Disc One: “The Galaxy Being,” “The Hundred Days Of The Dragon,” “The Architects Of Fear,” “The Man With The Power,” “The Sixth Finger,” “The Man Who Was Never Born,” “O.B.I.T.,” “The Human Factor”
Disc
Two: “Corpus Earthling,” “Nightmare,” “It Crawled Out Of The
Woodwork,” “The Borderland,” “Tourist Attraction,” “The Zanti
Misfits,” “The Mice,” “Controlled Experiment”
Disc
Three: “Don’t Open Until Doomsday,” “ZZZZZ,” “The Invisibles,”
“The Bellero Shield,” “The Children Of Spider County,” “Specimen:
Unknown,” “Second Chance,” “Moonstone”
Disc
Four: “The Mutant,” “The Guests,” “Fun And Games,” “The Special
One,” “A Feasibility Study,” “Production And Decay Of Strange
Particles,” “The Chameleon,” “The Forms Of Things Unknown”
Stars:
Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Leonard Stone, Martin Wolfson, Donald Pleasence,
Priscilla Morrill, Fred Beir, Frank Maxwill, John Marley, Peter Breck, Jeff
Corey, Joanne Gilbert, Alan Baxter, Gary Merrill, Harry Guardino, Solme Jens,
Scott Marlowe, David McCallum, Barbara Luna, Michael Forest, Joan Camden, Edward
Asner, Philip Abbott, Gladys Cooper, Nina Foch, Barry Jones, Gene Raymond, Mark
Richman, Alfred Ryder, Janet Blair, Henry Silva, Ralph Meeker, Ed Nelson, Martin
Sheen, Bill Gunn, David Frankham, Diana Sands, Michael Higgins, Barry Morse,
Carroll O’Connor, Miriam Hopkins, John Hoyt, Russell Collins, Martin Landau,
Shirley Knight, Philip Abbott, Marsha Hunt, Joanna Frank, Don Gordon, George
Macready, Dee Hartford, Walter Burke, Sally Kellerman, Lee Kinsolving, Kent
Smith, John Milford, Stephen McNally, Richard Jaeckel, Simon Oakland, Janet De
Gore, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Tim O’Connor, Larry Pennell, Warren Oats, Walter
Burke, Geoffrey Horne, Nellie Burt, Vaughn Taylor, Luana Anders, Gloria Grahame,
MacDonald Carey, Richard Ney, Flip Mark, Sam Wanamaker, Phyllis Love, Joyce Van
Patten, David Opatoshu, Rudy Solari, Joseph Ruskin, Signe Hasso, Robert Fortier,
Robert Duvall, Vera Miles, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Scott Marlowe, and Barbara Rush
Writers:
Leslie Stevens, Meyer Dolinsky, Jerome Ross, Ellis St. Joseph, David Duncan,
James Shigeta, Joseph Stefano, Dean Riesner, Bill S. Ballinger, Lou Morhem,
Anthony Lawrence, Stephen Lord, Lin Dane, William Bast, Alan Balter, Robert
Mintz, Jerome B. Thomas, Donald Sanford, Oliver Crawford, and Robert Towne
Directors:
Leslie Stevens, Byron Haskin, Laslo Benedek, James Goldstone, Gerd Oswald, Abner
Biberman, Orin Borsten, Louis Charbonneau, John Erman, Alan Crosland, Jr., John
Brahm, Paul Stanley, and Robert Florey
Producer:
Joseph Stefano
Executive
Producer: Leslie Stevens
Feature
length: 27 hours and 22 minutes
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions
Packaging:
Four-Disc Alpha Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 5 Per Episode/160 Total
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1963-1964/DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Perhaps
the most successful anthology series outside of “The Twilight Zone,” “The
Outer Limits” aired for two seasons on ABC and for years thereafter in
syndication. In 1995 “The New Outer Limits” aired uncut first run episodes
of the premium cable network “Showtime” while airing edited syndicated
reruns of “The New Series” on broadcast television. After five years, “The
New Outer Limits” moved to cable television’s “Sci-Fi,” where it aired
for one more season. Now reruns of both “The Original Outer Limits” and all
six seasons of “The New Outer Limits” can be found on “Sci-Fi” at
various times.
