The Cat with Ten Lives


"The Cat with Ten Lives" is the third episode aired of the first series of UFO - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. David Tomblin wrote the screenplay and directed the episode. The episode was filmed between 22 May to 3 June 3rd, 1970 and aired on the ATV Midlands network on 30 September, 1970. Though shown as the fourth episode, it was actually the nineteenth to have been filmed.
The series was created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.

Story

Moonbase interceptor pilot James Regan is on 48 hours leave from the Moon. He is invited by an elderly friend, who has mysteriously been given a bizarre psychic board game. Whilst he and his wife are playing the game, he starter to have strange reactions and faints. Later, as they are driving down a country road they stop their car to avoid a Siamese cat in the road. They are then abducted by aliens who take them to their UFO, where he has another experience similar to the one had previously. Regan awakes back in his car, with the cat and his wife missing. Regan explains his story back at the SHADO Control but Straker sends him back to the moon. The cat now has free rein inside the Control.
SHADO's resident doctor - Douglas Jackson - has performed an autopsy on an alien body and found it to be entirely human. He surmises that the aliens may be able to control human brains.
When piloting his SHADO Interceptor escorting of "the Venus probe", Regan fails to destroy a UFO. He is recalled to Earth for an assessment. Still controlled by the cat, Regan attacks Col. Paul Foster and returns to the moon, where he puts his interceptor on a crash course to Moonbase. Straker determines the cat is controlling Regan and has it eliminated. No longer under the alien control, Regan is able to just miss Moonbase but hits the lunar surface and is killed..

Cast

Starring

Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire and Neptune House, BBC Elstree Studios, Borehamwood.