The Invaders Episode Guide - Season Two

The Invaders Episode Guide -- Season Two ... In COLOR!

Copyright ©2009-2015 by Mike Quigley. No reproduction of any kind without permission.

JUMP TO SEASON ONE • 1995 MINI SERIES • MAIN PAGE
RATINGS:
★★★★ = One of the very best episodes, a must-see.
★★★ = Better than average, worthy of attention.
★★ = Average, perhaps with a few moments of interest.
1. Condition: Red ★★★
Original air date: September 5, 1967 -- Music: Sidney Cutner

SUMMARY:

Driving out in the sticks at high speed, Dr. Frederick Rogers (Roy Engel) spooks the horse Laurie Keller (Antoinette Bower) is riding, causing her to fall to the ground. When he checks her pulse, the doctor thinks Laurie is dead. But she is a pulseless alien, and her companions grab Rogers, who has alerted the authorities, and drown him. Laurie is the recent wife of NORAD Major Dan Keller (Jason Evers), and when David Vincent hears of these events, he shows up at the underground headquarters of the organization, pretending to be a journalist named Robert Davis. Intelligence officer Major Pete Stanhope (Simon Scott) is tipped off by one of his men that Vincent is not who he says he is, but Stanhope is somewhat sympathetic to Vincent's beliefs. At their home, Laurie is using mind-control techniques on Keller with the help of a red laser-like light from her turquoise ring as well as a metal crown-like device. The aliens plan to use Keller to switch a critical computer tape the next day which controls the large map screen showing activity above North America so their spaceships can set up a base near Alaska. (This screen is described as "a composite picture of aerial activity in the approaches to the North American continent.") Vincent wants Keller to bring his wife to the base for a medical checkup to determine whether or not she is human. At first, Keller finds this suggestion preposterous, but later relents to shut Vincent up. However, at home, when he tells Laurie he wants her to come to the base, she transforms him into a zombie-like state. She calls for her alien pals to pick her up and packs her bags as if to leave her husband. Keller pulls himself together enough to try and stop her, but during their confrontation, Laurie is shot dead and burns up. Laurie's leader, the sinister Mr. Arius (Mort Mills), arrives at Keller's place soon after and shoots him dead, but not before Keller manages to tip off the NORAD command center as to what is going on. The "hacked" computer screen is replaced with the real one, which reveals a squadron of space ships heading to their new base, and numerous jet fighters are launched to drive them off. The speed at which these jets move towards Alaska is pretty fast.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Not bad, with some interesting graphics for the giant map of North America. But Vincent's escaping from the aliens (see below) isn't very convincing.

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2. The Saucer ★★★
Original air date: September 12, 1967-- Music: Duane Tatro

SUMMARY:

John Carter, an unpublished writer living in a beat up house with four cats and a motorbike in some southwestern U.S. state is the laughing stock of the local cops because of sightings of flying saucers he says he witnessed out in the desert. Carter contacts Vincent, who is more sympathetic. The two of them see a saucer come to earth just about the same time as Robert Morrison and Annie Rhodes (Charles Drake and Anne Francis) are eloping to Mexico in a small plane which is passing overhead. With them, they have some blueprints of a new computer system that Morrison has stolen with which he hopes to make his fortune. Their plane crashes, probably because of interference from the saucer. Morrison and Annie make their way through the desert rocks to the saucer site around the same time that Carter has left Vincent there and has gone to town to get his school friend and state assemblyman Joe Bonning (Robert Knapp) to come back to the site as a witness. The two of them bring Police Chief Sam Thorne (Kelly Thordson) along as well, even though Thorne thinks that Carter is a kook. On the way, they run into an Invader (John Ward) who has stolen the coveralls from a local gas station attendant he murdered and who is lying at the side of the road, pretending to be injured. As they continue to the saucer location, this Invader applies the CHIND (cerebral hemorrhage inducing neck device) to the sheriff. Annie is attempting to escape using Vincent's car because she doesn't want to be around in case the cops arrive and find the stolen blueprints. She sees the approaching car containing Carter, Bonning, the Invader and sheriff plunge off a cliff. When a truck load of Invaders shows up, their leader (Sandy Kenyon) has no time to look into the crashed car. He zaps it, killing off Carter and Bonning (the Invader already immolated after the crash). Annie is taken back to the ship by the leader, and a trade -- Annie for the ship -- is negotiated. A fight follows with guns and immolators, with many of the Invaders burned up, but the ship still takes off. Morrison has told Vincent that he really didn't have the blueprints after all, that he made up a story about stealing them so that Annie would run away with him. Annie is taken away in an ambulance, having been seriously burned during the fight, and Morrison will have to face up to the music.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

A disturbing show, in that one of the lead characters (Carter) is knocked off at the end of the third act. Kind of a soap-opera with the eloping couple, but we get a look inside one of the Invaders' ships.

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3. The Watchers ★★
Original air date: September 19, 1967-- Music: Sidney Cutner

SUMMARY:

Grayson (James Seay), the manager of the Pine Lake Lodge located in Virginia, arrives at a small airport, freaking out, saying that "look-alikes" have taken over his business. Followed by two of them, he tries to escape, but soon after walks on to the airport runway and gets sliced up by the propellor of a landing plane. Vincent soon appears, though there is no indication why he should, other than reading between the lines of newspaper stories about this horrible accident. With some persuasion, Vincent learns from the airport manager Bowman (Harry Hickox) that Paul Cook (Kevin McCarthy), a defense contractor, is soon arriving from Switzerland under a cloud of heavy security. Cook's mission, we learn later, is to "help the government overhaul the country's defense installations." After watching Cook and his blind 25-year-old niece Maggie (Shirley Knight) arrive, Bowman tells the unemployed Vincent that he can get a job working for the local bus company. Vincent does that, and soon drives a bus to the lodge where he meets Maggie, telling him he is a "crusader" who wants to meet her uncle. She is not particularly interested, but the tenacious Vincent then snoops in Maggie's room where he is caught by Simms (Robert Yuro), one of her uncle's yes-men. Brought to Cook's room, Vincent tries to warn him that he is being exploited by the Invaders, who have actually been watching Cook's every move from the nearby power station via a projection device connected to a bug in Cook's room. Cook thinks Vincent is a crackpot. He tells Simms to lock him up in the lodge's basement, but Vincent escapes. Maggie follows Vincent back to town where Vincent lays on his story to her. After warning her uncle by phone what is going on, the two of them return to the lodge. On the way there, they find Simms and Ramsey (Leonard Stone), Cook's other assistant, both dead in a car accident. Back at the lodge, Vincent figures out what is going on by observing what is happening in the power station, and almost gets himself captured. At the lodge where Cook is about to meet with a couple of military generals arriving from Washington, the defense contractor is hustled away with a curly-haired alien version of himself taking his place. Maggie senses that not all is well, but Vincent manages to overcome the remaining two main aliens, including the bogus uncle. The since-arrived generals depart, suggesting that Cook's disappearance is connected with his known "erratic behavior."

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Though not without suspenseful moments, the script is mediocre.

