"(upbeat music playing)" "(sighs)" "Edgar, we don't even know if this is a contact point." "Three Tuesdays in a row... always between 6:30 and 7:00 and always the same alien and I had him followed by different guards." "What else could it be?" "Maybe he just likes the service." "(music continues)" "That's it." "Need some gas?" "Be with you in a minute." "Interested in some tires, mister?" "No, I'd like to see that briefcase." "(crashing and clattering)" "(grunts)" "Hold it!" "(tires screech)" "You all right?" "Yeah." "The other one got away." "Anything worthwhile in there?" "I don't know." "Most of it seems to be in code." "I've seen this one before." "Yeah, so have I... on one of the TV newscasts." "He's been nominated to head up some important new tracking facility specially geared for the exploration of space." "Well, if that tracking facility can help us get out into space, it could help the aliens coming in." "NARRATOR:" "Starring Roy Thinnes as architect David Vincent." "The invaders... alien beings from a dying planet." "Their destination... the Earth." "Their purpose... to make it their world." "David Vincent has seen them." "For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road looking for a shortcut that he never found." "It began with a closed, deserted diner and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey." "(eerie whirring)" "It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy." "(whirring intensifies)" "Now David Vincent knows that the invaders are here." "That they have taken human form." "Somehow, he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun." "The guest stars in tonight's story:" "Raymond St. Jacques..." "Janet MacLachlan..." "Roscoe Lee Browne..." "Kent Smith." "NARRATOR:" "For two daysa senate subcommittee has been meeting to consider the nomination of a man named Arnold Warren for an important post in the international space program." "David Vincent has reason to believe that Warren is an alien." "He has 24 hours to prove it." "DAVID:" "Mr. Baxter?" "Yes." "David Vincent-- I left a note at your office." "Yes, I read it." "Why don't you call my secretary and see if we can't set something up for next week?" "Your report on Warren is due tomorrow." "That'll be all, gentlemen." "Thank you." "Not that way." "Why not?" "That's David Vincent talking to the committee investigator." "Five minutes is all I'm asking for." "Mister Vincent, I have a luncheon engagement." "I don't think you could convince me of anything in five minutes." "I can if you're willing to listen." "Come with me." "Five minutes." "(chuckles dismissively)" "Vincent, I've heard some beauts in my time, but you've got them all whipped." "(sighs)" ""Arnold Andrew Warren, born March 18, 1925."" "You saw the birth certificate?" "Baptismal, and I spoke with his father." "He does have a father?" "Maybe." ""Attended public schools."" "I saw the diploma." "At his father's place, I suppose." "At his father's place." ""Enlisted in the army in '43." ""Won the DSC with the 101st airborne on D-Day." ""After the war, he went to work for Carter Electronics." "They went out of business in '49."" "It figures." "(knocking at door)" "Jim, you in there?" "Oh, yeah, honey." "Hi, Daddy." "Hi, champ." "How are you?" "I going to have lunch with you." "That's right." "That's a deal." "Oh, uh..." "Mr. Vincent, my wife Mrs. Baxter." "How do you do?" "Mr. Vincent was just leaving." "Nice to have met you." "Nice to have met you, Mr. Vincent." "Michael, don't mess up Daddy's desk." "Apparently, you think this Warren is really something special." "I do." "Well, he, uh, he must have been to have been awarded the DSC with a unit that wasn't integrated until six or seven years later." "See you later." "Celia..." "Yes?" "Do you remember when the army was integrated?" "'50, '51..." "somewhere in there." "What's the matter?" "It's Warren." "He lied to me." "No, no..." "I didn't say I got it in the 101st." "I said I got it with the 101st." "That's a very subtle distinction, Mr. Warren." "I'm not quite sure..." "Now you're bound and determined to ruin my image." "Well, here goes-- the plain truth." "I was a cook." "(laughs)" "A cook?" "Yes... assigned to a field kitchen in the area of the 101st." "Now, the Germans overran our lines