DVD Review The Invaders: The Complete Series DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[Charles 22]

I think the shot of the girl waving was at Alec Freeman, but the opening theme is edited to a shot of Straker. The first episode is filled with ogling of woman's backsides. Freeman is off to a really bad start as he cant stop boring holes in one operative's ass with his eyes and the Barry Gray soundtrack goes into a slide whistle and porno funk music. Yikes!

I must had seen that show maybe 4-5 years ago. Are you sure the backside devotion was that rampant episode one? Maybe you saw a special pron edition? I was pretty sure the bits in the theme were in the series somewhere, maybe entirely in the first epsiode. So, if you saw the total scene, the girl waved at another guy, Straker (Straker, Striker Streiker, I don't know) gets jealous and then goes and bitches her out. "Ensign, learn one thing very quickly here, no waving, no being friendly, and most off all no posing for butt shots. Have I made myself clear?" "Oh - and red alert everybody".

 

[johnnybear]

Ayesha was waving at Alec Freeman who waved at her too! Straker was a moody git who nobody took any chances with and you can understand why when you learn of how he lost his family due to his devotion to SHADO and the war with the aliens! True, there are plenty of men ogling women's butts in the first episode and why not? Women's bottoms are a most definite highlight of my life!
JB

 

[ScottRE]

I must had seen that show maybe 4-5 years ago. Are you sure the backside devotion was that rampant episode one? Maybe you saw a special pron edition? I was pretty sure the bits in the theme were in the series somewhere, maybe entirely in the first epsiode. So, if you saw the total scene, the girl waved at another guy, Straker (Straker, Striker Streiker, I don't know) gets jealous and then goes and bitches her out. "Ensign, learn one thing very quickly here, no waving, no being friendly, and most off all no posing for butt shots. Have I made myself clear?" "Oh - and red alert everybody".

100% sure. I have the series. The first episode is filled with Freeman being a horndog and those few minutes after the cold open are totally sleazy. It hasn't aged well at all.

10 minutes in for the example I mention but they have him metaphorically humping legs the moment he's introduced. Thankfully it's eliminated after this.



I'm no prude and I like a pretty gal as much as any straight guy, but this episode is way over the top with tue ogling. But maybe it's a US/UK thing....

 

[Charles 22]

100% sure. I have the series. The first episode is filled with Freeman being a horndog and those few minutes after the cold open are totally sleazy. It hasn't aged well at all.

10 minutes in for the example I mention but they have him metaphorically humping legs the moment he's introduced. Thankfully it's eliminated after this.



I'm no prude and I like a pretty gal as much as any straight guy, but this episode is way over the top with tue ogling. But maybe it's a US/UK thing....

Oh man, did I remember things incorrectly! First of all, the first frame was NOT the butt shot, but it was the first frame of HQ, in the parking lot as it turned out. I've skipped around, and I've yet to see another butt. Started at 10:00 played it at normal speed for a minute (BTW, when at a distance you have a fellow step into the office, whom resembles Richard Dawson as much as he does, you expect some butt shots pretty quick) and they were just talking with not even a woman present.

Butt (deliberate misspelling) I'll give it another go, butt (once again) a rather funny thing, probably intended, is when you get that first butt shot, it has the name of the episode and it looks like it's saying they've "identified" a butt. Oh, I'm dying here. You have to wonder if that was intentional or not. No wait, it has to be. The blasted episode is over six minutes in, and THEN you have the episode name? It may very well be that was the first thing you saw coming back from commercial break? While I'm on the subject, I'd always heard that those over the pond, maybe not all Europeans, think the breasts aren't an object of lust, for lack of a better word, but they have an obsession with legs instead. In the UK, this makes probably a lot of sense, since women in England anyway, always seem to have less upstairs (and yes, I'm sure there's exceptions, so I don't want some pic of an English broad with boobs the size of a London bus).

