The Outer Limits

For the album by Progressive Metal band Voivod see The Outer Limits (album).

The Outer Limits is an American television series. Similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, with more science fiction than fantasy stories, The Outer Limits is an anthology of discrete story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end. The original series was filmed in artistic black & white and ran for two seasons from 1963 to 1965. In 1995, the series was revived on the Showtime network and ran for seven seasons until 2002.

Contents

1963–1965 (original series)

The Outer Limits (1963)

Opening title screen
Format Science Fiction
Created by Leslie Stevens
Narrated by Vic Perrin (Control Voice)
Opening theme Dominic Frontiere
Country of origin Flag of the United States.svg United States
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 49 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Joseph Stefano
Cinematography Conrad Hall, John M. Nickolaus, Kenneth Peach
Running time 60 min.
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run September 16, 1963 – January 16, 1965

Introduction

Each show would begin with a cold open, followed by narration by someone identifying himself as the Control Voice, which was played over visuals of an oscilloscope.

“ 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 will control the horizontal. We will 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. — Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s ”

Many episodes used one of two shortened versions of this introduction.

Production information

The Outer Limits originally was broadcast from 1963 to 1965 on the U.S. television broadcasting network ABC; in total, 49 episodes. Leslie Stevens created it, and was one of many series influenced by The Twilight Zone and Science Fiction Theatre, though it ultimately proved influential in its own right. In the un-aired pilot, the series was titled Please Stand By, but ABC rejected it; Stevens retitled it The Outer Limits. With a few changes, the pilot aired as the premiere episode, "The Galaxy Being".

Writers for The Outer Limits included creator Stevens and Joseph Stefano (screenwriter of Psycho), who was the series' first-season producer and creative guiding force. Harlan Ellison wrote "Demon With a Glass Hand" and "Soldier" for the more cautious second season. After James Cameron revealed in an interview that the inspiration for Terminator had come from Ellison's work, Ellison sued and was awarded several hundred thousand dollars in damages, and an end-credits mention in The Terminator (1984), stating the creators' wish to acknowledge the works of Harlan Ellison. The courts also awarded Ellison the right to an acknowledgement of his works appended to all future versions of the film.

Like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits had an opening and closing narration to almost every episode — the "Control Voice" (Vic Perrin) – and distinctive music by Dominic Frontiere, who doubled as Production Executive; the second season featured music by Harry Lubin with his Fear theme for One Step Beyond being heard over the end titles. The dramatic thrust of the two programs was different. The Twilight Zone used irony; the protagonist would achieve his goal, but not in the manner desired. The Outer Limits was straight action that often deeply delved into philosophical problems within a science fiction context. Many of the stories asserted the triumph of the human spirit, often in confrontation with dark existential forces within or without (hence, the "... mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits").

Cinematography

The program sometimes made use of techniques (lighting, camerawork, even makeup) associated with film noir or German Expressionism (see for example, Corpus Earthling), and a number of episodes were noteworthy for their sheer eeriness. Credit for this is often given to cinematographer Conrad Hall, who would go on to win three Academy Awards (and many more nominations) for his work in film. However, it should be noted that Hall worked only on alternate episodes of the show during the first two-thirds of the first season; the show's other cinematographers included John M. Nickolaus and Kenneth Peach.

Special effects

Each show was to have a monster or creature as a critical part of the story line. Stefano believed that this element was necessary to provide fear, suspense, or at least a center for plot development. Many times, the "bear," as it came to be called, was notably frightening to audiences. In some cases, it was nothing more than an unusual force directed by a person or other being. These creatures and props were developed by a loose-knit group organized under the name Project Unlimited. Members of the group included Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Jim Danforth. Makeup was executed by Fred B. Phillips along with John Chambers. (Several episodes did, however, have no discernible "bear," among them the two-part segment "The Inheritors," the aforementioned "Demon With A Glass Hand" and "Soldier," and the oddball comedy effort, "Controlled Experiment".)

Influence on Star Trek

A few of the monsters reappeared in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek series of the late 1960s. A feathered creature was modified to appear as a zoo animal in the background of the first pilot of Star Trek; a prop head from "Fun and Games" was used to make a Talosian appear as a vicious creature. The moving carpet beast in "The Probe" later was used as the "Horta", and operated by the same actor (Janos Prohaska). The process used to make pointed ears for David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" was reused in Star Trek as well. Leonard Nimoy appeared in two episodes, "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "I, Robot". William Shatner appeared in the episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" as an astronaut working on a Project Vulcan. James Doohan appeared in a supporting role as a policeman in "Expanding Human", Grace Lee Whitney appeared in the episode "Controlled Experiment" and other actors established in the genre by the original Outer Limits series later appeared in episodes of Star Trek.

In fact Gene Roddenberry paid a lot of attention to what The Outer Limits team was doing at the time, and he was often present in their studios. He hired several Outer Limits alumni, among them Robert Justman and Wah Chang for the production of Star Trek.[1]

The cartoon series Ren and Stimpy also spoofed the introduction of this series.

