The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 2 (1963) Review

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(More customer reviews)I grew up with this show, as many of you have I suspect. It would be easy to review this in a nostalgic haze and give it 5 stars "just because". However, I have taken a step back and have reviewed each episode rationally, based on budget, cast, writers, etc. Along the way, it may appear as though I am overly concerned with the "not-so-special-effects" of the series but trust me, it is a point of minor contension. Still, since great effect based movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes are barely three years away, I can't shake the notion that if the purse-strings were relaxed a little and it would have paid off big for a show that seemed doomed from the start. Often, the show could rise above it all, with superb acting, like in the first seasons "The Mutant", but why make a show work harder than necessary and potentially leave an accomplished actor looking foolish and silly?
Picture/sound/packaging: 4/5 Dissappointing yet predictable lack of 5.1 DD remastered sound. Original Star Trek seems to have proven to be the exception and not the rule in so far as sound. The picture is often nice, but varies from scene to scene on certain eps. I have no problem with the way the packaging is put together. So many complaints about the two sided discs? None here. And I think the packaging color scheme is an excellant compliment to Season One. My only real complaint is the cancellation of this series in the middle of season two, gosh, at least let the season finish!
--Episodes--Season 2--
(I consider 3 and above good, 2 or below poor.)
Soldier: 5/5
Cold Hands, Warm Heart: 2.5/5
Behold Eck!: 1/5
Expanding Human: 2.5/5
Cry of Silence: 3.5/5
Demon With a Glass Hand: 3/5
Wolf 359: 4/5
I, Robot: 4/5
The Invisible Enemy: 1/5
The Inheritors 1&2: 5/5
Keeper of the Purple Twilight: 3.5/5
Counterweight: 2/5
The Brain of Col. Barham: 1.5/5
The Premonition: 2.5/5
The Duplicate Man: 3.5/5
The Probe: 2.5/5
Wrap-up:
Still, in spite of all the hokey props, there lurks delicious camera angles, glorious sound, odd lighting, and most importantly, a fun sense of adventure that has all but since evaporated from the airwaves. In spite of the 3 stars, I cannot reccommend this set enough. Not because I'm caught like "the enemy" in the never-never, but because I'm trapped in a time period that uses "effects" to convey awe and mystery instead of imagination. The Outer Limits is a welcome look back at a future gone by.

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You hold in your hands an artifact from a time now vanished forever – a compendium of portals into worlds unknown. A three-disc set that controls over 14 hours of transmission from the 1964-65 series, this vessel has sought you out for one specific purpose: to expand your mind to "The Outer Limits"!

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The Outer Limits: Volume 1 (1963) Review

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(More customer reviews)This "redundant" DVD re-release is absurd and unfair and doesn't do justice to the show. It's a disgrace and a real swindle that a major and "wealthy" Studio release a vintage show in two volumes. With today's technology, you could, at least, obtain a complete restoration from the original 35 mm prints. The first DVD release was cheaply cleaned up and featured no extras and worst: no language options. I advise all "Outer Limits" diehard fans to read a full account of the lowdown first DVD edition by getting this publication serving as an evidence for the future: "Video Watchdog", n° 89 and n° 102, November 2002 and December 2003, articles by "Outer Limits" expert David J. Schow. I reject this vulgar 2007 DVD edition that deserves to be dumped into the "Pit" (Cf. "It Crawled out of the Woodwork")! I believe that the right action from the Studio would be to re-release the entire season in one single set including:
- 32 restored copies
- the two "restored" alternate pilots ("Please Stand By" and "The Unknown")
- restored trailers and promos
- audio commentaries by expert David J. Schow
- interviews with "Outer Limits" cast and crew
- isolated scores
- languages options (dubbings and subtitles: English, Spanish, French)"When this passion called aspiration becomes lust, then aspiration degenerates, becomes vulgar ambition, by which sin the angels fell."
--End Narration from "The Bellero Shield".

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"The best program of its type ever to run on network TV!" ?Stephen KingPerhaps marked for its opening sequence and eerie voice-over "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission", The Outer Limits pushed the boundaries of television and viewers minds by introducing a new caliber of science fiction.

