YouTube is a digital black hole for TV history, and I love every second I spend there. Scouting the hidden vaults for obscure shows is my version of a treasure hunt. Sometimes I find Fire; other times, I find Radioactive Dumpster Juice.
For this round of Trial by Stream, we’re heading into the world of UFOs, psychics, and government cover-ups. From Rod Serling’s “butchered” scripts to Quinn Martin’s alien invasions, we’re putting six forgotten sci-fi shows to the test.
The Omega Factor (Season 1 Episode 1: “The Undiscovered Country”)
Original Air Date: June 13, 1979
Episode Watched: YouTube Upload
A covert branch of British Intelligence called investigates the strange, the supernatural, and the “Omega Factor.”
It’s a British show from 1979, so you already know it’s going to move at the pace of molasses. The opening sequence is absolutely fire, but 15 minutes in and we’re still watching water boil. The audio on the YouTube upload is trash and there are no captions, making the Aleister Crowley-vibe dialogue impossible to follow. If you’re used to the Technicolor Urgency of Streets of San Francisco, this is going to feel like a sedative.
🗑️ Our Verdict: TRASH. Great opening, boring middle, tap-out at 15 minutes.
UFO (Season 1 Episode 1: “Identified”)
Original Air Date: September 16, 1972
Episode Watched: YouTube Upload
A secret organization protects Earth from an alien invasion in the “futuristic” year of 1980.
Not to be confused with Project U.F.O., this British series looks like a knock-off version of Star Trek. I love the outfits and the 1980 title cards, but the show can’t make up its mind. We go from a moon base with purple-haired women to underwater sequences. It’s colorful, but it’s just Star Trek in a different jacket. It’s supposedly a cult classic, but 13 minutes in and I was ready to beam myself out of there.
🗑️ Our Verdict: TRASH. Very disappointed after the IMDb hype. Stick to the original Star Trek.
Project U.F.O. (Season 1 Episode 1: “Sighting 4001: The Washington D.C. Incident”)
Original Air Date: February 19, 1978
Episode Watched: YouTube Upload
U.S. Air Force investigators attempt to explain away a series of strange sightings and robot-like creatures.
This is a Jack Webb series (the guy behind Dragnet), and it has that signature technical precision. It presents UFO sightings in a case-file format, complete with a narrator. The style is light-years ahead of The Omega Factor. It borrows heavily from the Close Encounters hype of 1977, and it actually works as a paranormal procedural. This is how TV should be done — tight pacing and believable characters.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE. A perfect lean-back show for a chill Saturday night. Tubi needs to acquire this and upscale it immediately.
The New People – Pilot
Original Air Date: September 22, 1969
Episode Watched: YouTube (Full Broadcast with Commercials)
A group of American college students crashes on an abandoned hydrogen bomb test site and attempts to form their own society.
This is essentially the prelude to Lost. It has the fingerprints of Rod Serling and Aaron Spelling all over it, though Serling famously disavowed it after the network “butchered” his script. Watching this in full broadcast mode — complete with 1969 Faberge commercials — is pure gold. The creepy nuclear ghost town setting is intense, and the “moral lessons” are vintage Serling. It’s excellent.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE. If you get past the airport intro, it really kicks into gear. It’s an extended Twilight Zone in a groovy 1960s package.
The Invaders (Season 2 Episode 26: “Inquisition”)
Original Air Date: March 26, 1968
Episode Watched: Series Finale on YouTube
A man who witnessed a UFO landing must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
I could only find the series finale, and it’s V before V. It’s a total Quinn Martin production — narrator introductions to each case file, and it’s high stakes. The story about “The Believers” trying to warn the world about human-looking aliens is fire. It ends without a resolution, which is frustrating, but the journey is intriguing. I’m already looking for the DVDs.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE. Quinn Martin at his paranoid best.
Quinn Martin’s Tales of the Unexpected (Season 1 Episode 4: “The Nomads”)
Original Air Date: February 23, 1977
Episode Watched: YouTube Upload
A Vietnam vet with a history of mental illness stumbles across a hidden colony of aliens.
Don’t confuse this with the Roald Dahl version on Roku. This is a QM anthology, and “The Nomads” is actually a direct remake of the pilot (“Beachhead”) for The Invaders. And since I didn’t watch that pilot because I couldn’t find it, I watched this. Now, I’m even more compelled to buy The Invaders DVD set, and I definitely want to watch the rest of this series. I love anthologies, and I can’t wait to break this one down, even if it was pulled after only airing 6 of its 8 episodes. I don’t care if Martin recycled old plots — with the booming voice of narrator William Conrad, I’m totally there.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE. Pure anthology fire for fans of the Quinn Martin era.
The Final Broadcast: Why the Frontier Needs a Rescue
I could spend the rest of my life scouting YouTube for this stuff. Even the shows I didn’t enjoy deserve better than fuzzy uploads with terrible audio and no captions. There is no way The New People isn’t sitting in a studio vault somewhere waiting for somebody to remember they own the damn thing.
Until then, YouTube and physical media are sometimes the only ways to find television that has otherwise practically disappeared. And that’s exactly why I’ll keep looking.
- ➝ 📺 Watch If You Dare: Want to judge them yourself? We’ve gathered the trailers and full episodes we watched into our Everything Old is New Again YouTube Playlist.
- ➝ 📡 Keep Exploring: Had enough of the subscription treadmill? Head into the Free TV Frontier and see what you can find without spending another dime.
- ➝ 📇 The TV Rolodex: Looking for a specific legend or forgotten loser? Search our TV Rolodex: A–Z Archive to see every show we’ve embraced or chased.
