The Invaders
Encyclopedia
The Invaders, a Quinn Martin Production
(season one was produced in association with the ABC Television Network
- or as it was listed in the end credits, "The American Broadcasting Company Television Network"), is an ABC
science fiction
television program created by Larry Cohen
that ran in the United States
for two seasons, from January 10, 1967 to March 26, 1968. Dominic Frontiere
, who had provided scores for Twelve O'Clock High
and The Outer Limits
, provided scores for The Invaders as well.
starred as architect David Vincent, who accidentally learns of the secret alien invasion
already underway and thereafter travels from place to place, trying to foil the aliens' plots and warn a skeptical populace of the danger. As the series progresses, Vincent is able to convince a small number of people to help him fight the aliens, most significantly millionaire industrialist Edgar Scoville (Kent Smith
) who became a semi-regular character as of December 1967.
Neither the Invaders nor their planet were ever named. Their human appearance was a disguise; they were never shown in their true form except in one episode, "Genesis", in which an ill alien researcher loses his human form and is briefly seen immersed in a tank of electrified, salinated water. Unless they receive periodic treatments in what Vincent called "regeneration chambers", which consume a great deal of electrical power, they revert to their alien form. One scene in the series showed an alien beginning to revert, filmed in soft focus
and with pulsating red light.
They had certain characteristics by which they could be detected, such as the absence of a pulse and the inability to bleed. Nearly all were emotionless and had "mutated" little finger
s which could not move and were bent at an unnatural angle, although there were "deluxe models" who could manipulate this finger. There were also a number of mutant aliens, who experienced emotions similar to those of humans, and who even opposed the alien takeover. The existence of the Invaders could not be documented by killing one and examining the body: When they died (at least while in human form), their bodies would glow red and disintegrate — along with their clothes, any items they were carrying at the time and anything they touched when dying— leaving little more than traces of black ash. On several occasions, a dying alien would grab or otherwise make deliberate contact with a piece of their technology to prevent it from falling into the hands of humans.
, who was looking for a show to replace the immensely popular The Fugitive
, which was ending its run in 1967. Larry Cohen
, the show's creator, had conceived two earlier series with similarities to The Invaders. Chuck Connors starred in Branded (1965) as a soldier court-martialed for cowardice, who traveled the West searching for witnesses and proof that he acted valiantly, and Coronet Blue
(1967) about Michael Alden, a man suffering from amnesia who was being pursued by a powerful group of people. All he could remember were the words "Coronet Blue."
Another inspiration was the wave of "alien dopplegänger" films which had come ten years before in the 1950s, typified by Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and the British film, Quatermass 2
(1957), known in America as Enemy from Space. While these paranoid tales of extraterrestrials who posed as humans
and lived among us while planning a takeover are usually linked with a Red Scare subtext, Martin simply wanted a premise that would keep the hero moving around and that would explain why he could not go to the authorities (not only had the aliens infiltrated human institutions already, but most humans would dismiss a claim of alien invasion as a paranoid delusion).
The flying saucer design was influenced by two famous UFO photographs. The first case happened in 1965 - Santa Ana, California. In August the 3rd the highway traffic engineer Rex Heflin, took several pictures of a flying craft, while working near the Santa Ana freeway. Heflin did not report his sighting, but the photographs were published by the Santa Ana Register on 09-20-65.
The second is the Adamski case. On 1952 December the 13rd, in Palomar Gardens, California, USA, the famous contactee George Adamski took a series of photographs through his telescope, of a bell shaped craft, today well known as the Adamski Scout Ship. The upper hull, and flat top from the Heflin case were combined with the bell shaped outer flange and 3 rings of the Adamski case. The 5 semispheres in the bottom of the craft, seems to emulate the 3 semispheres in the Adamski Scout Ship.
Then, following the bumper, each episode begins with a cold open
, to help set up the plot of the episode to come. After the prologue, the main title appears, announced by Dick Wesson
:
(A different shot of Thinnes' face was used for the second season.) This would be followed by the opening narration (by Bill Woodson
):
Then in a manner typical of Quinn-Martin productions, Wesson would announce "The guest stars in tonight's story..." (including special guest stars), and finally, the title of tonight's episode.
of a design derivative of that shown in the contestable early-1950s photographs of self-proclaimed UFO "contactee" George Adamski
, but instead of having three spheres on the underside, the Invaders' craft has five shallower protrusions. It was a principle of the production crew to not show them with set and prop designs and control panels that were utterly alien from the conventional human ones (such as H.R. Giger would later present in Alien
).
