Talk:The Outer Limits

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Contents 1 Attn: Motor 2 Q re model in 1995 series credits 3 History of 1995 revival 4 DVD for season 1 5 lack of summary 6 Control Voice Speech and Music 7 Proposal to split this article 8 Episode category 9 Trivia. 10 Control Voice

[edit] Attn: Motor

Motor, I just discovered all the work you've done on this series. I'm interested in contributing, but only on the original 1963-64 series. I'd like to modify the infobox somewhat to include the cinematographer (an important distinguishing mark of the old episodes), and move the cast list to a separate section (because there are no regular actors and it looks messy in the box). I tried to find the infobox on the Wiki templates but it looks like it's been changed. If there's a template we're supposed to follow, could you point me to it? Otherwise, I'll be "bold" and make a few changes and wait for your comments.

As you say, the cinematograhy was a distinguishing mark of the old episodes... so it should probably be mentioned in this article too -- in the form of a general overview of the cinematography of the old series. Does your book ref (below) include plenty of stuff you could include (and cite the source)? I've been hoping for a way to expand this article for while. - Motor (talk) 16:58, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

P.S. There is a very well researched book on this series by David J Schow that would answer almost any question you might have. Unlike many books on TV series, it's not afraid to be critical of the show's weaknesses. Slowmover 20:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The template is here. If you are planning to modify the template please keep in mind that it is used across all OL articles, new and old series. So if you wanted to move the guest stars out of the template, you would be breaking a lot of pages... and unless you want to fix all those new series articles too, I don't recommend it. You can make an argument for creating another infobox template just for the old series, but I'd rather keep a unified box if possible. Anyway, I look forward to seeing your contributions. Thanks for the book ref, I'll look it up. - Motor (talk) 22:45, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm going to try a few variations in the Sandbox. I'll post back here after that. Slowmover 22:24, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Motor, here's what I did. I created a new template, Template:OuterLimits60sEp, identical to original template, except I added the cinematographer credit. I changed The Galaxy Being to use this template. I will check back for comments before propagating the change to other episodes. One other change is that I moved the Director credit above the Writer credit, as I believe this is the normal "hierarchy" for films & TV. Slowmover 21:16, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

I've added the cinematographer field to Template:OuterLimitsEp as an optional field and switched back the galaxy being as a test. It shouldn't affect the new episodes without a cinematographyby entry. We'll see how that goes. - Motor (talk) 23:22, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I couldn't figure out how to do an optional field. Much better idea. Slowmover 15:19, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I meant to do it when you first mentioned it, but I got sidetracked. I'm not against the idea of a new infobox for old episodes, but I'd rather it was a last resort (infoboxes tend to breed). - Motor (talk) 16:12, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Q re model in 1995 series credits

If anyone could find the name of the model that appears in the introduction to the 1995-2002 Outer Limits series, I would appreciate it. She appears as the apple's core as well.

[edit] History of 1995 revival

Does anyone have any info on the process by which the new television series got commisioned? Who was involved? Why did they want to recreate it? How long did it take them to convince MGM? Date when they finally got the go-ahead etc etc. At the moment, the 1995-2002 section is a bit bit sparse and needs more info. It does represent the bulk of the shows after all, even if the original series was more iconic. I did a google, but couldn't find anything substantial. Anyone have a book documenting TOL and could fill it out a bit? Motor 13:34, 2005 Apr 18 (UTC)

[edit] DVD for season 1

Season one is coming out on DVD this fall. - unsigned comment by 68.194.235.61

Which season 1? Season 1 (1963) or Season 1 (1995) - Motor (talk) 12:05:56, 2005-08-24 (UTC)

The original series has been out on DVD for a few years now (2 box sets). See Amazon.com Slowmover 20:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The data regarding the DVD release for season 1 is definitely inaccurate. A comment on IMDB dated November 11, 2003 states that the first season (of the new series) and the six teaser discs had been released. And searching Amazon.com reveals that the first four seasons have been released (or at least so it seems). byeee 21:33, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, according to this page, the first set of DVDs was released September 3, 2002. byeee 21:44, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] lack of summary

There is no synopsis of the show on this page, there should be! Scorpionman 01:41, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

What did you have in mind... the introduction says:

"The Outer Limits is a television series from the United States. In its original incarnation it ran for two seasons from 1963 to 1965 in black-and-white. It was revived in 1995 and ran for seven seasons until 2002. Similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits is an anthology science fiction show in which each episode is a self-contained story with a plot twist."

