The Outer Limits The Invisible Enemy (1963–1965) watch online HD

The first manned expedition to Mars has successfully landed, and the two-man crew explores the surface of the planet when something goes horribly wrong, and all contact is lost. Three years later, Earth tries again, this time sending a four-man crew to re-investigate, when tragedy strikes again, and two more men are lost. Major Merritt(played by Adam West) and Captain Jack Buckley(played by Rudy Solari) discover the true nature of the mystery, voracious sand sharks that may prevent them taking off again...Paper thin story with outdated science(an atmosphere on Mars?) still manages to be entertaining on a Halloween-viewing level. Not to be taken seriously of course, but watchable.

In "The Invisible Enemy", astronauts journey to Mars in search of answers as to what may have wiped out the crew of a previous mission. The story is populated with underdeveloped characters of little interest (not to mention the surprising revelation that the need for artificial breathing apparatus is optional on mars), but what does work is the considerable suspense generated whenever the astronauts venture out to explore the eerie surface of the planet. Though the second season often gets knocked (and justifiably so) for not being as good as season 1, this episode's ingeniously conceived effects rank among the finest work ever done for "The Outer Limits". For genuinely spine-tingling moments, few in the series can out-do the scene in which a strange object rises out of the surface of the landscape and begins moving through the sand like a fish swims through water. Whatever is under the surface, nothing more is revealed until later when our first real glimpse comes in the startling form of two lobster-like claws reaching out of the sand. Later as the thing's dragon-like head finally makes it's appearance, we see the object that had been cruising across the surface is a dorsal fin mounted on top of it's skull. Zeroing in on motion- or the smell of blood- it literally is a sand-dwelling shark.

After the first doomed expedition made the mistake of not following proper procedure, Earth naturally sends another reckless bunch (this time commanded by Adam West no less). Among the crew is a puzzling officer (Rudy Solari) who considers obeying orders secondary to collecting martian flowers and gathering up little diamonds that litter the sand. Also head-scratching is a scene where West seems to be completely deaf to repeated warnings of the sand shark's presence. Later, West finds temporary safety on a rock, but from the viewer's perspective it seems so small we wonder why the creature doesn't just swim over to the marooned astronaut and gobble him up. Ironically, actor Peter Marko, playing here an astronaut eaten by the marauding sand shark would later show up in the "Star Trek" episode "Galileo Seven" in which he lands on another spooky planet to be crushed by a giant ape.

Anyways, despite the not-so-well-thought-out-script and budgetary limitations, director Byron (The War Of The Worlds) Haskin and the Projects Unlimited team deliver a truly memorable monster that's both frightening, and perhaps even inspirational as one wonders if the graboids of "Tremors" may just be the terrestrial stepchildren of this memorable season 2 horror.

Adam West goes to Mars and encounters a crab monster.

Whenever this hour is mentioned one thing enters my mind: the studio set for the surface of Mars. Who cares if some of the spaceship crew are not so interesting, who cares if the crab monster in the sand looks terrible, you just remember the look of Mars. It is these visual things that often make an Outer Limits show so special and that is the case with The Invisible Enemy. But there is suspense as well.

Adam West is fine in the lead role but you will not see any of Bruce Wayne or Batman in his character here, he is just playing the concerned spaceman who keeps looking out the window of his rocket.

