The Invaders – The Complete First Season (CBS DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Episodes: B
Before The X-Files and even Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Invaders (1967) was the first
weekly TV Sci-Fi/Horror TV series with a continuously investigative scenario
where the main character(s) have to stop something awful from happening when
just about everyone does not even believe in the existence of said menace(s) in
the first place. Roy Thinnes plays architect
David Vincent, who one night cannot find a hotel to stay in, falls asleep in
his car and suddenly awakens to see a flying saucer landing with creatures
entering and leaving it. His simple
inquiries turn into a major pursuit for the truth, to stop a take-over of the
earth and the end of the human race.
Between
those who know he is telling the truth, including the aliens who will kill to
keep their presence secret to those few who realize he is telling the truth,
there are those who do not want to believe him, a few who have cut deals with
the aliens and others in power and authority who are more interested in holding
on to their power than caring what happens to anyone. Needless to say it is an uphill battle.
The show
arrived at the beginning of the year on ABC as a mid-season replacement when
another hour-long series on the network had run its course. Many though Fox and Irwin Allen made the
show, a myth perpetuated by the Fox Network’s failed revival a few years or so
ago with Thinnes, but one that he was hardly in and was forgettable. It was actually produced by Quinn Martin,
best known for his 1960s cycle of detective shows and at this point, he was hot
off of The Fugitive, a series this one tries to emulate. Possibly too much.
It has
been literally decades since I have seen the series and I forgot how great the
show really was, so long to of circulation it has been. However, it holds up very well as created by
Larry Cohen, a master of suspense who moved on to make some very important
Horror films like It’s Alive and God Told Me To, plus penned the recent
hit thriller Phone Booth. He was that good then too and even though the
show had many writers, his initial work was solid enough to make this a classic
and more than just a cult item. Even
John Carpenter owes a debt to him and the series for his underrated They Live (1988) that remains his last
great film.
The
episodes, with key guest stars, include:
1)
Beachhead (guest stars Diane Baker. James
Daly & J.D. Cannon)
2)
The Experiment (Roddy McDowall, Laurence
Naismith & Harold Gould)
3)
The Mutation (Suzanne Pleshette, Roy Jenson.
Val Avery & Ted Gehring)
4)
The Leeches (Diana Van der Vlis, Arthur Penn,
Noah Keen & Ray Kellogg)
5)
Genesis (John Larch, Louise Latham, Tim
McIntire & William Sargent)
6)
Vikor (Jack Lord, Alfred Ryder, Diana
Hyland & Richard O’Brien)
7)
Nightmare (Robert Emhardt, Kathleen Widdoes
& Jeanette Nolan)
8)
Doomsday Minus One (William Windom, Andrew Duggan
& Wesley Addy)
9)
Quality: Unknown (James Whitmore, Susan Strasberg
& Milton Selzer)
10) The Innocent (Michael Rennie, William Smithers
and Dabney Coleman)
11) The Ivy Curtain (Jack Warden, Susan Oliver,
Murray Matheson & Barry Russo)
12) The Betrayed (Norman Fell. Ed Begley and Laura
Devon)
13) Storm (Joseph Campanella, Barbara Luna
and Simon Scott)
14) Panic (R.G, Armstrong, Lynn Loring,
Robert Walker. Jr. and Ford Rainey)
15) Mooonshot (Peter Graves, Joanne Linville,
John Ericson & Kent Smith)
16) Wall Of Crystal (Burgess Meredith, Ed Asner,
Linden Chiles & Julie Sommars)
17) The Condemned (Ralph Bellamy, Marlyn Mason,
Murray Hamilton & Seymour Cassel)
Though it
is effectively half a season, it is very effective indeed and to have so many
great actors (even the less familiar ones) doing genre work they later would
not be found in is a plus. It could also
go a few rounds with all the similar shows that followed, but is also good on
the drama level. CBS is finally getting
this out on the market now that they have the Quinn Martin catalog to release
and once again, the shows are looking really good.
The 1.33
X 1 color image on each of the episodes is often exceptional in its clean
appearance, color, use of color and compositions. The pilot has some detail issues, one that
also can be seen on the extended version, but the show looks like more money
was spent on it than most supposedly big-budget TV series of its ilk
today. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sounds
very good for its age, rarely compressed and the music score (including the
theme song by Dominic Frontiere, who scored some of the episodes) is great
music in any medium.
Extras
include new on-camera introductions by Thinnes for every episode, a longer
version of the pilot, three promos for this season and a terrific audio
commentary by Cohen on The Innocent
with Michael Rennie (The Day The Earth
Stood Still) as a villainous alien.
Sadly,
the series only lasted one more full season, which we should see on DVD soon
and hopefully with even more extras. Of
course, it has been imitated and the direct revivals never worked, though Cohen
says he’d like to try again. We hope he
does. For the record, one of the most
interesting revivals was by Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows fame, trying to recreate
the success of his first Night Stalker telefilms by casting Thinnes as
investigative reporter David Norliss.
Maybe using the first name again was a mistake, but a TV movie intended
as a pilot was made, even if a TV series never materialized called The Norliss
Tapes. You can read more about it on DVD
at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4440/The+Norliss+Tapes+(Horror+Telefilm)
- Nicholas Sheffo
