The Outer Limits (1963)

The Chameleon, directed by Gerd Oswald.

When the alien crew of a spacecraft prove both dangerous and uncommunicative, Top Men develop an exceedingly cunning plan to get inside information. A human agent will be genetically modified to become one of the aliens and join them. His cover story: he is the survivor from an earlier mission, has amnesia and can't remember his own language.

Does that sound like it has a million to one chance of success? Watch and see.

This has parallels to the plot of The Architects of Fear and Douglas Henderson is in both episodes as one of the docs performing the transformation. In both cases we have to wonder if it is wise to transform a human being into an actual alien. Won't he be... alien thereafter?

His first response after the procedure is to titter mysteriously. That's a red flag.

Robert Duvall plays the perfect Secret Agent: no life of his own, total commitment to the mission. Are his links to the normal human condition perhaps a bit tenuous? It is a nice meditation on finding your humanity in unexpected ways.

Early in his career Duvall got a lot of these misfit, alien, deviant, handicapped roles, for example as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). That's actually him at least part of the time in that alien makeup: you can recognize his teeth.

Henry Brandon as the General -- Chief "Scar" in The Searchers (1956) -- is an exceedingly familiar face with 179 acting credits in the IMDB. For some reason I always remember him as a minion in Buck Rogers (1939).

Early screenplay by Robert Towne. Photographed by Kenneth Peach.

The Blu-ray has no commentary track for this episode.

Soldier, directed by Gerd Oswald.

In a bleak post-apocalyptic future two rigidly trained soldiers are struck by lightning and inexplicably cast back to our time. Their only purpose: seek each other and kill.

Linguist Lloyd Nolan wants to deprogram killing machine Michael Ansara and introduce him to a more humane existence. Foolishly -- I say -- he takes him home to stay with the family. But that enemy soldier is coming...

It is a good concept but the execution is slack. Give him credit: Ansara is absolutely believable.

With the start of season two we continue the movement away from gothic horror-tinged SF and toward more standard, lower budgeted SF action plots. The theme music has changed but we still have the Control Voice. Director Gerd Oswald and cinematographer Kenneth Peach return but most everyone else "above the line" from season one is gone.

Evaluating season two episodes presents dilemmas. They do have severely reduced budgets and we have to adjust expectations, but I don't think we need excuse other factors: ABC Network seemed determined to destroy program quality, and the new producer, although experienced, knew nothing about SF in general or The Outer Limits specifically. Unlike Stevens and Stephano he was not willing to fight the network.

Tim O'Connor returns from Moonstone. The house cat is played by Orangey -- This Island Earth (1955), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

Kenneth Peach is director of photography for all of season two.

Harry Lubin gets music credit for the entire season. This episode has a standard TV score, as least as compared to Dominic Frontiere's brilliant work on season one.

Written by Harlan Ellison, the first of his two episodes. Famously he sued the producers of Terminator (1984) for stealing his idea and got a settlement and credit. James Cameron says he can't speak directly to the charges because of a settlement gag order, but has made clear that he does not agree. More at a Cameron fan site: The Ellison Dispute.

If it had gone to a jury I would have voted against Ellison here. The whole episode is not much like Terminator (1984) and the few similarities are the sort of thing you expect when working in a genre. And the gate swings both ways: Ellison's future soldier expects telepathic communication with a cat as a battle partner. This was used in Cordwainer Smith's The Game of Rat and Dragon published a few years earlier.

The Blu-ray commentary track is by David J. Schow. He was friends with Ellison and gives extended excerpts from his original short story, and also details on the changing of the guard between seasons.

Behold, Eck!, directed by Byron Haskin.

What strange force is trashing all the optical labs in the city, stealing experimental eyeglass lenses made from meteoric quartz? It is Eck! -- a two-dimensional being accidentally trapped on Earth and trying to find his way out of 3-space back to his home. He needs corrected vision to do that...

It is an intriguing notion, dating back to the philosophically stimulating Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions from the previous century. From the adventures of a two-dimensional being investigating both 1- and 3-dimensional spaces we try to get a grasp of dimensions beyond our own.

