THE OUTER LIMITS |
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Ray Venable - Gary Cole Tanner Brooks - Adrian Pasdar Michael Chen - Pat Morita Judy Warren - Kate Vernon Brav - James Marsden Cassie Boussard - Rachael Leigh Cook Malcolm Boussard - Lane Smith Cotter McCoy - Lou Diamond Phillips Marie Alexander - Maria Conchita Alonso Miles Davidow - C Thomas Howell Kate Girard - Amanda Tapping Scott Perkins - Jeffrey Jones Franklin Murdoch - William Atherton Hera - Julie Harris Mercer - David Keith Mr Brown- Robert Guillaume Rachel Sanders - Nicole de Boer Ford - Harry Hamlin Emmet Harley - Robert Picardo Dlavan - Rene Auberjonois Barbara Matheson - Barbara Rush Paul Nodel - Ryan Reynolds James Bowen - Adam Baldwin Samantha Elliott - Barbara Eve Harris Dara Talif - Joan Chen Brandon Grace - Ron Perlman Cecilia Fairman - Nana Visitor Mac 27 - Nicholas Lea 
Other Seasons
Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 4 Other Anthology Shows Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams Masters of Science Fiction Metal Hurlant Chronicles Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes Ray Bradbury Theater Twilight Zone(1985-1989) Twlight Zone (2019)
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CRIMINAL NATUREGenetic engineering is being used to make children the very best they can be, but there were some who, in the early days of the technology, were mutated and twisted. They are starting to fight back against their plight and one detective seems to have been targeted. This is a plotline that becomes more relevant, not less, as time passes and genetic engineering techniques forge forward in creating medical miracles and saving lives. The step from that to designer babies isn't a large one and is at the centre of ethical debate. There is nothing in this plot that seems even remotely implausible, except the development of a serum that gives superpowers for a short time, and that's just to drive the central police procedural plotline forward. The moral issues are the meat of the episode and that is enshrined in the familial relationship between cop and killer. Though it sounds like a cheesy contrivance, it enhances the subject being talked about and adds a layer of depth to the discussion. Gary Cole might not be the actor you would choose to make the most of this depth or add nuance, but he is a dependable presence at the heart of the story manages to convey much more of the conflicted nature of the character than might have been expected. As a result, this is a more shaded episode that is only ever going to end one way, but manages to hold its nerve right to that denoument. TopTHE HUNTIn a time when the hunting of animals for sport has been outlawed, three men undertake am illegal hunt with androids as their prey. What happens, though, when the androids find a way around their inhibitor chips and learn to fight back. Man is a bloodthirsty creature that thrives on the challenge of the hunt and that bloodthirsty nature will end in his undoing. That's the theme of the episode, along with hunting anything for sport is bad, something that won't go down with a sizeable portion of America's gun owners. Just to make the point even more obvious, the two older hunters are odious human beings who deserve whatever comes their way and the androids are likeable, even noble creatures. Sadly, the plot is reduced to a lot of running around in forests and the original laser blast and the twist can be seen coming from miles away, much like the prey. TopHEARTS AND MINDSA squad of marines on a distant planet are on a mission to kill alien insectoids that have infiltrated a mining operation. They have orders to kill on sight and have to 'juice' on drugs that protect them from being infected by the bugs. The question is, are they being infected with something else? This is an episode that concentrates on the military way of thinking and treats it soldiers as more than macho killing machines, though there is a measure of machismo involved. The focus on the soldiers makes it a tense and tight, even claustrophobic episode. There are some nice backdrops employed early on to create a sense of scale and quality. The characters are nicely defined without being complete caricatures and the tension between them is both palpable and believable. Less believable are the bug-like creatures, which are people in ill-fitting and unconvincing suits. They are a major letdown, considering the thought that has gone into the rest of the episode's production. The title gives away the theme of the episode right from the start, but the truth is only revealed slowly, leaving the main reveal until long into the running time. This means the final twist has to be rushed through, but it's the truth about the drugs and the enemy that is the interesting point here, not the simple and quite expected last second twist. TopIN ANOTHER LIFEA bereaved man is saved from his life at the moment when he chooses whether to kill himself or not. He finds himself in an alternate reality with other versions of himself. In this reality, his wife is still alive, but in order to get a second chance with her, he gives himself an ultimatum. A clever and literate take on quantum states and alternate universes gets horribly bogged down in a story of revenge and murder. The various versions of the 'hero' are fun variations