The Invisible Enemy

When Ben Brady took over as producer for the second season of OL, he wanted to do shows that were much more straightforward science fiction than the gothic melodramas and odd experimentations that were part of the charm of the Joseph Stefano version. "The Invisible Enemy" is one of the examples of what Brady's vision for the series was. This is not a bad episode, just a very nuts-and-bolts science fiction tale about what is attacking astronauts when they land on Mars. There is no philosophizing about humanity's place in the cosmos, commentary about the grotesque aspects of our natures, or even a whole lot of awe and mystery.

Adam West goes to Mars and encounters a crab monster.

Whenever this hour is mentioned one thing enters my mind: the studio set for the surface of Mars. Who cares if some of the spaceship crew are not so interesting, who cares if the crab monster in the sand looks terrible, you just remember the look of Mars. It is these visual things that often make an Outer Limits show so special and that is the case with The Invisible Enemy. But there is suspense as well.

Adam West is fine in the lead role but you will not see any of Bruce Wayne or Batman in his character here, he is just playing the concerned spaceman who keeps looking out the window of his rocket.

The first manned expedition to Mars lands, but all contact is lost, three years later a second expedition goes up, led by Major Merritt and Jack Buckley. Buckley makes it his mission to discover what happened to the first crew.

A real space chiller, more than average shades of horror about this one, and it worked very well, for the time this packed in the scares, I bet this caused a few sleepless nights.

Shades of Dune and Doctor Who, this seemed like a highly original episode, way ahead of its time. I keep expecting the standard in this second series to drop off, it hasn't.

Very good performances throughout, Adan West of course stood out. Rudy Solari did a fine job also, no complaints here.

Production wise, they did a very fine job, I thought the sand monsters looked very good, they definitely looked menacing, great job on a relatively low budget. Dated now or course, just remember this goes back all the way to 1964.

7/10.

The first manned expedition to Mars has successfully landed, and the two-man crew explores the surface of the planet when something goes horribly wrong, and all contact is lost. Three years later, Earth tries again, this time sending a four-man crew to re-investigate, when tragedy strikes again, and two more men are lost. Major Merritt(played by Adam West) and Captain Jack Buckley(played by Rudy Solari) discover the true nature of the mystery, voracious sand sharks that may prevent them taking off again...Paper thin story with outdated science(an atmosphere on Mars?) still manages to be entertaining on a Halloween-viewing level. Not to be taken seriously of course, but watchable.

A spaceship from Earth is sent to look into the possibilities of colonizing Mars. The two astronauts however are attacked by an unseen entity and disappear. Three years later a new expedition of four men is sent led by Adam West to discover what happened and find the remains of the old ship. As figured, they start getting knocked off one by one by the same unseen enemy, however they soon make a shocking discovery of who or what is attacking them. This is a pretty ok episode that I loved to watch especially when I was younger. Watching it know it's easy to see its faults, as a lot of what's happening could probably be avoided by the characters who are supposed to be trained military astronauts not making stupid decisions. The creature on display however is pure 50s b movie gold and is why this is getting the rating it is as it's pretty much the only memorable thing about this, that and of course starring a young pre-Batman Adam West. The original short story this was based on sounds a lot better than how this turned out, and after finding out the script was re-written multiple times it's not surprising.