The Invaders 2.03

The Watchers

David Vincent travels to the mountains of Virginia to find out why a man committed suicide my walking into the path of a small aircraft as it was landing. David finds out that there's another small airplane about to land at the small airport in rural Virginia. He sees four people get off the airplane, electronics expert Paul Cook, his niece Margaret Cook, plus Paul's two assistants Ramsey and Simms. 

Paul is there for a meeting with high level U.S. Defense Department officials about upgrading the nation's defenses. He is unaware that he and his party are being observed by aliens who look very much like humans.

The Cooks settle in at The Lodge, a mountain resort which at Paul's request has been cleared of all other guests. The Invaders have them under observation. Paul is very cautious with Margaret, who is blind. David works his way into their lives after taking a job driving a bus.

Ramsey and Simms are killed by the Invaders after they discover that something unhealthy is going on at The Lodge. The aliens eventually come for Paul. They replace him with one of their own who looks almost identical to the electronics expert. David foils the Invaders plans and kills three of them in the process of doing so. Shirley is saved but Paul disappears never to be seen again.

Thoughts

I'm not sure why this episode is called the Watchers, other that the fact that they show the aliens watching the Cooks on a view screen but that seems like a weak reason to give it that title.

This place takes place in the mountainous part of Virginia but I didn't catch any mention of the name of a town or county.

I love how they have Kevin McCarthy, who played the part of Paul and his alien duplicate, wear a different hair piece after Paul has been replaced by the duplicate.

There's not much to the story. The characters are all fairly one note and the situation isn't very exciting. There are no hints of a budding romance between David and Margaret. If the story was building towards anything other than what little it delivered then I didn't sense it.

Notes

Kevin McCarthy played the part of Paul Cook. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared. I saw him fairly recently in an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959), 1.24 Long Live Walter Jameson.

Shirley Knight played the part of Margaret Cook. This is the only episode of this show in which she appeared. I saw her last year in an episode of The Outer Limits (1963), 1.06 The Man Who Was Never Born.

Leonard Stone played the part of Ramsey. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared. I also saw him in an episode of The Outer Limits (1963), 1.03 The Architects of Fear. He was also in an episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre.

Meyer Dolinsky was the one of three writers that worked on this episode. This is the second of two episodes of this show that he had a hand in writing. The first was 1.06 Vikor. He also worked on an episode of Star Trek (1966).

Earl Hamner was the second of three writers that worked on this episode. This is the only episode of this show that he had a hand in writing. He also wrote several episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959).

Jerry Sohl was the third of three writers who worked on this episode. He worked on three episodes of Star Trek (1966), the second of which was 1.24 This Side of Paradise. He also had a hand in writing episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959), and The Outer Limits (1963).

This is the second of three episodes of this show that was directed by Jesse Hibbs. The first was 2.02 The Saucer.