and make the episode more entertaining than it has any right to be, but the promising and interesting opening half is badly let down by the soap opera of the second half and the wholly expected outcome. That's just disappointing. TopIN THE ZONEAn ageing fighter has one last chance to win a championship, so when he is offered a radical treatment to boost his reaction times, he readily accepts, but finds the sideffects increasing. Cheating in sport is bad. Winning isn't everything. Some sports look really, really stupid. The themes are obvious and the story barely qualifies as such. Casting Adrian Pasdar and Pat Morita adds some star wattage, but that doesn't do anything to save the episode. TopRELATIVITY THEORYAn Earth survey ship lands on an unspoiled planet with no detectable civilisation and significant mineral desposits. With big dollar signs in their eyes, they start to look around only to be jumped by aliens intelligent enough to craft traps. With half the crew dead, the military rebel against the science leader and determine to wipe out the threat. Man puts profits ahead of all other things. Money means more than the environment, indigenous peoples or loyalty to each other. Factions quickly form based on personal financial gain. No attempt is made to understand the enemy, only to wipe them out in the name of clearing the way to reape the land. It's the story of the conquistadors in South America, the white invaders in North America and the colonial dividing up of Africa. The scientist tries to stand up for what's right, but is quickly outvoted and outmanoeuvred by the military. The characters are barely sketches, but the plot doesn't need anything more than that. The final twist is sort of crowbarred in on the end just in order to have one. It doesn't stand up to too close an examination. TopJOSHA news reporter who comes into possession of footage of a man bringing a child back from the dead believes she has the story of a lifetime, but when the military get involved it becomes harder to tell exactly what that story is and who, or what, is the man at the centre of it? There isn't too much revolutionary about this story of an individual with strange powers trying to stay out of the limelight and being hounded by both the self-serving press and the paranoid military. It goes pretty much everywhere you might expect it to. What isn't expected is the metaphysical arguments that it plays with. Josh has powers, yes, but is he good or a threat? Is he an alien or an angel? Is his perhaps the face of God himself? And does any of it matter anyway, as faith is a matter of uncertainty and the certainty any one of those answers would bring would cause an existential crisis amongst humanity, a crisis that it is unlikely to survive. Heavy stuff to consider, but couched in a story that is about as unoriginal as they come. Kate Vernon attempts to anchor this as the hard-bitten reporter whose drive comes from deep-seated childhood trauma. Both shallow and deep at the same time, Josh manages to walk the tightrope and doesn't fall entirely onto either side, making it better in its ambiguity than many other episodes, but also coming off as unsatisfying all the same. TopRIGHT OF PASSAGEA small community of primitive humans are looked after by an alien they call 'Mother', but when a child is born to one young couple and Mother says it should remain with them at the obelisk instead of with its parents, the couple take it upon themselves to go into the dangerous world beyond the village barrier to reclaim it. This episode has a secret weapon in the shape of the crawlers. Snakelike creatures with fearsome bites and a sting that implants their young in a host, they are scary monsters for two young, inexperienced humans who know next to nothing about how to survive in a dangerous world. They, though, are just part of the set dressing. The plot here runs along two tracks. The first is uncertainty about what the real intentions of the aliens are towards the humans in their care (or possibly prison) and to the baby in general. Never quite knowing whether the aliens are heroes or villains keeps the audience guessing as to their intent and thus keeps the tension higher in the human/alien interactions. Secondly, there is the revelation of what has become of the human race, why the villagers are so primitive in their lifestyle and how the aliens fit into that picture. This is done slowly and certainly has a feel of THE PLANET OF THE APES about it. That though, can't be a bad thing. These two strands, and the scary presence of the crawlers, keeps audience interest peaked and enhances what could have been a bog-standard story. TopGLYPHICThe doctor of a town where all the children were killed by a cancer-like disease fights to keep his mentally-challenged daughter and comatose son alive and away from the hatred of the other townsfolk. When a new researcher arrives with new promises of a cure for the daughter, unlocked memories lead to something alien that might just have been the cause of the disease in the first place. This is an episode about the victims of its plot rather than the plot itself. Rachael Leigh Cook anchors the centre with a twitchy performance as the disturbed daughter whose brain may have been altered by both disease and alien influence, but Lane Smith gives it authenticity as the father