They use a small, handheld, disc-shaped weapon with five glowing white lights applied to the back of the victim's head or neck to induce a seemingly-natural death, which is usually diagnosed as a cerebral hemorrhage. They also employ powerful weapons to disintegrate witnesses, vehicles and - in one episode - a sick member of their own race whose infection's side effects was causing dangerous notoriety. Also in their arsenal is a small device consisting of two spinning transparent crystals joined at their corners which forces human beings to do the aliens' bidding.
fears of Communist infiltration that had lingered from the McCarthy period a decade earlier. Series creator Larry Cohen
has acknowledged that this was intended, along with a political theme for the series as a whole. In audio commentary for the episode "The Innocent," included in the first-season DVD collection, Cohen said his experience of the blacklisting of Hollywood screenwriters for alleged Communist connections inspired him to make "a mockery" of the fear of insidious infiltration of society, by substituting space aliens for Communists.
Cohen also acknowledged he was not the first to turn Cold War fears into science-fiction drama. As noted above, such fears had influenced such films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Cohen also stated in his commentary that the political intent inherent in some of his creations, including The Invaders, was not always appreciated or shared by producers and actors.
In 1995 the series was reprised as a three-hour television miniseries
also titled The Invaders. Scott Bakula
(of Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise
) starred as Nolan Wood, who discovered the alien conspiracy, and Roy Thinnes reprised his role from the series of David Vincent, now an old man handing the burden over to Wood. The miniseries has been released in some countries on home video, edited into a single movie.
The pilot episode of the series, "Beachhead", was remade years later in 1977 for another Quinn Martin series, Tales of the Unexpected, where it was retitled "The Nomads".
Thinnes also provided audio commentary for the official The Invaders DVD releases. He has also filmed special video introductions for every episode, which are an optional "Play" feature on the episode menus. The "in color" bumper follows each of these introductions.
Ten books based on the television series were published.
Gold Key Comics
published four issues of an Invaders comic book based upon the series in 1967-1968, years before Marvel Comics
published their own, unrelated Invaders
superhero series.
Starlog
published an episode guide to the series in its September 1978 issue.
It was also aired in Quebec and France from the 1960s to the early 1980s, with its title translated to French as Les Envahisseurs.
The Invaders was also aired in the UK on ITV
in the 1960s and 1970s, on BBC2 in the late 1980s (although the BBC omitted four episodes at the time - the two-parter "Summit Meeting," "The Prophet" and "The Captive") and again (this time the complete series) in the early 90s, and then the complete series on channel "Five" in 2004 (at around 5am on a Sunday morning). It has seen occasional repeats on the Sci-Fi channel.
It was also aired in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s as Invasion von der Wega (Invasion from Vega). Not all episodes were dubbed in German or shown.
The Invaders was shown on state-run television network Australian Broadcasting Commission (later Corporation) in the 1960s and 1970s, without commercial advertisements inserted.
It was also aired in Italy from the 1981, with its title translated to Italian as Gli Invasori.
The series were also aired in Russia on NTV channel in the late 1990s.
There was a very short run of the show in 2010 on the Sci-Fi network, and a similar "marathon" series on SyFy (the new name for Sci-Fi) in January, 2011.
The series were also aired in Argentina in the early 1970s with its title translated to Spanish, Los Invasores. The intro of the show was inserted in the Argentinian movie Kamchatka
(2002)
It also ran in Spain as Los Invasores in 1968.
It was also aired in The Invaders English 1967.
It was aired in Bulgaria on BT1 in 1987.
) has released the entire series on DVD in Regions 1, 2 & PAL 4.
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
(season one was produced in association with the ABC Television Network
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
- or as it was listed in the end credits, "The American Broadcasting Company Television Network"), is an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television program created by Larry Cohen
Larry Cohen
Lawrence G. "Larry" Cohen is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known as a B-Movie auteur of horror and science fiction films - often containing a police procedural element - during 1970s and 1980s...
that ran in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for two seasons, from January 10, 1967 to March 26, 1968. Dominic Frontiere
Dominic Frontiere
Dominic Frontiere is an American composer, arranger, and jazz accordionist. He is known for composing the theme and much of the music for the first season of the television series The Outer Limits.-Early years:...
