Most of this story takes place "six months ago" from the time of
Foster and Freeman's dinner at the restaurant seen near the
beginning of the episode (from Foster's dialog to Freeman).
Presumably it is still in the year 1981 since the prior episode ("Survival")
is demonstrably set in March and April of that year and the
following episode ("Ordeal") would seem to be about 1 year after
"Survival".
The man who is interviewed at the beginning of the episode,
Dr. Frank E. Stranges, President of the
National Investigation Committee on U.F.O.'s (NICUFO),
was a real world UFO researcher, alleged contactee, and
founder of
NICUFO. He died in 2008.
Notice that the interviewer is Keith Ford, at a time before
he was a member of SHADO. Straker later comments that Ford's
interview with Dr. Stranges took place in 1969 and Ford's
comments in the film when he plays it back for Straker (at
35:01 on the DVD), place the interview as taking place just
after men have landed on the moon; the U.S. landed Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon during the Apollo 11
mission on July 20, 1969. It seems Ford was a reporter or
something similar at this time.
Dr. Stranges states that U.S. Congressman Gerald Ford was
interested in open hearings on the UFO subject. This was
true and Congressman Gerald Ford was actually instrumental in getting Congress
to hold an inquiry on the subject in 1966 (which led to the
Air Force's University of Colorado study of UFOs that
ultimately slanted to a debunking angle). Gerald Ford became the
U.S. President in 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned from the
office, but he did not publically pursue his UFO interest
while holding the office through 1977.
Dr. Stranges goes on to say that the late Senator Robert F.
Kennedy was a believer that UFOs came from other
planets. Senator Kennedy, of course, was a real Congressman
from the Kennedy family dynasty and although there is some
evidence suggesting he had an open-minded opinion about the
UFO subject, I've found nothing to suggest he ever firmly
stated a belief in them, not to mention their being of
extraterrestrial origin.
Dr. Stranges' interview goes on to include an alleged quote
by General Douglas MacArthur that "War on Earth is fast
becoming obsolete. It'll be replaced by war between planets.
It would do good for every nation on Earth to unite together
in order to form a common front against possible attack by
people from other planets." However, MacArthur never made
such quotes. He did speculate that some time in the future
of humanity a war between planets might occur.
I presume that the dialog by Dr. Stranges during his
interview was scripted for him by the show's writers and not
his own beliefs of what the aforementioned figures actually
said.
At 3:52 on the DVD, Colonels Foster and Freeman appear to be
hanging out at the same restaurant seen previously in
"The Responsibility
Seat" and later depicted as the
scene of Lt. Ellis' and Mark Bradley's date near the end of
"Computer Affair".
The woman who bumps into Foster in the restaurant as she and
her companion enter is Jane, whom we (and Foster) will meet
"for the first time" on the Moon at the Dalotek compound.
At 5:38 on the DVD, an unexplained shadow moves across the
miniature model of Moonbase on the left of screen.
The shot at 5:55 on the DVD seems to suggest that Sphere 3 is
the Command Sphere, as we see the exterior of the sphere
labeled "3" and then cut to the control room.
At 6:03 on the DVD, Straker's video phone is labeled quite
prominently with a separate plaque reading "VIDEO PHONE". Is
it really necessary for it to be labeled?? Is he going to
forget what it is?
Since the world at large knows of Ed Straker only as the
head of a movie studio, it would seem that Dalotek president
Blake must know that he's something more than that since he
keeps contacting Straker in regard to his company's outpost
on the moon.
At 14:54 on the DVD, a data tape spool sitting on Lt. Ford's
console has the Scotch logo on it. Scotch is a brand name
used by the 3M
Company for various products manufactured by them; this
once included Scotch audio and data tape, but these lines
were discontinued in the 1990s.
Notice at 18:40 on the DVD that both Colonel Foster and
Dalotek's station chief, Mitchell, both appear to be wearing
simple black sneakers with their futuristic space outfits!
At 25:29 on the DVD, various gauges on the lunar module are
seen to be labeled as parsecs, numoids, and axoids. I've not
been able to confirm "numoid" as a real term. "Axoid" is a
measurement of a point in relation to another point on an axis.
"Parsec" is a unit of distance in space, equaling 3.26
light-years; it's hard to imagine what a sub-light vessel
like the lunar module, which travels only between the Earth
and the moon, would need with a gauge measuring parsecs!
Perhaps it's meant for use in the detection of approaching
UFOs, which can travel at speeds in excess of that of light,
with the Utronic FTL
(Faster-Than-Light) Radar designed by Westbrook Electronics
in "Identified".
The lunar landscape seen outside the
window of the Control Sphere in
Moonbase is a close-up of the same
one seen earlier outside the window
of the Dalotek station! |
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|
Moonbase |
Dalotek |
The spacesuits used by Dalotek personnel are seen to be
essentially identical to those worn by SHADO officers except
Dalotek uses silver helmets instead of yellow.
In the playback of portions of Ford's interview with Dr.
Stranges in Straker's office, Stranges remarks that he spoke
before a UN committee about the UFO phenomenon in 1967 and
that UN Secretary General U Thant remarked the following
day, "We have a two-fold problem facing the world today.
