Discovering The Outer Limits (original)....

[Warped9]

"Don't Open Until Doomsday." This was one creepy episode! I kept wondering what the hell was up with that box and the creature inside it. The woman in the wheelchair creeped me out and the painted up woman listening to her flapper music while pining and waiting for her lost groom creeped me out.

And John Hoyt to boot. And isn't this the second episode with the guy who'll play Lawrence Marvick? I'm lovin' this parade of future TOS actors.

Cool.

 

[Saga]

I'm lovin' this parade of future TOS actors.

Cool.

wait till I, Robot.

 

[Warped9]

I've never liked insects---they've always made me uneasy. So it's not surprising that "Zzzzz" creeped me out. The notion that an oversized bee in human guise wants to mate with a human male is just too bizarre to imagine or even contemplate. Yeesh!

 

[Warped9]

"The Invisibles" is a riff on Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and a bad one at that. Interesting, too, because I'd never seen "Commissioner Gordon" in anything but his role in Adam West's Batman. I did like the little crab like aliens.

"The Bellero Shield" is one freaky story with Sally Kellerman finally going off the deep end. Not bad.

I love the B&W photography in this show. It really adds to the atmosphere. I also like that it wasn't afraid to play with big ideas even though the show was really limited in how to depict the ideas. Watching this I get the sense that in some respects sci-fi on television and in film really hasn't evolved that much. And many of these episodes could easily serve as the basis for a feature film.

Another little thing I've noticed and appreciate is how many sound f/x are familiar and can also be found later in TOS.

 

[Warped9]

"The Children Of Spider County." This was just an okay episode although it felt rather X-Files like. I just didn't find it engaging and compelling enough to care about what was happening. The alien makeup was also a little too cliche and comical.

"Specimen: Unknown." An alien invasion by a nonsentient life form: a plant. This was actually kind of interesting as I wondered what was going on. I also couldn't help the visual similarities with the TOS episode "This Side Of Paradise" with its spore spewing plants.

"Second Chance." At first I thought it was rather amusing---an amusement park spacecraft turns out to be the real thing---because it reminded me of the same thing in Men In Black (you gotta wonder where they got the idea ). Then of course the twist because people are being abducted for a noble purpose rather than the old cliche of humans as slaves or experimentation. All in all I rather liked this as different people reacted each in their own way to the situation.

 

[Warped9]

"Moonstone." I rather liked this and I again applaud them for trying to depict an alien life form beyond yet another humanoid. There wasn't anything mind blowing about it, but I liked how it was done.

"The Mutant" made me think of TOS' Gary Mitchell in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." That said I tried to keep myself from thinking about some of the sloppy science and overdone makeup again to keep focused on what was happening. Although this OL episode predates TOS' take on it I think WNMHGB does a much better job with the story.

In like manner I believe "Fun And Games" is reputedly the inspiration for TOS' "Arena," but while I think it was conceptually interesting I also found it quite plodding and flat in places. Overall I think "Arena" was a much better execution of the idea.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Specimen: Unknown" and "Fun And Games" are two of my favorites. I especially like the guy who played the lead in "Fun And Games."

 

[Warped9]

"The Special One." This was a little unexpected. An alien gets more than he bargained for when he tries to recruit unusually bright children as a prelude to invasion. I found it a little plodding in spots, but overal it was rather interesting.

One thing that I find amusing with these episodes is how many ordinary early '60s Americans seem so nonchalant upon meeting bizarre aliens, particularly in a world where so many of the population were terrified of commies.

 

[Warped9]

"The Guests." This was weird and I have to say I thought it dragged. I admit it took me awhile to figure out why everyone was a prisoner or permanent guest---because it was the only way they could remain alive. The ending made me think of "The Cage" and I do wonder if Roddenberry could have been influenced even a little by this story.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'm not sure what the timeframe was. "The Cage" may have been in some stage of production at that time. If not, it probably was an influence; OL was a big deal then, at least to SF fans.

 

[Warped9]

In "The Guests" when Tess finally leaves the boundaries of the house she suddenly loses her illusion of youth and beauty, dies and dissolves to dust. Okay that's more drastic than what happens to Vina in "The Cage" when the Talosians reveal her illusion of youth, but it's awfully similar in principle.

 

[stj]

It reminded me of the end of the Frank Capra Lost Horizon.

 

[Christopher]

It's generally unwise to assume that if two TV episodes or movies coming out close together have similarities, then one must have been influenced by the other. It's almost always the case that both are drawing on earlier antecedents. Stories about illusory prisons, let alone illusions of youth and beauty, have been around for centuries.

And it is very, very commonplace for different film or TV writers to come up with similar stories totally independently of each other. Any time you pitch to a TV series, the most common reason for getting a story rejected is, "We're already doing something like that." Different people come up with the same stories all the time. It's impossible not to, because there are only so many stories out there. Particularly if those different writers are operating within the same genre or the same series; the more limitations you put on them, the more inevitable it becomes that they'll independently arrive at similar ideas. So there's just no sense in assuming that similarity is evidence of imitation.

 

[Noname Given]

In "The Guests" when Tess finally leaves the boundaries of the house she suddenly loses her illusion of youth and beauty, dies and dissolves to dust. Okay that's more drastic than what happens to Vina in "The Cage" when the Talosians reveal her illusion of youth, but it's awfully similar in principle.

Honestly, I don't think so. Vina knows full well what her actual condition is because when Pike asks her to beam back to the ship, she says outright, "I can't go with you." BECAUSE she knows her appearance is an illusion.

Tess is either in denial, is or really is unaware of the actual situation she's in, with regard to leaving the house at the end; so it's honestly not similar from a character/story perspective.

 

[Warped9]

^^ I disagree. I strongly got the impression that Tess knew what was waiting for her.

 

[Warped9]

"A Feasibility Study." Ordinary people are kidnapped by an alien race to determine the feasibility of using the entire human race as a work force. But these ordinary people decide to resist in their own way to save the rest of humanity. This was an interesting experience to watch and in the end it spoke to the potential nobility of the common man. Not bad.

"Production And Decay Of Strange Particles." An scientist's experiment unleashes a lethal force which he then tries to contain and reverse. I'm not sure what to make of this one. It did speak of humanity taking risks playing with unknown forces, but also of our capacity to solve the problem...hopefully. It also has a bit part by Leonard Nimoy.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^^
I understand they remade 'Feasibility Study' for the recent Outer Limits....(IIRC, David McCallum was in that version).

 

[Harvey]

The AV Club just posted a feature about "The Man Who Was Never Born" if anyone is interested. I haven't read it yet, but here it is: http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-outer-limits-the-man-who-was-never-born,46589/

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Production And Decay Of Strange Particles" is responsible for my interest in physics. Outer Limits, Star Trek et al used to often send me running up to the library to find out what they were talking about, and this episode was one of the most fascinating for me. I've been hooked on the subatomic world ever since.

 

[Warped9]

"Chameleon." An Intelligence agent is modified to infiltrate the crew of an alien spacecraft only he risks going native and defecting. An interesting story with Robert Duvall as the agent. I've never seen Duvall in anything from the '60s so this was interesting. Not bad, but the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

"The Forms Of Things Unknown." This was very weird as two women conspire to murder a man intent on extortion. Starring Robert McCallum and Barbara Rush. McCullum is an oddball who can affect time and resurrect the dead...much to the unease and horror of two murderers. I'm not really sure what to make of this episode---it's just weird.

I've now finished the first two volumes of this series and my assessment is that this was a generally good to first-rate show. There are some awesome episodes in the bunch and the rest are varying degrees of interesting and decent depending on your tastes. But not one of them has been a stinker so far.