The Invaders: Season 1

Though I enjoyed both seasons of THE INVADERS, Season One is my favorite. As with most first season shows, Season One of THE INVADERS is when the production team did some experimenting before it settled on a "formula." As such the beginning of the season is fresher and a little more raw than the series' second year run.In the first season David Vincent bears the burden of his crusade against the alien invasion alone. Although each show adds additional witnesses to alien activity, Vincent is seemingly the only one dedicated enough to give up his personal life, employment, and reputation in the pursuit of the aliens. This is very different from Season Two where Vincent is a member of a larger organization of believers.The plot: Aliens from another galaxy have landed on Earth slowly establishing their network. Their goal is to acquire the Earth as a replacment planet for their dying world. The aliens have taken human form both to survive in the oxygen rich environment and to infiltrate society. In the pilot episode "Beachhead" Architect David Vincent accidentally witnesses one of the alien landings and finds that no one believes him. Worse is that police treat him as a kook and the aliens are out to do away with him all together. Ultimately Vincent takes up his lonely pursuit of the aliens. Vincent is played by handsome blue-eyed Roy Thinnes. Thinnes had alreay appeared in several prior Quinn Martin television productions and ended up landing the starring role in THE INVADERS.The pilot episode was a bit of a disappointment in that Vincent's initial encounter with the alien saucer is little more than what we are shown during the beginning credits, theme music, and narration. In fact the beginning narration and credits of each episode show us the saucers traveling past the moon toward Earth, something that is never seen in the pilot. Still it was a fitting beginning to the series.In terms of infiltration the Invaders are certainly successful in that aliens are already well established -- in most cases the story lines give them at least a year of tenure -- in law enforcment, industry, the military and government agencies. In terms of their appearance we are only treated to the Invaders in human form. We never see them in their original alien state.There is no rhyme or reason for why the Invaders take one particular human form or another. You would think they would be best served appearing as strapping young healthy men and women. Instead the Invaders show up as young and elderly, heavy and petite, or any other common human forms. Though the Invaders sometimes borrow the identity of a deceased individual it is more the case of identity theft than one-for-one replacment ala INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. In most cases the Invaders are experts at forging certificates, identification and other documents allowing them unimpeded access across the country.One of the alien prime directives appears to be to prevent the general public from finding out about them. As such the Invaders generally restrict themselves to standard firearms and make use of Earth-bound technology such as radios and rotary phones -- though I am sure there were production budgetary reasons as well. When cornered the aliens will not hesitate to take their own lives to prevent their capture. Episode three is the first episode where we witness the aliens incinerate when they are dying or badly wounded. Thus when the aliens die they leave no trace behind. Even the items they are carrying incinerate with them.Each of the episodes are stand alone stories with conflict and resolution within each episode. Though the aliens schemes are normally foiled by Vincent, sometimes it is difficult to determine the victor. Season One has some great and very familiar guest stars, several who would appear again in Season Two as totally different characters. Included in Season One are J.D. Cannon, Ellen Corby, Roddy McDowall, Suzanne Pleshette, William Windom, Jack Lord, Michael Rennie, James Whitmore, Burgess Meredith, Ralph Bellamy, Joseph Campenella, and others.The DVD does feature a few special features such as audio commentary and optional introductions to each episode by a contemporary Roy Thinnes. In the Thinnes introductions there was a missed opportunity in that the introductions are limited to a short synopsis of the episode highlighting the appearance of a guest star. It would have been better to allow Thinnes to elaborate on behind the scenes aspects of each episode. Season One is also limited to 17 episodes. Remember that the first season of THE INVADERS was as a midseason replacement. The second year was a full 26-season season.

I remember The Invaders. When aired in the 1960s, I watched it (only remember the opening and music) yet recalled only a part of one episode the tell-tale misshapen finger of the aliens. Roy Thinnis' narrations enliven the shows. His character (David Vincent) is an ordinary bloke. Not the smartest. Best fighter, connected and makes mistakes; plenty of them! The well written shows hold up and one can see some of the cultural differences as well in clothing, words, and titles. It's one of the best shows and I watch the DVD's over and over again. SFX are not what we have today and I hope there's not a retread of the show. Rather it remain a science fiction timepiece.

