The Invisibles

A trio of men join a small unit of Alien invaders, who's mission is to infiltrate the top jobs in The Country and take over by stealth. One of the trio isn't all he makes out to be.

I had wondered what was meant by The term 'Invisibles,' I was half expecting to encounter a series of beings that physically couldn't be seen, I think it was more that those infected were hiding in plain sight.

This is yet another quality episode, I loved some of the ideas the had here, I really appreciated the strong horror vibe, and I liked the very strong characters. There were definitely vibes of Invasion of The Body snatchers about this one.

Some of the visuals are pretty grim, seeing Spain and Planetta pinned down and infected, that's pretty nasty stuff. The creatures themselves looked rather good, not too dissimilar to Doctor Who's cybermats.

Don Gordon did a great job as Spain, Tony Mordente was excellent also as Planetta, Neil Hamilton was terrific.

8/10.

Sounds weird to see Don Gordon as hero, he was so stigmatized actor as often playing thug characters, as strange it may seems he proved be at once that deserves more best roles on his low profile career, Gordon is a prolific actor, sadly his menacing semblance led him to another steering, in the invisibles we got weirdo characters for a change, the odd hunchback Walter Burke is one of them, also the classy crook George Macready (Gilda), playing the leader of the Invisibles, the weak point we shall say that was the little freak alien monster.

The storyline lays out the same premise of the forthcoming classic series "The Invaders", which high positions on US government will be slowly occupied by the invisibles to take over the America an later the world, the screenplay seems at first glance a bit complex to simple insight, the inoculations fall down into freakish concept, letting the viewers a slight let down, worst when Don Gordon faces Neil Hamilton at oddity scene on phone call, Dee Hartford improves a bit as sexy female presence on the show, although it wasn't enough, the outcome leaves much to be desired, far below of the high pattern of the Outer Limits's trademark. Should be better.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2021 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.

The Invisibles is directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Joseph Stefano. It stars Don Gordon, George Macready, Dee Hartford, Walter Burke and Tony Mordente. Music is by Dominic Frontiere and cinematography by Conrad L. Hall.

Season 1 - Episode 19

Luis Spain (Gordon) infiltrates a secret organisation known only as The Invisibles and what he discovers shakes him literally to the core. We are in the territory of alien possession for this atmospherically tight episode. The twists perk the narrative no end, ensuring dialogue must be followed closely, and it all builds towards a haunting conclusion that has made this a favourite of many a series fan. 7/10

Don Gordon stars as Luis Spain, a seemingly friendless, disaffected man who, along with other men just like him, are recruited to join a secret organization called the Invisibles which turns out to be run by the state governor named Hillerman(played by George Macready) who has been taken over by ages-old, parasitic tick-like creatures from outer space that need human men as hosts so that they can be placed near high positions of government in order to take over the country's leaders. Spain must find a way to stop them, which wont be easy...Neil Hamilton and Richard Dawson costar as co-conspirators. Memorable looking and sounding creatures are the highlight of somewhat rambling plot, with overtones of both "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers".

I have this series on DVD but now rarely watch discs (I'm lazy), so when I found this free, on demand, streaming on one of the free with commercial streamers (Pluto), I decided to check it out. I've watched many OL episodes over my boomer life but there are a few that remain unseen, this was one of them. I watched it with my wife, over dinner, probably the way most people watched it when it first aired (although now we have mush bigger TVs!). She seemed engaged by it, which is always good. The premise of the story is that extraterrestrials (or maybe demons? Lol) are controlling humans in powerful positions to take over the world for their species. This is a recurrent plot in sci-fi. There are probably films that predate it but the earliest I can think of a film with aliens (not talking about zombies or vampires controlled by others) is the 1953 film Invaders From Mars. Very similar concept of the alien injecting a human in the back of the neck. Roger Corman would also do it in 1956 with It Conquered The World, starring Lee Van Cleef, Peter Graves and Beverley Garland, a must watch if you really enjoyed The Invisibles and have not watched it yet. "It" was riffed on MST3K and its awesome but I enjoyed it by itself as well. Again, this is the alien in the back of the neck injection action, so we can see a pattern here. Of course the most famous alien injecting itself into humans is in the "Alien" franchise which is still making big budget films in 2024. I had to go back and look for Richard Dawson, his role here was so different then his usual cool Limey roles, I forgot it was him! Any fan of George Macready will really like him here, he has one crazy scene that breaks his polished mold into a thousand pieces! Analyzing all the sci fi things he was in, to me, he is like the 1960s version on Lionel Atwill. BTW, check him out in the other OL episode he was in, "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" (which also has a pre Spock, Leonard Nimoy). Everyone will notice Walter Burke, the hobbit looking guy. But what probably makes this a higher rated episode then the average OL is Don Gordon! He pulls it off for my suspension of belief. My rating and my overall entertainment factor is 7 out of 10. Judging by the number of reviews on this one episode (almost 20), its a good episode! BTW, if you look for this on Pluto they have two choices, an episode that is streaming now and one that says watch now, the later choice will take you to the episode list to chose which one to watch. As much as you may want to binge on this series, its probably best to watch it over a long period of time because the show can seem repetitive if one episode is watched right after another (the same dramatic music doesn't help, lol).