Number one is the Vietnam crisis. And number two,
unidentified flying objects." In the real world, U Thant
was, in fact, the UN Secretary General and he did have an
interest in UFOs. There were meetings with several UFO
researchers before a committee of the United Nations in
1966-67 as well, but I have found no evidence that Dr.
Stranges was in attendance of any of them. I also have found
no evidence that U Thant ever made a statement similar to
the one attributed to him here.
Ford remarks to Straker about another interview he did with
a Dr. Bresinger from MIT. MIT is the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I have been
unable to confirm the existence of a Dr. Bresinger at MIT
during the late 1960s.
Dr. Stranges remarks on the mythological sky-boats of the
ancient Egyptians, suggesting they were ancient UFOs. The
term "sky-boat" does appear to describe some type of flying
vehicle in some ancient Egyptian legends of the gods.
As the alien jamming device is seen onscreen at 38:57 on the
DVD, some dirt or something falls in the top right corner of
the screen.
When Jane receives the amnesia shot and begins to slide into
unconsciousness, she seems to see the same
squiggly, multi-colored lights the
dying alien sees in "Identified".
At the end of the episode, Foster quotes from an old song,
"love's more beautiful the second time around, just as
wonderful with both feet on the ground." He's slightly
mangling the lyrics of "The Second Time Around", written by
Bing Crosby in 1960 and made popular by Frank Sinatra the
following year. The actual line is: "Love is lovelier
the second time around, just as wonderful with both feet on
the ground."
|
Notes from the novelization of
"The Dalotek Affair"
by Robert Miall, published as UFO-2 in Great
Britain and UFO: Sporting Blood in the USA.
(Roughly speaking, chapters 5-8 cover the
events of
"The Dalotek Affair". The page numbers come from the 1st
printing, UK paperback edition, published 1971.)
|
This book is actually a novelization of several episodes,
interwoven into a single story in a way the televised
versions are not. It features the plot and characters of
"Computer Affair", "The Dalotek Affair",
and "Survival". For purposes of
this study of "The Dalotek Affair", only the chapters covering this
episode will be covered here. The chapters covering others
are dealt with in the studies of those episodes.
Pages 42-43 feature material not seen in the episode and serves as
something of a prelude to the story, basically just informing the
readers of Dalotek President Blake's attempts to speak to Commander
Straker about the Dalotek outpost on the Moon.
On page 44, Foster wistfully thinks of Tina, waiting for him back on
Earth not even knowing his true job and that he is currently
stationed on the Moon. This sets up Tina's presence in the next
episode of the novel, "Survival". In PopApostle's UFO
chronology,
"Survival"
(in which Tina breaks up with Foster because
of the secretive nature of his job) takes place before "The
Dalotek Affair".
On page 48, Miss Ealand informs Commander Straker that Dalotek's
President Blake has been speaking to important people in various
government offices, trying to get a line to Straker, who has been
avoiding him. One of the departments Blake contacts is the Ministry
for Overseas Development. This was a real world British government
agency, currently known as the
Department for
International Development.
Page 50 reveals that former SHADO policy had been that one could not
retire from the organization due to the sensitivity of the
information its personnel carried with them merely knowing of its
existence and mission. Now, it was possible to occasionally allow
someone to leave SHADO permanently due to the perfection of the
amnesia drug to make them forget all memories of SHADO.
Page 54 reveals that the new moon crater created by the "meteorite"
that crashed near the Dalotek installation will be known as Crater
236. "Crater 236" was the original name of the teleplay that became
"The Dalotek Affair".
Page 56 reveals that the astrophysicist on Moonbase who delivers the
current solar activity analysis to Foster is named Dr. Charles Reed.
Page 56's description of the solar wind as a stream of charged
particles (protons and electrons) emitted by the sun is correct.
In the novel, a blue flame is emitted at times from the jamming
device, possibly the result of damage. The flame is not seen in the
TV episode.
Page 71 reveals that with the three Interceptors sent out against the
incoming UFO, only a Moonhopper (moon mobile) is available to send
out to Crater 236 to destroy the jamming device. This suggests that
only three Interceptors are ever present at Moonbase. You'd think
they'd have one or two backup Interceptors in case one or more gets
destroyed in battle with a UFO (as occurs in
"Computer Affair").
SHADO must have to ship another Interceptor to the moon from Earth
any time one is destroyed.
Referring to the now wrecked Dalotek installation on page 73, Foster
remarks to Jane, "It was our huffing and puffing that blew your
house down." This, of course, is a reference to the classic fairy
tale, Three Little Pigs, in which a big bad wolf blows down
the houses of the first two pigs.
The novel reveals that the Dalotek personnel don't realize that the
shots they receive at Moonbase before they leave will make them
forget what they've seen of the SHADO operations; they are told the
shots are to counteract problems from the decompression they
suffered when their installation was damaged by the blast of the
alien jamming device.
MEMORABLE DIALOG
war between planets.wav
use the amnesia procedure.wav
looking for trouble.wav
come in SHADO Control.wav
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