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"There is nothing wrong with your televison set..." it's just The Outer Limits

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Author	Topic: "There is nothing wrong with your televison set..." it's just The Outer Limits

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	The Sci-Fi channel has started to show episodes from the 60s series Outer Limits at 2pm EST. Along with Star Trek, The Prisoner, and the Nigel Kneale shows, this is one of the top sci-fi series ever. The episodes are hit and miss, but when it's on, it's amazing. All of the series is available on VHS but at $12 each X40 that's a lot to spend so this is a viable alternative. Plus: great theme and scoring by Dominic Frontiere!
posted 01-07-2002 10:09 PM PT (US)

Graham Watt Standard Userer	Lou, that was a great series. I first saw it back in the UK in the early 80s (?), and was amazed at how good it was, after hearing my dear late dad wax lyrical about it for years. What are your favourite episodes? And what do you think of the second, more antiseptic, season? I much prefer the first season with the Frontiere music. The "bears" (the weekly monsters) weren't always successful, but the standard of writing was pretty high. Off the top of my head, I loved that pilot episode. What was the title? Demon With A Glass Hand? Then, A Feasibility Study. That had David Opatoshu finding himself in the terrible situation of contaminating his whole family with a virus to save them from a worse fate. My God, when he tearfully joins hands with his loved ones, thus sealing their fate, and the gorgeous Frontiere music builds up...that's a knock-out. And that other good one with Robert Culp who goes into space and comes back a hideous monster, but manages to let his wife know that it's still him, even as he lies dying! I'm a wash of tears thinking about it! And what was that other one with Culp and some hellish rock-like creatures? Scary as hell! And those bloody freaking Zanti Misfits! Forget the fact you could see the wires, that was downright creepy! And that one with Martin Landau who changes the past and obliterates his very existence! My God! Sorry about that rant, I got carried away. A great series!
posted 01-11-2002 03:07 PM PT (US)

Dylan Standard Userer	Graham, The piolot episode of "Outer Limits" is called The Galaxy Being. I love this series as well. The zanti misfits especially were spectacular. I think in only a couple shots when they used actual screen puppets for the zantis that you could see some wire or string....but they really became frightening and more polished in the stop-motion animation shots. [Message edited by Dylan on 01-11-2002]
posted 01-11-2002 03:12 PM PT (US)

Graham Watt Standard Userer	That's right, Dylan, it was "The Galaxy Being". Cliff Robertson was in it, I think. Wasn't that other one I mentioned ("Demon With A Glass Hand") some kind of second pilot or something? Or was that the first real episode after "The Galaxy Being"?
posted 01-12-2002 12:36 PM PT (US)

Dylan Standard Userer	I am not sure exactly when Demon With a Glass Hand (I believe this episode starred a well-known actor at the time named Robert Culp) aired...it could've followed Gaxaxy Being but I'm not sure. You're right about Cliff Robertson being in Galaxy Being. I think my favorite episode is The Sixth Finger with David McKallum (sp?) of Man From Uncle fame. My other favorite would be The Zanti Misfits. I have very few episodes of Limits and it's indeed excellent news it's airing on TV again...
posted 01-12-2002 02:30 PM PT (US)

perfpitch unregistered	That's McCallum. Best OUTER LIMITS episode ever: "The Man Who was Never Born." Martin Landau gave what's probably the performance of his career. Though Landau's face is scarcely visible behind the deformed-mutant make-up, he manages to endow his character with extraordinary humanity, and convey the suffering and nobility of the Last Man on Earth... [Message edited by perfpitch on 01-12-2002]
posted 01-12-2002 07:15 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	Wow! Some response. In any case, it's a lot easier to talk about the merits of The Outer Limits than it is say Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which the Sci-Fi channel regularly shows as well). Both The Man Who Never Was and The 6th Finger showed last week. Landau and Shirley Knight were great in Man and that ending is tough no doubt. McCallum was great in the 6th Finger as well. The lesson of that episode: Never trust a woman to work the controls.
posted 01-13-2002 02:59 AM PT (US)

John C Winfrey Standard Userer	Yep, I saw that first one too with Cliff Robertson. In the Fall of 1963. I also saw the Culp one, it made me laugh. Many of the episodes were: 1. energy gas clouds 2. jelly creatures 3. lizards etc, men in suits 4. Simon Oakland and others dressed as aliens 5. and assorted monsters of the week as in Lost in Space and Voyage to Bottom of the Swimming Pool later on. Frontiere's music stood out. Best, John.
posted 01-17-2002 03:17 PM PT (US)

perfpitch unregistered	What, you don't think that sentient tumbleweeds, or balls of dust and hair vacuumed out of a baseboard, can menace humanity? Why, you...Zanti Misfit, you. [Message edited by perfpitch on 01-30-2002]
posted 01-25-2002 02:25 AM PT (US)

