Remembering “The Invaders”

At the end of this year’s Balticon, I scored a copy of a novelization of The Invaders, the short-lived UFO-invasion TV series from the late 1960s.

Ah, fond memories! Growing up in Santa Fe in the late 1980s, I used to watch reruns of The Invaders on the local station along with The Man from UNCLE, The Avengers, and other classics. But for me, the show always stuck out because of its earnestness. Where other sf and adventure shows would occasionally (or, in the case of UNCLE, terminally) slip into camp, The Invaders never did. It took itself seriously — and required viewers to do the same.

Fans of a certain era recall the brooding voice that launched (seemingly) a thousand series with the words “A Quinn Martin Production.” (The owner of that iconic voice was Hank Simms, BTW.) Well, that label was the mark of quality. Before there was Stephen J. Cannell or Don Bellisario or Glen Larson, there was Quinn Martin — creator of hardboiled classics like Barnaby Jones, The FBI, The Streets of San Francisco, and The Fugitive, which The Invaders most closely resembles.

Every week, the same voice that accompanied Richard Kimble on his quest to find the one-armed man who killed his wife would intone for us the story of architect David Vincent, played by Roy Thinnes:

The Invaders – Alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world.

David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a short-cut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy.

Now, David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.

It’s a simple premise, and it works. From the first episode, I was hooked. The writing was terrific, the SFX were top-notch, and the conceits — because the aliens had only four fingers, you could always spot a human disguise because they couldn’t bend their pinkies, and when you shot them they burst into flame and evaporated — were simple and not overbearing. Like all QM Productions, The Invaders was first a show about characters, conflict, and drama. The UFO angle was just a way to cash in on a hot topic in the late 1960s. But the show takes the subject matter seriously enough so that no one seems to be self-conscious (“a show about flying saucers? I need a new agent!”).

The show featured many familiar names and faces from the corral of hardworking regular TV actors of the era, including Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Lord, Jack Warden, Norman Fell, Ed Begley, Ralph Bellamy, and Star Trek icons such as Barbara (“Mirror Mirror”) Luna, Susan (“The Cage”) Oliver, and Alfred (“The Man Trap”) Ryder as “Mr. Nexus.” It ran for two seasons — 43 episodes total — before it was cancelled. Apparently, in 1995, there was a miniseries revival of the show starring Scott (Quantum Leap, Enterprise) Bakula as the poor hapless fellow who stumbles on the secret, with Roy Thinnes reprising his role. I’d never even heard of it until I was researching this article. It doesn’t look like it’s available for rental. The episodes aren’t on Hulu, and there’s not much on YouTube. But there is a DVD set of the complete series out there, with lots of extras and commentaries. Guess what’s on my Christmas list?

Before there was The X Files, V, or even They Live, there was The Invaders. And for my money, the one that came first is still the best.

Check out the opening credits:

And here’s the beginning of episode one:

Get hooked on The Invaders now, thank me later!