UFO (1970–1971)

Ed Bishop: Cmdr. Ed Straker, Cmdr. Straker

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Quotes 

• Ed Straker : Imagine a dying planet in some distant corner of the universe. Its natural resources exhausted. Its inhabitants sterile. Doomed to extinction. A situation we may one day find ourselves in, gentlemen. So they discover Earth. Abundant, fertile. Able to satisfy their needs. They look upon us not with animosity, but callousness. As we look upon our animals that we depend on for food. Yes, it appears they are driven by circumstance across a billion miles of space, driven on by the greatest force in the universe - survival.

• Col. Paul Foster : You know, death's never worried me before but right now I'm scared.

  Ed Straker : You're getting older.

  Col. Paul Foster : How do you mean?

  Ed Straker : The older you get, the more precious life becomes. You become aware of what life is.

• Col. Paul Foster : What about our evidence? They've got to take notice of that.

  Ed Straker : Evidence. What's it going to look like when Henderson claims that we manufactured it, just to get a space clearance program?

  Col. Paul Foster : But we are *right*!

  Ed Straker : Sometimes, Colonel, that's not quite enough.

• Capt. Peter Carlin : It's about my sister, isn't it?

  Ed Straker : Yes. I'm afraid she's dead, Peter. There's no longer any doubt. I think you know how sorry I am.

  Capt. Peter Carlin : What happened?

  Ed Straker : I don't think you'd like to know the details.

  Capt. Peter Carlin : I think I'd like to know.

  Ed Straker : Your sister was last seen in the vicinity of a ufo incident nearly ten years ago. The alien's body recovered from the sea was subjected to intense medical examination. The heart was a transplant. The donor was Leila Carlin. What will you tell your parents?

  Capt. Peter Carlin : I don't know.

  Ed Straker : You realise of course, that they can never know the truth.

• Col. Paul Foster : We can't just sit around!

  Ed Straker : I've solved quite a few problems by just "sitting around", as you call it, Colonel. You should try it yourself sometime.

• Col. Paul Foster : But don't you see what it means? They planned a cold blooded murder. They had it all worked out. But unfortunately for them an alien came through that door instead of her husband.

  Alec Freeman : It all fits. Morally, they're guilty.

  Ed Straker : Oh. Well, the amnesia drug was administered a few minutes ago. They won't be able to remember a thing.

  Col. Paul Foster : Well, we can't just let them go free.

  Ed Straker : I suppose you think I should hand them over to the public prosecutor. We'd sure have a great case. Now what would he go for? The attempted murder of the husband or the killing of an alien? We can't produce that body. There's no concrete evidence against them and the two accused would both have genuine total amnesia.

  Col. Paul Foster : So there's nothing we can do about it?

  Ed Straker : We're not in the moralising business, colonel.

  Col. Paul Foster : Well, what about the husband? They wanted to kill him once. They're bound to try again.

  Ed Straker : Hmn. Well, in the line of duty we stumbled on to a triangle. SHADO's involvement made it a square. All we're doing is erasing the past twelve hours. So it's back to the triangle.

• Ed Straker : Hello, Miss Ealand. Hard at it?

  Miss Ealand : I'm always "hard at it". Sometimes you notice.

• Ed Straker : A funeral. Without a body. A symbol of human compassion. The long finger of tragic coincidence, stretching across a billion miles of space. Is this the end or the beginning? Where does the universe end? Where does it begin?

• Ed Straker : Well, Nina. We were pretty close down there.

  Nina Barry : Yes. If there was anything I said which, em, well...

  Ed Straker : Or didn't say? That's what life's all about, I guess. The things we never say.

• Dr. Doug Jackson : Ya, I have a theory but I must warn you, it's pretty wild.

  Ed Straker : Go ahead, doctor. Try me.

  Dr. Doug Jackson : A human body. Muscles, brain. Operates in a series of minute electrical charges flowing around the complex of low voltage electrical circuits. The nervous system. Sometimes the electrical balance is disturbed.

  Ed Straker : Mental disorder.

  Dr. Doug Jackson : Imagine the situation where for some reason the balance swings violently off centre. The body becomes supercharged. A thunder cloud before a storm. If such a charged being could exist, it may be able to draw on all the primitive forces of the universe. Attract them to itself. Space, time, light, electrical potential, energy. They're all related! The result...

  Ed Straker : A human bomb.

  Dr. Doug Jackson : A psychobomb!

• Alec Freeman : [fixing a drink]  You never touch it, do you?

  Ed Straker : [shakes head]  Uh-uh... self control.

  Alec Freeman : Maybe drinking needs more... self-control.

• Col. Paul Foster : I don't buy it...

  Ed Straker : I'm not trying to *sell* you anything, boy!

• [ep: The Square Triangle] 

  Ed Straker : It's just lucky for her that an alien came through that door instead of her husband.

• Alec Freeman : I certainly have to hand it you. That Miss Fraser. She didn't have you fooled for a moment. That'd been me then I probably would have got myself emotionally involved or something.

  Ed Straker : Yes. I could see how it could happen.