The Invaders 1.X

Interview with Roy Thinnes

27 minutes

The interviewer is not seen or heard from in this feature. The questions are shown on the screen and Roy Thinnes responds to them. He is the only person who is seen or heard from. There are no clips from the show mixed in with the interview.

These are the questions that are asked and some notes about how he answered them:

The Invaders 1.17

The Condemned

Louis Dunhill. the manager of Peninsula Telecommunications Laboratories accuses David Vincent of murdering Morgan Tate, the owner of the site. The police arrest him. David did kill someone but it was a security guard. whose body disintegrated after he fell from a cliff while trying to apprehend David Vincent.

David tries to convince the police that he is innocent but they think he is raving mad. He briefly meets Carol Tate, Morgan's daughter. She is brought in to the Coos County Morgue to verify that a body they found is that of her father. She can't tell from looking at the body. the police pressure her and, wanting to leave, she says that it is her father.

The Invaders 1.16

Wall of Crystal

David Vincent checks out a site near Santa Clara, CA where two people mysteriously suffocated. He takes a crystal that he finds at the site to Theordore Booth, a reporter, in an effort to convince him that the Invaders are real. The Invaders find out about Vincent's plan and in an effort to silence Booth and Vincent they kidnap Robert Vincent, David's brother. They threaten to kill him if David doesn't pulicly recant the story he has been spreading about the Invaders.

The Invaders 1.15

Moonshot

Two astronauts are killed while off duty in Florida on a fishing boat. David Vincent hears about it and shows up to investigate. He is held up by the space program's security chief, Gavin Lewis. Vincent gets to Charlie Coogan, the one eyewitness to the death of the astronauts, but one of the Invaders gets to the witness before him and erases his memories.

Gavin tells David about his past, how he was an astronaut and supposed to be on the rocket that will soon be lifting off. Something weird happened. Gavin doesn't remember a thing about what happened but it affected his blood pressure and now he is no longer an astronaut.

The Invaders 1.14

Panic

David Vincent arrives in rural West Virginia on the trail of a man whose touch is deadly. The locals don't know what to make of the number of recent deaths of people who seemed healthy. David is convinced that it is something related to the Invaders and that a young man in a red plaid jacket is the one causing it. A policeman, probably an Invader, tails David as he searches for the young man in the red plaid jacket.

David knocks out and disarms the policeman who has been tailing him. He takes the policeman's gun and uses it to convince Nick Baxter, the young man, to come quietly. He puts on gloves to make sure he doesn't inadvertently touch his prisoner. Nick is an Invader with a disease that is almost instantly fatal to humans. Other Invaders are searching for Nick. David and Nick evade the other invaders and meet Madeline, a young woman, who takes them to her home.

The Invaders 1.13

Storm

David Vincent travels to St. Matthew Beach, FL looking for Dr. Gantley, a scientist who has been investigating an out of season hurricane. Vincent suspects that the Invaders might have something to do with the storm. Gantley is killed by Invaders while investigating the Lydia J, a boat, before David gets a chance to talk to him.

David Vincent makes contact with Father Corelli, a friend of Dr. Gantley. The priest leaves suddenly after he learns of his friend's death. David stays behind in the church where he is attacked by a couple of Invaders. He kills one of them with one of their high tech weapons. The other one is getting ready to kill David Vincent when they get interrupted.

The Invaders 1.12

The Betrayed

David Vincent is digging around the Carver Oil Fields one night when he spots a UFO. He takes pictures. He sees Invaders drop something off in a railway car. He goes into the car as the Invaders are leaving and finds a control room there with a map of the world and blinking lights. He takes a computer tape but on the way out an Invader tries to stop him. He kills the Invader and escapes with the computer tape.

David goes to see Simon Carver, owner of the Carver Oil Company. He shows him the computer tape and tells him about what he saw. Carver thinks he is crazy but Vincent convinces him to come out and see the train car. The train car is still where it was but everything that David saw is gone.

The Invaders 1.11

The Ivy Curtain

An cargo plane piloted by former test pilot Barney Cahill is forced down in the middle of a storm. The passengers are all Invaders. Cahill learns this after he notices that one of the men isn't bleeding after he got injured.

David Vincent arrives in Cameron, NM while following William Burns, a man he suspects to be an alien. He recently spotted Burns in Miami and Omaha. Vincent heads to Midland Academy which turns out to be a training center for the alien invaders. He is captured but escapes and gets a first hand view of the training in progress.

The aliens at Midland Academy are led by Dr. Rayner. He makes Cahill an offer he can't refuse. He wants Cahill to fly people to their training centers around the United States. He proposes to pay Cahill $1,000 for each peson he transports. The alternative is death.

The Invaders 1.10.X

The Innocent

with commentary by Larry Cohen the show's creator

I believe this commentary track was recorded in 2008. Cohen talks about the show in general and doesn't talk specifically about this episode very much although he does say that it was one of his favorite episodes.

Cohen talks about some of his other work in television and movies. He talks about how he got started as a writer for television. He worked on and wrote 9 episodes of The Defenders from 1963-65. He wrote two episode of The Fugitive (Escape into Black and Scapegoat) in 1964-65. 