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The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1 (1963) Review

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(More customer reviews)With talents like Joseph Stephano and Leslie Stephens as producers, some of the best Sci-Fi Writers and a lot of talented 60's actors and even actors that went on to great fame like Robert Culp, David McCallum, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall and Martin Landau, this was one of the first quality Sci-Fi series.
Twilight Zone was out there, but at times it was not really pure Sci-Fi, often more mysterious and horror, Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff (PLEASE PUT THESE OUT on DVD) were pure horror and the long running Alfred Hitchcock Present was straight mystery, so SCI-FI fans were captivated from the opening line with that mysterious voice telling you your telly has been taken over for the next 60 minutes. The acting was top notch, the writing literate and thought provoking, and you will even see many of the episodes were later cannibalised later to make movies, such as SOLDIER with Michael Anshara, repackaged in the 80's as The Terminator. To think you get 32 original episodes on 4 double-sided discs is just amazing.
There are a few puppies in the series...In the second year of the series Stephano played a less controlling interest. He believed in thoughty mind twisting Sci-Fi, while Stevens wanted the monster of the week, so some monsters did get a little Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea-ish (Think they even shared a couple with monster doing double time!). But all in this in one super buy is a must for all those Baby Boomers that would once more would like their telly taken over.
Warning to those who have not seen the series, these are vintage, high quality Black & White episodes. I think it adds to the spookiness as they could film in lower light, creating those sinister shadows.

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You hold in your hands an artifact from a time now vanished forever - a compendium of portals into worlds unknown. A four-disc set that controls over 27 hours of transmission from the 1963-64 series, this vessel has sought you out for one specific purpose: to expand your mind to "The Outer Limits"!

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Outer Limits: Don't Open Till Doomsday (1963) Review

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(More customer reviews)Overrated but good. Screenwriter Stefano was a little pressed for time on this one, and didn't quite get to polish it off as well as he could have. Still, it's got atmosphere to spare, one of the creepier aliens of the series, and Miriam Hopkins as a demented spinster in a worse-than-haunted house.
Hopkins goes crazy after her bridegroom vanishes on their wedding night, back in the Roaring Twenties. Now, many decades later, she lives in the mansion that would have been theirs, which has become a decadent shrine. Unbeknownst to anyone else, she is secretly in league with an alien monster seeking to abduct more cooperative help than her snatched fiance in its quest to blow up the universe. Along come a pair of underage eloping high schoolers...
This episode has a lot going for it. Logically, it makes about as much sense as the Magic Bullet theory, but the imagery and the story are rich and unsettling. There are two fabulously creepy abduction scenes, Hopkins' groom at the beginning of the episode and the high school sweetheart later. The latter is especially unnerving, since she cannot be distinguished between experiencing cosmic terror or an orgasm in confronting the hypnotic alien abductor. Hopkins is a pre-Patty Hearst study in the Stockholm Syndrome, a woman gone round the bend in lifelong coerced service to evil.
The script is weak, especially at the end, when the rather imaginative one-eyed monster-in-a-box talks too much and comes off sounding like a bass-voiced Marvin the Martian. The finale is rushed, and if you pay attention you can see the high school youth jump his cue before the special effect he is supposed to be reacting to occurs, which is pretty funny.
Overall, definitely worth a look, especially for horror or Lovecraft fans.

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The Outer Limits (Original Series) - Season One, Vol. 2 (1963) Review

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(More customer reviews)Disc 1-Side A
Don't Open Till Doomsday
A young couple's honeymoon is cut short by the horrifying contents of a mysterious box.
ZZZZZ
A queen bee with sinister intentions is transformed into a human to seek out the perfect mate.
The Invisibles
A government agent infiltrates a secret criminal organization that uses repulsive alien parasites to control its members.
The Bellero Shield
An ambitious scientist, with hopes of taking over his father's corporation, creates a laser that inadvertently brings a gentle alien to Earth.Disc 1-Side B
The Children Of Spider County
A powerful alien from the planet Eros returns to Earth to rescue and claim his son who has been charged with murder.
Specimen: Unknown
The crew aboard a space station investigates the death of a young lieutenant and uncovers a strange and deadly new life form.
Second Chance
Believing that they're going on a mere carnival ride, a crew of discontented dreamers unknowingly boards a space ship bound to save the future of the human race.
Moonstone
Lunar colonists find themselves in grave danger when they attempt to aid five fugitive alien scientists.Disc 2-Side A
The Mutant
After being exposed to a radioactive ionic shower, a scientist on a distant planet develops telepathic abilities and is driven to madness.
The Guests
Trapped in a mansion run by a mysterious alien being, a pair of young lovers discovers that eternal life comes at a heavy cost.
Fun And Games
The fate of the entire Earth is at stake when a man and woman are transported to a satellite, where they must fight the members of an alien race for the amusement of their captors.
The Special One
A man with an intellectually gifted son is alarmed by the boy's sudden change in behavior and is suspicious of the boy's tutor, the mysterious Mr. Zeno.Disc 2-Side B
A Feasibility Study
The people of Earth surprise their alien captors when an entire neighborhood is transported to another planet as part of a plan to enslave the human race.
Production And Decay Of Strange Particles
A nuclear accident creates a rift in the time/space continuum, tearing a hole in the very fabric of the universe and allowing deadly creatures to emerge.
The Chameleon
A government agent faces a crisis of conscience when he infiltrates a band of aliens marooned aboard the wreckage of a flying saucer.
The Forms Of Things Unknown
After murdering an abusive man, two women find themselves in a frightening house where the dead are brought back to life via a time-tilting machine.