Controlled Experiment is supposed to be the only comedy episode in the series, but this could easily have been another such. Our problems with the plot absurdities would have vanished if they were treated humorously.

As it is the micro-budget interiors and simple effects remind me of something William Castle would have done -- more vividly -- in something like his 13 Ghosts (1960) or Zotz! (1962).

Such are budget cutbacks that the alien menace has to handled by a local police detective. He does have access to a departmental flame thrower -- talk about militarization of the police!

A good moment: Eck! sees a television screen and mistakes the news announcer for 2-dimensional being like himself. Which is reasonable: our 3-space is filled with real 2-dimensional images.

The cast:

• Peter Lind Hayes as the bland, mild mannered optician. I don't remember seeing him in anything before and he leaves no impression.
• Lovely Joan Freeman -- Panic in Year Zero! (1962) -- is his devoted secretary.
• Familiar face Parley Baer is his irritating scientist brother, with 285 acting credits in the IMDB. Remember, each TV series is counted only once in those tallies.
• Douglas Henderson returns for the third and last time, previously seen in The Architects of Fear and The Chameleon.

Director Byron Haskin found the story to be stupid. This is the fourth of his six episodes.

A lot of theremin this time, and another instrument that sounds like it but isn't.

Although he doesn't mention Flatland, the story concept suggests C.S. Lewis's essay "Transposition", collected in his volume The Weight of Glory. Just as Mr Square can only see slices of a 3-dimension realm in his reality, so we see reduced projections of higher reality in our own space.

The Blu-ray has a commentary track by Reba Wissner.

Expanding Human, directed by Gerd Oswald.

A Jekyll & Hyde story is mashed up with a very popular 1960s TV topic: the use and dangers of "consciousness expanding" drugs. This is wrapped in a standard police procedural package, the kind of format second season producer Ben Brady was comfortable with from his Perry Mason days.

Is is slow and terribly dull. The plot barely hangs together, as if scattered script pages were lost in the breeze one day.

We have an unusual number of future original Star Trek actors here:

• James Doohan: Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott.
• Skip Homeier: Patterns of Force (nazis in space) and The Way to Eden (hippies in space).
• Peter Duryea: The Cage, reworked as The Menagerie.
• Jason Wingreen: The Empath, and three previous Outer Limits episodes.

On the Blu-ray commentary track Reba Wissner gives a shout-out to even minor supporting actors. She says no one was happy with this episode.

She also notes that in this story expanded consciousness produces more selfishness and brutality. Isn't that backwards from what we expect?

Cry of Silence, directed by Charles Haas.

Driving into a desolate area to look at a property, a couple find themselves on foot and menaced by hostile tumbleweeds. The same unseen intelligence commands frogs (!) and large rolling boulders.

I love a good creature feature and when you make it a First Contact story there is much to admire. The alien mind is particularly frustrated this time: it senses consciousness on Earth but can't hear it. At most it can move things around, including reanimating a dead body.

Yes, this is also a zombie episode.

The micro-budget doesn't hurt so much this time. We have only three characters and how much did they have to spend for tumbleweeds on strings, paper boulders and a bucket of frogs?

This brings to mind many other stories, including:

• HP Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. At one point I thought they would quote the old text: "...it come from beyond, whar things ain’t like they be here.. now it’s goin’ home..."
• Some damned thing on the porch, slowing turning the doorknob, is used in Dean Koontz's Winter Moon, his most Lovecraftian story.
• Didn't Tom Baker's Doctor Who fight "Wolfweeds" in The Creature from the Pit? The one where the Creature is giant green male genitalia.
• Eddie Albert and his blonde wife looking to buy a farm: the Green Acres jokes write themselves.

The cast:

• Eddie Albert -- Roman Holiday (1953), Attack (1956) -- is a somewhat oblivious rationalist.
• June Havoc -- Gentleman's Agreement (1947) -- seems both psychic and easily spooked. Her helpless shrieking hysterics bring the show down.
• Arthur Hunnicutt -- The Red Badge of Courage (1951), El Dorado (1966) -- had a career as a backwoodsman. This is one of his odder roles.

