by Mark Murton

Original Air Date: Sept 14, 1970

Directed by: Ken Turner

Cat Out Of The Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this episode.

Synopsis: Straker (Ed Bishop) and Freeman (George Sewell) investigate when a UFO crashes into the home and kills the wife of a man with Extra Sensory Perception, John Croxley (John Stratton.)

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Croxley regards his condition as a curse and has sought medical aid. After his appointment he rings his wife Stella (Deborah Stanford) who is in the bedroom with their gray cat sitting nearby.

The cat pricks up its ears at the sound of the phone.

Disturbed by the contents of the call, Stella reaches to the cat for comfort.

Later, as a UFO hurtles towards the Croxley house, Stella is still in the bedroom with the cat now on a chair near the door.

They both react to the sound of the incoming craft and as the sound gets louder the cat jumps off the chair and exits the room at speed (the film is sped up to hasten the cat’s retreat!)

The UFO smashes into the house, destroying a large section of it and killing Croxley’s wife in the process. The fate of the cat is unknown at this point.

Croxley holds SHADO responsible for his wife’s death and, now under the influence of the aliens, sets out to destroy the organisation leading to a confrontation at the end of the episode when, after visiting Croxley’s psychiatrist and learning of Croxley’s ESP ability, Straker and Freeman are lured to a night-time meeting with him at his ruined house where he intends to kill them both. In the establishing shots of the house before the men arrive the cat is seen alive and well among the rubble.

Final Mewsings: Happily, in this instance U.F.O. stood for Unharmed Feline Occupant.

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