The Twilight Zone v The Outer Limits

[Gotham Central]

Of the two great scifi anthology series which do you prefer?

The Twilight Zone is the one that started it all and you just can't beat Rod Serling's writing and wit.

That said, The Outer Limits is closer to pure science fiction where as TZ tended to do a mix of scifi and fantasy.

Though TZ was more successful during its original run, the revival of The Outer Limits was more successful than either of the attempts at reviving TZ (Though the "New" Twilight Zone from the 80's did develop its own following)

 

[Klaus]

I've not seen enough of OL to be a true judge, but I have seen a lot of TZ... I love it but I do think it has the widest range of good and bad of any show I've ever seen. The best Zones are among the finest things ever done in the medium, and I wouldn't force war criminals to watch the bad ones on humanitarian grounds. But the heights make the depths worthwhile IMHO.

 

[hyzmarca]

Of the two great scifi anthology series which do you prefer?

The Twilight Zone is the one that started it all and you just can't beat Rod Serling's writing and wit.

That said, The Outer Limits is closer to pure science fiction where as TZ tended to do a mix of scifi and fantasy.

Though TZ was more successful during its original run, the revival of The Outer Limits was more successful than either of the attempts at reviving TZ (Though the "New" Twilight Zone from the 80's did develop its own following)

The Twilight Zone had a bunch of stupid plots for the sole purpose of introducing a moralistic twist ending. The Outer Limits, on the other hand, had a bunch of plots for the purpose of introducing a needlessly cruel twist ending, but none of them were particularly stupid.

The Outer Limits was always more consistent than The Twilight Zone. The quality of The Outer Limits never dipped into total abysmality, while The Twilight Zone's quality did far too often. On the other hand, while The Twilight Zone dipped far lower than The Outer Limits ever did, it also reached far higher. At it's best, it hit high notes that The Outer Limits rarely even approached. But it's best was very very rare compared to the medicore and just plain awful.

In the end, it's a wash. Twilight Zone always had more potential, but rarely use it to the fullest. The Outer Limits, on the other hand, stayed it's steady course to the very end.

 

[KB24]

The original Twilight Zone is awesome for its thought and genre blending. The original Outer Limits was too brief and a bit of the same. The new Outer Limits, however, wasn't bound by mid century restrictions, and adds a good bit of spice to its thought. There's plenty off it, too. What 10 seasons of hour length eps? The handful of Twilight Zone upstarts don't compare to the new Outer Limits. Amazing Stories and Tales from the Darkside are worthy, I must say. And Night Gallery, too.

 

[Mistral]

Twilight Zone was less about the "twist" and more about ordinary people facing out-of-the-box situations while OL just went the straight Scifi route-with many of their episodes being direct adaptations of published short stories. TZ all of the way.

 

[QuasarVM]

I always preferred Outer Limits.

I love Joseph Stephano's writing style.

Great stuff!

However, when Twilight Zone was good...it was REAL good!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"Twilight Zone." They're both great, though.

 

[FordSVT]

The original Twilight Zone is awesome for its thought and genre blending. The original Outer Limits was too brief and a bit of the same. The new Outer Limits, however, wasn't bound by mid century restrictions, and adds a good bit of spice to its thought. There's plenty off it, too. What 10 seasons of hour length eps? The handful of Twilight Zone upstarts don't compare to the new Outer Limits. Amazing Stories and Tales from the Darkside are worthy, I must say. And Night Gallery, too.

I loved Amazing Stories when I was a kid. It had the first CG television intro and I always thought that was so awesome, especially the knight who comes out swinging his sword.

Hey, I was like 8!

 

[Spider]

Of the two original versions, I prefer The Outer Limits, but not by a whole lot. I just love them both.

Of the later remakes, The Outer Limits was far and away the best.

 

[Gojirob]

I treasure even the worst original TZ (except for that one about the horse-riding woman trying to warn her younger self), while 60's OL was like Mace Windu - skirting the dark side to make the light shine brighter.

80's TZ had some flat clunkers, esp. that syndie relaunch, but when it reached and used icons TZ-60's couldn't use, like Elvis or JFK, it worked, and I liked the one where the past-life psychic found a world where she could help people move on from those lives.

2000's TZ? Uggh? I could never ever be scared of/by Forest Whittaker, and eps like the opener, wherein a mildly rebellious teen suffers a fate right out of Sopranos...not good, and sadly indicative. The one good point - the 'Its A Good Life' sequel - still fails for me, since I cannot see Anthony Fremont growing up with anyone else left alive.

New OL? Generally very good, but too many plots that involved holding out false hope for the heroes left me flat. Even the extremely clever compilation ep, tying any number of plots together, had a moral that made me go 'Huh?'. Miles more consistent than the later TZ's, though.

