THE OUTER LIMITS |
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Control Voice - Kevin Conway Allison Channing - Molly Ringwald Cord Van Owen - Stacy Keach Donald Finley - John DeLancie Sid Camden - Adam Goldberg Deb Clement - Christina Cox Gideon Banks - Joel Grey Tom Seymour - Tate Donovan Edward Normandy - Victor Gerber Joe Walker - Jack Klugman Wyndom Brody - Bruce Boxleitner The Stranger - CCH Pounder Virgil Nygard - Corbin Bernsen Ira Merit - Keith David Scott Bowman - DB Sweeney Ezra Burnham - Gary Busey Serena - Margot Kidder Angus Devine - Meatloaf Harry Longworth - Judd Nelson Zach Henniger - Joseph Gordon-Levitt Theresa Givens - Amanda Plummer Gretchen Parkhurst - Cicely Tyson Kendall Woods - Swoosie Kurtz Nicole Whitley -Kelly McGillis Earl Clayton - Robert Loggia Wallace Gannon - Michael Moriarty Oliver Harbison - Hal Holbrook Haden Wainwright - Charlton Heston 
Other Seasons
Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 7 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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JUDGMENT DAYJudgement Day is a reality TV show that allows the relatives of murder victims hunt down the perpetrators of the crime and excecute them live on television. This angry satire on the state of reality television is a reworking of the Arnold Schwarzenegger firlm THE RUNNING MAN, swapping an arena and trained network killers for bereaved relatives. The cocky unlikeably presenter of the film is replaced by a cocky unlikeable producer and there's a exec who hates the way the new show is dragging down network, and television in general, which hardly seems likely considering how ratings drive revenue and we have seen a steady eroding of what used to be called standards. The only truly surprising thing about the show being presented here is that it hasn't happened yet. Rather than the chase, the story concentrates on the hunted man's attempts to prove his innocence, always managing to be one step ahead of the programme -makers. The initial presentation of the show within a show seems spot on, but you have to wonder how the makers would manage to maintain the audience interest once the pursuer says she's just going home to wait for someone to call in the runner's location. There is enough going on in terms of plot and mystery to keep the OUTER LIMITSaudience's interest, though the final outcome seems inevitable. TopTHE GUNA convict released from prison is sold a gun at a bargain price and uses it to kill his wife. The gun instantly fuses to his hand and starts to turn him into a monster. The production design team have certainly seen VIDEODROME as the gun in this episode bears a strong resemblance to the one in that film. There, though, all resemblance ends. This is a heavy-handed (no pun intended) indictment of gun culture. The use of this weapon places the user at the mercy of that weapon, in this case literally. The gun makes the convict feel powerful and separates him from compassion and empathy. That's certainly an argument the gun control lobby won't have too much problem with. The failing relationship between a father and daughter gives enought depth to attact an actor of Stacy Keach's stature, but doesnt' actually give him that much to do. In fact, it is John DeLancie, as the seller of the gun, who makes the bigger impression. Unfortunately, it's not enough to raise the episode above the mediocre. TopSKIN DEEPSid is kind of goofy-looking, but a nice enough guy. He gets a chance to test drive an image enhancer that allows him to take on the appearance of his much better-looking colleague Chad. It's what's on the inside that counts; that's what we tell our children. It's not the whole story, though, and that's what this episode is all about. How we look affects how people treat us and that, in turn, affects how we feel and think and act towards others. It's a cliche that the pretty people are arrogant and shallow and the less attractive are nicer, kinder people, but would a change in looks affect the inner person? Would suddenly becoming more attractive make us more confident and selfish. Would a disfigurement make us more tolerant and thoughtful of others? The problem here is that Sid isn't a nice character in either version of himself. At no point is the audience given the opportunity to really root for him because his actions are pretty awful right from the start and jsut continue on a downward spiral. Sid doesn't become awful because he looks different, his new looks just give him the opportunity to let the awful side of his personality out more successfully. That muddles the point the story is trying to make and it doesn't help matters by casting the objectively attractive Christina Cox as Sid's supposedly plain best friend. TopMANIFEST DESTINYA transport ship picks up a distress signal from a military vessel and docks in order to investigate. They find an initially empty vessel with no sign of what