SHADO had anyone heard of this?

While looking for some information on the NBC dateline website I ran across this. Has anyone seen or heard of this before??

Around 1970, the British and American governments receive incontrovertible evidence that aliens exist and are abducting humans. In cooperation with the United Nations, they set up a secret worldwide organization, SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation), which operates in the 1980s. With resources and equipment under the seas, in the air, on land, in orbit and on the Moon, SHADO's purpose is to stop the alien incursions and find out why the aliens want humans.

SHADO is based in England, with headquarters beneath Harlington-Straker Studios, a working motion picture studio constructed purely as a cover for SHADO. Its uppermost echelon was made up of a commander and colonels.

Commander Ed Straker - SHADO's commander in chief, involved in the UFO program even before SHADO was formed. Formerly a USAF colonel, he sacrificed ten years of his life to get SHADO up and running. His cover is as chief executive of Harlington-Straker Studios.

Colonel Alec Freeman - A friend of Straker from military service. When SHADO was first approved, Freeman became its first recruit on Straker's recommendation.

Colonel Paul Foster - A test pilot who was nearly killed in a UFO incident, Foster impressed Straker with his resourcefulness, tenacity and unwillingness to accept anything but the truth.

Colonel Virginia Lake - A brilliant systems designer and technician, the beautiful Colonel Lake took the place of Colonel Freeman in the second half of the season.

The series was actually filmed in two blocks of episodes months apart because the original studio it was filmed at closed down. By the time production restarted, some of the cast was no longer available. Others had left soon after the series began either to avoid typecasting or because of dissatisfaction with very short-term contracts.

yes, fully aware. I even saw it when i was a kid. A slightly cheesy TV show... why do you post about it in the UFO section?

ATS is crazy. I'm an alien.

reply to post by starwatcher1


UFO -- I loved that show!! It was made by Gerry Anderson -- the same guy who did the Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett "marionette" TV shows and Space:1999. "UFO" took place in the futuristic year of 1980 (like you said, it was made in 1970, so 1980 WAS futuristic).

SHADO was a secret organization that intercepted UFOs and kept their existance secret from the public. There was only one type of UFO and only one alien species that they fought against . SHADO had a submarine that would lauch "interceptor" aircraft to fight the UFOs and an secret moonbase that could also launch interceptors...Cool show indeed.

However, I do agree that it shouldn't be in the UFO section of ATS -- maybe BTS would be a better place.

Here's the opening theme. Ed Straker -- the guy you listed as SHADO's leader is the guy with the white hair. The women with the purple hair worked on the moonbase (purple hair must have been the moonbase style):




[edit on 5/16/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Maybe the OP is trying to indicate that he thinks there may be a real secret organisation at work like the tv series. Actually it would not surprise me if this did turn out to be the case !!!!

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Thanks very much for posting that youtube vid. I haven't seen those opening titles for about 30 years ! Fantastic. As kids we all collected "Dinky" models, I had the UFO interceptor and my mates had the Eagles from Space 1999 ... spent so many long Summers out the back playing space battles (our poor Yorkshire Terrier was always an alien ... poor thing ... took it in good spirits though, I've still got the bitemarks to prove it).

Thanks again :-)