, who had provided scores for Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High (TV series)
Twelve O'Clock High or 12 O'Clock High is an American drama series set in World War II. This TV series originally broadcasted on ABC-TV for two-and-one-half TV seasons from September 18, 1964, through January 13, 1967; was based on the motion picture Twelve O'Clock High...
and The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
, provided scores for The Invaders as well.
Premise
Roy ThinnesRoy Thinnes
Roy Thinnes is an American television and film actor best known for his portrayal of lonely hero David Vincent in the ABC 1967-68 television series The Invaders. He also played Alfred Wentworth in the pilot episode of Law & Order...
starred as architect David Vincent, who accidentally learns of the secret alien invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
already underway and thereafter travels from place to place, trying to foil the aliens' plots and warn a skeptical populace of the danger. As the series progresses, Vincent is able to convince a small number of people to help him fight the aliens, most significantly millionaire industrialist Edgar Scoville (Kent Smith
Kent Smith
Kent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
) who became a semi-regular character as of December 1967.
Neither the Invaders nor their planet were ever named. Their human appearance was a disguise; they were never shown in their true form except in one episode, "Genesis", in which an ill alien researcher loses his human form and is briefly seen immersed in a tank of electrified, salinated water. Unless they receive periodic treatments in what Vincent called "regeneration chambers", which consume a great deal of electrical power, they revert to their alien form. One scene in the series showed an alien beginning to revert, filmed in soft focus
Soft focus
In photography, soft focus is a lens flaw, in which the lens forms images that are blurred due to spherical aberration. A soft focus lens deliberately introduces spherical aberration in order to give the appearance of blurring the image while retaining sharp edges; it is not the same as an...
and with pulsating red light.
They had certain characteristics by which they could be detected, such as the absence of a pulse and the inability to bleed. Nearly all were emotionless and had "mutated" little finger
Little finger
The little finger, often called the pinky in American English, pinkie in Scottish English , or small finger in medicine, is the most ulnar and usually smallest finger of the human hand, opposite the thumb, next to the ring finger.-Muscles:There are four muscles that...
s which could not move and were bent at an unnatural angle, although there were "deluxe models" who could manipulate this finger. There were also a number of mutant aliens, who experienced emotions similar to those of humans, and who even opposed the alien takeover. The existence of the Invaders could not be documented by killing one and examining the body: When they died (at least while in human form), their bodies would glow red and disintegrate — along with their clothes, any items they were carrying at the time and anything they touched when dying— leaving little more than traces of black ash. On several occasions, a dying alien would grab or otherwise make deliberate contact with a piece of their technology to prevent it from falling into the hands of humans.
Inspiration
The series was produced by Quinn MartinQuinn Martin
Quinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
, who was looking for a show to replace the immensely popular The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
, which was ending its run in 1967. Larry Cohen
Larry Cohen
Lawrence G. "Larry" Cohen is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known as a B-Movie auteur of horror and science fiction films - often containing a police procedural element - during 1970s and 1980s...
, the show's creator, had conceived two earlier series with similarities to The Invaders. Chuck Connors starred in Branded (1965) as a soldier court-martialed for cowardice, who traveled the West searching for witnesses and proof that he acted valiantly, and Coronet Blue
Coronet Blue
Coronet Blue is an American TV series that ran on CBS from May 29, 1967, to September 4, 1967.It starred Frank Converse as Michael Alden, an amnesiac in search of his identity. Brian Bedford costarred...
(1967) about Michael Alden, a man suffering from amnesia who was being pursued by a powerful group of people. All he could remember were the words "Coronet Blue."
Another inspiration was the wave of "alien dopplegänger" films which had come ten years before in the 1950s, typified by Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and the British film, Quatermass 2
Quatermass 2
Quatermass 2 is a 1957 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions, it is a sequel to an earlier Hammer film The Quatermass Xperiment. Like its predecessor, it is based on a BBC Television serial – Quatermass II – written by Nigel Kneale...
(1957), known in America as Enemy from Space. While these paranoid tales of extraterrestrials who posed as humans
Human disguise
A human disguise is a concept in computer science, fantasy, folklore, mythology, religion, literary tradition, iconography and science fiction whereby non-human beings such as aliens, angels, demons, gods, monsters, robots, Satan or shapeshifters are disguised to seem human.Stories have depicted...
and lived among us while planning a takeover are usually linked with a Red Scare subtext, Martin simply wanted a premise that would keep the hero moving around and that would explain why he could not go to the authorities (not only had the aliens infiltrated human institutions already, but most humans would dismiss a claim of alien invasion as a paranoid delusion).
