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Starring Roy Thinnes as architect David Vincent.
Being repeated on Channel Five at the moment, but - as is Five's way - at a ridiculous time. 4:20, Sunday Mornings.
There are two television shows that I remember being hooked on when I was a kid - Monkey at 6PM on Mondays and The Invaders on Sunday afternoons. While Monkey's been picked up and marketed as part of the 20-somethings' nostalgia boom, the Quinn Martin show seems to have been forgotten almost entirely. Which is odd, because it would have been the perfect money-maker during the X-Files period.
It's The Fugitive remade, with aliens replacing both the one-armed man and Lieutentant Gerard. Vincent's driving along at night, looking for a motel. Pulls over into a deserted parking lot and decides to have a kip in his car, only to be woken by a landing flying saucer. Spends the next couple of years trying to find evidence that will support his story while also trying to keep himself alive.
It's a standard Cold War tale, largely based on the film Invaders from Mars (the one where a little kid sees a saucer from out of his bedroom window and tries to persuade the adults in his town, only to find that - shock horror - they've nearly all been replaced by the Martians. Head Martian = the Mekon, basically).
But it's bloody good, despite being a bit derivative (and based on the usual Quinn Martin formula: "Tonight's Special Guest Stars!", "Chapter I", "Epilogue", you know the drill). And, for extra bonus points, Rian Hughes pinched the show's logo and used it on a certain comic book.
Presuming that they're going through the episodes in order, Five are coming to the end of Season 1 now. |
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