The Invisible Enemy

Just like in a Friday night chiller thriller movie, astronauts are getting killed off one by one by some odd looking sand monster(s) It's not too bad, but it is oddly casted. Adam West plays the lead and at times he sounds like the straight man in a comedy routine. It's Batman vs monsters who live in the sand!! Ted Knight is also oddly cast in this. It was hard to take Ted Baxter serious. Anyway, it's worth a watch if you like those "getting killed one by one" type horror movies.

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.

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.

"The Outer Limits" was a neat series but even its greatest fans would admit that sometimes the monsters or aliens in the show were really cheesy. But, in spite of this, the show still was very good--even some of those with the silliest special effects. So, you can't blame the failure of "The Invisible Enemy". Sure, the monster is VERY cheesy (a creature that looks like it's part octopus, part crab and mostly plastic) but even still it could have been a good show. The problem here is definitely the writing.

The show begins with a rocket landing on Mars. Soon after, both crew members are killed and Earth has no idea what caused it. So, they send another ship with four guys--and VERY specific orders to be careful and investigate the deaths. Soon, one of these idiots is killed--and you marvel at how anyone can be THAT stupid and careless considering that they already know the place is very deadly. So what happens next? most of the rest of the crew behaves even stupider!! Defying orders and all common sense, they start making dumb choices and behaving like unprofessional half-wits! How can the audience possibly buy into the stories if the characters behave this way?! There are other serious flaws with the plot if you think about it. Where were the cameras and video cameras to try to record exactly WHAT was killing everyone?! Why not bring LOTS of weapons and safety equipment?! Why not send multiple ships? The bottom line is that aside from a nice ending, this is just a very dumb episode. And, sadly, it could have been a lot better had the script just been polished a bit.

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.