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4. Valley of the Shadow ★★½
Original air date: September 19, 1967-- Music: Duane Tatro

SUMMARY:

Two small town doctors who are husband and wife, Sam Larousse (Mark Roberts) and Maria McKinley (Nan Martin), are returning home to Carterville, Wyoming when Manners (Hank Brandt), one of The Invaders who is driving very fast, passes them. When he wrecks his car up ahead, the two doctors attempt to help, but, because he has no pulse and doesn't want to be found out, Manners resists, killing Larousse. The cops arrive and take Manners to town and Vincent shows up soon after, again with little motivation. Recognizing Manners as someone who tried to kill him in the past, Vincent contacts nearby Army Captain William Taft (James Sikking), telling him that under "Regulation 33-6 of the UFO Manual," Taft must come and check Manners out. Manners asks to contact his "lawyer," but puts the call through to Invader Central where Ted Knight is the boss, and tells them that he needs to get out of jail ASAP. The Invaders are quick to respond, intercepting Taft before he gets to Carterville, and substituting Joe Maross in his place. In order to rid of Vincent, who is considered a nuisance, McKinley is asked to give Manners a physical exam, despite the fact that he killed her husband. Manners takes this as an opportunity to escape, but he is shot dead and immolates on the nearby square in front of large numbers of the townspeople, including the local newspaper editor, who snaps photos. In response to this, Maross as Taft invokes martial law, cutting off access to the outside world. The Invaders set up shop nearby on top of a hill in a large truck which contains a gizmo that releases an electromagnetic pulse which stops phone, radio, electricity and all the town's vehicles. It also produces a earthquake which damages the nearby dam. Maross then reveals to Vincent The Invaders' chilling plan: to murder everyone in the town because "they know the truth." Vincent pleads with Maross, telling him this will cause more problems than it is worth, and Maross eventually agrees with him, saying "This one time we both want the same thing." However, when Ted Knight, who becomes Alien Air Force Major McEvoy, arrives, he overrides Maross and tells Vincent that if he co-operates in the extermination of all the citizens, he will let him live. Vincent pleads with McEvoy not to take such drastic action, and turn back the clock through some kind of mass hypnosis. Vincent even tries to convince everyone that Manners' escape (including his disintegration after being shot) was all a hoax, but there is far too much evidence to the contrary as far as the townspeople are concerned. At this point, the show goes totally off the rails, with Vincent proposing to McEvoy that if "you can go back to Monday, make it happen again, but differently, change one element ... you can change the outcome. I'll be that element." The Invaders release purple-colored gas all over town, causing all the citizens to become frozen in their tracks while McEvoy broadcasts a message over a large ball that looks like an electrostatic generator, telling everyone to bring everything they did since 9 a.m. that morning (including their thoughts!) to the town square. The show then repeats the opening sequence where Vincent arrives, except this time the guy in the jail cell is not Manners, but someone totally different. Vincent says he doesn't recognize the guy, and the show ends with Larousse's funeral.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

The show is not bad until the ridiculous ending; the cast includes many character actors.

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5. The Enemy ★★★
Original air date: October 3, 1967-- Music: Irving Gertz

SUMMARY:

After one of The Invaders' space ships crashes near Aurelia, Utah, Gale Frazer, a nurse who served in Vietnam and who lives nearby, arrives to find only one survivor, a man named Blake (Richard Anderson). With her training, she wants to treat his injuries, unaware of the threat he poses. She takes him back to her place in the middle of the desert where she lives alone. An official search of the area reveals nothing, since Blake immolated the remains of the ship. Vincent soon appears, snooping around. Gale tells him to get off her property, but Vincent finds the location of the crash site nearby. Blake shows up there with Gail, in search of a box that he left behind just as Vincent has found it. This box contains chemicals which The Invaders want to experiment with to change their chemistry so they can use the earth's oxygen. If they are not able to do this, Blake later says "We'll simply eliminate the oxygen." Blake returns to Gail's place with Vincent. Two Invaders, Saywer (Gene Lyons) and Lavin (George Keymas) have also arrived in Aurelia, having recently purchased a defunct mine where experimentation with the chemicals from Blake's box, which they hope to get, will take place away from suspicious locals. Since a huge storm is brewing, and Blake has pulled the cord from Gale's phone out of the wall, the sheriff (Russell Thorson) sends his deputy Vern Hammond (Paul Mantee) out to check on Gail. After Vern arrives, Blake fights with him and Vincent, vaporizing the deputy, which makes Gail realize she should have listened to what Vincent told her about The Invaders and Blake in particular. On their way back from town during an expedition to buy a hypodermic needle to replace one which got broken during the fight with Vern, Gail and Blake end up at the mine with Blake. Gail takes some medicine from Blake's box and defiantly throws it on the floor, refusing to treat Blake any further. Vincent knocks the box on the floor where it immolates, and Blake starts to further revert to his original blob-like state. Sawyer and Lavin also show up at the mine, where Blake immolates both of them, showing that he is capable of a good act. When Blake tells Vincent to stop the pain he is feeling, Vincent picks up one of the other two Invaders' guns and shoots Blake dead.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Interesting in that we see what an Invader really looks like (sort of); the ending chase in the mine is sort of make-this-up-as-it-goes-along scriptwriting, though.

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6. The Trial ★★★★
Original air date: October 10, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

Vincent's Korean war buddy Charlie Gilman (Don Gordon) suspects one of his co-workers, Fred Wilk (John Rayner), of being an Invader after an accident where the guy shows no signs of bleeding. Gilman has a confrontation with Wilk in the company boiler room where he strikes him with a large wrench, witnessed through a window by both Vincent and the company security officer Bert Wisnovsky (Bill Zuckert). When the two of them enter the room, the body is nowhere to be seen because it has immolated. Nearby is a blazing furnace; it is suspected that Gilman disposed of the body. Gilman is charged with murder and the job of his lawyer James Bernard (Russell Johnson) is to get him off, which may be difficult without the whole trial becoming a circus over the issue of whether Wilk was "a man." Things get complicated when it is revealed that Gilman was previously engaged to Wilk's wife Janet (Lynda Day George) and that Gilman had at least one confrontation with Wilk over this. If that isn't enough, it turns out that the child Janet had after marrying Wilk 11 months before is Charlie's (the kid is now 13 months old)! Allen Slater, the prosecuting attorney, is played by Harold Gould, who gives a slimy performance. When he tells Judge Simonson (Malcolm Atterbury) that presiding over such a crazy trial may hurt the judge's changes of being promoted to the state supreme court, he is sent packing from the judge's chambers. Gilman takes the stand in his own defense, not a particularly smart move. Janet appears on the stand twice, the second time impeaching her own testimony as a prosecution witness. She tells the court that her husband "never touched" her, had "no human desires," and could not have had "relations" with her because he was "cold, almost inhuman." Slater asks her, considering how she was already pregnant when she got married to Wilk, "Can you really blame him for not having relations with you." Surprisingly, Gilman's lawyer does not object to this statement. Slater also suggests that her testimony is strictly to protect the defendant. Things do not look good for Gilman's case, especially when Brennan (James McCallion), a private detective Vincent has hired to investigate Wilk's past, shows up at the eleventh hour and is found dead in the court parking lot with all of the evidence he has accumulated regarding Wilk gone, including fingerprints, a birth certificate and Social Security records. Janet is the one who cracks the case, when she says that Gilman's lawyer was seen outside around the time Brennan was likely murdered. In the judge's chambers, Vincent breaks a glass and uses it to scratch Bernard's face, producing no bleeding. The defense lawyer quickly rushes out of the office, followed by Wisnovsky, Gilman, Slater, Vincent and the judge. When Wisnovsky shoots him, Bernard immolates in front of them all. The trial concludes with the judge dismissing the case on Slater's recommendation because of "insufficient evidence."

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

One of the lead characters says "This isn't Perry Mason" -- but it is!

