Glark, I searched and I searched and I couldn't find an Outer Limits thread. If I missed it somehow, I apologize. Frankly, I hope I did: if I'm the only person in TWoP-land who's a fan of both OL series, I'm shocked.

Just to get the ball rolling, and to bring back some fond memories, here's my top three eps, two from the first series, and one from the recent revival (all descriptions from TV Tome):

Demon With A Glass Hand
b: 17-Oct-1964 w: Harlan Ellison s: Harlan Ellison d: Byron Haskin

Trent (Robert Culp), a man with no past and no memories finds himself pursued by mysterious aliens called the Kyben. He manages to trace them back to a deserted office building, where they trap him within a forcefield surrounding the building. The Kyben want Trent's hand, which is made of glass and contains an AI computer. The computer tells Trent that it is incomplete, and the Kyben have the three missing finger-elements it needs to restore his memories and let him complete his mission. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues as Trent both tries to avoid capture and regain the fingers. He also meets Consuela, a maid who is also caught in the building. The two become close, and Consuela's aid proves fortunate when Trent is shot dead! With the aid of his glass hand/computer, she manages to somehow resurrect him. In a final gambit, Trent destroys the Kyben's time mirror, completes the assembly of his hand and finds out the truth: he is an android, sent from the future with all of humanity digitally encoded and stored on a wire in his chest. The Kyben tried to wipe out Earth with a plague, and its inhabitants encoded themselves and sent Trent back to safeguard them over the centuries until the plague had run its course. Consuela is repelled by the fact that Trent is a robot, and flees. Trent is left to wander out into the night, eternally alone, waiting until the day it is time to free his masters.

# 1966 WGA Award (TV) Winner: This episode garnered Harlan Ellison a Writers Guild of America award for best writing for a TV Anthology, Any Length.


The Inheritors, Parts One and Two
b: 28-Nov-1964 w: Sam Neuman and Seeleg Lester s: Sam Neuman and Seeleg Lester and Ed Adamson d: James Goldstone

A soldier falls in Vietnam, one of four soldiers felled by bullets made from the same meteor. Miraculously, he survives long enough to be sent to the US for an operation. Adam Ballard (Robert Duvall), the Assistant to the Secretary of Science, apprises his boss of the situation. Lt. Minns survived, but now has a second brainwave pattern, much stronger than his own--just like the other three. All four experience dramatic increases in intelligence, with IQs over 200. Each has a new interest: biochemistry, metallurgy, physics and finance. And they seem to be driven to a mysterious goal, unknown even to themselves.

In Part Two, Ballard follows up on a lead from Minns' apartment: a list of names. He finds that they're all children -- special children. Minerva Gordon is blind, Danny Masters is a deaf mute, others are handicapped in various ways. He makes preparations to protect the kids from Minns, to no avail. He then sets up a series of roadblocks on the road to Wichita, where a spaceship is being built. Ballard and Minns have a confrontation at the warehouse. At first, Minns and the others are in the dark about what will happen to the children. Then the alien intelligence reveals the final explanation to Minns and he takes Ballard inside the ship. He finds that the damaged children are whole again, and well. Minns tells Ballard that the atmosphere in the ship duplicates that of the planet they'll be travelling to. And that, if taken off the ship, the children will immediately revert. He says that they will be going to a planet that had been wiped out by a catastrophe, and they would be colonizing the planet. All four of the soldiers would accompany the children. Now that the doubts about their mission have been erased, they all agree readily.


A Stitch in Time
b: 14-Jan-1996 w: Steven Barnes d: Mario Azzopardi

FBI agent Jamie Perrin (Michelle Forbes), traumatized by the death of her best friend at the hands of a serial killer, is plunged into the strangest case of her career: During the last fifty years, seventeen men throughout the country were all murdered with the same gun. This gun is traced to Dr. Theresa Givens (Amanda Plummer), a scientist who recently left a top-secret government agency. This discovery deepens the mystery because Givens was only five years old at the time of the first murder, and the gun itself hadn't even been made. While investigating further, Perrin discovers a secret that lies behind the locked door in Dr. Givens' office and learns first-hand of the temptations and dangers of undoing the evils of the past.

NOTE: Amanda Plummer won an Emmy for her apperance in this episode.

