Reviews (5)

Intriguing plot and entertaining
This episode was entertaining in part because the games master of Andarra is quite a character. He actually engages in a little psycho-analysis of the humans which is rather amusing.

A certain mystery surrounds the games master as we never really get to see his face clearly. He is always sitting back in the shadows just far enough to prevent a clear view of himself.

When the Earth man is first teleported from Earth to Andarra, his first reaction is to ask if he is dead. The games master asks in return "Why is it your species that is always so concerned with death?" This implies that other races of beings are not so preoccupied with their own mortality. An interesting assumption or speculation.

A final speculation: Could the tableau of the games master behind his control console be what will confront us at our own respective judgements?!

His Fun and Games
In this episode, a man and woman are transported to another planet to fight a couple of aliens (male and female). If they win the earth is saved otherwise the earth will be destroyed. The alien that is host of "Fun and Games" has a good sense of humor and must find interesting ways to keep the inhabits of his world entertained. The makeup of the aliens is good but it is interesting to see the earth woman doing battle in a dress and high heels.

Alien Aboriginal Apes In An Interplanetary Arena
Generally overrated but memorable OL entry.

A sneeringly superior decadent Senator of the planet Andera abducts small-time hood/prizefighter Nick Adams and true-blue do-gooder Nancy Malone, to solicit them for gladiatorial games to entertain his jaded populace. If they decline, the Earth is destroyed in a grand display lasting about five years - "like a firecracker in a black summer sky," as the blase Senator shruggingly puts it. If they accept, they are pitted in a duel to the death against two primitive but resourceful wolf-like apish aborigines from "an unnamed planet in the Calco galaxy," on a prehistorically-climated planet designated the "Arena."

Given the nature of the script, this episode should be action-packed, but in fact is rather static (and talky) throughout. It's memorable for Robert Johnson's gleefully sadistic Senator, who remains tauntingly in the shadows with his long, Mandarin nails and scepter of power, and for the smoulderingly suffocating atmospheric Arena. The Calco primitives are primitive indeed, OL being pretty short on budget when this one was filmed, essentially nothing more than fixed-expression masks and clawed gloves (except for one or two close-ups, where the mask's eyes roll) - but no one ever forgets their weapon, which was probably the most famous prop of the entire series: saw-toothed razor boomerangs.

Great beginning, with an imaginatively filmed gangster's poker game, long, rather muddled middle, and a decent last half, but the fairly dramatic finale is too abrupt. The performances are good, especially Johnson's hammy melodrama villain of a Senator.

Great performance, interesting galaxtic gladiatorial them
Nick Adams is perfect for this interesting roll. He is a small time crook that, while fleeing, meets an idealist young lady. They suddenly find themselves on another planet ruled by an extremely technologically advanced beings, however they amuse themselves in a manner similar to the ancient Romans, with gladiatorial matches. The stakes are high. The losers have their planet annihilated. Nick is fantastic as the down and out small time hood who doesn't believe in anything. In one scene he remarks to the idealistic young lady "you know what you are? You're one of life's little cheer leaders". This is an imaginative theme with a great young Nick Adams and a surprise ending.

Well-acted.
Interesting story of a couple transported to another planet to do battle with two other aliens with the prize being that Earth will not be destroyed if they win. Well-acted, good dialogue and a great scene involving a poker game. It does take a while to get to the battle and the clothing the female character wears (wearing high-heels into battle?) is a little far-fetched, even for that time. But overall, since this is a story of redemption and second chances, a good show. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The Human Factor = 1 star out of 5
God, this episode was awful. Considering it had some nice plot twists (and some of the best in the series) and that it still stunk out the joint tells volumes on how bad The Human Factor was to watch. The episode invloves: a scientist, his love?, a pyscho soldier, a bunch of inept officers, awful/silly dialogue, a head-scratching plot, a nuclear bomb, officiers that arm nuclear bombs to show another person how it works(?), etc etc etc. This is one of the worse Outer Limits episodes.

thank you for your time, David

This plot is best unspoiled
After seeing a long string of weaker Outer Limits episodes (The Probe, Keeper of the Purple Twilight etc.), this one just about blew my mind. Good Outer Limits is SO GOOD. I wasn't thinking of the strenghts / weaknesses of this one while watching, i was just sucked in completely.
I saw The Human Factor without knowing anything about the plot, and some of the story twists, especially the midpoint, were very nice indeed. Don't expect your typical monster show. The two male leads could have put out a less frenzied performance, but Sally Kellerman is ace. Just like Ed Asner in "It crawled out of the woodwork", she isn't even mentioned in the opening credits, but becomes the central character towards the end.

Good Performances, Clever Story
Not OL's best by a long chalk, though the reviewer who commented on some critics being unduly harsh to it is well-stated. It's a good mid-level episode, with a lot to recommend it.

Gary Merrill, Harry Guardino, and especially Sally Kellerman are worth the price of admission alone, but this entry has other attributes, as well. It's thick with claustrophobic atmosphere, has a good share of wit (the military base, TABU - "Total Abandonment of Better Understanding" - being just the beginning of it), and excellent suspense, with a genuinely clever ending. Unsettling implications of invasion of privacy, national security, and nuclear diplomacy are brought up.

Merrill and Guardino do a really good job of alternately playing the nut-trying-to-pass-for-normal, and Kellerman was never more adorable in her life.

Don't expect a masterpiece. Just a good, solid suspenser. Well worth a look-see.

the best episode I've seen in the series, to date
The Outer Limits Official Companion is unjustifiably harsh on this episode, which I happen to think is one of the series best. The title is a bit misleading, since it is mother nature in the form of an earthquake which is the cataylst for the mind-swap that occurs between psychoanalyst Gary Merrill and his psychotic patient, Harry Guardino, when Merrill is using a skull-cap apparatus he has devised to share thoughts. (It may be a scientific breathrough but it aint a fashion one). This set-up then allows both actors a chance to chew the scenery as the paranoid one, and surprisingly Merrill is just as funny as Guardino. Perhaps having been married to Bette Davis for 10 years has made Merrill look as haggard and ape-ish as Bogart, and his thick eyebrows and messy hair add to the believability of the mind displacement. His darting eyes are hilarious in the scene when he attempts to get access to an atomic device, and at the same time keep his true identity hidden, and the biggest laugh is when he responds to an enquiry if he is sick with "You keep your office too warm!". As Merrill's assistant (and not his fiancee as the Companion tells us, though she wishes!), this was Sally Kellerman's first role for TV, and she adds a Streisand-like sensuality. She would later be given a better star turn in "The Bellero Shield" episode, but here she gets to wear a high-collared fur-lined coat, and is given a love theme and a Garbo-esque reaction long-take. Much has been made of the huge close-up of Guardino when he first sees the guilt-induced apparition of the man he has abandoned on the frozen wasteland. This is the episodes obligatory "monster" though here it's lack of focus gives it a Shakespearean quality. I also like the stock icelandic footage, the aerial view of the "TABU" base (unfortunately, never used for a pun), the snow that doesn't attach itself to those it falls on, and the shot of an avalanche of falling rocks.

The human feelings
"In Northern Greenland the mountains stand like a wall along Victoria Channel, whose straight course marks the line of the Great Baffin Fault. Until recently, not even the Eskimos ventured into this Arctic waste. But today, as in other lonely places in the world, the land is dominated by those instruments of detection which stand as a grim reminder of man's fear of man. This is Point TABU, a name given this predominantly underground base by a young officer who explained that the letters in TABU stood for Total Abandonment of Better Understanding. Some two hundred men and a few women make this their permanent residence. Their task is to maintain a constant alert against enemy attack, and be prepared to respond to it, devastatingly..." In a secret military base, a psychiatrist uses a device that reveals people's deep feelings and thougts in order to cure them. A touching episode with three marvelous actors and, of course, Conrad Hall's Pop-Expressionist cinematography which is his first camerawork in the production order. (watch the extreme close-up of Harry Guardino's eyes with a chiaroscuro effect). Forget the monster of the week, just focus on the relationship between charming Sally Kellerman and introvert Gary Merrill. And above all, Harry Guardino's hysterical and paranoiac performance as Major Brothers, with his seeds twitch (like Humphrey Bogart in "The Caine Mutiny") and appetite for atomic destruction, is great. The mind alteration premise is always delightful. This is first an anti-nuclear parable with a Cold War background and above all, a romantic episode about love and the hidden desire for true love. "A weapon ? No, only an instrument, neither good nor evil until men put it to use. And then, like so many of man's inventions, it can be used either to save lives or destroy them, to make men sane or to drive them mad, to increase human understanding or to betray it. But it will be men who make the choice. By itself the instruments is nothing until you add the human factor." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Could someone explain the plot again?
"The Duplicate Man" is one complex story set in the near future. I'll try to keep this short.

A Megasoid, killer beast from beyond, has escaped from our hero's lab and is hiding in a museum display. Too chicken to kill the beast himself, our now reluctant hero has an illegal duplicate made. Complete with lapel-less suit and cap gun, our duplicate hero meets, shoots, but fails to kill the Megasoid. Meanwhile, our real reluctant hero has trouble with the wife and is forced into a confrontation with the Megasoid and his estwhile duplicate. After a lot of stalking, snoring, and finally shooting, he stumbles back into his living room with his now happy wife. But is he the duplicate or the real thing?

Whew, and that description does not include two sub-plots that really lead nowhere.

Although I really admire the ambition shown in the story, it's just way too cluttered to really work. Too many ideas and too much talking de-rail what could've been a classic episode had the writers kept the focus on either the Megasoid or the duplicate.

On the positive side, the Megasoid is an interesting creation and I swear it was used briefly in the Star Trek pilot, "The Cage" (a scene not used in "The Menagerie"). The fact that this beast would hide in plain sight is facinating. There is also a 'twist' ending which is kinda nice, though nothing to write home about.

However, the limited budget shows up in the gun the duplicate uses. It's basically a revolver with two AA batteries taped to it.

All in all, this is not an episode worthy of your collection. But it does have a few nice points to it. Check it out on tv, but don't spend any money on it.

