ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Okay, chalk this up to pandemic cabin fever, but I'm still extremely proud of the fact that I took this nice photo of a model based on the frumpy, squat design of the saucers from this great series (which I own the box set of) —






— and turned it into this gorgeous, streamlined, doom-topped masterpiece!





— and pasted it into this image of an Air Force base with Earth-made versions of it —





— along with this image of a trio of ships flying in formation!





Maybe it's just me, but this saucer includes the best aspects of the Harryhausen ships —





— and Klaatu's ship —





— and the gorgeous saucer from my favorite sci-fi novel from the 1950s!



_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[filmdetective]

"Better Not touch the hull, Pal. It's still hot."
-the voice from the saucer that Daniel Frye encountered
in the White Sands Incident.

And who can forget the the countless gems of wisdom from both Dino Krespedon and the aliens he encountered?

[Gord Green]

"Farewell Goods Brothers"


_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[filmdetective]

[Gord Green]

Those of us who really know find a lot of truth behind the misdirection.

And the REAL Men in Black are not all fiction either.

These people are not "all" crazy!
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Pow]

More Invaders Stuff.

The music by composer Dominic Frontiere created for "The Outer Limits" episode "The Form of Things Unknown" was also used on TI TV series.

BTW, That episode of TOL also served as a backdoor pilot for a weekly TV show. The producers of TOL wanted to also do another anthology TV series. Unlike TOL, this new show would have been fantasy-based instead of sci~fi based like TOL.

On "Lost In Space," actress Angela Cartwright (Penny Robinson) tells how all the female cast members staged a silent protest over the fact that they felt the women were not given enough to do on that show.

June Lockhart (Maureen Robinson), Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson), and Angela did a scene where they were standing lined up and all of 'em extended their pinky finger just like the aliens on TI.

Angela said that it went unnoticed by the director but did not indicate which episode they did this on.

The crooked finger concept that was created for TI rarely would show up on the series second season.

TI creators Larry Cohen said that "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Invaders from Mars" were his inspirations when he came up with TI.

Alfred Hitchcock was also an inspiration for LC.

Larry always liked the lone man in jeopardy theme that was present in such AH films as "The 39 Steps" (1939), "Saboteur'' (1942), and "North by Northwest'' (1959).

The plot where an innocent man sees or discovers something dangerous but no one else is present when it happens, nor believes the man, was always intriguing to Larry.

During the run of TI we never learned about life on the aliens' world. We never learned the name of their planet or even their species.

Even though we do learn in the opening narration that the invaders home world is dying, we still don't know exactly why that is happening to their planet.

TI creator Larry Cohen also had created the TV western "Branded" starring Chuck Connors.

Cohen said that "Branded" was an allegory for the Hollywood Blacklist that took place in the 1950's.

TI was his allegory for the Communist paranoia that infused America at one time.

The Quinn Martin TV shows always were of high production values which QM insisted upon at all times.

QM would pay higher salaries to writers, directors, and actors compared to most other TV shows on at that time.

Such salaries would attract performers who rarely did television.

QM was somewhat uncomfortable with TI as it really wasn't his thing. QM shows were largely about detectives & law enforcement and not sci~fi.

QM produced TI because he had a contract with the ABC network who told him that if he would accept producing the show, then ABC would guarantee they'd place it on their mid-season TV schedule.

QM shows were pretty black & white regarding content. Doing a quirky, paranoid, and covertly political fantasy was most certainly not QM's style.

TI producers Alan Armer & Anthony Spinner did seek out established science-fiction writers to script TI.

According to them they said that oddly enough the sci~fi authors they talked to just did not know how to write for TV.

I've always wondered about that fact. I have read that because someone is a sensational sci~fi book author that their talent doesn't always translate well to writing scripted TV.

I've also read that such authors also have such vivid imaginations that the scripts they submit are so full of incredible ideas that it cannot possibly be produced on a TV budget.

Some of their concepts can also be so wild that the producers of a TV series just can't grasp these ideas, or feels the audience won't catch on.

Larry Cohen wanted to keep the alien's gadgetry off-screen as much as possible and create an aura of mystery about them for the series.

Larry Cohen had nothing to do with his creation once QM Productions took over the show.

Cohen would offer up advice---largely ignored by the producers---for the show.

Cohen felt that there were too many aliens in each episode and they became jokes as they were easily killed every week.

Other than the pilot episode where we see the alien's space ship, QM had no plans to have the ships appear anymore on the series.

"The Trial" which is considered one of the more sophisticated episodes was born of desperation.

A writer did not deliver his promised script to the production.

The producers had to quickly crank out a script for that week and it was one of the best ever done.

On the thirty-first episode, "The Believers," we see that David Vincent no longer faces the alien threat alone.

He meets with a group of wealthy & powerful individuals who are now working with Vincent against the invaders.

The idea behind that was not from the producers. ABC insisted that Vincent receive help. The group would explain where Vincent would get financial backing and resources in order to wage war against the aliens.

[johnnybear]

I believe that Target: Earth was the Lost in Space episode with the three ladies having the bent pinkies! They were playing a version of themselves, although alien in human form on a world where no one had an identity and they wanted to conquer the earth and learn about individuality!
JB

[Pow]

Gold Key comics published four issues of "The Invaders" with all four having been done by the terrific artist Dan Spiegle.

Issue # One : "The Vanishing Mountain!" ~ The Invaders want to destroy a United States base that is building a satellite that can detect their ships.

I can't tell you anything about this first issue as I don't have it as I do issues 2, 3, and 4.

Issue # Two: "The Orbit of Doom!" ~ U.S. astronauts are taken over by the aliens.

