The Invaders.

Richardcoulter · 23/02/14 - 18:18

I remember watching this as a child in the 70's. Our local ITV station was Yorkshire Television, but some of my family were on a cable service called 'Link' IIRC.

They used to advertise a FOUR channel TV service in the days when people in genetal only had BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. The fourth channel was Granada and every Saturday evening we would gather round to watch 'The Invaders'.

I see it is being shown on The Horror Channel from tomorrow (24/2/14).

More info. here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061265/

I wonder if I will enjoy it as much all these years later

Anyone who wants to give it a go can find it on The Horror Channel each evening at 8pm, with a repeat the following day at 3pm.

LM · 23/02/14 - 18:22

I have series recorded it and gonna give it a go.
Nice to see Horror channel playing something different for once. All they show is Xena, highlander, dark angel, twilight zone, star trek and some awful films on a continuing basis.

Verence · 23/02/14 - 19:23

little-monster wrote: »

I have series recorded it and gonna give it a go.
Nice to see Horror channel playing something different for once. All they show is Xena, highlander, dark angel, twilight zone, star trek and some awful films on a continuing basis.

It's not as it they are showing the original b/w version

Richardcoulter · 23/02/14 - 19:36

little-monster wrote: »

I have series recorded it and gonna give it a go.
Nice to see Horror channel playing something different for once. All they show is Xena, highlander, dark angel, twilight zone, star trek and some awful films on a continuing basis.

I've been watching The Twilight Zone and Hammer House of Horror on The Horror Channel too.

I'm not sure if any other ITV regions showed The Invaders apart from Granada. I know that Yorkshire Television didn't.

I seem to remember an American voice dramatically proclaiming that it was a "Quinn Martin production" either at the beginning or at the end

Richardcoulter · 24/02/14 - 22:38

Did anybody watch the first episode earlier at 8pm? I just wondered what it was like, I won't be able to see it until the 3pm repeat tomorrow.

Richardcoulter · 25/02/14 - 19:29

Well, I've seen it now. Obviously, It wasn't as exciting as it was when I was a child, but I still enjoyed it

swingaleg · 25/02/14 - 20:20

is that the one............'.it all started with a deserted diner and a man too tired to sleep'

or something like that !

I remember that as a kid .........:D...........I grew up in Granadaland

Philip Nixon · 26/02/14 - 15:28

swingaleg wrote: »

is that the one............'.it all started with a deserted diner and a man too tired to sleep'

or something like that !

I remember that as a kid .........:D...........I grew up in Granadaland

Yes that's the one, there are star names from the time period in this show like Roddy McDowell ( planet of the apes, Poseidon Adventure etc), I know Gene Hackman makes one of his earliest tv appearances in one show, Michael Rennie of Day the earth stood still)

LM · 26/02/14 - 15:37

Gonna watch the first two episodes soon. I am already expecting it to be quite bad to be honest. Most of the old sci-fi shows from that time period have aged terribly or are incredibly cringey to watch now.

Straker · 28/02/14 - 13:23

little-monster wrote: »

Gonna watch the first two episodes soon. I am already expecting it to be quite bad to be honest. Most of the old sci-fi shows from that time period have aged terribly or are incredibly cringey to watch now.

This one hasn`t. It is the progenitor of all paranoid SF TV and in Thinnes has an utterly believable central character. I would recommend anyone coming to it anew to get the DVDs and watch them all through sequentially as I realised on a re-viewing several years ago, rarely for the period, there is some satisfying continuity of story and plot-points between episodes. It`s a total classic and in addition you can lap up the period detail in glorious colour - Next best thing to actual time-travel! Along with The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone it`s one of the key genre classics.

Gusto Brunt · 06/04/15 - 13:28

I can't believe they only made two series of this show.

I've watched them all but every time I re-visit them I think to myself, 'have I seen this one before..?'

Which of course I have.

Biffo the Bear · 06/04/15 - 18:05

I think I saw all of these way back when. One thing I liked, which stuck with me, is that he did actually manage to get a lot of people on his side. This was against the grain of the normal 'perpetual paranoia' type sci-fi of the era, as it gave the viewer hope.

scott789s · 06/04/15 - 22:24

Loud dramatic voice "A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION……"

mrbernay · 17/06/16 - 20:09

I came late to this as Horror Channel is not in most mags and have watched nearly all of this latest re-run. It's great to see it in colour as, when it was originally shown on ITV in 67 and 68, it was in black and white. It is also a brilliant "history" programme seeing how life was in the US in the 60s. It's also anti Red (the aliens die red) and anti Vietnam War (last night's episode was flagrantly saying that). One question, though. Why aren't they showing 3 of the final episodes in this run? Did they show them in previous runs?

Verence · 17/06/16 - 22:58

mrbernay wrote: »

I came late to this as Horror Channel is not in most mags and have watched nearly all of this latest re-run. It's great to see it in colour as, when it was originally shown on ITV in 67 and 68, it was in black and white. It is also a brilliant "history" programme seeing how life was in the US in the 60s. It's also anti Red (the aliens die red) and anti Vietnam War (last night's episode was flagrantly saying that). One question, though. Why aren't they showing 3 of the final episodes in this run? Did they show them in previous runs?

The last time I watched the show on Horror I noticed they didnt show some episodes. One of the "missing" episodes was The Vise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCels2Wl7Vw

mrbernay · 20/06/16 - 20:29

Thanks Verence. I will catch that later. Do you know why this ep and 2 others at the end of series 2 were pulled by Horror. I sent the channel a mail but doubt I will ever get a reply ;-)

moviesman · 23/06/16 - 21:47

little-monster wrote: »

I have series recorded it and gonna give it a go.
Nice to see Horror channel playing something different for once. All they show is Xena, highlander, dark angel, twilight zone, star trek and some awful films on a continuing basis.

Hopefully after this run of the Invaders this channel will show Branded, The Rifleman, with Chuck Conners, Mission Imposssible, Black Beauty, The Famous Five, or Children of the Stones.

mrprosser · 24/06/16 - 23:49

I used to love watching it in the mid 80's on BBC2. I always wondered who "Quinn Martin" was... and what else he had produced!

Verence · 25/06/16 - 19:21

mrbernay wrote: »

Thanks Verence. I will catch that later. Do you know why this ep and 2 others at the end of series 2 were pulled by Horror. I sent the channel a mail but doubt I will ever get a reply ;-)

I've never seen The Vise myself so the only reason that I can think why it isn't shown on Horror is this... A lot of the major characters in that episode are black so perhaps some of the white characters use certain words about them that would be unacceptable in this day and age

Verence · 25/06/16 - 19:29

mrprosser wrote: »

I used to love watching it in the mid 80's on BBC2. I always wondered who "Quinn Martin" was... and what else he had produced!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinn_Martin

I suppose the most famous show he produced would be The Fugitive but he also produced The Streets of San Francisco which is currently being shown on CBS Drama (Sky 149) at 1pm on weekday afternoons

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The Invaders.

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