Topic: The Invaders - Season 1

[Jimmy]

This is the series that I've really wait to be release since I began to "collect" dvd, finally the first season was released last week. I have many other movie waiting to be watch, but I must see this first, I've wait more than 5 years and I have been patient enough.

 

Presented originally from 10 january 1967 to 9 may 1967

All the synopsis are taken from the dvd inside cover.

[Jimmy]

Disc one

Beachhead

Synopsis
After David Vincent (roy Thinnes) falls asleep in his car, he wakes up and sees a spaceship land! Realizing that aliens are taking the Earth, he tries to warn others.

My Thoughts
In the introduction Roy Thinnes mentions that this pilot version is different that the one originally aired, but I've no idea of what are the differences. This is a really good pilot that tells rapidly what will be the series and this is exactly, in my oppinion, what a pilot must do. The invaders intentions are not clear and Vincent looks like a conspiracy nut (he is not, but we have the advantage to see the same thing that he saw). A very promising start.



The Experiment

Synopsis
Vincent gets his hands on documented proof from a noted astrophysicist, but is then captured by the aliens, who attempt to experiment on his brain.

My Thoughts
The aliens plan is reveal in the openning credit, so their intentions are clear now : They want to take over the Earth. In this episode David Vincent get the proof that will convice the autority of the aliens existence. Roddy McDowall give a geat performance as the scientist son and it was funny to see Stuart Lancaster in a minor role (you probably don't know who he is, but he is in a lot of exploitation movies). The story is well construct and suspenfull. Another winning episode.



The Mutation

Synopsis
While searching for a UFO near the border, Vincent meets an alien who has taken the form of a nightclub dancer who feels like an outsider among her own kind.

My Thoughts
This episode is important for two things : we learn that an aliens can have human feelings and we see the first alien die. This is the first thought in my mind when I think Invaders : the red glow and the black dust. This is important since this way left no proof. For those who watch a lot of tv series, Suzanne Pleshette play the stripper. One last thing : this episode countains a lot of spanish dialogue (not translated, but written) that gave me a chance to practice my not so good spanish.



The Leeches

Synopsis
The head of an electronics firm has himself abducted by aliens in order to thwart their plan to extract knowledge from his brain.

My Thoughts
This is an average episode. We have to wait to long for the confrontation between David Vincent and the Aliens, because too much time is spend on the development of the secondary characters and a love triangle. Not as good as the previous episodes.

[Jimmy]

Disc two

Genesis

Synopsis
A cop's death leads Vincent to a-state-of-the-art sea laboratory where the aliens attempt to bring back to life one of their own in human form.

My Thoughts
With this episode we are back at what make "The Invaders" the best science fiction series ever made. From the beginning to the end a great suspence mood is present. We see that the aliens must act fast and act differently than usual. I like the fact that the aliens are not unidimensional in this serie, they are not just a "killing fighting invaders army". Another perfect episode.



Vikor

Synopsis
Aliens got an industrialist to work with them and manufacture their regeneration chambers. But Vincent has just been hired to be the industrialist's driver!

My Thoughts
Another good episode (I begin to sound like Pete  ) where we see that the aliens don't do anything by themselves but some human colaborate with them for their plan. In fact I have an expression that I always use, "où il y a des hommes il y a de l'hommeries" (it means that the man always wants the best for him and he don't care about the others). A good performance by Jack Lord (just before Hawai 5-0) and Diana Hyland, an actress who didn't do anything except tv figuration. One thing that I don't like

(click to show/hide)

Vincent want to get a proof and he would have get it after he had killed the guard if he had taken their "heart attack" device, but he let it on the floor.

Nightmare

Synopsis
America's farmland is now a target, as a locust attack on a school teacher alerts Vincent to a plot to have carnivorous insects feed on the human population.

My Thoughts
Finally we can see that the aliens are not there to live amongst the human and enslave them. Their plan here is quite terrifying (only in theory since we don't see that much, its on television), this looks almost like something that I've seen on the X-Files (the conspiracy episodes with the bees). But for the rest this is an average episode.

   

Doomsday minus one

Synopsis
When he gets a call from nuclear test site, Vincent is not prepared for the aliens' new plan - to detonate an atomic bomb that will destroy millions of lives.

My Thoughts
With this one we are completly in the sixties US paranoia, the invaders try to take the control of the nuclear arsenal. I don't think that it will be a surprise for anyone : the aliens equals the communist... A very suspencefull episode, a race against the clock from the beginning to the end and act very well by all the actors.

[Jimmy]

Disc three

Quantity: unknown

Synopsis
David Vincent tries to get his hands on a mysterious cylinder with the help of a security guard who claims his familly was killed by the aliens.

My Thoughts

The innocent

Synopsis
While Vincent is pursuing a fisherman who found a strange weapon, he is kidnapped, taken aboard a UFO, an taken to what appears to be a paradise.

My Thoughts

The ivy curtain

Synopsis
Aliens have taken over a college, wich they use as an indoctrination center. They've bribed a pilot to transport students, wich pleases his greedy wife.

My Thoughts

[Jimmy]

Disc four

The betrayed

Synopsis
Vincent finally acquires hard proof in the form of a mysterious computer tape, but allows his feelings to get in the way when he falls for an oil baron's daughter.

My Thoughts

Storm

Synopsis
Unseasonable hurricanes in the area bring David Vincent to the Florida Keys, where a priest is a pawn in a plan for the aliens to control the weather.

My Thoughts

Panic

Synopsis
In West Virginia, a clean-cut young man is sick with a virus. He has been contaminating local townsfolk, who are found literally frozen to death.

My Thoughts

Moonshot

Synopsis
Vincent works with a security official to prove that one of the astronauts bound for space is an imposter who plans to sabotage the manned lunar program.

My Thoughts

[Jimmy]

Disc five

Wall of crystal

Synopsis
When is brother is kidnapped, Vincent learns of a plot to destroy the oxygen on Earth and is ordered to retract all his claims about the aliens.

My Thoughts

The condemned

Synopsis
The owner of a telecommunications company has stolen a file that the aliens need. But the police think he is dead, and that David Vincent is the one who have killed him!

My Thoughts

 

[Jimmy]

You're welcome if you want to comment or ask some question. I don't write a lot of details in my text since I don't want to spoiled the episode, but the spoil tag is there for that.

[Kathy]

I've never heard of this series so...no comments!

I am wondering though, except for Disc One I don't see anything "my thoughts". 

[Achim]

I've never heard of this series so...no comments!

I am wondering though, except for Disc One I don't see anything "my thoughts". 

Jimmy just reserved the posts needed for the comments... He will now add that information each time he watches a disc.

[Kathy]

I've never heard of this series so...no comments!

I am wondering though, except for Disc One I don't see anything "my thoughts". 

Jimmy just reserved the posts needed for the comments... He will now add that information each time he watches a disc.

Oh

Thank you.

[Jimmy]

I'll take a week break from the series. Not that I'm tired of it, but I have a lot of film to watch (one and a half shelf on my dvdcase) and I want to decrease their number a little.

I hope that I've made some of you interested by this great serie.