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7. The Spores ★★½
Original air date: October 17, 1967-- Music: Duane Tatro

SUMMARY:

Tom Jessup (Gene Hackman) is driving down a highway near Phillipsburg, Colorado with three other Invaders in a truck from Keely's Flowers (phone number 654-0777). The stern-voiced announcer tells us that in the truck are two dozen spores which are going to be used to cultivate aliens. These spores are in a silver metal suitcase which is very difficult to open if you are not an Invader. Running into a a couple of traffic cops dealing with some mundane issue, Jessup and his friends freak out and turn around and head back to where they came from. Of course, the cops find this suspicious, and one of them, Sergeant Ernie Goldhaver (John Randolph) pursues them until the truck flies off the road and crashes. Jessup manages to hide a suitcase containing the spores, while two of his pals immolate as Goldhaver watches. Back at the cop shop, Lieutenant John Mattson (Wayne Rogers) tells Goldhaver he should shut up about what happened in order to avoid getting fired; Goldhaver is only a year or so away from retirement. Vincent shows up as the stern announcer yaps away some more, telling us this. Vincent just misses Jessup, who has been released after Mattson clears him (because, surprise, surprise, Mattson is also an Invader). Vincent goes to the crash scene where Jessup is recovering his suitcase. Vincent offers him a ride to the nearby town of Milford, and they stop at a restaurant connected with the Saddle Peak Lodge where Jessup phones some of his pals and tells them what is going on. Vincent very obviously attempts to grab the suitcase and, in the ensuing fight, some hot-rodders from outside who the two of them hassled when coming into the place grab the case and take off. Jessup follows them, but loses them when the hot-rodders duck into their closed garage on a residential street. When Hal (James Gammon), the senior of the three, can't open the case, even with a power drill borrowed from a neighbor, they decide to return it to the restaurant. Upon arriving, they are met by Jessup, now with his friends who have met him very quickly. Of course, Jessup is pissed, and goes after Hal's little brother Roy (Kevin Coughlin), who hid the case in the back of someone else's car. Threatened with death, Roy quickly tells them where he put the case, but when the Invaders go out to the parking lot, that car has gone. Roy is killed with a CHIND. The couple who now have the case, Jack and Sally Patay (Mark Miller and Patricia Smith), have just returned from Vegas, where they lost a pile of money. They only notice the case when they get to a motel, and Jack talks about making a lot of money by returning it to its rightful owner. Sally finds the contents of the case creepy, and leaves Jack to his own devices. She is stopped by a local cop who holds her until Jessup arrives. Jessup offers her $500 for the case, which she is glad to accept. They all return to the motel, but Jack has decided to throw the case away in a nearby neighborhood. A bunch of kids have found it, and they take it to a nearby greenhouse where they plant some of the spores in beds of earth. The spores, which are in the shape of small barbells, start to generate in a manner highly reminiscent of the later 1978 movie version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Jessup finds out where this greenhouse is from one of the kids named Mike who was bullied by the others. Mike comes to the police station where Jessup is making a report and wondering where is his fellow Invader, Mattson. Mattson is no longer there because he was immolated by Goldhaver during an argument earlier. At the greenhouse, Jessup and pals are pleased to find the spores, some of which are now growing quite quickly. Vincent and Goldhaver show up at the greenhouse and a gun battle ensues. Vincent constructs a Molotov cocktail which he throws into the greenhouse, causing a conflagration which either forces the Invaders out into the open where they are killed, or just burned up, as in Jessup's case. As he leaves town, Vincent tells Goldhaver to keep quiet about what happened -- at least until he has retired.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Hackman gives a very good performance, vacillating between very nice and very nasty; unfortunately, the script is disappointing near the end.

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8. Dark Outpost ★★½
Original air date: October 24, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

After a man being taken to hospital is kidnapped from an ambulance and the two attendants are both found dead from cerebral hemorrhage, Vincent investigates. One of the man's last words heard by a woman witness was "Cavanagh," which leads our hero to Cavanagh Van and Storage. Of course he looks around the building, hiding in this empty coffin-like locker next to one holding the man who was kidnapped, who had symptoms similar to chicken pox. Vincent gets a big surprise when his locker is taken away with him still inside. When he comes out, he is inside a spaceship which makes a sudden trip to a mountainous and desert-like area in the middle of nowhere. There he finds a group of students on a field trip with their professor, Dr. John Devin (William Sargent). Though they are skeptical about Vincent's flying saucer story, he takes them to the site where the ship landed. Vincent and the professor continue searching the nearby area, where they find a large top-secret military base. Managing to sneak inside, they witness what looks like regeneration of dead bodies from the lockers found at the moving company. Vincent steals a crystal which is a vital part of the regeneration machinery, causing Devin to be captured and killed with the CHIND. Vincent escapes back to where the students are, but Invaders disguised as US Army men from the base track them down and take them back to a room where they are all confined. The head Invader (Whit Bissell) now appears as Colonel Harris, threatening the students with death if they don't cough up the crystal which Vincent stole and Eileen Brown (Dawn Wells), one of the students, picked off the ground back at the students' camp after it fell out of the truck's air filter where Vincent had hidden and someone had subsequently stepped on it. The Invaders use brainwashing techniques to make the students think that Devin is still alive and one of their members is being executed outside. Vincent is taken away to the base's control room to try and make him come up with the crystal that he stole. He fights with the Invaders just as the students overcome their guards. One of them, Vern Corbett (Andrew Prine), who has military experience, rushes into the control room and shoots the Invaders dead with a rifle he got from one of the guards. At the end of the show, the Army investigates, saying that the base is at Camp Browley, which was decommissioned about 20 years before. We know that nothing will come of all that was witnessed by Vincent and the students.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Not particularly interesting; we never find out why the Invaders were regenerating people, or whether these people were really aliens all along.

ALIEN ENCOUNTERS:

The Invaders are getting easier to defeat, and their methods are getting sloppy:

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9. Summit Meeting, Part 1 ★★★★
Original air date: October 31, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

At the beginning of the show, Vincent is seen being an architect when he is practically kidnapped by his friend, the country's largest defense contractor Michael Tressider (William Windom). Tressider tells him that Invaders have increased the level of radiation throughout the world, so much that in six months the planet will be inhabitable. World leaders have been summoned to a small country in Scandinavia to discuss this. It seems odd that this country, which has reported numerous UFO sightings, is the only place on earth where the radiation levels are not increasing. Tressider has the ear of General Jonathan "Jake" Blaine (Ford Rainey), but has been told not to rock the diplomatic boat. Tressider wants to contact the Scandinavian Premier Thor Halvorsen (Eduard Franz), who is seemingly under the thumb of Vice Chancellor Pierre Alquist (Michael Rennie, playing another Invader even slimier than the one from last season). Vincent follows an army lieutenant (Martin West) who was being friendly with Blaine's aide Ellie Markham (Diana Hyland). He pursues this guy, who has an extended pinky finger, including through some bizarre modern art gallery show where sitar music is playing in the background. Vincent loses him, but not before he sees the lieutenant talking to Alquist there. When Vincent returns to the Langham Hotel, he is shot by Tressider who has been given the rotating crystal treatment. Vincent finds out that the Invaders have developed a solution to the increasing radiation, a "pollutant" called AR-5 which will be demonstrated for the world leaders in Scandinavia. But this is just a scam to get these leaders all in one place at one time, and then kill them. Around this time, Halvorsen's right hand man for 25 years, Secretary Knute Rosmundson (Ian Wolfe) is murdered because he is getting too nosy. The Invaders lock him in a steam room, where he perishes. Although cautioned by Tressider, who can't trust Ellie, Vincent becomes chummy with her, so he is disturbed to find out that she is an Invader after she cuts herself with a kitchen knife. She tells him that she is on his side, because she feels the Invaders' operation will backfire, that they cannot pollute the earth with radiation because they need the planet for colonization. Tresseter is kidnapped and taken to an Invader headquarters located in a building owned by Sletnir Chemicals. At this place, he finds out that his pal Blaine is in cahoots with the aliens! He accuses Blaine of committing treason. A further rotating crystal treatment fails to get any information out of Tressiter, so he is tortured by Alquist in a very nasty way using shock therapy. Vincent arrives at the place, having been driven there by Ellie, and shoots several Invaders, though Alquist escapes. The place catches fire, destroying the Invader equipment. Tressiter is OK, and he and Vincent vow to go to the conference in Scandinavia.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

The show pulls out all the stops for its only two-part episode. Vincent has to save the world while dealing with a cast of characters who may be Invaders or not.

