Conflict (UFO)

"Conflict" is the fourth episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. Ruric Powell wrote the screenplay and it was directed by Ken Turner. The episode, initially titled "Ambush", was filmed between 2 July and 14 July 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands network on 7 October 1970. Though shown as the fourth episode, it was actually the sixth 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
Lunar Module 32, commanded by Steve Maddox, departs from the Moon bound for Earth; its radar picks up an unidentified object shortly before re-entry. The audience sees that this is a small alien limpet-like UFO, hiding in the Apollo 8 space wreck, which attaches to the passing LM 32 and interrupts communications with the SHADO Moonbase and modifies the spaceplane's course, causing the Lunar Module to re-enter the atmosphere at too steep an angle. The limpet UFO detaches from the stricken spacecraft, which explodes shortly after, and returns to its hiding place to await another victim.

Meanwhile, Straker is trying to convince General Henderson, head of the International Astrophysical Commission, to increase debris-eliminating space missions as he thinks that his pilots risk more in a month than Henderson's do in a year. Henderson mockingly accepts this but insists on activating the "Washington Square" protocol: the cancellation of all lunar spaceflights.

After Maddox's burial-in-space funeral at the Moonbase Paul Foster, convinced that it was not human error that killed his friend, blasts off in a lunar module against orders and flies on the same course to prove Maddox's innocence. As with LM 32, the limpet UFO attaches itself to Foster's module and interferes with the controls, proving his theory. Foster survives by deliberately entering the atmosphere at a very shallow angle which prevents the limpet UFO from steepening his spacecraft's descent enough to destroy it before it detaches and returns to hiding. Straker issues orders to destroy all space wrecks where the UFO might be located and invites Henderson to SHADO Control, having deduced that the limpet craft was some sort of lure.

In response a standard UFO prepares to attack the Harlington-Straker Studios but is soon destroyed by Sky One. Henderson is convinced of the merits of Straker's request to clear all space debris and agrees to support the plan but cautions Straker that, like himself, he may also have been too sure about being right.

Regular cast

 * Ed Bishop — Colonel Ed Straker, Commander-in-chief of SHADO
 * Michael Billington — Colonel Paul Foster
 * Peter Gordeno — Captain Peter Carlin
 * Gabrielle Drake — Lieutenant Gay Ellis
 * Wanda Ventham — Colonel Virginia Lake
 * Dolores Mantez — Lieutenant Nina Barry
 * Gary Myers — Captain Lew Waterman
 * Keith Alexander — Lieutenant Keith Ford
 * Ayshea — Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson
 * Norma Ronald — Miss Ealand
 * Grant Taylor — General James Henderson, President of IAC

Reception
Rating the UFO episodes from best to worst, review website anorakzone.com ranks "Conflict" 19th, calling it "better than many of the episodes ranked above it" but "[not] as much fun". It considers the episode an example of how, "by concerning itself with the minutiae of bureaucracy", UFO showed itself to be "more adult" than other science fiction series.

John Kenneth Muir regards the episode as one of the best, describing it as "fascinating" for "[realising that] the real impediment here is not the actual nemesis of Earth (the alien device), but our own human politics". Muir also considers the episode "extremely forward-looking" for the 1970s due to its focus on the emerging problem of space junk.