Double Trouble
This episode is too ambitious for its own good, but has a lot to recommend it.

Alien anthropologist/zoologist Ron Randell illegally imports an exceptionally xenophobic and paranoid alien creature, the Megasoid, to Earth for study. The highly intelligent and even more lethally aggressive creature escapes, going into hiding to complete its reproductive cycle. Megasoids reproduce in the thousands, and decimate virtually all other species on the planets they inhabit, so it's safe to say Randell is not too happy about this turn of events. He can't go to the authorities, and isn't about to get himself ripped to bits by the nesting murderous mommy cleaning up his own mess.

So, going on the philosophy that, if one crime didn't work out well, surely two will work out even worse, Randell performs another illegal act and calls in some favors. He gets a clone made of himself, programmed to hunt down and kill the savage alien beastie. Clones have been outlawed on Earth for some time, because they have a tendency to want to replace their originals once their predetermined job is accomplished (you've all seen Blade Runner).

So far, so bad. But the fit really hits the shan when the hunted Megasoid informs Randell's clone that he's a clone, and then Randell has two problems for the price of one: the wounded Megasoid is still on the loose, and now his other self is eager to get Randell out of the picture and move in with Mrs. Randell.

This episode falters from excess business. Too many sci-fi elements are thrown at the viewer too fast, making the world of this story hard to identify with. Additionally, Randell is a wooden performer, and the other principals in the story seem to be acting in a completely different melodrama style, which creates some unintentionally funny moments. And Harry Lubin's futuristic electronic score, that worked so well for "Demon With A Glass Hand," in this story only further alienates the audience from this already too alien Earth.

However, the Megasoid is pretty cool. He's overused, making his monkey suit show too much at the seams, looking rather like an eagle-headed gorilla with enormous mole claws. The opening scenes of the Megasoid hiding in plain sight in a museum are wonderful - too bad the rest of the episode isn't quite up to the same caliber.

Great surprise ending
Clifford D. Simak's superb short story _Good Night, Mr. James_ was the basis for this episode. A man illegally imports a vicious, murderous, intelligent alien onto Earth, then must find some way to kill it after it escapes. . .because it is almost ready to reproduce and flood Earth with its kind. The 'surprise' ending is one of a kind. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A very strange guest house.
A man enters a house - only its not really a house, for starters it bigger on the inside than outside and doors don't always lead you anywhere. The man meets a telepathic alien who wants to understand the human equation. Story & special effects still hold up today, great story about people, the limited effects are carefully used. Unexpected and very imaginitive ending finishes the story.

a slightly embarrassing dream
This episode starts fascinatingly. Before it is said out loud by the hero, it is obvious that this is very much like a bad dream, where you try to find help and find only strange places and people. The endless corridors of the mysterious house are shown with an interesting use of black masks shaping the pictures in weird ways. I wish they had used bold effects like that even more in the series.
However, like many dreams, this episode soon becomes extremely sentimental. I found the romantic moments quite annoying because the actors playing the young couple aren't particularly good. And the final conclusion, the missing piece of the equation found by the alien is something we have heard SO many times before...
Well, once again we have a flawed Outer Limits episode with some elements so exciting that it is worth checking out. I only give it two stars because some episodes of the series are so much better. People allergic to heavy doses of sentimentality should, however, beware.

Bru-Ha-Ha-! You Are In My Power!
At their worst, OL aliens talk too much and superiorly sneer. They usually do so with perfect pronunciation and urbane style, and love crowing about their plans. The alien in The Guests is one of these. It's still a good episode, though.

The alien's origins are never disclosed, but what he's about is obvious on the face of it: he's constructed a human mousetrap in the outward guise of a house, with which to catch subjects for study. Most of his subjects are petty and venal. Until a drifter happens on in, and stirs things up a bit.

The less said about this episode the better, for those wanting to see it. Suffice it to say it has great surrealistic sets, dark Gothic atmosphere, and good performances by the entire cast.

Overall, this is a great deal more like a Twilight Zone episode than an OL. It has no opening or closing narration, and no real through story-line. But it is fascinating, and pretty creepy.

The dream of the drifter
An old man escapes from a Psycho-like house and dies near a road. A car stops suddenly and a young man get out from it to save him. He goes to the house, which is a huge brain, to get some help. Post-"The big heat" Gloria Grahame plays a vamp actress from the twenties, like a soft version of Myriam Hopkins from "Don't open till doomsday". She and the old and odd couple ("Shut-up Randall or I'll be nice to you !") tries to corrupt Geoffrey Horne as Wade Norton ("I feel as if I'm having a bad dream !") in vain. Rebel Wade Norton ("Never interrogate the wind !") meets Luane Anders as shy Tess in the most sensitive love affair of the series. The brain monster is fascinating. It has the same voice as the Senator from "Fun and games" and it is a recycled part from "The mice". It explores human condition like a mathematician when it compares the positive (procreation, work, faith, art) and the negative factor (destruction, fear, hopelessness, hate [symbolized by an Atom bomb]). You have a magnificient optical effects when the giant brain is seen with a fast-moving clouds background just like in the work of cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. The music is interesting too because it is a blend of scores from "Nightmare" and the haunting sound from "O.B.I.T.". Only the scene of Wade Norton saying : "No , Tess, come back !" and Tess leaving the house is a new and touching music. But the details I like the most is the maze of dark empty rooms which leads to nowhere. A landmark episode with a subtle story, existentialist characters ("Close your eyes to illusion. Love is out there !") and a gothic approach not shot by Conrad Hall about the theme of dream. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Harlan Ellison's story of a super "Solider" from the future
Having crafted one of the very best episodse of "The Outer Limits" with "The Demon with the Glass Hand," Harlan Ellison comes up with another strong script with "Soldier," adapted from a short story. In fact, if you get the chance to read the 1957 short story, which is a rather crudely drawn anti-war polemic, then you will be even more impressed with the story's refinement in this script. Qarlo (Michael Ansara) is a human killing machine who is catapulted from the future to the "present" during a battle with an enemy (who is stuck in between time--for the time being...). Kagan (Lloyd Nolan), a language expert, is assigned to crack Qarlo's language. Kagan succeeds, at which point the story takes an interesting but strange turn, as Kagan brings the super soldier from the future home to meet the wife and kids. The scene does develop some very interesting aspects of Qarlo's personality and story, but it is rather unbelievable that the government would let a time traveler go home with a linguist for dinner. Still, "The Solider" is a very interesting time travel story and the performances by Nolan and especially Ansara goes a long way to make up for that one gapping hole in the script. It is on the strength of those performances, a common finding with episodes scripted by Ellison I should point out, that I decided to round up instead of down with this 4.5 star episode. The strange mix of violence and optimism actually makes the story work, at least for me. As everyone has mentioned, there are some strong similarities between "Solider" and "Terminator." So much so that Ellison won a suit against James Cameron (you know, that "Titanic" movie Cameron made was not an original story either). Actually, I think "Soldier" owes something to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come from Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." "Soldier," Episode 33 of "The Outer Limits," was directed by Gerd Oswald and first aired on September 19, 1964, which I believe makes it the first episode of the show's second season.

Future Fighting Foes Freak Philly!
Great sci-fi, fascinating drama.

More than a thousand years in the future, Earth has become a nightmare high-tech battlefield out of Hieronymus Bosch. From this world, soldier Qarlo and "The Enemy" are accidentally teleported back to the U.S. city streets of 1964. The ultra-violent and badly confused Qarlo scares the hell out of everybody, and is quickly arrested and put in a padded cell for study.

Genial philologist Lloyd Nolan and put-upon baffled bureaucrat Tim O'Connor try to figure out what language Qarlo is speaking, and by so doing learn who he is, where he came from, and what to do with him. Once Nolan realizes who Qarlo is and where he came from, he tries to socialize him into the twentieth century by making Qarlo a temporary member of Nolan's own family. O'Connor and Nolan's wife are not exactly happy with the idea, considering Qarlo "a powderkeg just waiting to go off," but Nolan's kids are up to the challenge.

But if Qarlo ended up here, whatever happened to "The Enemy"...?

Fabulous cast and a top-notch script, with no one sounding a false note. Michael Ansara brilliantly plays the confusions and native instincts of the violent man-out-of-time. Nolan is the thinking man's humanitarian, who feels an obligation to fellows of his race even at the continued risk of his own life. The cautious but good-hearted O'Connor almost restores your faith in government bureaucracy. Catherine Macleod's desire to help Qarlo, but ongoing concern to the safety of her family, are fully believable, and so are the kids, Ralph Hart and Jill Hill.

This is a highly intelligent and dramatic story, with a tragic yet inspiring ending that is haunting and deeply moving.

Dog, dog, dog ...
Most Outer Limits in my opinion cannot hold a candle to the majority of the Twilight Zones. This is a rarity. Featuring, what will be a Klingon on Star Trek we have some very good performances. If it weren't for the fact that the "Soldier" was brought home this ep. would be 5 stars ... the ep. falls apart when the kids come in contact with him. Although I have this on laserdisc, I would buy it in a heartbeat on dvd ... wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Before Terminator, there was SOLDIER!
This episode became the inspiration for James Cameron,s "Terminator" series and was beautifully scripted by Harlan Ellison...SEE-IT!..Its a classic!

One of the best Outer Limits
It is great because the man from the future is so very different. The future is so different that they can communicate with cats though "thinkspeak". They do a great job showing someone from a totally alien society. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Corpus Earthling = 2 stars out of 5
Not much going on in this episode, it's been 4 days since I watched it and I almost forgot it. The story of 2 rocks conspiring to enter hosts so that they can begin an "alien invasion?" is just dumb. The whole episode deals with Robert Culp running from the nasty rocks!?! The plot holes, among other annoying things make this episode one to miss. The only saving grace of the 50 minutes was the atmosphere.

thank you for your time, David

Rock Me, Baby!
OL's scariest offering, decidedly unsettling, with the most claustrophobic atmosphere of a claustrophobically atmospheric series.