I will say too, that as far as butt shots go, that opening was quite lame since there wasn't any butt to see, but I suppose they're setting you up for the inevitable. So my next attempt to get the butt shots, I see Mr Dawson give her a hand hold (my what a gorgeous lady, rather reminds me of the Emma obsession we've had) and that goes on a while, and I'm thinking, my goodness Mr Spock hasn't a clue, as we're not talking amorous activity, but BUTT shots! Then I see the elevator scene and you get a glimpse of her butt, but (I'm starting to have a complex about every time I use the word 'but' now) That's more an incidental shot and SURELY not a butt shot proper. Then I see him reacting to her walking away, and I'm still not believing, especially because as close as the camera zoomed in, seemingly WANTING him to look downwards, it didn't appear he did. I don't know the purpose of doing that exactly, but it strikes me that he was supposed to look down. Anyway, they may had deliberately done that to lead you, then let go, and then, surprise, all-out butt shot. So yes, that's a butt shot proper, not only because if zoomed in there somewhat, but that she was wearing something tight too. A butt shot with the girl wearing a dress, as in the title segment, just isn't a butt shot proper, though if she were wearing something else, it would be.

Hmmm, now given Mr Dawson's horniness, I'm starting to wonder if that title sequence wasn't meant to convey HE was walking directly behind the girl with the dress? No, probably not, they just wanted to sneak in another butt shot to little or no purpose. Damn, even so, I can't believe that REAL butt shot just got erased in my head somehow, which was nearing 10:00. Good find Scott.

 

[johnnybear]

I think they were trying to show a possible future where the repressed British attitude to sex had evaporated and all people were free to be and feel sexually adequate!
JB

 

[Charles 22]

Ayesha was waving at Alec Freeman who waved at her too! Straker was a moody git who nobody took any chances with and you can understand why when you learn of how he lost his family due to his devotion to SHADO and the war with the aliens! True, there are plenty of men ogling women's butts in the first episode and why not? Women's bottoms are a most definite highlight of my life!
JB

I'll definitely need to watch that show again sometime relatively soon, because it's clear to me I've forgotten quite a lot. Butt (there I go again) frankly, I thought I properly diagnosed the lack of butt shots when I saw that entire series back-to-back, therefore thinking the first episode just had the opening HQ butt shot. Of course, I don't take into account remembering butt shots that much, butt I think it has to do with seeing the rest of the series being almost entirely devoid of them. You absorb the entire feel and thereby forget the butt devotion in the first episode.

And to think, of all those sixties films that had young uns doing the rock and roll dances, and they would go overtime focusing on a girl's butt - just ridiculous. So when you consider all the gratuitous butt shots in history, the UFO ones were pretty lame, and completely unnecessary. It almost always embarrassed me, especially when watching something with your family, and then BUTT SHOT. I can understand a sort of accidental on purpose shot/look, but focusing just on the butt, and for so long? It's just tacky as hell.

 

[Charles 22]

Scott RE: I have a question for you, or for anybody that has just seen this ENTIRE episode (I won't anyway). What is goign on there, with what we see in the opening theme? I'm referring to the scene with Straker walking away from the black-haired girl, and she's looking at him as he walks off as though he pooped on her party. I would love to know.

 

[ScottRE]

I think they were trying to show a possible future where the repressed British attitude to sex had evaporated and all people were free to be and feel sexually adequate!
JB

Nah. Gerry Anderson liked women. It felt like a British Sex Comedy for those moments. Alec Freeman was obviously intended to be a ladies man of the highest order. But later episodes gave the romances to Paul Foster after he was introduced. Freeman became a more serious second to Straker, but still down to earth. I'm glad they ditched the sleaze well before Wanda Ventham joined as Col. Lake. While they didn't do much to make her a three dimensional character, she was at least treated with respect.

