The Big Pull (1962)

The Big Pull was a serial in six parts starring William Dexter with June Tobin and Helen Horton.

Earth comes under attack by an invisible force, which takes over humans in pairs; one disappears, one dies. The disappeared one emerges under alien control, and his face is now that of the one who died. The number of victims grows exponentially; the time between each attack halves each time, and the number of victims doubles. The aliens are exerting their power through the Radio Telescope facility, where all the deaths have taken place, and the only way to stop them was to destroy the base before the next attack, when the number of affected humans will exceed the number of staff there. Unfortunately, the bombing aircraft is late.

The series ends with widespread panic as it is realised that every effort has failed, the scientists are dead, that the whole population of the Earth will be gone within hours, and there is nothing that can be done.

The series was screened in Australia in 1964 but no episodes exist in the archives.

Cast

Episodes

• Part 1 (June 9, 1962)
  • American astronaut Mike Sklorski returns to Earth from space dies soon after and Sir Robert Nailer realises the man was somehow contaminated and that that contamination has begun to spread.
• Part 2 (June 16, 1962)
  • Dr Weatherfield, who designed Sklorski's rocket, has nightmares that he has absorbed the astronauts memory and disappears. The search for him becomes a top secret priority while the new radio-telescope begins to receive strange signals.
• Part 3 (June 23, 1962)
  • The dead astronaut, Major Sklorski, is seen alive, and Dr Weatherfield has disappeared. Sir Robert Nailer believes that Sklorski and Weatherfield have become one body, one personality.
• Part 4 (June 30, 1962)
  • The result of astronaut Sklorski's successful orbital flight is an attack on earth by an intelligence from space. Men are attacked in pairs-one killed, one missing. The only chance of preventing the next attack is to find a missing man-and there are twenty-one hours to go.
• Part 5 (July 7, 1962)
  • The last attack from space claimed thirty-two victims. The next attack will claim double that number. Bruton-Anderson (the 'fusion' of two men that looks like Anderson) is captured by Sir Robert, who is forced to attempt a desperate experiment.
• Part 6 (July 14, 1962)
  • The missing men now number thirty-one, and the attacks from space have stopped - but for how long? Nailer knows the missing men must now reduce their number to sixteen. How will they do it and when? Their success means the end of the world.

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