You know, that recent syndicated version really baffled me. It had plenty of talent up on the screen with B-list actors and sometimes even A-listers. And the guys writing and directing weren't slouches either. And yet, I found practically every episode to be...unsatisfying. The stories often seemed very slight and quite frequently it was a stretch to get them to cover the whole hour. And not a few times I ended up yelling at the screen when the big ending finally was revealed. So many hours of my life wasted.

Eh, who am I kidding? I had nothing better to do.

Years back, my dad discovered the original series was airing on a local station at, like, 10 PM Sundays or something. He used to order me and my brother to come watch, and after the teaser he'd say, "Oh, I remember this! This is a good one!" Which became a running joke in the family, because a lot of them? Not so good.

The one with the killer tumbleweed is particularly noteworthy. And the one where they say "Polarity... reeeeeverse" about nine million times. Oh, and the one with the aliens who stop time so that they can make ten minutes of actual footage fill a whole hour (which was done because they were behind schedule). Hee.

But a lot of them were fun, so I mock it affectionately. And I like that they kept using Robert Culp -- I think he did three different episodes? I finally saw "Demon With a Glass Hand" along with "Soldier" when Sci-Fi aired them last year; those are the ones I always heard about. Though there were some unfortunate editing decisions, so I may have to rent a DVD of "Demon."

Hey, Strega!

Yeah, the original OL could deliver a grade-Z clunker every once a while--killer tumbleweeds, stepford bee women, a cloning story with a monster attached that made the Mogatu (from Star Trek: TOS) look like a wonder of advanced makeup.

But damn, some of those 1962 OLs were incredible, some way ahead of their time. Stefano and his team really delved into the idea of political paranoia: "Nightmare" and "OBIT" predicted the society-altering strangeness of Vietnam and Watergate, respectively.

I always admired the visual style of the original OL--similar to the original TZone in its willingness to go into expressionistic B&W. That's one of the features the revival lacked. I guess the budget for the Canadian OL of the 1990s demanded that visual experimentation be kept to a minimum. It sort of became a running joke for me whenever a space expedition landed on a "forest-like" planet; I could swear I saw the same group of trees in at least six episodes.

ETA: Strega, both seasons of the 1960s OL are available on DVD. Season 2 has "Solider" and "Demon with a Glass Hand"; it also has a number of the crappier eps, but that's life.

Demon With a Glass Hand is a great example of how good writing and acting can overcome a low budget. I tried to share it with some friends, and they only laughed at the aliens in heavy makeup. Philistines. Anyway, one that made an impression on me when I was little was the one with the flower aliens in the globe/spaceships. I just saw it recently and it didn't hold up so well, though.

I had always thought that The Outer Limits was strictly a rip off of The Twilight Zone series, until I saw a few episodes of OL. While there are alot of similarities with TZ, I've gotten the impression that unlike TZ, OL has an alien, extraterrestial theme to its episodes. Then again I've only seen a handful of OL episodes.

In any case, while channel surfing, I happened to come across an OL episode that I found to be very entertaining. A newly inaugurated U.S. president was rushed to a secret military bunker because satellite surveillance had discovered an extraterrestial object heading toward earth. The object turned out to be an alien spacecraft. However, the aliens, through their bewildering actions, sent mixed signals as to their intentions. The military couldn't figure out if the aliens had friendly or hostile intent. As the aliens got closer, the president was faced with the dilemma of taking preemptive action to defend the country which would have provoked the aliens, or of doing nothing and gambling that the aliens were friendly.
And the president had no advisers of his own to rely on; he had to rely on the military advisers left over from the previous administration.

I thought the writing and acting were really good. I missed the beginning, so I didn't know what the show was. Then I realized it was The Outer Limits. I was really surprised how entertaining it was.

I don't know the name of that episode, but it was excellent and it was as good as any Twilight Zone episode that I've ever seen.

The episode was called "Trial by Fire," part of the second season of the OL revival (1995-1996). It featured long-time genre veteran Robert Foxworth as newly-elected President Charles Halsey and Diana Scarwid as his wife, Elizabeth. Since you missed it, the teaser is swift and effective: Halsey and wife are partying in his limo post-Inauguration, when they're whisked away by Secret Service into the previously top secret (to him) Bunker of Impending Doom. He's met by the former president's military advisors, who brief him on the incoming warp speed projectile...

