Aliens from outer space land in a farmer’s field while he is on his tractor. Two aliens take him aboard the ship and do tests on him and then leave. A naked alien woman comes into the room and they have sex. When the farmer tells the sheriff he gets laughed at. The farmer calls the leading UFO expert, Professor Allan Duncan (Robert Vaughn). Professor Duncan examines the area where the UFO landed and confirms to the farmer that he did indeed have contact with aliens.
On the alien space ship Captain Rameses (Christopher Lee) is telepathically informing his crew of their mission. He tells them that their planet is dying and they must find a new one to inhabit before their sun goes supernova. Their home planet is Alpha in the Orion constellation. The inhabitants, members of the Legion of the Winged Serpent, are preparing to evacuate as soon as a suitable planet is found. To complete their tests on the viability of Earth for their purposes, they need a female human.
They kidnap a family driving down the road. They are a man, a woman and their son. The three of them are also subjected to various tests. The results of the tests reveal that the aliens are actually descendants of Earthlings that went into space. Rameses knows that in order to make Earth habitable for his people he will have to destroy their own ancestors. The aliens use a device on their test subjects that makes them commit suicide so that their existence isn’t discovered. The intention is to use a larger device on the Earth to make everyone commit suicide, thereby allowing the aliens to just settle in with no conflict.
Under the ocean is another group of aliens called the Intergalactic League of Races. They are mostly from Zeta Reticuli and believe in something similar to the Prime Directive. They are against any attempt to interfere in the Humans civilization. They only observe.
Rameses lands his ship at the underground base. He tells the League that he is there on a scientific exploration mission. When the League’s guard is down Rameses and his crew attack. They sabotage one of the three league ships. When the others go to investigate he takes over the base and kills the other aliens and destroys all the robots. The ships are warned about the takeover and try to return. One lands on the base but the crew are killed. The other manages to escape but their computer is damaged.
Rameses lets loose his orbiting extermination weapon. People on Earth are committing suicide wherever the beam hits the planet. He also sends for his troops hiding on the other side of the moon.
In the meantime the surviving League ship has no choice but to contact the Earthlings and ask for help. The first on their list to talk to is Professor Duncan. Duncan is more than willing to help. Duncan calls on his best friend and computer expert Malcolm.
“Starship Invasions” was released in 1977 and was directed, produced and written by Ed Hunt. It is an example of Canuxploitation. The film was made by Americans, starring Americans and distributed by Americans but filmed in Toronto, Ontario. I’m not sure how they managed to get Sir Christopher Lee and Robert Vaughn to star in this but kudos to them.
The full-size saucer was actually an inflatable prop. The aliens depicted, including the pointy-nosed robot, are based on actual descriptions given by UFO "witnesses" over the years.
The filmmakers got a lot of flak with the first couple of titles of the movie. At first it was called “War of the Aliens” which was a little too close to “Star Wars: Episode IV-A new Hope” 1977. Next they tried “Alien Encounter” which was too close to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” 1977. Finally they settled on “Starship Invasions”.
The film is your basic independently made smaller budget 70’s style alien movie. The special effects are actually pretty decent for the most part. The music score is a mix of styles and actually interesting. The main race that mans the underwater base look a lot like the Talosians from the pilot episode of the Star Trek TV series which are cool. The robots, however; look like they’re wearing silver onesies and the bad guys wear black leotards, shoulder pads and a priest’s biretta without the tassel.
It’s hard to figure out if the filmmakers are really serious or camp. The actors appear to take the movie seriously but it’s a little hard to swallow that you can maneuver around the solar system using a pocket calculator. Then again some of the images of the suicide victims are disturbing. It’s an unusual movie. I found it good and bad but good for the most part.