The Avengers (TV Series) Invasion of the Earthmen (1968) User Reviews

A fun if flawed episode

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 14 March 2015]

When an agent goes missing Steed and Tara go to investigate; they search his hotel room and discover a prospectus for the Alpha School, they also see a Land Rover bearing the school's logo in the car park, apparently watching the room. They then head to the school posing as a married couple looking to find a boarding school with the 'right values' for Steed's son. They talk to the school's headmaster, Brigadier Brett then as they leave it becomes clear that there are parts of the school they are not meant to see. They return later to search the place more thoroughly. They soon discover that the grounds are littered with lethal booby traps and deadly creatures… if that wasn't enough the students are soon hunting them too. When Tara is captured we learn what the school's sinister aims are… to train an army of super soldiers who will be cryogenically frozen until the nations of Earth have established extra-terrestrial colonies; then they will be thawed out and invade those colonies!

This, the first full Tara King episode, is fairly mixed. The villain's ideas are huge in scale and delightfully barmy however the enemy is not as threatening as it could be. They are dressed in uniforms that look remarkably similar to those in the original Star Trek; hardly what one would expect people in life-or-death survival exercises to me wearing. As these unlikely soldiers search for Steed and Tara they run this way and that but don't seem to have any real urgency. The various traps and creatures in the grounds were more impressive despite the fact that the scenes were obviously filmed on a set. These rather reminded me of the 'suicide garden' in 'You Only Live Twice' (The book not the film). Linda Thorson does a decent enough job as Tara King; a character very different to Emma Peel. Being fresh out of training she is less sure of herself which gives the character a nice degree of vulnerability even though we are shown that she can handle herself in a fight. Her interaction with Steed is different too; she is definitely his junior rather than an equal but there is a nice chemistry between the characters. Overall I rather enjoyed this episode despite its flaws and look forward to seeing more of Tara.

Better than expected.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 8 September 2022]

Steed and Tara hatch a plan to infiltrate The Alpha Academy, a training school, they believe is linked to a missing Agent.

Once again, I saw the name Terry Nation, and for very excited, but having spoken to fans of this show, I was told not to expect much.

For the most part I enjoyed it, obviously made early on, there's Tara's hair, and the slight unease between Macnee and Thorson, who presumably were still getting to know one another.

It is somehow less confident than later episodes from the series, the story is a little run on the mill, and it does look very much like a studio production, but it's not without some really good points too. Tara's apartment is super stylish.

Very much a spy fi episode, the plot is very zany, but it's intriguing enough, and like no other from the show that I've seen.

I liked The Villains, they very much put me in mind of Genesis of The Daleks, you can see Terry Nation's stamp all over them, they're regimented, emotionless, almost robotic.

One issue I have to highlight, the inconsistency in how Tara was written, in some episodes she's a fighting machine, in others she looks like a total amateur, nothing to do with Thorson's capabilities, I liked her, but at times she feels like a different character.

Not my favourite, but I quite enjoyed it, 7/10.

"An under-appreciated episode in the Tara King era."

[jamesraeburn2003 · 19 March 2006]

Steed and Tara investigate the disappearance of fellow agent Grant (George Roubicek) who hasn't reported in three weeks. The trail leads them to the Alpha Academy run by Brigadier Brett (William Lucas). Posing as husband and wife, they gain entry on the pretext that they wish to enrol their son at the academy. On leaving, Tara accidentally takes a wrong door and sees what appears to be an alien astronaut floating in mid air. Steed and Tara are now convinced that the academy warrants another visit and break in later that night. But Brett and his students are also suspicious of Steed and Tara. It soon transpires that Brett engages his students in mortal combat via his survival course, which includes a tunnel laced with all sorts of terrors including black widow spiders, scorpions, a python and acid baths. The survivors are then kept in suspended animation until they are ready to take part in Brett's conquest to take over other planets ahead of Earth. Tara is overpowered and she learns that Grant was also suspicious of the academy and broke in but fell victim to Brett's python. Brett intends to eliminate her by releasing her into the tunnel followed by the students whose task it is to kill her and Steed who is somewhat shrewder than Brett anticipated and both Tara and Steed are soon far enough to overpower Brett and the students and close down the academy for good. Mission accomplished, Steed demonstrates to Tara how to throw an enemy opponent. Trying as hard as she can, Steed informs her that she has to get the opponent off balance. Despite Steed's confidence that she won't be able to throw him, yet when he foolishly relaxes for a few moments and is off balance, Tara ceases her chance and throws him. Somewhat miffed, Steed realises its back to the drawing board and consults the do it yourself martial arts book.