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The Outer Limits: The Inheritors 1 & 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)A US Army lieutenant (Steve Inhat) is shot in the head in some unnamed Southeast Asian War, but lives and develops some extraordinary mental abilities. The CIA (Robert Duval) investigates and discovers that there are three others, also shot in the head in the same war, who also survive and begin to display expanded mental capabilities. The metal used in the bullets proves to come from a meteor, and is honeycombed to suggest that something was present that leaked out into their brains. The leader develops the ability to manipulate the stock market and provides money for the others, although they have never met. One of the other men becomes a metallurgist although he's had no formalized training in the field; another disappears up the Amazon looking for rare plants; the final person becomes an electronics genius. When they come together they build a spaceship capable of reaching another star. The electronics genius holds the CIA at bay with a force-field while the leader convinces sick and lame children to accompany them on their trip. This is the best of the excellent Outer Limits stories. Where the writing on Twilight Zone was usually dark and somber, in this series and this particular epsiode the outcome is one of hope for the future.

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Outer Limits: Demon With Glass Hand (1963) Review

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(More customer reviews)Simply put, the best Outer Limits episode ever made. This because of, not in spite of, the bugetary limitations imposed on the second season.
Robert Culp playes Trent, a man without memory being chased by the insidious Kyban. Outworlders who conquored the Earth 1,000 years in the future, but have gone back in time to capture Trent to find out just where the 70 Billion earthlings have dissapeared to. The secret lies within Trent's glass hand. A computer that knows all the answers IF Trent can capture the three "memory lobes" or fingers the Kyban possess. Almost all the action takes place inside the Dixon Building where Trent finds Consuela Byros, a poor clothsmaker who eventually falls in love with Trent.
This one packs real tension as Trent scurries through hallways and up staircases to find the Kyban Time Mirror. Robert Culp is superb in what may be his finest performance. His cat-like moves through the building, the budding romance between him and the hapless girl, and the incredable music are highlights. Complete with a bombshell of an ending that's brilliantly hinted at throughout the episode, but whose revalation is still a shock.
Of course, no review would be complete without little nitpicks. The Kyban are nothing more than humans with bad eyeshadow and shower caps. While Trent's glass hand is a marvelous creation, the way it raises and lowers on the screen is not well executed. And this episode continues the Outer Limits tradition of NOT GUARDING ANYBODY, NO MATTER WHAT. Allowing the hero or villan to escape. Still, these are very minor nits and certainly doesn't detract from what is the finest episode in the Outer Limits original series.
The odd thing is, if this episode had been given a proper budget, I don't think it would have pulled it off as well. A lesson for producers and directors everywhere who think more money will solve the problem.