Good episode, one of the best of the revival. Foxworth's performance was key, and the story was a bracing whiff of that good old fashioned paranoia that the 1960s OL made its reputation on.

Note: "Trial by Fire" was written by Brad Wright and directed by Jonathan Glassner, two of the main behind-the-scenes figures of the Stargate TV series. If you pay attention, you can see Teryl Rothery (Dr. Janet Frasier in Stargate) playing Janet(!) Preston.

Ah, memories...my favorite episode was "The Refuge", with Jessica Steen and James Wilder. One of the things I loved about this series was the moral at the end, which was always thought-provoking. No doubt about it, this series is way better than the "Twilight Zone" remake with Forest Whitaker.

Ah, Alan Brennert. One of the best writers for teevee in the world today. Here's the bio:

In addition to THE OUTER LIMITS, Alan Brennert has written multiple episodes of L.A. LAW (also served as producer and supervising producer), CHINA BEACH, SIMON & SIMON, THE TWILIGHT ZONE [1985-6 version, but not--unfortunately--the 2002 version] and an episode of THE DARK ROOM. Other television credits include the four hour mini-series NOT BETWEEN BROTHERS, the television movie KINDRED SPIRITS, and the pilots SOUL CATCHER, LOVE IS STRANGE, BORN FREE and OUTPOST. Additonally he has written the feature films TIME AND CHANCE, BLACKFRIAR and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. He is the recipient of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for L.A. LAW, and garnered an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, also for L.A. LAW. Additionally, he has been honored with a Golden Globe nomination, three Writer's Guild nominations and a Nebula Award (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America). Brennert has also written six books.

Wish he could have done more for the OL in its second run. Not much room on television for a science fiction writer of his caliber anymore.

I have fond memories of a classic OL, "The Man Who Was Never Born." An astronaut goes through a timewarp and arrives on a future earth that is devastated by some sort of futuristic war or disaster, and inhabited by mutant, monster-like creatures. One of them goes back with the astronaut, who dies. The mutant is able to change his appearance so that he seems human [he's played by Martin Landau]. Turns out that if he can stop a young woman of that time [Shirley Knight] from marrying her fiance, he will prevent the birth of the man who was responsible for the devastation. He is able to prevent the wedding, and falls in love with the girl himself. She loves him too; she finds out part of his secret - though not his true appearance or the reason for his mission - and insists on returning to the future with him. In the ship, he tells her the rest of the story, then confesses that in preventing her wedding he prevented his own eventual birth... He is descended from the marriage he prevented. He disappears from the ship, leaving her floating safely, but alone, towards the future they saved.

It wreaks havoc with the time travel paradox, but Martin Landau and Shirley Knight just about broke my heart.

Interesting, but schizophrenic episode. The science was virtually all nonsense, and the time paradox ending made no sense, but EMOTIONALLY, the episode resonated. Most of that was due to Landau, who hit every note of his character perfectly. One of his great early performances. (I met Landau recently, asked him a lot about Ed Wood--but looking back, I should have brought this one up as well.)

The final image has a sad, poetic beauty that outweighs the "guh? WTF?" factor.

Unfortunately I never had the chance to see the original OL. My mom tells me she used to watch it Friday nights with my Grandma. I became very fond of the more recent OL. Although I must admit I tuned out of the more sci-fi heavy episodes.

One episode really sticks out in my mind. A computer programmer loses his son, so he decides to make a new robotic son. The one scene that sticks out in my mind is when the father leaves to go to town or something and robotic son is left with the cat. Since the robotic son doesn't understand these things, he sits there and literally pets the cat to death. So the dad comes home and sees a bloody pile of fur on the son's lap.

So. fucking. creepy.

