Coldly stern, ruthlessly efficient, merciless against the enemy - Commander Ed Straker is one of the most hardened heroes of any Gerry Anderson series. Tasked with leading a secret military organisation against organ-harvesting aliens, all the while having to pretend to play a big-shot movie mogul to the unsuspecting public, Straker's bitterness at least has some justifiable context.

Throughout UFO, Straker's reliably strict leadership often saves the day; and often at the expense of some personal fallout, highlighting the sacrifices Straker regularly makes in maintaining the safety of the Earth. Let's investigate some of the most essential episodes of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's UFO involving Commander Straker's unbreakable leadership and tragic character.

Exposing the Identification

While UFO would shift from mostly straight-faced to increasingly surreal storylines during the course of its single series, one element it achieves straight away is Straker's deadly ruthless characterisation. In the series' opening episode, the newly formed S.H.A.D.O. leaps into action when the marauding aliens make their aggressive presence felt on Earth, provoking S.H.A.D.O into full operational alert. Dominated by Straker, Identified encapsulates the grimly intense tragedy at the heart of the series; how the members of S.HA.D.O. fight a clandestine war that permanently risks breaking the veil between unsuspecting citizens of Earth.

Family members of S.H.A.D.O. pilot Peter Carlin are caught in the crossfire in this opening episode, with Straker forced to act as an unsympathetic counsel. When the reveal of Carlin's sister having her organs harvested by a returning alien, Straker is quick to remind him that their family can never know the truth of her death. As future episodes will demonstrate, Straker knows all too well the personal sacrifices S.H.A.D.O. must make to ensure its life-saving efficiency, and in turn reinforcing the steely nature of its operatives. S.H.A.D.O. only recruits the best of the best, which often means its members must act as closed off to their enemies as much as their friends and families. It's a cold way to run an interplanetary Cold War.

Identified makes an effective pairing with Exposed in demonstrating the unbreakable attitude Straker has towards those around him. Ace test pilot Paul Foster finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy when he believes he's witnessed a flying saucer, only for no-one to believe him, and for his efforts in exposing those responsible continually discredited. His trails lead him to Harlington-Straker Studios and confronting its head man, Ed Straker. Foster's determination to oust Straker is matched by Straker's own aggressive style in maintaining S.H.A.D.O.'s secrecy. Right up until the reveal that this has all been an elaborate and dangerous recruitment test for Foster, you really believe that Straker may permanently remove Foster as an inconvenience to his leadership's efficiency. 

Kill Straker! makes for an unusual but superbly riveting third entry in this trilogy of Straker's defiant mentality. Colonel Paul Foster's sudden and darkened change in attitude towards Straker's leadership following a close encounter with UFO causes Straker to push Foster to their joint mental limits. It transpires that Foster had been injected with a subconscious impulse to assassinate Straker. After a severe attempt on his life, Foster is brought back down to Earth, but the lingering uncertainty remains whether the impulse has truly been eradicated. Straker's ice-cool detachment from his own well-being sees him provoke Foster into murdering him, which Foster cannot bring himself to do. Had this deceptive plan gone awry, it would have cost Straker his life. Such is the unflinchingly resolute nature of Straker that he barely lets slip, instead forcing Foster to endure his own minor psychological breakdown at the prospect of murdering his commanding officer. 

Confetti & Priorities

The most strikingly devastating insight into the human cost of Ed Straker's position as S.H.A.D.O. commander comes in the one-two gut-punch of A Question of Priorities and Confetti Check A-OK. While the flashback sequences of Confetti Check A-OK depicting S.H.A.D.O.'s formation suggests it's best viewed earlier on, the intended emotional impact insists that this episode is viewed later, with the audience fully clued in on the traumatic disintegration of Ed and Mary's marriage.

