The Invaders was created by Larry Cohen and ran for two seasons (53 episodes) between January 10th 1967 to March 26th 1968. The distinctive score for the show was composed by Dominic Frontiere (Twelve O’Colck High, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Matt Houston). The series was a Quinn Martin Production.
Architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes), accidentally learns of a secret alien invasion whilst “looking for a short cut he never found.” Vincent travels the U.S. attempting to foil the aliens’ plots and warn a sceptical populace of the danger.
As the series progresses Vincent is able to convince a small number of people to help him fight the aliens. It was notable that normally at least one individual, often a key figure, such as a USAF intelligence officer (‘The Innocent’), a police officer (‘Genesis’, ‘The Spores’), a U.S. Army major (‘Doomsday Minus One’), or a NASA official (‘Moonshot’) etc. would become aware of the alien threat and survive the story.
In ‘The Leeches’ a millionaire (Arthur Hill) survives an alien abduction after being rescued by Vincent, while in ‘Quantity: Unknown’ a scientist (Susan Strasberg) is convinced of alien technology, in ‘The Saucer’ guest stars Ann Francis and Charles Drake witness an alien saucer’s landing.
In the second season larger groups of surviving witnesses were featured in episodes (an entire group in the episodes ‘Dark Outpost’ and ‘The Pursued’) and three scientists in ‘Labyrinth’, most significantly millionaire industrialist Edgar Scoville (Kent Smith) who became a semi-regular character as of December 1967, heading a small but influential group from the episode ‘The Believers.’
Later episodes saw the military involved (‘The Peacemaker’) as Vincent’s claims were now clearly being taken more seriously. In ‘The Miracle’ (guest starring Barbara Hershey) after an alien encounter Vincent manages to retain a piece of alien technology both as evidence and for examination by both his group & the authorities.
The conclusion of the show left many fans confused. Where as The Fugitive had a distinctive resolution, The Invaders would instead remain open ended although Vincent does finally convinces a key figure, an initially sceptical special assistant to the Attorney General (Mark Richman), that the Invaders have arrived, after first defeating an alien plan with a special weapon (the aliens withdrawing all their key personnel from Earth prior to its use). Viewers were left with a closing narration telling us that Vincent, Edgar Scoville, and the now convinced Special Assistant will join forces as the vanguard to watch for any return of the Invaders!
Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger was Toei Company's 37th entry in its long-running Super Sentai Series. It aired from February 17th 2013 to February 9th 2014 for 49 episodes. Long ago in the Read more
Zorro's Fighting Legion is a 1939 Republic Pictures film serial consisting of twelve chapters. It features Reed Hadley as Zorro. The plot revolves around his alter-ego Don Diego's fight against Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
Zapped is a British sci-fi/fantasy sitcom that takes place in both in the real world and in a town called Munty which exists in a medieval fantasy world. The series Read more
Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan was a Philippine fantasy-drama television that span off from Space Sheriff Shaider. Originally it was conceived as a Filipino remake of Shaider but the Toei Company rejected the Read more
Mackenzie Crook returns in a new episode of his interpretation of Barbara Euphan Todd's Worzel Gummidge. Crook already has two episodes under his belt which debuted last Christmas- The Scarecrow Read more
In Mackenzie Crook's second episode of Worzel Gummidge a mysterious man arrival to Scatterbrook known as The Green Man (Michael Palin). Through the episode it is revealed that The Green Man Read more
Anticipation was high for Mackenzie Crook's interpretation of Barbara Euphan Todd's scarecrow adventures and with many seemingly already making their mind up based on the trailer it was an uphill Read more
Children's TV is no stranger to weird psychedelic visions but none have ever matched the trippy shizzle that legendary magician Paul Daniels (and wife Debbie McGee) came up with for Read more
Debuting in 1983 and running for eight episodes (of which three episodes were directed by Bill Bixby), Wizards and Warriors, was a fantasy show which focused on two neighbouring kingdoms Read more
It is Cult Faction's sad duty to report that William Lucking passed away at the age of 80 years old back on October 18th 2021 at his home in Las Read more
Created by Tom Greene, Wildside debuted on March 21st 1985 and ran for six episodes. The show starred William Smith, J. Eddie Peck, Howard Rollins, Sandy McPeak, Terry Funk, John D'Aquino, Read more
Whiz Kids was created by Philip DeGuere and Bob Shayne and originally aired from October 5, 1983 to June 2, 1984, lasting one season and consisting of 18 episodes. Richie Read more
Debuting in 1998 and running for thirteen episodes, Welcome to Paradox was an anthology show where all the stories took place in the fictional future city of Betaville although the Read more
Warrior of Love Rainbowman was a tokusatsu series created by Kōhan Kawauchi. It was the first superhero TV series produced by Toho Company Ltd., and ran from October 6th 1972 to September 18th 1973 Read more
In 1953, Earth experienced a War of the Worlds. Common bacteria stopped the aliens, but it didn't kill them. Instead, the aliens lapsed into a state of deep hibernation. Now Read more
Voyagers! was a science fiction time travel-based television series that ran between 1982 and 1983. It starred Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce and lasted for one season of twenty episodes. Read more
One of my favorite science fiction shows when I was a child was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, starring Richard Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson and David Hedison Read more
Vivarium comes from the minds of director Lorcan Finnegan and writer Garret Shanley. It has been developed from their previous 2012 short film Foxes. Vivarium almost immediately evokes memories of Read more
Brett Summers
Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...
William Woodson’s dramatic baritone voice provided the opening narration each week for The Invaders.
Multi-award winning writer Harlan Ellison was interested in writing for TI. He ended up in a intense argument with Adrian Samish(uber producer Quinn Martin’s assistant)that Harlan leaped over the conference table and punched Samish. Ellison was a brilliant writer and would have created some fantastic scripts for TI just as he’d done on The Outer Limits(TOS) & Star Trek(TOS).
However,after this incident he was never hired to write for TI.
Series creator Larry Cohen was inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps.In that movie the leader of an espionage group had a missing finger.
Cohen created the crooked finger for the aliens.
A number of the people who worked on TI thought that was a silly idea.
Art director George Chan created the fantastic space ship for the aliens as well as the regeneration chamber. He created many other items as well.
TI benefited from the variety of location shooting the series did over its 2-year run. Location shooting is quite expensive. Many television shows back then avoided doing such filming as much as possible.
Quinn Martin wanted his many different series to do as much location work as was feasible because it would enhance the look of his shows.
QM Productions received more phone calls & mail on TI than any other of his popular TV shows.