All information from TV Tome:

Episode 118 (Season 6): Simon Says

guest stars: Joel Grey, Hiro Kanagawa, Mikela J. Mikael, Cathy Weselluck, Riley DeMeyer, Tammy Pentecost, Rice Honeywell

Gideon Banks lost his wife Liz and son Simon in a horrific car accident some twenty years ago. At the time of the accident he was involved in something called the Neural Archiving Project (NAP for short). The technology was developed to create smart computers--transferring human engrams to computers. The company eventually gave up on the technology, but Gideon didn't. After years of quietly perfecting it, he built a small robot, from parts he stole from Concorde Robotics, where he now works. Zoe, Gideon's niece, discovers Gideon's secret, the robot contains actual neural engrams from the real Simon.

broadcast: 3/10/2000. writer: Scott Peters; director: Helen Shaver

ShaShaShawn, is this the one?

I haven't watched much of the original series, but I always enjoy looking at all the familiar faces when I watch the new versions. So many TV actors.

The 1960s original series was also a cornucopia of familiar faces. Just off the top of my head, I can remember seeing: Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp (x3), Donald Pleasance, Edward Mulhare, David MacCallum, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Ed Asner, James Doohan, Robert Duvall, Caroll O'Connor, Barry Morse, Martin Landau, and Eddie Albert. OL fans, feel free to write in with anyone I've forgotten...

Ooh, ooh, I wanna play too. okay, I never saw any of the original, but I did watch a number of the newer ones. My favorites are:

An older man (doctor? scientist?) and his much younger wife lost a small child. But they participate in some experiment I think involving stem cells that essentially make a clone of the kid they lost, physically at least. The wife is pregnant with the copy-baby and Dad suggests they give him the same name as the last kid, which mom thinks is sick. But soon she realizes that her and the baby are communicating via the umbillical cord and comes to the conclusion that the baby isn't just a copy, he is the kid she lost. So they can use the same name, how convenient! But then kid starts giving messages that daddy was involved in his death...

David Hyde Pierce is a scientist who is perfecting this ultimate prison program, something that is to be more humane and have a much more effective rehabilitative effect upon the prisoners. It a VR type program which pretty formualtes the worse possible scenario for the guilty, leading up to their execution (when most people really repent, I guess) after which they are removed from the program. Finding they are safe they are elated, have a new lease on life, and go out to become productive citizen, no repeat offenders here. DHP is demontrates the machine for some bigwigs, the new guinea pig being a guy proclaiming his innocence. Bigwigs ask what happens if someone innocent is sent there. DHP says innocents don't usually end up here, but if they did, they'd probly be a'ight. Mister innocent then proceeds to go batshit in the vitals department and DHP has to go after him. Dude dies anyway and DHP is arrested for murder, sent to the very prisons he deemed inhumane to begin with...

A scientist (damn, do I detect a theme?) is developing naontechnology. Hasn't been tested on people, just rats, and the board ain't giving people approval yet. Doc's lab assisstant is also his brother-in-law-to-be. But lab assisstant finds out he has cancer, and won't live a year. That's sucks, he just got a good job and is getting married to the Doc's sis. So LA injects himself with the nanotechs. They cure him, cancer's gone, YAY! But then they don't stop making improvements, installing gills so LA can breathe underwater, and bone cages around his heart, and hella craziness ensues...

There was another I wanted to mention, but I'm blanking just this second and this post is long enough, don't you think?

Ooh, "The New Breed," from season 1 of the revival. One of my favorites. I love body-alteration sci-fi stories, even though the transformations usually make my skin crawl. I still get the shivers when I think about the second pair of eyes popping open on the back of Lab Assistant's head. Yeuchhhh....

That is indeed the one, cjl. At first I wasn't too sure, but when I noticed Joel Grey's name I knew it was the one. It was a pretty great episode.

Amberosia, didn't the father also have a mistress who was pregnant? I recall her running into the wife (or spotting her) at the hospital and talking to her baby, which had the same name as the father.

I do believe she was a flunky of some sort, but she felt "teh twue wuv" for him. At the end she goes through with the procedure so she can carry dude. The were even communicating via umbillical cord. Kuh-RAY-zee!

The one thing I hated about the episodes (I only saw the new ones, can't comment on the old ones, or if this is normal with the show) was the bunch of twist endings. I'd be watching a episode, enjoying it, then *bamb* in the last 5 min, they throw in a twist when they really didn't need one.

Worse was that most of these twist ending were...how to say this...of the kind were the absolute worst outcome occurs. Where what the characters spent the first 55 min of the episode trying to prevent, occurs in the last 5 min, in fact caused by the charaters because of the twist.

