The Invisible Man Review

• 8th Jul 2013

David McCallum stars as Dr Westin, a brilliant scientist who makes a breakthrough making bunnies disappear. When the government intervene and try to militarise his work, he destroys it, but in the process turns himself invisible too. Unfortunately the experiment goes wrong and he’s forced to find a cure and use his invisibility as a corporate spy.

The pilot starts off with a convincing scientific set up. David McCallum is perfectly believable as a revolutionary scientist. You’ve also got to applaud the fact that his wife, played by Melinda O. Fee is his partner and the Drs Westin are working together on the research and on their corporate espionage trips. There isn’t a lot of scientific exposition, which is probably a good thing – a lot of recent sci-fi shows spend so much time trying to convince you that time travel etc is possible it just becomes silly.

This is a drama, not a special effects showcase. Everything looks a little dated, but for me that made it more interesting albeit less polished. It is interesting how brave they are to have the screen empty a lot of the time, with bits of furniture moving about, which are strangely more convincing than they should be. This is down to McCallum who is just fantastic to watch, in spite of a catastrophic haircut.

At 631 minutes you certainly get your moneys worth. The extras are pretty meagre, which is a shame because I’d love to watch an interview with McCallum especially as he’s still going strong.

A great 70’s show, finally on DVD. Fans of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and it’s like will not be disappointed. But fundamentally, the point is that he’s naked the whole time he’s on these sojourns and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Maliha Basak