Robert Culp turns in one of his typically magnificent performances (to my thinking, his best) as an average guy who desperately wants to believe he is just paranoid and hearing voices that aren't really there. Because he only hears the voices in the geology lab. And there are only rocks there. Right? Unless - oh, surely not (what are the chances?) - some of the rocks in the lab are not what they appear to be, and are really some kind of alien super-viruses. And the alien super-viruses are aware of the fact that Culp is listening. And he poses a threat to their invasion plan. Which means...well, I guess they'll just have to kill him, won't they?

This one works precisely because of the preposterousness of the idea of "talking rocks." Culp's performance is phenomenal, teetering between sanity and psychotic breakdown, as he gradually learns that, just because you're paranoid, that doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Charming wife Salome Jens wants to believe him but can't (would you?), and finds out the hard way that Culp isn't crazy, after all. So does geologist Barry Atwater, who is violently attacked by the aforementioned super-viruses which of course can't possibly exist. A creepy Mexican shaman, who knows from the outset Culp is sane, adds to the shudders.

For horror fans, not to be missed. Adapted by series producer Joe Stefano and Orin Borstein from an obscure paperback original of the same name by Louis Charbonneau. (Which I have read, and which is not as good as this episode.)

Definitely One of the Best
This is one of my favorite two episodes ever of the Outer Limits. While the plot isn't the best (alien rocks taking over people) and the effects pale in the current age of technology, the *story* is incredible--it's not about the aliens, and it's not about the science, it's about FEAR. Fear, and love, and hope, and despair, and all the things that make us people. And in addition to that, it's excellently filmed--high production value, incredible lighting and camera work, superb acting (Robert Culp and Salome Jens are just *cute* as young marrieds.) Joseph Stephano is quoted as saying he didn't think it would be so Scary, and it is. But it's not scary because of the idea or the effects, it's scary because the people are scared, and that comes across on the screen.

If you liked this one, also check out "Demon With a Glass Hand"--again, starring Robert Culp (ok, i happen to like Culp. Mea Culpa). Heavy on story, well-done enough that the more obvious plot holes can be overlooked, decent action quotient, and really good characters.

Not a Totally Awful Episode, but...
One has to wonder what were they drinking when they made this one? I mean, intelligent rocks? Give me a break.

Culp-is Earthling
This is one of the better Outer Limits episodes - well written and directed, with Conrad Hall replacing his usual "glamour" lighting with more atmospheric brightness and shade. In the Official Companion, Joseph Stefano comments that he didn't want to air the episode because it was so frightening, and that's what makes it so effective - the tightness and neo-classicism of the story-telling creates an unnerving experience. The monsters this time around are rock samples in a geology lab, who unknownst to the geologists - Robert Culp, Salome Jens and Barry Atwater - are alien invaders who want to control the human "corpus" ie control minds. The 2 alien rocks look pretty silly amongst the other rocks in the lab, as they resemble dog food and pulsate when they speak, so when Culp realises he has the ability to hear them we can't believe that they can't be located. However there is nothing silly about the way they expand into parasite form and attach themselves to the human face, much like the Alien on John Hurt. The 2 scenes of attachment are particularly horrible, one invoking a rape. The treatment is noteworthy for the relationship between Culp and Jens as a married couple. It seems unusual to see a husband and wife behave so tenderly with each other, in spite of Culp thinking he is going insane. And when we see Jens in her slip after they have (presumably) made love it feels a bit scandalous to see an actress so unclothed. It's no coincidence that Hitchcock had Janet Leigh in her underwear, and then naked before her demise in Psycho. There are some minor plot holes - Culp is said to be defective to the alien's mind control because of a metal plate in his head, yet he we see him clearly following their instrutions in a suicide attempt, and then later being pursued by a parasite. And one parasite seems to go missing in the climactic confrontation. The expressionist makeup used to demonstrate a victim's invasion is too obviously vaudeville, but the use of fire and smoke throughout the episode is clever. And Dominic Frontiere includes some Bernard Herrmann-ish harp in the music score. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The Borderland = 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Borderland is a nice little Outer Limits story. "The Borderland" is the 4th dimension that our scientist hero of the episode is trying to explore. He needs money to finance his project, so he shows his results to a man with dosh. Our millionairre friend agrees to finance the project on one condition, he believes that his departed son is "somewhere out there" and wants the team of scientists to attempt to make contact with him in another dimension. As always, the best laid plans go awry and a different outcome then hoped for transpires.

I thought this episode had many good features, including: nice dialogue, solid acting, great sets, and a good pace. It was always pushing forward until the end.

In short, "The Borderland" is about man pressing to quickly forward in science and when this happens, the outcome may be quite different then what was originally perceived.

thank you for your time, David

Visually Dynamic, Weakly Written
At his weakest, series executive producer Leslie Stevens' scripts were talky and unconvincing. This is one of those scripts. However, even in those talky and unconvincing scripts, the visual effects were usually pretty striking. And here, they're pretty striking.

What sinks this episode is technical-sounding doubletalk, and a lot of it. Stevens' speculations about the nature of the afterlife, and the science of metaphysics, are genuinely interesting. If he could have stuck more to the point, he would have been more effective.

Still, the sets are impressive (the series blew a lot of its budget early on, ironically on its lesser shows), the visual effects are truly eye-catching, and the finale is actually quite dramatically satisfying and even moving.

lacklustre
This is one of the few episodes written and directed by series executive producer Leslie Stevens. Like his Production and Decay of Strange Particles, this also centres on a lone scientist on a quest, this time to cross-over into the fourth dimension otherwise known as the Borderland. However Stevens gets so bogged down in the clunky mechanics of the experiment that when we get to the possibility of the cross-over it is a huge disappointment. Theatrics pile up with a swamp of character agendas, some pretty poor special effects - the images of the Borderland in particular (a wasteland which doesn't support a plot point of a man believing his son is there), and composer Dominic Frontiere's infamous crescendo. When the scientist played by arch Mark Richman continually calls out "Eva! Eva!!"to his wife (Nina Foch) it is unintentionally funny because it prefigures Evita. The standard of performance is pretty low, with a special nod to the ghastly Alfred Ryder who plays his villian as if he has had a stroke. This episode was the first filmed in the first series after the pilot The Galaxy Being, but it's broadcast was delayed for 6 months, and you'll know why. The only reason to rate it higher than a dud like Tourist Attraction, is that I found the opening image of the swirl of magnetised particles hypnotic and unexplained in the Official Companion, Richman's scientist having 2 right hands after his first attempt at cross-over (though the mutation is conveniently and amusingly concealed later on), and the fact that it features no "bear" ie monster that the ABC networkers demanded.

The second episode produced!
A research team who successfully open a window into another dimension seeks more funding from a wealthy stockholder.Believing it to be the doorway to the afterlife, the stockholder agrees to fund their experiment provided they search for his dead son.This episode starts out interesting with Mark Richmans character revealing his two "right" hands to the stockholder. But once you throw in a "Dr.Smith" to try and sabatouge everything you get a well used plot. Good effects for its time, but not a very original storyline.

The power of science
"The mind of man has always longed to know what lies beyond the world we live in. Explorers have ventured into the depths and heights. Of these explorers, some are scientists, some are mystics. Each is driven by a different purpose. The one thing they share in common is a wish to cross the borderlands that lie beyond the Outer Limits..." By accident, a group of scientists discovered a doorway to a parrallel universe. A budget-buster episode with first-class special effects, impressive lab sets and smart cinematography (watch the low angle shot of the scientists and the close-ups of Mark Richman) which is an intended pilot for a new sci-fi series. The actors are great and dignified in their fanatic scientists parts and make this episode very exciting to watch. Here is some real stylish technological SCIENCE-fiction and my favourite Leslie Stevens episode among "The galaxy being", "Controlled experiment" and "Production and decay of strange particles". "There are worlds beyond the worlds within which the explorer must explore. But there is one power which seems to transcend space and time, life and death. It is a deeply human power which holds us safe and together when all otherforces combine to tear us apart. We call it the power of love." ... Read more

Reviews (6)

It Crawled Out Of The Woodwork = 2.5 out of 5 stars
If you can get by the story of how the "energy creature" was created after a cleaning lady used a vaccum on a dustball, then this is not that bad of an episode (and the creation is really not that important). The wacko doctor manipulates his staff toward where his "creature" is kept, so that it can feed on their energy and help it's survival. Eventually, too many people get involved and the cops get the word, which leads to the ending confrontation, in which "all the beans are spilled." The episode's creature looks like the "cloud" from "The Man With The Power." The episode has solid acting and a nice wierdness to it.

thank you for your time, David

Nightmare In Lightning
Joe Stefano scripted this nightmarish horror offering. His scripts are often short on logic, this one particularly, but make up for that failing by being long on unsettling or downright frightening imagery. And the imagery in this one is downright frightening.

The "it" of the title is an impossible energy force, explosively brought into existence by an accident involving a vacuum cleaner at an energy plant. How exactly this occurs is never pondered, since frankly it doesn't matter - any more than it matters how a mad scientist can so skillfully control and use the thing to terrify employees to death, and then resurrect them with pacemakers in order to create fully complient slaves.

