My Favourite TV: The Invaders

For those of you too young to remember The Invaders was an American SF show running for 43 episodes over 2 series in 1967 and 1968. Even though I was very much alive at the time I doubt if I saw the original run of either series – partially because it probably ran in a late evening slot and it may have been before we had our first TV. One thing I do know is that it certainly made an impact on me in my pre-teens as Architect David Vincent (played superbly by Roy Thinnes) tracked across 60’s America attempting to convince a disbelieving world that the Invaders were already here (to quote the fantastically evocative voiceover).

Over the last few weeks I’ve been enjoying sitting down, at the end of a hectic day, to this slice of pure nostalgic heaven. I finished Series one last week and Series two is waiting to be screened over the coming months. Of course I don’t expect there to be any conclusion to the fight against this deadly and largely ignored enemy – after all they look just like us (apart from the odd crooked finger) and who believes in aliens anyway? I’m guessing – after all these years it was like watching the series for the first time which was great – that the series was canned in mid-flow without any planned conclusion. So it’ll be left hanging. Did he finally defeat the aliens or convince enough people to join his cause? It’s difficult to say – the evidence (such as it was) was inconclusive. The aliens seemed very adept indeed at covering their tracks. It obviously helped that they self-disintegrated on death and they their weapons vaporised anything they hit (including equipment that could have given them away moments before the authorities arrived). Then of course there was the mixture of wilful disbelief at just about every level coupled with years of alien infiltration throughout the establishment to ensure that any evidence or reports of alien activity disappeared in one way or another without arousing too much suspicion.

Of course the whole thing was a product of Cold War paranoia. The aliens, emotionless and often seen wearing dark boiler-suits, where clearly meant to be Communist infiltrators. They had little regard for any life, including their own, and where dedicated to one cause only – the overthrow of the Earth (represented inevitably by the USA). In many ways – rather obvious in hindsight – The Invaders was very much a precursor of The X-Files where alien conspiracies are uncovered only to have any solid evidence whipped away at the last minute leaving the protagonist(s) looking rather foolish. It irritated me a great deal in the X-Files and it did irritate a little in The Invaders too. But I think the thing that exasperated me most about the show was that even when people (other than the lead) had direct contact with the aliens and survived – a fairly rare thing I admit – they still either didn’t believe or where too afraid to do anything about it except run and hide in a corner. But the things I loved about the show far exceed this rather minor irritation. I loved the idea of the show, its pervading sense of menace, the thought that anyone could be an alien. I loved the weird alien space craft, the noises they made and their clear technological superiority. I loved the guns the squirted globs of red flame that incinerated anything they touched and I loved the fact that David Vincent never gave up in his quest to rid the Earth of this menace. Despite the fact that, not surprisingly, this is very dated TV this is still a very watchable slice of SF history. If you have a slow evening, try an episode or two. You’ll be hooked before you know it.