Timelash (UFO)

"Timelash" is the eighteenth 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 by Terence Feely and the director was Cyril Frankel. The episode was filmed from 24 July to 6 August 1970, and aired on ATV Midlands on 17 February 1971. Though shown as the eighteenth episode, it was actually the twenty-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
In the pre-title sequence, Commander Straker appears to go berserk, smashing equipment in SHADO Headquarters. After a brief chase he is restrained and found to have a hypodermic needle and an ampoule of an unidentified drug on his person. Col. Lake is found unconscious on the roof, while on the studio backlot a man's dead body is found in a mini-car. Dr. Jackson subjects Straker to hypnosis, during which he relates the rest of the episode in flashback to Jackson and Paul Foster.

Straker and Lake are attacked by a UFO whilst en route to Headquarters. As they pass through the outer checkpoint, night mysteriously turns into day; they find everyone and everything, both on the studio lots and inside SHADO HQ, frozen in time. The effect begins to overtake them as well. In order to counter it, they inject themselves with potentially life-threatening doses of an experimental stimulant.

Inside SHADO HQ they encounter Turner, a SHADO operative who is working for the aliens. He has placed a device in the HQ that freezes time on Earth and allows a UFO to approach the planet undetected. Straker and Lake attempt to kill Turner but he is able to manipulate time to avoid their attacks.

The UFO is waiting for time to unfreeze in order to attack SHADO HQ. Straker arms himself with a shoulder-fired missile to destroy it. However, Turner ambushes the pair, knocking Lake unconscious and stealing a key required to operate the missile. Straker hunts down Turner, chasing him in mini-cars through the studio lot. Turner tells Straker he cannot shoot him, for he is never where Straker sees him to be. To counter this, Straker - reasoning that Turner must still be nearby - shoots in a wide arc, hoping that at least one bullet will find its mark. He thereby kills Turner, gets the missile key, and destroys the incoming UFO; returning to HQ he begins smashing pieces of equipment, hoping to destroy Turner's device. By now the drug has made him paranoid, and he continues his destructive spree even after he succeeds and time unfreezes.

The story returns to the present. Jackson and Foster allow Straker to rest, while musing on the nature of time.

Regular cast

 * Ed Bishop — Commander Ed Straker
 * Michael Billington — Colonel Paul Foster
 * Wanda Ventham — Colonel Virginia Lake
 * Dolores Mantez — Lieutenant Nina Barry
 * Keith Alexander — Lieutenant Keith Ford
 * Ayshea — Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson
 * Vladek Sheybal — Dr Douglas Jackson
 * Norma Ronald — Miss Ealand
 * Grant Taylor — General James Henderson, President of IAC

Production
Filming halted for two days when Ed Bishop injured his ankle on set.

Reception
Review website AnorakZone.com ranks this episode the best of the series, believing it to be very similar in story – but superior in execution – to The Outer Limits episode "The Premonition". It comments that although Turner is "just a ranting maniac", his lack of characterisation "scarcely matters ... the plot is what drives this one", also praising the "drama" of the suspended-time premise and the episode's use of flashback.

According to John Kenneth Muir, the episode is one of the series' best because it "operates on three levels of artistry": its "brilliant high concept" of SHADO being frozen in time; the platform given to for Bishop's "iron-willed character"; and the "self-reflexive" decision to set most of the action on a film studio backlot, which reminds viewers of the "essential artificiality and sleight-of-hand regularly deployed by films and television. A magical moment occurs, in other words, in a location devoted to creating magical illusions on a daily basis." Muir also praises Colonel Lake's characterisation and notes that the episode's depiction of stimulant use prompted some ITV franchises to omit Timelash from their first runs of UFO.