Of interest is that this is the second excursion to Mars for Adam West in 1964. He also starred in 'Robinson Crusoe On Mars' which is worth a look and may even be underrated since I know so few people who have actually seen it. Give that one a try! Originally I had given up on Outer Limits during the second limp season after the 4th episode thus I never did see this episode until I bought the DVD set a few years ago. As with all previous second season episodes I had not originally seen, this one again demonstrates that my decision to find other things to do than watch this in 1964 was not necessarily an erroneous decision. It, too, takes what could have been a good concept and becomes botched in the hands of a production crew who seem to have no concept of what constitutes 'awe and mystery' or no deep down passion for producing thought-provoking science fiction. Anyway, we have a crew going to Mars for exploration. The first crew is massacred by something unknown so a second crew is sent. The first fatal flaw is that as the first crew's rocket is landing, the Earth is clearly seen in the background. This could be another example of the OL team cutting budgetary corners since this very same background is used in other previous episodes (Cold Hands Warm Heart, for example). I'm not sure how much money it would have taken to remove the Earth from the background, but even at 7 years old I would have known that you cannot see the Earth nearly this well from Mars. Yet as with ALL prior OL episodes there are jarring scientific flaws that one tends to overlook if the story is well written and conveyed with distracting thought provoking concepts. This episode is not one of them. The flaws are all too hard to get around. As with 'Robinson Crusoe On Mars', the planet has an atmosphere (which, I suppose cuts down on having to come up with helmets and oxygen tanks from the practically non-existent budget). In this case, the atmosphere is quite adequate for strenuous activity. It is also an obvious sound stage since you are able to see creases in the drywall background. Still, with OL if the story shines, who cares? We are provided with a slight glimpse of the creature that kills the first crew. The creature is actually worthy of the first season's efforts. It does induce uneasy fear. That's why we watch this show! The second crew is sent up with the strict order that safety strategies and protocols should be followed. It starts out well enough but soon it all goes to Hell in a hand-basket. Other reviewers have rightfully pointed out the sheer stupidity of some of the decisions and behaviors. They aren't written into the script effectively as much as it suddenly occurs to the individual, 'What can I do right now that disobeys orders and is entirely lame-brain'? Meanwhile, the ground crew does their best to look stressed and haggard (loosened ties, five o'clock shadows, and rumpled uniforms). So, after two of the four member team are eliminated by the creature - which, again, turns out to really not be such a bad effect, the member with the all-too cliché loose attitude (Rudy Solari) decides not so much to go have a look for them as much as go look for more Mars gems like the ones he found earlier. He also makes the most astonishing revelation about the nature of the creature and the environment as he day dreams while looking from the porthole. He is astonished! He has it all figured out but the commander (West) conveniently falls asleep and can't be roused(!?). Of course, the idiot decides to go out anyway and leaves his 'walkie-talkie' <== yes, it IS called that. Then when Adam wakes up he has to go look for Solari despite a strict command that he NOT go but if he must, the rocket will have to take off at a precise time. Absolutely anyone who would go through all of the training to be an astronaut would know the importance of this. Adam knows this but thinks he can round up the idiot in time. Solari seems completely oblivious to this fact as he scouts for more Mars gems. What follows is what seems like a forced situation to put the astronauts at peril. The creature special effects are, in fact, effective. The astronauts attempting to run across the sandy terrain is not so good. The plan to extract themselves from the situation seems entirely too obvious and ultimately seems misguided when it is discovered that more than one creature exists. Of course then comes the questions wondering how such large creatures manage to exist when there seems to be no consistent other life for them to eat regularly, and why only one ever chose to be active when multiple targets are available, etc? Eventually, they get back to the rocket and go home. Like much of the previous season 2 episodes, there is nothing you walk away with to think about. The adventure simply ends. The only reason to see this is perhaps to see the special creature effects because they aren't half bad, and to see an early Adam West.

"The Outer Limits" was a neat series but even its greatest fans would admit that sometimes the monsters or aliens in the show were really cheesy. But, in spite of this, the show still was very good--even some of those with the silliest special effects. So, you can't blame the failure of "The Invisible Enemy". Sure, the monster is VERY cheesy (a creature that looks like it's part octopus, part crab and mostly plastic) but even still it could have been a good show. The problem here is definitely the writing.

The show begins with a rocket landing on Mars. Soon after, both crew members are killed and Earth has no idea what caused it. So, they send another ship with four guys--and VERY specific orders to be careful and investigate the deaths. Soon, one of these idiots is killed--and you marvel at how anyone can be THAT stupid and careless considering that they already know the place is very deadly. So what happens next? most of the rest of the crew behaves even stupider!! Defying orders and all common sense, they start making dumb choices and behaving like unprofessional half-wits! How can the audience possibly buy into the stories if the characters behave this way?! There are other serious flaws with the plot if you think about it. Where were the cameras and video cameras to try to record exactly WHAT was killing everyone?! Why not bring LOTS of weapons and safety equipment?! Why not send multiple ships? The bottom line is that aside from a nice ending, this is just a very dumb episode. And, sadly, it could have been a lot better had the script just been polished a bit.