and I found myself with an M-1 instead of a spatula." "Now, I think those airborne guys were more grateful not having to eat my cooking than they were over anything else." "Anyway, that's where the DSC came from." "(horn honking)" "I hope that clears everything up." "Yeah." "Yeah, I think we're on the beam again." "It must really get to you having to hear out someone like Vincent." "Doesn't make things any easier, that's for sure." "Well, have a good lunch and I'll see you tomorrow." "Yeah... see you tomorrow." "Well, are you satisfied now?" "No, I'm not." "I didn't mention Vincent." "They did." "Yes, I'd, uh..." "like to call Syracuse, New York, person to person, collect" "Mr. Edgar Scoville, s-c-o-v-i-double l-e." "Yeah, well, I may have shaken him up a bit, but, uh, he's still handing in the report tomorrow." "Mmm." "Well, I can ask him, but I don't know if he'll show up." "10:00?" "All right." "Right." "I'll talk with you later." "So long." "(tires squealing)" "You know, that boy and his blanket-- he can't find it and he won't go to sleep without it." "You can go ahead and look, but it's not in here." "That report will be ready for tomorrow, won't it?" "That's hard to say." "Maybe it will and maybe it won't." "But I thought you'd finished it." "Heading up that tracking station is a pretty important post for a Negro, isn't it?" "Oh, so that's it." "I just asked a question." "Just because he's Negro," "I'm not going to whitewash him." ""Whitewash"?" "!" "Oh, please, don't push me, Celia." "MICHAEL:" "Find my blanket yet?" "Michael, who do you think the best baseball player in the world is?" "Willie Mays." "And who's the best football player?" "Gale Sayers." "You go on in now." "I'll be along to tuck you in." "He needs heroes, Jim-- black ones." "Hey, Mike!" "Who throws a football better than anyone else?" "Johnny Unitas." "Is this a game?" "No, champ, not really." "Go to bed now." "Now, what was your point, Celia?" "(doorbell rings)" "Oh, hello, Vincent." "I'm sorry I can't let you in." "I'm trying to put the kid to bed." "Did you at least ask him about the 101st Airborne Division?" "Oh, yes, I did, and he answered satisfactorily." "Satisfactorily?" "What does that mean?" "It means I'm an investigator, Vincent." "That's a fancy word for a cop." "And a cop moves on facts, not hunches." "And he's supposed to keep an open mind." "Aren't you?" "Vincent, I don't want any part of this." "Neither do I" " I never have-- but I know they're here." "Just listen to me for a minute, will you?" "A friend of mine, Edgar Scoville, has a plant on River Road." "He's had his own men investigating this case for a long time." "He wants to meet with you." "Meet me in the south parking lot at 10:00 tonight." "Good night, Vincent." "Please take the card." "Did Mr. Vincent leave?" "Yeah." "I found it under the couch." "Here, give it to me." "I'll put it over him." "Love you." "Oh." "(chuckles)" "Love you, too." "Dinner." "Where's Scoville?" "In Syracuse." "Well, I thought you wanted me to meet him." "No, I meant I wanted you to talk to him." "Sit down." "Closed-circuit TV." "He uses it for inter- plant conferences." "Evening, David..." "Mr. Baxter." "Mr. Scoville." "What convinced you to come here, Mr. Baxter?" "The trusting part of me says I should keep an open mind." "The cynical part says I should give you enough rope to hang yourselves." "That's all, Mr. Baxter?" "No, it's not." "Call it a cop's intuition... call it what you want... there's always been something about Warren that didn't quite jibe." "Something that wasn't..." "Human." "That's your term, not mine." "Not yet." "David's probably told you that aliens don't bleed." "Two years ago, Warren headed a construction project in South America." "There was an explosion on the job." "18 men were pretty badly cut up." "17 of them bled." "Warren became sort of a legend down there." "The natives called him "the man who couldn't bleed."" "I did some checking on the doctor who treated him..." "Hold it." "Show me that picture again." "His hand." "His hand." "What are you talking about?" "Look at the palm of my hand then his." "It's darker." "I never saw a black man like that before." "Tomorrow he makes a television address in Baltimore, and then he says he's going fishing up at Beaver