Survival (UFO)

"Survival" is the thirteenth episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. The screenplay was written Tony Barwick and the director was Alan Perry. The episode was filmed between 30 June and 10 July 1970  and aired on the ATV Midlands on 30 December 1970. Though shown as the thirteenth episode, it was actually the fourth 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
Under the cover of a meteor shower, a UFO manages to evade SHADO's tracking and land on the Moon. The alien pilot gets close enough to Moonbase to shoot out a window of the Leisure Sphere -the resulting explosive decompression kills an astronaut inside and almost kills Paul Foster.

Straker orders a search of the vicinity around Moonbase using Moon mobiles and they locate the UFO in a crater. The UFO shoots at the Moon mobiles whereupon the interceptors are called in. They shoot the UFO down as it tries to take off and it crashes into Foster's Moon mobile. Thrown clear, Foster is injured in the explosion and his spacesuit's radio transmitter is broken. SHADO believes that he has been killed.

Foster is not alone, however, as the alien has also survived. The two adversaries realise that to survive they need to co-operate on the walk back to Moonbase. They get close to their destination but a search team locates Foster. Believing the alien to be a threat and with Foster unable to contact the search team due to his broken radio, they shoot and kill the alien.

Regular cast

 * Ed Bishop — Commander Ed Straker
 * George Sewell — Colonel Alec E. Freeman
 * Michael Billington — Colonel Paul Foster
 * Ayshea — Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson
 * Dolores Mantez — Lieutenant Nina Barry
 * Harry Baird — Lieutenant Mark Bradley

Production
Locations used for the filming included Neptune House at ATV Elstree Studios, Borehamwood; and Windermere Hall, London.

Reception
John Kenneth Muir regards "Survival" as one of UFO's lesser episodes, commenting that "not much interesting happens". He argues that the scenes showing the uneasy alliance between Foster and the alien fail to convince, partly because the two space-suited characters are unable to communicate meaningfully with one other. Muir also highlights a subplot in which Straker makes the black Lieutenant Bradley acting Moonbase commander despite the latter's concerns about being undermined by racism, which has supposedly disappeared in the near-future world of UFO: "Straker's hostility towards Bradley, bluntly informing him that he is the only one who still believes in racism, comes off in today's era as paternalistic and a bit condescending."

Ranking the UFO episodes from best to worst, review website anorakzone.com places "Survival" 15th, stating that the episode "sums up UFO in many ways, as it contains lots that's good and lots that's pretty terrible [...] However, it scores fairly high here for a customary dark twist, even if it doesn't all make perfect sense."