A Question of Priorities

"A Question of Priorities" is the fifth episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. Tony Barwick wrote the screenplay and it was directed by David Lane. The episode was filmed between 28 July and 7 August 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands network on 14 October 1970. Though shown as the fifth episode, it was actually the eighth to have been filmed.

The series was created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.

Plot
Commander Ed Straker's son Johnny is hit by a car and taken to hospital. Straker arrives at the hospital with his ex-wife, Mary, to find that Johnny is allergic to the antibiotics the hospital has available - Straker uses his position to order an experimental anti-allergenic antibiotic to be flown from New York to Britain by a SHADO transport.

In Ireland, an alien escapes from a crashing UFO and starts transmitting from the home of an elderly blind woman. The transmissions are intercepted by SHADO HQ and Colonel Alec Freeman diverts the transport aircraft, unaware that it is carrying the antibiotics, to investigate the signals.

When Straker discovers this change of schedule he knows that he cannot order the transport to Britain as his duty to SHADO overrides any personal needs. But Mary challenges Straker when he tells her the transport is being delayed because of "a more important matter".

SHADO mobiles carried by the transport are sent to investigate the alien transmissions but before the mobiles can make contact, another UFO arrives and kills the alien: it appears that he was trying to defect. The transport then continues on to Britain and Straker rushes to the hospital with the antibiotics but it proves too late as his son has died, with a tearful Mary saying that she never wants to see her ex-husband again.

Regular cast

 * Ed Bishop — Commander Ed Straker
 * George Sewell — Colonel Alec Freeman
 * Gabrielle Drake — Lieutenant Gay Ellis
 * Peter Gordeno — Captain Peter Carlin
 * Dolores Mantez — Lieutenant Nina Barry
 * Gary Myers — Captain Lew Waterman
 * Keith Alexander — Lieutenant Keith Ford
 * Ayshea — Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson
 * Norma Ronald — Miss Ealand

Reception
TV Zone magazine considered this episode the best of the series, describing it as a "perfect fusion of science fiction action and human drama" while praising Ed Bishop's "understated" acting. The publication noted that the series further explores Straker's difficult relationship with his son and ex-wife in the later episodes "Sub-Smash", "Confetti Check A-O.K." and "Mindbender".

Review website anorakzone.com ranks the episode second only to "Timelash", noting the story's "emotional rawness". The review states that despite a number of "moderately corny and misjudged sequences [...] the tangible pain at the climax and the concept of the series becoming this dark is a punch to the gut that's impossible to forget."

For John Kenneth Muir, it "must rank near the top" of UFO episodes. He comments that the story is "very much a case of the series' potential fully realised. This episode offers a haunting, devastating portrait of Ed Straker..." He adds that it "succeeds as well as it does because the episode – though contending with life and death, and family – is not histrionic"; instead, it "offers a dispassionate, uncompromising view of a leader forced to make an impossible decision."