Item: The ease with which David Vincent is able to get onto a US military base where highly secure research is being conducted is ridiculous.

Issue # Three: "The Moon-Tilters" ~ The invaders install their Moon-Tilter device by a dam on an island. The device draws on the power of the dam in order to utilize it to shift the moon in its orbit which in turn causes the Earth's oceans to rise.

The oceans will inundate the continents and eradicate humans. The moon will resume its normal course and the waters will subside. The invaders will then conquer the planet.

Item: The fun about comic books back in the 1960s was that they could create stories that the live action television shows could never pull off.

The Invaders could not have possibly done this story due to budgets, shooting schedule, or the then level of special/visual effects.

But a comic book writer and artist have none of those limitations and they can let their imaginations run loose.

The Moon-Tilter alien contraption has a nifty design to it.

I was disappointed that the alien spaceship used in this issue wasn't the same saucer design from the TV show.

Not sure as to why? The craft wasn't specialized in some manner so as to have necessitated an original design.

Perhaps the artist was bored reproducing the alien's saucers from the TV show as he had done in other issues.

Maybe they wanted to give the readers something fresh and new?

I'm a big fan of the alien ship's look from the TV series and would prefer that the comic books simply retain it.

Creatively they can come up with original never-seen-before gimmicks for the comic books. The Moon-Tilter being one example.

Issue # 4 : The Doomsday Window" ~ David Vincent & Edgar Scoville obtain an alien device that they attempt to figure out its purpose.

It is a plain looking hoop.

In time they discover that this hoop not only can grow larger in size; it creates a space-warp vortex that allows the invaders space ships to travel through to Earth. It could save them a great deal of time journeying through outer space.

Item: This was one clever plot I thought with this hoop concept.

During a battle with the aliens, David manages to grab one of their ray guns. It doesn't fire for him though.

He surmises that it requires mental activation and commands it to fire, which it does, immolating the aliens.

The TV series never established any premise like this one in regards to how the ray gun is fired.

Usually on the television series whenever an alien was disintegrated, his ray gun went up with him.

I kept thinking that if Vincent could manage to obtain a ray gun on the show he could (a) be able to use it as weapon, and (b) finally have some alien tech to offer as proof to the disbelievers that aliens are here on Earth.

Issue # 4 "Rendezvous at Grizzly Mesa" ~ An alien, Primus, alerts David & Edgar about a saucer landing. He says he wants to help them because he does not believe the Earth should be conquered by his race. He also tells them there are others just like him who believe as he does.

David & Edgar decide to check out this supposed landing of a space ship because, if it's true, it could be a fantastic opportunity to seize the space ship.

But can Primus be trusted, or is he luring Vincent & Scoville into a trap?

This was a pretty good story. They did have the alien captain of the saucer able to give a mental command to have the doors close, even though the captain was outside and not close to the vessel.

Again, something we never saw as an ability of the aliens on the TV show.

The saucer design is faithful to the one for the TV series.

The only thing different is that the artist has designed different looking — and not as cool — landing struts for the saucer.

[Bud Brewster]

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Magnificent post, Mike!

I wish I could find images of those comic books. They sound wonderful, based on your descriptions!

The only difference of opinion we have about this great show are the design of those darned saucers!

[Pow]

Your saucer design is sharp Bud, although the bubble at the top of the spaceship doesn't appeal to me.

I've found that there seems to be an overwhelming desire by artists to want to streamline everything.

For me, sometimes the bulky spaceship works just fine. The Battlestar Galactica would be one example. It was ginormous & bulky which worked great in that instance.

When they rebooted BG, they still retained that kinda bulky aspect to it somewhat.

So sometimes streamlining works for me; other times not.

Again, as you state, it's a matter of (subjective) taste.

[Pow]

DYK?

The Invaders producer Quinn Martin had an anthology sci~fi/supernatural TV show entitled "Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected" that premiered on CBS on February 2, 1977.

The show ran for only eight episodes.

One particular episode was "The Nomads" from February 23, 1977.

Synopsis: Attorney Paul Rogers (David Birney) is returning from a fishing trip one night and his car has a flat tire. As Paul goes about changing the tire, he witnesses a spaceship land nearby him.

Paul attempts to convinces the authorities about his astonishing event. However, no one believes him and Paul's history PTSD from having fought in Vietnam cast even more doubt about his story.

Yep, this was essentially a reworking of The Invaders pilot "Beachhead" from January 10, 1967.

I don't believe that this was an attempt by QM to resurrect The Invaders at all. It merely appears that he, or someone, on his staff thought that reworking The Invaders concept would make a decent one-shot episode for his Tales of the Unexpected.

It is available to view on Youtube if anyone is interested.

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

I like your saucer design Bud. But the landing gear look like they're too large for the rest of the ship. With your design, the landing gear should be about half that size to have any meaningful interior space.

Of course that is purely a personal, subjective opinion...AND ONLY MY OPINION COUNTS!!!

David.

[Pow]

My reasoning regarding the transparent dome is that such a highly technologically advanced civilization wouldn't have to resort to clear dome tops for their star ships.

They'd be beyond requiring such a thing for any practical purposes. Perhaps they could install one simply for their own pleasure.

Somehow the clear tops also come off more toy-like to me.

You could employ that voltaic glass that I've seen demos about and is utilized for a briefing room on the espionage TV show "MacGyver."

The clear glass can be made to become opaque when necessary.

Perhaps the dome section of a saucer could have that capability.

One of my favorite space craft is the one you have here from "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers."

I found these crafts ominous looking and mysterious, to have placed a clear top dome onto them would lessen that to me.

[Bud Brewster]