The Invaders (TV Series) Moonshot (1967) User Reviews

One small step for the invader

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 6 September 2009]

Two men on a fishing trip are perplexed when an unknown helicopter swoops overhead. Suddenly their boat is engulfed by a toxic gas. The dead men were astronauts, part of the team for America's first expedition to the Moon. Fisherman Charlie Coogan ( Strother Martin ) witnesses the murder. David Vincent, the man who has devoted his life to defusing the alien threat, tries to talk to him, but a fake cop has wiped his memory. After a brief fight, the alien runs off and Vincent loses him.

One of the replacement astronauts is Hardy Smith ( John Ericson ). Vincent suspects of him of being an alien. The invaders want to sabotage the mission as they have an installation on the Moon they wish to keep secret. The project's director, Gavin Lewis ( Peter Graves ) scoffs at the architect's theory, but when an attempt is made on his own life ( his car is incinerated in front of his eyes by a briefcase containing an alien device ) he sides with him...

A few months before his debut as 'Jim Phelps' in 'Mission: Impossible', Peter Graves guested in this Quinn Martin-produced sci-fi series. With increasing numbers of astronauts being sent into space ( the real Moon landings were just two years in the future ), the storyline was indeed topical. Actual N.A.S.A. footage was incorporated into the episode. Vincent's dilemma is compounded by the fact that Lewis is having an affair with Angela ( Joanne Linville ), the wife of the replaced astronaut. Kent Smith, seen as 'Stan Arthur', one of the mission's personnel, became a semi-regular the following season as 'Edgar Scoville'. John Ericson, who plays 'Hardy', was 'Sam' in the short-lived action series 'Honey West'.

A decent episode.

Interesting and enjoyable.

[tavasiloff · 9/10 · 8 June 2020]

An interesting episode and I enjoyed the story line. Just a couple of minor qubbles: inconsistent videos of the Saturn V and later, the Saturn 1B. The Saturn 1B was not designed to propel the spacecraft to the Moon. The second item is the use of the "silver spacesuits." Not authentic. But then, this was an engaging episode.

A bevy of familiar faces populate this one!

[garrard · 6/10 · 26 October 2006]

Though Moonshot was a routine "Invaders" installment, with the aliens sabotaging the first flight to the moon, it did feature some of the 60's most familiar television actors. Anthony Eisely ("Tony LaCava"), one of the co-stars of "Hawaiian Eye" appears as one of the astronauts; Richard X. Slattery ("Riley") and Ross Elliott("McNally") can be found in numerous productions from the decade; while John Lupton ("Major Banks"), as one of the doomed astronauts, was a fixture on both the 50's "Broken Arrow" and daytime's "Days of Our Lives".

Kent Smith (Stan Arthur) would later become a semi-regular during the show's second season, assaying a new role as a compatriot to David Vincent (Roy Thinnes).

As far as the other guest stars are concerned, Joanne Linville ("Angela Smith") can be found in such genre fare as the original "Star Trek," as well as a memorable turn as a quack faith-healer on "Hawaii 5-0". John Ericson is primarily remembered as an actor with many B-movies under his belt.

Peter Graves ("Gavin Lewis"), having had modest success on "Fury", would later gain greater notoriety as "Jim Phelps" on "Mission: Impossible.

It's surprising that character acting legend Strother Martin ("Charlie Coogan") didn't get "special guest star" billing. He was one of the greats and always enlivened any production in which he could be found.

As I said earlier, the installment itself, isn't one of the best but it is a good showcase of those actors whose faces were familiar but names were unknown.

Surprised they aired this episode when they did

[topsail33-1 · 5/10 · 31 January 2022]

This episode, Moonshot, aired less than 3 months after the tragic Apollo 1 launchpad fire, in which 3 Apollo Astronauts were killed.

The way the two astronauts were killed at the beginning of this episode, was the part that raised my eyebrow: They suffocated from a red fog that some aliens sprayed on them.

The Apollo Astronauts died in a horrific fire. I just find that this hits a little too close to home. I don't know if there was any backlash when it aired, but I would expect there was.

I know in Today's world, anything goes. But back then, this was a National tragedy. The Apollo Astronauts were heroes in every sense of the word.

Since this was a Season 1 episode, they could have pushed it into Season 2, to give it a little more distance from Apollo 1.