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10. Summit Meeting, Part 2 ★★★½
Original air date: November 7, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

World leaders arrive at the Scandinavian conference regarding the world's increasing radiation levels. Despite the fact there is continual reference to "big five" countries, there seem to be a lot of other countries represented, based on the number of flags seen at the helicopter landing area. People go to the conference in some underground complex which is reached by a peculiar elevator device from the surface. The Invaders are on to both Vincent and Tressider, as well as the fact that they are friendly with Ellie. Halvorsen knows that Alquist is an alien, but doesn't think anything bad is going on, even after Tressider grills him over whether he is being manipulated by beings who want to take over the planet. Ellie leads Vincent and Tressider into a trap where two Invaders with guns confront them. Ellie totally disappears while the two men manage to take care of themselves. Vincent is not happy about this, but still not willing to totally write her off. Ellie finds out that the missile which is supposed to demonstrate the radiation-reducing AR-5 "pollutant" is actually carrying a warhead containing a gas which will kill everything living within five miles of the missile blastoff site. Vincent steals a suitcase containing all The Invaders plans right from under Alquist's nose at a press conference as the Invader boss outlines what will happen with the AR-5! There is a constant cat-and-mouse game as the show winds to its conclusion, with Alquist assigning guards to keep Vincent and Tressiter away from Halvorsen, the two men being pursued by U.S. army types who are Invaders, and Alquist ordering the liquidation of Vincent, Tressider and Ellie, among other things. There are ten Invaders that Ellie knows about attending the conference. When Tressider is killed, Vincent is out for revenge. Only Alquist can stop the launch, but Vincent and Ellie manage to finally convince Halvorsen of Alquist's evil plans. The missile launch site is seemingly far away from the control room, so Vincent and Ellie take Halvorsen there. I don't understand the logic of how Halvorsen manages to sabotage the missile taking off (only Alquist supposedly had this kind of control), but he does, and it explodes, killing him. Vincent zaps both Alquist and his main aide just before this happens. The process shots as Vincent and Ellie go to and from the launch site, driving through this very long underground tunnel, are laughably bad. As the show ends, with Ellie lucky to make it to that point, she tells Vincent that The Invaders will stop manufacturing radiation because "a poisoned world is no use to us."

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Continues the expctations and level of suspense of the first part. The only letdown is the silly process shots near the end.

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11. The Prophet ★★
Original air date: November 14, 1967-- Music: Duane Tatro

SUMMARY:

Brother Avery (Pat Hingle) is an evangelist preacher who is also an Invader. His gimmick is to take some time-release pill which causes him to start dying and glowing at a certain time during his services, after which he hurries to a regeneration tube in a trailer to get restored to health. Naturally, he exploits this inherent Invader phenomenon for all it's worth. Vincent, using the name Dennis Victor, becomes a member of Avery's organization in a manner much easier than one would expect. One of the preacher's acolytes, Brother John, is suspicious of Vincent, who he takes for a ride out in the countryside and then tries to kill him. Vincent repays the favor by shooting John through the back window of his car (the special effects for this are very bad; you can see the cracks in the window shaking!). In order to expose Avery's racket, Vincent elists the help of another member of the preacher's retinue, Sister Clair (Zena Bethune), one of several blonde women who are seen congregating around Avery at his revival meetings. Vincent tells her that Avery is "a charlatan ... an agent for a foreign power." Clair puts up a lot of resistance, because she really believes in Avery, who has given her "beauty and faith and a reason for living." Claire's life is a mess. Not only did she have problems from both her politician father and several other men but also a descent into drugs, including LSD, pot and even "something stronger" which is not specified. Vincent is pretty nasty to her, screaming at her that she is working for Avery because she is "using this whole thing as another trip." (She slaps his face.) Claire eventually does help Vincent, and finds herself in really big trouble for doing so, denounced by Avery as helping "enemies of our faith." At the end of the show, she is about to be placed in a regeneration tube to give her a heart attack as punishment for helping Vincent. Outside Vincent has incredible aim as he short-circuits the electrical wires providing power to the tubes by shooting at them. Avery eventually commits suicide by eating poison when he realizes his racket is about to be exposed. The official explanation for his demise is that he was a "humbug with powers greater than Blackstone (the name of a famous father and son, both magicians)."

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

An interesting idea, but Avery's preaching is far too bland and banal, and not the stuff that fire-and-brimstone preachers are made of. While there are several Biblical quotes seen hanging from walls in this show, there is no mention of God or Jesus.

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12. Labyrinth ★★★
Original air date: November 21, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

The show begins with Vincent bringing an Invader (Wilhelm von Homburg) who he found unconscious and lying on the road to a country doctor. There is no indication what motivated Vincent to do this. X-rays of the Invader show that he has no bone structure. The doctor gets the CHIND treatment and the Invader is immolated when he fights with Vincent, stabbing himself with one of the doctor's scalpels. Vincent then takes the X-rays to an Illinois university where there is a UFO-related research project in progress. He is met by two professor types supposedly connected with this at the airport, but they are not the real guys, and both Invaders. As he leaves their office after handing over the X-rays to them, he remarks that he has a duplicate set of the X-rays in his luggage. As a result, on his way to the airport, the cab driver (also an Invader) tries to switch Vincent's suitcase for a duplicate, but Vincent is wise to this. Vincent then goes to a pay phone and calls Dr. Samuel Crowell (Ed Begley, giving a relatively subdued performance), getting in touch with the real doctor this time. Vincent meets Crowell as well as two other professors connected with the project: Ed Harrison (John Zaremba) and Harry Mills (James T. Callahan). Crowell's daughter Laura (Sally Kellerman) is also around; she has hot pants for Vincent as well as Mills, who is her boyfriend. Laura's father hasn't seen her for 15 years and says that "she's changed." She also has a suspicious scar near her pinky finger on her right hand. The wife of the country doctor arrives at the university to hopefully identify the X-rays which she helped develop, but she says she doesn't know anything about them, having been threatened with death by the Invaders. Vincent gets tipped off by Laura to go to the Granville Power Company plant to investigate an Invader regeneration chamber, but when Vincent gets Crowell and Mills to come and check it out, the place has no signs of the aliens and Vincent is made to look like a total fool, not only in the eyes of his pals, but the local cops as well. Vincent is sure that Laura is an alien, because she has been seen associating with one of the two bogus professors he met at the beginning of the show, and is the only person other than the real profs who knew that he was arriving in the city (Mills was the one that told her about this). Vincent gets very nasty to Laura in front of her father, accusing her of being an Invader. Crowell thinks that Vincent has gone totally bonkers, but after Vincent is taken away by two cops (who are the same guys as the bogus profs!), Crowell says that they treated Vincent very roughly. Vincent is taken to the power station to get zapped, but manages to fight with his two captors, vaporizing them both. He gets back to the university just in time where Mills is going to kill Laura after having burned the second set of X-rays, and shoots Mills dead. As the show ends, despite most of his evidence having been destroyed, Vincent hopes that his professor pals will "hold up their end" of pursuing the Invaders.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

A pretty good show, one of the best for playing the game of "guess who is an alien."