Invasion Of The Earthmen is an under-appreciated episode in the Tara King season. Perhaps because compared to other episodes in the series, it is surprisingly humorless apart from the climatic tag scene between Steed and Tara. Nevertheless, despite its studio bound settings, Steed and Tara's night in Brett's survival course is genuinely unsettling especially when Tara encounters the rats, poisonous spiders and acid baths in the tunnel. And the scene where the python slithers its way towards a victim is enough to make our skin crawl long after its over. The script is by Terry Nation who worked on the Dr Who And The Daleks series, which explains the science fiction angle of the plot and interestingly, the cinematography is by Gilbert Taylor who went on to photograph Star Wars for George Lucas in 1977 and his photography here especially in the death tunnel is shot in disturbingly dark tones. Director Don Sharp does his usual efficient job in the first of three episodes he directed for the series and the casting is good if not particularly inspired.

Blonde Highlight

[laika-lives · 3/10 · 23 May 2006]

The uncertain running order of this season masks the fact that this is essentially the first Tara King episode - one of three episodes shot whilst the production team were labouring under the misapprehension that Linda Thorson would look better Blonde (the others were 'The Great Great Britain Crime' and 'Invitation to a Killing'), it required less reshooting to salvage it once creative control was returned to Brian Clemens (the other episodes became 'Homicide and Old Lace' and 'Have Guns, Will Haggle').

The one thing that jumps out of this pretty awful episode is, appropriately, the bewigged Tara herself. She's arguably never this dynamic again, and that's some achievement, given that at this point everybody seems to be sabotaging Linda Thorson at every turn. Quite apart from the ridiculous hair, she was generally required to wear rather horrible and inappropriate clothes (reaching a nadir in the unflattering giant shorts and knee-length boots combo of 'Homicide and Old Lace') and suffered from hugely inconsistent characterisation, fluctuating from gauche novice to highly competent and deadly spy in the space of a single episode (see particularly 'The Forget-Me-Knot'). 'Invasion of the Earthmen' at least avoids the former problem by kitting Tara out in a rather fetching - and practical - brown leather outfit, the closest thing she ever got to Mrs. Gale's and Mrs. Peel's leather 'action suits'; unfortunately, it runs slap-bang into the second. Both the opening and the tag scene emphasise Tara's inexperience, having to practice self-defence - presumably, she has little combat experience. Yet, in between these scenes, Tara is a whirling dervish of violence, a veritable Tasmanian Devil more than capable of taking care of herself. She kicks a teenager in the face, she takes out the villain with a neat throw, she even deals with the Humpty-Dumpty astronaut with the kind of two-footed kick we wouldn't see again on the small screen until the heyday of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Mrs. Peel's fights were always rather balletic, and even Mrs. Gale in her prime wasn't this violent - neither, for the most part, is Tara, although she'd get to be just as dangerous in 'Noon-Doomsday', another episode with a Terry Nation script. Frankly, she's glorious; Linda Thorson would become more confident as an actress as the series progressed, but Tara would never again be quite so goddamn cool as she is here - even with the wig.

Barely anything else in this episode really works. The uniforms of the students are rather neat visual paraphrases of the Starfleet uniforms in 'Star Trek', and the villainous scheme is engagingly loony-tunes - talk about your long-term planning! - but it does raise the question of why there are no questions being asked about missing students. Don't their parents care that they've been put into deep freeze? The villain himself is rather nondescript, and the students aren't much better, but it is fun to see a young Warren Clarke chasing our heroes around. The threatening animals are all obviously fake - although better done, for the most part, than the ones in 'The Fear Merchants' - and the school grounds too obviously studio bound. The tunnel under the school is set up as a uniquely horrific experience, but turns out to be a series of the same old adventure story clichés common to Nation's work outside 'The Avengers'. There is the beginning of an interesting subplot, about two students battling it out in the Quarry, but it gets overtaken by the main plot and fizzles out.

Overall one of the weakest episodes of the series, although it isn't anywhere near as bad as 'Homicide and Old Lace' turned out. And at least there's no sign of Mother.

Steed & Tara Go Back To School

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 13 March 2009]

Grant, a British agent, snips through barbed wire and gains access to private property. He has not gotten far when a mantrap closes on his foot. As he tries to free himself, a poisonous snake slithers towards him, and takes a bite. Nearby three young people in strange yellow uniforms look on in amusement.

So begins 'Invasion Of The Earthmen', officially the first 'Tara King' episode. John Bryce, formerly a producer during the Honor Blackman series, was brought back to push the show in a different direction from that of the previous season, which was felt to have been extreme. Bryce produced a total of three episodes - 'Invitation To A Killing', 'The Great Great Britain Crime', and, of course, this one - before he was fired and Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell reinstated. The first two were remounted, shown under different titles, but 'Earthmen' got off comparatively lively. It is therefore chiefly of interest as an example of how the series might have looked under a different producer. On the evidence of this, it seems Bryce was trying to bring it into line with the I.T.C. shows of that period, in particular 'The Champions'.