who has been driven to the point of cynicism and despair by his inability to reapr the damage done to his children. The townsfolk are represented by some sketched in characters who have more depth than they have any right to thanks to good supporting performances. The alien plot kicks in only in the latter stages and mainly to deliver the obligatory twist, which can be seen coming. TopIDENTITY CRISISCotter is forging a new kind of soldier by having his consciousness transported temporarily into the body of a tough battle android. When sabotage makes things go wrong and his actual body is killed, he is trapped in the android with a failing connection. How is he ever going to explain this to his wife? The combination of human consciousness and artificial body is a familiar trope in science fiction and it's made even more familiar by a dull and hackneyed plot that has no surprises along the way. Having Lou Diamond Phillips and Teri Polo play the husband and wife aids matters. They rise above the material and drag the episode up to the average. The poor plot and dialogue is added to by having the prototype look like Phillips and the second prototype look like the saboteur. Why would they look different? It makes no sense. TopTHE VACCINEA cult of terrorists release a deadly plague that kills the majority of the world's population. A dozen sick people already in quarantine for an entirely different disease manage to survive until a vaccine arrives, but there is only enough for three doses. Doctors have always had to make the hard choices about who lives and who dies. That's the central dilemma of this story. It's a nice move to make one of the vaccine's instructions that it's not really suitable for children. The fact that the most likely candidates are the worst people of the group makes for drama and conflict, but it's always obvious where this is going to go and what is going to happen. When there is an armed coup, only the characters are surprised and that's because the script tells them they have to be. The final twist is such a deus ex machina resolution that it fails to impress. What does impress is the central performance by Maria Conchita Alonso, on whose shoulders the story relies. She radiates the warmth and humanity of a good person and that makes her struggle with the decision she has to make all the more real and all the more affecting. TopFEAR ITSELFFollowing a traumatic experience when he lost his sister in a fire he caused at the age of six, Bernard lives in fear, to the point where he has to live in isolation from others. A new medical procedure reduces that fear, allows him to create a relationship with his neighbour and begin to live a normal life. Then he discovers he can place terrifying images into the minds of other people and starts to remember disturbing things about the fire. A brain procedure causes mental visions and special powers. It's a trope that's been done to death in science fiction in general and has featured in this show before. This particular episode doesn't add anything new to the mix, but the actors are engaging enough to keep the audience interested. TopTHE JOININGThe last survivor of a disaster at a research facility on Venus is brought back to Earth, but held in protective quarantine whilst the truth about the disaster is ascertained. The isolation is proved justified when the man's body starts to react strangely. This is something we see from time to time in THE OUTER LIMITS - body horror. A human slowly turning into something else has been done before, but this is simply the gloopiest, slimiest, nastiest, Cronenbergiest transformation the show has yet produced. That gives what is otherwise a fairly dull and standard story an edge that it sorely needs. Without the body effects, this story wouldn't stand out at all due to a lacklustre script and some uninspired acting. The central team of C Thomas Howell, Amanda Tapping and Jeffrey Jones are fine, but struggle to make anything of the sometimes tedious dialogue. Then the body horror begins and the episode becomes much more memorable. TopTO TELL THE TRUTHWhen a scientist postulates that a solar eruption is going to wipe out the human colony on Janus V, his theory is ignored by the powers that be because of an error he made once before. The man who cries 'catastrophe' and isn't believed by those in power is the plotline of every disaster movie ever made. Throw in some dead indigenous aliens and some authority figures to match the mayor from JAWS and you have the entire plot of this story mapped out. There are no surprises and little in the way of real interest until the expected twist comes and the inevitable outcome happens. This is certainly one of the lesser episodes the show has produced. TopMARY 25A defective robot companion programme is retooled into Mary 25, a robot nanny for the children of busy parents. Facing opposition from those who remember the earlier, near fatal, consequences of bad programming, the executive in charge takes the prototype to look after his own children, much to the dismay of his abused wife and her ex-lover. This is a rare thing for the show - a straight sequel. In this case, a sequel to the very early episode Valerie 23. The robot Mary and her programming, however, are pretty much sidelined to a rather tedious love triangle involving spouse abuse. To the