 

[Charles 22]

I think they were trying to show a possible future where the repressed British attitude to sex had evaporated and all people were free to be and feel sexually adequate!
JB

No, I don't think that had anything that esoteric to do with it. Somebody just had an obsession, and they had to nail it down apparently. Although I will counter that somewhat and say it may had been they only used that as a draw, thinking it might suck more guys in? Because by no means was doing that anything original (but I'm not entirely sure if you want to get technical). I know of no history of butt shots I can consult. Yes, I was correct. I know damn well I saw butt shots before the UFO release of 1970. Sheesh, I think I dream of Jeannie had quite a few for a start, when they went into the rock and roll dance shots anyway (for Barbara Eden most likely). They may even had butt shots on the Sally Field Gidget tv show. But it didn't go back as far as seeing a Mrs Cleaver butt shot, or a Mrs Addams, or even a Mrs Munster, and sadly, not even one of Marilyn Munster. Now you might have got a Paul Lynde one in there somewhere in the early years (I'm laughing like Lynde now - well, actually I'm not, because I can't do his distinctive laugh, but I can talk like him PERFECTLY. I can definitely do voices, and Lynde was one I have been doing well for over a year). So what you have here is a guy that does SOME retro voices (fake Lynde laugh again).

Seriously, I can say "Oh really?" and already you know I have Lynde down. Unfortunately, as much as I want to be able to do Shatner, I've only managed to sound EXACTLY like him with only one word, and that's "Spock!"

 

[johnnybear]

Charles, I hate to ask but what films included tons of butt shots? I'd love to see 'em!
JB

 

[Charles 22]

Charles, I hate to ask but what films included tons of butt shots? I'd love to see 'em!
JB

Well it was spread out, so to speak, you know, over a series here, and a series there. And then there was pron. Oh, I think Dr Who might had cornered the market on it though. How? Why all the Dalek butt shots of course.

 

[Charles 22]

Nah. Gerry Anderson liked women. It felt like a British Sex Comedy for those moments. Alec Freeman was obviously intended to be a ladies man of the highest order. But later episodes gave the romances to Paul Foster after he was introduced. Freeman became a more serious second to Straker, but still down to earth. I'm glad they ditched the sleaze well before Wanda Ventham joined as Col. Lake. While they didn't do much to make her a three dimensional character, she was at least treated with respect.

I have zee bad news to announce. I tried to entice you to find our beloved Emma episode of IDOJ, but it seems you don't have it or want to expend the effort (I wouldn't either). But immediately allow me to contradict myself and say since you didn't display childlike eagerness to do it (naughty you) I only ended up enticing myself. Yes, I went through every single disc I have (but didn't open them all of course), and I have a shocker. It was wasted effort. I do not have a single Emma IDOJ within grasp. Apparently I sold them all, and I think I had all the color seasons. Blast. Anyway, this great mystery will likely have to remain so, until the BD set comes out; if it ever does.

BTW, I "think" I heard some people on here distrusting the release because it was Mill Creek? I have had the That 70s on BD, plus my current watched Rockford Files (and maybe more), and while neither are dropdead Star Trek TNG quality, they are VERY good, talking in terms of what I'm seeing and audio. Whether it has one tenth of an inch less of the actual film, etc, I haven't the foggiest. I also can compare some SD Rockford Files I still have, and the picture is at least twice as good (480, or so, compared to 1080, it ought to be). If IDOJ is anything like those two BD sets, nobody has anything to worry about, unless you're into some weird nonsense most nobody else cares about.

 

[ScottRE]

Well, I just didn't want to do a deep dive into the series until I got the Blu-ray sets. If this scene exists, I have it because I have the entire series. When I get the new set and I start watching it, I'll keep an eye out for it. UFO was much easier to dig up because I knew exactly where to find what I was looking for.

I'm not concerned about the picture quality, I have a few of Mill Creek's BD sets, but it would be nice if they restored the proper opening credits to seasons two and three. That may or may not qualify as the "weird nonsense "you're talking about, but it's important too many fans who want to see the series as it was originally presented. Naturally, everybody's mileage varies.

