THE OUTER LIMITS: THE INVISIBLE ENEMY

Adam West watches Martian monster approach

THE OUTER LIMITS: The Invisible Enemy. Season 2, episode 7/1964. Director: Byron Haskin. Colorized. 

When the two astronauts sent on the first expedition to Mars vanish without a trace, a second expedition is sent, with strict instructions that the members must remain in sight at all times. Unfortunately, when one man ducks down to inspect a piece of wreckage, he screams and disappears! Another man vanishes, and crew member Buckley (Rudy Solari) figures out that there's something out there in the Martian sand. That something is a huge, flesh-eating reptilian creature that swims through sand like a shark swims through water. Eventually Major Merritt (Adam West) winds up cornered on a small piece of rock as one of the creatures tries to make a meal out of him. 

Rudy Solari and Adam West

The Invisible Enemy has a great and creepy idea going for it, although the execution isn't entirely satisfactory. Buckley is a stupid character, and he lowers the whole tone of the enterprise. At least Solari's performance is acceptable, which is not the case for Adam West. The future Batman shows his obvious contempt for the material by barely working up a sweat. An implausible aspect of the script is that none of the astronauts have the slightest reaction when their colleagues are gobbled up, as if they barely knew them when they've obviously been working together for months. It almost doesn't make sense that the second expedition finds the first rocket ship in pieces as if it crashed on landing, when the prologue makes it clear that this is not the case.

Joe Maross and Ted Knight at Earth Control

However, The Invisible Enemy, directed by sci fi specialist Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds; The Power; Robinson Crusoe on Mars), is still quite eerie, with an effective musical score. While the creature itself -- it turns out to be only one of many, of course -- may not have the greatest design, it is still a fearsome-looking thing with rather large teeth and claws. (Decades later, more than one low-budget filmmaker has stolen the premise and come up with actual "sand sharks" to bedevil people on Earth's beaches.) Joe Maross and Ted Knight play worried people waiting miles away in "Earth Control" -- Maross, in particular, plays with far more passion than West. His character has to make a difficult decision to possibly leave the surviving astronauts behind on Mars. Byron Haskin also directed Captain Sindbad. This episode may have influenced the Tremors movies even as it may have been influenced by the sand monsters in Dune. 

Verdict: Although nearly done in by dumb elements, Invisible Enemy is a noteworthy episode of the series. ***.