episode's credit, the abuse is never excused or justified and is shocking in its graphic nature and sudden onset. The twist, when it comes, is quite neat in the way is harkens back to the original episode, but it can't make up for the rather uninteresting nature of what has gone before. TopFINAL EXAMA student takes over an exam room full of his colleagues, armed with a cold fusion device and a demand that five people must be executed or he will kill five million. This is basically a hostage negotiation story just like so many others that have been told in police procedural series since the inception of television. The only new wrinkle is the weapon that is being used to threaten death and destruction. There is some debate over whether humanity can survive the increasing democratisation of science and its destructive potential. Once the genie's out of the bottle, it can't be put back and even if the genie in question is determined to destroy everything there will be someone ready to take the stopper out. Despite this, however, the story plays out in fairly standard fashion, right down to the final moments and the obvious 'twist' that is no twist at all. That said, there is some tension in the scenario and the actors commit to it to good effect and the dialogue is at least good enough to prevent the audience from rolling their eyes as the obvious developments. TopLITHIAThe commune of Lithia is an all-women enclave that has survived a deadly plague that destroyed all the men. Its delicate internal balance and relationship with other enclaves are placed in danger when a man emerges from cryosleep and wanders into town. Lusts, jealousies, ambitions and violence all emerge from the shadows when a man returns to a female society. Ergo, men are the root of all evil. It's actually refreshing to see the downfall of Eden laid at the feet of a male rather than female for a change, but the simplicity of gender-based issues and the ease with which the principles of the women crumble in the face of the man's influence undermine this. The sapphic shower scene is both unnecessary and far too leery for a story purporting to feature female empowerment. There is only one way the downward spiral is going to end. It is only what will happen to the man after that that remains open. And there is one final relationship to be revealed, though it is less shocking than intended. TopMONSTERA group of telekinetics taking part in government funded testing find themselves coerced into the assassination of murderous dictators, but unleash a force more terrifying on themselves. Open the door to the powers of the mind and who knows what those powers will do? This story is a mash-up of the kind of shady government organisation seen in FIRESTARTER and the monsters of the Id from FORBIDDEN PLANET and any monster on the loose in the secret base ever told. The early portion of the story is the more interesting as the moral ethics of the programme are played out between the mismatched characters. It then descends into a simple monster on the rampage story. The episode's secret weapon is Robert Guillaume, who is a revelation as a cold-hearted calculating villain, willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve his aims and enjoying the process. Everyone else is fine, as are the monster effects. The ending is inevitable and predictable. TopSARCOPHAGUSA driven archaeologist and her team uncover a neolithic tomb containing an alien skeleton entombed in a sarcophagus. Her husband is touched by visions of a violent past and toerhs of the team take issue with the decision not to bring in a bigger team to deal with the creature as it starts to reconstitute itself. This is a rather unexciting episode that has an alien that doesn't do much and some people who want more money and are willing to kill to get it. The main husband and wife team don't get along, so the majority of the time is spent in various people bickering. Since none of them are particularly nice, this doesn't make for exeptional television. The final twist is also sort of tacked on just for the sake of having a twist. TopNIGHTMAREThe crew of a human freighter is taken captive by a terrifying alien enemy during a bitter war. They are carrying a device of unknown purpose and the unseen aliens resort to all manner of torture, physical and mental, in order to turn the group upon each other and learn the secrets they keep. This is a scenario that has been done before and on just about every space opera show there is. This episode adds nothing new to the experience. Mouths and eyes sealed shut make for scary torture techniques, but the speed with which the crew comes unglued and the two big twists at the end are all utterly predictable. There isn't enough in the acting stakes or the characterisations to make up for that. TopPROMISED LANDOn a devastated Earth, starving humans and disgraced aliens go to war over a farm that means salvation for them both. War can be born of need, but it is perpetuated through the endless cycle of hate and vengeance. Violence begets violence. You killed mine, so I'll kill yours, and so the original causes are forgotten and a generational conflict is spawned that can only be ended when someone is willing to say 'stop' and try to find some common ground, some form of understanding. That's quite a lot to get into one story, especially