The Dalotek Affair

"The Dalotek Affair"
UFO episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 17
Directed by	Alan Perry
Written by	Ruric Powell
Production code	7
Original air date	10 February 1971 (1971-02-10)

"The Dalotek Affair" is the seventeenth 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 Ruric Powell and the director was Alan Perry. The episode was filmed between 15 July to 25 July 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands on 10 February 1971. Though shown as the sixteenth episode, it was actually the seventh 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.

Story

The episode is almost entirely a flashback that Colonel Foster has as he sees a woman while dining with Colonel Alec Freeman:

Unexplained communication blackouts are affecting the SHADO Moonbase. Foster believes that the nearby Dalotek Corporation lunar base may be causing the issues through use of their geological scanner. During another blackout a Lunar module crashes when trying to land, killing the crew on board.

Foster investigates Dalotek and disables a piece of their equipment thought to be the cause. However, this does not stop the blackouts. The Dalotek team discovers an alien jamming device, placed by the aliens in a lunar crater using a meteor that crashed on the Moon (a fact that Commander Straker realises while watching a TV interview with Dr. Frank Stranges). Foster sends out a team to destroy the jamming device before an incoming alien UFO attacks Moonbase. With the device destroyed, the UFO can be targeted and also destroyed.

The epilogue reveals that the woman was Jane Carson, the Dalotek employee Foster was flirting with, who had her memory wiped due to SHADO security protocol.

Cast

Starring

• Ed Bishop — Col. Edward "Ed" Straker, Commander-in-chief of SHADO
• Michael Billington — Col. Paul J. Foster
• George Sewell — Col. Alec E. Freeman, Second-in-command of SHADO
• Dolores Mantez — Lt. Nina Barry
• Keith Alexander — Lt. Keith Ford
• Ayshea — Lt. Ayshea Johnson

Also Starring

• Tracy Reed — Jane Carson
• Dr. Frank Stranges — Himself

Featuring

• Basil Moss — Dr. Frazer
• Clinton Greyn — Mark Tanner
• David Weston — Phil Mitchell
• Philip Latham — Blake
• John Breslin — Dr. Charles Reed
• Alan Tucker — Lunar Module Pilot
• John Cobner — Capt. in Moonmobile
• Richard Poore — Lt. in Moonmobile

Production notes

• Locations used for the filming included Neptune House, ATV Elstree Studios, Borehamwood.
• Dr. Frank Stranges was the real-life founder of the National Investigations Committee on Unidentified Flying Objects (NICUFO). The screened interview was shot just before the beginning of the TV series.