What matters is the theme and the imagery, and those convey themselves most effectively in this scary little sci-fi thriller. Ed Asner does an early pre-Lou Grant turn as the police inspector unfortunately drawn into a murder investigation at the plant. Michael Forest gets to chew the scenery quite delightfully in two (count 'em, two) death scenes. Joan Lamden is a convincing tortured soul. Scott Marlowe and Barbara Luna are wasted as young lovers in a subplot that exists only to provide the suspicious death report to Asner that furthers the plot and yawningly pads the episode. Kent Smith gloriously chews more scenery than Michael Forest in either of his death scenes, as the mad German scientist (is there any other kind?) responsible for all the mayhem.

the energy of genius/madness/the atom
The title of this Outer Limits episode is said to be taken from a cleaning woman who unwittingly gives life to a strobing growling chaotic cloud of lethal energy, that resembles the power from The Man with the Power episode. Directed by Gerd Oswald and written by series producer Joseph Stefano, the treatment is schizophrenic since it divides our time between Norco, the energy research commission which is attempting to break or change the Conservation of Energy Law, headed by a Bela Lugosi accented Kent Smith, and the apartment of brothers Michael Forest and Scott Marlowe, without a conclusion that brings the halves together satisfactorily. There is an inconsistency in what constitutes research which may be attributable to Smith's state of mind, since although he has contained the Id-like atomic force in a multiple sealed chamber known as The Pit, which has self-contained power generators, the Pit is also used as a spider's web where victims are lured to feed the cloud. While Oswald goes in for expressionist close-ups, with a notable extreme long shot of the lab as the energy passes through it, Stefano's teleplay is written in a literary style that draws attention to itself. Whilst this may be preferable to the sci fi gobbledegook that can intellectualy alienate (no pun intended) the viewer, it sometimes reads as static naval-gazing, with a rememberance of a childhood trauma bordering on psychobabble. A description of a woman as being beautiful is clearly innaccurate but rationalised by the speaker having a "misplaced sense of word value", there is a repeated reference to an female's legs which may categorise Stephano as a legman, and an odd line presumably an in-joke of it's time "If he'd been in any better health, they'd have given him a morning show on television". Oswald doesn't make much of the cardiac pacemakers that are strapped to the chests of the inhabitants of Norco, except when he begins a scene with a bath being run to create an expectation. He upstages a dialogue scene between the brothers with stripes of reflected light over their faces, has a funny cut from a description of someone's smile to the same person's tortured face, a cut using the verbal reaction to "police headquarters", and composer Dominic Frontiere uses a harp, as well as his ascending scale once again. Intentional or not, the brothers are Stephano look-alikes, and also use Sinatra smooth talking voices. Marlow would be used as the playboy in the future Forms of Things Unknown episode, and while he is given a girlfriend (the one with the legs), his manner also suggests bisexuality. As a detective Ed Asner gets some unusual for him action scenes, which he gives a nice lack of hysteria panic to, and understates amusingly "Are you insane?!".

Early Role Shows Asner as a Future Star
Although he receives no billing in the opening credits, Ed Asner as a police detective walks away with the acting honors in this most unusual entry in the 60's anthology series. His "Sgt. Cirrolio" is a no-nonsense cop who must get to the bottom of the mysterious goings-on at NORCO. Lovely Barbara Luna provides great support as the love interest for star Scott Marlowe while Steve Forrest, as Marlowe's brother, does adequately as a scientist who makes a faulty employment choice. He would memorably appear a few years later as "Apollo" in the classic Star Trek episode " Who Mourns For Adonis?"

Overall, this is one of the most intriguing episodes of the series with excellent music from composer Dominic Frontiere

The Pit and the Madman
"His name is Warren Edgar Morley. For the past six months, he has guarded this gate from eight in the morning until six at night, at which time he is replaced by another just like himself. These are the last few moments of his life." At NORCO (energy research commission) a cleaning woman accidentally creates an energy cloud monster. The head of NORCO decide to study and use the monster in order to control his staff research with the help of pace-maker boxes. Don't miss the fantastic opening scene with the cleaning woman. Pre-"The Invaders" Kent Smith, as Germanic Dr. Block, is really terrifying ("Some people are long time dying."). There is a famous shot of Kent Smith, with the close-up of his turning hand, saying : "Not insane... at worst, obsessed." And finally, his pro-Adam bomb statement : "The wonderful questions are always answered at the cost of human life. Remember how we wondered about the atom bomb." The look of the long corridor that leads to the pit is scary. The extreme close-up, shot with a wide-angle, of Ed Asner's sinister face, watching the energy monster, is totally weird. This is the perfect example of a typical episode made with Joseph Stefano's taut writing, Gerd Oswald's Caligari-like direction and Conrad Hall's somber photography. Please watch "Production and decay of strange particles" with this one. "The Conservation of Energy Law-a principle which states that energy can be changed in form but that it cannot be either created or destroyed. And this is true of all energy-the energy of genius, of madness, of the heart, of the atom. And so it must be lived with. It must be controlled, channeled for good, held isolated from evil, and somehow lived with, peaceably." ... Read more

Reviews (6)

What a Weird, Strange Trip, Indeed!
After killing Andre, two women put his body into the trunk of their car. Traveling through the forest, they enter a house containing an old, blind man and Mr. Tone Hobart, who posseses a "time tilting" device. A device he uses to bring Andre back to life.

Although I'll admit that "Demon with a Glass Hand" is better, this one is my personnal favorite. Every single scene in "Forms.." is beautifully done. The use of light and shadow have never been topped. Particularly the last scene of Tone (played by David McCallum) leaning into his time tilting device. And the editing is top notch as well. Especially a perfectly timed cut involving a thrown rose to a raindrop. This entire episode defies easy description. It doesn't feel like an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone show, it stands up on it's own. Gothic, Hichcockian, and just plain odd.

Two scenes for me that really stand out involve Vera Miles and Barbara Rush running through the forest during a rainstorm. If you look carefully, you can see their breaths and steam rising off their shoulders. It must have been freezing, yet niether actress gives away just how cold it was.
The other is perhaps the single finest shot in Outer Limits history. Tone, holding his pistol on Andre, stares at a spinning minuature ballerina. The shadow of which you can clearly see on Tone's face. A drop dead gorgeous shot.

If your thinking about starting an Outer Limits collection, I can think of no better place to start than here.

Best of the Series
Joseph Stefano's most lyrically poetic script is a sturm-und-drang classic. In some ways, it's a quintessential OL, and in others it's nothing like the rest of the series at all.

Psychopath Scott Marlowe and his two mistresses, cold-blooded Vera Miles and neurotic Barbara Rush, are vacationing in France to perform a little blackmail. Miles and Rush poison their amoral lover, and Rush's conscience keeps getting the better of her - she thinks Marlowe isn't really dead. In the midst of seeing him stalking them behind every lightning-shadowed tree, Rush runs screaming for help to an isolated country mansion, where kind-hearted blind gentleman Cedric Hardwicke takes them in until the outside storm subsides.

Hardwicke has another guest, the elusively unsettling and mercurial David McCallum, who believes he has invented a machine that brings back the dead by "tilting the dead past into the lively present," and the concealed body in Miles and Rush's trunk gives him the perfect opportunity to see if he is right...

There's not a bad thing that can be said about this episode. It's darkly and lavishly photographed and produced, with the richest score in the series. The cast is uniformly brilliant. A longer, separate version was filmed for Playhouse 90 and for theatrical release in Europe, with a different ending. "Forms" was the intended pilot for a series that regrettably never flew, called "The Unknown." It performs like a European horror movie of the period, and is one of the finest pieces of cinema I have ever seen.

Even non-OL fans will love this one. Don't miss it.

Cruel Blonde, Clocks and Wires
Alfred Hitchcock attempted to mold Vera Miles into his classic "cool blonde" such he had done with Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint and Tippi Hedren. However Miles screen persona seemed to lack glamour and radiance. She exuded more pragmatic and matronly qualities as a veneer hiding some darker side of sexuality. Rather than the "cool blonde" she seemed more the "cruel blonde" similar to her role in 1961's "Back Street." In "The Forms of Things Unknown" Vera Miles gives a tour de force in subdued sexual and sadistic manifestations. This episode seems like one of the most explicit ventures into erotica from 1960's television. A strange mixture of 60s chic and spooky Gothic Romanticism it is a highly stylized examination of human sexual behavior, fears and relationships. Stiletto heels, poisoned Martinis, drenching rains, crackling fireplaces, dark shadows, eerie music box tunes, webs of wires and lots of clocks, ticking clocks abound. Is David McCallum a mad scientist or just mad? I was at a science fiction meet in New York City over 20 years ago. Joseph Stefano was the featured speaker. He brought a 16-mm copy of this episode for viewing. Originally this was a pilot episode for a show he was trying to sell to ABC. This pilot was not for "The Outer Limits." It was for another show more in the horror genre. The episode Joseph Stefano showed the audience that day had a different ending. For "The Outer Limits" the ending was re-edited to give it a science fiction element. In the original McCallum was a time traveler only in his mind. For "The Outer Limits" version, well let's just say that you decide. I just touched the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to this episode than I can fathom. It remains my favorite episode. New Haven born composer Dominic Frontiere's title theme from the first season still remains a great piece of classic musical innovation.

The Most Totally Enthralling Entry in the Series
"Forms" was the last show of the series' first season and the pilot for another anthology from the same production team. It is unfortunate that the idea did not sell because this episode showed promise of gems to come.

Basically an ensemble Gothic horror piece, it features great camera work, the usual outstanding scoring, thought-provoking dialogue and gifted direction from Paul Stanley. The cast is grand with Vera Miles and Barbara Rush as two women forced to be the pawns of a murderous cad. Sir Cedric Hardwicke scores as the mysterious "servant" to scientist David McCallum, a genius that has mastered time. All actors are highly effective in their respective roles.

It is Scott Marlowe, featured in the series' earlier masterpiece "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" who excels as Andre... His is a role that others would DIE for.

One of the Finest Episodes in the Series
"The Form of Things Unknown" is perhaps one of the darkest episodes of The Outer Limits. It's one of the few episodes that doesn't involve any kind of creature. Instead, this spectacular entry in the short-lived sci-fi series seems better suited to a show like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. "The Form of Things Unknown" is very Hitchcockian. That's because the author of this suspenceful episode is Joseph Stefano, the man who did the screenplay for Psycho. If you enjoy sci-fi, as well as the macabre, you'll love "The Form of Things Unknown". ... Read more

Reviews (8)

CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT
One thing that makes Controlled Experiment different is that it portrays a diffrent form of time travel. Instead of zipping into the future like Rod Taylor did in 1960 or Guy Pearce did in 2001, the two martians in this story manipulate time examing an event from several view points, also it would be a strange experience to be at say a car crash watching everything proceed in slow motion, this episode also gives you a chance to see Caroll O' Connor as somebody other than Archie Bunker

Lt. Philip Gerard & Archie Bunker On Earth Murder
The only episode of The Outer Limits done for humorous effect, Controlled Experiment shines as one of the most engaging stand-alone anthology stories ever put to televised film, combining an intriguing premise with delightful performances from all involved.