I don't think they put any real work into restoration, they'll just put out the prints they were given. I have Airwolf and Knight Rider and while both look just fine, they don't look like they were cleaned up in any significant way.

 

[Harry-N]

Ever hear of a show called THE INVADERS?

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is seriously off topic! Start discussing "The Invaders" and leave the discussion for other shows in their appropriate threads. If not then posts will be deleted. Thank you.

 

[johnnybear]

The early Invaders episodes were the better ones I thought with the premiere being the best and scariest of the lot! The later ones tended to lose the alien taste and were more like weekly spy adventures!
JB

 

[Harry-N]

The series rode a fine line between reality and science fiction. By grounding the stories in the personal lives of those outsiders in each story, the theory was that adults who weren't particularly fans of science fiction would hang around for more of the realism.

The fact that it was modeled on the success of THE FUGITIVE, and ran on the same evenings, gave initial viewers a sense of familiarity with the show's structure - the narrator, the Act breaks, epilogs, etc.

 

[Charles 22]

The early Invaders episodes were the better ones I thought with the premiere being the best and scariest of the lot! The later ones tended to lose the alien taste and were more like weekly spy adventures!
JB

I had something of the opposite impression. I take the series I think in a larger view. The early episodes you could see in any order and it be relatively inconsequential (Of course, even the latter ones were that way quite a bit, but let me press on). The later ones were showing progress towards the goal of the whole show, and that was spreading the word and actually getting a team up to coordinate things. The last episode was HUGE, as then they were actually getting to the point of sort of recruiting aliens; if that were possible. For that overall view, I think you would had found a season three as even more key towards achieving the removal of the invasion, but there would probably be a lot of fluff in there to try to go the whole year.

While I absolutely love the premiere, especially the girl somewhat friendly to him turning up to be an enemy. You saw it almost the first time you saw her, but they did real good in putting you in doubt, since she sympathized with him for quite a spell. But I think the last episode was every bit as great, but, of course, shows often have real good episodes to bide you over till the next year (even if they're not cliffhangers, which Invaders was not). Hmm, speaking of which, since I saw the entire series an episode a day (yes, it can be done and the series not stale on you completely) I don't recall season one's finale. Any clue if that one was better than S2's?

 

[ScottRE]

Funny, I don't remember the season 2 finale, but season 1 I do. It ended with a pretty solid victory for David Vincent, but still with room to go on in the second year. It was really quite good. I need to revisit this show once I replace my lost set.

 

[Charles 22]

Funny, I don't remember the season 2 finale, but season 1 I do. It ended with a pretty solid victory for David Vincent, but still with room to go on in the second year. It was really quite good. I need to revisit this show once I replace my lost set.

*******WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS******* Oh man, it has Susan Pleschette as some kind of psycho alien. I don't recall all the details of course, but she actually killed some of her fellow aliens. IIRC, she was like a half alien, who sympathized with the humans mostly. The ending, oh the ending. She was being basically held up by David, because I think she had been injured, or weakened in some way, and they enter the halls of some great government building, because she's going to tell them of the alien invasion, and now David would have somebody else, somebody authentic to tell they're here.

But as they're maybe halfway through the camera shot in that hall, the sheriff that had been in the episode, seemingly out of nowhere guns her down! My mother and I were in shock "NO, NO, NOOOOOO!" Sound familiar?

Hmmm, I'm curious now. I went to IMDB, and they have the one I just described as the next-to-last episode, and yet a Susan Oliver episode, that may had came some two episode earlier as the last. Maybe my memory is just faulty here, but the one I described was the perfect last episode. I don't know if the order on the episodes was somewhat screwed up on the disc, or IMDB has it out of order. And yes, the Susan Oliver one was very good too. The awful thing about the Pleshette one though? Remember, they could probably look at her body and see her story is correct by her body being different, but.....