Episode
UFO: Mindbender
Overview
After a UFO inexplicably destroys itself less than two miles from Moonbase, a mysterious crystal rock is recovered, and it causes the person in its vicinity to hallucinate. The man on Moonbase who found it thinks Mexican bandits have taken over Moonbase. It gets transferred to Straker's office, and he hallucinates that SHADO is simply a set for a TV series, he is an actor named Mr. Burns, Moonbase can be reached by stepping through two doors from the main control room at SHADO HQ, and "Mr. Straker" is not available. Straker breaks the hallucination by jumping in on the scene while the "character" Gen. Henderson is doing a close-up of the line they were doing when the hallucination began.
Details
- Series
- UFO
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 14
- Air date
- 1971-01-13
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
Mindbender is Episode 14 in Season 1 of UFO. It aired on 1971-01-13. The runtime is 60 min.
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Episode 13: Survival
Foster, whose radio is knocked out and his oxygen line cut, is presumed lost (but they did a crummy job, not even trying to find his body) during a confrontation with a UFO on the moon's surface. Foster is found by an alien, and together, they cross the lunar landscape, developing a friendship when the alien must try to do make-shift repairs on Foster's suit to keep him alive. At the end, a Moonmobile crew finds Foster and misunderstands his intent when he points them to the alien nearby.
Episode 15: Flight Path
A SHADO Technician, who is being blackmailed for information by an unknown party, is caught by Freeman, but not before the information is passed. The Technician, Paul Roper, divulges what information he gave to the blackmailers, to SHADO. After much work on the cryptic data, they discover it is part of a plan by the aliens to attack the Moonbase in a way that would be undetectable. Now it's up to Roper to redeem himself, as he is sent on the suicide mission to stop the attack. If he fails, the base will surely be destroyed.
More episodes from this season
Episode 12: The Psychobombs
A UFO imbues three young people with incredible powers. One blows up a radar station, a second steals fingerprints and tries to get aboard a Skydiver sub, blowing it up. The third, a woman, tries to blow up SHADO HQ but the UFO that is feeding her power has now been destroyed.
Episode 16: The Man Who Came Back
Reported missing, presumed dead, after a UFO incident which has left SID disabled, astronaut Craig Collins turns up alive and well. But as an operation to complete repair work on SID is planned, Colonel Lake and Colonel Grey discover that Collins is not the man he used to be...
Episode 11: Close Up
Straker gets approval from above to build a probe with a camera that will track a UFO back to its home planet. Inexplicably, the Earth technology is capable of following a UFO travelling 8 or 9 times the speed of light and follows it home. The episode ends with a SHADO guy trying to convince Straker that they were wasting their time, even though they picked up some great pictures of the planet.
Episode 17: The Dalotek Affair
Two of the SHADO people, dining at a fancy restaurant, begin to recall this event after one of them sees a diner who was part of Dalotek. A private company installed a facility on the moon which discovered an alien device that disrupted Communications between Moonbase and SHADO on Earth.
Episode 10: The Square Triangle
"Unfortunately for them, an Alien came through that door instead of her husband." In the woods between Clare Cross and Lingbury, an injured Alien stumbles into a lonely cottage and is shot down by Liz Newton and her lover Cass Fowler. Liz and Cass are taken to SHADO HQ for questioning, but when Liz's husband arrives at the cottage, Paul Foster realises that the Alien's death was no accident!
Episode 18: Timelash
While picking up Lt. Lake at the airport, Straker and Lake find that time has been frozen except for them. Sawdust hangs in mid-air, Lt. Ellis is frozen mid-word on a viewscreen, and one man is taunting them, apparently working for the aliens.
Episode 9: Destruction
A Naval vessel shoots down a UFO in the Atlantic, but the Admiralty rejects further investigation into the incident. Straker suspects a cover up and wants to know why, so Foster courts Admiral Sheringham's secretary, Sarah Bosanquet. What they discover could mean the end of all life on Earth...
Episode 19: Ordeal
Foster is abducted by aliens from a health spa and is being taken out into space, presumably back to the alien homeworld. However, the UFO was damaged and returns to the moon, crashing there. While the Moonbase personnel try to free Foster of the alien environmental suit, Foster wakes up in the steam room at the health spa. The episode begs explanation for how Foster dreamed in such orderly detail, including Carlin missing a shot and Straker angry at the missed shot, and Dr. Jackson's off-line comments to Straker before they go onto a visual link to Moonbase to guide them through removal of Foster's alien helmet.
Episode 8: Sub-Smash
Suspecting a UFO to be responsible for the sinking of a freighter, Straker, Foster and Nina Barry investigate in Skydiver. Attacked by an undersea UFO, the submarine is downed on a ledge on the sea bed and the crew are trapped. While Straker fights against his claustrophobia, Nina faces a living nightmare...
Episode 20: Court Martial
Foster is suspected of being a security leak, but during the trial, Straker and his colleagues discover that Foster's apartment was bugged and shut down the disreputable business that is selling the spy gear.