After searching for UFO wreckage on the lunar surface,
Straker orders Foster, "Home, James, and don't spare the
horses." The popular idiom is believed to have originated in
the late 1800s with Queen Victoria of England, who had a
carriage driver named James Darling. Normally the surname
would be used, but it might have been construed as
inappropriate for her to refer to her driver as "Darling",
so she called him by his given name instead.
At 9:16 on the DVD, Conroy runs past a painting in the
Central Park area of Moonbase. The painting appears to be
that of the
Palace of Westminster and the
Elizabeth Tower
(Big Ben).

During his delusion, Conroy pulls a pistol out his discarded
spacesuit in the Leisure Sphere and shoots Dale. Is a pistol
standard issue for Moonbase personnel? It appears to be a
fairly standard projectile weapon, which one would think
would be problematic for defense inside the self-contained
atmosphere of Moonbase, the danger being a stray bullet
could potentially puncture the walls or a window to the
airless lunar surface.
At 11:50 on the DVD, one of the Moonbase personnel is
reading a book, the title of which is too blurry to fully
make out. It appears to say something ending with "Star
Atlas".
At 14:21 on the DVD, a number of what appear to be award
statuettes are seen on the wall of Straker's office at
Harlington-Straker Studios. Presumably these are awards for
some of the films that have been made there.
At 18:47 on the DVD, an actor's mark is seen on the corridor
floor. An unnamed SHADO operative stops right on that mark.
At 19:15 on the DVD, Straker holds up a floorplan of SHADO
HQ.

This episode reveals that Straker has a small monitor
attached to the underside of his desk in his
Harlington-Straker office that can silently alert him to
SHADO emergencies when he has a civilian in his office.
When Straker steps outside for some air, he sees two actors
in period costumes at 23:36 on the DVD (a medieval maiden and
a monk), another actor dressed as an Indian prince, and a
large prop statue of a hand at 24:01. The actors and prop
all later appear
repeatedly throughout Straker's hallucination. The
hand also previously appeared in
"Timelash".
When Foster hands Straker a directive for him to sign for a
replacement Interceptor for Moonbase, Straker wonders, "I
wonder how much that's going to cost?" Shouldn't he already
have a pretty good idea of how much an Interceptor costs?
After all, Moonbase has lost Interceptors in battle before.
When General Henderson grows exasperated with Straker's lack
of answers to give to the committee, he sarcastically
remarks, "What do you expect me to do, give them a couple of
choruses of 'Lover Come Back'?" Henderson is presumably
referring to a song called "Lover Come Back to Me" from the
1928 Broadway play The New Moon. Barbra Streisand
recorded a popular version of it in 1962.
During his hallucination, Straker enters Theater 7 where
they are playing the day's rushes. At 34:47 on the DVD, the
rushes that begin playing are scenes from the first episode
of UFO, "Identified"!
At 36:57, the rushes turn into scenes from another episode,
"A Question of
Priorities".
In his hallucination, Straker is referred to by the people
he meets as Howard Byrne, an actor playing Ed Straker in a
television series (Straker had met the real Howard Byrne
earlier in the episode). Paul Foster, on the other hand, is
referred to by the actor's real name, Michael Billington.
A stack of magazines and other materials sitting on the
stage set of the Command Sphere changes from one shot to the
next at 43:15 on the DVD. Of course, since this is taking
place in Straker's
hallucination, the change can be forgiven.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
How was Straker able to damage the control room in his
hallucinating state (as revealed at the end of the episode)
when the hallucination seems to be begin and end within
moments in the "real world" with his confrontation with
Henderson inside his office?
Whatever became of actor Howard Byrne's implied threat to
ruin the TV show he was shooting for Harlington-Straker if
he didn't get script approval?
MEMORABLE DIALOG
General all-mighty Henderson.wav
I'm really seeing you for the first time.wav
you take the coconut.wav
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Episode Studies