One of the
most durable science-fiction ideas is the one that questions the very reality of
what we see around us. Could there be aliens in our midst? Architect David
Vincent certainly thought so. He had witnessed the landing of a flying saucer,
and stumbled onto an incredible secret: that scattered throughout the world's
population, disguised as humans, was an advanced guard of alien creatures from a
dying planet, who were preparing to conquer the Earth!
Convincing
his fellow citizens of this was of course no easy task, so Vincent went on a
one-man crusade to obtain solid evidence and warn mankind of the dangers it
faced – while trying not to fall into the clutches of the aliens.
Identifying
the enemy was tricky, but it could be done. Sometimes the invaders would have
slightly mutated hands, such as a little finger jutting out awkwardly;
sometimes, though rarely, they would begin to glow when they were in need of
regeneration to retain their human form. And of course, they also had no pulse
or heartbeat – because they had no hearts.
For the first
few months of the series, Vincent fought a lonely, largely undercover battle.
Eventually, feeling that he was a bit too lonely to be plausible, the producers
gave him some allies, a young group of seven others who had also learned the
secret and wanted to help. His chief confederate, who joined the show in
December 1967, was Edgar Scoville, the head of an electronics firm.
Could it
really happen? Well, you never know, but actor Roy Thinnes, in a bit of
promotional hype released by the ABC press department, claimed that he had
actually seen a UFO during the filming of the series. Then again, maybe he
is one of them…