Barry Morse is Martian Chief Inspector Phobos One, assigned to Earth to rendezvous with Caretaker Deimos, played by Carroll O'Connor - the character names are plays on the two moons of Mars. Phobos One is assigned to investigate a most curious activity on planet Earth, the practice of deliberate killing, called murder; the reason for his investigation is to determine if the activity is of random nature and thus of no threat to the rest of the universe. To this end Phobos One has brought with him a temporal condenser, allowing him to "replay" time backwards, sideways, any which way, so long as it does not irrepairably harm the time-space continuum.

Alerted to a possible incident at a hotel, Deimos and Phobos One arrive and witness a sexy blonde (Grace Lee Whitney of later Star Trek fame) confront her wandering boyfriend (Robert Fortier) and shoot him down. Phobos One replays the incident and explores the reason behind it via the temporal condenser, allowing him and Deimos to read the minds of both the woman scorned and also to backtrack the boyfriend to the arms of the other woman.

Sympathizing with the feuding couple, Phobos One alters the outcome, deflecting the fatal bullet away; this leads to a reconciliation between the couple, and as they kiss in preparation for marriage, Phobos One is proud of his action - until Martian Control warns that his interference will lead to the conception and birth of a child who, believing himself invincible after learning of his father's survival, will become supremely powerful and throw the Earth (and the rest of the galaxy) into spatial collapse. Thus are Phobos One and Deimos left to correct the action - but how can they allow a murder to proceed?

Lighthearted rather than overtly comedic, the episode stands out for the performances, especially those of O'Connor and Morse. O'Connor's Deimos is most anxious to cooperate and keep his superior abreast of the subtleties of this weird little planet, and even sports a mild British falsetto in speaking with Phobos One; O'Connor segues into his more familiar gruff portrayal when a shopper appears in a pawnshop, then slips back to the Deimos demeanor without missing a beat.

Barry Morse shines as well, delighting in the strange Earth tastes for cigarettes and coffee (this gives away the refreshingly pre-PC attitude of the times). Morse is allowed to mildly spoof his Lt. Gerard character of "The Fugitive" with his portrayal of Phobos One as a fussbudget investigator, fascinated with the subject at hand but sporting no hint of malice toward either of the persons involved. Morse beams a nicely childlike enjoyment of Earth's customs at the end as the solution to the moral dilemma of their orders is found.

Without question a high point of television, Controlled Experiment endures as a sci-fi classic.

Nicotine Fiends From Mars!
"If I could save time in a bottle / The first thing that I'd like to see / Is the way that they played and the things that they said / In New York in 1963..."

Executive producer Leslie Stevens wrote this one as a "bottle show," his term for a budget-saver (pulling a genie out of a bottle), and in this case the term is especially apt, since the episode is a virtual time capsule window into the year Kennedy was assassinated.

Frenetic fussbudget Phobos and genial bumbler Diemos (Barry Morse and Carroll O'Connor) are undercover Martian agents, on Earth to study the human penchant for murder. Using a "time condensor," the pair single out platinum blonde Grace Lee Whitney (Star Trek's Yeoman Rand) in a hotel lobby, who is due to murder her philandering boyfriend Robert Fortier. The time condensor replays the murder foreward, backward, slow motion, fast motion, every way but sideways, while the Martian spies take more useless measurements than the Warren Commission.

This was OL's only (intentional) comedy, and is more light-hearted than outright funny. The cast are all fabulous, especially Fortier, who has to manage some awkward freezes and movements in the time distortion. The dialogue is Damon Runyon-esque, the women all wear high heels, lipstick and coiffed hair, everybody and his brother smokes, and the men's fashions are all GQ of forty years ago.

The funniest thing in this episode today is the blatant sell of coffee and cigarettes. Phobos "goes native" by the end of the episode, becoming a happy nicotine fiend from Mars.

This one should have been the pilot for a series
I loved this one about the time travelers. On the back of this cassette box the producer indicates he wrote this while on an air plane flight between shows. You'd never know it. Grace Lee Whitney (Pre Yeoman Rand) makes an appearence here. She plays the jilted partner in a bad relationship about to shoot her husband. The time travelers, (Carol O'Connor and Barry Morse) prevent all the mayhem that's about to occur. Both O'Connor and Morse would have made a good series together on this one. The stories they could have told would have been limitless.

It was like Quantum Leap with a playback button. You have to see this one to know what I'm getting at here. The black and white of this series just added to the mystery. It's a good thing this was in black and white. Color would have revealed the cheesey special effects and the shadows always added to the atmosphere. Most of us know this was done to save money and production costs.

A down to earth problem.
We are always portraying the Martians as evil and cruel as in [The War of the Worlds (1953) ASIN: 6305350221] or sadistic as in [Mars Attacks! (1996) ASIN: 0790731452]. But did you ever stop to think what the Martians must think of us?

In this episode [Outer Limits - "Controlled Experiment" (1963)], instead of being rash they send observers to fathom out a human phenomenon called murder. Never mind that the researchers look like Barry Morse (Phobos) and Carrol O'Connor (Dimeos).

Using their temporal condenser they play the scenario over and again backwards and in slow motion in the process. You will love their interpretations. Remember this was before "Third Rock".

If you like this serious side to Outer Limits then you will like [Welcome to Planet Earth (1996) ASIN: 6304372485] where the vacationers (observers) take a more active interest. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Not So Special, Indeed
Reflecting on the other reviews, this one is a bit long and boring (at times). Especially during the middle section where we know what is happening and we are waiting for "Dad" to take care of Mr. Zeno. However, there are some remarkable bits here. For example, the opening scene is classic Outer Limits and is certainly one of the best. The special effects, particularly the way Mr. Zeno is transported and the "confetti" effect at the climax of the episode are top notch. Kudos also to the overplayed, but very effective "rising cresendo" music. Also, the boy gives a very effective speech, embracing human values and smartly rejecting Mr. Zeno.

McDonald Carey is adequate as the father, but one thing that bothered me was the fact that he's at least twenty years older than his wife, Marion Ross. Who, by the way, is given very little to do and is certainly the third wheel in this family. One obvious "blooper" is evident when Mr. Carey is about to jump from his son's window. The shot looking down to the street indicates that he's several stories up, but you can clearly see the branches of a tree through the window. Unless redwoods grow on New York street corners, I don't see how such a tree could be that tall.

All in all, an average episode with some nice acting and a great premise.

educational enrichment
Bad things first: This episode is quite dull. At some points i was actually just waiting for it to end. The performance of the boys father - a very central figure - is wooden and dull. Also the end climax is a quite predictable, and stretched to the extreme.
Although this is a bit of a filler episode, director Gerd Oswald has done his very best. I never knew a picture of a couple watching tv in a flat can look so eerie. The scenes with mr. Zeno and the boy experimenting in the boy's room are exciting. The special effects are marvelous: any classic scifi-fan will get a kick out of Mr Zeno's materialization, nerves first. Also Richie's mom from Happy Days is here.
As one reviewer pointed out earlier, this one screams for a remake. However, only classics like "I, Robot" and "The Inheritors" have been remade, doomed to be foreshadowed by the originals. Why not remake episodes like this and, say, "Premonition", potentially great stories with their flaws clearly visible and easily fixed?

Men In Black Are Not from the Government ; At Least Not Ours
Amazingly, Quinn Martin's The Invaders didn't recycle this great plot, which trips all over its shoelaces on OL.

"Mr. Zeno" is a special ed teacher with a difference - he isn't from our planet, and he hasn't come to help us. He's a fifth column undercover agent, seeking gifted boys to clandestinely instruct in the use of his planet's superior technology, in order to create a standing vanguard army for when his people invade Earth.

This story should have been fabulous, but falters. It's horribly padded, especially during the finale. Zeno's origin is revealed too early, ruining the suspense. Flip Mark, as the boy genius target of Zeno's designs, is flat and droning in his line deliveries. The ending is laughably anticlimactic, and didn't have to be.

All in all, this one is a glorious failure, a really great story idea that just didn't get the care and attention it needed - and really, it needed so little. It's screaming for a remake.

The episode is still worth watching for Richard Ney's splendid performance as the urbane killer from space, Mr. Zeno, whose false friendliness belies his cold and lethal persona. The opening scene, in which Zeno murders a man who has found him out, is the most chilling thing in the episode. MacDonald Carey is also quite good as the boy's father, who comes to realize Zeno's true identity and is willing to fight for his son even against a terrifyingly superior opponent.

GOOD EPISODE
THE THING ABOUT THE OUTER LIMITS IS THE WRITING. I BELIEVE IT STILL HOLDS UP TODAY EVEN IF THE SPECIAL EFFECTS DO NOT. IN THIS EPISODE ,ALIENS ARE TRAINING GIFTED CHILDREN TO TURN AGAINST MAN AND HELP THEM INVADE EARTH. THESE STORIES ARE REMARKABLY FRESH EVEN TODAY. AS WITH MOST SERIES THE WRITING ALWAYS LEADS TO GREATNESS. I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS EPISODE VERY GOOD UNLESS YOU ARE HUNG UP ON GREAT SPECIAL EFFECTS. BUT BY 60's STANDARD THE EFFECTS ARE GOOD. THE OUTER LIMITS ASKS YOU TO IMAGINE THINGS AS YOU WATCH. WHICH IN MY BOOK MAKES IT VERY GOOD.

Mr. Zeno: Intergalactic corruptor of youth!
When young Kenny Benjamin, enrolled in a government-sponsored program for "gifted" children, is visited by Mr. Zeno (Richard Ney), his voluntary services as a special tutor are gratefully accepted by Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin. Regretfully, Mr. Zeno is not a government educator, but part of an invasion force preparing the Earth for conquest by creating superior beings out of gifted youths, like Kenny, to spearhead the operation. This episode mimics the mom and pop type sitcoms of the early 60's with typical scenes and dialog. Within this context the events that occur are more than commonplace creating the unusual nature of this episode. Richard Ney portrays a truly memorable character, Mr. Zeno from the planet Xenon, with his dry wit and sombre countenance. Mrs. Benjamin is played by Marion Ross who later starred as Mrs. Cunnigham in "Happy Days". The special effects are interesting but not terribly exciting with the exception of the opening which is one of the most frightful scenes in the show. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Surreal "Nigthmare" !
I agree with the other reviewers that this episode was one of the best from the original series. I saw this as a kid when it first aired and again in a re-run. "Nightmare" has stuck in my mind for 40 years now.