Kill." "So?" "There's a regeneration station there." "We've been trying to pinpoint it for months." "We figure if he doesn't show there, he'll die." "Now, if there's a way to postpone tomorrow's hearing..." "I can try." "And if we can find a way to keep him here..." "Oh, man." "If... if... if I had a hundred legs, I'd be the Rockettes." "All right." "I'll see what I can find out from his so-called father." "We'll meet here tomorrow afternoon." "No, you'd better not." "My wife Celia... well, her brother was killed seven months ago." "Vietnam war?" "No." "The one in this country." "Last summer..." "Detroit." "Anyway, it's important to her that we keep things moving." "If she were to find out that I was trying to stop Warren's appointment..." "No problem." "We'll arrange to meet somewhere else." "I'll call you." "Thank you." "I appreciate it." "See you." "Senator?" "This is Jim Baxter." "I'm terribly sorry to have to disturb you at this hour, but I'm afraid there's going to be a delay on the Warren security report." "Oh, well, no." "I don't want to say how serious it is now until I have time to look into it tomorrow." "Oh, no, sir." "It's absolutely necessary." "I know what I said, Senator, and I'm sorry to throw a monkey wrench into it." "Oh, no, sir, I'll definitely need the weekend." "Yes, sir." "Well, thank you, Senator." "Thank you very much." "Celia!" "RADIO NEWSCASTER:" "Meanwhile, in Vietnam," "VC guerrillas were successfully driven back from two villages yesterday and U.S. Marines have moved in to consolidate their positions there." "American casualties for the month are down almost 50%." "A spokesman for the Secretary of Defense..." "Mr. Warren?" "Yes, sir." "What can I do for you?" "Bob Tobin, freelance writer." "I was thinking of doing an article on your son." "I'd like to ask some questions." "Oh, sure." "Come right up, young man." "I'll be glad to talk about Arnold any day of the week." "NEWSCASTER:" "Bad news again for Mr. And Mrs. Consumer." "Figures compiled by the Department of Labor Statistics reveal that the cost of living index has risen another..." "Can I get you a cup of coffee or anything?" "No, thank you." "Well, let me shut off this contraption here... so we can hear ourselves think." "Now... so you ask me any old thing you have a mind to." "Well, let's begin with his childhood." "DAVID:" "What kind of student was he?" "Do you remember what schools he went to?" "Mr. Baxter, I understand that it was you who requested a delay of the hearings." "That's right." "Well, if there's anything I can do to expedite matters," "I'd be happy to." "You see, I have a speaking engagement this evening and an appointment with a very large... trout for the weekend." "There's nothing you can do." "Mr. Baxter... you know as well as I do that delays feed rumors... and rumors can cause a great deal of trouble, especially for a man like me." "You understand." "Like you?" "No, I don't understand." "Well, I'm trying to say as politely as I know how that you're not being very loyal to your race." "Which race is that?" "Negro... or human?" "I'm sorry, I couldn't help you out anymore, son, but it seems like a lot of them dates just gets all boggled up in my head." "That's all right." "I understand quite well." "Looking for something?" "This your car?" "I rented it." "Why?" "We got a robbery report a couple hours ago." "A car just like this." "Oh, yeah?" "May we see your license, please?" "Don't policemen usually ask for the license separately?" "(gunshot)" "(gunshot)" "Vincent got away!" "The afternoon papers say you might have found something to disqualify Warren." "Is that true?" "Maybe." "I don't know yet." "Can you tell me what it is?" "Honey, it's a whole bunch of things." "Little things, maybe." "But mainly, his record doesn't verify." "One company that he worked for they've gone out of business." "Another's been nationalized." "The church where he was christened all of their records have been destroyed." "But most important... it's his hands." "The color of the skin of the palms..." "The color of his skin!" "What's wrong with the color of his skin?" "The color of the skin of the palms..." "Jim, what's wrong with you?" "Well, there's nothing wrong with me." "I'm trying to tell you..." "You wouldn't be this