Television series

UFO

Name: UFO
Genre: Action, Science Fiction
Released: 1970
Cast: Edward Bishop, Dolores Mantez, George Sewell, Michael Billington, Ayshea

Other titles called UFO: the 2018 film.

A secret UN defence agency fights a hidden alien invasion throughout the 1980s. British sci-fi TV at its most ambitious: sleek, paranoid, beautifully designed, and utterly convinced of its own seriousness. Made in 1970 but set a decade ahead, it's futuristic without being campy. Built for viewers who want alien terror played straight.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love close-knit procedural sci-fi where a secret organisation's bureaucracy, gadgets and Cold War paranoia matter as much as the monsters, and you enjoy retro-futurist sets and clipped 1970s authority.

Skip it if the effects and sets are dated, and each hour tends to be a self-contained episode with a lot of talk in offices, so modern pacing may feel slow.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour per episode, twenty-six of them in one season, paced at the unhurried speed of 1970 television, with attention given to procedure more than spectacle.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Outer Limits1963

Anthology series that proved American TV could do genuine sci-fi horror. Each episode a complete story with real stakes and practical effects that still unsettle. Direct ancestor to everything UFO tries to do.

But Black-and-white and episodic means no character continuity. Some episodes misfire badly. Pacing feels glacial by modern standards.

Quatermass and the Pit1967

British sci-fi horror that takes itself completely seriously. Alien archaeology, government conspiracy, and existential dread. The film that showed Gerry Anderson's generation what grown-up science fiction could look like.

But Talky and slow-burn. The alien reveal is brief and deliberately unglamorous. Black-and-white. You need patience.

The Andromeda Strain1971

Procedural sci-fi about a lethal organism from space. Clinical, methodical, terrifying precisely because everyone is being professional about it. Captures that same paranoid-bureaucracy mood perfectly.

But Almost no action. Long sequences of scientists in clean rooms running tests. The ending is anticlimactic by design.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from UFO

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Le Samouraï1967

Both treat their work as a system to master. UFO: alien defence as perfect bureaucratic machine. Samouraï: contract killing as perfect geometric art. Cold, stylish, inhuman.

Melville's ice-blue assassination thriller with that same chilly, procedural exactitude. No aliens, but the same meticulous discipline and silence. If you love UFO's design and its cool professionalism, this shows what that sensibility looks like outside sci-fi.

But French, 1960s, almost plotless. Alain Delon barely speaks. Pace is glacial. Requires sitting very still and thinking about geometry.

Thunderbirds1965

Gerry Anderson's masterpiece of puppet-based spectacle and hardware obsession. If you love UFO's sleek design and international rescue infrastructure, this is the apotheosis of that impulse.

But Puppets, not live action. Plots are frequently silly. Aimed at children but adults watch for the gadgetry, which is a different kind of fun.

Planet of the Apes1968

Intelligent sci-fi action film with a real ending. Takes its premise seriously, builds real dread, delivers a shock that matters. Shows what 1970s speculative fiction could accomplish with conviction.

But Makeup effects look dated. The sequels are terrible so the franchise baggage is real. Some social commentary is now blunt.

2001: A Space Odyssey1968

Kubrick's vision of future space operations. Meticulous design, real sense of procedure and scale, alien contact as cosmic mystery. Sets the standard for taking space seriously.

But Famously slow. Twenty minutes of spacecraft docking with no dialogue. The ending is deliberately obscure. Requires a state of mind, not just an evening.

Doppelgänger1969

Hidden planet sci-fi with that exact mid-century British sobriety. Gerry Anderson directed; same design language as UFO but compressed into a two-hour film. Underrated and earnest.

But Plot is convoluted and the twist is more confusing than clever. Effects look threadbare even by 1969 standards. Slow in the way that test patience.

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold1965

Cold War espionage done gray and grim. If you love UFO's paranoia and faceless government machinery, this is the non-sci-fi equivalent. Shows how to make procedural plotting genuinely tense.

But Deliberately unglamorous and despairing. No heroism, just failure and compromise. You will not feel good after watching it.

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold poster

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons1967

Anderson puppet series with a real mythology: Earth under siege by aliens with a grudge. Weekly alien threat, military hardware, that distinctive Thunderbirds-universe production design. Pure spectacle.

But Puppets will bother you if you need actors. Repetitive premise means episodes blur together. Childlike plotting despite the space-age veneer.

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons poster

The Lathe of Heaven1980

Both pit individual conscience against institutional power in sci-fi crisis. UFO: system versus alien threat. Lathe: individual versus system itself. UFO chooses order; Lathe questions whether order is possible or desirable.

Ursula K. Le Guin adapted for PBS: a man whose dreams reshape reality, government trying to exploit him. Cheap video effects but profound sci-fi philosophy. Reads as UFO's opposite—what happens when you lose control instead of maintaining it.

But 1980 public television production values. Sluggish and talky. The metaphor is more important than plot, which means it all means something and nothing simultaneously.