Series 6 — Episode 15
Invasion of the Earthmen

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

This episodes was not broadcast in Germany until 1999 and may not have ever been broadcast in Italy.

Continuity & Trivia

1. 2:07 — That’s a laughably fake python.
2. 3:30–4:00 — Steed is instructing Tara here, but the episode was shown (depending on your region) quite late in the run.
3. 4:10 — Tara dons a blonde wig as a disguise - to make the reused location footage and other inserts from the early shooting useable.
4. 4:25 — Notice it’s Steed driving the AC 428 — John Bryce had originally intended to do away with the vintage cars and have Steed drive the sportscar.
5. 5:20 — A clear sign it was an early episode: Tara apologises for not having found the Alpha Academy brochure in a concealed compartment of Grant’s suitcase and Steed blithely says, “No reason you should know; Regulations.”
6. 16:54 — Some more reused footage, Linda is almost unrecognisable when going through the wire.
7. 24:26 — It looks like the same cavern staircase set as Quilbey’s laboratory The See-Through Man.
8. 31:05 — The fervent optimism of the Sixties : “But it may be fifty years before space travel’s made that easy.” That would put it in 2018.
9. 37:42 — The skinny dark haired boy is at top of stairs in long shot but when we cut to the mid shot of Tara attacking, he’s become a bulky fair stuntman, who falls down the stairs (upon which the dark boy replaces him).
10. The Tunnel is an interesting concept, but it’s fairly poorly executed.

    Tara encounters:

    • 38:12 — spider webs and a lion roar sound effect
    • 38:41 — rats (amusing accompanied by the music from The Fear Merchants)
    • 39:55 — trapped in a metal tube
    • 40:27 — obviously fake spiders which are dropped and pushed into the tube

    Steed encounters:

    • 41:30 — a steel bear trap
    • 42:00 — a pool of acid
11. 41:00 — When Tara lifts the metal plate in the tube, you can see the straight edge near the camera, revealing it to have not sealed the tube at all.
12. Running time: 49′19″.
13. This episode has a video Q&A and commentary with Christian Roberts, Chris Chittell and Philip Hawkins, and an introduction by Linda Thorson, on the Lives in the Pictures YouTube channel.

Cast notes

1. Stuntman Paul Weston recently revealed that his fellow stunt performer Cliff Diggins was the man in the space suit.
2. Warren Clarke, playing Trump here, is better known to modern audiences as Inspector Dalziell in the long-running series Dalziell and Pascoe; he’s also done Down to Earth.
3. This is a left over John Bryce produced episode, resurrected and re-edited by Clemens, which is why Tara dons the blonde wig disguise at the beginning of the episode - back in early 1967 she had been filmed with bleached hair and this transparent device was the easiest way to overcome this hurdle.
4. It’s odd to get this episode so late in the season, as so much of the script has Tara being a starry eyed newcomer, startled at Steed’s blasé attitude to death. Clemens should have taken a broader knife to the script when he resurrected this John Bryce episode, or scheduled it earlier in the season - at 5:30

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