hard on a white man and you know it." "You started this song and dance, now you finish it." "Well, it's true." "You're playing Whitey." "Trying to find some picky little thing wrong with him just so you can prove you're better than he is." "Well, I am better." "I have to be better." "I have to be... better than anyone else." "I don't even raise my voice in a family argument, see?" "Because I don't want them to say we don't know how to have a good family life." "I mow that stinking, lousy lawn not once, but twice a week because this house is going to be neater, more well kept, than any other house on the block." "You want black heroes?" "Fine." "I want them, too." "But they're going to be real heroes-- no flaws-- the absolute best." "So we've got to run faster just to stay in the same place, is that it?" "Yes, I'm afraid that's it." "And you better get used to it." "(tires squealing)" "(jukebox plays RB music)" "All right, baby, you feel that way-- bye." "(phone rings)" "Hello?" "Mrs. Baxter, this is David Vincent." "I'm in a bar called Ollie's at Fifth and Coolidge." "Tell your husband I'm in trouble." "They have me pinned down here but there's an alley out back." "I'm sorry, you've reached the wrong number." "Hey, Casey... what's going on up there?" "Help you?" "Change for the phone, please." "Right." "Cops-- looking for somebody, I guess." "Hey, mister." "Yeah." "Here's your change." "Thank you." "I, uh... don't make much money off phone calls, friend." "Yeah, I'll have a beer." "He's not sure he's going to make it." "He wants to come up there right now." "Well, he's getting weaker." "That's why he wants to cancel the speech." "Well, what do they say?" "All right, we'll do it that way." "They're going to bring the regeneration van to Baltimore." "Five minutes after the TV show, you'll be as good as new." "I'll never make it." "Of course you can always call them back and tell them you don't accept their decision." "I'll be fine... just fine." "(sewing machine whirs)" "Do you have to run that thing?" "No, only if you want Michael to have some clothes to wear." "Vincent should've called by now." "Maybe he forgot." "No, he said he would call." "Celia?" "Where's Michael?" "Why?" "What's wrong?" "He left the phone off the hook." "Michael Baxter!" "You come here right now." "He's at the Harlands, Jim." "He can't hear you." "Well, Vincent could've been trying to reach me for hours." "Well, if it's important, he'll call back." ""If it's important"?" "!" "Jim, do you honestly believe what Vincent says?" "Celia..." "I don't think you know what you married..." "I'm a cop." "A guy who's trying to keep the lid on." "And that's all I'm doing now." "I'm a good cop, Celia." "Jim... can I get you anything?" "A sandwich and a beer would do nicely." "Okay." "Jim, you know what would be nice?" "Maybe next weekend, if we ask your mother if she'll take Michael for a few days, then you and I could, uh..." "I don't know, drive up to see Esther and Sam." "Or if you want to, just stay here by ourselves." "Oh, it seems like a million years since we've had any time together, you know?" "Jim?" "Jim?" "This is an emergency." "They're two doors down, friend, so I think you better split." "I don't know what you're talking about." "Look..." "I don't care much what they want you for, but I'm not going to have my place busted on account of it." "What makes you think they're after me?" "Bartender's intuition." "I've got a sign says "we reserve the right to refuse anybody."" "You look like anybody to me, so split." "All right, why don't you, uh, call the station house, tell them I'm here." "All I've got to do is put my head out the door and holler." "Why split the reward?" "Look, I..." "I killed a cop." "Those guys outside try to capture me they'll take me to the station house in pieces." "But if you call the station house and bring the reporters down here," "I'll have a chance to go to trial." "Is that straight?" "About the reward?" "It's straight." "You'll get your money." "Storeroom in the back." "Get moving." "Look, friend, don't tell me you ain't looking for anybody." "There are two cops in here right now." "Numbers 54 and 78." "But he said he killed a cop." "Out." "Search him." "Outside." "You got to advise him on his rights." "It's our