happened until the engineering section is found smeared with blood and hints the captain went insane and slaughtered his crew. Can they avoid falling foul of a similar fate? A cheap version of ALIEN, with a monster loose on the ship and fear running rampant, manages to keep enough tension going in the early stages where the audience has no more idea what's going on than the exploring crew, and then it morphs into a more paranoid tale as the crew's nerves shred and they turn upon each other. The pace doesn't let up and that covers over the cracks in the fairly average acting levels. The first-person filming gimmick also becomes tired very quickly. At least the source of all the problems is satisfying, having been introduced dismissively early on. The twist, though, feels very tacked on. TopBREAKING POINTA scientist on the verge of being fired uses his time travel device to go forward in time two days and sees his nearly estranged wife murdered. Frantic, and suffering from side effects of the temporal displacement, he struggles to find anyone willing to believe him. Will he be able to change the past, or is time immutable? The mechanics of time travel take a back seat to a thoroughly tedious story of a failing marriage. It really doesn't help that the main protagonist of all this is a generally unlikeable individual and so doesn't engender a lot of sympathy from the audience along the way. Only the final twist, with its comment on the immutability of the past comes with any great satisfaction. TopTHE BEHOLDERA blind man is given a revolutionary treatment that allows him to see again, but he starts to see images of a woman with pale skin and red eyes, images nobody else can see. Are these hallucinations from sensory overload or a sign that he can now see beyond normal limits? The idea of restoring a sense and finding there is more there than before is a common theme on THE OUTER LIMITS and this episode doesn't add a lot to the subgenre. Quite apart from the silly nature of the visions (woman in diaphanous gown constantly being blown by unseen winds), the speed with which the protagonist switches from abject terror to sexual congress is absurd. Then, the inevitable shady government steps in and the man must make the choice between his sight or his love. It's all pretty predictable, overly flighty and without weight. TopSEEDS OF DESTRUCTIONA town where genetically modified crops are being tested suffers a rash of body mutations. The local vet teams up with the doctor to investigate the cause. This is more of an investigation procedural story than science fiction. Take away the fact that there are genetically modified plants involved and humans are developing body horror mutilations (and there are some gloopy medical effects early on) and this could be any cop show. A rather dull love triangle doesn't help matters and the final showdown with the wrongdoers is laughable. TopSIMON SAYSGideon Banks loses his somewhat demanding child at an early age. Sometime later, he starts building a robot child with the downloaded mind, personality and memories of that son. Gideon's neice starts to become concerned about Gideon's obsession, and also the robot's behaviour. Creepy children are outdone here by a creepy child robot. The Simon under construction here is delightfully believable and wonderfully sinister. He is matched by the equally delightful Joel Grey as the obsessed father and Mikela Jay as the concerned neice Zoe. The shifting relationships between these three form the core of the story. It's clear this is not going to end well, but it is never clear exactly how it is going to end. The point at which it does end is not conclusive, but does reach a new level of creepiness. TopSTASISThe Earth's resources have hit such a crisis level that half the working population sleep in stasis chambers for three days on and three days off. Two such workers have fallen in love through their recorded messages, but only see each other at the handover point. They find themselves caught up in competing plots to wipe out most of the working population and to bring down the ruling elite that run the system. For once, a THE OUTER LIMITS episode that isn't spoiled by its central love triangle. True, that whole subplot is saccharine to the point of kidney failure, but there is more than enough going on elsewhere to make up for it, and it is central to telling the story the episode wants to tell. The background of a world running out of resources and a heartless controlling elite oppressin those its claims to serve becomes more and more relevant with each passing election or political scandal. Throw in a hint of 1984's rebel squashing and there is plenty of meat on the bone to chew on. The character twists aren't as predictable as it first seems and for once the outcome has a hint of positivity to it. One of the better episodes. TopDOWN TO EARTHWhen the conspiracy theorists and fantasists attending the