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13. The Captive ★★★
Original air date: November 28, 1967-- Music: Duane Tatro

SUMMARY:

Wesley J. Sanders (Don Dubbins), an Invader, breaks into foreign embassy, ostensibly that of Russia, and attempts to steal information about the country's troop disposition in East Asia from a safe. He is caught by embassy guards, and when examined by Katherina Serret (Dana Wynter), the resident doctor, is found to have no pulse and his chest X-rays are "not of this earth," like those seen in the previous episode. Serret has read of Vincent's expertise in all things Invaders, and they bring him to the embassy where he is held against his will as a "guest" by Deputy Ambassador Peter Borke (Fritz Weaver). Borke has been in the intelligence business since the 1940s, and failed miserably when it came to reporting on the Americans' development of the atomic bomb which climaxed in the attack on Hiroshima. He is paranoid that he will not provide correct intelligence on Sanders, which will lead to serious problems with his superiors. Borke also thinks that Sanders is some American-created "super weapon." Vincent tells Borke that if Sanders is detained there for any length of time, The Invaders will blow up the place, and the Americans will be suspected of involvement (the show does take place during the Cold War). This is what almost happens, because after Vincent escapes, he runs into four Invaders, and their boss gives Vincent only two hours to get Sanders sprung. The end of the show gives new meaning to time-compression, because Vincent first goes to the Department of State, Office of Security, where he talks to two agents including Jim Rogers (Dallas Mitchell). Rogers is sympathetic to Vincent and the two of them head to the embassy, but Rogers' car breaks down, after which he is killed by two Invaders who have been tailing them. Vincent then manages to get to the embassy on his own, knock out the guard at the gate and climb up this bush to the place's second floor (he came down this bush when escaping earlier). The Invader boss flies over the place in a helicopter in a very obvious way, preparing to drop a bomb as the clock ticks away with supposedly only five minutes left. These five minutes drag into the longest five minutes in TV history, with Vincent getting Serret to help him spring Sanders from the cage in the basement. Sanders manages to get on the helicopter, and the Invader boss gives Vincent the equivalent of a "thumbs up" as they take off. Borke almost shoots at the helicopter, but a display of vaporizing some shrubbery convinces Borke that The Invaders really do possess special powers. As the show ends, we learn that Borke and others from the embassy are overdue in returning to their home country, and Vincent suggests Serret stick around in the good old U.S.A.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Interesting for its take on American/Soviet relations, but the end of the show gets kind of unbelievable.

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14. The Believers ★★★★
Original air date: December 5, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

Vincent meets with three people; they connect via a conference call to others, all of whom are "believers" in Vincent's cause, united with millionaire Edgar Scoville (Kent Smith) as their leader. No sooner has their meeting concluded than Vincent is captured by The Invaders with chloroform and the other three are shot dead. In a sealed off basement 30 feet below ground, Vincent is doped up and given the rotating crystal treatment to make him reveal the names of the surviving members in the group, all of whom are bogus names. Harland (Donald Davis), The Invaders' leader, suggests that Vincent and others may have been hypnotized to get them to overcome further hypnotic interrogation. Vincent is about to be killed when there is a raid, supposedly under the auspices of Colonal Newcomb (Byron Morrow) of U.S. Military Intelligence, but this is a scam to try and get Vincent to give up more information. In The Invaders cafeteria in their bunker (!), Vincent meets Elyse Reynolds (Carol Lynley), a psychologist who is an expert in crowd behavior and mass reponses to disasters. She was kidnapped by The Invaders a few months before and forced to work for them under a threat against her brother's life. She is not an Invader, but there is something very fishy about her. Vincent and Elyse avoid being captured by Invaders and take refuge in a "safe hotel" that Scolville has set up. Elyse tells Vincent that The Invaders' plan involves creating total chaos in Los Angeles, with the murder of 300 civic leaders, mass killings and the threat of an earthquake to get people to evacuate the city. They meet with Professor Hellman, one of the believers' group (Rhys Williams), but he is murdered shortly thereafter. They also visit Bob Torin (Anthony Eisley), another member, who is suspicious of Elyse. The Invaders seriously wound Torin and shoot his wife dead. Vincent sets up a trap, asking Elyse to meet with a made-up new member of the group. At the meeting point, Vincent shows up, as do two Invaders, obviously tipped off by Elyse. Vincent kills them both. Scoville is getting fed up by everything that is happening: "We keep setting it up, they keep knocking it down." There is some intense acting between Thinnes and Lynley, as it is obvious that she has been working in cahoots with the enemy all along. Vincent tells her that her brother, supposedly being held by The Invaders, is actually dead, as per some newspaper clippings that Scolville supplied. Elyse tearfully confesses everything, saying that The Invaders really are not strong enough to destroy Los Angeles, which was their original plan. At the end of the show, the stern-voiced announcer says this is either the "end of the beginning" or "the beginning of the end" for The Invaders, an expression which was used recently in another episode.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Vincent now has more people helping him his quest against The Invaders, but things just get worse. One of the top shows.

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15. The Ransom ★★½
Original air date: December 12, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

Vincent and Bob Torin (Anthony Eisley) find themselves in Torin's hometown area of Harper County, Vermont (pop. 7,162) to check out the Walden Ski Lodge where Torin has discovered some alien equipment in its basement. They have to deal with Invaders, two of whom are immolated, but they capture their leader (Alfred Ryder, in a return appearance as an Invader big shot, though not the same one as before, I think). Vincent phones Edgar Scoville, who tells them to take The Leader to the nearby army Camp Belding. Before they can get there, other Invaders show up trying to get their boss, and Vincent, Torin and The Leader high-tail it through the back woods, eventually ending up at the cabin where the 71-year-old English-accented poet Cyrus Stone (Laurence Naismith) lives with his 19-year-old granddaughter Claudia (Karen Black). Torin, who has been wounded, goes to Camp Belding, but ends up fooled by some Invaders pretending to be army types at the camp's front gate and is later murdered. The Leader makes various threats against the Stones and Vincent including destruction of their cabin because the deadline for his regeneration is in only a few hours. Eventually Claudia and Vincent sneak out the back door while the old man keeps a gun on the Leader. Vincent and Claudia manage to get to a phone booth, but then they are captured by another jeep full of Invaders masquerading as army types! Returned to Stone's cabin, Vincent fights with the Invaders, and touches some equipment on the regeneration truck by mistake, resulting in his death. Stone says that he will let the Leader go, but only if Vincent is brought back to life. Vincent is inserted into the regeneration chamber and has to be given the treatment twice, finally succeding.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Considering one of the major characters in this show is a poet, there is far too much philosophical blather about poetry, among other things.

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16. Task Force ★★
Original air date: December 26, 1967-- Music: Stock

SUMMARY:

Vincent and Bob Ferrara (John Lasell) want to find out what is happening to Mace Publishing, where Ferrara is an associate editor. Key executives are leaving for no reason and people are applying pressure to buy control of the company. It is suspected that these people are Invaders. Willam Mace (Martin Wolfson), the boss of the company, is cantankerous and outspoken, but his nephew, Jeremy (Linden Chiles) is a dissolute character who has hot pants for his uncle's executive secretary June Murray (Nancy Kovack). (It should be pointed out that Chiles played Vincent's brother the previous season.) Invaders, who meet in a fancy boardroom, just like executives from Mace's company, appoint Eric H. Lund (Frank Marth) to be the one in charge at the company as executive assistant to Jeremy. This is just part of their scheme to "take over the media" in the United States. Invaders give both the senior Mace and Jeremy the rotating crystal treatment. They take the two of them to their building, and murder William in a descending tube right in front of his nephew! At a subsequent board meeting, Lund takes control and fires Emmett Morgen (Barney Phillips), who has been with the company for 31 years, when he dares to question what is going on. Vincent and Ferrara enlist the help of June to get through to Jeremy, but she describes herself as "a glacial Alp with no time for love," which is baloney, since the two of them were seen playing tonsil hockey earlier on in the show. During an encounter with Invaders, Ferrara gets shot, and Vincent and June travel to the country where Jeremy has gone to Eric Lund's "camp" near Lake Sherwood. This is when the show gets kind of dumb. Vincent and June sneak down a hill behind this place in a really obvious way. The place has multiple guards watching it, but none of them see this. Vincent and June encounter Jeremy, who is wandering around looking clueless, in the place's stables and try to convince him to disarm one of the guards and take control of what's happening. Jeremy has serious problems doing this, and suddenly develops a nasty cough for no specific reason. Lund arrives by helicopter, which quite possibly could have seen Vincent and June coming down the hill. Realizing their presence is known, Vincent and June start running back up the hill, again very obviously. They are captured, and brought back down. Jeremy finally grabs a guard's gun and starts to march Lund a long way to the helicopter. They finally get there, while at least five guards point their guns at them, waiting for instructions from the Invaders' Really Big Boss. Lund is forced into the helicopter, and they take off, just as the guards start peppering the copter with bullets, one of which hits Vincent in the shoulder. What is more surprising, Jeremy knows how to fly the thing! Once they are up in the air, Lund jumps out and Vincent, who is pushed out as Lund leaps, almost joins him plunging to earth, barely hanging on to the landing skid. The show ends in the boardroom of Mace Publishing, with everything back to normal under Jeremy's leadership.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Another episode which is good up to a point, but the ending is ridiculous.