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The Outer Limits Original Series Complete Box Set Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my second review in as many that has given a zero to the poor packaging and contents and higher marks to the show itself.Let's take a look at the show first and then we'll take a look at the rest.
This is one of the top Sci-Fi shows ever to appear on television.Created by Leslie Stevens and Joe Stefano the show made its' premiere in Sept. of 1963 and WHAT a premiere it was."The Galaxy Being" certainly scared the living begeesus out of me and I will never forget that.The whole look and feel was totally different and it definitely was not The Twilight Zone but a deep and darker version of it.Nothing that intense had been seen on TV before and nothing would equal it's impact for many years.The show was directly helmed by the team of Stefano and Stevens with Dominic Frontieres' great scoring in the background through all of season one.When Season two arrived all three had departed and were replaced by others.The format underwent minor changes but it basically stayed true to its' roots.The entire story is detailed wonderfully in the "Outer Limits Companion" by David Schow and Jeff Frentzen.
Some prefer one season over the other but there is much to recommend both.Season one has its' "Galaxy Being","The Zanti Misfits","Second Chance" ,"Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "A Feasibility Study".Season Two "The Inheritors-Parts 1&2","Keeper of the Purple Twilight" and one of the entire series top eps "The Demon with the Glass Hand".The series is filled with many well known actors like Cliff Robertson,Ted Knight,Robert Culp,Ed Asner,Eddie Albert,Robert Duvall and so many more.There is also a huge Star Trek connection as William Shatner,Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan would all make appearances,along with many of the future shows supporting actors.The ep "Production and Decay..." contains at least five future Trek actors at once,including Leonard Nimoy!
The show never had a big budget and many of the shows today look dated as a result but in quite a few like "Demon...",the props are totally minimal and it is the great script,direction and acting that more than compensate for any shortcomings in the special effects department.That the show could do so much with so little at times,is a testament to the skill of everyone involved.
It is so unfortunate it only lasted two short seasons as the show should have gone many more.As one ep in the first season states:"Maybe young people are the only ones who listen and understand-you can't reach a closed mind".And so it was,as the almighty ratings beast dictated to the head network honchos just how they ought to proceed with shows;promising or not.The biggest shows' fans were the younger gen of the time who did write in frequently praising the show but it was the adults in the end who controlled the decision making of what to watch and they weren't generally impressed with the show;at least not enough for ABC to continue with it.To top this,in the second season it was put up against the ever popular(among the entire family) Jackie Gleason Show;and Gleason wasn't going anywhere.The show may have been cancelled but it has continued in syndication ever since staying in the collective memories of those who first saw it and gaining new fans along the way.
Now let's look at the presentation.The one thing positive about this new set is the price.The original release about eight years ago broke the series into two release sets and both at the same price(at least $10 higher than this set per season!).Everything else goes down hill from here.MGM has decided in their "wisdom" to re-release this set again in the double sided disc format.BAD choice,period.As I stated in my other recent review Universal and MGM(among others) have a fondness for this type of release;it is cheap and yields the greastest profit.DVDs are notoriously scuff and scratch prone and that alone should preclude any such release of this type if these companies actually cared about the product and consumers.
The second thing about this "new" set is...that it isn't.I do not see any difference in the transfer of this product onto DVD from the original release sets."A Feasibility Study" was particlularly grainy in the first release and it remains so in this one and all other eps with any excesses in this area are also the same.So the question presents itself:"Why?".Why would MGM not remaster these eps like they should be,after all this time?
I can certainly recommend the series itself as a groundbreaking one of its' day,as many of the eps still hold up very well,despite the budgetary restrictions.But it gets a zero as far as release presentation goes.It certainly is cheaper than the original release sets but it is just a simple re-packaging of the material on hand.Shame on MGM.

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Misused inventions, interplanetary communication, and warped time peculiarities permeate the 1960s science fiction anthology program The Outer Limits. Created by Leslie Stevens, the program gained a rabid cult following and influenced a myriad of sci-fi that would follow, including a second Outer Limits series in the 1990s. This is the complete collection of all episodes of the original series.

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The Outer Limits (The New Series) - Season One (1995) (1995) Review

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(More customer reviews)Thanks MGM for finally releasing The Outer Limits on DVD in seasons - starting with season one, instead of only offering collections by various themes. I was not alone in holding out for DVD by seasons, and refusing to start collecting by the theme collections they are offering.
This is a must have for any serious collector of The Outer Limits! Many of the episodes from season one I had not seen in quite awhile, and a couple I can't remember at all.
Although there is nothing really spectacular in the format of the DVD menus, or in the special features, I did find the special features informative. The episodes themselves are what make the collection a good one.
When I used to watch these on TV, I got used to hearing the words "Please Stand By" at the end of the opening where it says "...You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to the Outer Limits - Please Stand By." - Somehow I still expect to hear that "Please Stand By", but it is a small thing, and obviously Standing By is not necessary for very long when watching on DVD :)
It was great to see some of the actors and actresses that played in some of the episodes, such as Leonard Nimoy in I, Robot - And Robert Patrick in Quality of Mercy. Fans of the Dead Zone, will also recognize Nicole DeBor (Sarah Bannerman on the Dead Zone) from the same episode. Fans of La Femme Nikita, will recognize Alberta Watson (Madeline) from the episode, "If these Walls could Talk"
If you are only interested in time travel or in aliens or another single theme, you may be best off getting just that theme, but if you are a fan of The Outer Limits in general, I recommend getting season one of the New Series on DVD.

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