country's largest UFO/alien abduction convention come into possession of an actual piece of alien technology, their plan to reveal it to the world runs into problems, but is that because of their own paranoia or is someone really working against them? Now, here's a rarity for THE OUTER LIMITS - a comedy episode. Though there are a few of them about, episodes that feature humour highly are not common in the playlist. The comedy here comes from the quirky characters and, whilst it is tricky thing to make fun of those sorts of people who might make up a large part of your audience, there are hints at the darkness hiding beneath each of the individuals. What ails them might be a little more serious and relatable than the general craziness with which we are presented. There's also darkness and tragedy in the outcome, whose impact is increased by the lightness of tone of what has gone before. The reactions of two characters in the aftermath of a sexual encounter embodies the episode's warring sides. Fortunately, the cast are on their game and manage to reconcile the two faces on display, managing to pull off a dramatic end to what started out as an essentially silly story, and that's all down to the shading they manage to inject into their characters. TopINNER CHILDA mugging victim dies, but comes back later. She starts to suffer memory loss and hallucinations, which the doctors put down to the blow on her head. When brain tissue starts to show up around her spinal column, it seems as though a family secret is about to be revealed. Body horror is always an effective tool, but the mystery here is dispensed with early on and turns into a not very interesting struggle between two personalties and then descends into syrupy sentimentality. A completely forgettable episode. TopGLITCHA young married man is shocked to learn that he is really an android and the subject of a rivalry between two scientists with competing views about what he can be used for. What starts off with an interesting premise about a man suddenly discovering he is an android designed to save people's lives but being redesigned as the the perfect assassin becomes a disappointingly average tale of a man on the run with a shadowy organisation on his tail and secrets about his own past to be discovered. It's watchable, thanks to a game cast, but it's nothing we haven't seen before, even in this show. There is, however, one nice twist along the way. TopDECOMPRESSIONSenator Wyndom Brody is on a path leading to the White House when his plane is struck by lightning. He then encounters an image of a woman nobody else can see, a woman who claims to be from the future attempting to save him from a terrible accident.Saving the future by travelling to the past is a well-worn trope, but the set up here is very nicely created. The political background is convincingly laid out and the characters of the Senator and his staff are sketched out with more depth than usual. A solid cast manage to flesh that out into rounded and real-seeming people with real-seeming agendas. Bruce Boxleitner is a reliable presence as the would-be President, his generally likeability balancing out any potential arrogance of a man heading for the presidency. Up against him is CCH Pounder as the time traveller, walking a fine line between trustworthy and threatening, even potentially desperate. These are the core peformances that drive the drama, aided by the rest of the casts. Overlaid onto this real set up is the genre story of the time traveller from the future with dire predictions. How can she convince an intelligent man without any evidence that she is real, that he is in grave danger and that the future depends on him taking drastic action. Even if she is genuinely from the future, whose side is she really on? It's a not unusual storyline, but it is one with enough interest to keep the attention fixed on it. The introduction of potential opposing factions from the future, allegedly working towards the candidate's death up the ante somewhat. The view of a totalitarian future is not unbelievable and has become even more credible in light of more recent presidential appointments. The negotiation sequences are nicely written and excellently played, the core of the episode. The extended sacrifice section at the end seems like an unnecessary addition, tacked on and less believable than anything that had gone before./p>