Richard Farnsworth -- Comes a Horseman (1978), The Grey Fox (1982), The Straight Story (1999) -- is said to be an uncredited stunt double. He is too far away to see clearly.

Two commentary tracks on the Blu-ray: Gary Gerani and Reba Wissner.

The Invisible Enemy, directed by Byron Haskin.

The first mission to Mars does not go well. Successful landing, some walking around, then horrid screams and radio silence.

Three years later, the second mission has a larger crew, supposedly better disciplined and definitely over-managed. They don't know what they're facing but have brought nuclear bazookas just in case.

Despite all that their survival skills seem about nil. After more deaths they discover the awful truth: Martian Sand Sharks.

I loved these rocketship adventures as a kid, but this episode has little Outer Limits in it. They would need to play up the mystery, the boundaries of the knowable and how that reflects in the human soul. But they don't.

They do introduce a thriller countdown timer, now a cliche, but when did that start?

Familiar faces:

• Adam West -- Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964), the TV Batman.
• Joe Maross -- Run Silent Run Deep (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960), Sometimes a Great Notion (1970).
• Robert DoQui -- Coffy (1973), three Robocop films -- in his debut.
• Rudy Solari -- Star Trek The Paradise Syndrome.
• Ted Knight.

Byron Haskin was a natural director for a Martian adventure, having done The War of the Worlds (1953) and Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). He said the script was a disaster and he rewrote it in the days just before filming.

Bad science is traditional in SF movies and I try not to gripe. Just noting:

• Their Mars has a breathable atmosphere.
• The first mission had speed of light radio, but the second has the new instantaneous laser communication with Earth.
• The planet is lifeless apart from one flower (snip!) so what do the sand sharks live on?
• From whence comes their hunger for blood? How often do wandering astronauts come by?

The Blu-ray commentary track is by Craig Beam.

Wolf 359, directed by Laslo Benedek.

Scientists recreate an entire planet in miniature to study its accelerated evolution. Something evil emerges.

This could have been a first season episode: mysterious and thought-provoking. Harry Lubin, who did all of the second season music, provides an unusually eerie and menacing score.

The alien is obviously a simple two-handed puppet but that is ok. Its simplicity raises the right questions. The way it folds and unfolds makes us wonder as to its origins: nature or something supernatural?

Questions that are not answered:

• What is that ghostly being? The spirit of the planet? Did it evolve or did it come from "outside"?
• Where does Evil come from? Can a whole planet be evil?
• Our scientist says it is "a world without a God". Isn't he the god of this world? In which case he is a destructive god. ("I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down").
• Given that, the Control Voice gives a most ominous epilogue:
  
  "There is a theory that Earth and sun and galaxy and all the known universes are only a dust mote on some policeman's uniform in some gigantic superworld. Couldn't we be under some supermicroscope, right now?"
• Why does the scientist think he will see Earth's future in the planet? In any case: apparently that is not allowed.

The intimations of evil are so well done here: everyone knows something is wrong: "The kind of death that has no peace". The ending is a let down: I wish they could have come up with something better than "smash/destroy".

Patrick O'Neal always had fascinating aristocratic coolness, and those piercing eyes.

We have several "lasts" in the cast and crew:

• Sara Shane: her last year in acting.
• Dabney Coleman: last of 3 episodes.
• Ben Wright: last of 4 episodes (2 were voice work).
• Director Laslo Benedek: last of his 3 episodes.

Sara Shane had a small filmography, but I remember her as the bush pilot in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959), where young Sean Connery had a good villain role:



It certainly looks like our couple are sleeping in the same bed. She has a sexy nightgown, they are slightly drunk and fondle hands in the fade out, which is about as hot as it got on TV that year...

...before she bolts upright in the night, sensing the Evil. The coyotes outside know about it, too. Well done.