duty to inform you that you have the right to remain silent." "You're entitled to a lawyer." "Leave that man alone." "Stay out of this, mister." "Drop it." "You ain't no cops." "You're even wearing phony badges." "You can split if you want, friend." "Are you sure?" "Everything is copacetic." "Hold it." "(gunshot)" "(gunshot)" "(tires squealing)" "Warren's giving his speech in a few minutes." "Your husband should be around here somewhere." "Will you be all right?" "Lots of perspiration." "You sure you're not coming down with the flu, Mr. Warren?" "No, I'm just fine." "Thank you." "All right." "We're about ready for you." "Why don't you come over and get set." "Shh." "It's all right, honey." "Don't worry." "When you left, I thought I'd die." "All right." "Now get in the car." "I didn't know where to find you, but I knew you'd know where to find me." "I figured if we could stop Warren from getting to that regeneration center... (vehicle approaching)" "15 minutes." "Be ready." "Yes, sir." "The regeneration center came to him." "Ten minutes after he steps inside that truck over there, he'll be as good as new." "How many people came with the truck?" "I've seen three, plus whoever is with him in the studio." "It won't be easy with just the two of us." "Three of us." "Jim, please." "I've fought you so long on this, let me help you now." "No, you're out of it and that's final." "But the two of you can't do it alone." "Then it won't get done." "David, you talk to him." "Tell him nothing will happen to me." "I'm not going to lie to him." "We can handle it ourselves, can't we?" "I'm not going to lie to you, either." "Well, now that you've talked me into it, there's just one thing." "Somebody's got to tell me what to do." "WARREN:" "...but surely we all acknowledge that any civilization has its set of tribal laws of taboos, if you will, and once that point is admitted, it becomes clear that our own nation is not so far removed." "But we, too, are breaking down our taboos, our tribal laws, as we who are committed to tracking through space do so..." "Ready." "How much time will you need?" "We'll need ten minutes to take over the regeneration van." "...and I hope it's been as educational for you as it has been enjoyable for me." "Thank you." "And we fade." "Very good." "Thank you very much, Mr. Warren." "Come on, let's get out of here." "No, not yet." "There's a woman outside wants to talk to you-- syndicated columnist." "It'll only take a few more minutes." "William, I don't think I have a few more minutes." "Our people in the van say you do." "What's wrong?" "I've seen that woman before." "(slurring):" "Hey, baby..." "Man, have you seen my car?" "Red convertible... dual carburetors?" "MAN 1:" "No, I haven't seen it." "We're doing a little repair work around here, so if I was you, I'd get out of here." "Go on, get out of here." "Now, wait, man, take it easy." "Wow." "I'm afraid that a long interview at this time would be out of the question, Mrs. Harris." "After my confirmation by the senate" "I'd be only too happy to..." "But so many of my people are curious about what you might accomplish for them." "Mrs. Harris, don't you mean our people?" "Well, I meant my readers, of course." "Of course, I realize how busy you must be," "Mr. Warren, but..." "And I appreciate your concern." "You have no idea of the rigors of appearing in public, testifying before a senate committee, being investigated by thorough, conscientious, painstaking men like your husband," "Mrs. Baxter." "We're going to the truck, Mr. Baxter." "I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't follow." "Celia, get the car." "Jim... you'll have to testify and I'll call you when I need you." "Do you really think they're going to believe me?" "Not a hundred percent, no." "What you and the technicians say will go on record." "What they have to do now is find a replacement for Warren." "Well, I hope if he's Negro, that he can take it because Jim Baxter would make him run through hoops to prove himself." "Jim, good luck." "Thanks for everything." "Celia." "Good-bye, David." "NARRATOR:" "James A. Baxter, special investigator for a senate subcommittee, a formidable ally for David Vincent who will join the battle against an alien race... the invader from the sky."