The Zanti Misfits
The Outer Limits (1963)
The Zanti Misfits, directed by Leonard Horn.
First Contact is not what anyone hoped for: planet Zanti is sending its criminals to Earth and we have to manage them. No discussion and we have no choice but to cooperate.
The Zanti haven't been completely honest: what seems like a disaster and quick siege and die bug die! frenzy was just what they intended all along. We killer apes ("practiced executioners") are useful to them and we are left wondering: will there be more? Count on it.
This is a well-known episode and even those not regular fans of the series are aware of it. This is the only use of stop-motion animation in the series. It's expensive and we have just a few seconds worth, but that is effective. Quick glimpses are scary. (Later: Counterweight has stop-motion also).
And that killer-hornet sound the Zanti make: every good horror story needs an evil sound.
We do cross over from SF creature feature to actual horror: we see the Zanti crawling up Bruce Dern's arm, then cut to the HQ and pan across the faces as they listen to his terrified screams as he pleads, "Get it off me!"
As a kid I did not notice the Zanti had faces so much as their large human-like eyes, which I thought was stupid. I would reconsider now: other invertebrates like the octopus have singular eyes so insect-like aliens might also. On Blu-ray the details of their faces and fringe beards are a little goofy, but at the same time unsettling.
Our cast:
Michael Tolan -- The Enforcer (1951) -- is a journalist and historian sent to record the great event. Oddly enough, he is more aggressive than the General.
Robert F. Simon is the General. A familiar face, although I had to look up his name. As the commander he is more of a peacekeeper than we expect, aware of how little mistakes might start an interplanetary war.
Bruce Dern, early in his career, is one of the human misfits who collide with the alien misfits, a nice bit of symmetry. Dern was one of the great villains of the 1960s: everything about him was just wrong.
I did not recall Olive Deering -- Samson and Delilah (1949), Caged (1950), The Ten Commandments (1956) -- as an actress, but she adds quite a bit as Bruce Dern's fellow misfit and partner in crime. She was 18 years older than Dern and is playing a woman breaking loose from her normie life and reaching for one last outlaw fling. Her breakdown monologue stops the plot cold, but moments of serious acting were required in TV drama. Her brother was familiar 1960s face Alfred Ryder, who appeared in The Borderland episode.
Notes:
Even at that date the story has the government -- X-Files-like -- in a conspiracy to cover up the truth of UFOs and alien contact.
The makeshift HQ -- is it an old bordello? -- shows the 1960s fascination with console lights and switches, like the bomber panels in Dr. Strangelove (1964). Message: we've got technology, we can handle whatever is coming.
A clever reveal: we have no idea the spaceship is so small until Dern climbs up to it.
More symmetry: the Zantis also scream when killed.
The production makes great use of the famous Vasquez Rocks, which I will always remember as the site of Capt Kirk's battle with the Gorn in Star Trek Arena:
I thought the first use of the site in film was as "Tibet" in Werewolf of London (1935), but a commentary track says it was background for Dracula (1931). I'll have to look for that.
Director Leonard Horn returns after The Man Who Was Never Born (1963). He was a prolific TV director; this is his second of three for the series.
Photographed by John M. Nickolaus. Written and produced by Joseph Stefano. They say a lot of the first season was just his dreams and phobias, in this case fear of insects.
The Blu-ray has two commentary tracks: dry and somewhat sparse thoughts by Tim Lucas and another where Gary Gerani and Steve Mitchell relive their boyhood viewings with joy.
