This Friday on “Invasion: Earth” ep. 1 “The Last War”

A bad start to a television series when I don't like the two leads. Flight Lt. Chris Drake destroyed lives with his impulsiveness and Dr. Amanda Tucker's intrusiveness was grating to my nerves. I certainly hope this gets better with future episodes.










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Ah, British Sci-Fi: stiff upper lips, RAF, “take-away” for “take out”, “grams” for “grandma”. Reminds me a little of DOCTOR WHO, a series I was fond of. (I haven’t seen the latest version – but eventually I’ll watch it on NETFLIX, after I watch what they have of the original series.) But I digress.

Only one familiar face in the cast – Fred Ward. This is different, all right. But, off to a fast start. First a look at an incident in WWII, unresolved meaning they’ll come back to it. Look like the present-day alien took the same form as the British officer from WWII. Is that good or bad? Fast forward to present day – or at least present day 1998. (And July 16th to boot – what an amusing co-incidence.) Two fighter pilots go off to meet with a UFO. One has a pregnant wife; that’s never good in a drama like this. Sure enough, she ends up a widow before episode’s end in a finely understated yet emotional scene. The other pilot decides to shoot it down against orders, mirroring the soldier shooting at the alien against orders back in 1944. That results in a crash and his fellow pilot’s death; they were right to suspend him. Further, it looks like he may have shot down a good guy. The injured alien appears to be on the run from his fellow aliens.

Meanwhile, we have the female scientist Amanda whose friend has intercepted a message headed to outer space. She decides to investigate as well. British security seems a little lax. They do try to stop the RAF soldier from going in, but Amanda easily ends up next to the downed alien who should be under much tighter wraps it would seem. She does have defense credentials so maybe she’s more important than I realize; characterization is all a little sketchy still.

What’s with the alien climbing a big bluff or whatever, and the soldier saying we can’t let him get away? Is the other side in another country or something? Anyway, he is shot in the leg and then goes invisible. Further he has a communicator which amusingly looks a bit like an Iphone with apps. But he smashes it later on. Looks like he’s being followed by some other alien force. Is he a good guy who was trying to warn us of a pending invasion because he was treated with kindness by a British officer in WWII? We shall hopefully find out.

We build up to a climax that some other alien message came out of nowhere, perhaps through an interdimensional portal. Something starts to materialize in the room where the alien is, and we just cut to the credits. No “to be continued”, no dramatic freeze frame, just cut to the closing credits and stay tuned for CAPE FEAR. That’s the Brits for you. Not a criticism; just an observation. The same method was used on DOCTOR WHO and that ran for about 25 years, so they do know a thing or two about SCI-FI.

Anyway, a good start, and I’m interested in seeing what happens next. Furthermore, no one blew up a train full of people in the name of “the one true God.” I’ll give it 7 futuristic looking communicators.

Oh. great. I got that nasty warning again. And I have no idea what I posted wrong so that I would *not* do it again. Well, I guess I'll find out when they erase my account. Then one of you guys will have to replace me.

Well, well. So we have the beginning of what seems to be a highly predictive series. At least it's short. Fast action, shallow characters, no humor. The only thing that got me mildly curious is the aliens, especially the other ones. What's the deal with them?

We start with an outrageous act of human aggression in 1944: an innocent pair of explores come to earth and that's their doom: one of them is shot in the back, and the other is captured, but with kindness.

Cut to "present day." A rash RAF pilot decides to pursue an unidentified craft and, contrary to orders, shoots it down and loses its fighter in the process, killing his partner. Then some soldiers are looking for the escaped alien pilot and they wee him and what do they do? Of course, they shoot him in the back! That's the RAF way. OH, yes, and they warned him first. Warned him IN ENGLISH. So whatever language you aliens out there speak, you'd better catch up on your English is you want to avoid being shot without knowing why. That's the RAF way: shoot first, ask questions (in/English) second.

(OK, brimfin tells us the alien pilot took the shape of the WWII officer who helped him. I didn't notice that. The youtube copy leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway I thought it was highly convenient that the alien looked human, and even more convenient that he spoke English.)

And the cherry on top was when the pilot defended his actions saying "he'd do it again" (typical action hero attitude, orders be damned) and that the prisoner was a war prisoner so he should be treated according to the Geneva Convention. So we're at war? Yes, and WE started it.

Oh, yes, and that's also a pretty female scientist. One show tricked a man into having a child with her and then bailed out without even telling the guy he was unwillingly a daddy. And she also wonders if that raises moral issues. Great: those two deserve each other.

All in all, plenty of humorless military people and props, unmotivated actions, and shallow characters. At least this series is short. But I wish we were watching UFO instead, because at least I's have something to laugh at.

This one felt like being shot in the back 4 times.

For some reason my post didn't take. I suspect aliens are involved. Will give it a try later....

This Friday on “Invasion: Earth” ep. 1 “The Last War”

Part two let’s try this again, really liked the first episode thought it was a solid pilot episode. The story begins in ww2 apparently a ufo was shot down by accident. One of the aliens took one in the back while trying to run away maybe he was in a hurry to get to an English pub who knows. One of the officers took pity on the other one and promised to help and help he did. Not sure how but the soldier ends up in the future and find himself shot down by a RAF pilot who clearly disobeyed orders. Now I guess the officer from the past is involved in some type of exchange program. Dr Amanda helper was quick to figure out that this alien transmission was interrupted by some unknown force apparently from another race of aliens. So I’m wondering are both these alien parties planning to take over our world. Who knows, I make another assumption that we have know since the first crash during ww2 that there are aliens among us. Enjoyed the first one hoping the next one is just as good. Love the brits only five more to go.

This one I’m going to give seven little creepy Aliens.

And off we go.....sorry for the late start, Inet troubles all weekend due to me mucking around with my system.......

Really liked the opening WWII sequence kind of drew me in right off the bat. The one thing I have noticed so far is that the brits seem to be just as trigger happy as the yanks. the scene where they are chasing the alien up the hill was funny to me, they were trying to be dramatic but the whole thing was just silly to me...

we can't let him get away sir what are your orders?

"Really liked the opening WWII sequence kind of drew me in right off the bat." Wait a minute Stone does this mean you actually like a TV show I like.

Playing catch-up after getting waylaid with stuff going on in my life.

Odd title, "Invasion Earth" since it looks to me like we started it. First the old-timey army guys kill the crashed alien, then the RAF pilot gone bad shoots down another alien craft.

Still hard to follow with the alien vs. alien side line. Hopefully that will fall in place later.

Not especially fond of the disobedient RAF pilot nor the pretty SETI scientist with whom he's inexplicably partnered, though. Even though at this point they appear to be intended to be the heroes of the series.

Intriguing but confusing pilot. I'll give it 7 tooth-mounted tracking devices.

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I'd've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.