After the success of The Fugitive, producer Quinn Martin's next effort built on the themes that worked so well in The Fugitive: a lone hero on a mission, finding that danger lurks in every town he visits, and never knowing who he can trust. However, instead of an accused killer trying to clear himself and avoid capture, this time the stakes are much higher. Architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) has to convince the world they've been invaded by aliens whose goal is to conquer them from within.The invaders appear human (although some of them have a deformed finger that allows Vincent to spot them more easily). They also have an advanced technology that helps them accomplish their goals (including a device with which they can kill people so that it appears the person dies of a cerebral hemorrhage). Most disconcerting for Vincent, when they die, which occurs frequently, they turn a glowing red and completely vanish, along with all their clothes and everything in their immediate possession. That makes Vincent's task of proving their existence considerably more difficult.The show only lasted a season and a half, and this set includes the 17 episodes of the original half season (the show premiered in the winter). There are actually two versions of the pilot episode (in which Vincent learns of the alien's existence and that they have taken over a small California town), the version that aired and an extended version some ten minutes longer which works better. The show started to run out of gas midway in the second season, but this initial set has most of the best episodes and is of considerably better overall quality.The plots generally involve just that, alien plots. Typically, Vincent hears of strange goings on in some location and goes to investigate, only to discover the aliens have set up some sort of facility he has to stop. For the most part, the aliens themselves are not mastermind geniuses or raving fanatics but average everyday sorts, and figuring out just who in a town is or is not an alien often keeps Vincent and viewers occupied for much of an episode. The quality of the guest cast is good, with a lot of familiar TV faces who would soon have shows of their own, such as Jack Lord, Peter Graves, Arthur Hill, William Windom, and Ed Asner. Thinnes himself wasn't the acting equal of David Janssen in The Fugitive, but he was good at portraying harried desperation that his character often felt.The two best episodes are somewhat offbeat. In Vikki, Suzanne Pleshette plays the title character, an alien who hasn't fully bought into their plans and tries to help Vincent, while the two develop feelings for each other. In The Innocents, Michael Rennie plays an alien leader, who tries to convince Vincent that their goals for earth are really beneficial rather than harmful. This involves a bit of mind control on their part, and eventually, Vincent figures out what they really want.Episodes like these two showed the series' potential, but most of the very rest fell into a familiar formula and weren't all that much different from the PI shows of the era. The only difference was that instead of trying to uncover a smuggling operation or drug ring, Vincent is trying to find a facility that enables the aliens to regenerate themselves or some other bizarre enterprise. The action may have felt familiar to audiences, but the episodes were quite well done.The Invaders has become somewhat forgotten today, and a 90s attempted update as well as periodic feelers for a feature film have failed, but it proved to be the inspiration for many science fiction and action films and series over the years. Taken for what they are, these episodes are still well made, well acted, well written for the most part, and entertaining today.

This brings back memories of watching this series with my dad when it was aired back on BBC2 probably sometime in the 80's.Originally made around 1967 from the creator of The Streets of San Francisco, it is truly amazing how high quality this DVD set is. Sure there are some scenes where the film has been marked, but not badly, probably in production rather than later. However the vast majority is flawless and stunning in its colour reproduction quality. I have been amazed at the beautiful outdoor scenes and even studio sets, could have been made yesterday far les 40 years ago, just has not aged.As for the content, this is not your average Sci-Fi program, all about tech and warp drives, this is all about the main character and his fight to be believed in a world that is hostile to his words of alien invasion.This is more thriller than pure sci-fi and that is what makes this so unmissable, if you havent seen this your doing yourself a great disservice, get this now. If you have seen this, your a fan, I can almost guarantee it, that is how groundbreaking this series was and still is.The stories draw you in, they are action packed and exciting and the human story, the sympathy for David Vincents plight will have you hooked.There are only two words needed in this review. Get it.

Once again those lucky Americans have got a superior dvd release to our British one. The American dvd of The Invaders season 1 contains lots of special features which arn't included on the UK release. To start with each episode has a new introduction by Roy Thinnes who played David Vincent in the series. There is also an interview with him which is very interesting. Also included is the 60 minute version of the series pilot episode. Finally the episode The Innocent has a facinating commentary track by series creator Larry Cohen. Being an American this dvd is region 1 coded so you will either need an American dvd player or a multi region player.No news of any plans to release season 2 on dvd in the UK or US. However. there is an Australian dvd of season 2. This 7 disk set contains all the episodes from the second series of The Invaders. Sadly there are no special features. The Australian dvd is region 2 and 4 coded and should play on most UK dvd players. It is available on most Australian dvd web sites such as ezydvd.com.au or dvdcrave.com.

Back in the late eighties there was always a double bill of The Invaders and Batman in the late afternoon on BBC unless I'm mistaken. Although The Invaders were an old show by 80s standards (bearing in mind that technology had developed at an incredible speed in those twenty years) it was still a gripping show. The Invaders took the basic concept of The Fugitive (also a Quinn Martin production) and combined it with elements of 50s paranoia science fiction. No security and no one was what he seemed to be. That made for great opportunities in story telling: Vincent was always in different places and the stories often took very unexpected twists. You also were unsure whether Vincent would lose this episode's battle or score a small victory against the aliens. The show was also fairly atmospheric. Interestingly enough that was reached mostly by the dramatic voice overs. Roy Thinnes was a good looking chap and I quite liked his performance as driven man who really was an intruder in ordinary people's lives. To me, The Invaders is probably the best 60s sci-fi show.

This is the first 17 episodes of the original TV series (on 5 CDs)starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin. I was not cear from other reviews how good the picture quality was but I have found it to be better than standard broadcast quality though there is no indication it has been digitally re-mastered. Certainly I am very pleased with the picture and sound quality.How much you like the programmes yourself will depend on your taste and they do show a bit of 60s style dating with feeble fist fights and credibility quirks. Me, I enjoyed them as much as before and can completely overlook the quirks.Guest appearances by Jack Lord, Burgess Meredith, Michael Rennie (rather too much like Klatuu perhaps) and Ed Asner are among other less familiar names (but often familiar faces) to appear in these episodes.Good value all round.

Caught snippets of this when i was a youngster and was frequently told to go to bed (as it was on late) as I wasn't old enough.Well it's took me 30 odd years but now i'm watching them again, i'm a big fan of 50's America & SciFi, and to see some of that stuff (cars etc) on these is great, love the hammy acting and the dodgy sets (some great outdoors shots).Whats not to like, see one of the earliest series of science fiction while its still cheap.