The first show he sold was Branded, which starred Chuck Connors. It ran for two seasons (1965-66). Cohen talks about how in his mind Branded was about a blacklisted cowboy. His take on the show was influenced by the blacklists which determined who could and could not work in television and movies. He learned while the show was in production that Connors didn't share his feelings about the blacklist. He found himself less involved in the writing of the show in the second season.

The Invaders 1.10

The Innocent

David Vincent is contacted by Captain Ross, US Air Force. Ross has first hand knowledge of the Invaders and wants Vincent to testify about what he has seen in front of the Peterson Committee of the US Congress. Vincent is in Maine trying to track down Nat Greeley who has one of the Invaders weapons, a disc. The Invaders are also looking for Greeley.

The Invaders get to Greeley. They capture his kid. He helps them to capture David Vincent. Magnus, the leader of the Invaders, makes an effort to convince Vincent that his people don't want to do the people of Earth any harm. He takes him on a trip in a space ship. The go to Santa Margaretta, a town where David used to live. He reconnects with Billy Stearns, an childhood friend, and Helen, an ex-girlfriend who wants to get back together with him. It all seems so good but Vincent senses that something is wrong.

It turns out that the whole trip is an illusion. They never went anywhere. Magnus just made him think they did using a high tech device. David tries to escape. Magnus wants him to call Captain Ross and tell him that he was mistaken, that he has nothing to tell the Peterson Committee. David refuses until they threaten to kill Nat Greely's family.

Vincent makes the phone call. The Invaders won't let him or Greely go. The Invaders force them to drink whiskey and then put them in a car which they send hurtling down a mountain road. The brakes don't work. The two men barely survive the experience.

Thoughts

This was a pretty good episode although its funny how the Invaders keep changing their approach to David Vincent. In the earliest episodes they just wanted to kill him. They attempt to convince him that they are only trying to help the Earth in this episode but when that doesn't work they resort to their old ways.

The Invaders 1.09

Quantity: Unknown

A small airplane crashes into a mountain side. There are no bodies found in the wreckage but there is a mysterious cylinder which seems to be weightless. The cylinder is sent to Sperrick Laboratories.

A delivery vehicle is stopped on its way to Sperrick Laboratories by two Invaders, disguised as security guards. They kill the driver and start to search the vehicle when they are interrupted by real security guards from Sperrick. The Invaders get into a shoot out with the real guards. One invader and both security guards are killed. The other runs off into the hills as more security guards show up.

The Invaders 1.08

Doomsday Minus One

David Vincent is summoned by Charlie Spence, a reporter, to Utah. Spence disappears before Vincent gets a chance to meet with him. He meets instead with Major Graves of the US Army who tells him what he knows. Spence claimed that a big crater near the US Army Utah Proving Ground was made by the crash of a UFO. Spence also told Major Graves that he saw another UFO near the crater. 

The Invaders 1.07

Nightmare

David Vincent arrives in Grady, KS. He tries talking to Ellen Woods, a school teacher who was attacked by a swarm of locusts. She doesn't have much to say and everyone tries to keep Vincent from talking to her. David gets beaten up by a trio of locals, led by Ed Gidney, Ellen's fiancee, when he stops for a cup of coffee at The Lunch Counter.

 

The Invaders 1.06

Vikor

A construction worker sees something he wasn't meant to see at Vikor Enterprises in Fort Scott, Florida. A security guard gets to him before he can escape but before he dies the construction worker tells one of his coworkers about the glowing man he saw.

The Invaders 1.05

Genesis

A motorcycle cop pulls over a station wagon with a couple teenagers in it. One of their headlights is busted. The teenagers try to talk him out of looking in the back of the car but the police officer insists. 

David Vincent arrives in Newport, Rhode Island. He goes to the hospital to see the police officer who stopped the station wagon, Sgt Hal Corman. Joan Corman, Hal's wife, and Lt. Greg Lucather, his co-worker, are there with him. Greg is instantly suspicious of Vincent. He runs him off but Vincent tracks down Joan Corman and talks her into taking him to see her husband. 

The Invaders 1.04

The Leeches

Warren Doneghan, the owner of Jet Age Electronics (JAE), hires David Vincent to help him. Several other big name scientists have disappeared. Doneghan fears that he is next and that the aliens that David speaks of are behind the scheme. David encourages Warren to allow himself to be kidnapped. 

The Invaders 1.03

The Mutation

David Vincent searches for a disabled alien spacecraft in Arizona near the Mexican border. He is being watched by Fellows, an Air Force Intelligence officer and gets some help from Evans, a freelance reporter, and Vikki, a stripper. He doesn't realize it then but Evans and Vikki are aliens.

The Invaders 1.02

The Experiment

Dr. Curtis Lindstrom, a scientist who knows of the aliens fears for his life. He has made public statement about the aliens. They know that he knows and he is right to fear for his life. The episode opens with an attempt on his life.

The Invaders 1.01

Beachhead

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.