Top ABADDONA vessel in the outer reaches of the solar system salvages a valuable metal pod only to find it contains a man history has labelled a mass murderer. There is more than a whiff of ALIEN in the set up of this story. The crew wake up from crysleep to find they've been diverted to find something. The atmosphere and the crew are very much workaday, ordinary, ill-equipped to deal with the moral dilemma and inevitable fight for survival that they are dropped into. At least one of them seems to secretly be working for the new arrival's survival and there's some crawling around in dangerous ducts. Even the outcome isn't all that unfamiliar. Still, if you're going to steal, steal from the best. The big change, of course, is that the snake in their midst isn't some chestbursting alien creature bent on their destruction, but a very human person who may still be a monster bent on their destruction or may be a misunderstood and oppressed freedom fighter. Since he lost and history is written by the victors, in this case a heartless corporation (another ALIEN riff), it's hard to know who's telling the truth. Corbin Bernsen keeps his audience guessing as to his true nature. He's not a nice man, and openly admits he did bad things, but were they forced upon him? Keith David is the main opponent and his essential goodness is a counterpoint to Bernsen's shadings. Alliances shift through the running time and the only thing to be certain is that it is unlikely to end well. It is, however, one of the better episodes for all the moral complexity and ethical considerations. TopTHE GRIDResponding to a cryptic call from his brother, Scott Bowman goes back to his bucolic small town home and finds the people much changed. His brother is dead, killed by his wife, and everyone is acting strangely. Can it have something to do with the nearby army base and proliferating cellphone towers? Welcome to another re-run of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.OK, so the culprit this time might be military mind control through wi-fi or some such nonsense, but everything else is precisely the same as other stories that have covered this ground before, and better, and in this show. There isn't a single surprise and everyone just seems to be going through the motions. True, they are having to act as mind-controlled zombies, but they are supposed to be convincing mind-controlled zombies. Instead, they are so obvious the plot would have been discovered and put an end to much earlier than the events told by this story. Conversely, the main character is so obviously out to thwart the plans, the conspirators would have done away with him right at the start of the story. This is tired stuff. TopREVIVALA fake evangelical minister takes on a young apprentice who is capable of incredible illusions that help dupe the gullible crowds in the the revival tent. When young women start to disappear in towns they have visited, he becomes suspicious of the young man's identity, and motives. Faith is a tricky thing; it requires little in the way of proof and so opens the believer up to being tricked and cheated. That, though, is barely a consideration in this story because the nature of the threat is revealed very early on the story, the cause of the disappearences mid-episode and only the ultimate aim of the new arrival is left to the end. The last twist does take a pot shot at religion's stubborn determination not to die, even in the face of scandal, but there is little mystery here, just a story to be told to its inevitable conclusion. Gary Busey gives a big performance as the once-true-believer turned scam artist and is certainly convincing as the scam artist, but a little more of the uncertainty as to the truth or otherwise of the characters' faith might have gone a long way to improving the story. Margot Kidder appears as the mother of the apprentice, but is given almost nothing to do until that final scene with its jab. This isn't going to change the minds of anyone about religion, but it's an entertaining enough time passer. TopGETTYSBURGTwo civil war re-enactors, one with strong affiliations to the Confederacy, are transported back in time to the eve of the real battle of Gettysburg. Their knowledge of the future could easily turn the outcome of the battle, and the whole war, in favour of the South. The difference between ambition and completion could not be more perfectly demonstrated than in this episode of THE OUTER LIMITS. When setting a tale at one of the pivotal battles in American history, the success of that tale is then tied to the depiction of that battle. Sadly, the resources of the show are very much not up to the task of showing the Confederacy Army. Instead, we get one motley company of men who meander around a bit before having the point of the story explained to them and then a quick time trip to the near future for a tacked-on coda that has no purpose other than to provide a twist that isn't even inkeeping with the rest of the story. Yes, there is some musing over fixed points in time that can't be altered, and obvious social points such as division is bad, hatred is bad, racism is bad, unthinking revenge is bad. There is nothing here that is surprising or thought-provoking. The lack of resources makes the whole thing look like a threadbare high school project, the plot meanders about (do we really need a birthing scene in the middle of all this?) and some of the acting is decidedly ropey, though that could