The Outer Limits (1960's)?

Creepy Green Light

Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
I know a lot of us must be The Outer Limits fans. Do you have a favorite episode? Care to share why it's your favorite? Thanks! :)
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Well, I was born in the sixties but never watched any episode, not once, couldn't tell you why, just never had it on when I watched tv...There's many x-files episodes I haven't seen either, just never took the time...

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Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
"The Outer Limits" A Feasibility Study (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb

My favorite ep was "A Feasibility Study" from season 1. Overnight, while everyone is sleeping, aliens scoop up a chunk of several blocks from a city and take it back to their planet so they can study humans. An updated version was created for the 90's version of The Outer Limits.

I'm too young to remember when the show was originally on but I remember seeing this particular ep as Sat afternoon rerun when I was little. Scared the bejesus out of me. It also made a very positive statement about people and humanity.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Thank you. Now I'm going to have to find that episode & watch it :)

Yeah that episode does sound interesting to watch, I just may check it out, if I do I'll post a review...:smoking:

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I know a lot of us must be The Outer Limits fans. Do you have a favorite episode? Care to share why it's your favorite? Thanks! :)
Ah man, the original Outer Limits was the best! They played the re-runs when I was a kid growing up and I never missed an episode - some of the best science fiction writers of that era wrote scripts for that show.

Harlan Ellis wrote my favorite one of all time: Demon with a Glass Hand, with Robert Culp. It was so far ahead of its time that the story feels contemporary today, and the writing was awesome - full of gravitas. They didn't have the special effects capability at that time to do it justice, but the story is so good that I still have no problem overlooking the visual effects.

Another fascinating episode fanned the flames of my early interest in theoretical physics; it was called The Borderland. A rich patron hoping to make contact with his dead son funds a crazy physics experiment to reach the "other side," and the giant machine does succeed in opening a portal...to another dimension of reality.

The pilot episode, called The Galaxy Being, packed a wallop and set the tone for the whole series. A radio astronomer makes contact with an alien being in a distant galaxy...and an accident pulls the being to the lab on Earth. A brilliant tale that pits the heroism of scientific progress against the timeless flaws in human nature - the exact dynamic that often made The Twilight Zone such a compelling series.

There was another great episode with Robert Culp called The Architects of Fear - a group of mad scientists decide to try to save the world by faking an alien invasion, so the nations of the world have a common foe to unite against. But to pull it off, they need to turn a volunteer into a terrifying alien-looking monster and simulate a UFO landing. Twenty years later Ronald Reagan expressed similar sentiments when he mused that our international differences would seem trivial in the face of an alien threat.

The Outer Limits was often decades ahead of its time like that. Such an amazing show.
 
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Creepy Green Light

Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
Well, I was born in the sixties but never watched any episode, not once, couldn't tell you why, just never had it on when I watched tv...There's many x-files episodes I haven't seen either, just never took the time...

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I haven't seen very many X Files episodes. And I favor The Outer Limits over The Twilight Zone. TOL always has a monster/space alien involved.
 

Standingstones

Celestial
This episode is from the newer (1996) Outer Limits series. "Afterlife", where a soldier wrongly committed of a crime is injected with alien DNA and the experiment goes wrong for all sides concerned. A surprising ending is involved.
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
The Outer Limits was strictly about science, unlike The X-Files and The Twilight Zone which would sometimes examine supernatural themes like ghosts and magic.

At a time when network programming was dominated by westerns and variety shows, it never received the support or respect it deserved from ABC. Ratings for the first season were acceptable but when it returned for its second season it was shoved into an impossible time slot on Saturday Night against The Jackie Gleason Show.

Many of its episodes influenced shows that came along later such as Star Trek. Notable writers such as Harlan Ellison contributed their talents. Demon with a Glass Hand is another one of my favorites.

Reruns are shown every weeknight on Comet TV, which I have as part of my FIOS package.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
one of my all time favorites is "wolf 359 " what it lacks in budget it makes up for in story.
I will not spoil it at all except to say the solar system used in the episode returned in star trek where the borg handed the federation thier ass..download (4).jpeg The Outer Limits.jpg
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
The Outer Limits may even have a significant connection to modern UFO lore:

"Although the popular version of events is that Barney Hill's hypnosis description is the first appearance of a so-called gray alien in modern culture, that first appearance actually came twelve days earlier, on national television, in an episode of The Outer Limits called The Bellero Shield. The alien in that episode shared most of the significant physical characteristics with the alien in Barney's story: Bald head, gray skin, big wraparound eyes. The Hills stated they did not watch it and didn't know about it." -- Skeptoid Podcast #124

"The Outer Limits" The Bellero Shield (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb

Personally, I don't think the aliens as depicted in the movie The UFO Incident closely match the alien in this ep but, with a little imagination, an argument can be made that there is a likeness. It's noteworthy that in her later years Betty Hill changed her description of the aliens, claiming their appearance was much more human than the movie producers' depiction.
 

Creepy Green Light

Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
The Outer Limits may even have a significant connection to modern UFO lore:

"Although the popular version of events is that Barney Hill's hypnosis description is the first appearance of a so-called gray alien in modern culture, that first appearance actually came twelve days earlier, on national television, in an episode of The Outer Limits called The Bellero Shield. The alien in that episode shared most of the significant physical characteristics with the alien in Barney's story: Bald head, gray skin, big wraparound eyes. The Hills stated they did not watch it and didn't know about it." -- Skeptoid Podcast #124

"The Outer Limits" The Bellero Shield (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb

Personally, I don't think the aliens as depicted in the movie The UFO Incident closely match the alien in this ep but, with a little imagination, an argument can be made that there is a likeness. It's noteworthy that in her later years Betty Hill changed her description of the aliens, claiming their appearance was much more human than the movie producers' depiction.
I always find information like this to be important. In my mind, it makes a difference. Same with the Travis Walton case; to me it makes a difference that the B&B Hill movie just aired on network TV one week before his incident. That & the fact that the Enquirer just so happened to be having a flying saucer contest (that he & his crew won) is important to me.
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
Same with the Travis Walton case; to me it makes a difference that the B&B Hill movie just aired on network TV one week before his incident. That & the fact that the Enquirer just so happened to be having a flying saucer contest (that he & his crew won) is important to me.

Interesting, I was unaware of these coincidences.
 

Creepy Green Light

Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
Interesting, I was unaware of these coincidences.
I was a believer in both the Hill case and the Walton case until I was made aware of more information. I forgot to mention the life long fascination Walton & his family had with UFO's - even making an agreement that if one of them ever gets taken by the aliens, that they will come back. And Betty Hill thinking her cat had the power of flight & that ANY light she saw in the sky was a flying saucer, i.e. "Look! I see one! I see one!" - umm, yeah Betty - that's a street lamp.
 
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