A Question of Priorities depicts the torn morals Straker faces between being a father and being a commander. These two worlds, forced to be kept separate owing to S.H.A.D.O.'s secrecy, collide when Straker's son, Johnny, is hit by a car and Straker exploits S.H.A.D.O.'s resources to attempt to save the boy. Ultimately, his secret plan, kept hidden from both Mary and his S.H.A.D.O. colleagues, quietly and horridly backfires. The episode concludes with the unspoken loss of his only child and his ex-wife declaring she never wishes to see Ed again. By attempting to make all the right moves as a father and a leader, Straker fails in the former. His role as the embittered S.H.A.D.O. leader is cemented here; it's the role his life has hardened him to become. The episode also showcases how a single life cannot be spared in maintaining S.H.A.D.O.'s operations - a bitterly ironic twist, given the outfit's entire purpose. 

Confetti Check A-OK prizes open Ed and Mary's relationship by showcasing their pre-S.H.A.D.O. existence - and how their newly married lives are torn asunder when Straker is given the opportunity to lead the newly formed S.H.A.D.O. In a brilliantly nuanced performance from Ed Bishop, we get to see what Straker was like before the hardened demeanour consumed him. For Colonel Ed Straker of military intelligence is a brighter, upbeat, more playful man compared to Colonel Ed Straker of S.H.A.D.O. Blissful as Ed and Mary's romance is presented, the episode boasts a subtle power in showing its gradual breakdown as S.H.A.D.O.'s construction eats away at the relationship, galvanised by us knowing what tragedies still await the pair.

Mind-bending Action

Straker's emotional turmoil yields further moments of vulnerability in The Responsibility Seat and Sub-Smash. Any attempts to embracing further relationships, physical or emotional, proves impossible to navigate within the confines of his leadership role. We witness this in The Responsibility Seat, when an encounter with a female reporter blossoms into physical attraction for Straker, only to be scuppered by a S.H.A.D.O. security breach. The message seems to be that the man is anchored to his fallen marriage and not allowed any respite. Sub-Smash in particular showcases these paranoias that linger in Straker's mind, and how the dangerously volatile situation of underwater entrapment is what's needed to break down Straker's iron will and allow these paranoias to flood his mind.

Straker's guilt overflowing for us to see isn't an isolated incident. We see the iron nerve buckle again in Mindbender, once more demonstrating how his failures as a husband and father plague his actions; however, it takes the presence of an invasive alien artefact to trigger these memories. While Straker's anxieties form an integral part of his character, they're only exposed in the most extreme circumstances. In just about every other aspect, Straker's resilience cannot be faltered.

We see that resilience put to its most bizarre test in Timelash, one of the unpredictably wilder episodes from UFO's twilight era. Having perfected the tragic tone with an abundance of human interest dramas earlier on in the series, Timelash is one of several late-game episodes from the series that injects outlandish sci-fi concepts into this interplanetary Cold War.

Both the sternly authoritative and emotionally distraught sides of Commander Straker are mostly parked in favour of depicting Straker the action man when the marauding aliens succeed in freezing time that surrounds Straker and Colonel Virginia Lake, forcing the pair to inject stimulants to maintain their awareness as the slow decay of time-rot begins to embrace them. A desperate shoot-out occurs across the Harlington-Straker Studios between Straker and a rogue S.H.A.D.O. operative who has succumbed to the aliens. Exhilaratingly strange in concept and execution, Timelash blends high-concept with blitzkrieg-action, rarely allowing one to overbalance the other, allowing Ed Straker to shine as one of sci-fi's most underrated action leads.

Through heart-breaking family breakdown to surreal methods of enemy invasion, Commander Ed Straker's morose, imperfect characterisation maintains a degree of sympathy through his undesirable professional occupation and tragic backstory. Much of these defining aspects are best evidenced throughout these essential entries in the UFO canon. Ed Bishop maintained an everlasting fondness for the character following the series' end, reflecting the razor-sharp care and attention to detail given to the character from all aspects of the series' production. Broodingly volatile yet committed to the safety of the Earth, Ed Straker remains one of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's most fascinatingly thought-out heroes.

Grab your Commander Straker 1:10 Collectable Figure now for a stunningly crafted encapsulation of one of UFO's definitive characters!

Sign up to the Anderson Entertainment newsletter to receive all the latest Gerry Anderson news, exclusive releases and more transmitted direct to your inbox!