THE INVADERS
Even though it's now been over 50 years since I watched it as a child in the late 1960s, I can still vividly remember a TV sci fi series entitled The Invaders. Created by producer, director, and prolific screenwriter Larry Cohen, produced by Alan A. Armer for QM Productions, and distributed by CBS Television, it consisted of 43 episodes, and was originally screened by ABC from 1967 to 1968.
The Invaders starred Roy Thinnes as dogged investigator David Vincent, who discovers that a race of alien beings are surreptitiously invading Earth, but he has difficulty convincing anyone else of this, especially as the aliens are adept at assuming human form. What has always particularly stayed in my mind about this show, however, is that the aliens are usually betrayed by their little finger on each hand, which sticks out at a very odd, crooked angle...usually, that is.
My single most tenacious, abiding memory from the entire 2-season series is the climax to one episode in which a very shapely young lady to whom Vincent is attracted and whose shapeliness incorporates her totally normal little fingers chillingly reveals that not all of the Invaders have crooked little fingers...
On 16 January 2021, I discovered several episodes from The Invaders on YouTube, and decided to watch the very first one out of sheer nostalgia, but also because it would be the very first time that I'd seen any of this show's episodes in colour (we only had a b/w TV when I watched them at home as a child back in the 1960s). It proved to be very enjoyable, and, lo and behold, the above-described reveal, that the young woman was herself an Invader but had learned to straighten her little fingers, turned out to have been in that very first episode!
It was nice to know that I had remembered it accurately after more than 5 decades. And if you'd like to watch it yourself, click here to do so while it is still available (along with other episodes too) to do so for free on YouTube. [UPDATE - this and other Series 1 episodes have now been blocked on YouTube by CBS CIS as they apparently contain content by it, but a few Series 2 episodes are still available to watch, including this one.]
SECOND UPDATE: Today, 5 May 2024, I was luvky enough to spot, and purchase for just £2.50 each set at a local car boot sale, the complete Series 1 and 2 of The Invaders in the form of two Region 2 box sets - bargain!!
LAND OF THE GIANTS
Recollecting The Invaders made me in turn recall another sci fi TV show that I used to watch during the late 1960s here in the UK – Land of the Giants. Created, produced, and directed by Irwin Allen, who went on to produce such famous 1970s disaster movies as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, this show was originally screened from 1968 to 1970 by ABC, and in colour throughout (again, however, I only watched it in b/w as a child).
Set in 1983 (i.e. 15 years in the future when the show began), Land of the Giants is all about a suborbital space flight that somehow gets sucked into a space wormhole and finds itself and all of the crew and passengers on board transported to an alien planet that is very similar to Earth except for one fundamental difference. As might be guessed from this show's title, the humans who live on that planet are enormous, veritable giants, alongside whom their Earth counterparts are no bigger than mice.
During the two seasons of Land of the Giants, consisting of 51 episodes in total, the stranded Earthlings make all manner of attempts to repair their ship and find their way back home but without betraying where their home, Earth, is, in case the Giants decide to invade it. Meanwhile, they also become embroiled in all manner of intrigues and sometimes life-endangering situations, due to their tiny size making them vulnerable to a wide range of novel threats, including giant-sized counterparts of the animal forms that exist back home on Earth.
No significantly famous stars appeared in Land of the Giants, perhaps the best known being Gary Conway, who played the lead character, Captain Steve Burton. However, several familiar faces of the future made early guest appearances in it. They include John Carradine, Lee Meriwether, Jonathan Harris (Dr Zachary Smith in Lost in Space, also from the late 1960s), and Jack Albertson (who went on to feature in the afore-mentioned 1970s movie The Poseidon Adventure, as well as the very popular 1970s TV sit-com Chico and the Man, which I loved – Albertson being the man, with Chico being played by the tragically short-lived Freddie Prinze).
As with The Invaders, episodes of Land of the Giants can currently be watched for free on YouTube, including the very first one – click here to access it (albeit in a very small screen size.) [UPDATE - due to its containing Disney copyright content, this episode is no longer available to watch on YouTube in the UK, but other episodes, including the second one, still are.]
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Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly
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I too found the 1st episode and a few others on YouTube. It is a wonderful personal effort by David Vincent, played by Roy Thinnes. There may be a source for all episodes, but I haven't found it.
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