The Invaders: Guest-Starring Gene Hackman

The late, great Gene Hackman did not make a lot of genre films, unless you count Westerns, but when he did, he made them count. In fact, the first time many of my generation noticed Hackman was when he portrayed Lex Luthor. Frankly, for most of us, he is still the only Lex Luthor. A little more than ten years prior, he played another science fiction bad guy on TV—and he was pretty darn good. Fortunately for humanity, David Vincent still manages to disrupt his character’s plans in “The Spores,” the episode of The Invaders guest-starring Hackman.

“Tom Jessup” is the alien project manager overseeing the titular spores. If they can successfully incubate and grow, the alien species will muscle humans off own planet. Fatefully, an incident on the highway leads to the death of Jessup’s two underlings. They just seemingly disappeared before Sgt. Ernie Goldhaver’s eyes. Much to Lt. John Mattson’s frustration, Goldhaver told his story to the local radio before he could contain it, which in turn attracted Vincent’s attention.

Of course, our crusading architect zeroes in on Jessup as a prime suspect, especially given the way he clings to his metallic briefcase (which was much more suspicious-looking in the 1960s). Even though his Jessup persona is quite rough-hewn, he still loses the spores to a local punk, who assumes it must be more conventionally valuable. That dangerous Macguffin keeps changing hands as the episode progresses.

Frankly, Hackman is unusually fierce for a network episodic guest star. At the time, you might not watch him and think “this man should play Popeye Doyle.” Yet, in retrospect, you can see some of that pent-up fury and his knack for projecting a sense of physicality beyond his actual size.

In fact, this is one of those episodes that kind of blows your mind with the guest-stars it assembled. In addition to Hackman, Wayne Rogers plays the ever-so-conveniently clueless Lt. Matttson. John Randolph develops an appealing and convincing rapport with rock-solid series star Roy Thinnes, as the soon-to-retire Sgt. Goldhaver. (Also buried somewhere in this episode, future sitcom director Noam Pitlik briefly “appears” as Jerry Burns.)

It is a crying shame the two-season The Invaders has been largely overlooked as a precursor to The X-Files. It was a great show that deserves a streaming home. Hackman sure gives Thinnes a hard time. It also represents a turning point in his career, airing about two months after Bonnie and Clyde premiered. As of 1968 on, Hackman’s dramatic work was exclusively cinematic. Both the episode, “The Spores” and the series are highly recommended. (It airs Sundays at 5:00 AM on ME TV.)