A pair of idiots are sent to Mars. They are killed due to incompetence. Five years later, another group of equal idiots are sent to see what happened. The space program has been put in the hands of men who have no discipline, no dedication to duty, nor respect for each other. There is all this talk about doing things by the book but when the first chance is there to explore, they ignore all their training. They are to remain in sight. They don't. One guy gets another one killed while he hunts for Martian diamonds. Since these are military men, the survivors should be court martialed the minute they arrive back on Earth. There is this steady comic byplay even after a colleague has been killed. One of the characters is such a miserable jerk that he shouldn't be allowed to tie his own shoes. Throw in two oddities: Adam West, Batman and Ted Knight, Ted Baxter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show are principle figures. They do nothing the least bit interesting in the show.

The story starts out good. A 2 man team of astronauts lands on Mars, one screams while exploring the landscape and his buddy who goes to help him is never heard from again. Nothing is given away, and I was interested in what killed them. Fast forward 3 years later, when a 4 man team is sent to figure out happened. They are given strict orders to follow protocol, and even go over the orders yet again for the benefit of the audience. Luckily, the atmosphere back then must have been unknown, because they do not need suits to walk around. I have no problem with that, and can look past it. They send a man out to explore. But this is where the episode begins to lose me. One of the very strict orders is to never get out of visual contact. One of the first things the astronaut does is get out of visual contact. Now granted, it was just for a minute, and he wanted some buried debris. But of course he screams and is killed by something in the ground. But because they could not see him, the members on the ship have no idea what it was.

Now up to this point, all 3 men who went out of their ships have died. You think there would be a heightened sense of danger. No, of course not. Why worry? So they send 2 men out, and they are supposed to not go out of visual contact. There is something killing people loose on the planet. So what does one of them do? Goes behind a rock outside of visual contact! "Hey there is a pretty rock!" And a flower! I'll just go behind this rock where no can see me and ignore my commander. It gets the other guy killed of course, but they still don't know by what. The two remaining men are informed they have an hour before the ship will have to head home. Even though it's not flying, it's about to be out of fuel? They sent it all that way so it could be on the planet for 3 hours?

But then one of them figures it out. It's a creature in the ground. But they only have an hour left, so the commander has decided to take a

nap? Really? Hey, you only have an hour before you will be on a long voyage back to Earth, so make sure you nap so you won't be asleep on the way home. Half your crew is missing, and I guess they have zero prep to do, so napping makes sense. And in 5 seconds, he is in a dead sleep. He can't be woken up. So the other guy decides to go out alone on a planet that has killed 4 out of 5 guys that have stepped foot on it. And why? To get what may be a diamond. Magically? Adam West wakes up on his own after being in such a deep sleep, and heads out against orders. They all seem to ignore all orders and common sense. He runs right into the sand , even as his friend is saying "don't run in the sand!". And he falls and instead of getting up and running, decides to crawl. Yeah that's quicker. Adam does make it to a rock and is stuck there. There are only 26 minutes till the ship must blast off. So instead of telling him "dude, that ship is taking off in 26 minutes with or without you. You will be dead either way if you stay on that rock", they just tell the other guy to leave. Don't give him a chance to make it back, just leave. I mean, if he is gonna die either way, at least give him a chance to make it back to the ship. Anyway, we get the ending which is OK, and the show is over. I believe this crew was the great great great grand fathers of the crew from Prometheus. That would explain a lot. The show had a cool premise, and I was really wondering what the invisible enemy was. But this episode falls into a trap so many SciFi shows do and advances the plot through stupidity of characters. It's lazy writing to make the character do something everyone else is screaming "no don't do that!", because they can't figure out other ways to make the story advance. We don't feel sorry for the character, we get angry at them. I wanted a story that doesn't defy logic. I am not gonna pick flowers while something is going around murdering my crew. There was so much of that going on, it took away from the enjoyment of the show. By the end, you didn't care what happened to them, in fact, you may have been rooting for them to die because they were so irritating. Which is a shame, because they had potential here. I did like seeing a young Adam West, but that was about it. If you are a fan of the OL, then give it a shot maybe, but expect to be frustrated at what could have been.