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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
UFO: The Kidnappers UFO
"The Kidnappers"
Countdown #55, March 4, 1972
Writer: Unknown
Art: Jon Davis

 

The aliens kidnap Earth's foremost expert on mechanical hearts.

 

Read the Technodelic story summary at the Internet Archive

 

NOTES FROM THE UFO CHRONOLGOY

 

I've placed this story after the end of the TV series since it reveals there is a spaceport in London and at the time of the TV episode "Close-Up", SHADO had to use an American NASA rocket facility to launch its modified B142 space probe.

 

DIDJA KNOW?

 

This is a 6-page, self-contained story in Countdown #55, March 4, 1972.

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

 

On page 1 of the story, a UFO touches down in the Surrey countryside. Surrey is a county in southern England.

 

This story reveals the aliens seemingly have the ability to place virtually any human under their control as they do with the two ambulance drivers in apparently quick order.

 

The moon ferry on the launchpad at the London spaceport looks like a fairly standard rocket (similar to a Saturn V launch vehicle). This may indicate it is a civilian or standard government launch since SHADO is known to use the so-called "lunar module" for their trips to the Moon, as seen in various episodes.

 

It's not really explained at the end of the story, but apparently the aliens chose to blow themselves up rather than allow themselves to be captured by SHADO.

 

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

 

Why did the aliens need a human heart surgeon? It's been established since "Identified" that they have superior organ transplant capability already. This is similar to the aliens' attempt to kidnap a heart specialist in "The Alien Heart Attack". Notice that the aliens also steal some supplies and/or equipment from the hospital in addition to kidnapping Dr. Isaacs; perhaps the natural human heart tends to run down in an abnormally short time in an alien body and they hope to lengthen life by mastering mechanical hearts instead.

 

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