Sub-Smash

"Sub-Smash" is the eighth episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. The screenplay was written Alan Fennell and the director was David Lane. The episode was filmed between 18 November and 28 November 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands on 11 November 1970. Though shown as the seventh episode, it was actually the seventeenth to have been filmed.^[1][2]

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.^[3]

When a freighter is sunk mid-Atlantic by an undersea UFO, Straker joins the crew on Skydiver to investigate despite his claustrophobia. As they search in the area where the ship was lost, Skydiver is attacked by the UFO and damaged, sinking to a ledge above the sea bed. However Skydiver is still able to launch Sky One, which tracks and destroys the UFO in Earth's atmosphere.

Each of Skydiver's crew except Lt. Barry must then take it in turn to use a single, faulty escape hatch that now takes 90 minutes to reset after each use. Straker orders Barry to use an alternate hatch which can only be employed once but, unbeknownst to him, it fails to open, trapping Barry. Two crew members reach the surface where Col. Freeman awaits them in an amphibious rescue aircraft but Lt. Tony Chin succumbs to his injuries on Skydiver.

Straker hears Barry's frantic yelling and frees her from the faulty hatch. They are the last two crew left on the submarine - Straker dealing with his claustrophobia - as the air is close to running out. Barry tells Straker that she's glad she won't die alone and that it's he who is with her (a reference to the episode "Confetti Check A-O.K." which reveals that Nina Barry was one of SHADO's founding operatives). Straker meanwhile has flashbacks to the significant events of his life: his marriage to Mary, the birth of their son John and John being hit by a car, as seen in the episodes "Confetti Check A-O.K." and "A Question of Priorities". They finally manage to escape the sub when SHADO divers blow Skydiver off the ledge and they can access unblocked missile tubes.^[4]

• Ed Bishop — Commander Ed Straker
• George Sewell — Colonel Alec Freeman
• Michael Billington — Colonel Paul Foster
• Gary Myers — Captain Lew Waterman
• Dolores Mantez — Lieutenant Nina Barry
• Keith Alexander — Lieutenant Keith Ford

Locations included: Neptune House at ATV Elstree Studios, Borehamwood; and Marlyn Cottage, Ley Hill, Buckinghamshire.^[1]

Review website anorakzone.com considers "Sub-Smash" the sixth-best episode of UFO, stating that although "narratively it doesn't contain many surprises", the episode is elevated by "the final ten minutes, where Straker, losing his mind from lack of oxygen, has his life flash before his eyes, haunted by the tragedies that have befallen him."^[5]

Describing "Sub-Smash" as a "strong Straker-centric episode", John Kenneth Muir praises the "understated nature" of the emotions on display and the use of Dutch angles to convey claustrophobia.^[6]

• "Sub-Smash" at IMDb