Gae Standard Userer	I just watched one today for the first time in ages. It was about an unliked loud mouth who is always trying to sell his gadget ideas. Everyone he meets and talks to usually disappear after a few minutes ( i.e. in the bar). He gets friendly with a down and out who gives him a stop watch for his kindness. The stopwatch is able to stop "time" itself. I found it an interesting premise and it really made the mind wander as to what you would do yourself if you had this power. O.K. so there were a few too many stock footage shots of people in the city who were suddenly put on super freeze, but it was still fun. Of course, everything goes horribly wrong when our hero decides to become rich the easy way by robbing a bank. He breaks the watch accidentally, during the getaway, and is trapped for the rest of his life with a world stuck on pause. An interesting "morality" play similar to many of the episodes in the series...e.g crime doesn't pay...you just get stuck in "The Twilight Zone" (doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo!!!) Gae
posted 02-01-2002 03:23 PM PT (US)

perfpitch unregistered	Always wanted on of those doo-hickeys. It'd definitely come in handy. Of course, you're referring to an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (I'm too tired this evening to go look up the title of that particular episode), and not "The Outer Limits."
posted 02-02-2002 02:05 AM PT (US)

Graham Watt Standard Userer	Hey Gae, you have inadvertantly opened a Twilight Zone ramble! I could go on for hours about that series, but I won't right now!
posted 02-02-2002 01:53 PM PT (US)

Gae Standard Userer	Whoops!!! Where is my mind these days? Of course you were talking about "The Outer Limits" and I inadvertently opened up "The Twilight Zone"......spooky eh? Gae NP Bach's Prelude and Fugues (Book 1)
posted 02-12-2002 01:47 PM PT (US)

perfpitch unregistered	Of course, Rod Serling's phrase about being a realm "between shadow and substance sure applies to the good ol' internet -- though he never lived to see it.
posted 02-19-2002 12:20 AM PT (US)

JeffBond Standard Userer	"Demon With A Glass Hand" was a second season episode--the first season featured great Dominic Frontiere music and photography by Conrad Hall, one of the greatest DPs ever. The second season...didn't. The music by Harry Lubin (recycling his "One Step Beyond" theme I think) is for the most part hamhanded, schlocky stuff, although there are some good second season scripts.
posted 03-08-2002 01:52 PM PT (US)

Graham Watt Standard Userer	Ah, that's right! Demon With A Glass Hand was from the 2nd season. I got mixed up. I recall that as being one of the best, especially since most of the other episodes from that season were a bit flat. Wasn't Demon filmed in the same big building as Blade Runner or something?
posted 03-10-2002 02:41 AM PT (US)

perfpitch unregistered	Yep, the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles, which has been used for quite a few film productions. The girl in "Demon with a Glass Hand," by the way, is Arlene Martel, who's best kmown for her role as T'Pring, Spock's bride, in the "Star Trek" episode "Amok Time."
posted 03-11-2002 02:08 AM PT (US)

Luscious Lazlo Standard Userer	http://www.wfmu.org/listen.php?show=629&starttime=02:12:10 THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER BORN by Dominic Frontiere. From Lee Hartsfeld's amazon.com review of THE OUTER LIMITS: "Frontiere's music for THE OUTER LIMITS recalls Ravel and Bartok, especially in its half-step modality and the parallel dominant-11th chords that move in whole steps at the close of the opening title and throughout the end title. Frontiere's bag of tricks also includes perfect fourths and fifths in parallel chromatic motion, interlocking perfect fifths, and other minimalist devices that sound anything but minimalist in the hands of such a gifted composer. I know these things because this CD has given me the ideal chance to transcribe some of these cues and plunk them out on my keyboard for my own nerdish pleasure. To actually hear cues from THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER BORN on my very own Casio. 'Nerdvana', Scott Adams calls it."
posted 07-14-2002 03:21 PM PT (US)

Marc Flake Standard Userer	I loved all the episodes mentioned, but my favorite was the two-parter, "The Inheritors." Its about an alien abduction involving children with various disabilities. Possibly one of the finest Sci-fi plots ever written. The internal battles of the characters -- especially the humans recruited by the aliens to collect the children -- are heart-tuggingly real. This one would be worthy of a remake on today's big screen. OH! Except there were no car chases or big explosions -- never mind.
posted 07-15-2002 07:01 AM PT (US)

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