The Invaders

In the late 1960s Science Fiction on British TV consisted of Thunderbirds and little else, since Star Trek had not been aired yet,but before that "The Invaders" established a Beachhead on our late night schedules. Aged 8 , i was soon captivated by the story one mans fight to convince the world that aliens were living among us and had wormed their way into the police,government and military and were planning to take over the Earth! This was not easy; the aliens looked and acted like us but required frequent "regeneration" in transparent tubes otherwise they would die,and burn up leaving only ashes. Whenever David Vincent [played by Roy Thinnes] discovered alien installations he would phone the cops,only for the switchboard operator to be alien! By the time the cops arrived only dust would remain and Vincent waswritten off as a nut. The show had strong parallels with Cold War paranoia communist witch hunts but benefitted from fine writing and sparingly used but impressive special effects.Of the videos available in Britain i strongly recommend #1] "Beachhead"[excellent music,great story and acting from Roy and his beautiful guest star Diane Baker] and "The Saucer/The Enemy"[two superb episodes on one vid!].Also, if you can find it,"The Trial" where a human is tried for murdering an alien.The scene with the alien "parents" outside the courthou astonishing-----10/10.

The Invaders was a wonderful show. Roy Thinnes played architect David Vincent. One night, he stumbled upon an alien craft landing. Aliens had come from a dying world to take over the Earth. What should Vincent do? Contact the Air Force and get them to kick butt?

Actually, no, Vincent was alone on this one which is what made this show great. The authorities didn't believe him, in fact no-one did. Whenever an alien was killed, he/she would vaporize. At first, there was no way of knowing who to trust; anybody could be an invader, the Invaders could take over anyone. Of course, later on we learned that the aliens had a funny little finger even when in human form.

Like most films and shows of the 1950's/60's, the Invaders was about paranoia. No-one could trust anyone. Vincent could never be sure that potential allies were not really invaders themselves. He tried in vain to convince people but he was fighting a losing battle. The great thing was that he was alone in his battle. It was a great-if depressing-show.

One of the other things worth mentioning is that there are viewers who suspected that Vincent was actually an invader himself and had been placed on Earth and told to try and convince the population of the danger. Apparently, the invaders used him to test the likelihood of their discovery. Is it true? Your guess is as good as mine.

For me this show ranks as one of the 10 best TV shows ever made. It resonates with me even today, and I think Roy Thinnes' performances, especially in the first season, are brilliant in their subtlety. I guess what really hits me about this show is how you have a man, David Vincent, who was living in a very conventional 60's worldview--until the night he makes one wrong turn and ends up having his safe, comfortable little existence turned upside down. Somehow I see a parallel between David Vincent and the title character of another top ten TV show - THE PRISONER. Both Number Six and David Vincent have been dragged into worlds of great excitement and adventure - but both are also modern equivalents of Sisyphus, forever doomed to struggle against overwhelming opposition. Both Number Six and David Vincent are actually tragic characters. The trap of most TV shows - that the status quo must be maintained from episode to episode to keep the series going - proves in this case to be a great asset to the nightmarish quality of the premise. Also, you never truly see who the aliens "are", any more than you find out who's running the Village.

Watch this show along with THE PRISONER. You'll be amazed at how much is going on within the "confines" of conventional TV drama.

This was a milestone series in my opinion - the acting was usually above average. Roy Thinnes was excellent - the way he shows his frustration when explaining the aliens is very good. Roy was cast perfectly for this series. I recently was able to buy all the episodes on DVD - just watched "Dark Outpost" - This is one of the best episodes as well as the first one.

If I remember rightly, the whole series doesn't end by driving the invaders off the Earth, when I get to that DVD I'll see of course

Theme music excellent too (Dominic Frontiere I think)

WELL DONE ROY!!

"The invaders" is the last great 1960's series and it is inspired by the "Invasion of the body snatchers" concept of conspiracy : science fiction + horror + reality = the fear of the unknown. One of the best show produced by Quinn Martin, including "The untouchables" and "The fugitive". Among the best episode, "The innocent" sums up the paranoiac symptoms at its best when Michael Rennie brainwashes Roy Thinnes in his flying saucer. According to me, the David Vincent character is a blend of Cary Grant, from "North by northwest", and Kevin Mc Carthy, from "Invasion of the body snatchers" : the innocent witness who becomes the new Cassandra, alone against everybody ! The pessimistic message of the series is equivocal : the world is corrupted by the authorities (officials, politicians, army, C.I.A., mafia) or the world is dominated by a claustrophobic mass conformism or the world is on the verge of being overthrown by the emotionless Soviet Union agents (blue collar workers who manufacture weapons and torture to get informations in hidden factories, and businessmen who infiltrate the power and whose bodies turn red when they die). Who knows ? The aesthetic of the show also adds more terror to the stories (the Wayne Fitzgerald expressionist title credits, the dead-serious tone of William Conrad's narration that gives you a cold warning at the beginning and the end of each episode, the Dominic Frontiere's suffocating music and the distorted cinematography). The best brainwashing episodes are : "The experiment", "The leeches", "The innocent", "The dark outpost", "The possessed" and "The pit". One of my all-time favourite tv show (with "The twilight zone", "The outer limits", "The wild wild west", "The time tunnel" and "Mission : impossible"). A word to the wise, don't watch the worthless new series aka "The impostors", you know what I mean. "The nightmare has already begun," and will never end, Mr. Vincent !