The Invaders Seasons 1 and 2 !! (1 Viewer)

[shadyguy]

I pray they put the entire series out, cause I love watching them in the order they were broadcast on TV !
I've only seen the 2 part series finale twice and that was at least 10 years ago!

 

[shadyguy]

carab,
I just finished watching the last episode of the Invaders series and I believe they forgot to clean the music up on this one, as it sounds all warped thoughout. Did you notice it ??

It appears they had every intention on bringing the show back for a 3rd season with Thinnes, Kent and Mark Richman joining them in the search.

I sure would like to know why it was dropped suddenly.....I now miss David Vincent and his little glowing friends. :frowning:

 

[Carabimero]

I don't know all that much about the hstory of The Invaders, and am saving the episodes, watching one a week to make them last. I have about ten to go.

Harry-N seems to be about as well-versed an Invaders fan as I've run across. His expertise far outstrips mine when it comes to The Invaders.

 

[Joe Tor1]

Having “been there”, though barely in my “double digit years” at the time, I’d say 1968 was a year of change in television when most of the sci-fi / fantasy series that were prevalent since 1964-1965 were swept out.

Far from just THE INVADERS, it was the year we also lost VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, LOST IN SPACE, BATMAN, and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. STAR TREK TOS was also to be canceled at the time, but was saved by the now-legendary letter-writing campaign.

Both TREK and THE WILD WILD WEST only hung on for one more season after that. And, by 1970, there was just LAND OF THE GIANTS before it was all gone.

Opinions may vary on these show (Personally, I loved ‘em all), but the direction the networks were moving in was clear… and, in my opinion, not necessarily for the better.

THE INVADERS, unfortunately, was just a victim of that movement.

Too bad, because the addition of Edgar Scoville and his group really invigorated the series at a time when it could easily slipped into formula. There was even some nice continuity between episodes during that time – a “Believer’s” wife being killed in one episode and his being killed in the next, and the great and creepy Alfred Ryder recurring as the Alien Leader.

No series finales back then either. The FUGITIVE was a rare exception, and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA had one of sorts – but, usually – like a “red-glowing Invader” – they just disappeared until eventual syndication.

 

[Harry-N]

JeffT. here is THE INVADERS expert. I was just a fan who watched intently back in 1967, and apparently less so in 1968. Though I'm a little bit older than JoeTor1, my memories are pretty clear on the early episodes (Season 1).

Something must have happened TV-schedule-wise for Season Two though, as I remember waiting anxiously through the summer that Richard Kimble's story was wrapped up, to see the next season of THE INVADERS.

Yet in viewing these second season episodes on DVD, my memory isn't jogged very much at having seen them before. I really liked some of the early Season Two episodes, but an event like actually seeing an Invader's natural form came as a complete surprise to me.

I have a vague recollection of having seen Edgar Scoville's conference room before, but not much else. (My memory tends to be very spatial in nature. I remember places I've been and their locations and spatial relationships rather well.)

I think I may have lost interest in THE INVADERS like apparently every one else back in 1968 - either that, or the slightly less-than-stellar storytelling in the later episodes, with no big conclusion made little impression on me.

Harry

 

[shadyguy]

You are so right about the late 1960s, not only did the scifi shows get dropped, but the networks also started dropping the family sitcoms like Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Gomer Pyle among several others and brought in shows like All In the Family.
It is really sad cause many of these shows were still doing very well in the ratings and could have lasted a few more years.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I don't think it was so much a move to cancel "family" shows as it was to try to move away from "rural" programming (Fred Silverman was upset with CBS being nicknamed the "Country Broadcasting System"). CBS was afraid it was being perceived as a "hillbilly" network, so that's why they cancelled Mayberry RFD, Hee Haw, Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.

He also purged other shows that, like the rural shows, skewed towards "senior citizen" demographics and were viewed by only a small portion of the youth demographic (The Jim Nabors Hour, The Ed Sullivan Show, Family Affair, and Hogan's Heroes).

Saying all these shows were still high in the ratings/very popular is a common overstatement. Mayberry was the 15th ranked show in the Neilsens when it was cancelled. Of the shows that CBS dropped, Hillbillies was the next higest-rated, at #33, but it had fallen 15 places since the previous season.

 

[michael_ks]

I finally finished season 2 last night, watching the last half of the lackluster "Inquisition". This one really suffers in the sound department, especially where the music is concerned. Too bad really, as the other 42 episodes in the series are fine. (I'm sure this must have been brought up before, it's just that I barely recall its being mentioned).

Beginning with "Task Force" (ep. #33) and up to around "The Organization" ( #37) "The Invaders" really dragged for me as David Vincent's character becomes rather peripheral to the greater group of "believers". I thought I was going to have a hard time finishing the set but thankfully, beginning with "The Peacemaker" and for the remainder of the series we see the "The Invaders" revert back to its original style for the most part. Did anyone else find those five or so episodes more or less in the middle of the set to be rather dull, plodding affairs?

Looking forward to revisiting S1, which overall still holds the most interest for me.

