The Captain is an unnamed minor antagonist of the 1959 Tom Graeff film Teenagers from Outer Space. He is the alien captain of Expedition Zeal-6, which included Thor and Derek, and the only adult of the crew. Under orders from the Alien Leader, he sought to relocate dangerous Gargon herds to Earth, where they would wipe out the human population. While his uniform is identical to the crewmen, consisting of a jumpsuit with a downwards-pointing white triangle, he has an additional triangle above it, presumably to denote his rank. Like the rest of his species, he is externally identical to a human.
He was portrayed by Robert "King" Moody.
Biography[]
The captain was presumably grown in a lab as the result of artificial insemination and raised by select members of society, like the rest of his species under the rule of the alien regime. He eventually entered the service of the alien military, becoming a starship captain by 1959. In that time, the alien leader wanted to relocate herds of Gargons, dangerous creatures that served as a food source, to another planet, assigning the captain to a teenage crew in a mission designated as Expedition Zeal-6. The crew consisted of Thor, Sol, Morro, and Derek, and together, they took off to find a new world for the Gargons, carrying a single small Gargon aboard their ship.
After finding several uninhabitable worlds, the aliens came across Earth, landing in an empty field outside a town, where Thor promptly disintegrated a dog upon exiting the ship. The captain had the crew begin setting up scanning equipment, but Derek saw the dog's tag in its remains, realizing Earth had intelligent life. He tried to inform the captain of this, but Thor interrupted him with his xenophobic beliefs, and the captain waved the concerns aside, prompting Derek to draw his disintegrator on the captain, revealing himself as a dissident against the regime and ordering the captain to abort the mission. The captain shared Thor's sentiments against foreign lifeforms and remained unmoved by Derek's talk of the time before the regime and the various evils of their government, such as killing off the sick and elderly to keep their race strong, which the captain believed were necessary to keep their race "supreme". The captain then asked where Derek got his ideas, and Derek showed him a book chronicling the time before the regime, passed down through generations of dissidents, making the captain angrily yell that Derek would be sentenced to torture and death on their homeworld. The captain then tricked Derek into letting his guard down by asking to see the book, claiming to be interested in what swayed Derek to its side. However, when Derek moved to give him the book, the captain and Thor quickly subdued him and took his disintegrator, with the captain calling Derek a fool for believing in the cause of the dissidents. Derek tried to reason with the captain again, saying that the Earthlings could destroy the Gargons and thus render their mission futile, but the captain arrogantly declared that Derek's mind had been dulled by the dissident book, repeating the alien doctrine that they were the supreme race, who bore the supreme weapons. The captain ordered Thor to hold Derek captive as the other aliens took the Gargon out of the ship, first seeing the creature appear to thrive. Satisfied, the captain stated that the planet would soon be covered in full-grown Gargons, ordering the crew to pack up their equipment, ready to report success. However, the Gargon then went limp, making the crew believe that the higher nitrogen levels of Earth killed it. The captain tried to revive the Gargon with some gas-emitting equipment, to no avail. While the captain recognized that the mission now had to be aborted, he ordered Sol and Thor to bind Derek while he informs command of the events.
Within the ship, the captain managed to contact the command, telling him of Derek's treachery, only for command to patch him in to the alien leader himself. The leader revealed that Derek was his son, and is to be brought to him alive. Just then, while Thor was getting the bindings and Sol was distracted helping Morro pack equipment, Derek made a run for it. The captain exited the ship just in time to stop Thor from shooting Derek, informing him of what the leader had told him, which allowed Derek to escape. At the same time, the aliens noticed the Gargon reawaken, realizing the atmosphere merely shocked it, and that now it would surely thrive. The captain ordered Morro and Sol to bind the Gargon in a nearby cave while he returned to the ship to contact the leader of the new developments. The leader ordered him to return immediately, but to leave his best man to find Derek and capture him, or kill him if needed, along with any Earthling he communicates with. Upon exiting the ship, Thor, who had overheard the orders, volunteered to lead the search, and the captain agreed, telling Thor to return to the landing site when it is time for the ship to arrive. Telling Thor not to fail, the captain left Earth with Sol and Morro.
After meeting with the leader, the captain returned to Earth in the flagship of a Gargon-carrying fleet, and was accompanied by the leader himself. Landing in the same site as before, they were met with Thor and Derek, with Derek, who had previously fought to defend humans against both Thor and the rapidly-growing Gargon, killing the latter, pretending to turn back to the side of the regime. The captain congratulated Thor for a successful mission, and stepped aside as the alien leader spoke with Derek, accidentally revealing that his mere presence put the regime in danger of collapse. Derek then asked to personally lead the fleet in for a landing, and was given permission, but promptly locked himself in the ship. Realizing what he had done, the aliens tried to force their way in, but were unable to, as the captain looked up and saw the fleet approaching rapidly, with Thor exclaiming that they were not slowing down, realizing Derek's plan was to destroy the fleet. Derek accepted his fate for the salvation of both Earth and his species, letting the alien fleet ram directly into the grounded flagship, killing himself, Thor, the leader, the captain, and all aliens and Gargons in the fleet.