If
cold war fears were expressed vividly through genre feature films in the 1950s,
the dramatization of the these fears spilled over into television in the 1960s
and both “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone” are prime examples
with thought provoking stories that sparked the imaginations of many viewers for
generations since. Besides running a half an hour longer of television time than
“The Twilight Zone” on a weekly basis, “The Outer Limits” tended to
focus more on science fiction stories and less so on the ironic and often eerie
stories “The Twilight Zone” presented. It is hard not to compare both series
since they are more or less from the same time and often carried some moral
lesson at the heart of the tale, however in the case of “The Outer Limits”
the narrator was a disembodied voice and not all episodes even feature an
opening and closing narration. While we got to see our share of aliens on “The
Outer Limits,” the extraterrestrial characters were not always portrayed as
villains and their presence was only there to forward the story, which were both
character and plot driven. Like “The Twilight Zone,” many recognizable
actors appeared on the series sometimes more than once. Among the many actors
featured in season one of “The Outer Limits” are Cliff Robertson, Robert
Culp, Donald Pleasence, Jeff Corey, Edward Asner, Henry Silva, Martin Sheen,
Barry Morse, Carroll O’Connor, Martin Landau, Sally Kellerman, Warren Oats,
Sam Wanamaker, Joyce Van Patten, Robert Duvall, Vera Miles, Sir Cedric Hardwicke,
and David McCallum. Scripts were written by a number of great writers including
Robert Towne and series Producer Joseph Stefano.
The
series was shot on a low budget, but the majority of the stories as well as the
caliber of acting helps elevate the show beyond the limited and at times
recycled effects and makeup. A few episodes touch upon the same premise to a
point that they are essentially almost the same story rewritten with a slightly
different spin such as “The Children Of Spider County” and “The Special
One.” Many of the best most memorable episodes that aired in season one
include the series premiere, “The Galaxy Being,” “The Architects Of
Fear,” which itself bares some similarity to the outstanding episode “The
Chameleon,” which starred Robert Duvall and was written by Robert Towne. Other
must see episodes include “The Man With The Power,” “The Sixth Finger,”
“The Man Who Was Never Born,” ‘O.B.I.T.,” “Nightmare,” “The Zanti
Misfits,” “The Mice,” which features an alien that looks like a giant
snot, “Controlled Experiment,” “The Invisibles,” “Second Chance,”
“The Mutant,” and “A Feasibility Study,” which I think was remade for
“The New Outer Limits” as well.
MGM
has released the entire first season of “The Outer Limits: The Original
Series” in a four-disc Alpha keep case featuring all 32 episodes presented in
their original black and white (1.33:1) aspect ratio with a clear English
Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack and optional English Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired. The picture quality for the majority of the episodes looks
pretty good though some do contain imperfections and grain from age, but not as
a result of the MPEG-2 compression transfer process. Largely I think this is
about as good as anyone will ever see and hear the first season of “The Outer
Limits: The Original Series” on home video. The four discs are four
double-sided dual layered DVD-Videos and each feature an animated introduction
warning the viewer that their DVD player is now under control as the viewer goes
on a great adventure to “The Outer Limits.” The episodes tend to run between
50-minutes and 51 ½-minutes each and each episode is divided into 5 scene
selections and menus aside from the animated opening are standard interactive
still frames that are easy to navigate.
A
12-page booklet containing some brief liner notes, episode blurbs, chapter
stops, and cast and crew credits is included within the DVD keep case. While the
Alpha keep case holds four discs, the first disc is actually on an appendage
connected to where the booklet slips into within the keep case. In addition to
the release of “The Outer Limits: The Original Series: Volume 1: The Entire
First Season On DVD,” two compilation discs entitled “The Outer Limits: The
New Series: Sex & Science Fiction Collection” and “The Outer Limits:
Time Travel & Infinity Collection” have been released separately and each
contains select episodes from the various seasons of the new series. All are
available now on DVD-Video from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
The Top Ten TV On DVD-Videos Of 2002 As Reviewed At GENRE ONLINE. NET