A Question of Priorities
{{Use British English|date=June 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series = UFO
| episode = 5
| writer = Tony Barwick
| director = David Lane
| editor = Harry MacDonald
| production = 8
| airdate = {{Start date|1970|10|14|df=yes}}
| episode_list = UFO (British TV series)#Episodes
| prev = Conflict
| next = E.S.P
| guests =
- Philip Madoc as Steven Rutland
- Suzanne Neve as Mary Rutland
- Mary Merrall as Mrs O'Connor
- Barnaby Shaw as John Rutland
- Peter Halliday as Dr Segal
- Russell Napier as Dr Green
- Richard Aylen as Alien
- Andrea Allan as Nurse
- David Cargill as Car driver
- Penny Spencer as SHADO operative
}}
"A Question of Priorities" is the fifth episode aired of the first series of UFO – a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. Tony Barwick wrote the screenplay and it was directed by David Lane. The episode was filmed between 28 July and 7 August 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands network on 14 October 1970. Though shown as the fifth episode, it was actually the eighth to have been filmed.{{cite web |title = UFO Episode Guide – A Question Of Priorities |url = http://www.fanderson.org.uk/epguides/ufoeg.html#Episode%20Eight |website = Fanderson |access-date = 16 October 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171008125212/http://www.fanderson.org.uk/epguides/ufoeg.html#Episode%20Eight |archive-date = 8 October 2017 |url-status = dead }}{{cite web |title = UFO Characters – A Question Of Priorities |url = http://www.shadolibrary.org/eps/chars/char108.shtml |website = SHADO Library |access-date = 16 October 2017 }}
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.{{cite web |title = Underappreciated TV: UFO |url = http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/19363/underappreciated-tv-ufo |website = Den of Geek |date = 4 January 2008 |access-date = 16 October 2017 }}
Plot
Commander Ed Straker's son Johnny is hit by a car and taken to hospital. Straker arrives at the hospital with his ex-wife, Mary, to find that Johnny is allergic to the antibiotics the hospital has available – Straker uses his position to order an experimental anti-allergenic antibiotic to be flown from New York to Britain by a SHADO transport.
In Ireland, an alien escapes from a crashing UFO and starts transmitting from the home of an elderly blind woman. The transmissions are intercepted by SHADO HQ and Colonel Alec Freeman diverts the transport aircraft, unaware that it is carrying the antibiotics, to investigate the signals.
When Straker discovers this change of schedule he knows that he cannot order the transport to Britain as his duty to SHADO overrides any personal needs. But Mary challenges Straker when he tells her the transport is being delayed because of "a more important matter".
SHADO mobiles carried by the transport are sent to investigate the alien transmissions but before the mobiles can make contact, another UFO arrives and kills the alien: it appears that he was trying to defect. The transport then continues on to Britain and Straker rushes to the hospital with the antibiotics but it proves too late as his son has died, with a tearful Mary saying that she never wants to see her ex-husband again.{{cite book |last = Bentley |first = Chris |date = 10 January 2003 |title = The Complete Book of Gerry Anderson's UFO |publisher = 978-1903111659 |page = 58 |isbn = 978-1903111659 }}
Regular cast
{{Cast listing|
- Ed Bishop as Commander Ed Straker
- George Sewell as Colonel Alec Freeman
- Gabrielle Drake as Lieutenant Gay Ellis
- Peter Gordeno as Captain Peter Carlin
- Dolores Mantez as Lieutenant Nina Barry
- Gary Myers as Captain Lew Waterman
- Keith Alexander as Lieutenant Keith Ford
- Ayshea as Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson
- Norma Ronald as Miss Ealand
}}
Reception
TV Zone magazine considered this episode the best of the series, describing it as a "perfect fusion of science fiction action and human drama" while praising Ed Bishop's "understated" acting. The publication noted that the series further explores Straker's difficult relationship with his son and ex-wife in the later episodes "Sub-Smash", "Confetti Check A-O.K." and "Mindbender".{{Cite magazine |title = The Anderson Files |magazine = TV Zone Special |issue = 57 |date =Summer 2004 |editor1-last = Payne |editor1-first = Stephen |publisher = Visual Imagination |location = London, UK |issn = 0960-8230 |oclc = 438949600 |page = 53 }}
Review website anorakzone.com ranks the episode second only to "Timelash", noting the story's "emotional rawness". The review states that despite a number of "moderately corny and misjudged sequences [...] the tangible pain at the climax and the concept of the series becoming this dark is a punch to the gut that's impossible to forget."{{Cite web |url = https://www.anorakzone.com/uforank4.html |title = Worst to Best: Gerry Anderson's UFO |website = anorakzone.com |date = September 2019 |access-date = 30 December 2023 }}
For John Kenneth Muir, it "must rank near the top" of UFO episodes. He comments that the story is "very much a case of the series' potential fully realised. This episode offers a haunting, devastating portrait of Ed Straker..." He adds that it "succeeds as well as it does because the episode – though contending with life and death, and family – is not histrionic"; instead, it "offers a dispassionate, uncompromising view of a leader forced to make an impossible decision."{{Cite web |url = https://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2019/02/ufo-question-of-priorities.html |title = UFO: "A Question of Priorities" |date = 5 February 2019 |author1-link = John Kenneth Muir |first1 = John Kenneth |last1 = Muir |website = reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com |access-date = 30 August 2023 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb episode|0735617}}
{{UFO (TV series)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Question of Priorities, A}}
Category:1970 British television episodes
Category:Television episodes set in hospitals