 

[FordSVT]

New OL? Generally very good, but too many plots that involved holding out false hope for the heroes left me flat. Even the extremely clever compilation ep, tying any number of plots together, had a moral that made me go 'Huh?'. Miles more consistent than the later TZ's, though.

Too many plots involving "misunderstanding" or "misunderestimating" an alien force that ends up killing everyone at the end of the show due to what amounts as an accident. And lots of supposedly high and mighty aliens who are so concerned about our supposed immorality that they'd commit genocide against us.

And that episode that tried to tie all of the various stories that were intended to have NO relationship to one another into a cohesive alien invasion plot was utterly stupid. Just a bad idea, didn't work, made no sense. It's an anthology show, not an arc based series, and they shouldn't have tried to force it to be one with that episode. I do understand it was the standard cheap-ass clip show to save money but still.....

 

[Norrin Radd]

The new Outer Limits was boatloads of awesome.

 

[Klaus]

The 80s version of the Zone [The Old New Twilight Zone, as I call it ] did do a version of Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star" as an Xmas ep, and even had Fritz Weaver for an old TZ connection IIRC.

 

[Admiral2]

Of the two great scifi anthology series which do you prefer?

TZ, no question.

 

[Aquehonga]

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” was the “one that started it all”, not Mr. Serling's TZ.

Prior to to BOTH the TZ & TOL, & separate from AHP, were many fine anthology series.IE: Science Fiction Theater. Playhouse 90

There were many good anthologies on the air concurrent with TOL & TZ. IE: One Step Beyond, Thriller, What if?, etc.

And alot of anthologies since then too of varying degrees of satisfaction: Night Gallery, Tales From The Darkside, 80's TZ & AHP, 90's TOL, Monsters, 00's TZ, Night Visions {inappropriately hosted by Hank Rollins}

For the record I like TZ & TOL equally

 

[TGTheodore]

The originals? Liked them both but TZ was much more literate while OL was generally creepier and scarier (in good ways).

Give me literate anytime.

--Ted

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Too many plots involving "misunderstanding" or "misunderestimating" an alien force that ends up killing everyone at the end of the show due to what amounts as an accident. And lots of supposedly high and mighty aliens who are so concerned about our supposed immorality that they'd commit genocide against us

A mate and I picked up on that soon into the first season's run, it got to be a bit of a piss take after a while really.

 

[auntiehill]

I'd have to say, for the original series, The Twilight Zone beats them all. It really showed the variety and depth of storytelling that could be possible on television. The actors, the scripts, the themes....it's a "landmark" program.

 

[Gojirob]

New OL? Generally very good, but too many plots that involved holding out false hope for the heroes left me flat. Even the extremely clever compilation ep, tying any number of plots together, had a moral that made me go 'Huh?'. Miles more consistent than the later TZ's, though.

Too many plots involving "misunderstanding" or "misunderestimating" an alien force that ends up killing everyone at the end of the show due to what amounts as an accident. And lots of supposedly high and mighty aliens who are so concerned about our supposed immorality that they'd commit genocide against us.

And that episode that tried to tie all of the various stories that were intended to have NO relationship to one another into a cohesive alien invasion plot was utterly stupid. Just a bad idea, didn't work, made no sense. It's an anthology show, not an arc based series, and they shouldn't have tried to force it to be one with that episode. I do understand it was the standard cheap-ass clip show to save money but still.....

I once used the closing quote the antagonist used in that ep in a fic wherein Redjac wrote a letter to HG Wells, revealing that he had once been the mortal Jack The Ripper that Wells faced in 'Time After Time'.

I still like that ep's basic premise, and the scope of its ambition. The Supreme Court justices in it were a who's who of old-school SF goodness, including Charlton Heston, appropriately as the CJ. But it was very obvious that they shoehorned the eps (some of which were definite world-enders) together.

Way too many eps suffered from 'Astronaut's Wife' syndrome, wherein the evil/unknown force that seemed invincible throughout the beginning, middle and climax, ended up being...invincible! Wow, watta twist! It got so bad that, when I saw this one about a couple who had the first mutation-free child in a long time after a war, I was certain of a bad end. I thought sure the haven they had reached would turn out to be the testing lab for the evil scientists or somesuch. Nope. Exactly as it appeared, and I wonder how such got through. It got almost as bad as Marvel's 'Dark What If's' (ignoring the fact that the 90's series had always been about 70-30 on that anyway) or some Tomb Of Dracula's (BLAH! Now you're a vampire--I kidnapped her and she's a vampire--you I'll torment, and make your child a vampire! You I'll just kill--damn I'm noble)

 

[RJDiogenes]

Objectively, I have no preference-- both are among the best shows ever on TV. Personally, I have a preference for Outer Limits, since SF is my preferred genre.