The flying saucer design was influenced by two famous UFO photographs. The first case happened in 1965 - Santa Ana, California. In August the 3rd the highway traffic engineer Rex Heflin, took several pictures of a flying craft, while working near the Santa Ana freeway. Heflin did not report his sighting, but the photographs were published by the Santa Ana Register on 09-20-65.
The second is the Adamski case. On 1952 December the 13rd, in Palomar Gardens, California, USA, the famous contactee George Adamski took a series of photographs through his telescope, of a bell shaped craft, today well known as the Adamski Scout Ship. The upper hull, and flat top from the Heflin case were combined with the bell shaped outer flange and 3 rings of the Adamski case. The 5 semispheres in the bottom of the craft, seems to emulate the 3 semispheres in the Adamski Scout Ship.
Opening sequence
Before each episode, an "in color" promo bumper, typical of most ABC programs of the era, appears, as ABC was the last network to adopt color programming: Next... The Invaders, In Color!Then, following the bumper, each episode begins with a cold open
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
, to help set up the plot of the episode to come. After the prologue, the main title appears, announced by Dick Wesson
Dick Wesson
Dick Wesson was an American movie and television announcer. He is best known as the announcer for The Wonderful World of Disney from 1954-1979.-Career:...
:
- The Invaders! A Quinn Martin Production. Starring Roy Thinnes as architect David Vincent.
(A different shot of Thinnes' face was used for the second season.) This would be followed by the opening narration (by Bill Woodson
Bill Woodson
William "Bill" T. Woodson is a retired American voice artist. He has a small onscreen appearance in the 1950s sci-fi film "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" as a newscaster. He can be heard in the opening narrative of the 1970s television series The Odd Couple, explaining how it is that Felix and...
):
- The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
Then in a manner typical of Quinn-Martin productions, Wesson would announce "The guest stars in tonight's story..." (including special guest stars), and finally, the title of tonight's episode.
Alien technology
The type of spaceship by which the Invaders reach the Earth is a flying saucerFlying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
of a design derivative of that shown in the contestable early-1950s photographs of self-proclaimed UFO "contactee" George Adamski
George Adamski
George Adamski was a Polish-born American citizen who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he claimed to have photographed ships from other planets, met with friendly Nordic alien "Space Brothers", and to have taken flights with them...
, but instead of having three spheres on the underside, the Invaders' craft has five shallower protrusions. It was a principle of the production crew to not show them with set and prop designs and control panels that were utterly alien from the conventional human ones (such as H.R. Giger would later present in Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
).
They use a small, handheld, disc-shaped weapon with five glowing white lights applied to the back of the victim's head or neck to induce a seemingly-natural death, which is usually diagnosed as a cerebral hemorrhage. They also employ powerful weapons to disintegrate witnesses, vehicles and - in one episode - a sick member of their own race whose infection's side effects was causing dangerous notoriety. Also in their arsenal is a small device consisting of two spinning transparent crystals joined at their corners which forces human beings to do the aliens' bidding.
Cold War overtones
For many viewers, the theme of paranoia infusing The Invaders often appeared to reflect Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
fears of Communist infiltration that had lingered from the McCarthy period a decade earlier. Series creator Larry Cohen
Larry Cohen
Lawrence G. "Larry" Cohen is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known as a B-Movie auteur of horror and science fiction films - often containing a police procedural element - during 1970s and 1980s...
has acknowledged that this was intended, along with a political theme for the series as a whole. In audio commentary for the episode "The Innocent," included in the first-season DVD collection, Cohen said his experience of the blacklisting of Hollywood screenwriters for alleged Communist connections inspired him to make "a mockery" of the fear of insidious infiltration of society, by substituting space aliens for Communists.
Cohen also acknowledged he was not the first to turn Cold War fears into science-fiction drama. As noted above, such fears had influenced such films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Cohen also stated in his commentary that the political intent inherent in some of his creations, including The Invaders, was not always appreciated or shared by producers and actors.
