“The Invaders: alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the earth. Their purpose: to make it their world.” – Opening narration of “The Invaders”
The Invaders: The First Season DVD Review
By Jude Clement
In this (and any) election year, illegal aliens always become a hot-button topic. Should we build a wall around the country (since we all know how well a wall kept water out of New Orleans)? Should we encourage ordinary citizens to roam our borders looking for interlopers? But what if the aliens were coming from the sky, intent not on helping pick our fruit and washing our dishes but on replacing us, one by one, so that they can relocate from their own dying planet? As architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) finds out in 1967’s The Invaders: The First Season, the government is no help when real aliens immigrate to the good ole U.S. of A.
Lost in the wilds outside of Santa Barbara one night, Vincent pulls over beside an abandoned café to catch a few winks. He is awakened by the sight of a U.F.O. landing in a nearby field. When a report to the local police proves fruitless, Vincent decides to find out the truth by himself. He soon discovers that the U.F.O. he saw was simply one of many. The aliens live among us, and are barely discernable from actual humans. Some have a slight disfigurement in the bone structure of their hands. They glow red when they need to be rejuvenated in a special chamber. They die in a flash of smoky red light. Alas, Vincent is never able to get his un-disfigured hands on physical proof so that the authorities won’t believe he is a kook, so he travels from place to place where mysterious happenings suggest that the aliens might be taking root.
Along the way, he helps to thwart plans hatched by the aliens, including leeching knowledge out of the minds of our top scientists and executives, using a special machine to turn ordinary insects like butterflies into human-flesh eaters, and bribing an industrialist to help produce regeneration machines in return for a position of power on the alien-ruled earth.
At first, the series seems like it has the potential to become a classic study in paranoia and conformity, sort of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the TV generation. The first episode, especially the uncut version (see below), has a real sense of tension and suspense. It soon becomes apparent, however, that the series is merely settling for a retread of The Fugitive’s overall formula—a man on the run searching for something he cannot find.
The series also lacks a forward thrust or any real sense of danger. Viewers may find themselves wondering why the aliens don’t just kill Vincent. After all, they have the ability to provoke human deaths that mimic natural causes. It isn’t like his death would cast suspicion on the aliens since no one believes Vincent. He is a bigger threat alive than dead.
The Invaders relies heavily on the Irwin Allen School of Production Design: Styrofoam rocks, “futuristic” sets made of cardboard and Christmas lights, and garish colors. The opening credits scream that the show is “IN COLOR.” Yeah, we know.
The first season features several familiar faces, including J.D. Cannon (McCloud), Ellen Corby (The Waltons), Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes), Harold Gould (Rhoda), Dabbs Greer (Little House on the Prairie), Suzanne Pleshette (The Bob Newhart Show), Jack Lord (Hawaii Five-O), James Callahan (Charles in Charge), William Windom (My World and Welcome to It), James Whitmore, Susan Strasberg (Toma), William Talman (Perry Mason), Michael Rennie, Dabney Coleman (Buffalo Bill), Jack Warden (Crazy Like a Fox), Norman Fell (Three’s Company), Joseph Campenella (Mannix), Strother Martin, Peggy Lipton (The Mod Squad), Burgess Meredith, and Ralph Bellamy (Most Deadly Game).
The seventeen episodes that make up The Invaders: The First Season are divided onto five discs. All five discs are housed in what, from the outside, appears to be a standard DVD keepcase. Two interior swinging arms hold four discs while the remaining disc is affixed to the interior rear cover. Each DVD is individually accessible, meaning that you won't have to fumble around and remove one disc to get to another. The disc affixed to the rear cover must be removed in order to read information about episode titles, original airdates, and brief plot synopses.
The menus are fine. Viewers can choose to play all episodes on each disc consecutively or individually. There are no scene selection menus, but chapter stops are included.