The idea of a United Earth, with men of all races, fighting an enemy that resembles Satan himself was the hook of the story. Yet, as events unfold we find that the cruel Ebonites may not exactly be the Aliens of inhuman brutality we first think they are, as they go about torturing the Earth men for information.
There motivation actually coming from a very human source.

This well acted Sci-Fi is well worth watching again. It explores moral issues on the question, is torture and humilation of a POW justified, even for a so called greater purpose?

In light of the recent 21st Century Iraqi nightmare prison scandal "Nightmare" should be viewed by neo-conservatives and any other Americans who believe the "Geneva Convention" rules need not apply, as they use "immoral and inhuman" methods to extract information from captured human beings.

Nightmare = 3.5 stars out of 5
One of the better episodes of the series and maybe, just maybe, the most memorable. The whole episode deals with the interrogation of human soldiers by am alien army called Ebonites. The sheer starkness of the set and coldness of everything is very effective, giving it a dreamlike quality. The prisoners are interrogated one-by-one because they have information that the Ebonites (and others) need. When the plans are exposed to the Ebonites about the next wave of soldiers arriving, the 5 remaining members of the party believe they have been betrayed by one of their own. I don't want to give anyway if you have not watched the episode, so I will seal my lips now.

thank you for your time, David

Arguably the best of the Outer Limits
If you were to only watch one episode from the original series, this one ought to be it. There is much drama here and, as others have noted, convincing acting.

Sure, the sets and makeup are pretty basic, but the plot and acting make up for the low budget constraints of this episode.

Also, the episode is full of some intriguing zingers such as "They do not permit madness on Ebon", and "Death will truly be a mysterious adventure here" among others.

The irony in the plot is apparent when the Ebonite Interrogator demands an end to the immoral and "inhuman" experiment on the unfortunate POWs.

Many of the aliens or monsters in the series were basically humanoid in general appearance but with bizarre cranial development. The Ebonites are interesting looking aliens. I would rate the Ebonites up there with the games master of Andarra in "Fun and Games" as being the best of the weird aliens. (The gelatinous monsters of some other episodes just weren't convincing or entertaining for me. I guess it is hard to believe that a being that looks like a pile of crap is really intelligent.)

James Shigeda and John Anderson (the Interrogator) in this episode contribute some of the best acting in the series.

Who's Your Buddy?
The Outer Limits that dares ask the question, "Who do you fear more? E.T.? Or your own government?"

Suffers somewhat from an obviously limited budget - though the limbo settings are remarkably effective, given the nature of the story - and from dated aspects in the script, but an intelligent and thought-provoking story.

This one is more about POW's and military psychological torture tests (which were going on at the time, and became something of a scandal in coming years) than about evil E.T.'s, though evil E.T.'s are pondered, as well. The makeup for the gargoyle-ish alien Ebonites is quite memorable and striking, as is the grating monotone of their halting, mechanoid voices. The cast is stellar, especially James Shigeta as a stoic major, Bill Gunn as a cruelly tortured and tricked lieutenant, and Martin Sheen as a too-true-blue-to-be-true All-American private.

Gripping, powerful drama. Better than the remake in the new OL.

I have always been a fan, this is the best....
I first saw this on TNT one night when I was a kid. It was obviously low budget (like all of the other episodes) but triumphed because of it. The Ebonite make-up is freakish to say the least, the set's are almost Salvador Dali-esque in appearence, and the music is incredible. The story line for this episode is great as well, and the acting is superb. This episode is and always will be my favorite, and is a must fo any fan. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

And I thought "Tourist Attraction" was bad!
"Cry of Silence", along with the one in the above title, has to rank as one of the worst episodes in the two-year history of the landmark series.
Maybe star Eddie Albert was getting prepared for the "absurdities" that he would encounter on his television series "Green Acres".
Only the inhabitants of the fictitious town of Hooterville would believe menacing tumbleweeds.

Unintentionally hilarious
Some epsiodes of the OL provided the viewers with daring social commentary. Others stirred profound and touching emotions. "Cry of Silence" gave us killer tumbleweeds.

The premise of the episode is a misunderstood alien visitor, a theme which had already been done (1,000 times better) in "The Galaxy Being." Eddie Albert stars as an intellectual prone to making huge leaps of logic because they are in the script. June Havoc plays his histrionic wife. They wander out to an isolated spot in the desert (all the better to save money by the producer) and are attacked by animate tumbleweeds and irate frogs. June screams a lot, which is odd because they don't seem to be in any real danger at all.

They meet Arthur Hunnicut who appears to be a simple old hick (as he does in all his roles). June finds his journal and discovers he is actually an educated man. So why does he pretend to be a dumb hick? Why doesn't he try to work with the obviously astute Albert to escape? And if he is hiding his education, why does he leave the journal out to be found? Hey, don't ask questions, look at the killer tumbleweeds.

This continues until Albert opens himself up as a vessel for the entity. It posseses him and goes into a soliloquy about how Earthlings can't be communicated with. Apparently aliens of this sort talk to themselves in overly dramatic fashion a lot. Then it leaves, leaving the audience to feel, sniff, so ashamed because, sniff, we humans just don't understand.

Frankly, it is hard to find an OL episode that isn't better than "Cry of Silence," for intellectual stimulation or even pure escapism. After the second viewing the fun of jeering at its absurdities wears thin. Look for it in re-runs, but save your money on the video.

You Been Smokin' That ... , Again?
No doubt largely the inspiration for Dean Koontz's sometimes effective Winter Moon, this episode isn't as good as it's cracked up to be, but is an effective, atmospheric little chiller. It was written by Louis Charbonneau, who appears to have a love affair with animating the inanimate - in "Corpus Earthling" he gave us talking rocks, and in "Cry of Silence" he gives us a plethora of lifeless menaces come miraculously to life.

Well - not so miraculously. The bizarre movements among usually unmoving objects has an identifiable source. An alien intelligence, vainly attempting to communicate with our world, is behind the animation of tumbleweeds, rocks, lesser animals, and finally man...but only one dead man, which is part of the creepy fun. Edward Albert and June Havoc enter into this little Twilight Zone arena, hooking up with an old desert rat who has been shacking himself away from it all for a few weeks, now. The terrified trio ultimately figure out what is going on, and Albert becomes the anticlimactic mediumistic voice for the frustrated alien intruder spirit - who can't hear Havoc's responses to its appeal for contact.

This one is worth it for the overall atmosphere and good performances.

A great adventure, scary and thought-provoking
Eddie Arnold plays an urbane, well-dressed city man with a hankering to get away from it all by moving out to the country. But his platinum blonde wife isn't too keen on the idea and has to be more or less dragged along under protest. When they get out there, he finds himself surrounded by Utter Weirdness. No, we're not talking about "Green Acres", but rather its science fictional predecessor "Cry of Silence". This is a very enjoyable, zero special-effects classic of the original Outer Limits' budgetarily-challenged second season. I've often wondered whether the creators of "Green Acres" didn't get the idea for that sitcom from watching this show (the chronology would be about right)! This episode targets the viewer's imagination and fear of the unknown with great skill and enjoyable results. As in some earlier OL episodes which cast such mundane items as rocks and dust-bunnies in a paranoid light, so with this one; and after viewing it, one can never view tumbleweeds quite the same again. Frogs and rocks also become objects of fear (the former possibly foreshadowing the Ray Milland film "Frogs"). The plot revolves around an incorporeal alien intelligence that occupies and animates ordinary things in a remote, desolate canyon, in a determined effort to discover and make contact with earthly life. This episode is strong on mood and story (like most classic OL), and one of the most hair-raising moments of all is when the alien possesses a human corpse. The alien force is so different from earthly life in form and substance that it doesn't recognize it as such, just as our earthly protagonists can't easily comprehend what is happening to them. The dramatic theme is the need of separate beings to overcome the differences that divide and separate them, to relate or make contact and thus transcend alienation, or exhaust themselves trying. "This is the only flag we can plant". A great nostalgia trip back to a time when science fiction had dignity and appealed not only to the mind (both intellect and imagination) but also to the heart, instead of just trying to play up to the immaturity and conceits of a spoiled, tasteless mass audience via empty special effects and vacuous psychodrama.

The Very Best Episode
Though I have not seen this episode since the early sixties when I was only a 6 or 7 year-old girl, it always stuck out in my mind as the quintessential episode. Of course, after all these years, I did not recall the title, but never, ever forgot those tumbleweeds. Thanks to a previous reviewer for mentioning them so that I will soon have it in my collection. Can't wait to see it after soooooooooooooo many years! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Not That Good, Not That Bad
This episode is neither as bad nor as good as other reviewers hype it up to be. It's a decent middle-of-the-road OL. Highly padded (by virtue of the overlong teaser, which is repeated verbatim in the episode), suffering from really cheap effects, but a decent enough story competently enough presented.

It's the Andromeda Strain, with space barnacles in place of a killer virus. The barnacles grow anywhere, reproduce like kudzu, and exhale a highly toxic gas in the process. The astronauts who discover them don't realize until too late that they are bringing a deadly organism back with them, and the government has one helluva problem on its hands.

The performances are good, and so is the suspense. The effects are pretty cheesy. The production team was badly strapped when this one was shot, but they did a creditable job of making-do in spite of it.

Not a front-runner episode in anyone's book, but enjoyable enough if you like this kind of thing.

Derivative, but Good
Yes, it is impossible not to notice the resemblance to other sci-fi potboilers, like "Triffids", and "Spacemaster X-7", but remember that those were the trendsetters of sci-fi back then, like "Alien", and "Star Wars" is now.

