The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1

The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1
by Abner Biberman, Alan Crosland Jr., Byron Haskin, Gerd Oswald, James Goldstone

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DVD Reviews of The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1

DVD Review: "Heroes Die Alone"
Summary: 4 Stars

A field day for students of popular culture, the included episodes offer a time capsule bloated with influential ideas and creative talent that have subsequently enjoyed a significant impact in a wide variety of mediums.

The never - bettered first episode, "The Galaxy Being," would have delighted the Surrealists; "The Architects of Fear" utilizes an idea that Alan Moore would adopt 25 years later for `The Watchmen' (1986); and "The Man with the Power" may have inspired Stan Lee's and Jack Kirby's creation of Magneto, a comic book villain still gaining popularity 30 years after his debut. "100 Days of the Dragon" combines 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1962) with `Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1956), while the series' grimmest hour, "Corpus Earthling," looked visually back on 'The Invisible Invaders' (1959) and 'Carnival of Souls' (1962) and forward to 'Night Of The Living Dead' (1968). "Don't Open Until Doomsday" combines a hatbox - sized spaceship and a cyclopean alien invader with Billy Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard' (1951). The fanciful special effects in "Moonstone" and "The Bellero Shield" occasionally recall George Melies' groundbreaking "A Trip To The Moon' (1902).

The giant ants of 'Them!' (1954) are reduced to 12 inches, given peevish clown's faces, and set upon murderous sociopath Bruce Dern in the existential camp classic "The Zanti Misfits." "ZZZZZ" reverses the human - into - insect formula of `The Fly' (1958) and `The Wasp Woman' (1959), and unlike feline Irena Dubrovna in `The Cat People' (1942), the episode's queen bee - turned - woman gleefully indulges her murderous sexuality. "The Guests" blends `the old dark house' genre with an erudite, attic - dwelling space monster that resembles a cross between an enormous clutching grouper and reproductive organs of the female sperm whale. After a forcible first encounter in the dark, the defiant young hero is asked, "Did you submit to it?"

Both "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" and "Production And Decay of Strange Particles" further develop the nuclear horror of 'Kiss Me Deadly' (1955), while "O.B.I.T." brilliantly predicts today's world of mass surveillance and evaporating privacy. The courageous fairytale bride of "The Man Who Had Never Been Born" recalls dauntless heroine Janet of the British folk ballad 'Tam Lin,' and "The Borderland" is hard evidence that some of the most dramatic and fully realized segments of the program were monster - free.

"The Children of Spider County" centers around an extended homosexual metaphor: five young men of mysterious paternity, "exceptional looks and intellect," and "magnificent special natures" are reminded that "different is not necessarily abnormal," even if the "witch boys" spend their nights "walking in moon - lit meadows" by themselves. Sidelong, up and down glances at the handsome protagonist by ostensibly suspicious policemen punctuate the proceedings. Additionally, power - mad housewife Sally Kellerman and sinister housekeeper Chita Rivera appear to enjoy a lesbian relationship in "The Bellero Shield."

Government complexes that hum ominously in the night, lax security, sterile desert landscapes, guilt - haunted personalities, prisoner - exchange programs, nighttime electrical storms, and shrewish wives are some of the series' reoccurring motifs. Psychological jargon abounds: a psychiatrist named 'Sigmund' features in "The Man with the Power," which was clearly influenced by 1956's 'Forbidden Planet,' while a doctor in "Corpus Earthly" asks a question that adequately speaks for the series as a whole: "Do you know anything about paranoia?" "ZZZZZ," still bizarre and unsettling by today's standards, buzzes with overheated Freudian Family Romance.

Interestingly, almost every episode offers a second, nonscientific plot element that occasionally acts as an alternative explanation for events: "The Architects of Fear" combines radical plastic surgery with sympathetic intuition, for example, and the Mexican peasants of "Corpus Earthly" suggest that demonic possession, not alien invasion, may be responsible for the chaos that occurs. "The Galaxy Being" mixes a heady discussion of pantheism with teleportation, and "The Borderland" juxtaposes physics with Victorian spiritualism.

Not all of the episodes are equal in quality: Overacting ruins "Nightmare," and "The Children of Spider County," "Second Chance," "The Mutant," and "Fun And Games" lack enough polish and plot development for fifty - minute segments. Among the distinguished cast are Nick Adams, Luana Anders, Robert Culp, Robert Duvall, Nina Foch, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Miriam Hopkins, Shirley Knight, Martin Landau, George Macready, David McCallum, Ralph Meeker, Vera Miles, Leonard Nimoy, Carrol O'Connor, Donald Pleasence, Cliff Robertson, Martin Sheen, and Kent Smith.

Description of The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1

Cliff Robertson launched an impressive succession of guest stars, and on meager, oft-exceeded budgets of $120,000 per episode, The Outer Limits became a showcase for shoestring ingenuity. The "blue ribbon crew" (as Stevens called it) included cinematographer Conrad Hall, whose Oscar®-winning skills were honed on the series' cramped TV-studio sets. Packed onto four double-sided DVDs, these 32 episodes (out of a total 49) comprise the series' dynamic first season of moody, frequently paranoid black-and-white adventures. Repeat performers Martin Landau, Robert Culp, and Sally Kellerman excel (respectively) in the fan-favorite episodes "The Man Who Was Never Born," "The Architects of Fear," and "The Bellero Shield" (and who can forget the insect-like menace of "The Zanti Misfits"?). There are a few clunkers, of course, but the series' quality (and parade of monsters) is remarkably consistent, and DVD compression does not compromise its technical achievement. These eerily seductive shows invite repeated viewing, supporting Stephen King's oft-quoted remark that The Outer Limits was "the best program of its type ever to run on network TV." --Jeff Shannon