a quasi-sequel (to The Camp from Season 3), which has its own baggage to resolve before it can get to the main conflict. When that conflict comes, there's lots of running and shooting, none of which is very convincing action, though the nasty anti-personal spikes are a nice touch. It is the presence of children that gives the episode some edge and provides a catalyst for the hopeful resolution. TopBALANCE OF NATUREA scientist fails to save his wife from cancer with unsanctioned cell regression therapies. A year later, he continues his experiments whilst growing closer to the his older neighbour, a woman locked in an abusive marriage. The presence of genre favourite Barbara Rush (WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) in the cast list enlivens this rather tedious story that crams some rather unbelievable science fiction into a completely unbelievable lover triangle. The moment polarity switching is mentioned, with no reason given for it, the entire rest of the story is mapped out and never deviates from the predicated path. No reason is given for why the regression process in one animal needs a balancing progression process in a completely unconnected animal. It makes little sense and it's hard to care about that anyway. TopORIGIN OF THE SPECIESA group of volunteers on a ship bound for an alien planet that is the origin on humanity's ancestors find the voyage to be even more eventful than they had expected. This is a direct sequel to last season's Double Helix. Strangely enough, it quickly disposes of the two main characters from that story to instead concentrate on the others. What follows is a sort of haunted house in space story. Explorations of the ship lead to disappearances, ghostly figures and some nicley tense moments thanks to the neat conceit of the reconfiguring interior of the ship. Young people going into strange places to suffer unseen fates, it really is fashioned on standard horror film tropes, transported into space. Going into the last quarter, however, this story is abandoned in favour of an infodump of what has been going on all along. Of course, this could all have been avoided had proper communications channels been established at the start of the flight, something the apparently all-seeing designers of the age old plan overlooked. TopPHOBOS RISINGA cataclysm that apparently destroys the Earth places the Mars bases of two rival political and military factions in a state of undeclared war. Can cooler heads prevail, or will the fear, hate and paranoia lead to even more mutually assured destruction. The whole concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), of two great powers constantly living in fear of each other with the power to wipe the other out, but only at the cost of their own total annihilation in turn, is placed into microcosm as unexpected disaster leads to suspicions that inevitably lead to conclusion jumping, prejudicial decision-making and addled thinking. The need not to lose to the enemy at any cost, even the end of the human race, overwhelms common sense thinking and the ending is inevitable. The outcome may be predictable, but the story rattles along at a good clip, the relentless pace mirroring the relentless spiral into disaster. Two headlining performances from Barbara Eve Harris and Adam Baldwin (CHUCK, FIREFLY) as the voices of paranoia and reason in a situation spiralling out of control make the most of the tight script and make this one of the better episodes the show has produced. TopBLACK BOXA veteran struggles with flashbacks to his disastrous last mission and the destroyed relationship with his family, but when a shadowy figure from his team starts to murder those he loves, he finds that there might be a whole lot more going on than he thought. This is a farily straightforward story of things not appearing to be what they seem. The reasons for this can be guessed from early on and don't come as any great surprise when they are revealed. It is therefore very hard to get worked up about the man's situation, despite the role being played by the always impressive Ron Perlman. It's well enough mounted and played, but hardly anything out of the ordinary. TopIN OUR OWN IMAGEAn android whose model is due for widespread distribution escapes from the lab and takes a secretary as hostage. As she carries out repairs under his direction, he uses a neural imager to project scenarios into her head that show the use of androids as slave labour is inevitably a disastrous idea. Yes, it's the series ending clips show and, true to form, the framing device of growing relationship between android and hostage is a pretty good one, not least for the performance from Nana Visitor (STAR TREK:DEEP SPACE NINE) as the initially terrified hostage, which anchors the story and keeps the interest up despite the annoying flashback clips. Her partner in this crime is Nicholas Lea, can't quite match her, but is certainly adequate enough. His robotic tics and movements are excellent. The ethics of slave labour and whether androids would qualify as slaves is an interesting arena of discussion that is as relevant today as it was when this story was first show and there are sufficient twists and turns in the relationship between hostage and hostage taker to make the epsiode worthwhile in itself, even without the flashback clips. Top |