Some twists are good, but a lot of them seem tacked on. Admittedly, the "oh crap" moment tends to be fun, like in "The Light Brigade" (The one with Wesley Crusher and T-1000), or the one with the mind control cell towers with DB Sweeney.

The best ones are the natural twists. Like the one with the soldiers who are taking drugs so that they see their fellow humans as hideous alien bugs. They figure out they've been duped into killing fellow humans, only to find out that their fellow humans have had the same treatment and see them as hideous bugs.

That's the advantage of an anthology series, since there's no continuity, you're free to blow up the planet, have the population mind controled, kill off the lead characters in spectacular fashion. Depending on how it's used, I either really enjoy it, or find it annoying.

ITA. I usually enjoy the bleak twist ending, because it can illustrate that an optimistic solution for the lead character was pretty much a pipe dream anyway. A good example of that was "Dead Man's Switch," where the lead was trapped in an underground bunker, ready to push the nuclear button in case of an invasion. At the end, the crisis apparently passed and his military commander told him to keep that trigger finger ready in case they need it. In reality, aliens had already destroyed the earth, and they faked the broadcast to keep him waiting down there forever...

I'm happy to say that a local station here is reairing episodes. Unfortunately I keep missing it because of American Idol. I caught a few minutes of an episode a few weeks ago. It had a few high school students trapped in their school. There was a portal or something preventing them from leaving. The funny thing about the episode was that Zachery Ty Bryan (of Home Improvement) was playing a high school jock. He has to be one of the most type-cast television actors. He's now played a high school jock on four shows that I know of (Home Improvement, Outer Limits, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Veronica Mars).

From TV Tome:

"Abduction"
Season 7, Episode 148
gs: Jesse Cadotte (Cody Phillips) Jesse Moss (Jason Stewart) Meghan Ory (Danielle Hobson) Zachery Ty Bryan (Ray Kruger) Kandyse McClure (Brianna Lake) Eric Schneider (The Alien)

An alien makes an offer to five high school students.

b: 18-Aug-2001 w: Jim Crocker d: Mario Azzopardi

Oh, I liked that one. It was heavy-handed, but I kinda like the "Alien as an angel" episodes. Like "The Conversion" with Rebecca De Mornay and the guy that played Liedecker from "Dark Angel".

I loved "The Conversion". I tuned in because of Rebecca de Mornay and Frank Whaley, and I figured it out early on, or thought I did, and then it went into a direction I had never imagined and was so beautiful and redemptive... ::sighs with happiness::

With the exception of two-part episodes, did characters ever return? Or were they at least directly refrenced somehow in different episodes? TV Tome lists Alyssa Milano as playing Hannah Valesic in both 1.15 The New Breed and 1.17 Caught in the Act. I wonder if it's just a mistake on TV Tome's part.

Anyway, I just had a vivid memory of an episode. Some girl was getting these visions or messages, so she started writing them down. Basically it was like 'X O X O' over and over again. Then someone (a janitor maybe?) gave her some sort of personal organizer and told her to type the messages on that. Then he printed them off and they taped the pages onto the wall. They then used a pen to follow all the Xs, sort of like connect-the-dots, and it made a picture of an alien holding hands with a human. Anyone remember that episode?

ETA. I think the episode might be 1.18 The Message.

I think there were two or three "sequel" episodes in the 1990s OL, the most notable with Amanda Plummer reprising her Emmy-winning role as time-traveling physicist Teresa Givens (S2's "A Stitch In Time") in the two-part "Final Appeal" that wrapped up S6.

I recall another "continuation," where a woman who had previously led the remaining humans in a forced labor camp against their android overseers was trying to cope with living on a poisoned Earth.

That's definitely an error. New Breed is, IIRC, the one with the nanobots putting eyes into the back of a guy's head ... and Alyssa is not in that one.

As for "sequels", there was a pseudo-sequel one involving Robert Patrick, aka T-1000. There was an episode where he's a captured soldier, being interrogated by aliens. Then, "The Light Brigade", with Wil Wheaton and Robert Patrick, takes place in the same world, following the events of that previous episode.

One thing I always avoid on "Outer Limits", though, are the clip episodes. They're so inane. The series finale one was especially bad.

