Discovering The Outer Limits (original)....

[Warped9]

I've long known of The Outer Limits (original series), but in all these years I had only seen one episode of a soldier from the future played by Michael Ansara some years ago.

Yesterday afternoon I was intrigued to pick up Volume 1 of the series and in the evening I began with watching "The Galaxy Being" starring Cliff Robertson as a radio station operator whom makes contact with an alien from another galaxy(!). I have to say I was quite impressed overall as I thought it was well executed and done on what I consider to be an adult level for the early 1960s and still holds up pretty well.

This is the kind of approach I appreciate in SF even with some scientific "gimmes" included. It's also easy to see how this and The Twilight Zone (which I'm also interested in picking up) has more in common with Star Trek TOS than with the other sci-fi being done on television of the era. This was the sensibility Roddenberry seemed to have in mind for his series.

I'm looking forward to seeing other episodes.

 

[Harvey]

I started a thread about this series a year ago (or was it even longer), but only got through the first four or five episodes. The black and white photography was always gorgeous, but I found the stories (that I saw) to be hit or miss.

http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=101235

I'd like to return to it at some point, though. Maybe MGM (or whoever owns the rights) can follow The Twilight Zone's lead and release it in HD.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I think you have some good episodes to look forward to.

 

[Piper]

Man I wish I could watch both TOL and The Twilight Zone for the first time again... You're in for a treat

 

[Warped9]

Star Trek TOS today is often called "cheap" and "campy" and "cheesy," yet often I suspect the show is being judged out of context. I think it stands up very well overall even today. But when you compare TOS to Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel, The Land Of The Giants and Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea then you really get to see what camp and cheese were when TOS was new and head and shoulders above what was being done then.

You can see the lineage of The Day The Earth Stood Still to Forbidden Planet to The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone to Star Trek.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I grew up on that series...(when they were in the rerun stage on television). Even today, they are shown late nights on cable depending on where you are.

There are a lot of them I like, so I can't really list them all...

(I do have a list of episodes I need to watch when time opens up...so I'll be able to say, 'I've seen the entire series.')

 

[Galileo7]

The black&white original OUTER LIMITS 1963-65 , like the original TWILIGHT ZONE 1959-64 are timeless...enjoy them.

 

[byron lomax]

Watched the original OL about two years back and loved it. The direction and cinematography are incredible and even border on arthouse at times. It's well grounded in science fiction, but there's a huge variety in the stories themselves, from conspiracy thriller to comedy, and even sci-fi takes on Shakespeare ("The Bellero Shield") and Freud ("Don't Open Till Doomsday"). Enjoy!

 

[Warped9]

Part of why I find myself looking back to older shows and films that I barely remember or haven't seen before is my general disappointment with more recent programming. I'm actually a little more familiar with the newer versions of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, both of which I found to be generally mediocre. I certainly never found any of it to be memorable or engaging enough to motivate me to return to see again.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Part of why I find myself looking back to older shows and films that I barely remember or haven't seen before is my general disappointment with more recent programming. I'm actually a little more familiar with the newer versions of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, both of which I found to be generally mediocre. I certainly never found any of it to be memorable or engaging enough to motivate me to return to see again.

Too, it shows which shows are generally timeless...

I can still be 'wowed' by many things I see on OL and Twilight Zone; and, I can see that with people my age and younger...

Rod Serling, black & white, weird camera angles, stories that actually made you think is what made the original TZ work. The newer versions didn't really have that, nor did many anthologies that tried to copy it.

OL, on the other hand, had Vic Perrin's voice, the 50s-like B-movie sound, as well as stories that made you think; and even though there are some in the newer versions that are interesting, the original OL had atmosphere...

Of course, you can still find an annual Twilight Zone marathon going on somewhere on a channel. As aforementioned, the original OL still comes on very early mornings on cable...

 

[scotpens]

The original Outer Limits had some excellent stories. Episodes like “O.B.I.T.” and “Nightmare” are still so timely today, 47 years later, you start to wonder if the show's creators Joseph Stefano and Leslie Stevens were clairvoyant.

Other excellent episodes: “The Man Who Was Never Born,” “The Man With the Power” (with a superb, underplayed performance by Donald Pleasance), “The Bellero Shield” (a sci-fi reworking of Macbeth), and Harlan Ellison's classic “Demon With a Glass Hand” with Robert Culp and Spock's future betrothed Arlene Martel.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The original Outer Limits is one of my all-time favorite shows. I started watching it back in the 60s when I was quite young and not only was I excited by the stories, but it was quite educational-- every episode sent me scurrying to the library about something (I can trace my love for physics to "The Production And Decay Of Strange Particles"). Like Twilight Zone, the execution of the show is stylish (and stylized) and artistic.