Too much like DAY of the TRIFFIDS
The plot and the ending bear too much similarity to Day of the Triffids. If you have seen that movie, you will not need to see this video. The decision to allow the spaceship, with its deadly infectious cargo, to land on Earth is a stupid decision - which would not occur in a real situation.

poisonous poinsettias
The Official Companion reports that this episode ran undertime so was padded out painstakingly. This padding is noticable in the prologue and the set-up of a spaceship invaded by hitherto dormant space spores who grow into plants which emit lethal vapour. While we aren't shown how the spores managed to get inside the spaceship (one isn't likely to leave the ship door open) the naivety in which they are treated is the real surprise, probably influenced by how pretty they are and what attractive decor they make pre-vapour emittance. The spores resemble mushroom-shaped muffins, and the plants have cobra-like stems and large white petals. When a young Dabney Coleman as a botanist moves his face in for a closer inspection, we know what to expect. This episode was broadcast just after the release of the The Day of the Triffids film and the similarity (and solution to the problem) is evident, though these plants are passive-aggressive. Director Gerd Oswald provides enough suspense however to make this engaging viewing. Once the Earth base has to decide whether to allow the infected-shuttle to land or to be destroyed, the tension begins, aided by composer Dominic Frontiere's use of twittery strings to suggest both alien life and the rapid maturing of the spores into flowers with deadly stigma. This moment of decision is performed like a silent movie. Although the repair of a servomechanism of the shuttle was filmed in slow-mo to add time, the acrobatics are remarkeable, and the image of a bound corpse (the first victim of the vapour) buried in space evocatively gothic. Gail Kobe, who would later be in Keeper of the Purple Twilight, appears as the wife of one of the shuttle crew, and the only female in the cast. I suppose Oswald thought that her being in peril is more potent for the audience than the space shuttle rabbit. I rate this episode highly cos this time around, the "bear" is so feminine.

The Outer Limits: Specimen Unknown
Specimen:Unknown may have been the highest rated episode of The Outer Limits, but it is easily the worst episode ever produced. The overlong teaser gives away that the spores are lethal, and if you were fortunate not to see it, the opening sequence reveals the same thing. Further along, when ground control finds out about the lethal plants, they stupidly let the shuttle land, giving the plants an opportunity to spread and possibly kill millions because they listen to the wife of one of the astronauts on board instead of listening to the astronaut. this is one video you should get only if you want the complete Outer Limits on video. Otherwise, forget about buying it. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

BEM In A Business Suit
The famous Bug-Eyed Monster in a business suit episode has one of the best beginnings of any story in the series, but after the first act it all starts going south, fast. The OL production team was spread pretty thin at the time this one was made, and it shows.

The story is terrific, but it's never properly realized. A number of people all born in obscure, rural Spider County in a given time period are all suddenly disappearing - and the Space Agency wants to know why, since not only are the vanished men among their best scientists, but UFOs are associated with the vanishing acts. One of their agents attaches himself to the remaining young man fitting the profile of the missing, in order to smoke-out whoever - or whatever - is responsible.

Damn! Sounds good, doesn't it? Too bad it isn't.

The suspense is shot from the start, the dialogue is trite and often unintentionally comical, there's way too much padding and repeat use of stock footage (mostly of the BEM in a business suit stomping about the woods, who gets far too much air time for such a flimsy, if eye-grabbing, mask)...it just doesn't hold together, at all.

This one is screaming for a remake in the new OL series.

Lovecraft comes to TV
One of the better episodes, really has a feel of a 50s sci-fi horror flick rather than a sanitized TV show episode.

Starts out good, then fades.
This starts out fine, has a pretty neat-looking monster (which, unfortunatly, you see way too much of), and an interesting premise. There is some nice dialogue between Abel and the son he's come to take back with him, but as the show goes on it starts to go downhill. There are way too many silly chase scenes, and the town in which the story takes place has almost no other people in it except the characters. The ending was a bit of a letdown too. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Damn Your Eyes!.. Uh, Too Late!
I first saw this episode in syndication (on a future UPN-50 station) before "The Avengers", in the early-'70s, as a little boy. It scared me. It was a perfect example of "Can't Bear to Look, but Can't Look Away"-kind of thing. This is the inspiration of my future episode-issue of "Dementia-12" comic-book, "Life Sentence, Without Parole".

Perfect paranoia/intense-fear-instilled episode where a space expedition scientist gets caught in a radioactive downpour and becomes MUTATED --having no hair and huge, "Jack Kirby-esque" bug-eyes-- blames the other expedition scientists for his misfortune & threatens them with his ability to mind-read & "kill with a touch" of his bare hands --of which they become scattered atoms. I appreciate this episode more now, but I'm still too "chicken" to own it. Oh, by the way, you other folks out there may recognize Warren Oates as "Sgt. Hulka --the Big Toe" from "Stripes".

Anyone See My Visine?
Like a lot of OL's weaker episodes, this one starts out great and then muddles. The script and the characters aren't too well developed, and a lot of potentially interesting story angles aren't sufficiently gone into once they've begun.

Warren Oates is fine in the title role of Reese Fowler, a man who has suffered an accident at a distant planetary outpost that makes his physical proximity to others a lethal threat and also enables him to read minds. Fowler can't bear loneliness, but his fellow crewmembers can't take him back to Earth with them in the close confines of their ship, once they realize the planet they are working to make habitable for colonists is too hostile to support human life for any appreciable length of time. Fowler snaps, holding them all prisoner with him until they can find some cure for his condition - but there isn't one. And his colleagues can't escape him, because he knows their every thought and can kill with a touch.

Fowler is a great, tragically doomed character, and the tension of his colleagues is well-acted. Their ultimate plan to escape him - equally tragically doomed to failure - is quite clever, and manages to create some viable suspense. The finale is believable enough, but too sudden to be dramatically satisfying. The mutant makeup is unquestionably "eye-catching," so to speak, but frankly ludicrous, and too much exposure of it on camera undercuts the drama of the piece.

This is overall a flawed episode, but worth a look for the performances.

Before Star Trek..
Did you ever see the episode of Star Trek called "Where no man has gone before" starring Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman? The one where the Enterprise runs into something that causes one of the crew members to gain god-like powers, and his EYES begin to glitter? I wonder where I've seen that story before? Unfortunately, Star Treks version of this story is better, due to the fact that the effects were better, and Sally Kellerman co-starred. This version is still pretty good, but the effects are anything but special.

A Fatal Paranoia
Here is a neat little Outer Limits episode concerning a colony of Earth scientists on another planet where things have gone terribly wrong. Warren Oates plays botanist Reese Fowler who is accidentally caught in a rain of radioactive isotopes which turns him into a bug-eyed mutant who never sleeps, reads minds and can kill with only his thoughts. His condition drives him insane and he torments his crewmen into remaining on the planet to keep him company. This is an example of how sometimes The Outer Limits could make an exciting episode on a shoestring budget by just concentrating on the mood of the piece. The Mutant induces a real feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia and has a wonderfully disturbing effect upon the viewer. Recommended! ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Still great after all these years!
David McCallum is superb in this classic episode of the original "Outer Limits" TV series. I believe this was the first in the series to begin with a "teaser" (a strategically selected scene from the epsiode), and I remember being jolted out of my seat by it back in 1963. The episode clip involves a large-domed McCallum in his final phase of induced evolution staring down two motorcycle cops and saying, "Your ignorance makes me ill and angry!" One psychokinetic zap later, one of the officers is on the ground. The brief scene speeds by with the noise and force of a freight train, and I'm not sure I ever recovered from it.

Not that I would want to! Possibly the best episode of this outstanding series.

Much better than the New Outer Limits!
This is the first episode of the black and White series I have watched. I watched it yesterday on the sci-fi channel actually.
David McCallum, who was acting before I was born, is excellent in portraying the super-intelligent futurman. The latest version of man(who was seen in teaser) is exceptionally well done and you'd think he really was a man from the future. This is exactally what I thought they would look like and sound like. However, in reality owr craniums will probably shrienk, not grow as to owr 3 point drop per generation in IQ.
My favorite part was actually the first future man of 20,000 years beyond owr selves. He looks somewhat like us and somewhat like the telekinetic dome heads of 1 million years and beyond. He is the missing link, so to speak between us and the telekinetic beings. Wider vision is posible, as that is the one thing that has improved in us over the animals.(3D stereophonic)
This is very intriguing and has gotten me fastenated in human evloution.

An example of literate sci-fi on television
"The Outer Limits", like "The Twilight Zone" before it, introduced literate storytelling to a genre that had been looked at as "kiddy fare". Each week, with few exceptions, the landmark show would take viewers on an excursion through alien landscapes or otherworldly encouters; however, humanity's strengths and weaknesses were gloriously portrayed in the well-crafted scripts and brilliant performances of the guest actors.

In "Sixth Finger", David McCallum is a village "doofus" that becomes the pawn of an experiment by scientist Edward Mulhare. The experiment results in McCallum's character becoming an evolutionary freak.

The effects may be dated, but the story is so powerful, as is the fine acting by McCallum, Mulhare, and Jill Haworth (Mrs. McCallum)that one can overlook the then-state-of-the-art technology.

Fans of the genre should note that Janos Prohoska is the "actor" in the monkey suit. He appears in several other episodes of the series as well as the classic "Bewitched" episode "Allergic to Macedonian Dodo Birds".

Now, who said you can't LEARN anything from Amazon[.com]?

The Sixth Finger = 4 stars out of 5
"The Sixth Finger" is truly one of the classic Outer Limits episodes. David McCallum plays an ordinary man frustrated with his life of working in the mines. He comes across a scientist through a mutual friend and seeks work from him. This scientist is studying the evolution of humans and could use a test subject. David McCallum agrees to this because the goal of the scientist evolutionary test is to make his subject smarter and more advance then present day humans. The doctor succeeds at a cost because "his subject" has become more advanced, but yet less human.

This episode has some great elements that all add up to it being an "Outer Limits Classic." The acting is very strong, the pace/script/editing are tight, and there's a very nice human element that permeates throughout the 50 minutes.

thank you for your time, David

My Fair Laddy
One of the best-remembered episodes, with some of the series' most shuddery moments. The story is reminiscent of The Man With the Power (see OL #4), but better realized, and with the lead character not anxious to lose his terrifying power over others, but rather to expand it.