The science lab has an ant farm. I'm so jealous. Bring on the sea-monkeys.

The Blu-ray commentary track is by Craig Beam, alternately informative and annoying.

The Inheritors, directed by James Goldstone.

Four soldiers miraculously survive head wounds. The bullets had been cast from a meteor and microscopic examination shows alien cell structure in the metal. Each man exhibits extra brain waves and it is clear the same brain is now controlling all of them.

Without ever meeting each other the soldiers take off and start working on a project they do not understand. Fearing the worst, the Fed "men in black" are watching and talking to them, but what can you do about super-intelligent opponents with mind-control powers?

Part of the project becomes clear: they are building a starship. Going back to where the meteor came from? Maybe that's not so bad.

Then they start collecting the children...

The only two-part episode in the series, this one seems more like a labor of love than was usual for the second season. It's not like anything else in the series, but is still one of the best episodes.

On the down side:

• The police procedural development is pretty routine, even if the plot is a nice concept this time.
• Sets and locations are mostly nothing special. The starship is rudimentary.
• As the commentary track points out, it looks more like one of the Quinn Martin productions of the 1960s, like The Fugitive or The F.B.I.. Not forgetting The Invaders (1967)!

This is all redeemed by an involving story of deep ethical conflict. I kept flipping between:

• Alien brain infection: must be monsters...
• ...but they don't act like monsters. They are the same people as before, smarter and with powers, plagued by the overwhelming compulsion to complete an unknown mission...
• ...and they themselves have qualms. Are they doing evil? How would they know?
• We've just started to take their side when they begin collecting children to take with them. That can't be right...
• ..except the children are the unloved and disabled. Maybe they go to a better place?
• And what are the Feds supposed to do about this? They can't let them take the children, no matter what. Here the police are good at pointing guns but terrible at stopping the conspiracy or understanding anything about the alien visitation.

The ultimate dilemma: what do you do when you don't know if you are doing right or wrong? It is an SF mystery where the transformed men, the Feds and the audience all have to figure it out together. There is even a hint at the end that the alien force is learning, too.

The backbone of this part of the story is our matched opponents: government science cop (Mulder!) Robert Duvall and leader of the alien plot Steve Ihnat.

Duvall is so intense we wonder as to his backstory, if he has encountered something like this before. Even granting that the alien-controlled humans may be well intentioned he can't let them get away with the children.

Ihnat was a familiar supporting actor of the period, usually as a villain, last seen in The Chase (1966), In Like Flint (1967) and Fuzz (1972). He would also be the psycho villain in Star Trek Whom Gods Destroy. He died at age 37.

It is too bad Ihnat did not get a chance to do leading parts because he goes deep and produces something special here: like the others he does not know the ultimate purpose but is more confident that it is a good thing. And yet he cries when taking the children. He can't know for sure. The scenes where he and Duvall face off are very fine.

Returning:

• Robert Duvall from The Chameleon.
• James Shigeta from Nightmare.
• Ivan Dixon from The Human Factor.
• Ted de Corsia from It Crawled Out of the Woodwork.
• Dabbs Greer from The Children of Spider County.
• Director James Goldstone from The Sixth Finger. He would also direct Star Trek Where No Man Has Gone Before; all three shows are about the problems of enhanced humans. He also directed Star Trek What Are Little Girls Made Of?.

I immediately recognized the little blind girl as one of the terrified children from The Birds (1963):



This is Suzanne Cupito, later "Morgan Brittany".

Notes:

• The country at war is not named but is obviously Vietnam. This was before full escalation of US forces.
• To raise money Lt Minns masters commodity futures. In those days you had to go to a broker and sit in his office.
• Soldiers who share a secret even they don't know is like The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
• Children in the same situation is like Children of the Damned (1963).
• Duvall bluntly draws the parallel between taking the children and abduction by child molesters.
• Lots of theremin in the score.
• One criticism: maybe too much is explained at the end. They could have left it open, letting us decide whether to rely on faith.

Gary Gerani and Steve Mitchell provide the Blu-ray commentary track.