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17. The Possessed ★★★
Original air date: January 2, 1968

SUMMARY:

Dr. Ted Willard (Michael Tolan) suspects aliens have "invaded" the laboratory at the sanitarium which he and his brother Martin (Michael Constantine) operate, so he contacts his college roommate David Vincent. Prior to Vincent's arrival, Ted snoops in a filing cabinet in the lab, trying to get information on the death of James Garner, father of his fiancée Janet (and major benefactor for their research into treating mental illness via "behavior control"). Ted is caught by the ruthless chief alien, Adam Lane (William Smithers) and almost murdered before his brother Martin intervenes. Instead of killing Ted, at Martin's suggestion, Lane inserts a device in Ted's head which is used to control him via a microphone and a huge rotating antenna-like device in the lab. When Vincent arrives, Ted has forgotten why he called his old pal, and instead says that they want Vincent to design a new pavillion for their research center. Lane and his nurse friend (Lynn Hobart) quickly figure out Vincent's true intentions, and Lane directs Ted to run over Vincent with his car (he fails). After Vincent gets Janet to ask for a post mortem on the body of her father, who died under mysterious circumstances, Lane programs Ted to kill her, and Vincent just arrives in the nick of time to prevent this. When Vincent throws Ted away from Janet and Ted hits his head on the wall, the brainwashing device in Ted's head is conveniently deactivated, and the two men go to the lab where they confront Martin and Lane. Ted fatally shoots Martin, and Lane escapes, ending up in a violent car crash, shortly after which he disintegrates.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Well written, paced and acted, though the wrap-up in the Epilog is a bit too quick. William Smithers as Lane is particularly evil.

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18. Counter-Attack ★★★
Original air date: January 9, 1968 -- Music: Duane Tatro

SUMMARY:

David Vincent teams up with Professor Eliot Kramer (Ross Elliott, one of several great character actors in this episode) who has figured out a way of interfering with the signals which guide The Invaders to earth. When the two are attacked outside the university faculty annex by two aliens, the professor is killed and the aliens both burn up after they are shot, which throws suspicion on Vincent as Kramer's killer, especially after Vincent runs off with the professor's briefcase full of information. Kramer was a friend of Edgar Scoville for many years, which results in some tense moments when Edgar gets together with Vincent later -- Scoville thinks that Vincent put Kramer in jeopardy through their association. Scoville even says he may have to sacrifice Vincent because "our duty is to our work." Scoville's niece Joan Surrat (Ahna Capri) is more sympathetic. After Vincent is fired from a construction project he was working on because of the publicity over his detainment for the professor's murder, he is seen getting loaded in a bar with a blonde barfly (Pamela Curran) who tries to pick him up. (She, of course, turns out to be an alien.) He tells her, "You're happy and you don't have a brain in your head." When the barfly swaps Vincent's cigarette case for one containing a transmitter, he pretends to be abandoning his quest. The aliens, under the direction of the English-accented Don Davis, kidnap Vincent, saying they want his co-operation, since Vincent is at a dead end and an outcast. Vincent says he wants two million in a Swiss bank account and immunity from whenever the aliens win. But this is all a ruse on Vincent's part. Vincent leads them all (including Joan, who the aliens have also kidnapped and threatened to kill) to the transmission tower where Edgar and his chief engineer, the geeky Jim Bryce (John Milford) and the disbelieving Colonel Archie Harmon (Lin McCarthy) are waiting. The aliens are incapacitated with some knockout gas, and strapped to beds where they are studied. Unfortunately, because of regeneration issues, they burn up, but not before everything has been captured on video tape. The show ends with the believers adjourning to a room at Edgar's house to study some "material that just came down from Canada."

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Drags in the second half, but manages to throw some light on Vincent's private side. He even cracks a smile when the barfly gets seductive.

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19. The Pit ★★½
Original air date: January 16, 1968

SUMMARY:

Professor Julian Reed (Charles Aidman) works at the Slaton Research Centre, a "think factory" dealing with problems relating to the space program. At the beginning of the show, Reed freaks out, suffering from paranoid psychosis induced by a device called the "dream machine"and calls David Vincent. This machine is an electroencephalograph-like device that records when people are dreaming, and wakes them up when the dreams reach a certain intensity level so the dreams can be recorded (presumably by subjects relating their experiences on audio tape). Julian was attached to this gizmo, and according later to his alien-with-a-pulse assistant Jeff Brower (Canadian actor Donald Harron), the relay which was supposed to turn the wake-up feature off after five successive iterations failed, thus subjecting Julian to incomplete dreams for a period of a week, resulting in his psychotic state. The question here is: did the aliens purposely torture Reed with this machine, or was he doing this in the "name of science"? If the latter, and he was wakened by the machine, wouldn't he be conscious enough to realize what was going on, and have himself disconnected (especially if this went on for several days)? Following his breakdown and prior to Vincent arriving, Reed is locked up in the bug ward of the local hospital, and his wife Pat (Joanne Linville) -- a scientist who also works at the Centre -- is nervous about visiting him because of memories of an experience where her grandfather suffered a mental breakdown years before. Reed is convinced there are aliens not only at the Centre, but also behind "funny looking" machinery in some of the buildings at the abandoned local amusement park, as reported by his young son Johnny (Frankie Jensen). Pat's project at the Centre is an electromagnetic theoretical propulsion engine, something that Vincent says employs techniques very similar to those used by the aliens. Reports on her project that Pat submits to Washington for funding are rewritten in a negative way by the secretary of the boss of the Centre, John Slaton (Simon Scott), so they are rejected by the governmental powers-that-be. (The question here is why are the aliens doing this. Is Pat's research too "close to home"?) After Pat hears about the rejection of her papers, she is determined to take her original notes to Slaton, which Brower does his best to stop. Prior to this, Vincent is grabbed by Brower as he is about to leave for the airport, and taken back to the Centre for some "dream reprogramming." Slaton and Edgar Scoville show up in the nick of time to disconnect Vincent and immolate Brower and Slaton's secretary with the help of a security guard.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Some good acting in this episode, but it is not helped by questions about how the dream machine induced psychosis in Reed.

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20. The Organization ★★★
Original air date: January 30, 1968

SUMMARY:

David Vincent gets the call from investigative reporter Mike Calvin (Chris Robinson) regarding a possible UFO collision where debris showered down on a cargo ship and was preserved by the crew. The two of them investigate the hold of the ship, but they are surprised by two hoodlums. Calvin escapes, but Vincent is taken to an isolated motel where he is questioned and threatened about the fact that a shipment of heroin that the mob was expecting has disappeared from the ship (along with the evidence of the UFO). The local mob boss, Peter Kalter (J.D. Cannon) shows up in his Rolls Royce and continues Vincent's grilling, and when Calvin stumbles onto the scene, Kalter threatens to execute them both. At the last minute he calls off the shooting, saying "If you were stupid enough to take our shipment, you wouldn't be stupid enough to die for it." Edgar Scoville and his security men show up, and suddenly Kalter shows Edgar "respect." Later at Edgar's place, it's decided that Calvin will plant a bogus story about some of the UFO debris being moved, and shortly after, Vincent and Kalter are seen driving down the highway in a "Harbor Freight" truck with a large box on the back. An alien motorcycle cop pulls up beside them and tosses a bomb into the truck. Kalter barely gets out of the resulting wreckage alive. Later, Kalter meets with the big boss Weller (Larry Gates, who bears a disturbing resemblance to Dick Cheney). Weller tells Kalter, "If they [the aliens] take over the world, they'll have to take it over from us." An alien named Dorcas (B.G. Atwater) meets with Weller and Kalter and says he will exchange the heroin for Vincent. Although he finds this objectionable, Kalter obeys his superiors, and meets Vincent at a club. The two of them go to the local natural history museum where Dorcas and several aliens exchange a large box containing the heroin and UFO parts for our hero. After the exchange, Vincent taunts Kalter, who suddenly turns and orders his men to shoot the aliens, all of whom are immolated. Later that evening, Katler is knocked off because of his failure to deliver the goods.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

Although the premise of this show sounded kind of silly (Vincent attempting to team up with the mob), it turned out much better than I expected with an interesting angle on the boss Kalter as a "man of honor."

