Main cast: Richard Clarke (Howard), Mart Hulswit (Frederick), and Richard M Hughes (Henry Wells)
Director: Robert T Megginson

The Space-Eaters is a cute homage to the Hammer Films stuff back in the old days, and it has much of the feel down pat, from the lighting to the costumes.

Basically, this one is about two older gentlemen, Howard and Frederick, stuck in their holiday cabin during a freak thunderstorm. They spend the time trying to outdo one another in bombastic pseudo-intellectual discourses about the human brain, something that becomes relevant when they are interrupted by a local, Henry, who turns out to have a bizarre hole at the top left side of his skull, his brain apparently removed or eaten.

That’s right, the two gentlemen are soon under siege from what seems to be an alien that sends brain-sucking tentacles down to eat their brains and turn their bodies into its puppets.

This one does such a good job at capturing the Hammer Films feel that I actually think now and then that I’m watching an actual production for that studio, heh. Richard Clarke and Mart Huslwit do a good job here playing pompous fools whose haughty façade hilariously break down as they realize they have no idea how to deal with their situation.

While this episode is in many ways absurd, it channels a snooty, pseudo-intellectual kind of absurdity that make it appear smarter than it actually is. That the two men think shining radioactive isotope on a person is deadly, but it’s fine to shine it on a person being attacked by the brain-sucking tentacle is a dead giveaway as to what twits they are, but I’m far more puzzled by why they have a radioactive isotope device in their cabin in the first place!

Of course, this snooty kind of absurdity is a hallmark of Hammer Films stuff, so I can’t really say this is a bad thing where the episode is concerned. In fact, I’m charmed actually by how pretentious the two men are, especially Frederick, as it only makes that silly twit babbling like a scared baby all the more entertaining.

This episode is also a cute example of how to make the most out of a limited budget. The two men’s reactions to often off-screen things that scare them make up the bulk of the “scary scenes” here, and these reactions are well done. I use quotation marks because this episode isn’t scary, actually. It’s more of a well done homage.

All in all, this one has some quaint novelty factor that makes it an entertaining episode. However, I suspect folks that are unfamiliar with Hammer Films and other similar studios back in those days may feel that this episode is more ham than charm!