How It All Began (for magnus073) by KatesFriend
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Description
How does a nightmare begin? For David Vincent, architect, returning home from a business trip, it began at a few minutes past four on a lost Tuesday morning, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a welcoming sign that gave hope of black coffee. It began with a closed, deserted diner and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. In the weeks to come, David Vincent would go back to how it all began, many times.
This is the prologue to Beachhead, the premier episode of the late 60's TV series The Invaders. A rarely seen gem from that era of television. Produced by none other than Quinn Martin, this series chronicles the dark adventure of David Vincent, played by actor Roy Thinnes, who witnesses a saucer landing and learns of an active alien invasion of the Earth. Vincent struggles to warn the world of this danger while attempting to thwart the aliens' plans. For its time and genre the series is remarkably well made. Though all the smoking and slicked hair can appear dated, this was no Lost In Space or even Time Tunnel. The Invaders was clearly written for an adult audience with stories that touched upon mature, timely and even subversive themes. The character of David Vincent must constantly struggle against paranoia; his own and that of those who conclude he is delusional. At the best of times Vincent might convince some authorities that there is some kind of conspiracy taking place. But most often, Vincent finds himself fighting his own kind as well as the aliens.
What a shame. He looked and talked so normal. You just never know.
The aliens themselves are not as uniform or implacable as some other TV sci-fi's back then would depict. The invaders are ultimately motivated by desperation - their world is dying. Though most of them (the ones sent to Earth anyways) do not have much concern for individual humans one way or another, we do learn that the act of invading Earth is somewhat controversial amongst their kind. Some believe the invasion is wrong but survival has left them with no alternative. Therefore we can have some sympathy for them in spite of their apparent callousness.
Don't go! Don't fight us. You can't stop it, it's going to happen!
Though episodes were not heavy with visual effects, the producers weren't cheap about using them when needed. I recall one episode, The Enemy, where an alien saucer is destroyed and the viewer sees the vehicle's endoskeleton briefly flash out in a red glow as the saucer disintegrates. Very high quality work that stands up well to this day. And the iconic alien saucer is a case in point. Quinn Martin only intended to show it off once at the start of the first story and subsequently use the landing sequence in every episode's opening hook. This then required the effect to be very impressive and believable. It was and still is, so much so that when the writers first saw the pilot episode they immediately fell in love with the saucer and were constantly coming up with stories that featured it. Another example of how a job can be too well done. And did I mention that this series gave a whole new meaning to the expression, "giving the finger"?
Fingers? We're not all like that David. Some of us learn, we're always learning.
This Poser 7 rendering is dedicated to Dave (aka magnus073 here at Renderosity) because I recently discovered that he is a fellow fan of this dark sci-fi classic. Cheers my friend! My thanks again for the following freebies: Moebius87 for the Dystopia Skydome. Some pre-production done with GIMP 2.4 Other credits: Alien saucer is by Basilone at TurboSquid (http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-ufo-tv-invaders/314654) Old Wood Pines by Judith at RuntimeDNA.
Comments (40)
JaneEden
wow your creation is amazing and I love the lighting here too. Very interesting reading your intro and I too am a lover of sci-fi films and tv series. A fabulous dedi for my bro Dave, really excellent, hugs Jane xx
giovanino
Lovely Image and Scene,Beautifully Done
harada
Awesome picture. I loved the invaders. I made the saucer Mesh in Rhino 3D and then converted it to several other formats: Poser, 3DS, LWO and others. I would have to say that Alien saucer by Basilone at TurboSquid (http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-ufo-tv-invaders/314654) may be a repost of my mesh. No sweat though. I wanted it to get out and see shat people would do with it. I wanted to do a comic stripe short using the CGI renders. You do wonderful WORK !! Thanks for letting me look !! Harada357
preeder
Nice work and what a great write-up.
Chipka
Oh, that finger! WOW! To this day, even though I never saw the original run of the series, I look for that finger! I see it on occasion. I want the whole series on DVD. As for this piece of artwork: what a tribute! What a piece of brilliant work. Oooh, this is positively grand. The X-Files is nothing more than a bit of bland and somewhat racist paranoia in relation to what this show was and still is, and your depiction of its mood here is so incredibly spot on. Oh, how I long for sympathetic bad guys in science fiction, bad guys who are bad because they're too much like us, and they've screwed up. They want to live, they want to protect those they love, and the only way they can do so is to take from others what they themselves have so tragically lost. You bring all of that back in one simple picture, and how incredibly well done it is! Bravo!!!
CleonXXI
Oh, wow, excellent artwork and outstanding synopsis of this classic show. I remember it from my childhood, the sonorous voice of the announcer declaiming "The Invaders - A Quinn Martin Production". As I recall Ed Asner was an invader on one episode. I still have this saucer model from, I believe, Aurora models. It had a very complete interior. Neat image and a great trip back down memory lane, the cold war flip side of Star Trek's late 60's optimism.
A_Sunbeam
Nice work - love your flying saucer!
moochagoo
Love this picture !
Flixthe
"Les envahisseurs" (titre en français, pour une fois que la traduction est exacte) sont l'une des deux séries qui ont marqué mon enfance. J'appréciais l'effet spécial lors de la mort de l'un des envahisseurs. Très belle image, et de beaux effets de lumière. Mais comme je voyais la série sur une télé en noir et blanc, ça me semble trop coloré.
ACue
I've been remiss is monitoring your gallery. This is a great render, in particular. Great idea. I sure rmembger that television program. It was my favorite at the time (lol). The old 62-63 Ford is a brilliant touch.