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21. The Peacemaker ★★★½
Original air date: February 6, 1968

SUMMARY:

James Daly guest stars as General Samuel Arlington Concannon, a soldier with 36 years of experience who "wants to do something about the aliens." He expresses a desire to meet with them and hold discussions "to settle this thing responsibly." Concannon says it is "insane to want war," and wants to "live peaceably with these people." This is all a smokescreen, though, since the general has bigger plans -- he wants to get the alien leaders together in one place and then drop a bomb on them. To try and convince The Invaders to co-operate, Concannon suggests to Vincent, Scoville and recurring character Colonel Archie Harmon (Lin McCarthy) the creation of a "doomsday device" which they can use to threaten them. When Edgar Scoville is asked if he can develop such a device, he calls the concept "insane." Alfred Ryder reappears as the sinister Invader leader who is addressed by David Vincent as "Ryder" after Vincent is kidnapped and taken to meet him. Vincent, in a conciliatory role, treats Ryder in a relatively respectful manner, which is surprising after the way Ryder behaved in this season's episode #15, The Ransom. Scoville tells Vincent of an encounter with Concannon years before where Edgar was accused of negligence by Concannon after a missile blew up on the launch pad, killing two men. Concannon's response back then gives some clues that all is not well with the general under his wholesome "God bless America" façade. As well, Concannon is abusive towards his wife Sarah (Phyllis Thaxter), telling her not to say he is too old to do his work in front of others, and accusing her of trying to poison him when he feels ill after eating some lobster that she prepared. Leaders of the The Invaders from all over the world assemble at a farm house, thinking they will meet Concannon along with military bigshots and Edgar Scoville (the latter do show up). However, as this is happening, Concannon and Harmon are flying towards the rendezvous location in a huge aircraft to "take forceful action." Vincent convinces Concannon's wife to join the crowd, hoping this will stop the General's scheme to drop the bomb. But the General can't be swayed, so Vincent convinces The Invaders to zap the plane (killing both Concannon and Harmon).

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

An excellent show, with James Daly giving an outstanding performance as the general who appears as a nice guy espousing "apple pie" values on one hand but wants to blow up the aliens (and lots of innocent people) on the other.

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22. The Vise ★★★½
Original air date: February 20, 1968

SUMMARY:

David Vincent tries to convince U.S. Senate investigator James Baxter (Raymond St. Jacques) that Arnold Warren (Roscoe Lee Browne), under consideration for a position with the International Space Program, is an alien. Vincent says that dates in Warren's resume about his military career do not tally with the truth. Both Baxter and Warren are black, which results in some interesting dialogue. Baxter's wife Celia (Janet Baxter) tells her husband "Heading up that tracking station is a pretty important position for a Negro." Baxter replies, "Just because he's Negro, I'm not going to whitewash him." Celia also accuses her husband of "playing whitey" because he is subjecting Warren to a very thorough investigation. Warren later confronts Baxter, saying that Baxter is "not being very loyal to [his] race," to which Baxter replies, "Which race -- Negro or human?" (You can see this response coming a mile away.) Although Baxter is skeptical about Vincent's claims, there is enough of a bug in his ear for him to investigate further, noticing that the palms of Warren's hands in a photo taken after Warren was involved in a construction accident years before are not normal-looking, for example. There are references to current events of the day: Baxter tells Vincent that his wife's brother was killed during the Detroit riots and a radio is heard with a news report about troop losses in Vietnam when Vincent goes to interview Warren's "father." Following this interview, during which the father tells him virtually nothing, Vincent is pursued by Invaders posing as policemen, ending up in a black bar where the owner, Ollie, is played by Louis Gossett Jr. (The musical cue accompanying the police chase is interesting, even though the score is "stock.") When Vincent is "arrested" by the aliens, people in the bar start harassing the Invaders about reading Vincent his rights, allowing Vincent to make his getaway when shooting breaks out between Ollie and the phony cops. At the end of the show, Vincent, Baxter and Janet try to keep Warren from regenerating after a speech he makes to the local ABC TV station in Baltimore. Predictably, Warren and other aliens get zapped, and Vincent has yet more believers for his cause.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

This show gets top marks for topicality and making the three guest actors all black.

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23. The Miracle ★★
Original air date: February 27, 1968

SUMMARY:

Beth Ferguson (Barbara Hershey) is necking with her boyfriend Ricky (Robert Biheller) in a field outside the small New Mexico town where she lives. She takes a brief break to get a drink of water from a religious shrine nearby which features a statue of the Virgin Mary. While she is there, an Invader who has a laser crystal device, "the heart of an awesome new weapon aimed at mankind" according to the stern-voiced announcer, arrives on the scene. The Invader is looking to meet someone, but he is bitten by a rattlesnake and dies. As he expires in front of Beth, burning up, he gives her the crystal, which she proclaims is "a miracle." David Vincent shows up soon, having heard about these events on the news. He talks to Beth's father Harry (Ed Asner), who runs a saloon in the run-down town. A crowd of local native Indians is gathered around the crystal, which is now displayed in a glass box on a table in the bar. A creepy guy named Merritt (an Invader, uncredited actor) tries to grab the crystal, but Vincent chases him to the back of the building, where Merritt eats a poison pill and burns up. Harry is anxious to sell the crystal to Vincent, especially since the latter keeps offering him more money, but Beth says that it is "not for sale" because it is "a gift from God." Vincent keeps offering more, finally upping the price to a thousand dollars. While he is away in Santa Fe getting the cash, Beth is tempted to part with the crystal by a nun who is hanging out near the shrine (the nun is an alien). When Vincent returns, two aliens beat up Harry, but the crystal is no longer in the bar's safe. The boss of The Invaders breaks into Vincent's room, where he knocks him out with some chloroform-like substance and then snoops around, but it is not there either. Beth visits Vincent, thinking that he has the device and acts as if she wants to seduce him. It turns out that the crystal is in the bar, where Harry has hidden it. Vincent finally gets the crystal after parting with his thousand dollars, but two aliens show up at the bar and a fight ensues. A fire breaks out after a gas line is ruptured during the fight, and a propane tank explodes, killing Harry. The show ends with Vincent leaving town with the crystal, while Beth and Joey, an obnoxious orphan kid who hung around the saloon, will soon leave for Denver where they will live with Beth's uncle.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

The story is a good change of pace, but the ending is disappointing, with Beth and Joey not very upset about Harry who perished in the explosion.