David McCallum, who never turns in a poor performance, practically walks away with this one, though he is nicely matched by Edward Mulhare as the Professor Higgins (he played the role on Broadway, when Rex Harrison was on vacation) who transforms him into the Six Million Year Evolved Man. Jill Haworth is touching as McCallum's ultimate savior, and Janos Prohaska even gets to do his famous man-in-a-monkey-suit routine to good effect.

What stands out in this episode are the various makeups/masks of McCallum's transformations, first to a man evolved ten thousand years into the future, then a million, then six million. His first appearances, out of the shadows (the cinematography in this episode is incomparably good), are especially chilling. The ending will leave you with the shivers.

This one is marked down a star for three reasons: one, the episode has unnecessary scenes for padding (it actually doesn't suffer in syndicated cuts); two, the actors in the padded scenes have accents that ruin the illusion of being in Wales (especially against the three principals, who are English and Welsh); and three, the direction is often a little arch and melodramatic, telegraphing too much.

But it is one of OL's best, without question, and highly recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Take my brain, please!
Oh man is this bad.

For what it's worth, here's the plot;

To land a ship on Mars you need one smart computer. Unfortunately, there are none around. Soon to be pushing up daisies Colonel Barham however, donates his brain to science and viola, we have a smart computer. Unfortunatly, his wife glances at Barham's friend for a nano-second and the brain goes bonkers.

Gifted with super-human powers to annoy, the brain gets a god complex. And the general in charge of the project finally puts the audience at ease by putting a bullet through the brain. Everything explodes for some reason (encased in gasoline I suppose) and we fade to the credits.

It would be hard to find a level this episode works at. It's a rather obvious 'Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde' takeoff, although the still human Barham is rather off his rocker. There's basically no budget, the pace is way too slow, and you don't really care what happens.

All in all, pass on this one.

Incredible Shrinking Man Vs. Disembodied Brain!
And the brain loses!

Psychotic Colonel Barham is literally out of his head, as his brain is removed from his ailing body to be transplanted into a NASA space probe. While floating in a tank, the brain develops super-powers and starts programming people to kill anyone Barham doesn't like. Anyone who remembers the old chestnut "Donovan's Brain" can figure out what happens next, when handsome Grant ("The Incredible Shrinking Man") Williams starts getting along with Barham's - er, "widow"?

You've seen it before, and seen it better. Second season producer Ben Brady talked OL's poor audience to death in the show's worst scripts - and this is one of the show's worst scripts.

Pretty Bad
Number 3 on my worst episode list. Buy "Dr.Jeckal and Mr. Hyde" instead! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Sinister Space Sabotage
Good, middleweight OL episode.

Prospective travelers to the closest planet inhabitable by man (called Antheon in the script, which interestingly is reached in the same number of days it takes our probes to reach Mars) audition for the privilege, by taking a simulated journey beforehand to see if they can stand the trip. Unbeknownst to them, an inhabitant of that planet is aboard with them, running its own experiment on the worthiness of human beings.

The characters are a bit cliched, and the situations and dialogue simplistic, but the small cast handle the material well. The invader alien manifests itself first as a forked lightning-snake that clandestinely slips into the travelers' ears at night to hear their thoughts, and later assumes a truly grotesque form (in memorable Jim Danforth stop-motion animation) to confront the group and inform them that they've failed to pass muster - which most of them have realized themselves, by that point.

The production sustains a fair amount of suspense, and an eerie atmosphere of progressive menace, as it begins dawning on the group that "they are not alone." It's a tad bit melodramatic, as were most of OL's second season entries, but the story is good, the performances are capable, and it has a satisfying payoff.

a claustrophobic, second-season OL hair-raiser
Second season episodes of classic Outer Limits were not as good on average as those of the first season, which were produced by the show's creators. But they usually still delivered the goods, as in "Counterweight". The plot involves a space agency experiment designed to study how well humans will endure physically and mentally on long space voyages, by sending a handful of volunteers on an earth-bound mock-up of a spaceflight. As in the first season episode "Second Chance", we meet a small ensemble cast embodying various human virtues and vices, especially greed in the latter case. The experiment will be considered a success only if, during the months-long duration of the simulated spaceflight, none of the volunteers presses a "panic button" (installed so they can bail out if the journey becomes too much). But unbeknownst to them, an inscrutable alien intelligence, worried at the prospect of humans eventually visiting its planet, has taken an interest in the outcome. Its native form is simply a flickering light (foreshadowing Star Trek episodes like "Day of the Dove"). The alien begins staging some psychologically powerful events intended to unnerve the humans. This reaches its peak in some fine, stop-motion scenes (animated by Jim Danforth) in which a fern-like plant taken aboard by one character, a botanist, is possessed and mutated by the alien into this episode's "bear". In an eye-opening shock sequence, it first strangles other plants within its reach, and eventually confronts the frightened humans. There are various minor flaws in this show, but after all is said and done it remains an excellent sci-fi chiller from the Golden Era. This is unique, original, memorable, and thought-provoking stuff, like the great majority of classic OL episodes. As usual, this is recommended for intelligent and discriminating fans of vintage scifi, versus those whose scifi tastes were acquired from watching, say, almost anything put out by Hollywood in the last 15 years or so. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Claustrophobic Classic
Probably the quintessential OL episode. An all-star cast of five, a single claustrophobic Gothic setting, a benevolent alien, and malevolent humans out to exploit him. Superior in every department. The script is polished, the suspense is intense, the story fascinating, the characters fully realized, and the finale a haunting spine-chiller.

The radiant Sally Kellerman is cast against type in her best role ever, as the Lady Macbeth wife of Martin Landau, a genuinely good man whose genius is exploited by his venal and emotionally distant father, Neil Hamilton. Chita Rivera is Kellerman's vicious maid, who has already killed a man in her past. Rivera helps Kellerman murder and conceal the body of an accidental alien visitor (John Hoyt) into Kellerman and Landau's house, in order that Kellerman may steal its technologically advanced "anti-weapon" in her husband's name for the sake of power. Unfortunately, Kellerman failed to learn one thing about the anti-weapon, before stealing it from her victim - she doesn't know how to turn it off, and becomes an eternal prisoner inside it.

There's a great deal more to the story than that, but any more would ruin it. Astute viewers will recognize the "anti-weapon" spiel used twenty years later by Ronald Reagan to sell Star Wars to the electorate.

This episode is flawless. The cast couldn't be better. The performances seethe and sparkle. The script is poetic without becoming cloying. The cinematography and the music are perfect.

Don't miss this one. It's a winner, in every way.

Another "Best Episode"!
Again, a story that influenced so much sci-fi. Star Trek may have added greatly to pop-culture, but Outer Limits influenced science fiction stories in general.

vulgar ambition is the sin for which the angels fell
Another seminal episode in the series, like the Zanti Misfits, but this time featuring a benevolent alien. The title device is brought by the alien who arrives in much the same way as the alien in The Galaxy Being ie by accident, little knowing that it has fallen into a house of family powerplay. Written by Joseph Stefano and directed by John Brahm who also directed ZZZZZ, the episode is described in The Official Companion as a "combination of Shakespeare, ancient mythology, pulp science fiction, quasireligion, and legitimate theatre". Stefano is quoted as wanting to write a 'haircut' of Macbeth for Sally Kellerman, as the wife of Martin Landau's scientist and the Lady Macbeth analogy is made clear from a line about "Your ambition is singularly the most active form of violence I've ever encountered". Occasionally Stefano goes overboard eg Kellerman replies to her description with "Lust is what becomes of an aspiration when it is allowed to grow and become ambition". Brahm's experience in theatre is evident in the playing of the actors, with a choice part for a barefooted Chita Rivera witch with a vaguely lesbian air, and Brahm even manages to pull back that notorious ham Neil Hamilton. Tears aren't often seen in The Outer Limits so it's testiment to the sensitivity of Rivera and Landau when their tears fall, plus Kellerman gets a great scream in closeup. Brahm also provides a funny cut from the shield to the array of utensils used to break it. DOP Conrad Hall has fun in having the alien out of focus to allow for it's vasoline-on-the-lens inner light illumination when it is circled by others, and also posing the women in darkness.

Birthplace of many a UFO fantasy...
Earlier reviewers have aptly summarized the plot of the story, which is clever. I have fun memories of seeing this in late-night reruns, laughing at the special effects which I appreciate in retrospect. DeStefano and the others had a week to put them together, and they did a pretty good job given the lack of computer graphics and all the bells and whistles available today.

Anyway, I wish I had a copy of the tape right here right now. I must've seen in 30 times, and will see it as many again. One trivia tidbit that many do not know is that the fellow who was among the first to claim alien abduction in "Incident at Exeter" and other tales paraphrased the alien in this episode; many a UFO skeptic refers to that while suggesting that that New Hampshire fantasy--and the thousands that follow it--(it's become a New Age "cause"!)--was actually brought about by this episode which provided that line.

Then look at the alien (despite the zipper in his pants, etc.): the white creature with mysterious eyes so many of the abductees refer to.

Despite that connection, I think it's a fine story, with excellent acting, a super plot, and even very clever concepts. Outer Limits was pre-Star Trek, and still strikes a great sci-fi cord when I think of it. And this of its episodes is among those which stands out. Enjoy it!

We now return control of your television set to you...

Kinky and a Ton of Fun!
A young Sally Kellerman is delightfully wicked as a wife determined to help her husband get ahead. Chita Rivera is equally riveting as the housekeeper who may or may not be more than just the mistress's "maid." A little Freud is evident in the unexplained closeness between the two women. Neil Hamilton, famous as Commissioner Gordon on "Batman" a few years later, makes a thoroughly despicable tyrant of a father to weak scientist Martin Landau in an early pre-"Mission Impossible" role. John Hoyt as the abducted alien brings a quiet dignity to his heavily-disguised role. Magnificent is this episode! ... Read more