be entirely down to the poor dialogue the actors are given. In the end analysis, Gettysburg is an opportunity missed. TopSOMETHING ABOUT HARRYIn small town USA, people have started to act not quite like themselves, others are going missing and there is definitely something not quite right about the man who has taken lodgings in a teenager's house. There's a bit of every alien shapeshifting alien movie in here (INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS anyone), along with a touch of REAR WINDOW's voyeurism turned investigation plot, all seen through the eyes of a child nobody will believe (hello INVADERS FROM MARS. The entire plot of this episode is borrowed from elsewhere, but it still manages to be fitfully entertaining thanks to a vivacious central performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the suspicious teenager and a shifty showing from Judd Nelson as the eponymous Harry. They manage to keep interest going throughout the running time, though only just and there won't be anything left in the memory only a short time after that running time is over. TopIF THESE WALLS COULD TALKA professional debunker of mediums and the paranormal is begged by one of his adversaries to come to the old house that she believes holds the spirit of her son captive. He eventually agrees and starts to believe her story, but the truth of the matter is buried in science, not the supernatural. A familiar haunted house set up, but the two main characters that inhabit it are interesting enough to overlook that. The debunker is clearly based on Houdini, but the contrast between him and the believer maintains interest through the initial, quite spooky, bits. Then the story shoots off in a quite different direction, making nonsense of everything that has gone before and ultimately undermining it. TopNESTThe 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. TopFINAL APPEALIn a world that has outlawed technology following a bloody war with its own machines, a time traveller stands accused for her life, making a final appeal that will determine the whole future of the human race. Ah yes, it's the traditional clips show that ends a season of THE OUTER LIMITS, and one that's stretched out to an hour and a half, but if you're going to make it cheap by replaying bits of previous shows, you can use the money saved to pay for a hell of a cast to introduce them. Charlton Heston, Hal Holbrook, Swoosie Kurtz, Cicely Tyson, Robert Loggia, Michael Moriarty and Kelly McGillis all in one place in an episode of a science fiction anthology show? You'd be hard pressed to get a cast like that together for a prestigious drama. Admittedly, the framing device for this clips show is an extremely ambitious one that could probably have stood in its own right without the flashbacks to earlier episodes, and not just the ones from this season. On trial is nothing less than science itself. That's some pretty heady stuff to use as an excuse just to replay some old clips. But this episode isn't just about the clips or the star cameos. At the heart of it are two fine performances espousing the two sides of the argument. Amanda Plummer is back (after Season 2's episode Stitch In Time) as the accused, a scientist whose own story leads he to believe mankind can only flourish by following its curious nature and innovative spirit. It's a layered performance filled with nuance beneath the optimistic speechifying; naive, driven, world weary and frightened. On the other side of the debate comes a barnstorming show from Wallace Langham that has never even heard of the word 'subtlety', but which is endlessly entertaining. When he takes centre stage, there is nowhere else you could think of looking. And the script matches up to the performances for once. There are moments of pathos, of anger, of high debate and simple name calling. You couldn't attract names like this without giving each of them something interesting to do. Using a courtroom setting to debate big issues is hardly new, but it is used effectively here and the issues are big. There are questions of time travel and how it can be used. Can anyone blame a woman who travels back in time to save her younger self from a rapist by killing him? Isn't it only a small step from there to using future knowledge to execute serial killers before they get started? The time travel paradoxes are quickly passed by to get onto the main point of whehter technology is a force for good or evil and, if it is neither, will outlawing the tools negate the danger? There's a big gun control element to the discussions going on here. Simply put, this is one of the most interesting and best episodes the show has come up with, marred only by the need to cram in the flashback scenes, that serve nothing and often simply distract. It's a shame because this would otherwise be the pinnacle of the show's storytelling. It's certainly a hell of a way to end the season. Top |
