:TNG story "Captain's Holiday" with Captain Picard and Vash but UFO had done it twenty years earlier. What a cheeky bitch is Josephine Fraser! She is cunning and sneaky because this is how she thinks men act. "It's a man's world, remember?" Of course, UFO was made during Women's Lib. I applaude the people involved in its production for |
| putting women in high positions of power but this Fraser women is just a low life bitch. When Ed is discussing his divorce and says "you know how it is" she can't even look him in the eye when she answers "yes, I know." Liar! I'm glad Miss Ealand was very catty with her. Boy, I bet she really enjoyed completing that full G-6! Ed was very secretive about his liasons with Miss Fraser but I think in this instance it is understandable. Who in their right mind would want to be associated with such a slag? But then that's my love for Straker coming out. I have had many a fantasy where I would love to give him comfort and succour (oh God, does the man need it!) and be in the same position as Jo Fraser to be on the receiving end of such a magnificent snog! |
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