Given that every episode is different, but follows the above format I don't see what else there is to say about the show in a synopsis. The page List of The Outer Limits episodes contains links to a large number of episodes for which individual synopsis have been done. - Motor (talk) 22:07, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Control Voice Speech and Music

I beleive there are at least three different versions of the Control Voice speech referenced in the sidebar box. The original (Galaxy Being, 100 Days of the Dragon) is similar to what is presented, but it is a little longer.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat; there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.

Sometime in season one it was shortened and the section on louder and softer was dropped and the ending also edited.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.

In season two the speech was shortened even further.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.

I'm not sure that the speech as written in the sidebar was actually used - it is an abriged version of the original - unless there were four versions. I'm checking my episodes to verify. The David Schow book documents this pretty well. The second version of the CV speech was used for the greatest number of episodes.

I have to check this against actual episodes and will report back here with edits if needed.--Zendream 06:50, 5 March 2006 (UTC)Zendream 03-05-06

• I think you are right in everything you say above. In my opinion, the sidebar should show the original (longest) version of the CV speech. It's the ultimate in trivia to document all the shorter versions and what episodes they were used in. Feel free to verify the speech and fix it! Slowmover 17:47, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, in Season Two, Harry Lubin did the music. In season one there was no opening music, but there was a short music passage in the opening for season two, with the full theme over closing credits. The Harry Lubin theme uses what sounds like a Theremin, which curiosly, is a throwback to 50's Sci Fi. --Zendream 06:50, 5 March 2006 (UTC)Zendream 03-05-06

>>>You are 100% correct about the 3 versions. I can't read them without hearing it in my head. Are you certain about the accompanying music not being in the first season?

[edit] Proposal to split this article

I may take a while to get around to it, or someone else may beat me to it, but I think the original and revival series should be separate articles, as with other revived TV series (eg, Star Trek). There is plenty more to write about the original series, which I'm interested in doing, and it is quite different from its 1990s revival. The article could either be completely split or this article could be kept as an overview, with the sections linking to detailed articles on each series. I'm putting this note here as advance notice and asking for comments. 204.101.242.247 21:56, 17 March 2006 (UTC). The preceding edit is by me. For some reason, I keep losing my login to WP today. Slowmover 21:59, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

The only reason I would consider a split worthwhile is if we have the problem of the article becoming unmanageably large and detailed. Should we be fortunate to find the article becoming too large and detailed, then I'll back a split... but at the moment I don't see any point. - Motor (talk) 01:12, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

On a different point, I hope you're going to continue to upload screenshots for the episodes. Are you choosing and creating them yourself or are you sourcing them from somewhere? I ask because the selection has been very good, IMHO. Slowmover 18:11, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I am planning to do the lot... it's just a matter of finding the time to watch the relevant episode and grab a good shot. - Motor (talk) 21:03, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Episode category

Currently, we have all the episodes in the category "The Outer Limits episodes"... I think there's a good case for having three categories... one main, and two sub-categories:

The Outer Limits episodes
             |
   ______________________
  |                      |
Old series          New series

This page describes the process for sub-cats. It's straightforward, but it does mean small edits to a lot of pages. Is it worth it? - Motor (talk) 11:04, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes. You must have been reading my mind. I was looking at the categories last night for the first time. It's not as useful as it could be because you can't tell which series an episode belongs to. I also looked at how it was done for "Star Trek" and thought it wouldn't be hard to change. I have no problem doing a lot of minor edits. Slowmover 15:47, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Motor, thanks for helping. I was running out of steam there at the end. I think the category looks a lot better now.Slowmover 22:45, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Also suggest separating this into two separate articles, one for each series. The 1995 series is a remake with new principals, not simply a continuation. Avt tor 17:53, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia.

It might be noteworthy that in Hackers (film), Dade Murphy hacks a television station to watch the Outer Limits.

[edit] Control Voice

"We now return control of the television set to you - until next week..." has to be added.