Review of "The Invaders: Alien Missile Threat," by Paul S. Newman

Review of

The Invaders: Alien Missile Threat, by Paul S. Newman


Four out of five stars

 This pocket illustrated novel by Whitman is a companion to the television series called “The Invaders.” It ran for two seasons 67-68 and starred Roy Thinnes as architect David Vincent. Vincent accidently witnessed an alien landing and then made it his mission in life to thwart their attempt to take control of Earth. In this book, an alien craft explodes in space, high enough and large enough so that a large segment of the American population witnesses it.

 Needing energy resources, the aliens are trying to get control of some nuclear power at a government facility and have infiltrated it. Vincent and some human allies that he manages to acquire battle with them in the hope to thwart the alien’s nefarious plot. At the end, David and his comrades in arms defeat the aliens, but in a manner where all proof of their existence is destroyed. Which was a recurrent theme of the series, for one of the main premises is that Vincent is very much a lone sentry standing against the alien control of Earth.

 This was a science fiction series that demonstrated some promise, yet it was constrained by the seeming necessity of keeping Vincent as an isolated battler against the powerful alien forces that can assume human form. While he does find a small number of people that believe his premise, they are rare and isolated.  Which points up a weakness in the science backdrop of the show. The energy requirements of moving from planet to planet is so large that even the technology of the sixties would have detected it. The idea that a spaceship could enter the atmosphere and land undetected is too far-fetched to be believed.