Another human in a position of power has sold out the human race to work with the Invaders. And like the last time, it’s someone who has been through war and been injured and lost loved ones. But this guy, General Beaumont, is more genuinely torn up about allying with the Invaders than Vikor was. You see, Beaumont hates war, and thinks that with the help of the Invaders, he can put an end to the nuclear bomb.

The setup is one we can officially say we’ve gotten used to: someone is suspicious of stories of alien activity and they reach out to famous anti-alien crusader David Vincent, so he shows up and uses his real name while opposing the alien conspiracy. It’s interesting that, in spite of having no tangible proof of the aliens and having apparently abandoned his job as an architect, Vincent still manages to live a life just wandering from case to case. Such was life in the 60s, I guess.

Anyway, this time the guy who calls for help (and it is a man, I don’t think there was a single woman in this episode. I guess they used them all up last episode) is a Major on a military base where they are testing a nuclear weapon. Vincent investigates with his usual methods, so obviously he gets captured and is handed over to some aliens posing as Department of Justice guys. He has to escape and dodge a car while handcuff so that if falls off a cliff. It’s all good stuff. He’s very good at that part of the job, which is probably why he has never bothered to learn how to NOT get into that kind of predicament.

Anyway, eventually Vincent discovers that General Beaumont has sold out to the aliens because Beaumont, as I said, wants to stop the nuclear bomb. The aliens are going to mix some anti-matter into the next nuclear bomb test so that the explosion will be so bad that it will cause earthquakes countrywide. The plan is that everyone will think that the explosion was a normal nuclear blast and immediately ban nuclear weapons, saving the world. The millions who will die because of the blast will be worth it for the end to nukes, Beaumont reckons. I mean, the Invaders are just trying to do the damage, but Beaumont’s goal is noble. Anyway, in the end Beaumont comes to join Vincent against the Invaders and gives his life to prevent the disaster. Really shows what a loser that Vikor guy was. The Major survives and tries to help Vincent convince the authorities about the Invaders, but it doesn’t work.

The Invaders posing as Department of Justice guys who intend to kill Vincent give a real Men In Black vibe, though it’s implied that they are not actually working within the real government. Still, it seems to me like there must be some infiltration of the Invaders in the government if they can keep finding ways to deny their existence even though Vincent keeps gaining more and more allies and is gaining such a reputation as an authority on the topic.

Also worth noting: when Vincent first meets with the Major they are at the scene of a crater caused by a crashed spaceship. To my untrained eye, it absolutely looks like a naturally-formed canyon or something, but it is a very impressive location to see on a television show. It’d be impressive now, let alone in the ’60s.

This episode has characters named Fred, Ned, and Ed. What are they doing over here?

I’ll say right off that this is another one where Vincent meets some allies (a couple named Ellen and Ed) who learn about the aliens and survive to the end of the episode but then never show up again to help. The one difference is that it is clearly explained that Ellen has a history of mental issues and being disbelieved and she can’t bring herself to wade back into that sort of scene. Still, in this episode they are plenty helpful, because in this episode they help David Vincent destroy an alien plot to make insects eat humanity!

As happens a lot, since these Invaders are bad at their jobs, Ellen stumbles across some aliens doing alien things. They try to kill her using some locusts they have weaponized, but she escapes and her story winds up in the newspaper, attracting David Vincent to town like a moth to a flame. He does get beat up by Ed at first, but he’s persistent, so he uncovers a plot by the Invaders to create a machine that makes insects (even butterflies!) eat meat, with the intent of siccing them on humanity. Vincent is getting fairly good at his job by this point, though not perfect. At one point he calls the FBI or someone for help, only for them to call local law enforcement to look into it, and Vincent already knows that the local law enforcement is in on the plot. Still, that one mistake aside, he does well. He’s good at hiding. When the cops are trying to bring him in, he crashes the car and runs away on foot. He’s winged by a bullet. And in a climactic action hero moment, Vincent gets to punch an alien guy into the butterflies and they eat him. Not everybody gets to do that. The aliens abandon their carnivorous insect plot and use a comical explosion special effect to destroy all evidence they were ever there.

Things suck for Ellen here. The aliens paint her as a “hysterical” woman and a man she trusts turns out to be one of the Invaders and tries to kill her. It’s fairly bleak for her. Hopefully she and Ed have time to recover before the invasion gets to far.

One thing about David Vincent is that he is an extremely direct person. I’ve faulted him multiple times for being so open about his fighting of this alien invasion. Well, in this episode he actually uses an alias to disguise his identity! Daniel Baxter he says he is! He gets a job as the driver of the wife of the guy is suspects and says a fake name. He’s learned how to be subtle.

And then he gets to the place he wants to investigate and immediately just runs into rooms he’s not supposed to be in and gets caught. But he’s learning.