 

[Jack P]

The tone of the show does shift, but any episode that has Nancy Kovack ("Task Force") is *never* dull!

Given the show's premise sooner or later you had to come up with some concept of Vincent finding more people to help out on a constant basis because there are too many S1 episodes IMO where he's found a "believer" of sorts in a low level position that collectively you start to wonder why all of these people aren't starting to band together. The overall story arc if you will needed to have that kind of forward momentum or else there would have been a sense of too much predictability.

 

[michael_ks]

I agree that producer Alan Armer was on the right track with this. It's just that these episodes, despite their shift in focus are IMO poorly plotted and not terribly engaging. Perhaps if more of them had involved writer George Eckstein and director Paul Wendkos there would have been more that "forward momentum".

The opportunity to build more suspense and tension with additional believers was lost I feel with those 5-6 episodes and instead we are treated to very tepid and disjointed outings. Overall S2 was still quite good but my favorites lean heavily towards the beginning with "The Saucer", "The Trial" and "The Spores" and then again towards the close of the season with "The Peacemaker", "The Miracle" and "The Life Seekers".

 

[Harry-N]

I actually tend to agree with Michael. I was greatly looking forward to Season Two since I hadn't seen very many of these since they originally aired. After the first batch of episodes, I was really intrugued and gung-ho on the series.

Then I hit those middle episodes and have had a tough time even staying awake to get through them. There DOES seem to be quite a lot less intensity from Thinnes as David Vincent. In the great early episodes, he was the driving force, representing Everyman in his quest. Once he got allies, it seemed like he was just a cog in a machine.

I understand the need for the series to have grown and changed, but what they came up with just fell a bit flat, IMHO. I now can understand why I don't remember these episodes - there's little that's memorable as far as the stories go.

The production values, the guest stars are still all top-notch - but the stories seem to be a bit lacking. I'm encouraged to hear that the even later episodes get a bit better. I'll attempt to continue to wade through them - this is a good week for that as I await new FUGITIVE and VOYAGE sets.

Harry

 

[michael_ks]

Well stated. There are far too many scenes where Vincent is absent and he frustratingly comes off as just an appendage to circuitous, tired dramas. It's almost a different series at this point. It's no coincidence in my mind that on "The Invaders" fan site out of the UK, submitted episode reviews are sparse or absent in the middle and heavy for episodes in the beginning and end of the season. Save for "Inquistion", I think you'll find the episodes much to your liking from "The Peacemaker" onwards.

Yes, I'm allso greatly anticipating both "The Fugitive" and "Voyage" S4!

 

[Jeff Willis]

You guys are making me think I shouldn't have bought S2 kidding....I think I'll be happy overall with the set. I'm still in S1 about 2/3 complete. As long as those S2 middle episodes' guests are good, I think I'll get through them due to the era's show & guests.

Jeff "Definitely waiting for HTF reviews regarding the backscores before buying Fugitive S2V2" W.

 

[michael_ks]

That's the great thing about TV viewing in that era, Jeff. No matter how humdrum the proceedings, you can always rely on the likes of Charles Aidman, Nancy Kovack, or J.D. Cannon (who appear in the episodes in question) to pull you through. It helps too to have the spry and enthusiastic Roy Thinnes provide his little prologue in which he hangs onto every word that has to do with "Invader" shenanigans. My 8 year old son, when he sees him, said to me once "Dad, he acts like those Invaders are really here..."

 

[shadyguy]

Harry, You are so right on your assessment of Season 2 !
I would be watching an episode and then find myself browsing the internet and not even watching the show.

In the episode "The Organization", Barry Atwater must have made somebody very mad, cause when he said " My name is Dorcas (DORK-US) I just about spit out my dinner. You know everyone including Atwater was thinking the director who came up with that name must be a real DORK-ASS !
Atwater is one of my favorite actors !

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Umm, Dorcas is not a made-up name. I don't know of many people with that name, but I do know an older lady whose first name is Dorcas.

Doubt Barry Atwater would've thought such a thing in the 1960s. I'm pretty sure "dork" hadn't become slang for "idiot" until quite sometime later. Back then, the only connotation I can think of for the word is as slang for a certain part of male anatomy.

 

[michael_ks]

Poor Barry was even a "Jonas" in "The Outer Limits" (Dr. Jonas Temple) and a "Benedict Arnold" in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". The next year, though he reedems himself when he became the man responsible for making the Vulcans who they are today, in Star Trek's "The Savage Curtain".

 

[Ockeghem]

When I read the name 'Dorcas' above, the first thing I thought of was the biblical reference. I also thought of gazelle ('tabitha' = gazelle). I first learned of the name many years ago through my study of Greek and Aramaic. Otherwise, I probably would never have heard of the name.

DORCAS in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE (Bible History Online)

 

[shadyguy]

I did not mean to offend anyone by that name, due to the fact at age 44, I have never heard the word or name ever used any any form or fashion except in the Invaders series.
Seems to me I remember being called a dork in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and....I think you get the picture.

 

[Jack P]

But don't forget that he then ends up a vampire in the original "Night Stalker" movie!