Not to mention an infuriating waste of talent. The clip show at the end of S1 ("Voice of Reason") had Gordon Clapp and Daniel J. Travanti (Medavoy! Capt. Furillo!) in absolutely meaningless roles. It was Bochco Veteran abuse. But that's nothing compared to the aforementioned "Final Appeal," which brought back Amanda Plummer and threw in Charleton Heston, Hal Holbrook, Cicely Tyson, Swoosie Kurtz, Kelly McGillis, Robert Loggia, Wallace Langham, and Michael Moriarty--and they spent two hours debating the relative moral uses of technology in other episodes.

The Outer Limits never could hold a candle to the Twilight Zone. I've been disappointed by the new OL time and time again but once in a while they have a great episode that keeps me coming back for more. I'm a straight-up sucker for these high-concept stories (end of the world, alien invasion, etc.) and can't get them anywhere else currently.

I assume the only reason such talent appears is because one could film a clip show while on layover in Vancouver.

I normally hate clip shows of all kind, but the ones on OL were the worst.

As someone upthread mentioned, one of the great things about this show was that there was no continuity (I can't remeber how many eps I watch gleefully awaiting the destruction of the Earth). And then they go and try to manufacture some kind of continuity in an episode that by its nature is going to have a lot of WTF? moments.

I'm going to give this assertion a "Yes, but...."

When it comes to the classic Zones--the first three seasons (from 1959-1961) of the Serling version--there was nothing like it. Ever. Classic scripts, great acting, and gorgeous B&W cinematography you could eat with a spoon. More than essential TV--myths for the modern age. (And I'd even count the first season-and-a-half of the 1986-7 version in with that elite company.)

The 1963-4 OL could never quite measure up to its fantastical brother. Scripts too irregular, SFX too shoddy, acting too inconsistent. There was always the difference in styles to consider, as well. TZ was more fantasy and fable; OL was pure SF most of the time, and about half of the time, the monster was "other," to be hunted and destroyed. Bo-ring.

But there were times when OL flipped its formula and made its monster the fears and failings of humanity, and man, that's when they REALLY nailed it. The two Harlan Ellison eps. The Inheritors. Architects of Fear. A Feasibility Study. OBIT. Nightmare. With one hour to build the suspense and delve into the characters, Stefano and Co. could do a number on the audience with these babies. The best of the early OLs don't quite reach the plateau of modern myth as the classic Zones, but they're close.

Now let's look at the other end of the telescope. Season 5 of the original Zone (with the exception of the first ten eps). The late 80s syndicated Zone. The 2002 Zone. Crap on a stick, kids. (Babylon 5 freaks may rush to defend their hero, JMS, but his work in the 80s Zone was substandard.) Meanwhile, the 1990s OL? Good to very good almost every week. Very few crap episodes, and most of those in the later seasons. Very few eps in the stratosphere, but they did hit those heights at least twice--with "Double Helix" starring Ron Rifkin and the astounding "Stitch in Time" with Michelle Forbes and Amanda Plummer.

So yes, the best of OL couldn't touch the best of the Zone. But the Zone sank to levels that would drive an SF fan to despair.

I'm just reading this thread because the other day stuck in a hotel I saw an episode of this show for the very first time. It was hilarious! I'm sure it was not meant to be! But I thoroughly enjoyed the camp. It starred Mark Hamill (I think, it's sad that sometimes I'm no longer sure it's him) in love with a coma patient, and a machine called the "Cave" which falls in love with him. It was so predictable that the best parts were how dramatically slow Mark's character was. Even after he killed off the woman and it was obvious how it had happened, he still turned to the computer image of her and said deliberately, "CAVE. What. are. you. saying?"

I'm very curious about the description of the David Hyde Pierce one. Googling only turned up the minor detail of the title, "The Sentance." What actually happened to the prisoner who was proclaiming his innocence, just bad reaction to what he was seeing in VR, enough to cause death?

I won't spoil the episode for you (although I figured the twist inside of five minutes), but the main flaw in DHP's invention is that the VR environment is potentially destructive if the person believes he's innocent--not "protests he's innocent, but in the back of his mind knows he's guilty"--truly innocent. (I always thought that would screw up any realistic application, because sociopaths never believe they're guilty anyway.)

