Short Description
David Vincent sees a UFO land in deserted field in the middle of the night. He tries telling the police and his business partner but no one believes him. He investigates further by tracking down a couple people whom he believes are aliens disguised as humans. He doesn't find them but he thinks he knows how to tell aliens from humans. It turns out he doesn't.
Vincent gets his business partner to meet him in the small town where he believes the aliens have set up a beachhead. He is waiting with one of locals for his business partner when he realizes that she is also an alien. His business partner is killed by the aliens, who clean out their operation in the small town before the police get there. There is nothing left for David Vincent to do but move on.
Act 1
David Vincent is driving home. He's been on the road for a long time. It is around 4 in the morning. He can barely keep his eyes open. He stops at a diner on a deserted road. It is closed. He parks the car and tries to get some sleep.
He wakes up when he hears some noises and then sees some strange lights. He sees a flying saucer land. He doesn't stick around but takes off in his car and heads to the local police department. Vincent talks to Det. Lt. Holman, who doesn't believe him and calls in Alan Landers, Vincent's business partner. Landers vouchers for Vincent's identity but doesn't buy his story about a flying saucer.
They all go out to the site where he saw the saucer. The diner's name is different than it was the night before. There is no sign of the saucer. They find the Brandons, a newlywed couple, camping nearby. The Brandons say that they were there the night before but didn't see or hear anything. Vincent notices something strange about the man. His pinky finger sticks out at a weird angle. No one else seem to notice anything strange.
Vincent returns that night just as the Brandons are packing up. He gets into a fight with Mr. Brandon. Something is wrong with Brandon. He is ready to hit Vincent with a big rock but his skin starts to glow. He puts the rock down, gets in his vehicle, and takes off with his wife.
Vincent wakes up in a hospital. There is a name tag on his wrist but it isn't his name. They want him to take a sedative but he refuses to. They try to force him. He runs out of the room but they eventually catch him just as Landers and Holman show up.
Act 2
David Vincent spends a day or so at the hospital before they let him go. Landers comes to see him at the hospital. He explains that he gave the hospital a fake name so that word wouldn't get out that Vincent is there. David tries to talk to Landers about what happened but Landers doesn't want to hear about it. Neither of them realizes it but someone is listening to their conversation, an old woman. Her pinky finger is sticking out at a strange angle.
Landers gives Vincent a ride home later that day. He tells David to get some rest. David lies down to sleep. He wakes up and his apartment is on fire. He sees the old woman but then she is gone. He escapes from the burning building just as the fire department shows up.
Act 3
David Vincent drives to Kinney, CA, the Brandons' hometown. He meets Karen Adams, a widow who runs an old hotel, and a cop by the name of Carver. They tell him that most people have moved out because the nearby hydro electric plant shut down. Everyone has sold out to Kogan Enterprises which owns the plant now. Vincent sneaks off to the plant. It is closed but he breaks in. He finds some high tech devices in the plant. He also unknowingly trips an alarm which leads to a Kogan Enterprises truck being dispatched from Bakersfield to Kinney.
David Vincent leaves the plant and heads back into Kinney. He finds a bar. There's an old man there and two young women dancing. He uses the phone and calls Alan Landers. He tells Landers that he's found something and asks him to get there as soon as possible.
Act 4
Karen Adams stops by the bar. David tries to explain things to her but only after he watches her hands as she hands him a cup of coffee. Her pinky finger doesn't stick out. He tells her that Alan Landers is on his way and that he will be meeting him at the hotel. She suggests that she could tell her aunt to keep an eye out for him. David reluctantly agrees. What he doesn't know is that her "aunt" is the same older lady from the hospital and his apartment. It isn't until later that Karen reveals that she is one of them. She just has better control over her hands.
Alan arrives while David is still at the bar with Karen. Karen's "aunt" tells him that David will meet him at the power plant. He walks there but there is no sign of David. He goes in and is confronted by several men who force him back into a device. David finds him later, outside the power plant, dead. Carver catches up to David at the plant, knocks him out and gets a couple bystanders to help load him into his car.
Epilog
Detective Lt. Holman shows up the next day. He tells Carver to let Vincent go. David gets in his car and drives off wondering what really was going on and if and when it will be over.
Thoughts
I really like the opening act. It sets things up quite nicely. David Vincent sees the UFO and then finds some aliens disguised as humans. No one believes him so he strikes out on his own only to be overpowered and wakes up in a hospital. It is almost like a mini-episode by itself. What follows the first act seems like a new story although it is connected to the first act by Vincent's hunt for the Brandons.
There is a scene in Act 1 of the 60 minute version of this episode that was not in the broadcast version. It takes place between the scene where Vincent meets the Brandons for the first time and the scene where he returns and confronts them later that night. David and Alan talk at their office. David tries to explain what he saw but it is clear that Alan still isn't buying his story.
David Vincent's downward spiral continues in the second act. He is still convinced that the Brandons were aliens but no one else believes him. Alan says he wants to believe him but he doesn't sound very convincing.
There are two extended scenes in the 60 minute version of this episode. David is approached at the hospital, after Alan leaves, by the old woman in the first one. She tells him that she believes him. He doesn't find that reassuring.
The other extended scene takes place when Alan is driving David home from the hospital. Their conversation lasts much longer than it did in the broadcast version but I don't think that there is that much more to gain from the extended version of this scene.
Act 2 ends differently in the 60 minute version of the episode. David calls Alan to tell him that he is going up to Kinney to try and figure out what's going on. The weird thing about this scene is that Alan seems to be in the middle of a business meeting even though it is late at night.
Acts 3, 4 and the Epilog are not significantly different that in the broadcast version of the episode.
This is weird but fun to watch. I saw this show when I was 7 or 8 in reruns. I was living in France at the time and the show was dubbed in French. I misunderstood the main character's name. I thought it was David Cent. Cent is the French word for 100. I didn't see it again after I moved back to the United States with my family.
It was probably less than 20 years ago when I finally figured out that the Invaders was the show. I've watched the pilot once before, on YouTube, a few years ago, but I think that's about it since the 1970s. So far I like it but it isn't a homerun in my books. I'm watching it more for nostalgic reasons.
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