This one starts with a guy named John Carter who has been seeing flying saucers around his town. In spite of his name, he’s no champion of alien fighting, he’s just seen as the town kook. But David Vincent is willing to look into his claims and it pays off, with them locating one of the Invaders’ flying saucers, getting aboard to capture it, and trying to hold onto it when the Invaders come back. It’s a siege situation!

John Carter is a motorbike-driving guy with four cats (mentioned, but sadly not depicted) who has been trying to prove that aliens exist. This guy could have his own spinoff! He tries to help Vincent by going into town (the saucer is out at the Vasquez Rocks location) to get the Sheriff and an expert of some kind who will finally be able to see this undeniable proof of the invasion. Some other characters show up, a couple who are on the run from the law. They stay with Vincent at the scene of siege.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I like seeing Vincent suffer a big loss now and then. He’s had some major victories in the last few episodes, so we were due for it: this time he loses badly. Of course, there’s no real ongoing continuity to the show, so whether he wins or loses in any given episode will not make a difference to his status quo at the next one, but I do feel like many of the episodic shows I watched growing up would have had the hero winning every week and making it look easy. David Vincent struggles for his victories.

Here, not only does he lose the flying saucer to the Invaders, but three of his allies are killed off before they can even arrive to help. I pointed out last time how when the Invaders vaporize a whole car to kill their target, they run the risk that the target could escape and be mistakenly assumed dead. Well, this time they prove that when the targets actually are in there, it’s a quick and effective method of destruction. John Carter and the local sheriff and another guy are wiped off the mortal coil in an instant. So much for that spinoff show.

Worth noting: near the beginning the Invaders try to disprove the flying saucer photos that Carter has taken by showing up with a kid who has been throwing a frisbee around. Who is this kid? Is it an Invader or is it a real kid who has been taken in by the Invaders to be used at times like this. Neither scenario is good for humanity, but the former would be the first time we’ve seen a child Invader. Either scenario is creepy.

Also worth noting: the guy in the fugitive couple has experience with engineering or something and is very impressed by the flying saucer. He thinks it may not even have fuel, and may operate on some kind of magnetic principle. That’s kinda neat.