Review of "The Invaders: Moonshot," episode 6 of the 1960’s television show

Review of

The Invaders: Moonshot, episode 6 of the 1960’s television show

Four out of five stars

 Science fiction has a long history in television, some of it bad, yet some of it was intellectually challenging. In “The Invaders” architect David Vincent is resting on the side of the road in an isolated area when he witnesses the landing of an alien craft. From the opening, the viewer learns that they are from another galaxy and have arrived on Earth for the express purpose of making it their home. It is made clear that they really have little use for humans. The aliens are capable of taking a form that is very close to human, but there are flaws that Vincent has learned to spot. Vincent has made exposing their threat his mission in life.

 The premise of this episode is that structures have been seen on the Moon and a three-man team is about to launch to land on the Moon and investigate. It is the goal of the aliens to sabotage this probe and to do so, they have replaced one member of the crew by one of their own.

 With the help of an initially skeptical NASA official, David Vincent struggles to expose the aliens for what they are. Although the officials seem extremely skeptical, there is a hint that there is higher level knowledge of the presence of the invaders. For when the wife of an astronaut tells the launch director that her husband has been replaced, he immediately moves to have him taken off the spacecraft.

 This episode is fairly well acted and the special effects are well within the limits of the late sixties. The series was one of the better science fiction shows of the sixties and can be watched by the modern viewer without cringing at the premise or the implementation.