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24. The Life Seekers ★★
Original air date: March 5, 1968

SUMMARY:

Barry Morse and Diana Muldaur are Keith and Claire, two Invaders who realize that people on earth really aren't so bad after all. They are trying to return to their home planet to convince their leaders to abandon plans for the coming slaughter of earth's inhabitants. They have to arrive at a rendezvous point to be picked up by a space ship and, on the way, avoid being killed by expeditionary forces who consider them to be traitors. As the show begins with the two of them being driven down the highway at high speeds, there is an altercation with a cop, Joe Nash (Stephen Brooks), who is shot. David Vincent arrives in Redstone where he visits the cop in the hospital, thanks to a doctor sympathetic to his cause. He finds out nothing from the hostile Nash. The hard-assed local police captain Bill Battersea (R.G. Armstrong), who is related to the cop, has heard of Vincent and doesn't like him either, referring to him as a "crank." Two state policemen, Trent (Arthur Franz) and Rawlings (Morgan Jones) show up at Battersea's office, offering assistance. Because Keith is feeling poorly, he and Claire make it to a regeneration chamber, which is in the basement of a ramshackle building in the middle of nowhere. They hear about Vincent's presence in Redstone via a TV broadcast, and Claire contacts him. Vincent, who carries a gun, is leery of dealing with the two, especially after Claire freaks out and forces his car off the road. At the regeneration chamber, Vincent listens to their story and decides to help them, even though Claire does not trust him. After taking care of two Invaders who show up searching for the duo, Vincent goes back to town, where he convinces Battersea to come back to the shack alone. When they arrive, Claire hypnotizes Battersea with the spinning crystalline device. Vincent's plan is to get Battersea to drive them through one of many police roadblocks, with the two Invaders hidden in the back of his station wagon. This plan works, but Battersea starts to come out of his trance, so Vincent kidnaps him at gunpoint and the four of them go to a motel. There Claire confronts Battersea, telling him that if he had been more of a believer when two local children told him about aliens a year ago, the children, who were subsequently killed by The Invaders, would still be alive. (This matter was alluded to earlier on in a conversation between Battersea and Nash in the hospital.) Later, Vincent and Claire get friendly while discussing the state of the world (and The Invaders' world), and he gives her a kiss. Meanwhile, Battersea, who has been tied up in the motel room, manages to get free to the extent where he can call his office and alert people to what is going on. The next morning, on their way to the rendezvous location, a cop stops them, but Vincent threatens to kill Battersea. Trent and Rawlings arrive on the scene, and show that they are aliens by vaporizing a police car and a couple of Battersea's men. Vincent, Battersea, Keith and Claire flee into a local neighborhood where they are pursued by Trent and Rawlings, both of whom are eventually killed. The cranky Battersea, having had a change of heart because of recent events, says "Let's see if we can get to that spaceship." Keith and Claire are duly delivered, and return to their home planet.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

An interesting idea, but too many script issues.

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25. The Pursued ★★½
Original air date: March 19, 1968

SUMMARY:

This show stars Suzanne Pleshette, who appeared in the third episode of the first season. This time she is Ann Gibbs, an Invader who is the victim of experiments with human emotion which leave her angry and out of control. At the beginning of the show, she is supposed to meet David Vincent at the Sycamore Guest House, but when Vincent doesn't show up and two other guys who are obviously aliens, including the sinister Corwin (Gene Lyons), start asking questions, the elderly desk clerk Hattie Willis (Mary Jackson) wants to call the cops. Gibbs stabs her to death with a knitting needle. Vincent arrives shortly after and gets a call from Gibbs which is answered by Hattie's husband, Hank Willis (Will Geer), who used to be the town sheriff. Gibbs tells Vincent to meet her at the Shelter Point Antique Shop nearby as Willis listens to the entire conversation on the switchboard headset -- DUH! Corwin also shows up and describes Gibbs to Tom Halloway (Dana Elcar), the current sheriff, in a totally wrong way to throw him off her track. Vincent drives to meet Gibbs, followed by one of Corwin's men. She tells him her story, and Vincent calls Edgar Scoville, who says he will arrive soon in a helicopter to take her to Washington where she can testify to several bigshots about alien issues. Scoville tells Vincent to take Gibbs and go and hide out at a nearby campground, which is looked after by Professor Charles McKay (Richard O'Brien). McKay is no friend of aliens, because his wife was killed in an encounter with them some time before. When McKay has words with Gibbs, she attempts to kill him, and McKay's son Eddie (Michael McGreevey) heads to town to get the police. Vincent and Gibbs are soon on the run again and this time they meet Scoville in a nearby park and are whisked to near Washington, D.C. in Edgar's helicopter. The next morning when they arrive at the building where the military and government types are waiting to hear Gibbs testify, they are followed by Corwin and his men. A gun battle ensues, and Corwin almost has the upper hand, before Gibbs' rage breaks out and he is overpowered. On her way into the interview, Gibbs is shot dead by Willis, who suddenly appears, taking revenge for the killing of his wife.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

This episode is OK, but no one seems particularly concerned that Gibbs murdered or attempted to murder several people.

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26. Inquisition ★★½
Original air date: March 26, 1968

SUMMARY:

As the show opens, Scoville and Vincent are trying to persuade U.S. Senator Robert Breeding (Alex Gerry) that Arthur Koy, a technical advisor to the National Security Council, has been associating with The Invaders. The Senator tells them this is ridiculous, because Koy is a close personal friend of his. Scoville and Vincent leave, but only seconds later, a bomb blast destroys the Senator's office, killing him. Shortly after, the two are summoned to the office of Andrew M. Hatcher (Mark Richman), a special assistant to the Attorney General. Joan Seeley (Susan Oliver), a newspaper reporter and old girl friend of Hatcher's, is visiting him when they arrive. He tells her to stick around to see if she can get a story, and doesn't even bother to introduce her to Scoville and Vincent while he is grilling them over their possible involvement in the bombing. After they leave, Joan and Hatcher flirt. There is a reference to a "little incident" which caused problems three years before when Hatcher fed her some false information which she used as the basis for a newspaper story. After getting information from the Senator's secretary, Joan goes to a residential house where she finds Vincent, Scoville and John Milford (James Boland). She wants to tip them off that Hatcher is out to crucify them. In the basement of this house is a "control room" that they are using to keep tabs on the aliens. While she is there, they show Joan a film of Koy meeting with an alien and passing secret information to him, such as a "report om communication interruption devices." In the meantime, the ruthless Hatcher learns that one of the components from the bomb was made at Scoville's plant. Vincent and Scoville are told that Koy is leaving town for Paris soon, so they break into his house and catch him as he is removing secret information from his safe. A gun battle ensues, with Koy immolated, because he is also one of The Invaders. Joan, who has come along, witnesses all of this. Back at Hatcher's office, Joan tries unsuccessfully to get her old flame to abandon the case, but Dr. Stanley Frederickson (Robert H. Harris), supposedly a member of the "believers" network (but actually an alien and a plant), has come forward with information that Vincent and Scoville were plotting to murder the Senator. Joan meets with Hatcher at a Hawaiian-themed restaurant in an attempt to "recapture the past," and invites him to her apartment, where Scoville and Vincent give Hatcher a copy of Koy's secret codes. Despite the fact that he appears to be going to withdraw the charges against them, as soon as he leaves, Hatcher asks for new indictments for murder and conspiracy to commit murder to be drawn up. Scoville and Vincent are having no luck in breaking Koy's codes which have the key to locating ultrasound transmitters that can "kill every creature on earth." Scoville tells Vincent and Milford to go to a new, yet unopened facility of his which contains a supercomputer that may be able to crack the codes. As they leave the house, a cop tries to arrest Scoville, and after Scoville punches him and flees, the cop shoots him. Hatcher has been getting the grand jury to make recommendations based on the testimony of Frederickson, and knowing this, Joan rushes to tell Vincent and Milford at the isolated facility, where they have determined that one of the transmitters is located in a local hotel. When the police arrive after her, she attempts to draw them away by fleeing in Vincent's car, which runs into a cement wall, causing serious injuries. Vincent and Milford flee the scene and arrive at the hotel, disguised as telephone repairmen. They manage to locate the transmitter, but Milford is killed in a fight with a guard. Vincent puts the transmitter out of order with several shots. Hatcher visits Joan in the hospital, and regrets that he did not listen to her. She dies shortly after. As the show ends, the announcer says that Hatcher and Vincent will be joining forces to go after aliens, along with Edgar, who will recover from his injuries.

CAPSULE CRITIQUE:

This season and series finale is complicated and, at times, unbelievable.

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