Object Z (1965) BFI Blu –Ray and DVD
Object Z is a SF rarity from 1965 that’s just been exhumed from the archive vaults and nicely restored. This six part serial of half hour episodes was screened in the children’s tea time slot, on Rediffusion TV, after its director Daphne Shadwell advised scriptwriter Christopher McMaster to aim for that audience. Although it contains very signalled cliff hanger episodes, that must have gripped everyone, as family entertainment once reigned high: the intelligence of the script and sympathetic characterisation assumed that kids, back then, were bright and literate; for although it’s very low on special effects Object Z packs in a fair number of ideas about alien life; information faking; some well researched science and even a subplot about political extremism.
A mysterious mass / possible meteor is rapidly approaching earth and could cause cataclysmic damage. The nations of the world override their nationalism to form a world government in order to challenge this threat. We follow British astronomers
and a TV producer and his assistant as they report on and track something they believe is being directed by an alien intelligence. Meanwhile when social unrest breaks out British Action Party, a fascist like faction, blames the government for being ill prepared yet secretly wishes to take control over what will remain of the world’s population. Object Z doesn’t hit the earth’s surface but retreats only to be followed by what looks like three space crafts that may be the beginnings of an invasion.
Early on a very British and mythic sense of calm and orderly behaviour is depicted by two semi-vox pop moments. Two bowler-hatted chaps think it’s all a bit too much. Whilst two, head-scarfed, housewives with a fag in the mouth, are convinced it’s a government plot. Yet putting aside these satirical jibes, and eliminating all sense of Object Z ever being patronising children’s TV, we have a remarkably serious, even earnest, production.
Val Guest’s film The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass TV serials shadow Object Z. And behind them is also the influence of BBC radio’s Journey into Space. For this studio bound SF / Political thriller is driven by its dialogue over visuals (Film inserts are tiny and mostly old doc film footage): the script is delivered by strong and credible actors who you sense are being stretched by the disaster story concepts. All the performances are fine. Except for two descents into overwrought stereotype for the character of Keele (played by Arthur White) whose fanaticism is absurdly overacted, and the TV producer Peter Barry (played by Trevor Bannister) who rarely stops barking out orders to his staff. Of course Rediffusion’s budgetary constraints meant you stayed inside and told your story. I’ve no problems with that as Daphne Shadwell’s fluid direction keeps the drama tight and focussed and matters much more than choreographing any special effects (there’s an attempt to show an alien face through a wobbly close up of a reptilian eye that’s a poor man’s Quatermass).
Object Z has many unexpected and ingenious plot twists: the most intriguing happening in the final scenes. But I won’t spoil things for you, only say you are still dramatically left hanging on that cliff and that certain disruptive things were necessary to create world government unity (Object Z shares that idealistic sense of 1960’s space age endeavour and international co-operation that you will find in Ishiro Honda’s 1959 Battle in Outer Space). I don’t buy all off the stories’ plot development. At times it felt somewhat implausible, even fanciful but Object Z is good, well made, gripping TV science fiction and I’m pleased it’s back in circulation.
Alan Price©2025.
Object Z (1965) BFI Blu –Ray and DVD
Object Z is a SF rarity from 1965 that’s just been exhumed from the archive vaults and nicely restored. This six part serial of half hour episodes was screened in the children’s tea time slot, on Rediffusion TV, after its director Daphne Shadwell advised scriptwriter Christopher McMaster to aim for that audience. Although it contains very signalled cliff hanger episodes, that must have gripped everyone, as family entertainment once reigned high: the intelligence of the script and sympathetic characterisation assumed that kids, back then, were bright and literate; for although it’s very low on special effects Object Z packs in a fair number of ideas about alien life; information faking; some well researched science and even a subplot about political extremism.
A mysterious mass / possible meteor is rapidly approaching earth and could cause cataclysmic damage. The nations of the world override their nationalism to form a world government in order to challenge this threat. We follow British astronomers
and a TV producer and his assistant as they report on and track something they believe is being directed by an alien intelligence. Meanwhile when social unrest breaks out British Action Party, a fascist like faction, blames the government for being ill prepared yet secretly wishes to take control over what will remain of the world’s population. Object Z doesn’t hit the earth’s surface but retreats only to be followed by what looks like three space crafts that may be the beginnings of an invasion.
Early on a very British and mythic sense of calm and orderly behaviour is depicted by two semi-vox pop moments. Two bowler-hatted chaps think it’s all a bit too much. Whilst two, head-scarfed, housewives with a fag in the mouth, are convinced it’s a government plot. Yet putting aside these satirical jibes, and eliminating all sense of Object Z ever being patronising children’s TV, we have a remarkably serious, even earnest, production.
Val Guest’s film The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass TV serials shadow Object Z. And behind them is also the influence of BBC radio’s Journey into Space. For this studio bound SF / Political thriller is driven by its dialogue over visuals (Film inserts are tiny and mostly old doc film footage): the script is delivered by strong and credible actors who you sense are being stretched by the disaster story concepts. All the performances are fine. Except for two descents into overwrought stereotype for the character of Keele (played by Arthur White) whose fanaticism is absurdly overacted, and the TV producer Peter Barry (played by Trevor Bannister) who rarely stops barking out orders to his staff. Of course Rediffusion’s budgetary constraints meant you stayed inside and told your story. I’ve no problems with that as Daphne Shadwell’s fluid direction keeps the drama tight and focussed and matters much more than choreographing any special effects (there’s an attempt to show an alien face through a wobbly close up of a reptilian eye that’s a poor man’s Quatermass).
Object Z has many unexpected and ingenious plot twists: the most intriguing happening in the final scenes. But I won’t spoil things for you, only say you are still dramatically left hanging on that cliff and that certain disruptive things were necessary to create world government unity (Object Z shares that idealistic sense of 1960’s space age endeavour and international co-operation that you will find in Ishiro Honda’s 1959 Battle in Outer Space). I don’t buy all off the stories’ plot development. At times it felt somewhat implausible, even fanciful but Object Z is good, well made, gripping TV science fiction and I’m pleased it’s back in circulation.
Alan Price©2025.
By Alan Price • added recently on London Grip, television • Tags: Alan Price, television