The Outer Limits (1963)
I was eight years old when these programs were first broadcast and I remember seeing many of them then. Was I too young? Yes: nightmares. No: I had discovered horror-tinged science fiction and wanted more.
I've seen the series again in the decades since, first as rebroadcasts and then on a DVD collection. When Kino announced both seasons on Blu-ray I wasn't going to bother with the upgrade but was intrigued by the rich set of commentary tracks. Hearing more about these shows from film scholars and fellow fans: I couldn't resist.
And the upgrade in video quality is substantial. As always when looking at classic TV in modern high definition, I marvel that today we see them as they have never been seen before. My original viewing was on a small boxy TV with a blurry image. I never imagined that I would be able to revisit these programs presented in such quality.
We must be grateful that so much classic TV was filmed in 35mm, the same as theatrical releases. That always seemed odd: film records vastly more detail than could be broadcast at the time. The studio workflows must have been setup for 35mm and it was just easier to stick with it.
Episodes
Season one
- 01 The Galaxy Being (⁂)
- 02 The Hundred Days of the Dragon
- 03 The Architects of Fear (⁂)
- 04 The Man with the Power
- 05 The Sixth Finger
- 06 The Man Who Was Never Born (⁂)
- 07 O.B.I.T.
- 08 The Human Factor
- 09 Corpus Earthling (⁂)
- 10 Nightmare
- 11 It Crawled Out of the Woodwork
- 12 The Borderland
- 13 Tourist Attraction
- 14 The Zanti Misfits (⁂)
- 15 The Mice
- 16 Controlled Experiment
- 17 Don't Open Till Doomsday
- 18 ZZZZZ
- 19 The Invisibles (⁂)
- 20 The Bellero Shield (⁂)
- 21 The Children of Spider County
- 22 Specimen: Unknown
- 23 Second Chance
- 24 Moonstone
- 25 The Mutant
- 26 The Guests
- 27 Fun and Games
- 28 The Special One
- 29 A Feasibility Study
- 30 Production and Decay of Strange Particles
- 31 The Chameleon
- 32 The Forms of Things Unknown (⁂)
Season two
- 01 Soldier
- 02 Cold Hands, Warm Heart
- 03 Behold, Eck!
- 04 Expanding Human
- 05 Demon with a Glass Hand (⁂)
- 06 Cry of Silence
- 07 The Invisible Enemy
- 08 Wolf 359
- 09 I, Robot
- 10-11 The Inheritors (⁂)
- 12 Keeper of the Purple Twilight
- 13 The Duplicate Man
- 14 Counterweight
- 15 The Brain of Colonel Barham
- 16 The Premonition
- 17 The Probe
My attempt to categorize each episode
For now...
Personal favorites
- The Galaxy Being (visitor from Andromeda pulled in through radio transmissions)
- The Architects of Fear (building an alien for world peace)
- The Man Who Was Never Born (mutant from the future tries to prevent himself)
- Corpus Earthling (alien rock-crabs)
- The Zanti Misfits (insect prisoners expelled to Earth)
- The Invisibles (alien Puppet Master parasites taking over)
- The Bellero Shield (visitor from the realm of light)
- The Forms of Things Unknown (time-tilter messes with murderesses)
- Demon with a Glass Hand (saving the human race by escaping into the past)
- The Inheritors (surviving soldiers build spaceship, collect children)
Distinguished episodes, fan favorites
- The Sixth Finger (becoming the man of the future)
- O.B.I.T. (total surveillance)
- Nightmare (psychological war games for POWs)
- Don't Open Till Doomsday (little monster inside the wedding present)
- A Feasibility Study (neighborhood taken to another world)
Episodes I like more than I should
- The Borderland (inter-dimensional explorers)
- Controlled Experiment (comedy of Martian observation outpost)
- ZZZZZ (sexy queen bee comes to visit)
- Specimen: Unknown (killer flowers from space)
- Wolf 359 (evil spirit of replicated planet)
- The Duplicate Man (hunting the alien with a clone)
Tending to dullness
- The Hundred Days of the Dragon (face-off substitution of politicians)
- Tourist Attraction (gill-men creatures)
- The Children of Spider County (alien dad returns for his kids)
- The Special One (alien tutor)
- Expanding Human (mind-altering drugs)
- I, Robot (mechanical man on trial)
- Counterweight (test mission, who will press the panic button?)
- The Probe (plane crew trapped in an alien survey machine)
The rest, always worth a second look
- The Man with the Power (mind over matter)
- The Human Factor (arctic outpost)
- It Crawled Out of the Woodwork (trouble at the power plant)
- The Mice (alien prisoner swap)
- Second Chance (carnival spaceship is the real thing)
- Moonstone (moonbase trouble)
- The Mutant (planet of constant sun makes mind-reader)
- The Guests (old mansion: you can check in but not out)
- Fun and Games (combat sport for alien entertainment)
- Production and Decay of Strange Particles (more trouble at another power plant)
- The Chameleon (becoming an alien to infiltrate them)
- Soldier (he's not a terminator)
- Cold Hands, Warm Heart (explorer from Venus can't get warm)
- Behold, Eck! (2-dimensional visitor)
- Cry of Silence (menacing tumbleweeds)
- The Invisible Enemy (Martian sand shark)
- Keeper of the Purple Twilight (invader takes on human emotions)
- The Brain of Colonel Barham (brain in a jar)
- The Premonition (frozen time after a test pilot crashes)