Anyway, Vincent read reports in the newspaper of a guy who died claiming he’d seen alien things in the headquarters of Vikor Industries. Vickor is run by George Vikor, a former war hero who has sold out his species and is working alongside the aliens. Posing as her driver, Vincent befriends Vikor’s neglected wife Sherri and brings her up to speed about the invasion and how her husband is a traitor to humanity. They try to reason with George, and it seems like it could work. George lost a leg in Korea, and got a plate in his head, and was lauded as a hero. But still, when he got back home things weren’t enough for him. He may be the owner of a successful company, but it isn’t enough. The Invaders can let him be a ruler of what remains of humanity in the world they conquer. That power is what he needs.

Anyway, thanks to some truly impressive quick-draw-shooting Vincent manages to escape. He leaves a phone message with Vikor Industries thanking Vikor for helping him escape, which the aliens believe and they kill Vikor. Unlike last episode, this time Vincent does report to the FBI, though the aliens have cleaned up Vikor Industries, so there remains no proof that any of it happened. Sherri survives, though. Another in a growing list of potential allies for Vincent, or potential victims for the Invaders.

I need to note that the head villain in this one is pretty good. He’s even got a cool name: Mr. Nexus. He survives at the end and would be great as a recurring opponent for Vincent, but having spoiled myself that we don’t get returning characters for a long time yet, I guess it wasn’t to be.

For the record, they do have the finger thing again in this one. Good.

Okay, this time the aliens are growing something in a big vat! Those dastardly dastards!

The episode opens with a cop pulling over a car that turns out to have Invaders in there. And they’ve got something so shocking that when the cop see it, he basically goes catatonic. What did he see? Well that’s a secret.

Our hero David Vincent hears about this cop going comatose and figures “that sounds like alien work” and comes to town to investigate. He arrives, once again using his full name and not at all pretending to not be an anti-Invader crusader. He winds up teamed up with the cop’s friend, other cop. The first cop dies, so now the second cop gets to be called “the cop” for the rest of this.

Anyway, Vincent gets absolutely almost killed by an alien who know who he is, but the cop saves him and witnesses the disintegration that occurs when the alien dies, and thus learns about the aliens. So, once again, Vincent has an ally in the form of an authority figure. They go on an investigation and learn that the Invaders are taking over a sea lab. I don’t need to go through full details, but fisticuffs at the sea lab result in a fire that burns the place down and foils the aliens’ plans. The cop and another ally who works in the lab both survive and Vincent has two more allies in the world. He really needs to make a team of these people. But in this one, the cop offers to accompany Vincent to the FBI and Vincent basically says “Nah.” I would guess the idea is that he’s worried they have infiltrated the government, but it sure isn’t consistent with how his life has actually been going.

What were the aliens’ plans in the sea lab? Well, they’re doing an experiment that simulates primordial conditions in a vat so they can grow new life, but also they seem to be growing their leader? I guess. Considering I’ve started taking notes while I watch, I’d like to have a better idea, but I don’t. Blame the episode, not me. Or blame me. Either way. What’s important is we learn the aliens also have some sort of hypnotism technology and, even more important, we see some more of the pinky fingers being used to spot aliens. I thought that might have been forgotten, but it hasn’t!

I give David Vincent some crap for not going deeper into hiding as he opposes the alien invasion conspiracy, but I guess there is one upside: when a scientist notices that a bunch of other top scientists have disappeared and he suspects aliens are behind it, he goes to Vincent for help. David Vincent is well known enough by not only the aliens, but the humans, as a guy who is opposing the alien invasion. It’s interesting because, as I’ve said, it is not at all what I expected from the show. I thought it was gonna be a guy wandering from town to town with nothing but the shirt on his back stumbling into alien schemes. But no, he’s public and active and defying my every expectation.

Anyway, the scientists are being kidnapped by the Invaders, who then use fancy machines to drain the information from their brains. The process does a lot of mental damage. So Vincent joins the security team to prevent the main scientist from being taken, but the main scientist absolutely gets taken. The Invaders park a big truck in front of the scientist’s route, then grab him and his whole car and put him in the trailer. Classic. And then, when Vincent and Other Guy try to follow, their car doesn’t work because the engine disintegrates. The aliens have some manner of Engine Destroyo Rays that I bet will never come up again.

But then Vincent keeps searching for the scientist. Other Guy gives up, but Vincent keeps at it. But then, when Vincent is in danger, Other Guy comes back to save the day. He’s like Han Solo, except that he ends up dead. But you know who does not end up dead? The scientist that Vincent was helping! They rescue him and some of the other kidnapped scientists, though those other ones are not doing well. Still, this is probably Vincent’s most successful outing so far! If I had not been spoiled that there are no recurring cast members until the second season, I’d assume that the scientist here becomes a steadfast ally. Instead, who knows what happens to him?

Also, I’m pretty sure this was the episode that had the climactic showdown at the Vasquez Rocks.

This is the last of these episodes I watched before I decided I should post about them on here. Potentially that means that the from now on they will potentially be more detailed, because I’ll take notes while I watch, but also I’m only watching one episode a week, so posting will go more slowly.