Reception

The series was well received, with revered horror writer Stephen King calling it "the best program of its type ever to run on network TV."

1995–2002 (modern series)

The Outer Limits (1995)

The Outer Limits intertitle
Format Science Fiction
Starring Kevin Conway (Control Voice)
Country of origin Flag of the United States.svg United States
Flag of Canada.svg Canada
No. of seasons 7
No. of episodes 154 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time approx. 41 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Showtime
Sci-Fi Channel
Original run March 26, 1995 – January 18, 2002
“ There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now controlling the transmission. We control the horizontal, and the vertical. We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity - and beyond. We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to... The Outer Limits. Please stand by. — Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1990s ”

After an attempt to bring back The Outer Limits during the early eighties, it was finally relaunched in 1995. The success of television science fiction such as Star Trek sequels, The X Files, and anthology shows such as Tales from the Crypt convinced the rights-holders, MGM, to revive it. A deal was made with Trilogy Productions, the company behind such cinema hits as Backdraft and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and the show would run on the pay-tv channel Showtime. The episodes appeared in syndication the following season (the same arrangement as MGM/Showtime series Stargate SG-1 and Poltergeist: The Legacy). It continued on Showtime until 2001, when the U.S. Sci Fi channel quietly took over production. It remained in production until 2002 before finally being cancelled, after a total of 154 episodes — far more than the original incarnation of the show. In the revived show, the Control Voice was supplied by Kevin Conway. The new series distanced itself from the "monster of the week" mandate that had characterized the original series from its inception; while there were plenty of aliens and monsters, they dramatize a specific scientific concept and its effect on humanity. Some episodes illustrating this difference include "Dark Rain" (biochemical warfare causes world-wide sterility), "Final Exam" (discovery of practical cold fusion power), "A Stitch in Time" (a time traveler tinkers with history), as well as several episodes revolving around a human mutation known as Genetic Rejection Syndrome (humans mutating into violent creatures) as a result of a government experiment.

The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Stories by Harlan Ellison, A.E. van Vogt, Eando Binder, Larry Niven, Richard Matheson, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and James Patrick Kelly were adapted with varying degrees of success, and some of the original series' episodes were remade as well. The revived series on Showtime contained more violent and sexual content, including occasional female nudity (Alyssa Milano in episode 1,17) was not shown in most syndication markets, including the Sci-Fi Channel. The series contained an underlying story arc about mysterious or extraterrestrial forces, including open-ended storylines that were related to each other in the clip shows at the end of the season.

Most episodes in the modern series featured actors with name recognition from their previous film and TV work. Actors in notable roles included Beau Bridges, Nicole de Boer, Michael Dorn, Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Forbes, Alyssa Milano, Leonard Nimoy, Amanda Plummer, Ryan Reynolds, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Brent Spiner, and Jessica Steen. [2][3]

Leslie Stevens was a program consultant for the first season while Joseph Stefano was an executive consultant. Stefano also remade his episode "A Feasibility Study" and retitled it "Feasibility Study" for the third season. He later served as a senior advisor on the episode "Down to Earth" during the sixth season. Mark Mancina and John Van Tongeren composed new music different from that of Dominic Frontiere and Harry Lubin. They also scored ten episodes for the first season. The musical theme for the modern Outer Limits series is credited to Mark Mancina and John VanTongeren. However, the same music is used in the Westwood Studios' video game Dune 2000.

In every season there is a clip show that intertwines the plots of several of the show's episodes (see "The Voice of Reason" for an example). At each commercial interval, the Control Voice can be heard saying "The Outer Limits...please stand by". The voice also repeats this phrase upon return from the television ads. The surreal images from the opening are mostly the work of Jerry Uelsmann.

DVD releases

Original series

MGM Home Entertainment has released both seasons of The Outer Limits on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. In 2007, they re-released the series in 3 volume sets. In October, 2008, MGM released a 6-disc boxset featuring all 49 episodes of the series.

DVD name Episodes Release date
Season 1 32 September 3 2002
Season 2 17 September 2 2003
The Complete Series 49 October 21 2008

The DVDs include a revised version of the original intro, heard over the episode menu:

“ There is nothing wrong with your DVD player. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling your DVD player. We already control the horizontal and the vertical. We now control the digital. We can change the focus from a soft blur to crystal clarity. 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. ”

Modern series

Several "grab bag" DVD anthologies have been released: Sex & Science Fiction, Aliens Among Us, Death and Beyond, Fantastic Androids and Robots, Mutation and Transformation, Time Travel and Infinity.

On November 1, 2005, MGM Home Entertainment released Season One of the New Outer Limits on DVD in America for the very first time; no further seasons have yet been released. The first four seasons are available in Canada.

DVD name Episodes Release date
Season One 22 November 1 2005

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Outer Limits Official Companion, Schow & Frentzen, page 361.
  2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112111/fullcredits#cast
  3. ↑ http://www.theouterlimits.com/castcrew/index.html?stargallery

External links