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The Outer Limits: Difference between revisions

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The Outer Limits (view source)

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''The Outer Limits'' was often somewhat dark in tone, and it was also unusually arty and thought-provoking for an early 60s TV series, complete with poetic dialogue, unusual camera angles, a lush orchestral soundtrack, and [[Chiaroscuro]] cinematography (often provided by future Oscar winner Conrad Hall). The show featured some truly brilliant writing by the likes of Stefano, Robert Towne, Anthony Lawrence and Meyer Dolinsky. And then there was the show's main selling point--the [[Monster of the Week|Monsters Of The Week]] and other special effects, which were all the more impressive for being created on a weekly TV schedule and budget.
 
Although ABC commissioned ''The Outer Limits'' to cash in on the late 50s/early 60s monster boom, the network never really understood it, which helps explain why it was [[Too Good to Last]]. When ABC announced that during the series' second season in 1964, it would be [[Screwed Byby the Network|moved to a suicidal Saturday night time slot]] against ''[[The Jackie Gleason Show]]'', Stevens, Stefano and much of their production team left in protest. The network replaced them with a new team headed by ''[[Perry Mason]]'' vet Ben Brady, who tried to save the series by making it (somewhat) less artsy and more commercial. ABC didn't help matters by reducing the series' already low production budget. Despite this, the second season produced several memorable episodes (most notably [[Harlan Ellison (Creator)|Harlan Ellison]]'s two scripts, "Soldier" and "Demon With A Glass Hand", and the two-part "The Inheritors"), but it did no good. After a few months of predictably bad ratings, ABC canceled ''The Outer Limits'' after only 49 episodes.
 
However, that wasn't quite the end. Despite its status as a short-lived, black and white anthology series, ''The Outer Limits'' remained popular enough to stay in constant syndication for nearly four decades. This resulted in a made-for-cable [[Revival|revival]] series helmed by producer Pen Densham, which far outlasted the original, beginning its seven-season run in 1995. A few of the new series' episodes were [[R Emake|remakes]] of episodes from the original series.
 