The Invaders after the first series
Since the 1960s, recurring public interest in UFO lore may have helped to revive interest in the television series, and commentary on the DVD collections acknowledges that, in private life, Thinnes has kept up a strong interest in UFO-related information.In 1995 the series was reprised as a three-hour television miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
also titled The Invaders. Scott Bakula
Scott Bakula
Scott Stewart Bakula is an American actor, known for his role as Sam Beckett in the television series Quantum Leap, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1991 and was nominated for four Emmy Awards. He also had a prominent role as Captain Jonathan...
(of Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
) starred as Nolan Wood, who discovered the alien conspiracy, and Roy Thinnes reprised his role from the series of David Vincent, now an old man handing the burden over to Wood. The miniseries has been released in some countries on home video, edited into a single movie.
The pilot episode of the series, "Beachhead", was remade years later in 1977 for another Quinn Martin series, Tales of the Unexpected, where it was retitled "The Nomads".
Thinnes also provided audio commentary for the official The Invaders DVD releases. He has also filmed special video introductions for every episode, which are an optional "Play" feature on the episode menus. The "in color" bumper follows each of these introductions.
Popular culture
- Frank BlackFrank BlackBlack Francis is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the influential alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under the name Frank Black...
's "Bad, Wicked World", on Teenager of the YearTeenager of the YearReleased in 1994, Teenager of the Year was Frank Black’s second solo album, produced by Eric Drew Feldman. Long considered a testament to Frank Black's songwriting skills as well as his virtue as a performer, Teenager also features work by several backing musicians, including Pixies...
, is about The Invaders. - The aliens' characteristic condition inspired the song "Stiff Little Fingers" by British punk band The VibratorsThe Vibrators- Early career:The Vibrators were founded by Ian 'Knox' Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis, and drummer John 'Eddie' Edwards. They first came to public notice at the 100 Club when they backed Chris Spedding in 1976. On Spedding's recommendation, Mickie Most signed them to his...
. The Northern Irish punk band Stiff Little FingersStiff Little FingersStiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star , doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they...
then took their name from the song. - Roy Thinnes guest starred in three episodes of the television science-fiction series The X-Files as character Jeremiah Smith.
Ten books based on the television series were published.
- Army of the Undead by Rafe Bernard (US, Pyramid BooksPyramid BooksJove Books, formerly Pyramid Books, is a paperback publishing company, founded in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers . The company was sold to the Walter Reade Organization in the late 1960s. It was acquired in 1974 by Harcourt Brace which renamed it to Jove in 1977 and continued the line as an...
, 1967) – the same story as Halo Highway - The Autumn Accelerator by Peter Leslie (UK, Corgi (a TransworldTransworld (company)Transworld Publishers Inc. is a British publishing division of Random House and belongs to Bertelsmann, one of the world's largest media groups. It was established in 1950, and for many years it was the British division of Bantam Books. It publishes fiction and non fiction titles by various...
imprint), 1967) - Enemies from Beyond by Keith LaumerKeith LaumerJohn Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the United States Air Force and a U.S. diplomat...
(US, Pyramid Books, 1967) - Halo Highway by Keith Laumer (UK, Corgi, 1967) – the same story as Army of the Undead
- Invaders by Keith Laumer (US, Pyramid Books, 1967)
- Meteor Man by Keith Laumer (writing as Anthony Le Baron) (UK, Corgi, 1967)
- Dam of Death by Jack PearlJack PearlJack Pearl, born Jack Perlman , was a vaudeville performer and a star of early radio.Born in New York, Pearl made an easy transition from vaudeville to broadfcasting when he introduced his character Baron Munchausen on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in 1932. His creation was loosely based on the...
(US, Whitman (a Western PublishingWestern PublishingWestern Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment...
imprint), 1967) - The Invaders: Alien Missile Threat by Paul S. NewmanPaul S. NewmanPaul S. Newman was an American writer of comic books, comic strips, and books, whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s...
(US, a Big Little Book from Whitman, 1967) - Night of the Trilobites by Peter Leslie (UK, Corgi, 1969)
- The Invaders by Jim Rosin (US, Autumn Road Company, 2010)
Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.-History:...
published four issues of an Invaders comic book based upon the series in 1967-1968, years before Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
published their own, unrelated Invaders
Invaders (comics)
The Invaders is the name of two fictional superhero teams in the . The original team was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema in The Avengers #71 . A present-day incarnation was introduced by writer Chuck Austen and artist Scott Kolins in The Avengers vol...
superhero series.