It's a true classic. I really hope you enjoy it.

 

[Warped9]

I just watched "The Hundred Days Of The Dragon" and I have to say it wasn't bad. The B&W film and cinematography really lent this a sense of atmosphere. The acting was very good. There was an element of predictability to the story, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Sure, the SF element was on the incidental side, but it was okay.

Next up was "The Architects of Fear." Something rather X-Files like to this episode and decades before the supposed "alien autopsy" film shown on Fox. It didn't blow me away, but it was okay. I also appreciated that the subject's wife didn't come across as the stereotypical hysteric who screamed at the drop of a hat. So far I'd have to say my experience with the series is 3-for-3.

I think it also helps to remember the context of this show and when it was made. The late '50s and early '60s was something of an optimistic time (in some respects) and not broadly touched by the apparent cynicism of today. The U.S. and Soviet space programs were just getting cranked up and there was interest in all manner of the sciences. It wasn't hard to lend a tangible sense of wonder to speculating about what could be possible and what might lay in the future. That said it's nice to see how talented writers and creators could take a nuanced approach to the subject matter.

So far, very cool!

 

[Saga]

there are some very good episodes. the previously mentioned episode with Ansara, called 'Soldier' is classic. then you have some really weird episodes, like the one with the deadly tumbleweeds.

 

[RJDiogenes]

If some episodes seem predictable, it's only because they've been ripped off... er, "homaged" ...so many times. The basic plot of "Architects Of Fear," for example, is apparent in Watchmen. And Ellison's episodes "Soldier" and "Demon With A Glass Hand" are recognizable influences on Terminator.

 

[Warped9]

I just finished watching "The Man WIth The Power." This is definately very much X-Files like and thirty years before The X-Files came into being.

Excellent acting all around. Now 4 for 4.

 

[Harvey]

I'd label THE NIGHT STALKER (both the TV movies and the short-lived series) as a much more obvious antecedent to THE X-FILES, but the influence of anthology programs such as THE OUTER LIMITS and THE TWILIGHT ZONE is certainly there.

 

[Warped9]

I'd label THE NIGHT STALKER (both the TV movies and the short-lived series) as a much more obvious antecedent to THE X-FILES, but the influence of anthology programs such as THE OUTER LIMITS and THE TWILIGHT ZONE is certainly there.

I agree, but while I recall watching The Night Stalker I don't remember much of it.

Next I watched "The Sixth Finger." This was just okay. Not really a letdown, mind you, but not really as good as the four preceding episodes. Part of what tainted it was David McCallum's overdone makeup to depict his evolution. Of course, it was meant as a visual cue to greater signify what was happening to him, but it was overdone nonetheless.

Then we have "The Man Who Was Never Born." Again with some over-the-top makeup, but a story very effectively told. Landau's makeup actually made me think of Quasimodo from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. And what a cool way to do a time travel story, with genuine consequences.

Then "O.B.I.T." which really presages the age of internet and video surveillance and the notion that Big Brother is really watching us. Excellent. 7 for 7.

If a series today started its run this strong it would be superb...and a rarity.

Also, watching these episodes is stirring new ideas for me to do more images for my Never seen TOS scenes thread I did quite some time ago.

 

[RAMA]

I've long known of The Outer Limits (original series), but in all these years I had only seen one episode of a soldier from the future played by Michael Ansara some years ago.

Yesterday afternoon I was intrigued to pick up Volume 1 of the series and in the evening I began with watching "The Galaxy Being" starring Cliff Robertson as a radio station operator whom makes contact with an alien from another galaxy(!). I have to say I was quite impressed overall as I thought it was well executed and done on what I consider to be an adult level for the early 1960s and still holds up pretty well.

This is the kind of approach I appreciate in SF even with some scientific "gimmes" included. It's also easy to see how this and The Twilight Zone (which I'm also interested in picking up) has more in common with Star Trek TOS than with the other sci-fi being done on television of the era. This was the sensibility Roddenberry seemed to have in mind for his series.

I'm looking forward to seeing other episodes.

One of my favorite series. Galaxy Being is one ofthe best first contact stories ever on TV!

 

[Python Trek]

If some episodes seem predictable, it's only because they've been ripped off... er, "homaged" ...so many times. The basic plot of "Architects Of Fear," for example, is apparent in Watchmen. And Ellison's episodes "Soldier" and "Demon With A Glass Hand" are recognizable influences on Terminator.

Well said!