The Invaders (The Twilight Zone)

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Invaders
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Agnes Moorehead and an Invader
Season = 2
Episode = 51
Airdate =January 27, 1961
Production = 173-3646
Writer =Richard Matheson
Director =Douglas Heyes
Guests = Agnes Moorehead : Woman
Douglas Heyes : Invader (voice)
Music = Original score by Jerry Goldsmith
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = The Whole Truth
Next = A Penny for Your Thoughts

"The Invaders" is an episode of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone".

Opening narration

ynopsis

An old woman is apparently living alone in a very rustic cabin. She is dressed shabbily and there are no modern conveniences in evidence. After hearing a strange noise from the sleeping loft, she is accosted by small intruders that come from a miniature flying saucer that has landed on her house, equipped with two tiny people in spacesuits. In proportion to the old woman, the intruders appear to be only a few inches high.

She battles them for many minutes, finally killing one and following the other back to his ship. There she hears one of the space-suited intruders, speaking in English with an apparent American accent, send off a desperate warning to other potential invaders that the people from the planet are giants and very difficult to defeat, after which she destroys the ship with an axe.

The camera pans and we see the side of the ship display "U.S. Air Force" Space Probe No. 1.

Closing narration

Preview for Next Week's Story

Episode notes

* The original closing narration for this episode (as it appears in Richard Matheson's teleplay) reads: “This is one of the out-of-the-way places; until now, one of the unvisited places in our solar system—the planet Mars. Bleak. Wasted. Dying. But not quite dead yet.”
* The small ship is one of the miniatures of the saucer shaped United Planets Cruiser, used in the MGM film "Forbidden Planet". According to "The Twilight Zone Companion", a rough duplicate model was used for the axe-destruction finale.
* Both the invader and the space ship used in this episode can be seen at Walt Disney World's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, but only the invader is seen at Disney's California Adventure.
* Director Douglas Heyes provided the voice of the astronaut.

References

*Zicree, Marc Scott. "The Twilight Zone Companion". Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). "Trivia from The Twilight Zone". Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
*Grams, Martin. (2008). "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic". Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

External links

* [http://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/07/escape---the-vi.html "Escape": "The Invader"]
*
* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/the-invaders/episode/12635/summary.html TV.com episode page]
* [http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/video.php?cid=649555532&pid=HzgSCl5Xj4P6WOaPK1sU0Tx0wZq_jZU5&play=true&cc=1 Full video of the episode at CBS.com]

Twilight Zone links

*The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
*Episode List
*Season 2