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* [[Born in The Theater|Born on Pay Television]]: The revival's introduction, similar to the original's, has a "please stand by" notice added to it in syndication since the Showtime airings did not have commercials.
* [[Bottle Episode]] ("Controlled Experiment", "The Probe")
* [[Brain In Aa Jar]] ("The Brain of Colonel Barham")
* [[By the Eyes of Thethe Blind]] ("Behold, Eck!", "Music of the Spheres")
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Quoted above.
* [[Clifford Simak]]: His short story "Goodnight, Mr. James" was adapted for the original series as "The Duplicate Man".
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** [[Foot Focus]]: The episode has several lengthy closeups of her bare feet.
** [[Feet First Introduction]]: How we first see her.
* [[Downer Ending]]: Both series, although the [[Revival|revival]] did it more often; the original series was more likely to do [[Bittersweet Ending|Bittersweet Endings]].
* [[Dramatis Personae]]: "Counterweight" does this at the ''end'' of the episode.
* [[Dramatic Thunder]]: Used [[Irony|ironically]] in "Specimen: Unknown".
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* [[Energy Beings]] ("It Crawled Out of the Woodwork", "Counterweight")
* [[Episode Title Card]]: Very distinctive on the original series; the episode title, and the names of the episode's stars, come right at the viewer, accompanied by the sine wave and (after the first few episodes) the piercing electronic whine from the opening credits.
* [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bees]] ("ZZZZZ")
* [[Evil Teacher]]: Mr. Zeno in "The Special One".
* [[Executive Meddling]]
* [[Fable Remake]]: "The Man Who Was Never Born" is based on ''[[Beauty and The Beast]]'', and "The Bellero Shield" is based on ''[[Macbeth (Theatre)|Macbeth]]'' (which also makes it an example of [[The Bard Onon Board]]). Concidentally, both episodes star Martin Landau.
* [[Fake Defector]]: Kenny Benjamin in "The Special One". He was only pretending to cooperate with Mr. Zeno, and he saves the day by turning the alien's own weapon against him.
* [[Fantastic Anthropologist]]
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* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Several episodes of both series.
* [[Hoist By Her Own Petard]]: The fate of scheming, murderous Judith Bellero in "The Bellero Shield".
* [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]]: The fate of scheming, murderous Mr. Zeno in "The Special One".
* [[Humans Are Bastards]]: Both versions of the series explored humanity at its worst, though they were also kind enough to show humanity at its best, usually at the same time.
* [[Humans Are Cthulhu]]
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* [[Mind Control]]: The titular "Brain of Colonel Barham" somehow gains this power.
** Also, in "The Special One" Mr. Zeno can control the bodies of his victims, while their minds remain free. A nice power to have when you're an alien invader who sadistically delights in forcing the humans who discover your plot to commit suicide against their will...
* [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing Toto Read]] ("What Will The Neighbors Think?")
* [[Monster of the Week]]: One of the original series' central tropes; somewhat less common in the [[Revival]].
* [[Multinational Team]]: The human soldiers in both versions of "Nightmare".
* [[Murder Byby Cremation]]: One episode involves a scientist working in a sealed lab with a gas meant to be used to pacify riots. As a side effect, the latest batch ends up turning the lab monkey immortal. When the scientist's assistant attempts to steal the monkey's biological culture, the scientist's [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] brother traps him in the lab. The angry assistant slams the door with his fist, which results in a bloody fist. The culture in his blood triggers the decontamination system, which "flashes" the lab, killing the guy. The brother later tries the same with the scientist and his girlfriend, who have discovered that {{spoiler|the culture makes you ''temporarily'' invincible, only to kill you in a few days}}.
* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: In "ZZZZZ", humanoid queen bee Regina sics her hive on {{spoiler|the wife of the entomologist she's fallen in love with}}.
* [[Name's the Same]]: The [[Revival]] episode "The Human Factor" is ''not'' a remake of the TOS episode with the same title.
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* [[Science Is Bad]] is a recurrent theme and the basis for the plots of many (though not all) of its episodes.
** Notably averted in the episode "Behold, Eck" where not only is the scientist character the hero, but his invention ultimately saves the day (and the alien, who just wanted to go home.)
* [[Sealed Evil in Aa Teddy Bear]]: One of the episodes in the Revival seires had a literal example of this trope as part of the [[Cold Opening]].
* [[Screaming Woman]]: Quite a few examples, especially in the original series.
* [[Screwed Byby the Network]]
* [[Secret Test]]: In "Nightmare" a group of soldiers invading the planet Ebon are captured and tortured for information by the Ebonites. They eventually learn that the situation is a set-up by their own superiors to test their ability to resist interrogation, with the cooperation of the Ebonites (who eventually protest the unethical nature of the test).
* [[Send in Thethe Search Team]] ("The Invisible Enemy")
* [[Show Accuracy Toy Accuracy|Show Accuracy Trading Card Accuracy]]: The original TOS ''Outer Limits'' [http://science-fiction.netfirms.com/ cards] (one of which is the page pic), released while the series was still in production, are notorious because the writer, who apparently had never watched the show, concocted new stories (and [[So Bad It's Good|laughable]] ones, at that) around colorized photos of the [[Aliens and Monsters]]. Later series of cards didn't have this problem; one series recycled the original pics with new text including both the TV and trading card plots.
* [[Spoiler Title]]: "The Probe", considering that the story is about a group of plane crash survivors who wind up on an alien space probe--without either the characters or the audience initially realizing it--and spend about half the episode trying to figure out where they are.
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* [[Video Phone]]: The episode "The Duplicate Man" had video phones with rotary dials.
* [[Warrior Poet]]: Major Jong in the TOS version of "Nightmare".
* [[What You Are in Thethe Dark]]: Quite a few moments. The closing narration for "The Voyage Home" even outright states "The true measure of a hero is when a man lays down his life with the knowledge that those he saves... will never know."
* [[The Wild West]]: The setting of the revival episode "Heart's Desire".
* [[X-Ray Sparks]] ("The Borderland")
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