Steed and Tara find a brochure in Grant's room produced by the Alpha Academy - a school for young people of above average intelligence. It is run in militaristic fashion by Brigadier Brett ( William Lucas, later to play 'Dr.Gordon' in the kids' show 'Adventures Of Black Beauty' ). The Avengers show up pretending to be husband and wife, and wishing to enrol their 'son'. Snooping around, Tara comes across a man in a spacesuit ( who looks like Humpty Dumpty ) floating about in mid-air. The Academy is secretly training an army who will then go into suspended animation and colonise other planets ( who they are expected to fight out there is never made clear ).

It comes as no surprise that this should be the work of Terry Nation, creator of 'the Daleks' for 'Dr.Who'. 'Earthmen' could easily fit into the Jon Pertwee era of said programme ( come to think of it 'The Tomorrow People' did a similar story called 'The Doomsday Men' ). As 'Tara', Thorson is a little bland ( she got better over time ), and that blonde wig makes her look like 'Carry On' star Liz Fraser! ( special footage had to be added to explain why Tara had different coloured hair ).

Another user has commented on the similarity of the Alpha Academy uniforms to those worn in 'Star Trek'. This must be a coincidence as the Gene Roddenberry-created show had not yet been screened in Britain when this was made. The Academy deserve reprimand for its truly shocking decor - a two-tone effect comprised of green and purple. Ugh! Among the precocious youngsters are Lucy Fleming ( later to play 'Jenny' in Nation's 'Survivors' ), Warren Clarke ( of 'Dalziel & Pascoe' ), and Christopher Chittell ( 'Eric Pollard' of 'Emmerdale' ).

The director, Don Sharp, was responsible for the Hammer Horror classics 'Kiss Of The Vampire' and 'Rasputin The Mad Monk'.

An enjoyable episode then, but avoid it if you hate spiders ( Tara finds herself in a tunnel with loads of the things at one point )!

Early Tara King in blonde wig

[kevinolzak · 4/10 · 10 April 2011]

"Invasion of the Earthmen" was the earliest completed episode featuring Linda Thorson's Tara King, and the American broadcasts accurately followed the production line, as this was shown the week following Tara's official introduction in "The Forget-Me-Knot" (the first episode shot with a brunette Tara). Like "Have Guns-Will Haggle" and "Homicide and Old Lace," you can tell the original footage from the new due to Tara's quickly discarded blonde wig (only three scenes were shot with her a brunette). All three were supposed to be throwbacks to the show's more serious early days, but the lack of polish and overly simplistic story lines rendered them anachronistic, among the worst entries produced during its nine year run. Fellow agent Bernard Grant (George Roubicek, "The White Dwarf") falls victim to a fatal encounter on the deadly obstacle course located at an advanced academy for astronaut training, with both Steed and Tara dodging one death trap after another before foiling the futuristic takeover plans of Brigadier Brett (William Lucas, "Death's Door"). This was the debut for screenwriter Terry Nation and director Don Sharp, the scenes set in the tunnel of fear provide a few intriguing moments, and Tara does have much more to do here than in the other two blonde episodes (faint praise, but this may perhaps be the best of all three). Unfortunately, none of the actors perform with any sense of chemistry, and the painfully low budget makes it look like an AVENGERS version of STAR TREK's "Spock's Brain" (oddly, this was the lone episode where Steed refers to his partner only as "Miss King"). The series did recover quickly, with the next entry, "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues," signalling the proper beginning of Tara's brunette phase (and Brian Clemens returning to the producer's chair).

Tara's Ordeal

[wilvram · 8/10 · 1 July 2022]

One of the first Linda Thorson episodes to be filmed under the temporary auspices of John Bryce and which has survived successfully, the amusing scenes of Tara practising unarmed combat with Steed, contributed later by Brian Clemens, adding to its charm.

Despite hostility toward it from some, I think it an enjoyable outing with some scenes such as Tara's abrupt confrontation with the man in the spacesuit, classic Avengers. While Linda Thorson may have reflected that Tara's ordeal in the tunnel mirrored some of her contemporary problems with the show, including being forced to dye her hair blonde resulting in it dropping out, and various difficulties with the suits at ABC whom by all accounts were not treating her very well. Tara always triumphs in the end though and with the support of Patrick Macnee, Linda did too.

OF THE FEW EPISODES WITH FANTASTIC ELEMENTS OF THIS SEASON

[asalerno10 · 8/10 · 7 June 2022]

I read somewhere that this episode had initially been written to star Diana Rigg, but finally it was not filmed with her and was postponed for this season. An organization is preparing a group of men and women to carry out an invasion of other worlds. Their methods are quite crude, since not all of them will pass the difficult survival tests to which they are subjected and will die in their attempts. Tara and Steed go undercover to investigate and end up being the perfect prey for the soldiers to test. The story is very entertaining and also demonstrates the ingenuity that the protagonists must have to escape gracefully from their hunters.