An Attempt To Save Face

Dan Westin’s old friend, Dr. Nick Maggio, was the man who gave him a new face after Dan became invisible…and now he is summoning Dan and Kate to a hospital in Chicago under mysterious circumstances. When the Westins arrive, Maggio explains that he has been brought in to perform a secret facelift on the chairman of an Eastern Bloc country, but that members of the chairman’s entourage have now sequestered Maggio’s would-be patient away…and are keeping Maggio under round-the-clock guard. Dan goes on an invisible intelligence-gathering mission, learning that there are two rival factions among the chairman’s entourage: one faction wants him returned home without the facelift, and the other wants to assassinate him and blame his death on American doctors. Short on time, a plan is devised to put Dan’s face mask on the chairman to get him out of harm’s way…but the longer it takes to put the plan into action, the more goes wrong with it.

teleplay by James D. Parriott and Leslie Stevens
story by Leslie Stevens
directed by Don Henderson
music by Pete Rugolo

Cast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Craig Stevens (Walter Carlson), Charles Aidman (Dr. Nick Maggio), Terry Kiser (Petra Kolchak), Oscar Homolka (Chairman), Ina Balin (Katrina Storoff), Gene Dynarski (Vasil), Julie Rogers (Wendy), Sid McCoy (Anestheseologist), W.T. Zacha (Sergei), Karen Cobb (Nurse)

Note: Though there are broad (and somewhat stereotypical) hints that the chairman is the leader of the Soviet Union, the script remains vague, not narrowing things down any more than “the Eastern Bloc”. This was the final episode of The Invisible Man to be produced or aired, but was far from the final outing for the concept of an invisible spy. The following year, NBC premiered Gemini Man, a virtually identical series starring Ben Murphy, though the method of invisibility was retooled to utilized cheaper special effects. Craig Stevens (1918-2000) continued on to a steady string of guest starring roles through the late 1980s, though he remained best known for having been Peter Gunn. Melinda O. Fee remained active through the early 1990s, and David McCallum is, at the time of this writing, still Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on NCIS, a role he has played since 2003; he has also appeared in Babylon 5, VR.5, and Jeremiah, and starred in the short-lived cult classic genre series Sapphire & Steel in the late 1970s. Far from being invisible, McCallum has been a fixture of the small screen on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 40 years.