DHP gives a solid performance, but the episode itself isn't much--on the same level as the Hammill ep (yes, it was Mark), I guess.

Hmm. I can't really understand why that belief would mess up the equipment. Guess I will have to wait for the cycle to repeat....if I can even remember, I'm not a fan of the show, just found that description interesting.

I just watched a great mini Outer Limits marathon on Sci Fi this morning and afternoon. I clicked on in the middle of an episode, had no idea what I was watching, but was hooked! It was the Season 3 episode where a group of humans have been enslaved by machines for over a century in an old outpost that had been abandoned by central command. It was riveting and I was glued to the couch for the rest of the morning and afternoon. I'm an Outer Limits junkie now.

Although the plots remain solid, the bizarre looking aliens make the original episodes hard to watch today. Oh well, I guess they weren't thinking about how the episodes would hold up 30 years after the first airing. My favorite episode was and still is The Sixth Finger with David McCallum.

I like both the Outer Limits and the Twilight Zone. There is usually more misery dished out in the Zone whereas the Outer Limits hopes you'll do some more thinking about your surroundings.

putigger did the SciFi Channel show the sequel to that episode you mentioned? That's a good one as well.

I think the Outer Limits clip shows are hilarious. The thought that all of these events could take place in one reality is just loony. But you gotta think it had to be fun to try an make them fit. Fortunately, I don't let them detract from my enjoyment of the individual episodes. I never watch an episode and wonder how it works with any other episode, except of course, those rare eps that are supposed to work together, like time traveler fixer messer upper Prentice. Or The Camp and Promised Land that I already mentioned.

There's a sequel? Nope. Don't I wish though.

Season 3's "The Camp" was followed up the next year by "Promised Land" (starring Rene Auberjonois).

I didn't like the clip shows. What I liked best about this show was the stand alone-ness of the eps. I could see from a writer's point of view it could be fun to make all those eps part of the same reality but as a viewer I just didn't like them all that much.

Saw 'Patient Zero' and was most impressed by the characters and acting. I liked how Beckett went from being an intensely focussed killing machine who didn't care one bit about the doctor he was first sent back to assisinate- merely considered him the source of this horrible plague who needed to be eradicated so humanity in the future could survive. Then when he went back for Amy, Beckett started to falter in his mission a bit- seeing that she was a kind, helpful lady who had recently lost her husband- and was due to be a mother herself. Then Beckett decided instead of killing her (and the doc) to merely keep them apart so the strain couldn't mutate. Much to kill someone who one genuinely cares for instead of considering to be a mere plague incubator! Lastly, though, his comrade in arms told Beckett that he was the one who'd come into contact with all three sources so he was Patient Zero so it was the ultimate turnaround to let himself be sacrificed to save humanity- even though this meant that he'd never see his own wife and daughter again (who'd died from the plague)! And what a nightmare world that plague had turned things into- with dying victims being torn away from their families by commandos in sterile suits. Although the series did quite a few plague eps, this one stood apart from the rest for the writing and acting!

Heh, I caught the tail-end of an episode last night on sci-fi, and it was riveting. I never saw this before when it was on Showtime because I didn’t have premium cable, and I only vaguely remember the 1960’s show.

The episode last night was about aliens arriving and making first contact by sending a garbled message that no one understood, resulting in the US and Russia launching nukes against them. At the end, it turns out that the aliens sent a message of peace, which was only interpreted ten seconds before Washington and Moscow were blown to bits by the aliens.

I guess for once, someone actually did have weapons of mass destruction!

Anyway, I don’t know if the other episodes are worth checking out, but this one seemed pretty good.

The ep was called "Trial by Fire." See p.1 of this thread for details.

"Trial by Fire" was probably my favorite Outer Limits episodes (well with the exception with the one with Natasha Henstridge and the one with Alyssa Milano but that's for a another day...)

Though I do get a chuckle that the episode does seem to have the standard alien invasion cast of characters. There's the unsure President, his scared wife, the hawkish military man who wants to whoop E.T.s ass, and the scientist who thinks we should all be friends. Still a pretty good episode, and I always end up getting chills from the ending.

Hi,

Check out this site:

www.outerlimits.atw.hu

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