Starlog
Starlog
Starlog was a monthly science-fiction film magazine published by Starlog Group Inc. The magazine was created by publishers Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs. O'Quinn was the magazine's editor while Jacobs ran the business side of things, dealing with typesetters, engravers and printers. They got...
published an episode guide to the series in its September 1978 issue.
Syndication outside the US
The Invaders was aired in Brazil in the 1960s and in the 1980s, with its title translated to Portuguese, Os Invasores.It was also aired in Quebec and France from the 1960s to the early 1980s, with its title translated to French as Les Envahisseurs.
The Invaders was also aired in the UK on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in the 1960s and 1970s, on BBC2 in the late 1980s (although the BBC omitted four episodes at the time - the two-parter "Summit Meeting," "The Prophet" and "The Captive") and again (this time the complete series) in the early 90s, and then the complete series on channel "Five" in 2004 (at around 5am on a Sunday morning). It has seen occasional repeats on the Sci-Fi channel.
It was also aired in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s as Invasion von der Wega (Invasion from Vega). Not all episodes were dubbed in German or shown.
The Invaders was shown on state-run television network Australian Broadcasting Commission (later Corporation) in the 1960s and 1970s, without commercial advertisements inserted.
It was also aired in Italy from the 1981, with its title translated to Italian as Gli Invasori.
The series were also aired in Russia on NTV channel in the late 1990s.
There was a very short run of the show in 2010 on the Sci-Fi network, and a similar "marathon" series on SyFy (the new name for Sci-Fi) in January, 2011.
The series were also aired in Argentina in the early 1970s with its title translated to Spanish, Los Invasores. The intro of the show was inserted in the Argentinian movie Kamchatka
Kamchatka (film)
Kamchatka is an Argentine and Spanish drama film directed by Marcelo Piñeyro and written by Piñeyro and Marcelo Figueras. The movie features Ricardo Darín, Cecilia Roth, Tomás Fonzi, Héctor Alterio, among others....
(2002)
It also ran in Spain as Los Invasores in 1968.
It was also aired in The Invaders English 1967.
It was aired in Bulgaria on BT1 in 1987.
Season 1 (1967)
| № | Title | Original airdate |
|---|
Season 2 (1967-1968)
| № | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | "Condition: Red" | 1967·Sep·05 |
| 19 | "The Saucer" | 1967·Sep·12 |
| 20 | "The Watchers" | 1967·Sep·19 |
| 21 | "Valley of the Shadow" | 1967·Sep·26 |
| 22 | "The Enemy" | 1967·Oct·03 |
| 23 | "The Trial" | 1967·Oct·10 |
| 24 | "The Spores" | 1967·Oct·17 |
| 25 | "Dark Outpost" | 1967·Oct·24 |
| 26 | "Summit Meeting: Part 1" | 1967·Oct·31 |
| 27 | "Summit Meeting: Part 2" | 1967·Nov·07 |
| 28 | "The Prophet" | 1967·Nov·14 |
| 29 | "Labyrinth" | 1967·Nov·21 |
| 30 | "The Captive" | 1967·Nov·28 |
| 31 | "The Believers" | 1967·Dec·05 |
| 32 | "The Ransom" | 1967·Dec·12 |
| 33 | "Task Force" | 1967·Dec·26 |
| 34 | "The Possessed" | 1968·Jan·02 |
| 35 | "Counter-Attack" | 1968·Jan·09 |
| 36 | "The Pit" | 1968·Jan·16 |
| 37 | "The Organization" | 1968·Jan·30 |
| 38 | "The Peacemaker" | 1968·Feb·06 |
| 39 | "The Vise" | 1968·Feb·20 |
| 40 | "The Miracle" | 1968·Feb·27 |
| 41 | "The Life Seekers" | 1968·Mar·05 |
| 42 | "The Pursued" | 1968·Mar·19 |
| 43 | "Inquisition" | 1968·Mar·26 |
DVD releases
CBS DVD (distributed by ParamountParamount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
) has released the entire series on DVD in Regions 1, 2 & PAL 4.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
| Season 1 | 17 | May 27, 2008 | September 17, 2007 | November 8, 2007 |
| Season 2 | 23 | January 27, 2009 | February 9, 2009 | July 30, 2008 |
External links
- The Unofficial Web Site and Episode Guide
- Unofficial Page with lots of pictures, sections on the alien machines, cars used in the show, characters reviews, Episode Guide and much more. Online since 2000.